Good news, my friends. It is officially MARCH! That means we have officially survived December, January and February. Yes, I know some of you - including many of my own family and friends on the East Coast of the U.S. - are wondering if spring will ever come this year and you're facing yet another storm system over the next few days. This winter, for you, has been one of the worst in recent memory.
So, I'm calling this month's Fabulous Stuff post, the "Send Spring NOW!" Edition, in your honor. Because I know you need it, and you need it bad. Now that it's March, let's all start to Think Spring, and maybe it will happen sooner, rather than later.
I saw a couple of cute Easter-egg themed items I wanted to include. The first is this set of painted wooden Ukranian decorative Easter eggs. I have a good friend from high school (hi, Lesya!) who hand-paints her own real eggs every year, and I still have the one she gave me in 1979, the year we graduated from school! (Yes, I carefully wrapped it and brought it all the way to Paris!) But these pretty and colorful wooden ones remind me of the kinds of intricate geometric patterns my friend designs. And these will never break! Wouldn't they look lovely on your Easter dinner table or sideboard in a beautiful basket or bowl?
I confess, I have always loved Yankee Candles, and I've never seen them in France. Now that I see Amazon is carrying them, I can start indulging my jar candle obsession again! I liked the bright green of this Easter Egg Hunt candle, and a Kiwi-Berry scent sounds like just the thing to blow the winter cobwebs out of my head!
Now, I will admit I have never been a very keen gardener myself. And now I live in a city apartment where gardening just isn't possible; we have ONE plant in our place, a sort of aloe-y, cactus-y thing that keeps growing despite my best efforts to kill it. That being said, when I used to live in New Jersey, I would get spring fever every year and want to go do a little digging in the dirt, and at least pull the dead leaves and grass away from the sprouting crocuses and daffodills as they poked their shoots up from the earth.
My mother always loved gardening and she had a big yard where she could do as much of it as she wanted. But as she got older, she started to find it difficult to get up and down from a kneeling position, and one day I came across a great little folding kneeling pad/seat, just like this one! You can turn it one way for kneeling and the other for sitting. She said it made a huge difference and she got in many more years of gardening as a result. Even if you're a young gardener, why not make it easier on yourself! Or pick this up as a gift for someone else - believe me, they will THANK you!
Of course, every gardener needs the right tools. With Easter coming in April, why not treat your favorite little gardener his or her own set of their first gardening tools? You could even use the tote as an Easter "basket" and fill it with treats!
Now... because winter isn't quite finished yet, you may not be able to get out there and start preparing your flower beds and gardens for seeds. But if you have the space, you could start your own mini-greenhouse! I wouldn't be able to use this in Paris (maybe some day, though, when I buy that chateau in the country Georges and I have our eyes on), but I love the idea of having something compact to start seeds or to use for a small herb garden.
For those of us who haven't the space for something like the greenhouse, I think I've found a great alternative that would totally work in any apartment -- even for someone like me who doesn't exactly have a green thumb! This AeroGarden uses no soil, comes with an herb kit (although you can grow many other veggies or flowers with it) and the plants will even grow faster than in soil. All I have to do is find one that I can plug in over here in France, and we could have our own fresh herbs, any time we want. I'm already on the hunt for one.
I hope the month of March brings spring to your door very soon. And if not, then at least you can start thinking of green, growing things to get you through these final chilly weeks. (Saint Patrick's Day and a few beers ought to help ease the cold, right?)
