eowes's Profile

Citrus really REALLY need warmth and sunlight. I've never seen them thrive in the PNW, where I grew up, which is why I now have six dwarf citrus as a Californian. Even so, I've heard its hard to grow oranges, except for a couple of specific varieties such as blood oranges, in Northern California unless you are inland. Lemons take less warmth-it is the sun that makes the fruit sweet.

That being said, I've had to baby the heck out of my citrus. I get the same grubs that @jamjaree described-so I am constantly monitoring the plants and picking them off. The ants love to farm scale on them-lots of ant traps, scraping off of scales and insecticidal soap. They need more water than you'd think, but not too much. They won't thrive on just organic fertilizer because they need iron (I was told you can drive a stake of rusty rebar next to them and they'll like it). AND I hand pollinate them with a fuzzy QTip or paintbrush when the bees aren't around. Its a lot of work. And then my kids eat all the tangerines before I even get to them.

We do this as well. I sit down and compile out book every year at Thanksgiving and I order copies for the grandparents for Christmas. I also include scans of the kids' artwork and recipes of foods that we have made a lot that year.

These are the most lust-worthy pull toys I've ever seen. And the price matches.
http://esthex.com/en/shop/

jmarquephoto - I've been knitting my way through Itty Bitty Toys and its super easy and the projects are adorable. There's also a new book out called Wee Wonderfuls that I've seen but don't have. I love making toys. My kids outgrow clothes so quickly, its nice to make things that take less time than a quilt and are around longer than a dress.

An option for Christmas is to implement a handmade- or time- only gift policy. Either everything that is given must be made by the gifter or the gift must be an experience.

Gift giving traditions meant more when people rarely got new things. Now we are inundated with STUFF. Expressing love and appreciation can be done with shared activities, vacations or things made by hand. I know I, personally, don't need anything that comes in a box but I would love a trip to the masseuse, a nice dinner with my husband or a weekend at a B and B. I also love receiving homemade jam, cards or a good phone call.

Things are special because they are rare, stuff isn't rare anymore but someone's time is. It makes a much better gift.

If I had read about this when I had my son who didn't care if his bottle came straight from the fridge, I would have laughed at paying that much for a bottle. My daughter, however, came along and needed the temperature just so making leaving the house very difficult. I found this bottle right after it came out and it saved us. Since its insulating, I didn't have to worry about warming her milk, it would stay warm from home. Soon she'll be too old for a bottle but it'll make a great sippy cup to go.

We started with the "deluxe" starter set from Plan Toys. They are CRAZY durable as they are made out of super strong rubber wood. My son when he was little would hit the pieces on the floor trying to release them. Never broke them.

After playing with just the starter set, my husband said that my son *ahem* wanted to build more elaborate tracks so we needed to expand. (In truth, my husband was the one frustrated by the limitations.) So we called grandma and had her bring down my husband's old Brio set which is compatible and super strong also (but not as pretty as the Plan Toys). Since then, we've added some fancy track pieces and the buildings/cars/trains/etc make good gifts from the grandparents because they are relatively small (I can't imagine if he were to collect those WOW vehicles or such.)

So, in short, it all depends what you're looking for. We wanted super durable, not hard to find, attractive (our play room is our living room so I have to look at them) and I want my grand kids to inherit the set. For us, that meant Plan Toys.

Mozy is brilliant. Once a year, we make an annual album through blurb.com for us and the grandparents with the years' highlights. My husband stores all our photos on his desktop computer which automatically is backed up through Mozy.

My husband, a comp scientist/programmer advises AGAINST backing up on DVDs because they will degrade. External hard drives also become corrupted, stolen, damaged.

This is unfortunate... I hate to sound like a snob, but as a designer, many people point to things like this and want to put together a look-for-less. These sorts of side-by-side cost comparisons are bad for artisans and designers alike and really don't tell the story. A good photo stylist can make anything look good, it how things feel, how they wear and how they are made that often accounts for the disparity in prices. In these photos, the gulliver doesn't look all that different from the oeuf sparrow, but in person there is a HUGE difference. A cheap quilt all puffed up and never used looks pretty in a picture, but I wouldn't want to see it after 1-5 years of use and I probably wouldn't want my kids to sleep with the polyester thing either. I live on a strict budget, but I buy quality where I can and I advise others to do the same. Photo stories like this are nothing but misinformation.

I have always been interested in science and development, but having children has heightened that sense of wonder. I have begun collecting some of my favorite sources and inspirations regarding child development-I'll have to check this one out.

http://learning-mom.blogspot.com/