Counting Down To Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving and we are in it now.  Christmas.  The season of "making" which is, I think, much better than the season of spending.

I found (always amazes me what I own) a very pretty floral patterned 1940's table square to use for Thanksgiving Dinner. A deep fuchsia pink on cream.  After I worked harder on clearing off the table than I did on cooking the food. I have been thinking and talking about taking some of the textiles in the hall linen closet to a local store called "Hatch" and selling them (at a very steep discount) for less than I paid for them.  They cut the fabric up and use it to make things they sell.  Old quilts turn into pillow cases or other things.  Old holey cashmere sweaters turn into strange stuffed animals for babies.

I had no recollection of owning this particular tablecloth.  It looked and felt like it  had never been used or laundered. And, as I looked at it--I thought--what a pretty apron this would make.  How happy it would make me to wear it.  Use it.  Enjoy it.  An apron is something I could use.  A tablecloth for a bridge table isn't.

I have been asked to "clean" the greenhouse plants each day I work.  I haven't made any holiday boxes or wreaths on a daily basis.  Just once in a while.  So I pick blossoms off plants--making the plants look "fresher".  I think it makes them happier.  They seem to stand up straighter after I clean them up.  Lots of repotting.  I make each little plant and pot into a little "story".  Some get  moss to cover up the dirt (amaryllis) and others get a light topping of bonsai grit.  Some of the cactus get a mix of three to five tiny pebbles and washed sand on the surface of the soil.  I also get to make Bonsai Dish Gardens.  I love that.  Moss, interesting rocks I find up on the hill where we park our cars, bonsai grit.  Uneven surface, never flat.  A tiny hill.  A path.  A story.  A life.  Making Bonsai is where I often make my best tips.  I would LOVE to work at a place that makes and cares for Bonsai.  It wouldn't even seem like work.  It would just be pure joy and contentment.

Monday I am dividing and repotting African Violets for one of my favorite customers.  Possibly 2 or 3 dozen of them.  She knows how to grown them.  Big, healthy plants and lovely to work with.  The ones she gives me don't live long here.  I think I have too many different things and the Violets are used to undivided attention.