TheSpottedBox March

polkatotboutique - cute little hairclip
kinderclothes - floral newborn hat (my friend's expecting a girl, so this is perfect!)
2by2boutique - mudslider
peas & carrots baby - wipe solution chunks (these smell so nice!)
Tiffany's Trinkets - earrings
naturebabyknits - stitch markers (which came in very handy last night, actually)
ohsnapusa - a baggie of lime green snaps
fairycakesandpixiebows - a lovely little clippy
scratchjewellery - fun blue zebra nail pendant (fun concept -- my SIL will love it!)
glorybeherbals - exfoliating scrub (my guy has already laid the claim to this!)
crochet frog - the cutest little crocheted bunny (it's already on our holiday tree)
distinctivedecals - fun flower decal
earth*school - a fun activity card (love these!)
thelilshoppe - two mama pads in fun colors
wooldins - soft wipe
twoseasidebabes - crocheted face scrubbie
tscrapper - very pretty bookmart (I'm going to share this with someone who won't lose it!)
princessjuliannescloset - gift certificate for $5
babus - teething bracelet in black
joyfulrose - hold it bag pattern (fun, easy project -- my favorite kind! :)
picnicbasketcrafts - diaper mist (all of her stuff smells so good!!)
elizabear - cute bear crayon

This was a great box! The stuff I can't use already has new homes.

Good morning, Spring!

After Sunday's 3" snow of the year, I think we can say that Spring is officially here. Things are starting to come to life, and my list of tasks is longer and longer. I've got seeds out of my ears and little plants everywhere. So much work to be done!

We've still got a lot more work to do on the new Tomato Plantation, but it looks like we're approved for a water meter on the lot! We haven't gotten the permit yet, so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

TheSpottedBox of February

This month's TheSpottedBox was a great box and there were so many delightful goodies! I'm never able to use everything in it, but everything always finds a good home. I've already started trying out some of the samples.

Not having a good health week and I don't have the attention span to list out everything that was included (I'm sorry!), but I'd be more than happy to look up anything that catches your eye and see who contributed it. I will, hopefully, be able to get some reviews of my favorites up in the coming weeks.

If you click the compound images, you'll be able to see them in greater detail.

Gotta get moving.

Spring is officially here! Only a couple more nights are expected to be below freezing, and I've got soooo much stuff to do. I'm a bit behind this year, but that's what I get for always finding a new way to get sick.

I've got a handful of seed orders that are still in the mail and I want them NOW! I said I wasn't going to do any orders, but I broke down and decided, with the newly expanded space, that I must have new stuff to fill it in. My tomato trading group seeds should be here Tuesday, and that's what I'm most excited about. I'd love to top 90 varieties grown this year, but we shall see.

Now for the master list:

- clean up property; bricks to the back, unusable corner, hay raked in
- start more seeds!
- get a roll (or two!) of concrete reinforcement wire for more tomato cages
- get water hooked up

And back by popular request...

More pictures of the demo for my destruction loving viewers! :D The demo is now complete and the site has been crudely graded, so the fun is pretty much over and we're looking at this:



Boring, right?

I'm back! -- and eggs

As you may be able to tell, I'm back from our quick, Thanksgiving jaunt. I packed up five orders today and they'll all be going out Monday to their new homes.

I spent some time shopping around Etsy today, and decided to go for two eggs from SwedishDesign. I got a Santa and a Snowman, and I can't wait to get them! They're wonderful illustrations and will make excellent gifts for my sets of parents.

I spent a lot of time going through some incredible work by several very talented egg-workers, for lack of a better term. I thought I'd share some of these amazing creations with you.



Here's a wonderful pysanka ornament by doreseggs. The colors and patterning are captivating.









This artist, PysankyPanky, has too many incredible pieces to pick a favorite from, but this one is at the top of my list!










Here's a little wonder by 1eggman. This artist has the most amazing carved eggs I've ever seen!




Check out my favorite items and favorite sellers for more incredible egg artists!

I made it out alive!

I'm back home and comfy after my heart surgery. Sadly, the procedure wasn't as successful as we'd have liked, but we'll know better what the course of action will be in a month or so.

For now, I'm thrilled to be home, and I've been pretty busy. I've redone a couple of listings, added a few new listings, and have been getting together more promos to send out for the next big rush.

I spent some time before I went into the hospital cutting and finishing a bunch of glass bottles, so I've been taking pictures and introducing these 'pinch' garden kits. The containers are small, so I've chosen seeds that do well in tight quarters for several months. Spicy Globe Basil, Fern Leaf Bleeding Heart, and Jewels of Opar are some of the selections I've made.

New DesignStyleGuide website!

I am SO excited about the new DesignStyleGuide website! It goes live on Monday, but I've been playing around with the member access stuff for a couple of hours tonight. Can I say brilliant?

I opted for an 8 listing membership, rather than the basic 2, and I'm glad I did! It was a bit more expensive and I was afraid it'd be too much trouble to fill them out, but the listings are sooooo much more intuitive than I expected. I've already got 6 of the 8 I signed up for done, and I'm trying to decide what others I'm going to include.

There's a treasury feature that's not dependent on the ever crappy flash, so I'm able to actually USE it. Even more exciting!

Picture me very pleased.

It's dirty work.

I was potting up some things yesterday and realized that I was out of my premixed container mix, so I thought I'd post some pictures of how I hand mix it.

You'll be shocked by the complexity, I'm sure...

The base to my mixes is peat. (I know, I know, not very environmentally friendly, but I haven't found a suitable alternative for an indoor, container mix yet. That's been in the works and I've been researching and testing for about a year, now.)

I mix 8 parts peat to 1 part bark and mix thoroughly. I usually make a lot of this up, because this 'base' doesn't usually change, regardless of what's going to be growing in it. I store this is big trashcans and pull it out as I need it. I just did a big mix, so I didn't need that today.

Then, for my general purpose container mix, I mix 4 parts 'base' with 1 part perlite. Perlite is a fluffy, volcanic glass and is excellent for opening up mixes and improving drainage.

Now, here comes the complicated part. Listen closely...

MIX!

My most used recipes:

Standard potting mix: 8 pt peat: 1 pt bark. 4 pt base: 1 pt perlite

Succulent mix: 8 pt peat: 1 pt pebbles or bark. 4 pt base: 1 pt perlite: 1 pt sand

A note to anyone who's mixing peat, sand, or perlite: Please wear a mask! Your lungs will thank you.

Any better?

I worked on my Garden-in-a-Bucket idea today, and I think it looks pretty darned good!

Fused business 'cards'.

I had a lot of fun making these; and, while they're still obviously a first attempt and the design needs significant polishing, I'm pleased with the results. I've got several ideas for future designs, but I think these will keep me for awhile.

A bit of a break.

I got to take a short break over the weekend while visiting my in-laws. It was quite nice to come back to two sales, one in my fluffnflowers shop and one in my fluffnfixings shop. I'm a bit disappointed that the first sale in my fluffnfixings shop was not one of my upcycled mailers, but that's how it goes and you can't argue with any incoming moolah. :)

I've got a lot I need to do this week and a two days are already gone from it. I got my first business card order from vistaprint, and I must say that I'm very pleased. The colors are excellent, the printing and alignment is excellent, and the quality of the paper is also excellent. Even better, it was very inexpensive. I'd rather support an etsian or private printer, but it's hard to argue with the budget. I spent the morning collating (without the intention of binding them ;) them and have them ready to attach to my sample seed packs. I've got four or five people waiting for promos to include in packs, so I've got a lot of work to do on them.

Because I was pleased with my first order, I've placed a second order for a small run of labels (free except for the $3.93 rush shipping) that I plan on placing on my fused plastic 'business cards' that I cut out the other day for my fluffnfixings cards. I think these will be a LOT of fun to hand out and can't wait to get them. They take considerably more work, so I won't be handing out as many as the fluffnfixings cards.

Some fun newness!

I haven't been feeling well over the past week or so (cardiologist appointment on Tuesday, woot!), so I haven't been up and about in the yard as much. Yesterday, though, my guy was cleaning up the office and was trying to figure out what to do with his old 14" long 3.5" floppy file. I looked at it and was inspired!

It's a HUGE step up from my prior 'organizational' method -- the seed baggies were just tossed in a box. Now, each flavor of seeds has it's own pocket and the pre-packed bags that are ready to be shipped out are easy to find and I've got MUCH better inventory control.

Having everything so organized made me realize how many seeds I've actually collected this year! This 14" long file is completely stuffed, and I still have vials of bulk seeds not packaged yet.

Other than that, my winter basil is coming up. My Red Rubin didn't go to seed this summer after my guy conveniently mowed it down, so I started another pot with last year's seeds to keep indoors this winter. The little sprouts are so cute! I love the color that these have and they make such a great addition to pestos. Purple pesto rocks!

If all goes as planned, I should have plenty of seeds from these lovelies available on etsy for next spring.

Treasuries!

In honor of the More Meaningful Gifts BNR, jvdarcy set up this treasury. Thanks for including my violet photograph! Here it is!

Hot Cherry Peppers on Stage!

I really need to get Flash working (this is what I get for being a geek!) so I can click and comment on treasuries!

Here's a lovely treasury that has my hot cherry pepper seeds in it that was put together by VintageScraps. Thank you! :)

Nifty stuff and new treasuries!

A BNR I'm on, currently, has a treasury! debralinker set it up for us, and I was able to see my first without someone having to send me a screenshot or upload one for me...because of a wicked crazy cool site called thumbalizr that dorana showed me.

Here it is!


Here's, also, an EtsyPHAT treasury that SapphireChild created a few days ago!

Shiny objects...

Got distracted again. There's been a lot of stuff going on recently, and it's been a bit tough to keep up between doctor's appointments, imaging appointments, and life in general.

The EtsyOrganicTeam is off to a good start, and I've, apparently, been given full reign of the blog. So far, it's been a lot of fun, but not having flash really prevents me from keeping up with treasuries and that sort of thing.

It's also harvest time in them thar gardens. I've been doing a lot of seed sorting and harvesting, cropping and pruning, rooting and moving. It seems that fall is in the air, so it'll get really busy in another month or so. I've got a ton of bushes that I need to move to new homes.

I've also been dealing with a piecing nightmare. I came up with a pattern for a pair of pants and it's truly one of the most annoying things I've ever done. I haven't decided what's going to be victim first: the sewing machine or the square. Luckily, I bought 6 yards (a whopping $4.81 at 5% of the original price!!) so I've got some room to play with it.

The fun never ends.

Sometimes, I think there are little elves in my home set to torture me.

I had two orders to get out Tuesday, or they would have had to wait until next week. I pulled out my roll of tape...and it had two feet left! That's not enough when you need to reassemble boxes, tape plants in, seal, and attach labels. I knew I'd seen a roll lurking around somewhere, so I frantically searched the house for three hours before deciding that I was going to have to tell the people who ordered that I was going to have to delay the shipments. If I could legally drive, it wouldn't be a problem, but I can't.

I was lamenting this to the dog when she suddenly took off up the stairs...which got me thinking. Lo and behold, there was a partially masticated roll underneath the dog's blanket. Hurrah! The packages went out (with tape lacking chew marks) and life was good.

I wasn't feeling well, so I spent most of the day sorting seeds. I had about four cups of Rose of Sharon seeds on my lap and reached over to grab something off of the table. That yanked the blanket that the tray was on and all of the seeds dumped onto the floor. Yay. I'm just very glad that I have an indefinite supply of these and that they aren't the rolly kind of seeds.