My Favorite Thing

Well, I'm behind excitement!  I should have posted this blog 2 weeks ago - before the tulips arrived at the market! Each Farmer's market from here on out, the signs of Spring will keep mounting.  The spring flowers are beginning to arrive. This is my favorite time of year at the market.  Oh, the tulips and daffodils!  My friend Bestbirds is a photographer.  He has been sending me pictures of the flowers at the farmer's market for over 6 years.  The pictures featured here are those he has taken over the years at the market. 

This past Saturday at the Market it was rainy, windy  and cold.  But the anticipation for this week kept us going.  Mid seventies this week and into next.  Woo hoo!

Each week from here on out  his camera will be busy getting some of the first shots of spring.  I am looking forward to seeing them!

Winter Doldrums - How to Beat Them!

Winter is just about 3/4 over.  Or another way to put it is we have about 3 or 4 weeks of Winter left to go.  I think I like the latter better!

Fortunately for us on the west coast, winter has been fairly mild and agreeable, little rain and nice temperatures.  It has been woe, though, for the mid and eastern parts of the country.  I'm sure they will be glad when winter is over!

This time of year, we're tired of the cold dreary weather.  We're tired of having to be indoors. We're anxious, we're anxious, we're anxious!   What can we do then to beat the winter doldrums?  Below are some ideas.

One way is, as I mentioned in one of my last blogs,  have a family game night.  Invite others in on the fun.

Buy some fresh flowers even if you have to buy them at the supermarket!  Nothing lifts the spirits more that a vase of lovely fresh flowers, or a colorful plant!
Take an online course.  There are literally thousands of free courses on the web!  For instance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers about 2000 free lectures, note, exams and videos in undergraduate and graduate subjects!  To see what I mean go to http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.

Reconnect with friends.  Throw a foot soaking party!  Invite friends over to chit chat and crack-alack, and  soak their tired feet.  Karita's Handmade http://www.karitashandmade.com/whatsnew111.htm has a foot soaking party kit with everything in it to get the party going!


Do something nice for someone.  A random act of kindness goes a long way.  Bake them something.  Cook them something.  Take them some fresh flowers.  The list  goes on.

There are many other ways to beat the doldrums of Winter.  Be imaginative!  But one thing is certain.  By putting forth an effort, the dark days of Winter will turn into light.  And that light will brighten the  remainder of Winter for someone else!

Gray headedness a crown of beauty?

My hair is gray.  It started turning gray in my thirties.  In my twenties, I would color my hair.    As I started having children, helping my husband with his business and so forth.  I just let it go.

When a classmate of my daughter told her he had seen her grandmother at the store with her dad,  I threatened to dye my hair.  When a acquaintance's child called me a little old lady, I threatened again to dye my hair.  I guess that just comes with the territory.  But the straw that almost broke the camels back, was when a woman asked me if I was my husbands' mother!  I told her, "Look at me, do I look like his mother?"  I attribute the remark she made as bordering on dementia!

The problem, as I see it, with coloring your hair are the roots.  They (like laundry and dishes) just keep coming back!  That would mean dyeing my hair each week or so.  That would be too tedious!  I do fantasize about coloring it, especially when I'm disrespected!

Others, I'm sure face the same dilemma.  But for now, I guess I'll just take the abuse!

Our Family Game Night

I'm hoping to start a tradition this year, by instituting a Family Game Night.  When the children were little, we always played games.  My youngest daughter learned to multiply by playing Yahtzee.  When our family played games, generally it was to win.  Along the way, though, we always had fun!

This past Sunday was the first such game night of this new year.  We played Balderdash.  Balderdash is a bluffing game put out by Mattel, with obscure words and definitions.  If you don't know the word or it's meaning, you make one up!  What fun we had!  Our imaginations ran wild.  It was particularly hilarious when an off the wall definition was chosen as being totally realistic.  One word was Katipo.  I had never heard of that word in my life.  My definition was a specialized racing canoe.  They believed me, ( Ha Ha!) when in fact it is a black poisonous spider with a red stripe!  Another word was deltiologist.  A deltiologist is a collector of postcards - not a professional who studies algae in ponds.  Ha Ha, fooled again! We laughed and laughed!

Family game nights have many benefits.  It promotes family bonding in a relaxed and fun way.  Children learn important social and academic skills.  Family night is a way to enjoy each others company, without forcing conversation.

I googled Family Game Night and came up with some additional benefits of having a family game night.

It's inexpensive*.  It's suitable for all ages.  Everyone can participate.  It educates and entertains.  It allows for wonderful family interactions and builds strong character.  It is also a good way to reach out to others by inviting extended family members or close friends to join in on the fun!

If you decide to have a family night of your own, consider these tips:  Set aside about 2 hours to play. Avoid interruptions.  Have everyone enjoy an easy dinner together.  Provide snacks that aren't messy. 

After our evening of fun and games, I began planning for our next one!  I sincerely hope our Family Game Night will become a cherished  family tradition.

*We found our game at the thrift store for 2 bucks!

Making Something Beautiful with Your Hands

by H. Jackson Browne Jr.

In my travels, I picked up a little book titled Life’s Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Browne Jr.  There are 511 one-sentence observations in that little book.  The author wrote it as a gift to his son as he was leaving for college, providing sort of a parental road map.  Observation  # 71 in his little book caught my eye. Learn to make something beautiful with your hands.  I immediately thought of my husband.

My husband is a craftsman who makes beautiful wooden screen doors with his hands. He built a wooden one for us with a lattice bottom after our first child was born.  That was the beginning of a wooden screen door business.

After a newspaper ran an article about his business, a woman requesting a brochure wrote a note expressing how nice it was to read about a person using his hands to make a living. That has stuck with me all these years.

Carolie Screen Door

I went with him recently to the city. We happened to turn on a street that just happened to have one of his doors on their entry.  My husband stopped, on a whim, to inquire the year it was manufactured.  1986.  That door was 24 years old!  The householder was the one who had purchased it, and had enjoyed coming in and out of that door for 24 years!  My husband beamed with delight!

Which brings me back to observation #71 – Learn to make something beautiful with your hands.  Being a vendor at a farmer’s market gives me an opportunity to see people who, on a regular basis, use their hands to create beautiful things. It is rewarding indeed.  Perhaps that is why I enjoy the Farmer’s Market so.  There are many craftsmen, artists and farmers working with their hands, and many making a living doing so! 

Check out your local Farmer’s markets to see what I’m talking about.  To see beautiful wooden screen doors check out http://www.duncanwoodcraft.com/

This Time Each Year

About this time every year, I begin making a mental note, and later a written list, of what I’d like to accomplish the following year.

 I’m not very computer literate, so I thought I’d like, actually I need, to take a computer course for dummies.  Although I’ve signed up on facebook, I don’t know much at all about how to maneuver the site.   It seems every time I want to change up my web site, I’m constantly reverting back to the backup copy (I have learned you always have a backup copy in the event you screw up). I’d like not to have to call my son to bail me out of my computer messes.

My Corporate Headquarters (my work studio) needs painting.  I will show you the before and after photos as I go along.

I have a loveseat I bought for $4 from a thrift store that needs reupholstering.  I’d like to get that done this year.  I am hoping for my husbands help on it.  Last year we reupholstered a Lazy Boy recliner.  It turned out really nice!

There are many more projects on my list for next year as well.  I will share many on this blog.

“Stand them up and knock them down,” is my husband’s motto.  It’s a good one to have.  Pick one project, and focus on it until it is achieved, or accomplished.  On my calendar (for dummies) is a quote from a man named Hugh Prather, which reads “There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen.”

My motto for next year will be my husband’s words of wisdom, and Hugh Prather’s words of wisdom.

So keep posted. If you see me on facebook, and  you check out my website regularly and it's updated, http://www.karitashandmade.com/,  you will know that I am making things happen!  .