I bought a book on canning years ago.  I liked the idea of gardening, growing, harvesting and preserving.  Well, that book was about the extent of my efforts at canning until last week. If you have read my blog for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that I love cherries.  I rejoice when they first hit the stores in May and feel like there should be a moment of silence when they are no longer available in August.  My family knows that if they see good cherries, buy them for Marian.  I’ll even pay the outrageous $8.99/pound when they make a brief appearance around Christmas. So, while cherries were plentiful, I decided to try canning some.  Well, a lot. In addition to the cherries, I also picked up tomatoes, herbs, lemons, and a few other ingredients.  I mean, if you’re going to can, you might as

Well, Haven 2016 is in the books.  For those who don’t know what Haven is, it’s a home bloggers conference for DIY/Home Bloggers and readers.  It is always a shot in the arm for me, being around other creatives and taking some time to network, teach, and learn. I was wearing a lot of different hats at the event.  I was a co-keynote speaker for the opening ceremony with my best blog friend, Shaunna, taught two milk paint classes with Kriste, and was a Haven Mentor, which meant I facilitated a small group of Haven attendees. The thing that had my stomach in knots was the keynote presentation.  I’m not a world-class speaker and, as talented and awesome as Shaunna is, she isn’t either.  We’re just bloggers, creatives, entreprenuers, and this was a little out of our comfort zone.  As we’re talking over things the day before, we were pretty

I went to Myrtle Beach last week with my family.  While we’re not at the same beach I went to as a kid (Long Beach on Oak Island in NC), the beach in general always reminds me of our summer vacations there that started when I was a baby and continued through high school. When I was first introduced to the ocean, it wasn’t my thing.  Some kids will sit in the sand, roll in the surf and enjoy every minute of it.  Looking at those kids now, or even adults for that matter, sitting in the sand…yikes!  It just gives me the heebie-jeebies!  I never liked grit, sand, sticky and salty skin, and being dirty in general. So, I found a solution.  I could be at the beach, in the water, in my own safe, comfy, clean way. I would sit in a five gallon bucket filled with water. I would put my

I have always loved getting gifts.  Bring on Christmas and birthdays, special occasions and pretty packages! And an unexpected surprise of this blog has been gifts.  Even my mom, who knows how thrilled I get at a present, commented on it.  “Well, you certainly got into the right business!” These gifts are from readers who have become friends over the years of following my journey and want to send me a token of that friendship. Last week, I received several unexpected packages.  One contained notecards with my name on them and a little blue bike with a basket… Just like the one I learned to ride on and recently sold at Lucketts… Another was a grain sack with blue stripes and an “MM” monogram. This custom sign with an excerpt of “my” verse on it… And a local reader brought me this rusty metal doll bed that she fetched from the trash…

If you haven’t figured it out, I am definitely the “creative type”.  I get lost in my art, whatever it happens to be that day…sewing, refinishing, painting, music…and I tend to forget appointments and I run late for things and I burn dinner and I realize I worked on something that stirred my soul instead of something that really needed to be done. It’s been a bit of a challenge to balance that desire to create and the discipline it takes to run a business.  And, when a lot of my creative endeavors are tied up in my business, I can start to feel like the creativity is caged.  It can happen within these parameters and those who are creative know that’s just not good for creativity. You need an open field, room to stretch, time to play and fiddle. So, I’ve been working on creative things that don’t have anything