You Gotta Have a Gimmick

"When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything: The IBM Stellar Sphere. The Microsoft Galaxy. Planet Starbucks." 

-Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Brand (noun)
 
1.  Kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like:

the best brand of coffee.

2.  A mark made by burning or otherwise, to indicate kind, grade, make, ownership, etc.
the letter M was branded on each animal 

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"What's your brand?  What's your brand?  Yeah, but what's your brand?!?  You gotta have a brand!"

I keep hearing this barked as if it really means something beyond a new catchphrase to spew, kind of like "Actionable (and literally ANY word you put after it)." Everybody's got to have a brand these days, it seems, if not BE a brand.  Even not having an overt "brand story" can be in and of itself part of your brand-identity.  Can this get any more annoying?  Only if it comes with a new and improved Kung Fu grip, which I'm sure it does ... somewhere.

Dig It?

Cultivating my green thumb

This week I was finally able to get my garden planted ... I feel a little late to the game, but it seems whenever I try to jump the gun in the PNW, there's always a late frost waiting to put me right back into my place.  So, I opted for "fashionably late" to the seed planting party this year.  Though, I won't be totally cheating like someone (pictured to the left) who will be growing from starts this year instead of seeds, news of which I'm positive has several generations of gardeners rolling in graves as I type this!  I can't blame him though, I've learned everything garden-wise that I know from him (spending much of my youth hopping from boot-print to boot-print to keep the deep soil from cascading over the tops of my tiny rubber boots behind him as he tilled 36' x 72' garden plots season after season with my coat pockets jammed full of seed packets), and he travels a lot without much time to get settled in and prepared for the growing season ... or he's just not as bored as I am, either way I suppose I'll give him a break for it, after all, my parents are the ones who inspired me to start growing my own garden after the overwhelming disdain of buying sickly looking produce from local grocery stores just became too much for me with words close to, "Girl, you know better.  Get to work!"

This year I went with my great-grandfather's recipe of planting according to the phases of the moon by syncing my Lunar Energy Chart from The Darling Tree (if you want one, scroll all the way to the bottom & sign up for her mailing list to get the free file sent to your inbox), with the Farmers' Almanac to produce the ultimate seed planting guide for 2016 that I can print out and keep in my All Things Gardening 3-ring binder.  Oh, didn't you know?  I'm a complete nerd, and this seeps into my gardening life as well (and by "seeps" I mean, flows like a mighty river).

If you're interested in trying to grow your own food, my go-to online heirloom seed stores are: The Garden Hoard & Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Give it a whirl, and see what happens!

xoxo