My Early Gardening Years
My mom was going through a box of photos that she got from my grandma’s house this summer and she came across these photos of me in my early gardening years. I thought you’d enjoy seeing these.
Don’t you just love this stylish gardening outfit! I still get that dirty when working outside and of course I still always wear sandals in the garden. (and my mom still grow amaryllises this lovely every year)
No doubt in the photo below I’m explaining the finer points of proper watering to my older sister. Mr Chiots laughed and said, “You still hold your watering can like that.”
My mom used to let me pick out flowers when we’d go to the greenhouse every spring, I remember choosing some cockscomb one year. I also have fond memories of leafing through seed catalogs to pick out “my vegetables” to grow each year in the edible garden. For some reason they were always blue and they never grew very well, but that never stopped me from picking something blue the next year. That little flowered watering can in the first photo was my favorite, I loved watering with it. I also remember using the old watering can that I currently have on my front porch for holiday decor. Watering must have been my favorite gardening activity as a girl.
Were you a gardener when you were young? Do you remember planting, watering and spending time in the garden?
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Friday Favorites + Free Ethel Gloves
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ve most likely heard about my love for Ethel Gloves. If you haven’t heard me talk about how wonderful and comfortable they are, you’ve probably noticed them in my photos, they are truly beautiful gloves. Ethels are the perfect gardening glove, offering a great fit that gives you dexterity while gardening. You can do everything from heavy digging to pulling out teeny tiny seedlings in them.
My Ethel’s get plenty of wear, in the summer they are used a couple hours a day. I’ve already worn through 2 pairs in the last 2 years. I now have a pair of their leather gloves that I’ll be using for the tougher tasks in the garden, like building all those rock walls.
One of my favorite features of Ethel Gloves is their washability. I’m sure all of you gardeners know the pain of gardening gloves that get wet and then are stiff as boards, never again allowing the dexterity that they had when new. This is not the case with Ethel Gloves, they get slightly stiff after getting wet and drying, but all you have to do is throw them in the washer and when you get them out they’re soft as new.
In October I got a pair of the new Ethel Utility Gloves. I’ve never been a fan of rubberized gloves for gardening and I thought they wouldn’t allow the dexterity that regular Ethel’s offer. The dexterity is slightly less, but the warmth is much better, which for us northern gardeners is a huge deal. I used these gloves for all of my fall gardening chores and they were perfect since fall chores here in the North tend to be wet. I also used them when decorating the front of the house for Christmas, which is a task they work beautifully for as well. I now love the utility gloves as much as the Signature Ethel Gloves.
Ethel also is developing an insulated gardening gloves in the works, which I’m testing at the moment. How perfect is this for us Northern gardeners, especially those of us that want to do more winter gardening.
Ethel Gloves make a wonderful Christmas gift for that gardener in your life, I was so excited to receive my first pair from Mr Chiots 2 years ago. Use coupon code: HOLIDAY25 to save 25% off your order. Ethel was kind enough to send me a pair of Traditional Gloves to give away on my blog. Comment below and you’ll be entered in the drawing for a free pair of Ethel Gloves. I’ll announce the winner on next weeks Friday Favorite.
What’s your favorite kind of gardening glove?
UPDATE: Just got a call from the friendly folks at Ethel and they’re going to give away 4 more pairs of gloves in this contest. So now there are 5 pairs in the giveaway…your odds just got much better!
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Buy Local or Small + Free Soap
One of the things I’ve been trying to do more and more is to find local or small businesses from which to purchase the things I need. This is a wonderful way to cultivate community, especially when you can find things locally. I have also found Etsy to be a wonderful resource in finding small businesses. For example: I am in need of a few more wooden cooking utensils as I have just acquired some enameled cast iron cookware. I could purchase this set on Williams Sonoma, or I could find a few lovely pieces on Etsy, like these that I’m considering. I know if buy from Etsy I’m supporting a guy who does this as a hobby, he gets 100% of the money I send and I like knowing that.
This year I’ve been searching for my holiday gifts from local or small businesses. It has been amazing the wonderful things I’ve found for all those on my list. I won’t mention what specifics since I haven’t given them yet. Sometimes you stumble across something while at the farmer’s market that is just perfect. Local Roots Market in Wooster, OH (which is the main farmer’s market I go to) has an artisan fair this time of year just for Christmas and I’ve found a few wonderful things there.
Miranda, one of my readers (you probably recognize her, she comments often) and her husband have a business called The Relic Jar. They sell soap and very interesting gourd art. Her soap is made of all natural ingredients some that she grows in her own organic gardens in Texas. She generously offered to give a bar of soap to one of you in order to encourage you to buy local/small business not only during the holiday season, but all year long. All you have to do to is to comment on this post and you’ll be entered. PS – Miranda also has an illustration business with lovely things, check it out at Miranda R. Muller Illustrations.
Have you found any wonderful holiday gifts from a local or a small business?
Random.org chose our winner for this contest:
Kim won the soap from The Relic Jar.
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Spreading Some Holiday Cheer
Growing up my mom always made tons of Christmas cookies, caramels and other goodies and sent a big plate full to each neighbor. We’ve done something similar since we moved in here. I’m not much of a cookie maker when it comes to the holidays, I prefer chocolates and other things like caramel corn. We also don’t stop at the neighbors when spreading delicious holiday cheer. We take goodies for everyone at the Post Office, the library and our small town local bank. Of course we live in a small town, so each of these place only has 4-7 employees.
I enjoy doing this because it shows all those people that we talk to each week that we appreciate the service they provide and that they go out of their way to do their jobs well. The ladies at the library will hold new books for us that they know we’ll like, our UPS man always delivers our packages in great shape and always has a treat for the Chiots, the friendly post office workers are always ready to chat, and the ladies at the bank always have treats for the Chiots in the drive-thru.
Do you hand out any kind of goodies to neighbors and other people like the mailman?
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Displaying All Those Cards
Everyone has their own way in which they display all those holiday cards they get from friends and family. For the longest time I didn’t display them, I simply set them in a pile on my coffee table. Last year I taped them to the posts on my stairway, but they kept falling down. This year I decided to put all those clothes pins to work that aren’t being used since it’s cold outside.
I have been pinning all of my cards into the garland that I put on the banister. We have a fairly short banister, so I think when this is filled (which it almost is now, photos were take last week) I’ll move on to putting the cards in that garland above the sliding glass doors.
I have to admit, this way of displaying cards is growing on me. I might continue doing this unless see something better. Tucking them in the tree would be nice, as would bringing a branch in to pin them on. I’m sure there are endless ways to display cards that I’ve never even thought of.
How do you display all those holiday cards you get in the mail?
