Perennials and a sale tip!

I've had to take a couple of days off from the garden in order to tend to other things on "the list", namely housecleaning, grocery shopping, and ordering Subaru parts, yes- exciting stuff.  Until I can have some veggie progress to report on, these will have to do ...

Here's what's going on with the perennials -

Columbine

Hardy Geranium (pink), Walkers Low Catmint

 Yarrow

Salvia

Dianthus

Clematis

Nearly everything in the garden is now actively blooming, but I better save some of the others for my lazy picture days :)

Weekend agenda:  Plant squashes, tie tomatoes, obsessively check my cukes, beans and melons for germination, check for early bugs, mow lawn, watch hubby put new catalytic converter and harmonic balancer on the Forester (good times), and fit a walk/bike ride with the family & dogs in somewhere!  What big plans do you have this weekend?

**almost forgot!  I received an email last night stating that Sustainable Seed Co. is having a sale - 35% off for Mother's Day!  I really like this small company, I ordered a lot from them last year, and had great customer service and germination, check them out if you are in need - they also have a clearance section (I got all my beans there for about 45 cents a pack last year!)

Warning: Enablers at Work!

What do we have here?  Darn enablers up to more mischief!  Thanks to blogger friend Alison at Whatever it Needs to Be... I came home to these goodies in the mailbox!  I can't wait to spend some time with this, I've been thinking about it since I started knitting of course!  As soon as I opened the package I was hit with a lovely raw wool scent that immediately reminded me of being a kid.  My dad's barn jacket and gloves always smelled just like this, if you've been around sheep at all you know what I'm talking about, divine!  I'm in the process of packing up a package of garden seeds for you, Alison!

Alison has her hands in lots of stuff.  She's raising a family, doing it on a budget, she's into jewelry and metal work as well as spinning and dyeing fiber.  She also has an Etsy shop, Daisy Cat Jewelry for her goodies, check it out - enablers unite!

Speaking of enablers, I spent the morning on my continued quest for a new sewing machine.  I want it to do EVERYTHING but I want a good deal.... is that too much to ask for LOL?!  Two more nameless blogger enablers (can you guess who?) are on the email hot-list for my incessant questions!  Thanks, ladies, I'm getting close... (for those that don't know, I tend to research everything to death!)

As if I needed more catalogs to flip through this time of year... now it's sewing machines!

On arriving home, more mail - my first internet order of fabric.  I couldn't resist, I took advantage of a coupon for becoming a "fan" on Facebook, and the coupon was good on sale and clearance fabrics, too. No, these aren't for the same project - rather I just chose a few that "spoke" to me for future inspiration.  Yes that's right... fabric with no machine yet  :(

Library this week:  sewing for me and scat for the boys LOL

I forgot to include a photo of the pizza the other night, first time using the specialty flour:

Time for the monthly Subaru Love photo... this is hubby's Subaru.  It's full of 6 closet doors and other random maintenance junk for the rental property, I could have fit twice this much in there if I wanted.... Subaru Love

Saved this one for last:

That is gauge is working perfectly!  Just a fluke though, it's supposed to be in the 30's tonight and 30's tomorrow, and I couldn't really even enjoy it since it rained all day, but I did get to break out my flip flops!

Our version of the Winter Olympics

Yesterday I thought I was going to beat my personal best time to D.C. of 2 hours, 45 minutes, but it was not to be! I left at 6:30 am and jetted all the way up to almost there, before traffic came to a standstill! Accident? Nope. Rush Hour? Nope. Get this one... there was snow blowing out of the trees in the median, I think everyone thought it was a blizzard and stomped on the brakes, which, in an actual blizzard is not the best way to handle that situation, lol. So that 2 mile long "median blizzard" put me behind and I ended up at 2 hours, 50 minutes! But, WOW, they have alot of snow up there. Kenneth, I can't imagine how your city is handling it all, and finding places to put it. Ours is melting in between storms, so we never have it on the ground more than a day or so. Excuse the photos, they were taken with my iPhone, which has terrible photo capabilities!

Sunrise, leaving my city to head across the Chesapeake Bay

The Happiest Place on Earth (for me!)

Mecca for organizational OCD freaks like me

I pulled in 15 minutes before the store opened and parked next to the door on Subaru Alley. Ever notice how many of us there are there? Count sometime, it's pretty funny stuff.

So upon arrival, my plan was to make a beeline for Bathrooms, get all my cabinets, load up, then go back to surf the store. Two kitchens, and a prior bathroom has taught me that speed is an issue, or else when you get to the warehouse the essential items will be gone! Like cabinets, check - frames & legs, nope! I am sure many of you are familiar with this scenario, but it takes on a whole 'nuther level of stress when you have to travel 3 hours to get here. Well, to my utter amazement, everything was in stock! I quickly loaded up the car, then returned to enjoy the rest of my shopping day sans kids, husband & dogs! Let me tell you, it was DIVINE!

Here's my bathroom! It's utterly amazing the amount of crap that will fit on these little carts. Seems to me that after dropping that much money one should get a Hummer-Limo style cart. Or perhaps an armed escort.

The rest of the day I was able to pick up a few other things for the bathroom, bins, towels, a rug, all that other stuff that will make it "mine". After about an hour of shopping, I did notice that I happened to be singing a bunch of really old Prince tunes to myself, and thought "omg, it's on a loop!" We're talking pre-Purple Rain stuff! Thought for a minute the store manager might have relocated from the Twin Cities IKEA, lol.... we do love our hometown boy Prince up there. On the way home, I stopped at Starbucks and got to see 2 girls that were really too old to be dressed like 80's punk rockers argue about the proper way to drink "real espresso". One said "real Europeans" don't put sugar in their espresso, to which the other argued "really? - cuz I was in France and they have sugar there..." it was amusing. Traffic on the way home was bumper to bumper for about 35 miles, but I had awesome music to jam to. First, I jammed to Boy George and then flipped the channel to more Boy George! I lovelovelove Boy George so that was fun. Then I got to hear Safety Dance, a little Duran Duran, and E.L.O.! This 80's girl was in heaven! Usually, I hate traveling between cities and flipping the station constantly but this trip luck was with me. Have I ever mentioned that my husband loves Boy George? Well, he does, and Cindi Lauper is a close second, lol. I started to talk to myself after about an hour. I think there has only been one other time I have had that much time to myself, and it was another IKEA trip for my kids' bathroom. Got home by 8 pm, and hubby had the new floor in!

Today, I got all the new cabinets put together, hubby has been drywalling and sanding drywall all day, so the divorce dust is everywhere. (Ask any married couple who has done a large remodel what divorce dust is, lol). Now he is under the house in the dark with a headlamp trying to install the new shower drain. He is determined to take a shower in it tonight, never mind nothing else in the bathroom is done yet. He needs one, too!

As of 5 p.m., drywall has been sanded, he's getting it ready for me to paint hopefully tomorrow. See my sleek new toilet in the background?

I was going to take a picture of my new cabinets I have been putting together today, but I think you will have to wait:)

Here's a few pics of the kids' bathroom (which is really the master bedroom) we did one year ago. It's small, so the 4 of us sharing it has been interesting. We put a deep soaking tub in it for resale value, but the main bath is getting a shower only instead of tub.

Gotta go sweep up the divorce dust... again....

Snow and Subaru Love

Have I said lately how much I LOVE my Subarus? I have owned a few since the early 90's and honestly, it's probably all I will ever drive. Here are the current residents in all their glory...

Daddy's Subie

Mama's Subie

They run forever, have tons of room for us and the dogs, get incredible mileage for an SUV, and climb the dunes and traverse the snow right alongside pickup trucks. But my love today has nothing to do with the above. It has to do with my visit to the gas station today.

I roll up on the gas station, and egads!.... about 20 people in line at every pump. What's going on I wonder, is it the 70's again? I look, and nobody is in ANY of the left side pumps. So I roll up and ask the guy in the disgustingly big SUV across from me what's going on. "Winter Storm's a comin' in, everrbuddy's fixin' to get ready". Oh, that... keep forgetting I live in the South where they cancel the city at least 24 hours before the first anticipated flake. And if I forgot I lived in the South, I was sure reminded when he said "fixin' to get ready".... does that mean they were actually going to get ready, or just scope out the pumps while they thought about getting ready? Anyways, they are all staring at me in my SuperSubaru as I rolled up, gassed up, and rolled out of the left side pump while 20 cars were waiting on the other side, and they weren't nice stares, either. So, gas caps on the right side of the car.... that's Subaru Love. Subaru should have been filming a commercial during this. And as I drove away I couldn't help think of when people used to drive normal size cars and would just get real, real close to the pump and stretch the nozzle around... guess they kind lost out on that technique when they decided to drive the big 'ol SUV.

So that got me thinking, jeez, I better get fixin' to get ready for the impending "Winter Storm". 8-12 inches expected tonight through tomorrow, which is a big deal here, I guess. So my version of preparing involved me with son in tow hitting up Trader Joe's for some convenience foods and snacks, then heading to the craft store for some yarn, then to the used bookstore for a knitting book.

When we got home, I dragged this out of the shed, which I might add was all the way up in the loft where no one goes except mice.

I suppose the sheer fact that I even own this stuff is strange enough here. As I put it on the deck, Finnegan says "what kind of shovel is that for?". Ha! "You'll find out tomorrow, Finn... it's a surprise"! And I didn't think I would get the chance to make my kids shovel snow. Heck, I even moved the Subarus out of the driveway in order for them to get the full effect. :)

Bring it on!