Olivia’s Special Ball

I bought a new notebook the other day; to a writer, there is no such thing as “too many” when it comes to those wonderful spiral-bound books of crisp white paper.  After giving some thought to what this notebook should hold, I decided to entitle it “Things Worth it”; it is a daily record of the lessons I have learned during the course of just living out my normal life. 

 

My first entry was about yesterday’s encounter with my one of my three-year old granddaughters, Olivia, and the life’s lesson for yesterday is that a three year old who gets her hands on a vibrator will eventually find a good place for it.  Let me explain.

 

My daughter, Erika, and I went shopping yesterday, at a local department store.  Olivia is great to take along; she stays fairly closely and looks at things we are looking at.  Erika and I were looking at the fabulous selection of summer tops they have and I looked out of the corner of my eye to see Olivia walking towards me with what looked like half of a nubby ball.

 

“Look, Nana!” she said as she held it up and pressed a button on the flat bottom. It was a massager type of thing that whenever you pushed it down it vibrated. My daughter, who is beginning the long process of a divorce, grinned at me when I told her I’d get her one for her upcoming birthday.  We went about our shopping.

 

“Nana, try this!” Olivia said and I turned to look at her; she held it up to my back and it felt wonderful.  I held it to hers for a moment and then she decided to take off her shoes and see if it tickled her feet. She tried it on her hands, her arms, and her head as we shopped.  We eventually went to the shoe department and Olivia alternated trying on shoes with her mother and massaging various parts of her body.

 

I looked down to check on her and she was now sitting directly on the half-ball as it vibrated loudly. I elbowed Erika and we tried to contain our laughter. Of course it was only natural for her to try it there; it’s just another body part to her, but it presented a bit of a quandary for us: what do we do now?  Let her continue and hope she lost interest?  She didn’t look like she was going to lose interest any time soon, so Erika asked casually, “Does it feel good there, Olivia?”

 

Olivia looked up at us with innocent eyes and proclaimed, “not yet, mama”.

 

Lesson learned: if you see a 3 year old with a massaging ball, distract her, guick!

Unusual Plant Containers

        Looking for ideas for creative plant containers? 

 

Yard sales are a great place to look for unusual containers to use for plants. Old tins, lunchboxes, baskets, bird feeders, old stove-top coffeepots, old metal pots and coffee cans can all make great plant containers.  Just remember that there must be drainage—poke a hole or two in the bottom and you’ll be all set.

 

I always thought it was strange that people would put their old shoes, some quite worn, in yard sales. I had better-looking gardening sneakers at home. Then it dawned on me that they would make unique planters!  I found a cute pair of toddler saddle shoes for 25 cents at a garage sale and brought them home for my first experiment.  I filled them with good potting soil and tucked in lobelia along with some long-acting fertilizer.  I tied the laces into cute bows and put them on from front door step.  They grew like crazy!  Anyone who came to my door commented on how original they were.  I had to remember to water them often, since there wasn’t a lot of room in there.

 

My aunt gave me an old work boot that she found in her shed; it was well worn, to say the least.  I filled it with dirt and planted “hens & chicks” wherever I could fit a root through a hole.  I leave it outside year round and it keeps coming back, year after year. The old boot sits in a spot in my flower bed that is easily seen. It, too, gets a lot of notice.

 

My mother gave me an old pair of boots she had; black vinyl lace-up things that she used to wear in the fall before snow came.  They were in pretty good shape but she didn’t want them anymore. I filled them up with good potting mix and planted impatients and alyssum in them.  They sit on my back porch.

 

I’ve heard of using an old purse hanging from the back of a chair as a container; might be really cute with ivy or a hanging petunia coming out of it. A pair of shoes tied together, hanging over a railing, planted with lobelia would be quite a conversation piece as well.

 

Be brave and open-minded when it comes to looking at old things with a new eye as unique plant containers; check our your basement and attic and you might be surprised to see an old wooden miter box that just calls for marigolds, or an old metal watering can that could be overflowing with bright white petunias. Go wild and have fun in your quest to find original plant container ideas!