In two days I'll be boarding a plane with my daughter, Christy, son-in-law, Trae and their three children Taylor, MaKenna and Ciara. We are flying to Phoenix, Arizona for Spring Break and Easter. It will be nice to travel inland from the coast of Oregon...to sunshine and 80 to 90 degree weather, heck the night time temp 64/65 is better than our daytime!!! Yes we're going to have "Fun In The Sun"... and "Just Kick Back".
I've been very busy with my new shop and filling up my Etsy store and the days are just flying by. My old customers and new are finding the shop and they are so excited that I'm back. Of course, having that big neon Paris sign viewable from the street really helps (so very glad it didn't sell)!!! Sales in "Shabby Chic" have been "not to shabby". I'm glad I had a fine selection of items on hand, it's been nice to go the storage room and find just the right piece to re-stock with. The estate and yard/garage sales should pick up in April and I''ll be able to gather up "new" old stock for the shop. My customers have been inquiring for this and that and I've been taking notes, so I'll have to keep an eye out for those special interest items.
I've been working on a few projects~~~revamping several night stands, chairs, smaller painted pieces. And have several more pieces in the wings to start. I will be revealing those when I get back.
I'm also doing up small packs of vintage flat keys (3 to pack) I even leave on the bits of string, yardages of tea stained ribbon, torn fabric strips and lace, hand stamped clothes pins. I label these as DIY Shabby Kits and they have been doing really well. Scrapbookers and customers in general find it "cool" that they can purchase these convenient and inexpensive ($2.50 to 3.50 each) little packs and "shabby up" something just the way they want. I've been thinking over other items that I can offer this way. Yesterday the grand-kids, Ciara, MaKenna, Caleb and I put together a new raised wooden planter...it's for the climbing green peas, we only got about half of it planted as I didn't have enough soil on hand, went bigger than originally planned---can never have to many peas! We also seeded the carrots, radish and lemon cucumbers in the planters we built last year. We'll be setting out the cherry tomatoes and spinach starts when we get back. This is the earliest we've been able to plant in quite a few years...we have had a mild winter...hope we don't get a late freeze!!!
They sure enjoy our "Grazing Gardens" and since I used to read "The Little Red Hen" to them when they were smaller...they are quite willing to help. I like for them to know they can grow there own food, in fact I was quite proud when MaKenna correctly named the swiss chard that had wintered over, emerging from the ground. Ciara and MaKenna can identify rosemary, chives, thyme, parsley, and the mints-chocolate, pineapple and orange,and where each grow in the garden, that we routinely use in cooking. Caleb is just 6 years old but he did a fantastic job with planting the lemon cucumbers. It's so very special to me to see their small hand prints in the soil.....
Happy Hunting, Gathering and Planting~~~
