grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Time Travel Face Serum!

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Skin & Co Truffle Serum
Last week in my holiday Birchbox, I received a sample of Skin & Co Truffle Serum. (If you don’t know about Birchbox, you should. Click HERE.) Skin & Co Truffle Serum claims to plump the skin with hydration, fight free radicals, and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. In short, it’s described as a miracle product containing pure extracts of Tuber Melanosporu, a truffle extract with one of the most potent anti-oxidants ever unearthed. 
Wow.
Sounds like something whipped up in Herbology Class at Hogwarts…
I used my new wonder cream yesterday. 
I LOVED the velvety texture, and after only one day, I immediately felt Forty Years Younger.
Forty Years.

But not from the way it made my skin feel or look. 
From the smell.
In 1970, Santa brought me a tiny doll who lived inside a plastic flower. When I opened the petals to her home, she was hidden inside with arms outstretched and a smile on her cherubic face. Her hair smelled like violets. Or truffle extract? 
I don’t recall her name and have not thought of her in decades—yet the aroma of this lotion unlocked a flood of memories. 
Oneeda Petal People
Oneeda Petal People
For a moment, I was eight years old again. 
Time travel should be added to the serum’s list of amazing results.
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Musical Pairing:
I Want You Back, The Jackson 5

a Christmas memory: buying the tree…

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Keiser Supply Company, our small town hardware store, received its shipment of Christmas trees in early December. We weren’t allowed to buy one until Momma could borrow Daddy’s truck to bring it home. And since Daddy worked AllTheTime, it was almost Christmas before we finally drove into town for our tree.
Way in the back warehouse where it was chilly, fresh Scotch pines propped against the wall. Momma held tree after tree upright so we could see from every angle.  
 
Momma said until the tree “fell” it was impossible to really know what it would look like. 
 
I didn’t know what she meant. 
 
I thought they were all beautiful. 

My sister and I circled through the Christmas forest inhaling fresh, fragrant evergreen until we became so cold, we agreed on a tree.
Mr. Cunningham tied our perfect specimen to the truck bed so it wouldn’t flip out into a field on the way home.
“Momma, should I ride back there with it?” I stared at the tree, worried it would get smashed by Daddy’s tools.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll freeze to death.”
She wouldn’t let me.
nice little house on the prairie bonnets…
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
What if Christmas doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more? – Dr. Seuss (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

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Alexander Hall, Baylor University
Alexander Hall, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
 
 
Saturday night. First weekend in
Waco. My room is tiny,
Every bit the size of my closet back home.
Evening spreads over the Brazos River, filtering
Through the Live Oak branches outside my
Dorm room. Above me stars   
Reflect and twinkle, the same Big Dipper over the same 
Earth. Yet everything feels different… The
Allure of laughter draws me into the common room, to a
Mahogany table covered in newspaper.
Situated in the center, a pile of panties? I’m not in
Arkansas anymore… more like the other side of the globe. A
Roomful of girls sit with heads down
Each busy at work.  Days of the week, black satin,
Multi-colored, every style panty imaginable spread
Across the table. They paint names and phone numbers
Down the sides and even on the crotch! My super
Excited roommate, a girl who   
Organizes her Izod shirts by color, squeals it’ll be
Fun! A 100 year old Baylor
Tradition—the first freshman panty raid of the semester.
Hurry! Grabbing my craziest red plaid Christmas bikinis,
I draw a heart and toss my name to the
Sidewalk below. 

Baylor University retro sailor bear
Sic ’em Bears!

 

talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

This was written especially for FEARLESS FRIDAY PRACTICE –Think of a song you listened to over and over at a crossroads point in your life. Note to yourself the emotion you felt connected with this song. Do an acrostic off the title of this song. Write about a specific event in the period in your life the song’s associated with, but DON’T use the emotion or a synonym — rather, let the emotion be expressed by the specific telling of the event.


Somewhere in the acrostic, include the following words: newspaper, branch, mate, globe, plaid, Big Dipper.

P.S. If you are reading this post from your phone, the acrostic phrase may not line up correctly…Oh well.
Musical Pairing:

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Eurythmics

 

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!