… and these Thy gifts …

Ongoing attempt to reduce the clutter around here…. getting rid of all my favorite gardening catalogs; yes, I have quite the pile.

The first part are all companies I’ve shopped from before; Renee’s Garden I ordered from when it was still “Shepherd’s Garden Seeds” which was bought by White Flower Farm. Papa Geno’s I haven’t ordered from in years but there were 3 years in a row back in the ’90’s when I was ordering from them and I was always very happy with the service and plants. I’ve included links to Garden Watchdog Reviews, which I always check before ordering from a company unknown to me — though sometimes if the deals are too good to pass up I’ll go ahead and order even if they’ve received a bad review before, e.g., Gilbert’s and Sons from whom I ordered some really nice peonies back ‘in ‘04.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds | Garden Watchdog Review
The Natural Gardening Company | Garden Watchdog Review — this company’s great to order from if you’ve tried to raise organic tomatoes and other plants from seed and failed, or you ran out of time, etc. — I ordered from them last year.
Kitazawa Seed Company | Garden Watchdog Review - the best source for Asian seeds
Pinetree Garden Seeds | Garden Watchdog Review
J.L. Hudson, Seedsman | Garden Watchdog Review - THE source for unusual, hard-to-find, rare seeds; you get quite an education just from the catalog.
Gardener’s Supply Company | Garden Watchdog Review — this is an okay company if you’ve got money to spend on their gardening landscaping supplies, etc. I look mainly for inspiration, though they did have a bargain on a cold frame I’d been wanting last fall, so I went ahead and got it. Thinking of getting their tomato, eggplant and flower supports this year.
Fedco Seeds | Garden Watchdog Review - if you’re looking for bargain organic seeds, this is the place. Love the old-time illustrations on the black and white (or I should say, black and grey) catalog. The seed packets aren’t pretty but they serve the purpose, hey.
Territorial Seed Company | Garden Watchdog Review - I believe this is the company from whom I ordered my asparagus crowns in ‘04. They did well except we left the house before we could harvest anything significant.
Brent and Becky’s Bulbs | Garden Watchdog Review - no complaints here, love this company.
Gourmet Seed International | Garden Watchdog Review - has good bargains from time to time.
Gardens Alive | Garden Watchdog Review - like this company for its coupons (hee) and its natural pest control, fertilizer stuff, etc.
Wood Prairie Farm | Garden Watchdog Review - I got salad mixes from and Egyptian walking onions from this one, and potatoes which I’m going to try this year.
Specialty Perennials | Garden Watchdog Review - another purveyor of hard-to-find seeds, love their flowers; I got the prettiest lupines in ‘04.
Seeds of Change | Garden Watchdog Review - the very first company I ordered organic seed from, back in ‘98-’02 (?) — some were still viable last year!
The Cook’s Garden | Garden Watchdog Review - good source for herbs and other veggie seeds. Love that their catalog is illustrated by Mary Azarian, one of our favorite artists — she illustrated Snowflake Bentley.
ValueSeeds | Garden Watchdog Review - the bargains!
Swallowtail Garden Seeds | Garden Watchdog Review - pretty seed packets, again, some unusual seeds.
Botanical Interests | Garden Watchdog Review - how one would be able to resist these lovely seed packet artworks, I have no idea.
Renee’s Garden | Garden Watchdog Review
Papa Geno’s Herb Farm | Garden Watchdog Review
American Meadows | Garden Watchdog Review
The Butchart Gardens | Garden Watchdog Review — some of the hard-to-find seeds that Jefferson was growing at Monticello, I found here.
Raintree Nursery | Garden Watchdog Review — ordered raspberry and blueberry canes from them in ‘04. They did okay but I don’t know how they are now at our previous home.

Haven’t bought from these, but I like to browse their catalogs for inspiration, and reference for future orders:

White Flower Farm | Garden Watchdog Review
D. Landreth Seed Company |Garden Watchdog Review
Musser Forests |Garden Watchdog Review
Dripworks | Garden Watchdog Review
Seed Savers Exchange | Garden Watchdog Review
High Country Gardens | Garden Watchdog Review
Horizon Herbs | Garden Watchdog Review
Forest Farm | Garden Watchdog Review
Mischel’s Greenhouses | Garden Watchdog Review
Wildseed Farms | Garden Watchdog Review
Kinsman Company | Garden Watchdog Review

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That’s really a misnomer. It’s not “after Christmas” yet! Christmas is a SEASON, not just one day. We’ve replaced our Advent candles with our lone Christ candle, in white, with the Chi Rho etched on it (next year I’ll try to make it nicer and drip melted red wax into the symbol and hopefully have a pic).

Today, Dad’s taken our oldest boy to the office with him. He’s got a bunch of vacation days left but he wants to get some reorganizing done before the rest of his colleagues come back from Christmas break. This way he gets peace and quiet, and some daddy-son bonding as well.

The rest of us are going to be SHOPPING. Hah! That sounds so anti-me, but the kids do have some things that they need and I have a couple of coupons that need to be used before 12/31. Plus a couple more gifts to deliver, and a couple of gifts to ship. That’s a lot of “couples” .

Speaking of which…. new year, new household, new role at CFC-FFL. Exciting! Today, I also found an older girls’ group that I need to pray about and discern — Fiat — because I’d love to have one at our parish. I wish I had found out about it when Aisa was younger … now she’s gearing up for college and it might be difficult to fit this into her ever-burgeoning schedule. But last night during prayer time I once again heard the call to recommit myself/ourselves to SERVICE. This year we hardly did any volunteer work, and that’s really disappointing, since at the beginning of 2007 that was one of our resolutions as a family. It’s so difficult to find volunteer opportunities that call for FAMILIES to come and help. Perhaps we should be looking at other ways to help out instead of the sites I check from time to time like iVolunteer and VolunteerMatch. And a Fiat group might want to do things together, but of course it will take a while to get it started….

Now that I think about it I shouldn’t be titling this After Christmas sales because I’ve now looked at all my favorite stores’ ads online and there isn’t much I want to shop for at these places. I began the post thinking I’d tell you all about the great deals I found but none of them interest ME, so now I don’t want to blog about them — funny how that works. I’ll just give you links then, in case YOU’RE looking:

Michaels
Joann
Target
Tuesday Morning
Cost Plus World Market
Gymboree

I did already place an order at House of Fontanini for a few additions to our Nativity set. They were discounted and shipping was free!! Yay!

And I’ll be shopping for my dearest mom, who’s 73 today!! Happy Birthday, Mommy!! Let’s hope I find her something really special. She’s off work so she won’t see this:)

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I hate shopping. I hate shopping for shoes. But when I HAVE TO shop for shoes, there’s one place I love: Zappo’s. It’s like having my own shoe store in my living room. The UPS guy comes with several shoes I can try, without changing out of my jammies, without people watching me walk around trying to decide if I’m comfortable or not. I then decide which one I want, put everything else back neatly in their boxes, and send them back. Free shipping both ways.

After looking at new boots for Yena at eBay, Gymboree, Talbots, and other places, we found the one. I got three different sizes, they arrived the next day, she tried them on, parading around the house like a princess, took her pick, and that was it. No pain, no whining at the mall, no walking from store to store. It was on sale too:) Me happy. This was over a month ago, and Yena and I still both LOVE her shoes. Of course, the light-up effect is ALL that matters to her.

Now if I can find a way to have Zappo’s pay me for this post….

ETA 04/12/08: You know what, I changed my mind. They don’t have to pay me — they already do more than enough to serve the customer. Here’s one more reason to shop there. I may *heart* Zappos, but they obviously know how to *heart* the people they serve.

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