windows

Here's my latest item photographed in my new window spot:


(click photo for more info)

A few months ago I blogged about my kitchen windowsil and all the plants I was trying to grow. Well, the seeds never grew past tiny seedlings that would die a few days later. All those basil, oregano and cherry tomato seeds! oh well.

This past Saturday, my parents asked if I wanted to ride with them to Home Depot in NJ to pick out flats to plant in front of their apartment building. They do this every year, they pick a ton of annuals in a couple colors and plant away! I was too busy eyeing the cherry tomato plants to remember what they picked this year. I bought two very strong cherry tomato plants after much "ooohing" and "ahhing." One of the plants I picked already has 5 tiny green cherry tomatoes on it! So exciting.

This past week, as I adjusted to meds, I found myself wanting to tend to my little kitchen and livingroom window gardens. I bought larger pots with saucers, cleaned the windowsil and window and went to work repotting my aloe, cherry tomatoes and a few other things. I used the soil from the seeds I'd tried desperately to grow and failed and mixed it with some organic fertilizer and soil. I then found a better pot on Friday for the aloe and once again repotted, as I pulled the soil out from one pot into the other, I found lots of little seedlings growing! Now, they are too small to tell what they are but I carefully put them in a tiny pot. Maybe my basil or oregano will grow afterall!

Yesterday, Dorian, Becky & I went to the Bronx Zoo. Afterwards we stopped on the Upper West Side to run some errands and somehow I ended up buying organic basil in a pot.

My kitchen windowsil now has...cherry tomatos, arugula, basil, echinacea and aloe. As well as some kind of tiny palm and some other thing I lost the tag for. lol.

Now, the problem is that my bedroom is the one with sunlight for the majority of the day. This is an issue as I use my bedroom window to take photos of my etsy items. I found another window that has great light in the morning and took some photos, didn't even have to adjust them for brightness!

So now I get to move all my "full sun" plants. I have to wait until my roommate moves out next week. Our apartment is currently a giant mess of boxes and paperwork and I don't want to disturb anything.

Photos will come soon, my camera is currently full of photos of the Zoo that I need to upload.

<3 Always,
--Taina

It must be Spring!

Good morning!

It's a grey rainy day today here in my little neck of Northern Manhattan and I woke up this morning to find that I have somehow pulled a muscle in my lower back. Sore, sore sore! I called in a sick day at the fulltime job so I can rest up. I took some advil and sat up to list a new coin purse and blog a bit before taking a nap.


(click photos for more info!)

I love this new coin purse because the two sides are so different but they still work together. The placement of the red flower couldn't be better. So cheerful and Spring-like! Below is the other side of the same coin purse:



Okay, I have a confession to make, I cannot spend only 5 mins on Etsy, it's impossible. I'm addicted to that lovely, lovely site! I checked the forums, admired the frontpage selection, went through countless pages of shops and items I've "hearted" (Etsy's way of making a shop a favorite). Was inspired by all the gorgeous handmade items, listed my latest coin purse and came here to blog. Now I don't even know if I can sleep, I may work through the pain for as long as I can sit behind my sewing machine.

My cousin Andy is headed to Afghanistan today. I've got so many mixed emotions on this one. I'm feeling anxious, sad, already missing him...he was deployed to Iraq a few years ago and not a day, hour or minute went by that I wasn't worried about his safety, what he was seeing, what he was doing. He's more of a brother to me than a cousin, as we grew up down the hall from each other and he's less than two years younger than I am.

On a brighter note, his wife Avis and baby (Andy Jr.) are in town today, so hopefully I will be seeing the baby! I haven't seen him in a few months now. I bought a "Tale of Peter Rabbit" boardbook for him, and thought it might be nice to make a little stuffed rabbit to go along w/ it to bring to him today.

In other news? My final Marketing class was last night. I have mixed feelings, as I love being in school but didn't feel I got much out of the class. Between the homework and the class & commute time, it was time I could've spent on Etsy, so I'm glad I've got those hours back!

I hope I can sell a couple more things this month, as the charity Operation Dreamseed is closer to my heart than ever before since my cousin's deployment.

I'm off to sketch Peter Rabbit patterns while lying down and resting my back for a bit.

<3 Always,
--Taina