My New Summer Basket

A special part of my job as a creator of books for kids is that I get to connect with other creatives. The author of THE HURRICANE GIRLS, Kimberly Willis Holt, created a series of videos about THG with her daughter. The backdrop for their interview was in her garden, while Kimberly and I have never met, it was clear watching her videos we had a lot in common, especially gardening.

While watching her interview on Instagram (@kimberlywillisholt) I noticed the beautiful basket she used for her garden clippings. Lightweight, easy to hold, seemed like the perfect thing for me. Needless to say, I’ve been obsessed with finding THE ONE ever since.

Want to learn more about the author of Hurricane Girls? Click here.

At the farmers market in Oakland County, Evan and I went to get “produce” for the week but I was hoping today would be the day I’d find THE ONE. At the market, everyone packed under the pavilion as it was down pouring and we ended up right behind two women, who were carrying…. baskets. I give Evan the look of, “are you seeing this?!”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a sign of anything even resembling wicker. While scrambling around looking for Evan’s favorite lettuce vendor, I ran into the two women again. This time I had to say something, I told them I loved their baskets and I have recently been inspired to find something like it. They recommend I might find something at plum market and Whole Foods, we had a laugh and they hassled my husband and told him to “get your girl a basket!”

So we headed right to Whole Foods. There she was! I was ecstatic, we loaded her with a few other things from our list and headed to one more stop.

I walked into Zerbos with my basket in tow and I’m grinning huge and feeling like red riding hood. Instantly a woman yelled across the store, “love your basket!” Evan, almost I fell to the ground laughing so hard. She suggested some flowers. It worked terrific for groceries. One thing is for sure, bye-bye, bruised bananas! I hope you too are finding joy in the little things these days.

Our home has been in a constant state of construction since we came here. As we finished these last projects, I’m feeling sentimental and finding the art in it all.

When we got here, we could barely weld a hammer. We’ve learned big lessons with every project about how to work with our hands, our community and our marriage. I loved this composition (created by Evan,) to hold up our window - a living canvas indeed.

In other updates, propagations this summer happened a bit later than usual but my plants didn’t seem too distressed about this.

I was quite concerned that I might loose this one but swift action and the right conditions, I’m going to have this one around for a long time, and some to share!

Did you get to see my article for Muddy Colors? This time, I wrote about drawing horses. To read the article, “Things to Think about When Drawing Horses” click here.

Happy Summer readers!

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