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Tips and suggestions for your online e-commerce business. We sell online in several marketplace venues. We are writing here to share some of our experiences and hope to help you not make the same mistakes as we have over the years.
Showing posts with label outdoor living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outdoor living. Show all posts
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Christmas in July Sale at The Crabby Nook
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Dreaming of Spring? Time to get Ready! Part 1 of 3 at The Crabby Nook
This has been the craziest winter weather ever! Do you agree? I am so done with winter. Here is my plan....
1 - I am going to start planning how to attract more birds to my bird garden;
2 - I am planning to build a new pathway to my patio with solar lighting;
3 - I want a new small fountain on my deck that will emit the sounds of a small waterfall to listen to; and,
4 - I want to re-decorate or design my patio, pathways and gardens.
I can tell you right now that people are looking forward to spring. We just started stocking our Spring inventory and we have already had to re-order. Some things are getting harder and harder to get. So the time to get your outdoor living space ready for warmer weather is now.
Attracting More Birds to Your Bird Garden
First, you want to make sure that you have protection for the birds coming to visit you from other predator birds and animals. These include:
- Lower trees,
- Bushes,
- Rock Walls, and,
- Covered sitting areas.
Next, one of the most important elements to attracting birds to your garden is seed and bird feeders. The better quality of your seed, the more colorful birds you will attract. It is very important that you feed all year long and keep the feeders full so the birds will come to expect to find seed when they get there. You need to check it everyday. It is especially important to do this in bad weather when it is difficult for them to find food.
One of our newest bird feeders this year will add color and happiness to your yard. Just looking at the bright color brings a smile to your face.
Eco Egg Shaped Bamboo Bird Feeders are Natural Moisture Resistant
These are the coolest bird feeders I have seen in a while!
Made out of bamboo, natural binding agents and vegetable dyes. 100% biodegradeable: 4-5 years of use.- Galvanized hanging cable and galvanized screen at the bottom allow easy draining.
- The dome is multi-funtional:
- Squirrel deterrent
- Protects the seeds from the elements, and
- Deters undesirable birds by minimizing the landing height.
- The diameter of the tray is 2" deep and will accommodate a virtually endless variety of bird foods.
We also have some new metal hanging hooks for your feeders and birdhouses:
2 Painted Metal S Hooks for Plant Holders Birdhouses Feeders
MEASUREMENTS: Approx 3" Width x 8" Length.
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Another area I really like to have bird feeders is hanging on my deck. My office looks outside to our patio which is located under the deck. I have a lot of birds visit this area because it provides them with protection. I thoroughly enjoy watching all the colorful birds resting outside my window.
I know that many of us have tried the suet type bird seed for small areas or a patio to reduce the mess. What we have found was that the seed cakes were dry and hard and when the birds started eating off of it, the seeds would fall on the patio. We think we have found a solution to reduce the mess!
We are now offering gelatin and collagen based gourmet bird seed cakes! They are stuffed with fruits, seeds and nuts that all of the colorful and songbirds are highly attracted to!
These can be placed inside a large suet type basket feeder. We are out of the Nuts and Bugs cake at this time but they should be here next week! We will keep you posted when these are back in stock! All of these cakes measure 6.25" Length x 2" Width x 7.25" Height.
XL NeatFeeder Wire Suet n Cake Basket Bird Feeder
Shop Now...
Woodpecker Feast Large Block 28 oz
- Contains the nuts and fruit that your woodpeckers love!
- Includes Pecans, peanuts, raisins, Black Oil Sunflower and Gelatin.
- For suet style feeders. Fits the XL NeatFeeder.
NutCake XL Large Block 28 oz Bird Feed
- Loved by Cardinals, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Wrens, Finches, Titmice, Woodpeckers, Warblers and MORE!
- Includes Pecans, Black Oil Sunflower, Sunflower Hearts, White Millet, Collagen and Gelatin.
- For suet style feeders. Fits the XL NeatFeeder.
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Another HUGE attractor of birds to your garden is WATER! Birds are especially attracted to moving water. We recommend that you add a dripper or small fountain to your bird baths. You will be amazed how many birds will be attracted to your bird baths with moving water. When you have a bird bath with higher sides or made or a slick material, we recommend that you place a river rock on the bottom to give the birds a place to stand closer to the water.
Please remember your birds are desperately seeking water during the hot summer months and the freezing cold weather. Birds will guarantee to return again and again to your bird haven if they know they will always find water.
We are currently waiting on two additional birds baths to arrive and will keep you posted when they do.
A bird bath that we are offering this year and really excited about is one that attaches to your deck railing. How easy is this to walk out your patio door onto your deck and fill up a bird bath? Think of the joys of bird watching from the comfort of your home!
Copper Deck Rail Mounting Bracket Bird Bath Bronze Finish
- Does not tilt.
- We recommend a decorative river rock in the bottom for birds to perch on.
Okay now that we have successfully made you start thinking about your Spring Outdoor Living plans, we are going to stop here and go add more spring products for you in our store. In our next blog we will talk about Solar path lighting and deck Fountains.
See you Shopping Soon...
Monday, May 27, 2013
Oriental Gardens with Feng Shui Design
ORIENTAL GARDENS with Feng Shui
How you arrange all the things in your garden is key to creating an oasis, and not a jungle. Feng Shui is the classic Chinese art of arranging furniture and possessions to help you find ways to live more harmoniously in your environment. To the Chinese, Chi, the natural life-force, can be out of balance if spaces are not inviting and tranquil. Adherents believe that how you set up your home, work space and garden will influence every aspect of your life: your emotional and physical well-being, your career, even your love life. Whether or not you believe that, if you apply the principles of Feng Shui to your yard and garden, you will transform the area around your house into an oasis for you and your family. Those principles are the basics of smart and natural garden design that will make every garden more attractive and pleasing to be in.
I see Feng Shui landscape designing, as another way of bringing balance for your personal enhancement. Working with the earth brings the qualities of earth to you. The basic element of earth is healing, regenerative,and without any effort at all, you recieve these benefits. It is a way of bringing forth a balance of the yin and yang, light and darkness are balanced by using different elements: water, earth,fire (example: pointy leaves of plants represent this element) rocks, wood element (trees), metals (flower pots, wind chimes or a metal bench to sit and reflect the days events. When you take these elements and use the bagua-the map of Feng Shui, you are able to draw beneficial energy to you and your home.
A way to apply the Feng Shui philosophy to your garden is starting at the entrance. An arbor, for example, makes clear to people where to come in and makes the garden inviting." Ideally," the entrance faces south -- the direction, by the way, where your garden will get maximum sun exposure. A closed gate would be less inviting for people and energy, and it might shade some of your plants. Though there are no particular Feng Shui plants, Colors have a strong impact on energy flow, just as they have been shown to influence our moods. Hot colors, like red and yellow flowers, lift up your energy level when you're looking at them. The cooler-colored purple and white flowers are more soothing.
Remember, Feng Shui emphasizes diversity. The five elements you want to have represented in your garden are wood, metal, earth, fire and water. Water, be it a fountain or pond or bird bath, is very soothing. By the way, attracting the birds is the best, most natural form of bug control, because they eat pest insects.
The compass directions have corresponding colors to help create your balanced landscaping. When you involve the elements and colors of the bagua map, it creates the a good energy-chi and it is carried into your home to help empower you and your family. The balance of inside/outside Feng Shui will give you the extra boost it takes to live your life in harmony and balance. You will also realize that once you create this harmony, more birds, butterflies, praying mantis will arrive on the scene to share and add to this energized area. You will also find this area to be one that attracts the human race to your area.
If you don't have enough space for a birdbath, there are other ways to incorporate water into a garden. A simple electric fountain would do. Just add water and the electric pump would recycle it.
DESIGNING YOUR FENG SHUI GARDEN
Landscape design is not just a matter of putting up a building, planting trees and flowers, or building an artificial mountain. It is a means of revealing one's attitude of life by displaying landscape esthetically. Landscape needs to be restrained, gentle, and understated. We should modestly hide, not boldly dominate as is fashionable in the West. This enables a more intimate experience and sense of fitting into the environment.
The Chinese way of thinking follows a clear path:
- Respect experiences.
- Discern the truth by studying the past.
- Stand between science and theology.
- Combine ethics with esthetics.
- In Chinese history no special ideal or religion controls spiritual life — real life comes before anything else. Chinese respect nature and self-knowing, and people adapt into a natural world more easily.
A Chinese will search for compromise while a Westerner wants a Yes or No answer. This constitutes fundamentally different approaches to landscape design.
In Western thought we oscillate between total belief in a Creator (ignoring real life) or a full belief in human power to explore and dominate the world (which in many respects also ignores real life). Westerners measure their world in human dimensions, with the formal garden recognized as a symbol of human power and achievement. Humans in Western thought are conquerors and improvers of nature, so people want a walled-in and controlled copy of Paradise (perfection beyond real life).
By enabling and worshipping human power, we lose our fear of wildness. We conquer nature, sanitize and "improve" it. And these ideas are intrinsically Western, coming as they do from Plato and Christian theology.
There is an attitude of profit regarding land in the West. The practical and utilitarian trend is Western, which historically was restricted in the East. In the East the attitude encompasses humility and respect for the forces of nature and heaven.
It is very rare in Chinese design history to place geometrical forms on hilly land, as is common in Western countries. Only in the Chinese Emperor's gardens were geometric forms acceptable, because for Chinese they are symbols of respect for natural forces (heaven and earth).
You will find nothing about improvement of the land, no modification of perceived imperfections or a need to control or dominate the landscape. Even the Son of Heaven would not assume he had the authority to do such a thing.
The four landscape elements are:
- Mountain
- Water
- Plant
- Building
Yin and Yang in the landscape consist of:
- Stillness and movement
- Unity and variety
- Locality and generality
- Scenery and subjective reactions
Practical Application
Feng Shui patios and gardens are closer in spirit to rock, English or low-maintenance gardens than to formal, artificial and overdesigned European gardens, which are characterized by unnatural features such as severe corners, angles and straight lines.
Whether you live in a condo or a mansion, whether you are positioning a potted plant on your patio or having many acres professionally landscaped, putting everything in its right place according to feng shui principles will help create a healing, harmonious and natural environment.
In designing your outdoor space, be mindful of the three basic concepts of Feng Shui:
- Energy flow (wavy or curvy is beneficial; straight lines are negative)
- Balance of yin (dark, soft, passive) and yang (light, hard, active)
- Generative and destructive relationships of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
Here's how to apply basic Feng Shui principles in your spot of earth.
Stand in the center of your outdoor space.
Use a compass to determine the eight directions.
North - Creativity, Personal growth, New ideas, Inspiration, Prospects, Career, Music, Art- Use: Water elements
- Good place for: Metal toolsheds, ponds, Jacuzzis
- Shapes: Waves & curves
- Avoid: Stone, clay, earth.
Northeast - Knowledge, Wisdom, Meditation/reading, Inner journeys, Spiritual and intellectual growth, Nature
- Use: Earth element
- Good place for: Stone benches, rock gardens, repairing equipment, stones and boulders, statutary, brick, flagstone, anything made from the earth
- Shapes: Low and flat surfaces
- Avoid: Plants and trees.
East - New life and growth, Rebirth and rejuvenation, Harmony, Health, Family life, Nutrition, Healing
- Use: Wood element
- Good place for: Fruit trees, herbs, medicinal plants, play equipment, sauna, tai chi and other exercises, trees, plants
- Shapes: Columns, cylinders
- Avoid: Metal garden accessories, patio furniture, tools, white flowers
Southeast - Wealth, Abundance, Material possessions, Communication
- Use: Wood element
- Good place for: Cultivation and display of show plants, flowers or fish
- Shapes: Cylinders, posts and columns
- Avoid: Metal garden accessories, patio furniture and tools, white flowers.
South - Opportunity, Dreams, Aspirations, Awards, Fame, Achievement, Happiness, Longevity, Festivity
- Use: Fire element
- Good place for: Barbecues, fire pits, burning leaves, trees, flowers
- Shapes: Pointed and triangular shapes
- Avoid: Water elements such as ponds, waterfalls, and fountains.
Southwest - Marriage, Romance, Motherhood, Love, Relationships, Partners
- Use: Earth element
- Good place for: Seating/dining for two, team sports
- Shapes: Low, flat surfaces
- Avoid: Wood patio or deck furniture, gazebos, fences and gates, the color green.
West - Children, Creativity, Harvest, Socializing and entertaining
- Use: Metal element
- Good place for: Outdoor entertaining, bar, children's playground/garden, convalescing and healing, sunbathing
- Shapes: Circles and arches.
Northwest - Trade, Interests outside of home, International travel, Fatherhood, Mentors and benefactors, Helpful people, Supporters
- Use: Metal element
- Good place for: Statues of deities, angels, cherubs, animals, wind chimes, sounds
- Shapes: Circles and arches
- Avoid: Barbecues, fire pit, pyramid, red flowers.
- Avoid: Barbecues, fire pit, pyramid, red flowers.
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