I'm a Basket Case at Christmas!

Okay, that might be a little misleading. But now that I’ve got your attention, let me share with you how I started a new tradition this year. I’ve spent the last year collecting every day treasures to share in gift baskets with family and friends. Let me explain…

It might seem like I’ve set-up a completely different life moving this past year. Fence posts have replaced stoplights and busy intersections. The truth is that I’m closer to where I always felt the most comfortable as a kid…living life one moment at a time and appreciating what matters the most to me. I’ve found a home on about an acre of land and we are utilizing it to its fullest potential.

We tilled our first real garden in the spring (hand turned with shovels followed by a walk behind tiller). We had “bumper crops” with tomatoes and BLTs were a dinner staple over the summer. I managed to can a few jars of salsa and pasta sauce as well. Early in the season, I felt like this was a thankless job as the boys kept eating the salsa faster than I could make it…but I caught up and made some reserves for the winter.

My habanero plant produced more peppers than I knew what to do with and so I made Apricot Habanero Jelly and Strawberry Habanero…and Cranberry Habanero…you get the picture!

I added milkweed to attract butterflies in the side yard, where I have flowers growing in a small stone hedged garden. I was also pleasantly surprised to see I already had monarda growing. I saved the dried flowers and made sachets out of Christmas fabric to enjoy their fragrant scent long after the blooms died.

I’ve upped my game in canning, moving from water bath to pressure canning of green beans and squash. I’ve promised an entirely new meaning for “return for deposit” to gift recipients on my list.

In collecting antique Christmas bulbs in the shapes of Santa and Snowmen, I started making vintage looking ornaments and experimented with soldering copper. I’ve reverted back to the glue gun until I get a better handle on dealing with high temperatures!

We have pine trees in the side yard and collect them whenever we can. We’ve made wreathes and crafts and used as fire starters as well. I store them in empty dog food bags and have found that a scarcity mindset goes a long way and in our case, it seems to have sparked a lot of creativity as we see so many other ways to use an item other than its intended purpose.

I have apple trees I’m still working on. I’ll be pruning and treating them in the next few months in the hopes they bear fruit next year. I’ve been lucky to have nearby orchards and friends to supply apples for my apple butter. I still never think I’ve made enough to last until the next season. I can’t believe I ever ate store bought before. I’ll never do it again.

I wish I could wrap up the sunrises and sunsets we’ve seen this year. The skies are gorgeous absent the city lights. And earlier this month, I saw the Geminid meteor shower. I counted at least 6 or 7 shooting stars that were like slow falling rain drops surrounded in white light. I truly believe anything is possible in these rare moments where nature takes center stage and life stands still. My continued resolution is to focus on these little miracles and make sure that the boys are learning to appreciate life as well.

I can’t remember a summer that ever went as fast as this one. It reminded me of those I had as a kid. Every single day, I walked in the garden with my 16-year-old, Pete. We’d grab one of my favorite vintage baskets and collect vegetables and take pictures of our glorious patch of land. What I will remember most about this first summer in our new home is that I stopped looking in and started looking out…in life, from the windows of my house…on the deck…in the garden…on the riding mower…driving to and from work on a rural state route road. I’m not saying this year did not come without its fair share of challenges…but more and more I realize which moments are worth hanging onto and which ones to let go. I see now that you can’t grab the next moment until you let go of the last. And this applies to absolutely every area in life. Love your job, love your home, love your life…exactly as it is right now.

I’ve always carried forward traditions from my childhood. This year, I started one of my own. I shared baskets filled with every day treasures I was fortunate enough to have and plan to do the same again next year. I may not see my family and friends as often as I would like, but with this new tradition I can share a little bit of every season throughout the year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Window to My Soul…21st Century Scrapbooking

In a world where we are bombarded by technology and “always on” with social media, I find myself appreciating a new way of sharing and preserving an old fashioned way of life.

A Monarch in the making.

I am a romantic at heart.  That is to say I like to take the simple and routine and embellish it with what I’ll call “life trimmings” to make it more memorable.  Take gardening for example.  I love to garden and can vegetables and jam.  But if you ask me what I liked best about these little pleasures, it would be easier for me to show you than tell you.  Because I trim my life in ways that make me happy.  Let me explain…

A day in my garden rarely begins and ends in a single visit.  Life is busy and I work and have teenagers in high school.  That’s why I planted my garden in the front yard next to my driveway.  I am always on the go and in and out several times a day.  And every time I’m leaving or coming back home, I find it almost irresistible not to walk over and pull a stray weed or take a peek at my tomatoes or squash.

Southern Pumpkins

My favorite moments are in the evenings or weekends, when I can kick off my shoes and walk barefoot in the middle of the garden.  The straw mulch gives me a soft bed for my feet and I can more gingerly walk around the cushaw vines trailing around in every direction.  I have a woven hat, with a lime green band.  It’s mandatory attire for sunny days and makes me smile when I see it in my kitchen hanging on a chair.  I feel happy when I grab it on my way out the door with basket and nippers in hand.

Another mainstay I keep in the kitchen are aprons.  I have a few really pretty vintage ones from the 1950’s and a few more functional ones for messier work.  I pull up my unruly hair in a ponytail and am instantly reminded of my Granny shoo-ing me out of the kitchen as a kid to put my hair up before entering her kitchen.  In my kitchen, I survey the assortment of pots and pans, canning jars, and supplies.  Like me, it’s a work in progress.  It's roomy and has potential to store all my kitchen staples for baking and canning in some organized way.  For now, I make it work with a banquet table and Rubbermaid tubs underneath.  And I’m always on the lookout for an oversized buffet or cabinet that could be re-purposed into a work center that can accommodate more storage.

I see potential in most things in life and enjoy the journey in seeing a dream or vision coming to fruition.  It’s like looking at a blank canvas and instinctively knowing what needs to be added or something that would complete the picture.  Sometimes it will be days or even weeks before I figure out what’s missing from a shelf or a mantle in my home.  But it eventually comes to me…often at a yard sale where I find a small vintage treasure.  You can be sure it will be cheap enough not to break the bank and easy enough to swap out without any sentimental value.  I used to be a huge collector of things.  I still appreciate and have a fondness for antiques, but have also learned to appreciate a more minimalistic environment…from surroundings to thoughts to everything in between.  I enjoy “props” that enhance my setting and help to set the stage for my romanticized way of life.   I recently picked up a scarecrow at a yard sale and added it to the garden.  I have included him in every picture I take while measuring my growing produce and enjoying the view.

Which brings me to my last “must have” accessory…something I take with me wherever I go.  It’s not old fashioned and lacks the beauty and character of an old Mason jar with a zinc lid.  It hasn’t been hand sewn or trimmed in lace.  In fact, it is the opposite of antiquated items I typically gravitate towards.  But this gem is what fuels and powers my creativity and passion for every day living.  As incongruous as it may sound, my i-Phone has become a mobile scrapbook of sorts.  I used to cut pictures from magazines and glue them into journals.  I’d write and mail letters to family and friends to share things happening in my life.  And while I will admit there is a tradeoff in leaving behind a good stock of paper or stationery, the benefits and ease of sharing far outweigh the downside for me.

My kids get aggravated when I want to take a picture.  They can’t understand why I don’t just enjoy the moment.  But for me, it’s all about capturing the moment and remembering why it was special.  And I get that not everyone will understand the importance of a photo shot in portrait mode taken from an i-Phone camera, depicting a basket of freshly picked tomatoes...or why I'll position the leaves of my squash, so that the plump and rapidly growing cushaw can be shown surrounded by a frame of straw.  It’s my way of scrapbooking in the 21^st century, utilizing all the tools of a different sort of revolution than that of the industrial age.

 

But please don’t try to pin me down to a generation or type.  I’m just tech savvy enough to be dangerous.  I can’t master Snapchat, however, Facebook is my friend for sharing the moments I capture.  Instagram and Twitter are close seconds.  I think like the industrial revolution, the mediums and channels for making and doing will always change.  What remains a constant for me is a love and passion for living in the moment and appreciating the natural beauty that abounds if you take the time to see it.  And if I embraced a tech-free existence, I’d miss out on a lot of moments I want to look back on and remember.  It may sound funny, but it’s true.  My i-Phone is the window to my soul…see for yourself…

M