I made and sold various crafts for years, first at craft shows and later, when I got weary of schlepping the stuff around I rented a booth in one of the Country Sampler stores. Every outlet has it's pros and cons. Internet is definitely the easiest. My niece sold her jewelry on the Ruby Lane Shops website for a couple years. Etsy is a good bet. I know someone who gets lots of orders for her hand-dyed yarns. It's best to get onboard before a website mushrooms to gigantic proportions. Ebay takes quite awhile to get a following although GP original Ruthanne has made a terrific business on Ebay with her hand painted signs and furniture. It took her awhile though. I'd love to see pictures of what you're creating. I think Wanda is talking about selling in an elementary school. Do you have any friends who teach grade school? At one point I had an entire little shop set up in the Xerox room of my children's school. The grade school teachers are notorious craft consumers. The teachers would all pray to get my kids in their classes because they knew I gave handmade gifts! The principal didn't care, everyone was happy with the little shop. Isn't it great to have a creative outlet? I just made some earrings today. Earrings are ridiculously easy. I'm also knitting some cute evening bags for Christmas gifts.

Many of the magnolias would work for you. A "saucer" magnolia is an incredible sight in the spring and they have large, pea green leaves the rest of the growing season. Some of the yellow magnolias would work for you as well like "Elizabeth", "Yellowbird" or "Butterflies". The little girl series of magnolia are outstnding trees as well. "Ann", "Jane", "Susan" and others have purple to pink flowers that are 6 inches across with a medim sized magnolia leaf. You could consider a Stewartia as they have a wonderful white flower that will cover the entire tree. They also tend to form a round tree and are excellent as a specimen. You could consider a Paperbark Maple. They are an excellent smaller tree with cinnimon colored peeling bark that draws attention. The Tri-florum Maple is a relative of the Paperbark and is a fine tree with very deeply groved bark. They both have a trident leave and show well. There are many crab apples that would work for you in this spot. Consider "Candymint", "Coralburst", or the weeping crab "Louisia". The best of luck.

I've seen a soldier garden. It is about to come down. At a local trailer court in town, somebody planted a row of fir trees behind each row of trailers back in the 60's. They are quite large and lovely now. They are in front of the majestic canyon view now. Yellowstone Club bought up the trailer court, booted out the tenants. They got paid three-fourths of the commercial value of their trailers or less. The alternative was nothing. There was almost nowhere for these trailers to go. These doggone trees are in the way of the mansions and the view. There are so many of these rows of trees that when they go, I suspect it will change the climate of the town. My favorite soldier garden is a wheat field. "How I love to listen to the wind in the wheat." Like the little Prince, I've got a little rose in a pot, Madame Isaac Perriere. I never liked the color in the picture, but she came very well recommended. So I got one. She is the lady of roses, I think. She sits on the porch, looking at the ash-leaf spirea sticks, wondering. My ten hydrangeas which are supposed to live through the winter and bloom on old and new wood which are an Endless Summer clone for three bucks apiece (David or Donald Wyman, I think they're called) are coming in the mail today. They are going to be a border along the path which runs by the front of the house after I get it fixed up with my fossil stones. What I'd love is Austrian Copper to make the purple, and white hydrangeas pop but it would never bloom at the same time. I I am pretty sure they will be purple because the PH of my soil is neutral. I hope I can get it done before I get sick from the smoke. Takes about two weeks to get sick from the smoke. The smoke is not as bad as it can get. You cannot see the mountains at all, but the streetlights are not coming on in the middle of the day. The Forest Service is in desperate straits. The local editor pointed out that they cut this year's budget to pay for last year's fires. Last year, fires consumed 45% of their budget. They end up letting it burn until somebody in D.C. is convinced that no rain is coming. Some fires are being "Event-managed." That means rain. If you have a big pickup and nothing to do, you can get $25 per hour, plus mileage, plus a rental fee for your truck ferrying supplies to the Wicked Creek firefighters. If you have fire-fighting experience and can prove it, you can get $50 per hour. Yeah, the possibilities of chaos. I like the ring of that, too.

That's a great suggestion, Angie! Unfortunately I won't be able to get down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center next weekend for their sale. I've been trying to plan another trip to the TX Hill Country with my wife, and I'd love to include the Center in the travel itinerary in any event, but it looks like the soonest that could happen is more than a week later. Probably we'll miss an awful lot of the bloom because of the delay, too. Aargh! Say, if you will be attending the sale and happen to reach the P. lutea a bit earlier this time, perhaps you could pick up a specimen for me as well as however many for yourself? (No P. affinis for me, though.) I would repay you, of course, and consider myself as owing you a great debt besides! It occurs to me that I might even be able to return the favor the following weekend. I'm planning to attend the Heard Museum's (McKinney) native plant sale then, and perhaps there will be something there that you would like me to pick up for you. If so I'd be delighted! I've been told that they don't necessarily have all of the plants on their advertised list (see pdf link below for list) and as in Austin things tend to go quickly - which is why I plan to become a member so I can go to the sale's opening night :^] - but I can give it my best try, anyway! Why don't you look over the list and see if anything catches your eye? If you're interested in this idea, let's take it to e-mail. I don't get e-mail sent to me through GardenWeb for some unknown reason, but you can contact me directly at the address below. Gerry gbin@zoo.ufl.edu Here is a link that might be useful: Heard Museum native plant sale list