New Year - grace grits and gardening

Happy Birthday, NYE, Everything!

December 31, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Happy Birthday to my husband, John! He’s a New Year’s Eve baby. As a kid he thought the whole world was celebrating his birthday. I think the world should. ???

Happy New Year’s Eve to all my readers. I appreciate you. ???

Happy everything to everyone! ???

I’ll see you next year,

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

“Saying next year like it was a long time off was a fun thing to do when next year officially started next week.” The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee (yes, I’m quoting myself)

Musical Pairing:
Barbra Streisand, What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

2015 in review: top blog posts

December 28, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

What would year-end be without a little review and reflection? A regular week, I suppose. As a blogger, I like to look back to see which were my top blog posts. And by “top”, I mean those blog posts written in 2015 with the most page views. My most popular five posts of all time were written in 2013 and 2014, thanks in part to the power of Pinterest (which is much like compounding interest).

Looking back helps me look forward. Knowing what my readers connected with and related to helps me plan for 2016. (Whoa, saying 2016 sounds crazy. Remember ten minutes ago how we didn’t think we would survive Y2K?)

So here’s 2015 in review—my top blog posts all tied up in a bow. Plaid, of course. Continue Reading

saying goodbye to Christmas

January 7, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Confession. I enjoy putting away my Christmas decorations as much as I enjoy bringing them out of storage. Possibly even more. Soon after Santa visits, the tinsel begins to look tired. Decorations turn to clutter. This downward spiral happens quickly for me. By New Year’s night, I’m done.

On January 2, John and I removed the ornaments from the tree. This part is a bit nostalgic. We take a little extra time to reminisce over favorites—every ornament has a story.

Each year, I consider leaving out certain decorations for a few more weeks—those that lean toward winter rather than Christmas. Going from decorated to bare can be jarring, even for me.

This year I left out two snowmen related things. And what happened? We immediately received a dusting of snow. I’m not taking credit, but sort of I am. I also left glittery stars hanging from white branches in a vase. This was a complete oversight, but I’m okay with the stars for a while.

Our fir tree is now laying out on the curb in the frigid cold. From the front porch, I can still see a few sparkly icicles. It was a great tree.

The clean house feels a bit empty. After the holidays, there are always blank spaces that make me wonder what was there before Christmas? And since we haven’t been in this house all that long, I’m really having that problem this year.

In an attempt to add life back into the house, I snagged up this small houseplant at Lowe’s. At $4.99 on the clearance aisle, it was the only after Christmas sale item I bought anywhere:)