What a Crock!

From this:

To This:

in a little over an hour!
Aren't those little crocks so cute??

 I inherited them from Mother-in-law! I can imagine her creating wonderful soups and chili and baking homemade bread for her family along with homemade desserts.
She was also a career woman and sewed many of the curtains and throw pillows around their home.
I do not sew. My cakes, if any, come out of a box. I don't own a single curtain.
My mother-in-law is a little over 5 feet tall with dark hair and her make up bag consists of a tube of lipstick and some "rouge", (her words, not mine!)
I am almost 6 feet tall and my make up bag is the size of a lawn and leaf bag.
But we get along so well and she has taught me so much. I give her credit for giving me the gardening bug.

We both love to cook for the family and one memorable Thanksgiving, early on, she was sharing with me a salad recipe that I have never made, but she made for years. After it was sliced an set on the gorgeous china, I said, "it needs some garnish!"
She thought she had exactly what it needed, out in the garden. I looked outside on Thanksgiving in Chicagoland, a drizzly and dusky evening, everything was brown. What the heck could this lady pull out of her garden??
We put our shoes on and walked to a corner of the yard. I didn't have a garden at this point in my life. I was a city girl, just been married and starting a family. I had no clue about plants and I don't ever remember noticing them, at this point.
We came to a little border in her landscape and when we approached, bunnies scattered everywhere. We bent down near a shrub and she pulled on a lanky piece of still green plant I hadn't even noticed. She held it up to me and said, "what do you think about this?"
It smelled like gum.
MINT! Mint?? Here??
She cut a few sprigs and we took it in the house. We placed it on the plates and my mouth hung open in disbelief. How could mint be growing in the yard?? In WINTER for cryin' out loud!?

IT was that moment that I caught the gardening bug.
Do you remember when you caught it? Was it nurtured from childhood? I love to read about folks and their introduction to plants, I wish more bloggers would share their inspiration.
I do have to say that Mother-in-law is still a dear friend, but I have to be careful with what she inspires me to do! Since I've known her, she's sported a pixie hair cut, I've never seen a hair out of place. Even while boating, it falls right back into a perfect pixie.
So, I marched out and got a "pixie". oooohhhh.
Not a good look for a naturally curly haired person. AT ALL.

Took me about a year to get rid of that mess.

as the growing season slows, I hope to read more inspiration posts from my blogging buds!