Monday, June 18, 2012

Farmers Market and Vendors

I missed opening day of the farmers market this year :( but I did make it this past weekend. There was so much to see and it was great seeing lots of the same vendors from the previous years.

I love this time of year and having fresh veggies all the time. We picked up our first week of the CSA we ordered for this year. It's from the same farm as last year, their produce is so good. This week we got peas, kale (I think I will try making kale chips), two yellow squash, a zucchini, a head of lettuce, and a fresh garlic. I hope to can a lot more this year than I did last year. I don't think I'll be as uneasy, afraid or leary of doing it. It's definitely not as hard as I ever imagined it would be and what I canned last year almost allowed us to go though to this season. Now that I sort of know what I'm doing it will be easier.

The farmers market is not all veggies and meats though. There are plenty of artisans and crafters there. There was one booth that I stopped by and picked up a few ceramic charms pieces and buttons that I'm hoping to incorporate into something I make. I have a few ideas already floating around.

There was only one disappointing thing, but it's a major thing. It's something that every vendor should be aware of. When I got home and opened my bag from the vendor with the buttons and charms there was nothing else in there. Just what I bought. (I know you're probably thinking that I shouldn't expect anything else in there and wondering what else should be in there.)But I have no way of knowing who made the buttons or who I bought them from. I've seen them set up there before and I know they have a business, but now I have no way to know how to contact them if I want more. I am very disappointed by this. If these buttons work how I imagine or the charms look lovely with what I plan on doing with them I would want more but I have no way of getting any. :(

Vendors, sellers, artisans, anyone who sells anything....PLEASE, PLEASE, Please, make sure something goes home with your customers that has your business name on it at the very least. A business card, receipt/stamp on the bag with your name and contact info, or where to buy on-line...anything with a way for your customer to get more if they like your stuff.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Garden Flowers

The garden is finally in full swing. Some crops are doing better than other. Spinach, onions and eggplant just are not going to be happening this year. I think all of 4 spinach plants are there and getting eaten by bugs and I have 2 onions growing. The rest of the garden seems to be doing good.

I was out weeding around the corn today, I couldn't tell were the corn ended and weeds began, and I noticed all these lovely flowers. I don't think people realize just how lovely vegetable and fruit flowers in the garden can be. I decided to take some pictures of my lovely garden flowers.

First up is my strawberry plant. I bought this as a plant from the plant clearance rack at Lowes. Let me tell you this was the saddest little plant I had ever seen. I wasn't even sure if the plant would live. It was only fifty cents so I figured I'd give it a chance. Now look at it. It grew a shoot and formed another plant so now I have two plants and it's got this love pink flower on the top. Not bad for fifty cents.



While weeding I was scanning the garden and noticed something that seemed odd to me, a color that I have not seen on anything other than eggplant flowers, purple. Now my eggplant isn't flowering so it took me a second to think about what exactly had the purple flower, it's my heirloom beans. I've never seen bean plants with purple flowers before, only white. I thought they were so pretty.



Lastly my peas are taking off. I also got heirloom peas this year. It still amazes me just how tall and how well they grow. I have to go get another piece of trellis for them to climb on. They seem to do so well in the garden. I love the white flowers that they have and trying to hunt to see which ones are going to give way to a yummy pod. Here is six peas in a pod that still have the white flower attached to the bottom:



Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Gaming

When I was younger and even still gaming is part of my life. I can still remember my father bringing home a apple computer from work. I would sit and play Zork on it for what felt like hours. Back when you had to read the game and type what you wanted to do. (Oh dear, I'm dating myself!) I remember playing Atari and Intellivision, loving Frogger, Pit Fall and Burger Time. Then came the Nintendo and Dragon Quest and Bubble Bauble, which I'd play for hours. And of course the many following versions of the Nintendo and Playstations. Now I'm more into the social MMO games, World of Warcraft mainly. But there were also the non-computer games. There was Dungeons and Dragons when I was in high school. I have some great memories of sitting around with friends rolling dice and playing the game. I also played some live action Vampire: The Masquerade, which was tons of fun. There were also the card games. I vaguely remember when Magic the Gathering came out. I started collecting the cards when they were in the revised edition. I never really played till I met my husband. He was a big MTG play so we've played a little bit together. I still find it somewhat confusing, but that's just me.

Digging around the house recently I came across some "retired" D&D dice. I say retired because, well it's been years since anyone here has played. I thought they were rather neat looking dice. I love the colors and patterns on them. I would hate to just have to throw them out. I had to find a way to give the dice new life. Way back...who knows when...I played around with chainmail. I made my own jump rings and would make bracelets and necklaces. I still have a few somewhere, I'll have to dig them up sometime. But any who, I figured I'd turn these dice into necklaces by encasing them in chainmail. Actually I didn't arrive at the chainmail idea that fast, I fist tried wire wrapping them and it works sort of they they would come out of the wrapping easily and well it was a nightmare. So that's when I decided on the chainmail. Here are four that I've done so far, you can also see them HERE for more information:

Beside the dice my hubby gave me a wonderful idea. It's something we have been thinking of doing for awhile but never really got around to it. We wanted to create unique creature tokens for card games such as Magic the Gathering or World of Warcraft's trading card game. Our first thought was to make actual cards, but then the idea hit one day to make glass bauble token creatures. I ended up making up a bunch and sold a few sets of them on e-bay and I finally decided to add them to my ArtFire store as well. They are glass baubles, for lack of a better descriptive word, with images and felt lined. I felt lined them to help keep them from sliding around the table during play. There are smaller guys which I have made in sets of 20 to be used as creature tokens or life counters, and there are larger tokens for the bigger badder creatures. Here a few pictures of some of the sets that I made or you can CLICK HERE to check them all out: