By
Administrator on July 21st, 2008
Posted in gifts and giving | No Comments »
In a previous post, I mentioned the “just because” gift and stated that it was the best type of gift of all. At that time, my husband had surprised me with a container of crocuses for no other reason then that he saw them while shopping for some groceries and thought that I might like them. He was right, and it wasn’t just that I liked the flowers themselves, it was because he thought of me and wanted to give me something that would make me happy. There was no “occasion” , no obligation, and no expectation.
Last week I received another gift that I certainly never expected. A long-time customer and his wife came into my store and handed me a box containing a lighted OPEN sign. They called it a “belated house-warming” (or store-warming) gift as I had moved my business about a year ago. I can’t even begin to tell you just how good that made me feel! It felt as though the smile on my face was filling up my body from head to toe. I have always tried to do my best for my customers since that’s the first rule of a successful business, but I never dreamed that any of them would ever choose such a concrete way to let me know that they appreciated it and me.
So if you are one of those who don’t think that any gift short of a diamond or a Jaguar can have a major impact —– think again! Of course, when you find yourself looking for that “just because” gift or a gift for any reason, I hope that you will check out our unique handmade gifts and gift baskets.
By
Administrator on June 24th, 2008
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
If you live in New England, I don’t have to tell you about the new crop of stones that will appear in your garden every year, no matter how long you’ve been tilling the soil! Partly due to this and partly because I just ran out of room within the confines of my poor excuse for a fence, I decided a couple of years ago to try a small raised bed.
It took about 4 bags of topsoil (which unfortunately seemed to come with a few of its own small rocks!) half a bale of peat moss, and half a bag of composted manure to fill the box. I’ve had mixed luck with it — the bell peppers that I planted there the first year were quite happy and produced well, but the cauliflower plants didn’t quite make it to maturity the following year.
It is very noticeable that although the crabgrass constantly threatens to take over my regular veggie garden, the raised bed is almost weed free. This is a huge help in itself, as my time in the garden is very limited since I have both a brick and mortar store and a web store to manage and must also find time to make the handcrafted items that I sell.
This year I noticed that the soil level had dropped considerably, so I filled the remaining space with compost from the pile in the corner of my yard. I’ve planted several eggplant plants in the raised bed and several more in the regular garden area and it is now obvious that the ones in the raised bed are growing at almost twice the rate of the ones in the garden. I think that it’s a combination of the warmer soil in the raised bed and the compost. Now if I could just convince my garden helper cat that it really isn’t an extra large kitty litter box…..
By
Administrator on June 7th, 2008
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
Just thought that I should follow through on my last two posts. The promised coupons for more Aerogarden goodies showed up a couple of days ago and my replacement grow-light bulb came in yesterday’s mail.
Now I just have to control myself so that I don’t break the budget (especially since I’m planning on ordering a greenhouse kit to replace the one that was murdered by a falling tree earlier this year).
By
Administrator on June 1st, 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Just wanted to up-date anyone who had read my previous blog entry and was curious about the Aerogarden. Much to my surprise, when I called the number provided and asked for customer service, I not only got through to a very courteous company rep, I was also given advice on what to do to keep my herbs alive until the replacement bulb gets here.
I was given an apology about the missing coupons as well and told that they would be posted to me ASAP! If the company follows through with these promises, I’ll be much more than pleased. I sure hope that the follow-through is as good as the telephone contact because I can see lots of uses for this unit. I’m hoping to use it to get a head start on some of my seeds in the Springtime and also for cloning plants from cuttings.
If anyone reading this is interested in gardening, I hope that you will check back to see how it all turns out! Also, you might want to take a look at http://davesgarden.com/ This is a gardening forum where I spend most of what little free time I have.
By
Administrator on May 12th, 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Have you seen the ads for this gadget and thought about buying one for yourself or as a gift? If so, I hope that this article might help you.
I live in an area with quite cold Winters (zone 5a) and the poor light levels inside make it nearly impossible to grow anything but the few houseplants that require very little light. During the warm weather, I normally grow a small organic vegetable garden and a separate area for herbs. The Aero-garden looked like a possible solution to provide fresh culinary herbs during the winter season.
Its compact size and built-in grow lights certainly appealed to me, and I was curious about hydroponics as I’d never tried it before. The price was a bit high for us, but I finally decided to ask for one for Christmas as I thought that it made more sense than having my husband spend money on things that I neither wanted or needed. He made quite an effort to find one for me, but it was apparently a popular gift and all the stores around us were sold out. In the end, this worked out for the best as one of my brothers gave me a wine refrigerator and we already had one. We were able to return it and (with the help of a coupon) only paid about $16.00 extra to purchase my Aero-garden.
Here’s the first tip I can give you —- look at the instructions before you start taking the little plastic containers out of the box! They are supposed to be put into the unit in the same positions as they were in the box. (Of course, by the time I read those instructions I had no idea which herb had been in which position and just hoped for the best with the placement I’d done.)
Here are a couple of pictures of the plants as they first started to sprout and as they filled out the unit later on.
On the positive side, the unit worked as advertised and it was amazing to see how fast the plants grew. Of course there were no weeds and no bugs to deal with and we actually had trouble keeping up with the production of fresh herbs. (Now, if you want to make pesto, you would need to opt for the version with all basil, as there wouldn’t be enough basil available otherwise.)
Now we come to the “dark side”. The literature that was provided stated that the lights should be replaced at 6 months. It stated that although people might not be able to tell the difference in the level of light provided by the bulbs, the plants would suffer from lessened light. I, of course, intended to test that out; however, in practice, one of my bulbs apparently just burnt out and it’s barely been THREE months since I turned the machine on! My second criticism has to do with the offer of $50.00 worth of coupons that was included as an incentive for purchasers to “register” their Aero-gardens. I duly sent mine in, but chose to check the opt-out box that stated that I was NOT interested in receiving advertisements from them. I’ve been waiting quite a long time and no coupons have arrived. Could it be that I won’t receive them because I don’t want to be bombarded with more ads? The registration form certainly did not state that this would be the case (otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have bothered sending the form in in the first place!) I have been to their website today and copied their Customer Service e-mail and phone number, so will soon find out what their answers are to both of the above problems.
In case you’d like to see their offerings, the website address is
www.aerogardenonlinestore.com/
By
Administrator on April 10th, 2008
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
It finally feels a bit like Spring around here — at least it has in the past couple of days. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the coming weekend features (I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) SNOW! I’m afraid that the daffodils, tulips and helebore are on their own as nobody in our household really has time to go try to cover them to protect them from the weather.
Part of the veggie/wildflower garden has been raked but not yet tilled, so we probably won’t get any peas this year unless I try for a Fall crop. Since the snowy Winter was quite hard on our chicken wire fence, there’s not much left for peas to climb on anyway.
This is the first year that I’ve tried Winter sowing and I’ve been checking the four water jugs that are sitting near the garden. So far it looks like just one calendula and perhaps a marigold plant have decided to sprout. Maybe they know better than the humans just what the weather is likely to be.
If you haven’t heard about Winter sowing, here’s a link to an excellent site that will tell you all you need to know to give it a shot on your own. Wintersown
By
Administrator on March 14th, 2008
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
Well, it was only one of those $400.00 mail-order greenhouse kits, but it was the only greenhouse I’d ever had and I’d been wanting one for years. It was far too drafty for us to even try to heat in our Zone 5 climate, but it was still a big help for raising seedlings in the Spring.
A couple of weeks ago we were awakened by a big BOOOMMmmmm and couldn’t figure out what had happened until we came downstairs and glanced out the window. This was the sorry sight that met our eyes.
Now that the snow has melted we are about to attempt to cut up the tree that fell on it and salvage what we can. At least our home owner’s insurance has contributed something to the cause and I may be able to buy another kit. I very much doubt that it will happen in time to help me grow my own tomato, pepper, and eggplants, but only time will tell.
By
Administrator on February 9th, 2008
Posted in about gifts and giving | No Comments »
Somehow it seems to me that most of the advertising and focus for Valentine’s Day is directed towards the women. What about the other half of the population? I’m curious as to what others out there are giving to their menfolk.
Although I have a page on my business website called Valentine gift for him, it just so happens that I have a husband who simply does not like gift baskets or anything on that idea (although he says that he thinks that mine are better than most that he’s seen).
I’m planning on giving him some dark chocolate which he definitely does like, but wanted to make it more of a gift than just that. I finally solved my dilemma by searching for a special tee shirt for him. The one that I ordered says
Cleverly Disguised As An Adult
Please don’t think that I’m picking on my husband! You see, he often tells people that he decided long ago never to grow up. It appeared to him to be too boring.
Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that it gets here in time since Valentine’s Day is only four days away!
By
Administrator on January 24th, 2008
Posted in candle making | 1 Comment »
If you’ve read the previous two posts here about making gel candles, you should have a basic grasp of the general principals involved. One thing that you should always remember though, is that the gel wax is not a true solid like paraffin or soy wax and therefore needs to be handled a little differently. Gel candles must always be stored upright and level — otherwise the gel will"creep" and you’re likely to end up with lopsided candles with buried wicks.
It is possible to layer different colors of gel wax in a candle; however, unless you separate the layers with fine mica, the layers will bleed into each other over time. Your lovely green and red striped Christmas candle will become a rather uninspiring yucky brown!
You can make some very pretty gel candles by simply pouring a layer of colored gel into a glass baking pan and letting it cool. Once cool, cut it into smallish cubes with a pair of scissors. Secure a wick in your candle container and pile the gel cubes around it, making sure that plenty of the cubes are in contact with the wick. Voila! You have a candle. Please note though that due to the above mentioned properties of gel wax, if this candle should sit around for a long time, the gel cubes will eventually fuse back together again and the candle will lose its unique look. Some candles, like our Martini candles will leave a large amount of unburned gel wax around the rim of the glass. This can be cut up and placed back in the glass around a new piece of wick to extend the life of the candle.
Should you decide to offer your candles for sale, make sure that you include a warning label or tag. You can buy these pre-made from many of the candle supply vendors or print up your own. We would also advise you to cover the candles with plastic wrap or shrink wrap to keep out dust, bugs, and, believe it or not, fingers! When we first started selling our candles at craft fairs, it seemed that every child who came by (and even some supposed adults) just had to try poking the gel wax.
By
Administrator on December 6th, 2007
Posted in about gifts and giving | No Comments »
Wouldn’t it be great if we all had both the time and the money we needed to get ready for the holidays? Generally I find that I’m short on one or both.
Here’s a quick, easy, and very inexpensive item that you can make either to give as a gift or for yourself. Purchase some plain clear glass (or even plastic) ball ornaments with a removable top. Pick some seed pods from milkweed plants. Let the pods dry out naturally. (You will probably want to keep them somewhat enclosed as I doubt that you’d like to find milkweed seeds floating all over your house one day, but make sure that they are ventilated to prevent mold.) Take the top, hanger part of the ornament off and drop some of the milkweed seeds inside. Replace top of ornament. Voila! You now have a lovely ornament that will last for years. It is especially nice for those who enjoy a natural theme in their Christmas decorations.
My apologies to those of you who, like me, live in "the frozen North", as I realize that you’re not likely to be able to find any milkweed pods at this late date. On the other hand, the closer we get to the holidays, the more likely you are to find some of the plain ornaments available at sale prices. After all, there’s always next year!
I’ve been thinking of expanding on this theme as well and trying out some glittery artificial foliage inside of these, but somehow haven’t found the time. If you also don’t have the extra time but have a little money, you might want to take a look at the inexpensive Christmas gift ideas shown on one of my websites.