Thanksgiving

I am looking out my window at the odd gray sky: it was warm yesterday, and today the temperature is dropping as an ice storm approaches, all while the new grass we planted is finally growing on my lawn. 

It is an awkward transition, as they so often are. 

My Thanksgiving Cactus is again blooming as Thanksgiving carries us into the Nativity season. I look forward to these delicate blooms each year: to the wonder of shocking color amidst all the gray, as if to say the cloudy skies, frosty mornings and early evenings can not stop the earth from bursting forth with thanksgiving.

I haven't taken care of my houseplants as well this year, since moving into our new home. I'm still finding the right window, and remembering to mend my disrupted routine. And yet they persist, they bloom. Thank God!

Wishing you all a beautiful season of joy and thanksgiving!

I'm thinking how so much so often
comes of showing up, comes of being
willing to arrive, regardless,
as our several mute anxieties subside, and now
I startle, blinking—so much so

that I am for the short term almost wide awake—
and see a bit more clearly how
this willingness or that
can make of the confusion yet
another likely scene, make of the troubled,

packed interior a zone of calm, which calm
avails momentarily a glimpse
to mark among so many frank,
unlikely revelations that I continue
to observe that I am blinking still.

 - From Scott Cairns' Thanksgiving Poem

Thanksgiving

Perhaps you know I have a special love of house plants, and hope to someday have my grandmothers' green thumbs.  I enjoy tending to them and watching them so much more than I do my vegetable garden (unfortunately for my vegetables).  I think its because they're impractical and needy, but also delicate and beautiful.

 I bought this "Christmas" Cactus last year thinking it would be nice to have blooms in the winter.  I learned that my cactus is actually a Thanksgiving cactus, however; and the name changing is just a bit of tricky marketing.  Nevertheless, I brought it indoors when the temperatures dropped, and I was delighted to find it covered in white buds a few days later.

There is certainly something hopeful about a flower that blooms in the low cold months.  It is a reminder of the joy of spring and what will be.  But it is also the presence of the joy that is.

Yesterday, a few buds opened revealing their breathtaking flowers.  These lovely blooms will last through Christmas, a blessing for which I am very thankful.

With a Flower

I hide myself within my flower,
That wearing on your breast,
You, unsuspecting, wear me too --
And angels know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness.
 - Emily Dickinson

What's your favorite winter houseplant?

Succulents

I love my plants. I really do. I've been playing with succulents lately. I love propagating and repotting my plants - it gives me a bunch of warm motherly feelings. So, like any mother, I'm sharing some pictures with you.

First, my little collection outside my window. We just bought the Aloe plant, and this time I will remember to bring it in before the frost. You can see a couple of my little antique watering spikes. Have I mentioned these before? John bought me the bluebird first, and we've been hooked on them ever since. The purple vine is a Wandering Jew that my sister gave me maybe eight years ago. I've almost killed it a dozen times, but it always comes back.

I planted these spiky Hens and Chicks in my hedgehog planter, and feel pretty clever and satisfied for it. Don't touch, J!

By my other window is my large Jade plant. It was my grandmother's so I'm trying really hard to take care of it. In fact, it was the reason I started learning about succulents. The poor little Fitonia next to it used to be one of my favorites, but I just about killed it from over propagating it. Oops. I'm hoping to bring it back.

These are some new cuttings I just purchased from The Succulent Garden on Etsy. They feel like tiny little babies that I get to raise. Which is what they are, but, you know, I mean it anthropomorphically. Don't you just love that vase? He looks very regal. We got it at an antique place, but we don't really know what it is. Do you?

And here are some little cuttings I'm propagating into some old tea cups to sell at a craft fair later this fall.  I hope to sell them all because I definitely don't have enough window space for all of these plants this winter!

Lessons Learned

As I said before, things are slowing down around here as our due date approaches. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn, but I'm getting there.


I bought Houseplants for Dummies recently, and I've been really focusing on nurturing my two favorite plants: my bright pink fittonia and my grandmother's jade. My fittonia has been too big and straggly rather than low and bushy, so I've been slowly trimming and propagating it. With a little patience and persistent watering, it's been very successful.

The jade plant really needed to be repotted and put out in the sun, so I was glad for spring sunshine. I've been interested in succulents lately, and I was embarrassed to learn the jade is a succulent. So now, it's also doing much better with proper watering ("drench and let dry" rather than "the fittonia is falling over again, eh, let's throw some water on the jade, too"). I guess I got the "for dummies" book for a reason.


L and I propagated a few new ones yesterday because I can't help but make more plants. L actually participated in the potting, which was fun to see. We put some of her pretty rocks from her rock collection on the tops of the pots. The blue pot with lots of rocks (and cool vintage watering spike) is her handiwork.


Unrelated, another valuable lesson learned a little late in life: Shake the orange juice before every glass. Otherwise the last glass is very pulpy.

Spring

I like fall, but I love spring. The warm weather has made me feel so hopeful and cheerful lately. Here's some spring loveliness around our house:

John's got tomato seedlings in the window. He gave the lawn its first hair cut this past week, and everything looks fresh and clean. Soon we'll be getting our garden together, although we're going to keep it small this year. I think we say that every year.


My houseplants have been looking a little ragged lately. Willem's been eating the leaves of my poor dracaena plant - he also almost killed John's peace lily - so we're all glad he's able to get outside more. My jade plant was looking a little thin, so I moved it to the porch - it gets some sun from my window, but it really likes to be outside.


We have a few other residents on our porch now. John got some chicks last week. They'll have to stay under the heat lamp for another month or so, but then he'll move them out to the big chicken coop. He's been cleaning and suring it up for them. We haven't had chickens for awhile, so we're excited to get back in the game. Keep your fingers crossed for hens!

Jade Prints from Spoonflower!

It's so exciting get that package in the mail. But I was really nervous, too. I think I was imagining launching my career as a textile designer with the contents of that little package - and that was a bit of pressure. Anyway, it turned out to be a little more of the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I think we're getting somewhere.

First, before you ask, here's some really great Spoonflower/Fabric Designing info:

Mamma Made's general spoonflower how to
Julia Rothmann's repeat pattern tutorial
Spoonflower's color charts



What I learned this time:
1. Get the spoonflower color swatch! I changed my red between the last swatch I got and this printing, but I still didn't have the color swatch and so I knew it was a gamble. It's not terrible, but it's still off - kind of like cheap lipstick. So I'll have to reorder everything with the reds in it. Which isn't really a big deal because I also saw other things I wanted to edit.

2. I changed the blue since my last color swatch, too, just because I thought I'd like something lighter. Now I think it's too light in the print with the windows, so I'm going back to my original blue.

3. I made a kind of craft panel to make a few small pillows. The biggest problem with this is that I worked with a really large image file on my computer and mostly viewed it at 30% while working on it. It looks much different at 100% - I obviously missed a lot of little areas I needed to clean up because I didn't bother to zoom in and out as I worked.

4. The pillows need a larger area to look normal.


So what do you think?

My Punny Valentine

I loved buying those cheesy cartoon valentines as a kid and sharing them with my class. They always had those really bad puns: Bee Mine with a bee flying around. I also love Stephanie Congdon Barnes love notes for her more elegant puns (along with the beautiful objects, of course!).

Besides the awesome punning, when you're a kid, you give a valentine to everybody (or most everyone) without so much emphasis on romantic love. This year I keep thinking of people I love that I want to send a valentine. So I made up a few valentines of my own - and when I couldn't come up with any good puns, I decided to make visual puns. These are inspired by my houseplants, who inspire a little love every day.

If you waited till the last minute like me, you might enjoy this freebie! They are 3.5x5 each, so you can print them on card stock and mail them like postcards - or just slip them somewhere your loved ones will find them. Click on the image to take you to flickr where you can download the full size image.

New Spoonflower Swatches

I got some swatches in the mail yesterday - it feels like Christmas!

These first two: Leap Frog and Duck Duck Goose, turned out well. The color of the duck's feet printed yellow when I intended it to be orange, but the rest of the colors are as expected. Since these colors are lighter than the fat quarter I ordered, I noticed how thin the fabric is this time. I guess it's pretty normal for a quilting cotton - but I would like to see spoonflower offer a heavier fabric, too.


I really liked how these prints turned out, but as I tried to think what I might use them for, I realized I wouldn't. I would never buy this fabric in the store because I'm not usually into children's prints. And these are so specific. Somebody else might use them, but I probably wouldn't. Not the kind of thing I was expecting to learn from my swatches, but it'll help me make better designs in the future.


These two I love! By the time I designed these, I'd gotten some tips from Kimberly Fraser at Spoonflower (they're so helpful) about color. So I'd checked my colors with proof colors and gamut warnings on photoshop, and all of these colors turned out as expected. I'm still thinking about ordering a color swatch though.

This is my favorite design. It's my grandmother's jade plant hanging in my living room window. The thing I learned from this print is that I really like the way my drawings translate to print. I was afraid they'd look too amateur since they're just scanned drawings, but I think the lines turned out really beautiful. I'm thinking of developing this into a whole fabric line - which I've never done before. But I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a try.

Orange Number 24: marigold

This was one of my first ideas for the orange fabric, I just didn't know how to do it. I decided to give Wonder Under a try and this is what I came up with. The whole project actually involved very little sewing, since the flower is attached to the stem by glue and a plastic straw. Like many projects, this should really have been a prototype for another better, less stalky, flower, but alas, nap time is only so long.

I'm a big fan of the Wonder Under though, and it's making me think about some applique projects I'd like to try... If only I can finish this orange project! One left!

I'm also working on a few ideas for my etsy shop to make a little extra Christmas money. I'll share those if/when they materialize.

Terraria

I've been wanting to make a terrarium for a long time. I love how, when they are prepared correctly, they are their own self contained little world, completely self-sufficient. Some time ago, John got me the book Gardens in Glass Containers, which proved to be an enthusiastic introduction to terraria. Today, I finally got around to putting some together. Their pretty easy to assemble - I'll share some basic instructions with you.

To begin, you'll need to gather some supplies. Here's what I used:
-interesting glass containers with lids
- my favorite houseplants
- some plants from outside, including moss I gathered from our yard (you may have to buy this if you don't have any)
- pebbles John collected from Lake Superior (regular gravel will do)
- all purpose soil
- homemade tools (including chopsticks, a coat hanger, surgical scissors, a funnel, and L's nose-sucker).

I would also recommend getting a book on terrariums, because plants have different needs and various problems can arise, so a good book can help you maintain your terraria for a long time.

Next, I thoroughly cleaned and dried my containers, and I assembled two smaller containers with wide mouths to get the hang of it first. Then I went for the trickier, and cooler looking, bottle.

Let's get started! First, you roll the moss into a tube and insert it into your clean bottle.


Using whatever tool will work, you shape the moss into a cup, green side out, that will hold the soil. Then using a funnel, tube, or just really good aim, make a small layer of gravel inside the moss cup. You also need to add a little charcoal here to keep it smelling sweet (the activated charcoal, like in your aquarium filter). Next, layer the soil on top of the gravel, filling up the moss cup.


Using your tools, prepare a small hole for your plant. Then carefully push the plant, roots first into the bottle. I planted a cutting from my fittonia, a plant I have adored for about a year. It has beautiful pink leaves with green veins.


Poke the roots into the hole, and press the dirt around the plant, securing it in place. This takes a little finagling and patience. I dropped a few of John's pretty rocks in and rolled and pressed them down to pat the soil in place. I also had to invent a little chop stick mop to clean the inside of the glass. It turned out okay, but I never got the inside of the bottle very clean. (Pipe cleaners would be great for this.)

When you're all done, you water it carefully, not too much. This is what I used the nose sucker for (yes, that's the technical name) because I could aim the water at the roots and avoid the leaves.


So here's the finished fittonia in a bottle. I hope it grows and fills the space nicely.

This one is in a short glass jar with glass lid and rubber seal. It was easy to assemble because of the wide mouth. It has two small cuttings from my grandmother's jade plant and a pretty green rock of John's. I also put a little moss on top - I just love moss.


I made this tiny baby food jar terrarium first. I love those tiny flowers outside that carpet our valley - you know the kind that is so tiny you usually don't notice them. This contains a bit of clover and one of those little yellow flowers. I made the soil slope a little, and made a small line of rocks on one side to emphasize the slope. I like the different levels of soil, but it was much to hard to repeat in the bottle garden.


So here are all three, looking fine in my kitchen window. Ta da!


Terrariums don't require a lot of maintenance, but you should watch them to make sure the water level inside is correct. If, over time, the leaves begin to rot and mold grows, you have too much water and should remove the lid for a little while to let some evaporate. If the leaves dry up, they need more water. Good luck!

***update***

After a few days with my terrariums, I realized I started with too much water! Hopefully these pictures will help you see some of the signs of how much is too much. Some condensation is necessary, it shows that the "rain cycle" is working. But if you have so much condensation that you can not see inside, it's too much. Like this:


The simple solution is just too take the top off and let some of the moisture evaporate. This takes longer with bottles than with wide mouth jars. All three of mine had too much, so I opened them all up. I've been opening and closing my jars for the last few days, and they seem to finally be leveling out. The bottle is still too cloudy, and so I haven't put the lid back on at all.

It's not a big deal now to take the lid off, and keep an eye on it. But if you don't take care of this now, you'll get mold and rotting plants.

A second sign that there is too much water is if the moss on the bottom is drenched. You can sort of see that here in this picture:


It's been fun watching these and trying to balance out the water level. I made three new ones today using (left to right) a begonia, palms, and more jade with a begonia. Hoping to prevent my water problem, I made sure that my moss and soil were mostly dry when I put them in (I think they were both pretty wet last time). This kept the sides of the jar from getting so dirty, too. Also, this time I felt like I had a better feel of how much water to add, (only a few tablespoons). So we'll see how these do. Now I've just got to find some more window space...

Fall Blessings, pt. 2

I love my tiny, hot, gas-powered kitchen. With the cold weather, the windows get all fogged up when I cook. It reminds me of Nanny's dish closet with frosted glass windows, all white and glowy.

When I was a little girl mom would make us wash the pots and pans by hand in the sink. I used to always say, "When I have my own kitchen I'm going to put the pots in the dishwasher!" And now that I'm all grown-up, I do. Except John's good omelet pan. And the really big soup pot.

Fall Blessings

The seasons are changing again, and I am excited about the fall. I was thinking about how much has changed since we first moved into this house.

The walls have changed color a few times, and the furniture has been moved around a lot. We've acquired some new art, a new rug, and a dining table. Then, we had to rearrange the whole house to get the baby's things to fit in neatly. We've lost 2 hens and 2 dogs, and gained 1 cat and 3 chicks. Several appliance have been replaced, and some old things have been fixed.

The first year we lived in this house, I was a baby about the cold. We don't have much storage space, and, to be honest, I was a little afraid of the gas stove.

But today, I brought in some of our plants from the porch for the cooler months, and I was admiring all of the greenery in the house. I suddenly realized what a cozy place this is, and what a fine home it has become. We have learned in the house to adapt to the weather, to take care of our lawn and garden, to weigh what things are really necessary, and to enjoy many of life's simpler pleasures. I feel really blessed by the years our family gets to spend here.

Painting

I'm trying to stay productive so I don't got crazy while I sit around and wait for the baby to come. So the last few days I've been painting a bit. I put the watercolors away awhile ago and I can't quite remember why. But I've been really enjoying them lately - they are easy to do in the living room floor, and they help me be patient because of all the layering. Anyway, here's what I've been doing:

I wanted to do a painting for the baby, something we could point at and say, "duck. Duck." So that's where the first no good still life came from.



After the first one, I remembered how much I like painting objects on our coffee table (it has a nice glass top, so you get great shadows and reflections), so I set this one up next. I love this little fitonia plant we got earlier this year because it droops so noticeably when it needs water, and then perks right up after you water it. The little bird in the plant is a hollow ceramic thing with a porous cone on the bottom that slowly waters the plant for you (do these things have a name?). John got it for my birthday because I just love old ceramic things.

Painting!

I meant to post last week that I had been painting. I did some still lifes and was feeling good about the act of painting, but the paintings themselves weren't anything special. Then this week, I started painting some more still lifes and I feel like I've finally done something I'm happy with:




Last fall, you may remember, I did a painting of our living room, and then began one of the kitchen. But then I got sick and quit painting and by the time I felt like painting again the plants and pots in the kitchen had all been rearranged and the leaves had fallen off the trees... so it seemed like a hassle to go back to it. This week, when I was getting ready to do a new still life, I noticed most of what was unfinished in the kitchen (or at least unbegun) was the bottom, and it made the perfect backdrop for a still life - and voila! The still life with interior you see here was born. It is kind of neat because when I started it, it was so nice outside and the daffodils were blooming out the window (though they weren't in the painting), and now the trees are still bare, but we just brought in a few early daffodils to save from the frost - so it kind of came full circle. Now I'm really excited about it so don't say anything mean.



I was so excited about this improvement of my boring still lifes, that I decided to go back and put an interior behind one of the still lifes I did last week. That's how this second one came about in the reverse this time (sorry about the glare). The first one definitely has more light and interest than this one, but I think it's a definite improvement from where it was (it just had a yellow wall with shadows behind it before). I also like some of the elements in the interior like the paintings within the painting. The one you only see part of through the doorway is one of Polly Jone's paintings - which I like because she's been a big influence on me since I graduated - and you can probably see that in these paintings.


And also, for any of you who haven't been to our home, in these two paintings you pretty much see it all. Kitchen, living room, bedroom. Maybe you should watch for a painting of the bathroom soon.

I've started a couple more, maybe I'll post them in coming weeks.

Regrowth

When we went to visit Granny earlier this summer, John and I pulled up some of granny's excess peppermint and potted it in a little paper cup. We've been wanting to plant some at home but have been having trouble finding any.

The morning we were leaving we stopped at the hospital to visit with Granny and say goodbye to everyone. It ended up being kind of a stressful day and we stayed longer than we had intended.

By the time we got back to the car, the poor mint had dried up. By the time we got home 11 hours later, it looked like a potted stick

I planted it anyway, since I hear its hard to kill, I thought maybe it would come up next year.

Now, just a few weeks later it has sprouted new leaves and is on its way to recovery. Soon I'll put it in the ground.

I was thinking about expounding on one of the various metaphors for life I could draw from this little experience, but I'll let you draw your own. I'm just enjoying my new little plant.

Flowers

John came home with these wild flowers and a handful of chocolates on Friday. Isn't he the best?

Asiatic Day Lily

This summer, one of the plants i found outside was this pretty little blue flower. There were a bunch of them growing alongside the shed. So i took one and potted it and brought it in the house, where, of course, it promptly ceased to bloom. I wasn't sure if i was giving it too much light or not enough or what. But for some reason it decided to bloom this week. So here is my long but skinny Asiatic Day Lily.

This summer John and I looked around for unique plants and flowers and then tried to figure out what they were. One of my favorites was the passion flower. It grows on a vine (in our neighbor's field) with several buds spaced evenly apart on the vine. The neat thing is that every day a new bud blooms and dies, and the next day another one goes through the whole process. And it's pretty neat looking. My pictures aren't very good, but this page has a little clip of the flower opening and closing.