Some days when I am at home I like to fix a great big salad for lunch.  Somehow it seems to make me feel better about the snacking that I do before hand and the chocolate that tends to come after.  It's all about balance, right?  Truly though, I enjoy everything about making a salad.  I love the mix of colors and textures as well as the variety of vitamins that I know that I am getting. I try to make sure that I add in some dark green leafy lettuces, such as spinach, because they are packed full of antioxidants. I usually like to top my salad off with some low-fat cottage cheese and light Italian dressing. Something this pleasing to the eye has to be pleasing to the tummy!

     

  Cotton Boll Wreath

             I finally got around to making a wreath out of the cotton bolls that I picked at my brother's farm back in the summer.  My procrastination was not out of disinterest, but a sense of sheer insecurity.   I had actually purchased  a wreath at a yard sale several months ago, but never got started on it for fear that it would not turn out like the finished ones that I had admired.  I decided that the worst thing that could happpen would be that I spent some time crafting, which I love to do, and end up with something to give away.  Since both were positive by products of my time and materials, I decided to "go for it".

              I grabbed my trusty glue gun and just started gluing the cotton bolls on in random places.

             After adding a few cotton bolls here and there, I began to loosen up and actually enjoy myself.  Every boll was unique.  All were opened to a different degree.  They were like little tiny works of art.  I grew up in the south and saw cotton growing by the side of the road each year, but I always seemed to take it for granted. Handling each pod and arranging them on the wreath gave me a little sense of pride about what I had overlooked for so many years.  Cotton truly is the "fabric of our lives" and it is grown, picked and processed right out my back door.  There is a rich heritage here in Memphis connected to this valuable crop.  I continued adding these white little treasures until I felt I hand enough.  I didn't want to put on too many as I wanted to be able to appreciate the nice weave of the wreath beneath my cotton as well.

    

  I completed my wreath by adding a ribbon in my favorite shade of green.