Future Plans

Boy am I glad I got to that Clean Up – I just spent a precious Sunday in class:  I am studying to get my Real Estate license and the next 3 weeks are crazy and then we are into the holidays (about which I have previously eluded that I have a Thing)

So, why would I put myself through this? Well, I actually took the “Principals & Practices” and “Law” portions back in 1987 with the intent to keep my options open. See, I first went to college as an Art Major with a back up plan to teach if NYC Graphic Arts didn’t happen.

Long story short, I LOVE Art but found out, through several direction changes, that I DID NOT love doing it on deadline or to specification. Teaching might have been okay, but not as lucrative as I wanted, so with a double major in Fine Arts and Business, I wound up in sales – something I had started  at Shillito’s at 16…

But, I have been addicted to HGTV for years and have always felt I missed a boat somewhere – Interior Design has been a passion for as long as I can remember:  I still remember the “pink-adelic” paint I chose at about 8 and when offered a larger bedroom at 11, I drew elevations for two different color schemes…

I have long realized that my Gardening Thing was an outlet for my Art Thing, my Remodeling Thing is more obvious… Can Real Estate sales be too big a stretch – I think not.

So, that said, you will understand if my postings are few and far between until license is in hand and Christmas decor is stored in January. But, that is okay – the garden has been put to bed and those gardening catalogs start shipping 12/26!

In The Garden (ITG)

Hanging on the knob of the door leading outside from my kitchen is a little wooden sign, rusticlly painted with carefree lilies and the words “I’m in the Garden” – must have picked it up at some herb festival  or other; can’t remember but it is clearly handmade and at $10 (or even $5), I provided a lot of profit to its maker. It is not my usual style, I could easily have made it for about .25, and my husband resisted its residency due to its, infrequent, prevention of shutting the door easily. 

I don’t know why, but I love it. It serves no purpose because I don’t move it to indicate when I am REALLY “in the garden”. But, it does have those purple lilies and cheers me up when I am not ITG.

I saw it tonight and realized that it is about time to put it away for the season – see, I take it down until I am ready to be ITG again – which really means I store it until after the Christmas decor is put away. I have a Santa to hang in its place (I have a real Santa collection (complex) so I need the knob…).

So, while I prepare for the holidays (another complex), the little sign will be in a box in the basement, next to the seedling bench.

But, I will still have ITG moments as I gather from the yard the makings of an Advent Wreath:  box, holly, cedar, pine, crepe myrtle berries, maybe even some hydrangea, rose hips, and crab apples – it is always interesting to see what is out there that will work.

Even before that, I will be able to find oak leaves for Thanksgiving and a few small pumpkins are holding up. It is just a matter of looking and imagining. That is the reward of the work – the beauty that can be retained in the “off-season” – when I am not ITG.