That Was 2020 But This Is Now

           We  All couldn't wait for 2020 to leave !! In February of 2020 my husband was working in Georgia & I was at home I got a phone call  Feb 16,2020 saying I needed to get to Georgia that my husband needed emergency surgery, he had aneurysm & it burst  , my son got me a flight out .Thank God all went good !  So that's how  Our 2020 started out  & Yes We are All hoping & praying that 2021  A New Year  will be the answer for All the bad that has happened  in 2020 !! 

We are not the first generations to go through a Pandemic our parents ,grandparents , great grandparents all went through them . Nor is this the first pandemic for my generation there has  been two one in 1976 the Swine flu  & in 2009 the H1N1  that I recall,  but  actually nothing like this Covid  19 Pandemic & We Are ALL Praying It Ends In This New Year Of 2021 ! 

  Now I will say that 2020 for our Etsy Shop  www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden  in January it started out GREAT but then I put it on " Not Open Do To Family Emergency "  in February when John had the aneurysm , for a month until he was healed enough. So the day we opened back up we had our first sale  and honestly for our small business we had a Fantastic year!! We had many return & new customers. We are So Very Blessed, Grateful & Thankful 

Our Original Beach Dreaming Gourd Birdhouse

Our Unique  Old English Cottage Gourd Birdhouse

Colbalt Blue Sunny Sunflowers

Blazing Red Sunny Sunflower

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           So I am a girl who also likes to sew ( I have sewn for years , one Christmas I made hooded lined robes for my 5 granddaughters ) and of course I did what a lot of people did I started sewing Face Masks for my Family and friends.  I used a basic pattern I found online but had to do a lot of adjustments so it fit my husband the way he wanted. He wanted elastic that went around his head instead of around his ears . I also added to the chin area and nose , so that when you talk it won't slip off the nose & chin  as easy . The nose has a removable wire piece that forms to your nose & you remove before washing . 

         My husband & I were at the store standing on our 6 foot spot in the checkout line and there were two women in line in front of us, one of the women turned around and said to me " I really like your mask " & I of course said Thank You ! My husband said " My wife made ours " Then she said " Well I guess that's the new normal to look at peoples masks " Hopefully Not for long !! 

My husbands that I Made

I have made my husband 8 of them so he has one to change out every day and  an extra one and made my son one also. They have to where them at work.

This is The One I Made My Son 

This Is One Of My Masks & Yes I'm Smiling !!

Yes of course I made me some also this one is     " Betty Boop " ! Same as my husbands I adjusted mine to go around my chin farther & my nose that way when I talk it doesn't

 slip off our nose ! Yes they are lined with white cotton and also have a pocket for  a filter pocket . For my filters I use the Small coffee filters I fold and cut them to size.

Bouffant Scrub Caps

Then  my daughter-in-law is a nurse and asked me if I would make some Scrub Caps  for her . Again I looked up a basic pattern & altered it to fit, this one is a Bouffant Scrub Cap it fits short or long hair , it has a small piece of elastic at the bottom back so the cap can slip off and on with ease NO TYING !   

My Daughter in law she asked me to  make her  Holiday Scrub Caps 

A couple of her co workers had me make them some also , I just Love the way they turned out and I have a lot of material!  So a couple of days I will spend in my sewing room & sew and the other couple days I will be painting working on our gourd birdhouses & Gourd Birdfeeders  so we can keep our Etsy Shop stocked !

So I had a couple of phone calls & some emails asking me if I would make Scrub Caps & Face Masks !  So I decided that I would make some more of the Scrub Caps & Face Masks &When I'm done I will post them on all our Social Media sites , If anyone would like one just let me know 

Here are a couple  more Scrub Caps I made for an order 

      I Know I haven't been on here in awhile but I really Love connecting with people , customers, friends !! We Love what we do as our craft/art . I like to bring you into our gourd garden from seed to cured & into our studio ! The " In The Gourd Garden " Video Series is on Our Instagram  . We  did that this summer through our Instagram & Pinterest pages ! We went out once a week and did a video of how the gourds were growing . We still do have some still hanging in the garden so I will post on here our Blog, Instagram & on our Pinterest page  .If you have any comments or questions feel free to ask I might be able to help ! 

but if you would like to check out the  " In The Gourd Garden " Video series its on our IGTV on Instagram & Pinterest or our Facebook page .  Thank You  !! We Hope You Enjoyed Our Blog 

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A Trip To The Gourd Farm

This is Larry Eckler the owner 

 What a GREAT weekend for a trip to the " Gourd  Farm"  I had called a couple of days ahead of time to make sure they would be open  and to make sure he would have plenty of the gourds that we use the most ! As you can see yes they did and even more !!  We have been going to the same gourd farm since I first started painting gourds  

" Eckler Farms " . The first couple of years we were able to go to his farm during harvest time, at that time you are able to go out in the fields and pick what ever was ready (which was almost the whole 4 fields ) he would drive us around drop us off we would make piles of what we wanted then he would come get us and the gourds and take us to another field and we would do the same ) it was so much fun !! Besides being fun he taught us alot about gourds about seeds, growing them and about harvesting the gourds !  The moldier the better !!

 

But  since we moved to Tennessee , the pictures I post of my gourd garden here are beautiful ! They vine all over the place with lots of flowers and gourds but my gourds are thin the whole gourd I think I have had maybe 4 or 5 good ones  ! I only use quality gourds! The area where we live in middle Tennessee is more slate than soil and gourds need a sandy type soil .

So therefore we take a trip when needed usually once a year because Ecklers have Great quality gourds ! ( I will post a link to his website below )  So we took a trip to his farm  it was a Beautiful weekend and when we got there Larry Eckler came and greeted us and showed us where all the specialty gourds were like eggs and mini bottles and well you can see in the pictures All the gourds we had to choose from ! He had bins and bins of all sorts of gourds like martins, large bottles. apples canteens,  snake , swans,. Then in side one of the barns were cleaned apples, eggs, long handle dippers .

Egg Gourds

This green house had soo many egg gourds that seemed to stretch on for well...you can see for yourself it doesn't seem to end . In the picture below is a bin full of clean dried apple gourds

Cleaned Apple gourds 

Those are long handled dipper gourds 

Also in the same barn next to the apples were the cleaned  long handled dippers ( We haven't really tried to make anything out of the dippers yet )

A bin full of mini bottle gourds

In these pictures here I had taken them inside one of the big barns and all the bins were full. In the background there outside this barn are many green houses and my husband & son decided to  check it out. It was full of GIANT Hot House tomatoes. They also sell a variety of vegetables and seeds ,

 Here are just a few of the gourds we were setting aside as we were picking what we wanted and needed. Unless you  have crates and a trailer which we don't he asks that you bring your own garbage bags or what  ever is needed for what you buy!

a bushel  of gourd eggs 

 Larry Eckler s Farms is well known and when we were there many many customers for the fresh vegetables !

My husband loading up and tying up the gourds for the trip home.

 We had a GREAT Big haul of those BEAUTIFUL Gourds that are now ours for us to make our creations for y'all !

But after you go to the gourd farm you  still have to clean ALL of the  big gourds we brought home . So we decided to fill this little pool we had with water and let the gourds soak in the water so it would be easier to clean all the mold off  

Then we sat there with scouring pads and started scouring the gourds clean. Believe me it takes a while to scrub all the mold off of them . For the little bottle and egg gourds I usually  (unless it's nice out ) will fill up the kitchen sink and scour them clean, But usually the ornamental gourds are not as moldy at all as the big ones !!  YES I sanitize my sinks after I use them for my gourds..

After the cleaning is the cutting and primer ...that's what your looking at in the picture below .

It's Fun to use gourds as our painting canvas but it takes alot to get to that point as you can see. The cleaning and cutting is the hard work of it ALL it is Very time consuming but after all that it is WORTH it to us ! All in all it was a Great Trip, A Beautiful weekend! We were able to get stocked up for another year of hopefully making Unique , Fun , One Of A Kind Birdhouses, Bird feeders  and what ever else we decide to come up with .
We hope you enjoyed viewing our trip to Ecklers Farms . Please stop by our Etsy Shop and check out our Creations !

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LINKS

www.ecklerfarms.com

                                                       www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden