Movin' On Up!

We've moved! My website (itsthesimplethings.com) and blog have become one. Please click on this link to find us on WordPress and then sign up on my website's home page to continue to receive my blog delivered to your email!

Thanks for all your support. Hope to see you at the new place!

Peace.

644,000,000 and Counting!

A lawn couch, found via stumbleupon & saved to pinterest

Six hundred and forty four million...that's the approximate number of websites out there, as of March 2012 (according to  Netcraft). Gadzooks, that's a lot of information! Assuming there are things at both ends of the spectrum that I'm not interested in, there's still so much stuff in the middle that could be interesting or funny if I only knew it existed!

My most-favorite way to explore the web is stumbleupon.com. Stumbleupon allows you to choose categories that interest you (for me it's things like books, crafts, cooking, fine arts, gardening, etc.). Once you've chosen the categories, click the "Stumble" button and you're off on an adventure! To fine-tune your likes/dislikes, the folks at stumbleupon provide a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button. If you use this to rate the page they've sent to you, the program will consider those likes and dislikes before it sends you on another adventure. I don't want the system deciding what I want to see too much, so I usually only use the thumbs up/down for total-misses, or bullseyes.  I have found so many things that inspire me, make me laugh, or make me go "hmm"!

If you give a page a thumbs-up, stumbleupon will save it for you in a list, which is not organized enough for me. That's why I use pinterest.com when I find (and want to save) a bit of inspiration or beauty or the newest best-brownie-recipe-on-earth. I haven't seen a better way to organize web content than pinterest. I can set up boards (categories) however I choose and "pin" a website to that board with a simple click. When I'm short on inspiration for dinner or a new craft project, I can go to my boards and see what sparked my interest yesterday, last week or last year.

Making a purse from an old book

Take the picture at the top of this post. I stumbled across this at readymade.com Will I ever decide to "sprout a couch"? Probably not. But the idea that someone thought to do it, did it and then posted the directions for the whole world to have, makes me happy and it's worth pinning just to remind me to think outside the box!

Here's a fun idea that I found on curbly.com. This idea of making a purse from an old book looks liked something I might actually get around to doing one of these days!

There's so much fun and inspiration on the internet. Taking a little time to find what moves me is so worth it and it's a simple thing to do. I hope this has moved you to explore a little more!

Here's a link to my pinterest account if you're curious about what I find worth saving. Let me know if you set up a board or two...I'd love to see what moves you, too!

Peace,

Llama-Poo Tea and Rose-Colored Glasses

Calamity Jane up front; Rosie in the background

One reason my gardens are bursting with flowers and berries and veggies this year is because I'm treating them to a regular dose of llama-poo tea. Yep, you read right...llama-poo tea! We have three llamas; Calamity Jane (who fell out of a moving trailer when she was young...thus her name), Rosie (Calamity's daughter), and Zoe (who sometimes feels like the third wheel...I can tell). The girls aren't particularly personable, unless it's the middle of winter and you have a pocket full of alfalfa pellets, but they keep some of the fields mowed down with their grazing, they're fun to watch, and they keep our sheep (Ben & Jerry) safe from coyotes (llamas hate dogs they don't know).

Llamas (and alpacas) are unique among grazing animals in that they dedicate a spot or two in the fields as their bathroom. As time marches on, lovely, black piles of fertilizer begin to mound up in the fields, making collection very, very easy!  Thank you, girls, for being so accommodating!

Rather than sprinkling the pellets directly on the garden beds (where they take a surprisingly long time to decompose), I've discovered that using llama-poo tea to water my plants gets the good stuff to the roots much quicker.

Llama-poo tea is made pretty much like any other tea. My "cup" is a five-gallon bucket and my tea is a shovelful of llama poo. It steeps for a day or two and is ready to use on the next watering day. I guess the difference between real tea and llama-poo tea is here...I would strain out loose-leaf tea before using, but I want all the llama poo in my garden tea, so I just use a stick to stir it really good, dip a pitcher in to fill it and pour the liquid gold (okay, dark brown) at the base of a plant. I repeat the whole stir-dip-pour until the bucket's nearly out of water. I refill the bucket and carry on until I've used up all the llama poo. Then I just throw another shovelful in the bucket, add water and let it sit a day or two until I'm ready to water again!

It's hard to be glamorous standing over a bucket of poo, trying not to breathe while stirring, but it's worth it when I see how the fertilizer is making my soil richer. The other day, while I was stirring, I realized that my llama-poo-to-liquid-gold is a good analogy for life. Crap happens; there's no getting around it. It's what we do with the bad/negative things that matter.

My glass is pretty much always half full. I feel guilty admitting it because I know plenty of people who live in a world littered with half-empty or empty glasses and I just don't get it! Why choose to see things in a negative light if there is any possibility of turning it around? My prayers always begin with thanks but sometimes all I can muster is to thank Him that things aren't worse. That's okay though, because just that glimmer of positivity helps me see things in a different light.

A life full of possibilities is so much more meaningful and joyous than a life full of limitations. I hope the next time you're faced with a pile of crap (be it a bad day, lost job, or broken heart) you take a moment, thank Him that things aren't worse and then consider the possibility that the pile of crap dumped at your feet might be just the fertilizer you need to make your life richer!

I challenge you to see everything through rose-colored glasses today! What have you got to lose?

Peace,
Chris

Procrastination Pays...Again!

White Flowers of Volunteer Potatoes

I am a big believer in procrastination...particularly when it comes to yard work. Once upon a time I was a devoted gardener who wouldn't let a spring day pass without spending some time eradicating baby weeds before they grew into the monster, flowering, seed-dropping weeds of summer. My flower beds looked great.

Then one spring I got busy (possibly lazy) and didn't get to my garden until much later. I found so many wonderful surprises! I had sunflowers coming up where last year's had grown and I had sunflowers coming up where none had ever been planted! Violas, lemon balm, lavender, lamb's ear, alyssum, and more, decided to fill some of the empty spaces between the plants who "belonged". I was happy to have free plants; I left some where they had put themselves and moved others.

Now I know that many plants look the same when they first break ground. Now I know to wait for a couple sets of leaves so that I can identify the baby "keepers" from the weeds. Today I discovered that procrastination will pay off in some potatoes in a few weeks. I didn't get around to planting potatoes this year, so I'm extra excited!

Procrastination has a bad name. Sometimes it's good to put off until tomorrow what you could have done today! I don't suggest it for doctor or dentist visits, but if you're thinking of saying something hurtful to someone you love, I strongly suggest you procrastinate! If you're considering a major life change, I say, "Sleep on it!". If you really don't want to do the dishes after dinner, don't...the dish fairy is real. She comes while you're sleeping and cleans every pot and pan in the sink...I say it's worth a shot!

Life is too beautiful to be sped through. What can you procrastinate on today to give you more time to just be? 

Peace,
Chris

Bee Happy!

Here's a little video I shot a couple weeks ago. The bees were finally happy because things had warmed up, which meant there was pollen to be brought in. Pollen is the bees protein and the queen won't start laying eggs until she decides enough pollen has been brought into the hive to feed the youngsters.

Pollen comes in all sorts of colors,  and I never tire of watching the bees bring it in. When I shot this video, I was unsure what plant was producing red pollen. After a little research, I'm pretty sure it's a weed called Henbit, which we have plenty of around here! The research says it's an important pollen and nectar plant for the bees. Hooray for Henbit, my new, favorite weed!

If you can, watch and listen to this with headphones on (unless you have really good speakers). There was a lot going on in the yard that morning...bees from all four hives were buzzing around, baby birds were chirping for their moms from some of the dozen birdhouses we have scattered in the garden, crickets were making their music, and I shared a few honeybee tidbits, too.

It was a wonderful morning in the garden!

Take time for the simple things.

Peace,
Chris

Flower Power

As I write this on a Friday afternoon, there is lightning, thunder and a lot of rain outside. A practically-perfect day, in my opinion, mostly because Mother Nature is watering all the gardens for me and I appreciate the help this time of year!

Every year, Don (heretofore referred to as My Carpenter), tries to get me to agree to automatic sprinklers in the beds, or at least drip hoses, and every year I assure him I don't need the help. He thinks I'm being a control freak because our well is a low-producer and July and August are such water guzzlers. He says I'm worried something might leak or forget to turn itself off, thus wasting precious drops. While I am pretty water-conservative (especially in the hot, dry months), I actually like dragging the hose over, under, and around things in the garden. It keeps me up-close-and-personal with each plant. I notice things...I pull a weed here, pluck a few dead-heads there, question whether that "flower" might really be a weed run-amok, and make a mental note on what needs moving this fall. But all that watering can take at least an hour each day, so I really do appreciate Mother Nature's help on days like this. Besides, the gardens and lawn always look so refreshed and lovely after a summer thunderstorm!

This post's picture is of the bouquet I picked from the gardens yesterday morning. I flitted from bed-to-bed, a large, middle-aged butterfly, choosing the flowers that I knew would make Hilda (92) and Charlotte (99) ooh and aah when they saw them. There's an assortment of daisies, purple phlox, day lilies, yarrow and liatris in there. 

The weather has to be just right for my ladies to want to be in the garden with me, so they love when I bring flowers in the house for them. Both were avid gardeners in their younger days...Charlotte had dozens of rose bushes that she tended to faithfully, and Hilda, a farmer's wife, had a large garden every year that she canned-up to feed her family through the winter, as well as flower beds to feed her soul. 

My flowers, in fact all my garden beds, have such power over me! In church I really do try to keep my mind focused on the service, but it seems like every Sunday there's a reference to a garden, grapes, wheat...something that puts my head back in my yard, thinking about what's doing or needs doing. That's when I hope no one asks me what I thought of the homily or the readings, because I might not even remember them!

I am moved today by a quote I sign-off with on each regular email. It's by Robert Louis Stevenson and speaks so clearly to me about appreciating the simple things:

The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. 

Creating a bouquet of flowers picked from my garden felt like one of the sweetest things in life. What does it for you?

Remember to take time for the simple things!

Peace,

Chris

I'm Taking the Plunge!

That's me, jumping in. Which one are you?

I have been pretend-blogging for a couple years now. By "pretend-blogging" I mean that I've done it with no consistency and virtually no attempts at marketing it, or me. But now I'm taking the plunge and asking you to jump in with me!

Some of you know, and others may have suspected, that I fancy myself creative and quite crafty. I remember the exact day when I discovered Creativity (the capital "C" is intentional). It was soon after I quit my fulltime job to be a fulltime mom to my 5-year-old son. I had already been a weekend/late-into-the-night quilter for a decade. It was at my kitchen table that hot, August afternoon in 1991, with the sewing machine sitting in front of me and a project strewn everyplace else, that I was overcome with a sense of the importance of this thing known as making something.

More than 20 years later, my understanding of the importance of tapping into my creative side still drives me. As I say on my website homepage (itsthesimplethings.com); "Creating something...anything...brings a sense of purpose to my soul, forcing me to slow down, focus, and listen to myself. Genesis 1:27 says that God created man in His own image. Wow! If the Creator of all created us to be like Him, then the act of creating HAS to be hardwired in us! To go through life without taking materials and making something new of them is truly a denial of who we are meant to be!".

For the past couple years, a vision has been unfolding that brings me to this point in space and time. I love to make things, but what I love even more is to provide the opportunity for other people to make things...to give them the place and guidance to find the creative spark that I know is inside each of us, and watch that spark turn into a flame!

I am married to an amazing man who built us a beautiful house on 10 acres here in Colbert and, a couple of years ago, added a large, barn-shaped shop. After some mostly-kidding discussion of what my rent payment might be, he gave me the better part of one wing to use as a studio. He insulated it, sheet-rocked and painted the walls and ceiling, trimmed the windows, and traded some of his own labor with a friend who is a cabinet maker, giving me custom cabinets throughout the space.

Yes, I am spoiled, although I prefer to think of it as "well-loved".

My ducks aren't yet all in a row to open the studio to classes, but I'm getting closer. In these days of social networking, the integration of my website, blog and Facebook pages are a vital part of getting where I want to be. So I'm asking you to consider coming along for the ride by following my blog. You can access it from itsthesimplethings.com or by "liking" me on Facebook.

As best I can tell, getting folks to comment on your blog somehow magically makes it more appealing to folks who might just stumble across it. Those first "followers" are the hardest to get. If you feel moved to be one, God bless you!

If you like what you see/read, please, please feel free to share it with other folks who might be interested. I hope the blog will appeal to a wide range of people, but I'm especially interested in  reaching folks in the Spokane area who might, one day soon, like to come to the farm for a class.

Peace,
Chris