Playing around with jewels and walking in gardens

How’s your summer going? Are you HOT as a bbq oven? I honestly didn’t know what other comparison to make but you get it.

My summer has been somewhat quiet and slow which I absolutely LOVE. I’ve been teaching weekly jewelry classes and just generally spending time with my family.

Two weeks ago we traveled just outside of Raleigh to visit the Juniper Level Botanical Gardens and it was such a treat! We loved the waterfalls, all the amazing BIG cactus’ and being in nature. I tell you it is SO soothing.

We marveled at all the different and beautiful plants. Are you growing anything, doesn’t have to be plants? Are you growing a new project? A new idea?

We accidentally grew sunflowers and my daughter and I lost our minds, it’s such a delight, and the sunflowers bloom just outside my studio door. We’ve also got Japenese eggplant, pumpkin, green peppers and of course cherry tomatoes.

I also had a chance to visit my parents in the mountains and I made sure to harvest some of my Dad’s abundant sage and lavender. I created some really pretty bundles with some other wild flowers grown on their property.

When I sit down and spend time with these herbs I feel so connected to Mother Earth, we’re cocreating beauty and presence with these sage and lavender cleansing bundles.

Ya’ll know I LOVE to gift these cleansing wands to you and my friends. I was visiting my parents last month (June) to participate in the Girl Tribe Pop Up in Charlotte.

I had such a great time reading tarot at the event that I decided to participate in the July event which is happening this coming Sunday! If you live in the Charlotte area, come out and shop this super fun event!

I hope to see YOU there and if you can’t make it, be sure to check out my late summer and Fall events. It’s going to be a busy yet fruitful season!

That old banana peel is worth gold

I got your attention didn’t I? Ha, seriously though banana peels, egg shells, leftover food gone bad is literal GOLD to your yard and garden beds.

Composting has become somewhat of a fascination for me, for some reason I enjoying mixing rotting food with dirt! lol okay so I’ll get down to the nitty gritty, composting is absolutely the BIGGEST thing you can do to help the environment. Why? Here are some incredible facts about food waste:

• Waste costs big money, approximately $55 per ton in 2019 and the U.S. generates more than 267 million tons!! That’s alot of money and waste that we could save. (source NRDC)

• Food & scrape waste makes up more than 28% of what we throw away. That is a high percentage that we can cut down on.

• Composting greatly improves our soil by putting back much needed elements back into the ground such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

• Helps retain water, each 1% of increase in soil organic matter helps soil retain 20,000 gallons of water per acre.

With all that being said, when we all take this action as a collective it can have HUGE implications for our community, state and country. For example San Francisco began a city wide composting program in 1996, and as of the year 2000 San Francisco was able to divert 50% of waste from landfills and by 2012 it had increased this and now 80% of waste has been diverted from landfills. How incredible is that?

Okay so composting is good and all but HOW DO YOU COMPOST? I honestly had no clue until my inlaws gave us several buckets, we created a garden bed, dug up dirt and VOILA, we have a composting system. There are many different ways to compost but I’m going to give you the bare bones EASIEST way to do it.

1. Purchase a kitchen counter compost bin. Usually they’re steel or ceramic and can be purchased online or maybe your local hardware store.

2. Purchase 3 large bins (we got ours from Lowe’s)

3. Create a garden bed, it can be whatever size you like, we have a longer one, any raised bed will do.

4. Fill your garden bed with dirt and plant something

Now that you have all the se steps in place you can begin composting. And there are a couple things to keep in mind on what you can compost:

• Food scraps with the exception of bones, meat or dairy (these attract animals and it’s not meant to be composted)

• Layer your food scraps with dirt. at the bottom of your bin have a small layer of dirt, then food scraps & then dirt or straw

Now isn’t that simple? It does require a little bit of elbow grease and it’s totally worth it when we do this individually and collectively. Plus, that compost dirt is super rich and beneficial for your garden. You’ll love getting dirty and connecting with our Mother Earth - she gives us so much, it’s the least we can do.

I hope you enjoyed this post, I want to share with you my methods of centering your mind & heart and ways to ground you.

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