Swayed by the Facebook cleanse

     I admit, I like to look at Facebook, especially now that I can do it all on my iPhone.  I LIKE seeing what the people I know, and the people I don't know, are doing.  I've never been the most social person and FB has been an amazing tool for helping me stay connected to, well, everyone!  I recently heard on NPR that young people now avoid FB because there are too many adults on there.  I'm not concerned.  They'll be back after they age and I'll still be there.
     I have never, however, been a target audience for advertisers, be it radio, TV, or now, Facebook, but every day, as I browsed the banal accountings of everyone's daily lives (which I seriously never tire of reading and emulating!) I kept seeing some kind of an "ad" to drink water with citrus and cucumber in it.
If there are any advertisers out there wanting to profit on the tiny wary niche that I inhabit, you nailed it with this damn fruit water!

     After weeks of seeing photos similar to this, I bit!  What was the deal with this fruit water?!  The "recipe" looked simple enough: 1 gallon of water, sliced cucumber, lime, lemon, orange, and a sprig of mint.  The benefits?  The word "cleanse" is most often bandied about but I block this from my conscious as it sounds too much like "diet" (a word I struck from my vocabulary as a senior in high school.  Another post...another blog...).  The words I liked were "hydrate" and "alkaline".  I'm a sugar freak and have been told I need to make my system more alkaline (not sure but probably true) and I end every evening feeling thirsty because I forget to drink enough water.  I guarantee I will NOT forget to drink water if I've filled it with lots of expensive fruits and herbs!

     I started taking my pitcher of fruit water to the salon with me and was surprised by the response.

Three fourths of the people that mentioned it recognized it from the FB pictures.  The other 1/4 just wanted to know what the hell I was up to.  Then there were the twins from the Virgin Islands, grown men, who knew EXACTLY what it was all about, told me the cucumber was alkaline and cleansing and said I could also use grapefruit (which I have seen in some of the recipes).  Since they were tall and handsome and said this in a wonderful island accent, I had them repeat the info a few times.

     I imagine I will slack off on the fruit water as the weather cools but it has inspired me to drink more water and it's gotten me through some long afternoons working on my dream shed that Mike roughed in for me and I've been finishing in the last of the summer's heat.  

Cheers!

Tracking myself

     I took a much needed break the second week of September, funded in part by my friend, DL (thank you thank you thank you) and visited the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  It was wonderful, as expected, but just as exciting to me was a side visit, on the way, to the Hogg Mine in LaGrange, GA.  It's a defunct gem mine where you pay a small fee and the owners allow you to dig in old spoil piles in the hopes of finding beryls, rose quartz, or aquamarine.  I moved a lot of dirt and rock as I am used to doing when I fossil in the Peace River and consequently found some nice beryl crystals.

That's me, holding my beryls like a proud, grimy mama.

     Here I am, hamming it up, as I uncover the "find of the month", a big beryl crystal.  It's hard to feel sorry for me, complaining about spreading mulch and working on a shed when I actually paid someone to crawl around in the dirt with a pickax on a hot Georgia day.  I was in my happy place.

     Just as with my fossils, a big part of my enjoyment comes from cleaning and categorizing my finds.  Yes, I am a nerd.  I've had several people ask me what I am going to do with my rocks.  I am going to look at them.  That's it.

     Now the rocks are stored and the Smokies are a distant memory and I'm back to wandering around my yard.  I started searching through the calabaza vines for any baby squash.  I figured I planted them too late to get one big enough to carve for Halloween.  Surprise!

     I know I spend a lot of time going on about my calabazas but they are so fun!  This sucker was completely hidden under the leaves.  I finally harvested seeds from one of my 2 dried cucuzzi so maybe next year I'll go on and on about them instead.

     Thanks again to DL for naming the 4 chicks I raised.

     Ruby, Opal, Pearl, and Maude have officially survived chickhood and even though this is a terrible photo, it is their first time trying out the "big girl" roost in the henhouse.  Awww!

     I often ponder how much ground I cover with all these projects and constant motion and I heard on NPR about the different apps available to track your movements.  New world order and conspiracy theories be damned!  I want one!  I downloaded "Moves" and I love it.  It's also like a diary outline since I have a crappy memory and I can't wait to use it during the fossil season.  I don't send my info off to an account in a cloud so hopefully I'm no more exposed than I am with FaceBook but I'm compiling my daily movements in anticipation of making sense of all this activity.

If I could afford to pay someone...

     Every so often, as I'm laboring in my front yard, a man will pass by on the street and ask if I need any help.  It is understood that this would be paid help.  Years ago, I sadly replied, "If I could afford to pay someone, I wouldn't be out here doing it myself."  Seriously, if we're talking about pruning the hedges and deadheading aloes, I'm on it!  But dragging 109 bags of mulch around the yard in 90º heat? I'll pass!
     But, as always, I am outside, mumbling and cursing (NOT under my breath) while I finish construction of a badly needed shed.  Mike roughed it in and the rest is up to me.  He brought me a pile of good boards salvaged from an old deck...

...which I must now transform into this...

     Oh, wait...that's one of Martha Stewart's many houses.  My shed won't look anything like that.  It was recently pointed out to me by a dear friend that I am obsessed with Martha Stewart.  I most certainly am not!  But I do love her...Anyway, that's another entry for another day.

     It's hard to resist using that line from a famous movie, "Let me introduce you to my little friend."

Mike slapped an impact driver in my hand on a recent project and I knew my life would never be the same.  In fact, I wish my life would've been different because I could have used one of these babies at least 25 years ago.  Ah well, making up for lost time.

     What I am, in fact, doing with the boards is "paneling" the inside of the shed.  I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression about the city where I live but I'd be lying if I said I'd never had any problems.  Sheds attract a lot of bad attention so I'm attempting to turn mine into a fortress; they can get in if they REALLY want to but it ain't gonna be easy.

     Standing inside the shed now, I feel like I'm in an episode of "Little Shed on the Prairie", what with the chickens running around and all.  I'm currently building the doors but already enjoying having a place to work outside, protected from the rain.  For anyone reading this who is not familiar with life in Florida, our houses don't have basements as the water table is just below the surface, and my house had neither garage nor shed.  I'm relieved to not have to use the table saw in the living room anymore.

     They tell me the days aren't quite as hot but I think it's pretty rough out there.  Remember, I'm a hair stylist, used to standing around in the AC chitchatting about hair.

 It was so hot and humid yesterday, I evaporated.

The evolution of a yard

     I was walking through Lowe's today when I passed a display of bromeliads.

     This type of bromeliad was the bromeliad du jour  back in the day in Missouri.  I'm sure they grow here in Florida but I don't have them in my yard.  Seeing this display sent my mind back to a sweet, fun time of my life in the early 90's.  I was renting a house for the first time and living with my first long-term boyfriend (harbinger of the serial monogamist I was to become) and it was the first time I had a yard to landscape.  One of my oldest friends was working for a plant rental company and at the end of the day, if he had any leftovers, he would squeal to a stop in front of my house on his way back to the warehouse, and throw a box of tropical plants on my porch without even ringing the bell.  I remember orange kalanchoes, Boston ferns, and lots and lots of the pictured bromeliads.  It was the bromeliads that seemed most exotic to me at the time and I stacked them around the house, the porch, and the side yard.  When I saw them at Lowe's, I immediately texted my friend the photo and wrote, "These always remind me of you!"  He replied, "Thank you!  I am only known for spiny bromeliads in the closest circles."

     My Florida yard has a fairly large selection of bromeliads due to the enthusiasm and generosity of local plant loving friends.  

     I took a picture of these beauties during my sunset tour of the yard.  The blooms absolutely glow in that dusky light.

     I've gotten into the habit of planting the tops of any pineapples I buy (also a bromeliad) because they will eventually produce another pineapple.  So far, my pineapple plantation has been restricted to clay pots under the angel trumpet tree in back but I asked around and was assured that they can handle full morning sun so I experimentally moved 2 of them to the front yard.

     Fingers crossed that they will thrive and someday rival in size the bromeliad flanking them in the photo.  Harvesting a pineapple from them would be nice, too!

     All this bromeliad talk has brought me to the front yard.  It was getting very out of hand because I've been busy with half-finished projects in the back yard but on Labor Day, I was shopping at WalMart when I passed a hand lettered sign in the garden department that read, "Mulch, 50¢ a bag, this row only."  

     "This row" ended up containing 109 bags of black mulch, all of which I bought, sparking a sort of thwarted feeding frenzy among shoppers who witnessed the transaction.  

     Total cost?  Well, 109 x .50...carry the 3...Crap!  You do the math!  It wasn't that much and bags are a lot easier for me to move around my yard than trying to shovel up a delivered truckload, one wheelbarrow at a time.  I was in mulch heaven!

     I thought it would be enough to finish covering the last patch of grass in my front yard and then top dress everything else to match. It wasn't but it was definitely enough to match up the sides and front which made the yard look more cohesive.  The black color is different but in the Florida sun I figure it will fade to a silvery cypress color in a few short months.

     

     Spreading all that mulch by myself in this heat is what my dad would call a "character builder."  I'm glad it's done!  

     I did some trimming and cleanup work this morning and probably won't get back to the front yard again for some time.  One of my new cactuses that is growing like crazy started to lean so I used a piece of citrus wood for a stake.  I am determined to avoid an obvious plant crutch.  I'll see how it does and decide later if I like the look or not.

     The heat and rain of the Florida summer enables our gardens to experience a high level of growth but I think most of us are ready for a little break.

It's in the air

     Since I live in Florida, I don't get seasonal cues, such as the smell of wood smoke in the evening air signaling the approach of fall.  The days, however, are definitely getting shorter and it's cooled off enough to drink my coffee on the deck in the morning.
     I'm getting that Halloween feeling!

     Two and a half years ago a friend showed me an internet photo of a man wearing a knit beard.  Very cool!  I started knitting beards for friends to use for fun or for Halloween and I'm saying it right now:  I knit one of the best beards around!  I listed them in my Etsy shop and I've started to get orders for Halloween.  I'm going to knit, regardless, so I might as well knit something I can sell for a few bucks.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SolOpsArt?ref=l2-shopheader-name

     

     Drinkin' and knittin';  it just feels right.

     I recently had to drive around to the Big3: Joann's, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby.  I was searching for the perfect 2-toned grey yarn to knit a special order Duck Dynasty-inspired beard and I ended up buying a few skeins of "fun fur" yarn.  I suspected it would be perfect for a crazy bushy beard and I was right.

     The beards are a welcome distraction after knitting several scarves to stock up for the holidays.  The last scarf I completed used a small skein of specialty yarn I found at a thrift store.  

     I buzzed through it using my favorite open weave stitch and even made a little tassel for each end.  Sweet!

     The idea of fall is drifting around outside but the temperatures don't yet reflect it which has prevented me from standing outside with a jigsaw to complete  the little oak boxes I was planning to list on Etsy.  So many half-finished projects...

Can you dig it?

     I was at Mike's house this weekend and caught sight of these sprouts in a shady corner of his front yard.

     Wow!  I think it's a type of ginger and I don't know my gingers very well, but these look like some Christmas ornaments I have: improbably colored, glittery pine cones.  

     I only had one thing to say, "Where's my shovel?!"

     I dug up a rhizome to transplant in the shady corner of my backyard.  For those of you who want all the gory details, these drumsticks were oddly spongy feeling and when turned upside down, leaked a clear, goo with the consistency of mucus, lol.  

Who's the endangered species?

     When I talk about my Etsy shop, my friends always say, "How are you doing?  How's it going for you?"
       I guess I should answer, "Well, I'm not ready to retire yet."  It kind of makes me feel like a failure because honestly, I'm lucky to sell 1 item a week.  I've never been able to get my finger on the pulse of what's popular.  I remember taking a test when I was applying for a retail job where I had to choose what would be most important to the consumer in regards to several items.  I didn't get a single answer correct; in fact, I was wildly off base on most of them.
     I've learned to live with my off-center brain but I wish I could come up with a successful item for Etsy.  I get so excited when the emails come in that notify me of a sale!  Last week, however, I received a different sort of email from Etsy.  Here is the content, edited for brevity:
 <<...we’ve changed our prohibited items policy to include certain animal products. This decision is informed by the US Endangered Species Act... In light of these changes, we’ve removed listings from your shop that may no longer be sold on Etsy. >>

Whaaat?!

     

     I signed in to my account and found that Etsy had deactivated 3 items that feature fossilized mammoth tusk or enamel.  Incensed, I fired off a reply to Etsy pointing out that mammoths are not endangered as the last remaining population went extinct approximately 4000 years ago.

     To their credit, they responded immediately with this:

<<Thank you for your response and for providing me with more information about the item you wish to sell. However, our policies prohibit the sale of all ivory products regardless of their age, origin, or legality.>>

     And you know what?  I get it.  And to top it off, I was collaging a birthday card for a stepson this weekend and opened a back issue of National Geographic to an article concerning the craze for hunting mammoth tusks in Siberia.  The beautiful, spiral curved tusks of these extinct relatives of elephants wind up in the same damn places as modern poached ivory: carving and medicinal shops in Asia, for the most part, which continues to fuel the hunger for modern elephant ivory.   

     Bummer...

     So, after a highly productive summer setting up my Etsy shop and starting my blogs, I've settled back into a guilt-free respite of knitting.

     I can't make money knitting; I'm too slow, there's too many machines that do it better, and for that matter, there's too many humans that do it better, but I'm going to knit, regardless, so I'll keep adding my projects to my Etsy shop and maybe when the holiday season crops up, someone in a colder clime will take a liking to my rustic style.