two things that have been occupying my days:

One explains my absence here during the past couple of weeks, the other explains how I've kept my sanity.

We have a decently sized strawberry patch that has, until recently, been keeping us in good supply of fresh strawberries. Every other day for weeks now I've gone out there and picked. It's been my peaceful, quiet time. My chance for a bit of a break.
There was enough on some days to bake something, but they were just too good. We've been binging on them. Oh, have they been good.

But... there has been no strawberry shortcake, no strawberry-rhubarb squares, no strawberry jam, no strawberry ice cream, no strawberry pie, and no strawberry smoothies. Sad, don't you think?

So yesterday we decided that that had to be fixed. We took a ride out to the country to a pick-your-own strawberry patch. It was a gorgeous day.

And we picked some gorgeous berries..


Oh yes! I can already taste the strawberry pie... and the shortcake... and the ice cream.. and..

planting time

a day off yesterday + sun + temps in the 80s + a garden ready for planting + a bit of lounging = a very happy me :)


(I hope all of you here in the states have a great Memorial Day weekend! I have baking (rhubarb pie!!), maybe some thrifting, a painting party and bbq at my cousin's new house, and more gardening on my agenda for the weekend. Should be fun!)

terrariums & mushrooms

Happy Earth Day everyone! I thought I'd share a little earthy related craft for today.

Over the past week or so I've been a little obsessed with moss. That obsession evolved into making terrariums, and, naturally, hand crafted mushrooms for said terrariums. I am really loving these happy little jars of green. Wouldn't these be great little gifts or party favors?

To make them I just put a thin layer of pebbles in the bottom for drainage and then a bit of soil and just pat the moss into the soil. You mist the moss and from what I've been reading you only need to do that every two weeks or so. You need to use a lidded jar, I made my first one in a votive holder with no lid and it dried out pretty much overnight. I made this one in an old jar that had honey in it and the one with the gold lid held salsa. I'm going to start looking at the thrift stores for more.

I got my moss from outside so I've been checking in the jar every couple of days because I've been finding little insects in there (I let them free outside!)

I molded the mushrooms out of fimo clay and stuck a little wire into them before they were baked. Once baked and cooled, I painted them with acrylic paint and sealed them with a non-toxic satin varnish.

what I did this afternoon:

(I love that it's time to play in dirt again..)

and so it begins...

I read this a few days ago on Keri Smith's blog, the Wish Jar:

"There's a point where you can give up on winter--when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin--around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February's coming, and beyond February, March.

See, I don't yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February's the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange, silent March, will be the hardest.

The danger in yielding to thoughts of spring--green grass, hikes, bare feet, lakes, fly-fishing, rivers, and sun, hot sun--is that once these thoughts enter your mind, you can't get them out.

Love the winter. Don't betray it. Be loyal.

When the spring gets here, love it too--and then the summer.

But be loyal to the winter, all the way through--all the way, and with sincerity--or you'll find yourself high and dry, longing for a spring that's a long way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you'll have cabin fever, the worst.

The colder it gets, the more you've got to love it."

~Rick Bass fr. Winter -Notes from Montana

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I don't love winter. Not at all. But I try to... you know "live each season as it passes" and all that. I've actually been doing pretty good... more or less content to be inside by the fire, sewing or knitting or watching a movie.

But yesterday I got this in the mail:

And before I could stop myself I was reading and planning and dreaming about seeds and vegetables and the smell of the soil and the warmth of the sun and the wonderful tired feeling of a day spent working in the garden... and just like that, I was lost to spring.

But it's too bad that this is what my garden looks like right now! :) So I guess I'll be working on being loyal to winter.. I still have lots of time to practice...