"In the spring at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."

That's a quote from Margaret Atwood. A Canadian writer who looks very much like Barbra Streisand. I don't know anything about her, other than we would probably have alot to talk about based on such brillant insight about spring and dirt.

Yesterday I lied to you. I mentioned that I was about to do yardwork, but that's not entirely accurate because I don't actually DO yardwork. I garden.

Lest you think differently, let me assure you there is a huge difference. Gardening involves cooking large quantities of compost, bringing needed shovelfulls of the stuff to hungry plants, talking to and staring at the flowers, making sure everyone is happy where I planted them, warding off any unpleasantness (such as slugs or Japanese Beetles). I also search for new plants and then find places for them among the older ones, helping them to get established and get along with their neighbors. I find new homes for the ones that don't fit in. In this respect I guess I am more like a real estate agent or a mafia mob boss. (I CAN get kind of tough.) Yardwork is what my neighbors do. More about them in a minute.

As I've mentioned before, this is only our second summer in our house. Alright, technically it's the third, but the first was spent moving in and not gardening, so it's the second summer I've put concerted effort toward transforming my little slab of grass and foundation plantings into an English Cottage garden.

I've noticed I've spent quite a bit of time staring at and appreciating the area I worked in last year. Talk about delayed gratification. You spend hours getting compost ready, preparing the bed, planting, watering, fertilizing, and staring. The sweet little darling rose bush responds by sitting there for a year looking like a stick in the ground. Which is a good thing, because it's roots are getting strong and healthy so that one day it can support a mass of gorgeous floppy red flowers, so it's worth the wait. But I digress.

Last year I decided to start with the area between my driveway and the neighbors driveway. Our neighbors are a lovely retired couple from Long Island, New York, who talk very loudly and like to cuss you out when they are mad at you. Something I found out my third week in my new home. We'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Grump. The reason I selected this particular spot is because their garage is RIGHT THERE and they sit and watch us all the time. As I said, they are retired so I guess we're better than TV.

Nice Guy wanted to install a 10 foot fence, but I talked him into planting something that would turn into a beautiful hedge. We planted three skip laurels (Prunus laurocerasus 'Schipkaensis'), which have beautiful glossy evergreen leaves and will one day be a hedge about 8 feet tall and 20 feet long. Just the right size to cover up Mr. and Mrs. Grump's viewing area. Nice Guy pointed out that by the time the hedge is full grown, Mr. and Mrs. Grump will be dead, but I patiently explained we'd at least have a nice hedge. In front of the laurels, I planted three Rosa 'The Fairy' bushes. These sweet little innocent pale pink rose bushes are growing like mad. In another year, I'll probably have to start pruning them. I hope they behave. They certainly LOOK sweet. A true Southern rose bush if I ever met one.

Across from the rose bushes are about 5 hosta plants which came with the house. I planted pink lily bulbs a few weeks ago to grow in and around them. I moved a dark marroon Asiatic lily to that side, as well. In front of the very first Rosa 'The Fairy', I planted lavendar daylilies. The lily crew may need to get moved around later on, but for now I can't wait to see the show.

Now, if you were here with me, you'd be standing on the side of the house, so follow this neat little path of pavers I put down and notice the ground cover. Yeah, I'm not sure I like it either. It's chocolate chip ajuga. The least invasive ajuga, but it's looking kind of....wierd. But looky there, do you see the arbor we put in? Yeah, I know Mr. and Mrs. Grump have one too. Theirs is plastic. Mine is wood. Mine has my great-grandmother's climbing rose bush growing on it. Theirs has plastic pots of petunias dangling off the side. The Grumps like plastic. You can tell by the many plastic pots and plastic pavers and plastic trellises they have on their side of the house. Yeah, they like annuals too. And fertilizer. Yeah, I've never seen such a green lawn either. Yup, that's a riding lawn mower sitting in the garage. The quarter of an acre gets mowed faithfully by Mr. Grump every three days...well, he has to because of all the fertilizer, remember? Yes, they actually did plant golden euonymous bushes around their porch. Well, aren't you smart? Yes, they do get about 20 feet tall, but see how they have masterfully whacked them into round balls to keep them in check? Well, I know they look like a bunch of bleached blonde bimbos sitting there. It IS an ugly bush, but don't you think it looks interesting with the red salvia, multi-colored impatients and purple clematis? Well, at least it matches their personality quite nicely.

Anyway, back to my yard. If you look waaaay down here at the bottom of the trellis....right there, no right there. See it? Seeeee?????? Yeah, that. Those little itty bitty sprouts of green? Blue forget-me-nots....just sowed them a week ago. Aren't they precious??? Babies! Yeah, I know the irises are flopping over. I just put them in last week too....I had to get tough and move them and I'm not sure if I should whack off their legs....errrr....trim their green leaves. The frustrating part about irises is you have to plant them with the bulb showing or they won't bloom but that means they keep flopping over. I'll have to keep on eye on them. Might have to get tough.

Sigh....isn't it lovely? Couldn't you sit here for hours watching the flowers grow too? Thanks for stopping by. Come back later when the hydrangeas are blooming. And don't forget next year! You can tour the other side of my house and see the new vegetable garden and the perennial bed I'm working on right now. Ta-ta!

Saturday

Well, folks.....it's a bright and sunny May Saturday morning which can only mean one thing for the thrifty minded: yard sales. Nice Guy won major brownie points by suggesting we go schlepping around other people's cast-offs this morning and this is what we came home with:

- A heavy-bottomed Oneida saucepan which I will use to make soap .25
- A nice guitar for my little man - something he's been wanting 10.00
- a tall, clear lemonade bottle with a stopper that a very nice lady gave me after I oogled some beer bottles with stoppers she had piled in a box FREE
- a CD case for the many CD's floating around in our van .50
- beautiful antique sterling salt and pepper shakers (to add to my collection of tarnished silver in the kitchen) 6.00
- many, many educational books 5.00
- new speakers for our computer which sound MUCH better than the old ones 3.00 (I would just like to point out I would have NEVER noticed these if Nice Guy had not been with me.)
- a few Christmas decorations .50
- a new blender because I chipped a tiny piece off the glass pitcher part of our brand new $40 Oster 5.00 (and because this one is also an Oster the pitcher fits the base on the old one, so now I have 2 bases. Anybody need one?)

I talked Nice Guy out of purchasing a Nordictrak, a massage pad thingy that goes in a chair, a lawn mower that was only 2 years old and still under warranty (we have a brand new one we just bought last year), and a laundry hamper (also have that, guess who doesn't use it).

I tried to purchase a skateboard ramp from a kid who positioned himself at the top of it when we walked into his yard. He wasn't budging. He had several, so I thought he could have parted with it, but he has obviously yet to learn the art of negotiation.

Saturdays in May are also all about the yardwork, so guess what I'm going to do now?

Easter

A very happy Easter to all my friends....I pray you would understand more deeply the great sacrifice Jesus made for us.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you..."

Cabinets with red primer. 

Boring oak cabinets...but check out the newly painted black window!  

Funky Kitchen

So take a look at the boring cabinets we got with the house. I had the idea to distress them but I had no clue how and I was petrified that I would ruin them. Enter my wonderful artist friend Sandra who heard my vision and is holding my hand through this process. I've learned so much and am having a blast making these things look as beat up as possible!

I had to clean and sand the cabinets first - time consuming. I had primer tinted this red color which was supposed to be darker, but I found out that primer can only get SO dark. This was the best barn red Sherwin Williams Ryan could give me.

So far, the kitchen cabinets are not finished, however I have done the laundry room cabinets, and I am ecstatic about them! Unfortunately, I can't get a good picture to show you here. The lighting in that room is terrible, so you'll just have to wait and see the real deal when I'm done! Also, I didn't want to purchase new hardware, so Sandra RUSTED my current hardware! It is the neatest look! I'll post pictures of that later. It inspired me to bring my grandmother's old white (and rusted) metal rocker into the kitchen. VERY cool.

Here's part of the newly painted living room with a peek into the dining room.  

The House We Built

Okay, so we really didn't build our house. We moved out to suburbia 2 years ago and got a great deal on a cape cod that a relo company owned. We moved from a 1600 square foot cutie-pie into a sweeping farmhouse (my view of it anyway) with a gorgeous front and back porch, tile and hardwood floors, huge picture windows and a master bathroom that made me cry the first time I saw it. Later on after we moved in, I found a list of things I'd wanted in a house and the Lord had given me every single item on my list! I hadn't even realized it when we moved! In fact, I'd forgotten I'd made that list, but God never did. He knew that I wanted a nice house and a happy family and lots of friends to fill it more than anything else in the world. He gives us the desires of our heart.

So here we are, two years later and I'm trying to, as inexpensively as possible, make it mine. We've done some major painting the past 2 weeks. The house was loaded with dark oak dentil molding, oak doors, dark oak wooden blinds....lots of oak. Yuck. It needed to be set free, so we painted all the trim in the living and dining rooms white and put a vanilla color on the walls. It's actually a Behr paint called Cottage White. It's gorgeous! The whole downstairs is light and airy and beautiful. I can see the whole side of my yard now. No more blinds! See what I mean?

Valentines Update

By the way, I never told you that Nice Guy cried when he read the card I'd made him. He cried. Sigh....

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines from Momma. I love Valentines.....it's a fun, romantic holiday and I'm a romantic at heart. Of course, I also have a romantic husband so that makes it even more fun. I guess if I were single or if Nice Guy just didn't get it, not so much fun.

I made Nice Guy a homemade Valentine card, which I do alot - make homemade things, that is. I like making things because I'm cheap, but I'm also an artist at heart (although I'm not exactly trained or anything like that). I was inspired because my girls are taking an art class where they've been making these neat books with lots of cool paint techniques and collages. I got a book from the library called Altered Art and that inspired me too....so I printed up that e.e. cummings poem that Cameron Diaz read to her sister in the movie In Her Shoes because I LOVE that poem. (It's called "i carry your heart with me" if you want to look it up.) And I had these cute pictures I cut out and I have lots of scrapbooking supplies including very nice paper, so I was set to make the Most Romantic Card Ever.

I sewed (yes, with my sewing machine - pretty cool) some paper into a book and started gluing on the pictures and the poem and then I painted the whole thing. If you, too, are trying to create a last minute card because you don't have time to run to the store (say, you live in a high traffic area) but you DO have 4 hours to spare in the making of a homemade card) here's a few do's and don'ts I learned. Let's call it Cardmaking 101:


1. If you sew together your pages first and then try to paint, the paint that's meant for one page will end up on all the pages.

2. If you glue down all your pictures before painting, the paint will cover the pictures and you won't see them. This should be obvious but sometimes we just don't think of these things.

3. Dogs like to sniff paint that's sitting on the floor.

4. Puppies like to play in paint that's sitting on the floor.

5. If you have ANY animals in your house, they should be kept out of the crafting area.

6. Carpet absorbs paint.

7. Remind the recipient that it's the thought that counts.

8. If you need detailed directions in the actual making of your card, contact a professional.

Happy Valentines Day!

80's Teen, but 70's Child

This morning, a friend I grew up with sent this to me....reminded me so much of our childhood together, I'm pretty sure she wrote it!

You were a little girl in the 70's if:

You wore a rainbow shirt that was half-sleeves, and the rainbow went up one sleeve, across your chest, and down the other.

You made baby chocolate cakes in your Easy Bake Oven and washed them down with snow cones from your Snoopy Snow Cone Machine.

You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with flowers on it.

You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that had metal wheels.

You thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute (umm, try Scott Baio).

You had either a "bowl cut" or "pixie," not to mention the "Dorothy Hamill" because your Mom was sick of braiding your hair. People sometimes thought you were a boy. (My poor sister, there's a picture of her with her Dorothy Hamill and me with the Shag cut on my naturally curly, frizzy hair. I look like a q-tip. Both of us look very, very strange.)

Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession.

You wore a poncho, gauchos, and knickers.... and later on legwarmers...in every color!

You begged Santa for the electronic game, Simon.

You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple satiny shredded outfits.

You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with the trapeze. The swing set tipped over at least once.

You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color.

You had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals (the ones with hard sole & the buckle).

You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad; you wore that Little House on the Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffle shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture; and you despised Nellie Olson! (AND I had a Pioneer outfit my grandmother made me. I could also be Holly Hobbie in this outfit.)

You wanted your first kiss to be at the roller rink.

Your hairstyle was described as having "wings" or "feathers" and you kept it "pretty" with the comb you kept in your back pocket.

You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends, Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie.

You carried a Muppets lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic. (Muppets in Space, thank you very much.)

You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazzard was your boyfriend.

You and two of your best friends would play "Charlies Angels", And whomever was the blonde would automatically be Jill (Farrah Fawcett) and later on, her little sister, Kris (Cheryl Ladd); and whoever was a brunette would've to argue over being either Sabrina (Kate Jackson) or Kelly (Jaclyn Smith).

It was a big event in your household each year when the "Wizard of Oz"would come on TV. Your mom would break out the popcorn and sleeping bags! (AND everything stopped at 8:00 pm on Sunday evenings to watch the Wonderful World of Disney.)

You often asked your Magic-8 ball the question: "Who will I marry, Shaun Cassidy or Leif Garrett?"

You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Fame soundtrack record album.

You tried to do lots of arts and crafts, like yarn and Popsicle-stick God's eyes or decoupage.

You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your portable tape player up to the speaker.

You couldn't wait to get the free animal poster that came when you ordered books from the Weekly Reader book club. Double score if it was a teddy bear dressed in clothing.

You learned everything you needed to know about girl issues from Judy Blume books (Are you there God, It's me, Margaret.) (Absolutely - and unfortunately from the banned, Forever book as well!)

You thought Olivia Newton John's song "Physical" was about aerobics.

You wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer.

You had a Big Wheel with a brake on the side, and a Sit-n-Spin.

You drowned yourself in Love's Baby Soft - which was the first "real"perfume you ever owned. (And is truthfully, much less "intrusive" to the senses than Plumeria Body Spray from Bath and Body Works!)