This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

Early Christmas

October 30th, 2018

When my sister and the kids were up last week, we celebrated Christmas. Typically, we head back to Ohio around Thanksgiving, but this year we knew we weren’t going to be able to make it. Mr Chiots took the kids out and they selected and cut a balsam fir from the back 40. We set it up and the girls added some decorations. While they were doing this, I was making our Christmas dinner, complete with ham, green beans, and mashed potatoes.


It’s always nice to extend the holiday season out a little more. Instead of a mad rush with lots of gatherings, we end up celebrating them here and there over the course of a few months. The kids loved cutting a real Christmas tree, it was a new experience for them.

Do you celebrate any holidays at off seasons?

Friday Favorite: Espresso

December 22nd, 2017

Here at Chiot’s Run, we brew espresso and drink it with steamed milk. Every day, we brew two cups and thoroughly enjoy them, down to the last drop.

Every morning I’m happy as can be to be enjoying a delicious cup of steamed milk and espresso, what a wonderful way to start the day. Coming from Colombia, I started drinking coffee in the womb and never stopped. It’s been one of my favorite things for as long as I can remember.

Are you a coffee drinker?

Learning New Crafts

July 11th, 2017

I’ve been wanting to learn how to dye with indigo for quite awhile. In fact, I was signed up for a class last summer, but it was cancelled at the last minute. When I saw that Halcyon Yarn had a class this summer I signed up. The class was taught by Jackie from Forage Color, it turns out she lives not far from me. Here are a few of the items I made during class:


Our class included four cotton napkins and one silk scarf, we were also able to take a few items of our to dip into the vat. I took an old white skirt that had a stain, a white tank top, and a white swiss dot sheet that I got at the thrift store.

The skirt turned out beautiful, I’m excited to once again be able to wear it as it’s one of my favorites (you can see my post about how much I love this skirt here).



I’ve been buying white sheets at the local thrift store for a few years now, my plan was originally to make white curtains for the back porch. Now I’m thinking indigo curtains might be a fun project. I won’t have time to do it until fall, gardening takes up way too much of my summer time. It’s always fun to learn something new, especially a new creative endeavor.

What new creative things are you pursuing at the moment? Or what have you always wanted to learn how to do when you get a little more time in your schedule?

Friday Favorite: My Mom

June 2nd, 2017

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that my mom is an avid gardener. She cultivated my love of gardening from an early age. Whenever she went to the greenhouse to get annuals for the flowerbeds, I was allowed to pick out a six pack to plant. When we ordered seeds for the edible garden, we were each allowed to choose some variety of vegetable to grow (I remember always choosing something blue for some reason). When I lived in Ohio we cultivated an edible garden space in her yard together.


My mom battled breast cancer six years ago, it metastasized to her bones last year. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last September, after discussing various options she decided she only wanted palliative care. Her last 8 months of life were good, considering what she was fighting. Her battle with cancer ended on May 19th, four days after my parents celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.

She lives on in the gardens, both at her house and in mine. My garden is filled with plants I got from her, her garden is filled with plants she got from me, both of our gardens contain plants we got from her mother’s garden. We enjoyed gardening together, we enjoyed visiting gardens together. She will be sorely missed.

Quote of the Day: Ian Fleming

December 28th, 2014

“History is moving pretty quickly these days, and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.”
― Ian Fleming in Casino Royale

007
Between Christmas and New Year’s, Mr Chiots and I have the tradition that we try to watch as many James Bond movies as we can. I’m not sure exactly when this tradition started, we’ve been doing it for a LONG time, probably 10-12 years ago. It all started way back when one of the movie channels did “the 007 Days of Christmas” and showed the movies 24/7 during that week. We started watching and then purchased the complete blu-ray set a few years ago.
007 days of Christmas large (1)
So far this year we’ve been able to watch five movies and we still have five more days to go. Hopefully we’ll get to watch at least half of them. It’s a really fun tradition, something a little out of the ordinary, especially this time of year. We’ve even convinced a few of our friends to do it as well.

Do you have any uncommon traditions around the holidays?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

Admin