If you missed the deadline, be sure to get your name on our mailing list or email list to ensure you get the information when it’s time for next spring’s sale.

Incahoots’ Top 10 Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

10. Take a shower with a bar of Irish Spring in your hand.

9. Make yourself a nice hot cup of Irish Breakfast Tea, perhaps with a bit of milk and sugar.

8. Water and admire your Shamrock plants.

7. Send St. Patrick’s Day Greeting Cards to all your Irish relatives (and remember, everybody’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day).

6. Drive the snakes out of your backyard and into your neighbor’s.

5. Make a gift of Willow Tree’s ‘Irish Charm’ figure to a special person in your life.

Ingredients:
Brussels Sprouts, Hazelnuts, Garlic, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper.

Roast the hazelnuts separately in a cast iron skillet on the stove top, then coarsely chop.
After spending a few minutes admiring the beauty and color of the Brussels Sprouts stalk and marveling at the geometrical precision of its growth habit, remove the individual Brussels Sprouts from the stalk and rinse. Cut an “X” in the top of each sprout (this allows the sprouts to open up so more of the yummy oil and seasonings can get inside.)
Oven roast the Brussels sprouts together with the garlic and olive oil. Remove them from the oven, sprinkle with the toasted hazelnuts and add salt and pepper to taste.

Okay, I know that’s not as precise a recipe a some people might like, but like life in general, you just have to use your best judgement and make adjustments along the way until you get it to suit your own taste.

And here’s yet another interesting vegetable tidbit that I recently ran across.

Eating Veggies Makes Men More Attractive

Yes, you read that headline right: According to researchers, eating veggies makes a man more attractive to a woman.

Researchers in the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus found that having a healthy skin tone is more important in determining how attractive a man is to a woman than how manly they look. The researchers found that in both African and Caucasian populations of men, the attractiveness ratings given by women were closely related to the amount of “golden” color in the skin, while a mathematical measure of the men’s facial masculinity had no effect on the attractiveness of the face.

Dr. Ian Stephen, who led the research, explains: “The attractive color in our face is affected by our health—especially by the amount of colorful antioxidant carotenoid pigments we get from fruit and vegetables in our diet. These carotenoids are also thought to be good for our immune and reproductive system, making us healthy and increasing our fertility.”

Yet another reason to chow down on those Brussels Sprouts.

Peace,

Brian

Beginning on Wednesday, December 21st, we start by discounting all Christmas Decorations* by 10%. Then on the 22nd, it’s 20% off, on Friday the 23rd, 30% off, and on Saturday, the 24th, 40% off. That’s the Before part of the sale.

The After part starts when we open up on Monday, the 26th. At that precise moment (9:30 a.m.), Christmas Decorations go on sale at 50% off!

* Just to clarify: Flowers & Music are not included in this sale.

Holiday Hours:

We’ll be open our usual hours (9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) this week with the exception of Saturday (Christmas Eve) when we’ll be closing somewhere around 4:00 p.m.

We are once again stocked up on everybody’s favorite word games Bananagrams, Appletters, and Pairs in Pears. We have also secured a supply of their new games – Zip-It and Fruitominoes.

ZIP-IT is an exhilarating, high-speed, two-player game played with 24 lettered cubes and colored scoring zippers that come built into the pouch. Each player takes 12 cubes and races against their opponent to build a word grid. One hand can be played in as little as 20 seconds, and everything you need is in the bag! Playable on an airplane or train tray, ZIP-IT is the ultimate travel game. Each pouch includes a WEORDS dictionary of weird words that win word games!

Fruitominoes is a fresh, fruity, and colorful twist to the classic game of dominoes! Each player takes turns matching the six attractive fruit patterns. Twenty-eight Fruitominoes in a compact pouch make this a game that’s great for young and old.

Most years, we just wander around until we find a climbable tree, stomp our way through the underbrush, find some way to get into the tree, ascend to a dizzying height, and clip away at the decorative parasites. They are then gently tossed from the “harvester” down to the “catcher” who generally gets a facefull of mistletoe, moss, an occasional branch, and perhaps a small tree dwelling rodent.
This year, remembering many trees that were just too hard to get into, we decided to try attaching monofilament (fishing line) to an arrow and shooting the arrow over a branch. We would then tie a rope to the monofilament and pull the rope over the branch. Then we (meaning Thea) could climb the rope to a bountiful harvest. Well as luck would have it, the first tree we happened upon was easy to climb and yielded an abundance of mistletoe.

We could have just called it a day and gone to sit by the fire, but no, we had to try out our new system. Presently, we found a suitable tree and Robin prepared the arrow and monofilament. He then proceeded to test the arrow by lightly shooting it across a field. Away flew the arrow, snap went the monofilament, and it was a surprise to all just how far that arrow flew. Across the field, uphill and into the brush it went. After a fruitless and arrowless search we returned to the tree. Robin got out his lighter bow, another arrow, and attached the monofilament. I must say that Robin is quite a good shot and if Miranda hadn’t been standing on the monofilament, he would have gotten the line in the tree in no time.

Eventually we did succeed in getting the line in the tree, but it wasn’t strong enough to pull the rope over the branch.  It did make for an interesting illusion on the way up though. So as the sun began to set and the chill settled in, we decided to go make some hot chocolate and sit by the fire.

Here’s hoping your holiday season is filled with adventure.
And yes, we do have mistletoe.
Peace,
Brian

First up, is the music of John Huling. He’s just released Winter Solstice – Southwest Meditations, an album of musical stories with haunting Native American flute melodies and meditative drumming enveloped in the sounds of nature. This is contemplative, peaceful music for meditation, dreaming, and healing your spirit.

Hmmm…I guess that may not sound like most people’s idea of party music. Never fear, we have another selection.

A solstice CD that I plan to add to my personal collection is Song of Solstice by Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra. This album of Celtic music offers original and traditional songs for midwinter. From pieces that encourage introspection to lively tunes that will have you singing along, this CD is a gift to help banish the winter gloom.