Two Artisan Sisters was honored by having not just one but two of our items featured in this Green Green Grass of Home Collection which was curated by Jewelrybyjane29. It is a beautifully put together collection and features ten other stunning offerings in addition to ours. Check them and tell us what you think!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Two Artisan Sisters First Artfire Collection
Artfire now has a new feature and that is the ability to create collections. Here is our first try at using this new feature. Pretty cool!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Two Artisan Sisters Crop Report
Well as you can see this is our first crop of our homegrown green beans. Not a bad crop considering all of the plants are growing in large container pots and not planted in the ground.Our herb crops are doing well, however our corn crop is not doing too well. Hardly any of the seeds we planted germinated or something got to the seeds before they had a chance to germinate, like maybe birds? Anyway, we only have about a dozen stalks of corn growing and they are not even tasseling yet and all the corn in the farm fields around here are to the tasseling stage. Oh, well maybe we will eventually get a couple of ears of silver queen corn!
Our tomato plants are producing but no great amount as of yet, we keep hoping their production will pick up with the Hot weather, but it does not seem that way. So much for our crop report, we hope that you all are having a good summer! Hard to believe back to school and Fall are just around the corner, especially with all this extreme heat lately!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Two Artisan Sisters Green Thumb
Wow! Time sure flies when you are having fun!
Hope you are having a great start to your summer!
Over the past couple of weeks in addition to our usual work schedule and chores we have been working outside planting our garden. Our first chore was cleaning out our 8' x8' fenced raised bed and amending the soil with organic compost before we planted it with several rows of Silver Queen Corn. Now once it matures our challenge will be to be the raccoons and deer to the ears of corn!
The other crops that we now have planted are 28 bush type beans, 10 peppers, 2 red tomato, 2 lemon boy yellow tomato, 4 basil plants, 2 parsley, one pot of basil seeds, one pot of parsley seed, two pots of dill seed. We also have been busy cleaning up and sprucing up our front porch and planted our planters with impatience, portulaca's,and spreading petunias.
Green Tip: If you want a good way to keep small animals such as chipmunk, squirrels or even cats from digging in your flower boxes we have found that taking the hair/fur brushed out of our four legged fur baby acts as a real deterrent to having our plants dug out of their pots! If you want to try this, just pull a small amount of hair/fur out of your dogs brush and place it inside the pot along the edge and just very slightly pressed into the dirt so that it does not blow out of the pot. We usually have to refresh it every 2 to 3 weeks, but it works like a charm to keep unwanted visitors out of your flower pots, keeps your four legged fur baby well groomed and keeps harmful chemicals out of the air and soil!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Latest in Green Ideas
There just do not seem to be enough hours in a day to get everything done that needs to be done! Obviously, a problem many of us have and the main reason I have gotten behind in posting on our blog. That said, I came across a couple of very interesting articles the other day, however the one that really caught my eye was one that said is Laundry Detergent Really Necessary?
The article started out pointing out that laundry detergent is a relatively new development and that for hundreds of years prior to that people were washing their clothes and you have to assume getting them clean at least to some degree. It continued talking about the extensive reasearch done on this subject and that the detergent is not the main factor in getting your clothes clean. The main factor in cleaning is the agitation of the clothes in the water. That is how people got them clean by rubbing them on rocks in the water and scrubbing them in moving stream water. The conclusion was that the detergent really isn't necessary to get your clothes clean as long as you put them in clean water and agitiate them around for a period of time. By not using the detergents you would not only save considerable money, but it also would be a much more green solution to cleaning your clothes.
However, if you are skeptical about this conclusion there is also another alternative and that is to use your current detergent but only use half of the amount that you would normally use and your clothes will get equally as clean! You can well imagine that I was definitely skeptical about this, so I tried it on the last couple of loads of laundry that I have done, and lo and behold it really does work! The clothes are just as clean as when I have used the regular amount of detergent, and no one else in the family has noticed any difference either!
So for another green solution that works, try using half of the amount of detergent in your next couple of loads of wash and see for yourself that it works just as well. You will not only be saving money by using that much less, it will also be good for the planet!!
The article started out pointing out that laundry detergent is a relatively new development and that for hundreds of years prior to that people were washing their clothes and you have to assume getting them clean at least to some degree. It continued talking about the extensive reasearch done on this subject and that the detergent is not the main factor in getting your clothes clean. The main factor in cleaning is the agitation of the clothes in the water. That is how people got them clean by rubbing them on rocks in the water and scrubbing them in moving stream water. The conclusion was that the detergent really isn't necessary to get your clothes clean as long as you put them in clean water and agitiate them around for a period of time. By not using the detergents you would not only save considerable money, but it also would be a much more green solution to cleaning your clothes.
However, if you are skeptical about this conclusion there is also another alternative and that is to use your current detergent but only use half of the amount that you would normally use and your clothes will get equally as clean! You can well imagine that I was definitely skeptical about this, so I tried it on the last couple of loads of laundry that I have done, and lo and behold it really does work! The clothes are just as clean as when I have used the regular amount of detergent, and no one else in the family has noticed any difference either!
So for another green solution that works, try using half of the amount of detergent in your next couple of loads of wash and see for yourself that it works just as well. You will not only be saving money by using that much less, it will also be good for the planet!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Two Artisan Sisters Go Red For Women's - Heart Health Month
February is Heart Health Month, so I thought it would be a good time for me to discuss a little known heart ailment. The heart problem I am talking about is called a myxoma. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Well, neither had we until a number of years ago.These myxoma tumors can form in any part of the body but this story is about a heart myxoma. A heart myxoma is a tumor that forms and grows in the heart, usually in either the right or left atrium. A myxoma of the heart consists of a stem which is attached to the heart wall and from there it is shaped like a grape cluster. Each of the "grapes" in the cluster is like a semi-formed gelatin consistency.Little is known about the origins of its cause, but some researchers theorize that is it caused by errant stems cells at birth. Whatever the cause, if left undetected it is fatal. It will appear that you have had a heart attack and died, unless an autopsy is performed and the real cause is discovered. I don't know what the current statistics are but a number of years ago only roughly 2% of these tumors were discovered before they proved fatal, which obviously means that roughly 98% at that time resulted in what appeared to be heart attacks.
Researchers do know that roughly 80% of the tumors discovered in the left atrium are benign and once removed require no further treatment as long as no damage has been done the mitral valve. However, tumors found in the right atrium have something like a 90-95% chance of being malignant and require significantly more treatment.
A myxoma of the heart can develop in either a man or a woman, however heart attack symptoms are significantly less pronounced in women than they are in men. You might ask how is this type of thing discovered, well with an Echo-Cardiogram, which is like an ultra-sound of the heart.
The following are a few symptoms to be aware of in women in regard to heart problems:
- getting winded when climbing a flight of steps if you have previously not had that problem.
- feeling like you have a case of indigestion and or nausea.
- a slight discomfort across your upper stomach area.
- aches across your shoulder blades or down your arms like you have been shoveling deep snow.
- gaining weight because you are retaining water.
You might ask how I know so much about this rarely discovered unusual heart problem? Well, over 15 years ago I very nearly died from having a benign myxoma in the left atrium of my heart! It was my sister, Marilyn who saved my life. When I passed out on the bed early on the morning we were going for an Echo-Cardiogram, she in desperation shook me violently bouncing me up and down on the bed which resulted in the tumor bouncing out from blocking the valve and restored enough flow through the heart to thereby save my life. The cardiologist and surgeon at the time, said that if she had not done what she did, I would not have made it to the operating room and would have died of an apparent heart attack at age 42!
Strangely enough about three years later there was an article in the local paper about a 15 year old girl who was a star athlete at her school. One day she collapsed on the basketball court and was rushed to the hospital. You guessed it, she also was found to have a myxoma of the left atrium of her heart. The same two doctors performed her surgery and she was back to school in no time.
The technical information above was passed along to us from the cardiologist and surgeon. My surgeon at the time said that despite performing thousands of heart surgeries and procedures in his whole career, he had only removed one other myxoma in a living person prior to mine. I am writing this personal story so that there may be some increased awareness of this type of heart problem! Your heart health is something that you need to take seriously no matter what your age!Monday, January 25, 2010
Two Artisan Sisters Finds For Valentine's Day
With Valentine's Day around the corner we wanted to find and feature a few as yet undiscovered studios here on Artfire to feature on our blog this week and I think we have found a fantastic selection for you to check out!
If you are looking for some sweets for your Sweetie this is the place to shop! With all these healthy delicious ingredients who cares about calories! Although she has a shop on Etsy with over 1,000 positive feed backs, this is a yet to be discovered studio on Artfire that definitely deserves your immediate inspection! You can check it out here http://www.nikid70.artfire.com/
This beautiful set of earring is featured in the studio of JeanMariesJewels which is a yet to be discovered beautiful studio here on Artfire. This studio belongs to Karen Terry who also has a shop on Etsy with many sales and positive feedback there. I know the beauty of her pieces personally as I have purchased several myself and the pictures really do not do the pieces justice as they are much prettier in person! These earrings would make a lovely choice for that special someone for Valentine's Day! Check out her studio here http://www.jeanmariesjewels.artfire.com/
This stunning original design 7" Red Murano bracelet can be found at CT Jewelry Designs. It is made using Rubino (red) murano hearts with 24 ct gold core and White Freshwater Potato Pearl bracelet with Sterling Silver 1" extender and lobster clasp! This would make a great Valentine's present! Check out her studio here http://www.ctjewelrydesign.artfire.com/ CT Jewelry Designs is run by Carolyn Tuttle who is the consummate business professional, so you can be guaranteed of fast, efficient service with a very personal touch.
If you are looking for some sweets for your Sweetie this is the place to shop! With all these healthy delicious ingredients who cares about calories! Although she has a shop on Etsy with over 1,000 positive feed backs, this is a yet to be discovered studio on Artfire that definitely deserves your immediate inspection! You can check it out here http://www.nikid70.artfire.com/
This beautiful set of earring is featured in the studio of JeanMariesJewels which is a yet to be discovered beautiful studio here on Artfire. This studio belongs to Karen Terry who also has a shop on Etsy with many sales and positive feedback there. I know the beauty of her pieces personally as I have purchased several myself and the pictures really do not do the pieces justice as they are much prettier in person! These earrings would make a lovely choice for that special someone for Valentine's Day! Check out her studio here http://www.jeanmariesjewels.artfire.com/
This stunning original design 7" Red Murano bracelet can be found at CT Jewelry Designs. It is made using Rubino (red) murano hearts with 24 ct gold core and White Freshwater Potato Pearl bracelet with Sterling Silver 1" extender and lobster clasp! This would make a great Valentine's present! Check out her studio here http://www.ctjewelrydesign.artfire.com/ CT Jewelry Designs is run by Carolyn Tuttle who is the consummate business professional, so you can be guaranteed of fast, efficient service with a very personal touch.
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