Why a real clover isn't REAL

I am about to save you. Be careful not to blink, because you'll miss it.

If you search for four leaf clover jewelry, you can easily find online. Well, maybe. Many sites sell 'real four leaf clover jewelry': www.fourleafclovergifts.com , even, amazon.com has them! But here's the dirty truth.

Many of these 'real' four leaf clovers are not who they say they are.

But there are real clovers out there? So who are these impostors? How can you tell if they are real or fake?

For starters, these impostor clovers are in fact botanical. In truth they are not from the clover family (they are ferns), but these impostor clovers naturally grow four leaves. See? Told ya I'd save you. I'm saving you from buying an unlucky clover. The most common type used for clover jewelry is the water clover.

You know this plant is harvested by some underpaid foreign laborer, dried for several weeks, and then packaged and sold to crafters, or manufacturers. A few days ago I paid a visit to micheals craft store, and I was disgusted. In the pendant section of the jewelry aisle, hung two different types of pendants with this clover in them.

Now, I'm not saying if you just want the look of a perfect clover that you can't buy these by any means. I am however, irritated by the fact that people try to pass these as 'real'. I spend my days crawling over white clover searching for the true lucky clovers, earning less than minimum wage. It's rather insulting that some just effortlessly collects these to pass of as the real deal.

So how do you tell, if you interested in a real clover? Well, this is not always the case, but here's a few possibilities.

• The clover is perfect portions. I have found some real clovers that are perfect, but they are few and far. If it's a perfect, raise an eyebrow.
• The clover has color. Clover with red edges are not white clover.
• The price. My jewelry is really cheap compared to other real clovers, but I'm not making enough off them, and I will charge more when I get better at resin mixing. But rest assured, if it's $20 or under for a necklace, they must have a surplus of those bad boys.

So whether you do or don't care about getting a real clover, It's nice to know the difference.  Now I'm done being superhero. It's your turn. Go save someone else from falling for the 'real' clover claim.

So many things!

First I want to wish you all a happy thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for, so much in fact, that I haven't had time to blog much!

So, I'd love to tell you about everything that's going on, but I do have a 12 pound turkey to cook, rolls to bake, and mash potatos to mash!  So instead, I'm sharing a little family tradition we do for thanksgiving.

Every year, we go to a paint your own pottery studio. I let the kids pick out something small to paint, and I pick out a dinnerware piece to serve our thanksgiving meal on. Two years ago, I made an attempt to paint one at home, and it failed, as I did it with the wrong paint. The following year (last year) we made a turkey platter.

This year, we made a mash potato bowl.  Last year, I forgot to add the year we made the piece, so I remembered to do so this year. All of the dinnerware will have hand print turkeys. I'm hoping though that we will be able to do some pie dishes at some point instead of turkeys, we'll do apple and pumpkin palm prints.

The idea is when the kids are in high school and thereafter, we'll have a full set of serving ware and a memory to go with each piece--a memory to be thankful for.