good morning

Isn't that the prettiest geranium you've ever seen? Sunday became our annual get the flower beds ready for the summer day, after just a quick, "Hey, you wanna go look at flowers?" proposition. We went to the local big box, waited in line for what seemed F O R E V E R, and bought the usual suspects of geraniums, marigolds, begonias and lobelia. On the way home, we stopped by a small local flower shop set up (aka tent) and found these brilliant geraniums. Here's one of the pots that the close up came from:

Yeah, yeah, I know. I still have to line the black basket with the coconut husk thingy, and I will. Just not today. Also, I wanted to mention, these photos have not been altered at all; the color that is shown here is the actual color of the geraniums. I know I'm making a big deal about this, but I just have never seen more healthy, vibrant plants, ever. We walked into the local flower tent and were just blown away at all the beauty. I can't wait to take my sister next month when she comes to visit.

We also bought a bleeding heart basket, which I love:

Bought and planted ten rose bushes:

We planted the roses alongside our house, on the West side of the property. Other roses have fared well there, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for these. The lighter colored foliage roses (or the ones in the middle of the photo) are yellow carpet roses, and they hopefully will flourish and fill in a fairly large space that is pretty barren now. That is, if I don't kill them first. Unintentionally, of course.

And, as always happens, we buy more plants than we can plant that first day. This group is slated for our flower bed that lines one side of our driveway, but it needs a large amount of weeding done beforehand, and you know, we just weren't up to it on Sunday. Unfortunately, it will be next Sunday now before we have time to put the suckers in the ground.

Mini Re-Do

Flowering trees in the spring produce the most amazing colors for our landscape around here. They are so very welcome after months of gray-brown winter colors, when you wonder if everything hibernating will ever come back to life. Sometimes towards the end of February and the beginning of March, I wonder. I sometimes feel as if it's going to be cold forever and shorts and flip flops are about as far away as the ocean itself. But of course, then it warms up a little, the spring trees bloom and do their thing, and the next thing you know, you're sticking to the seats in your car, complaining about how hot it is.

These flowers were courtesy of a wild cherry/crabapple (?) growing in the common area in the center of our neighborhood. I sneaked down with my kitchen scissors and lopped off what seemed to be a ton, but once I got home and threw them in the vase the amount I pilfored didn't seem so glutonous. Love them.


In trying to get the house somewhat presentable for our daughter's graduation party, I used my day off this week to paint her bathroom. As I think I've mentioned before, I am a longtime member of the "it sounded like a good idea at the time" club. Well, this bathroom had fallen victim to the Christopher Lowell/Trading Spaces phase of faux painting effects for about the last five years or so. I believed them when they demonstrated that just drybrushing a lighter paint color over a darker paint color gave the wall a linen look. Well, it didn't; in my experiment, anyway. It was brown, with ivory colored thatch marks all about. If I remember correctly, getting it to look like linen was quite the shoulder/tricep work out, too. Especially when it never quite looked like linen, either.

So I replaced it with this light olive color, no faux effect, just good ol' satin wall paint, found on the oops rack at Lowe's. I think I love it. I still have to hang the towel holders and replace the light switch covers and little stuff like that, but it's already a thousand times better. And I love the oops rack at Lowe's. Every time I go there, I have to inspect it, just to see if there's anything I think we may want or need. If there's a somewhat neutral color, and it's the right finish, I snatch it up. I think I may paint too much, actually. Everytime my sis comes to visit, our house is a different color. On the inside, anyway.




These are some small granny bags I've been working on what little spare time I have lately. I'm working on some embellishments for them, but just haven't had enough time to finish them off.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

YAY!!!

I think spring is finally here. No, really. After super warm days being followed by days of snow and frost, I really think it's actually here. See...Here's proof:





That's my spawn, dressed and ready for her senior prom. Isn't she just cute as can be? I would kill for her skin, really. Oh wait - I have her skin. Or she has mine, or something. What I mean is, she has never -and will never ever- been/go to a tanning bed, whereas I unfortunately spent about 18 months of my life hopping in and out of. Only when I noticed several lovely moles on my legs and a word from a coworker that, "Your face just looks old." did I stop going completely. She's a pretty low maintenance girl; normal school uniform includes jeans, a hoodie or a T-shirt, maybe a brush raked through her hair on at least one side, a Hello Kitty book bag and a protein bar to go.

With her dad. How'd I get so lucky? They're both such great people to have in your corner.

And lastly but not least, mother and daughter. She looks completely perturbed, doesn't she? At this point, we were late. Like, taking the photos at the same time as she was supposed to be at the restaurant. We're always late to just about everything, and it's usually my fault. I always think I can shower, apply make up, fix hair and get dressed in about seven minutes. This drives my husband nuts, but it's what I do. There could be worse things, such as:

DID YOU SEE MY HAIR? Not to steal the thunder from my lovely daughter, but the hair that is on the woman in the above photo is NOT, repeat NOT, my hair. I mean, it is, of course, my hair, however it is not my usual hair. I went for a cut & color a couple of weeks ago and got a wild hair as they say, and the next thing you know, I look like what would be the result if Cojo and Kristy McNichol had a baby. If you can't tell, I hate it. I mean, I really, really, really hate it. Thank God and my hairy ancestors that my locks grow quickly because if I had to go too long with this I might become a hermit. Although I don't think I'd mind that much, either.

something i really want

So in between working on little granny bags to put in my Etsy shop, haphazardly crocheting various flowers from free web patterns and doing my daily Googles, I came across this girl's site.

I crocheted that one afghan for my daughter with the Wicked playbill as the graphic, but this lady is just well, really talented. When crocheting my Wicked afghan, I worked the entire thing in single crochet, and Beck works hers in the Tunisan style. It seems like a daunting task, but all of the research I've seen on it suggests it is a much easier method. And I'm going to have to take them up on it for sure.


I brought out my series of Picasso books, because I would like to do something with a few color changes more than the four or five that the Wicked afghan offered. I predict now that I will be cursing about this decision in about oh, four or five days. After going through both books, I finally decided on this painting:







It is entitled, Head of a Woman with Green Curls, painted in Paris, June 15 and December 7, 1946. Oil on canvas. I absolutely LOVE her! The colors are intricate, yet the heavy black outline suggests simplicity in her creation. I want to make her a handbag/tote, that's how much I love her! I'm sure Picasso would disapprove...sigh.



I have to get a couple of colors of yarn before I begin, and I'm not completely sure I know what I'm doing with the whole Tunisan process, in fact, you may hear the swearing from where you are. I think she's worth a try, though, definitely.