smashing

Had a smashing time at Leigh Ann's shower tonight over at Anna's house. If it weren't for the Bee's Knees cockatails I wourdn't be slurring right now.



Oh, and here's the rest of the monkey. LA, I hope Esther likes it!

Diet Coke

I've been off the evil juice for about a week now. I'm still a bit sluggish without that mid day booster. Headaches? Yes. Leg cramps? Yes. Mood swings? I'm not sure, but why do you ask, do you think I'm moody, because if you do, you've really got something coming to you because I'm really quite a happy person, and I shouldn't have to be everything to everyone all the time for cripe's sake. Jeesh.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane, dun dun da da da dun dun....

We're headed out to New Hampshire early tomorrow morning to spend time with the Cannon side of the family. We're staying in the cutest little house that is called The Coop. All of the houses have names like The Big House, The Chalet, and lots more that I can't remember right now. I'm so excited to see everyone.



I'll miss my little garden! This is the first cuc and it's already about four inches long. There might be a couple that are ready to eat by the time we get home. I'm hoping to come home to ripe tomatoes too.



Here's a sneak-peak at a secret project I've been working on. I'll reveal more after tonight!

patio update!

Well, we've got the back-breaking work done on the patio. I'd still like to grow some grass around the stepping stones, and add some sort of vegitation to the fence, but it's pretty near finished. I anticipate that it will change every year--I certainly hope so, otherwise where's the fun???



Here's a bit of a closer look. Isn't Santa handsome? Our neighbors (politely asked) where we got him.



Here are my cucs hanging on the side of the swingset. There are lots of little blooms, but this nasty little guy is tempermental. MUST be watered in the AM or it lays down and plays dead on me. Our plan is to have people nail their bottle caps on our swingset after every party. Do you think other parents will let their kids play at our house when the time comes?



Here's our clematis, growing up with the hlep of a steering wheel. I believe that Zander's sister has a story about her clematis that she would kill me if I shared here.

piece makers

I saw this lamp the other night at my mosaic meeting. It's made of old pots and pans and the words on the front say, "Blessed are the piece makers." Zander's Mom is in a quilting group called the Piecemakers, so I automatically thought of her. I'd love to make a similiar lamp.

Oops he did it again...

I'm not (OK, a little) ashamed to admit that that I've been a Britney Spears fan for quite some time now. I know it's lame, but I really do like a lot of the girlie pop out there. Of course I think her new husband is a loser. That's why this absolutely cracks me up.

I don't want to gloss over the nice things people do for each other. It's too easy to let the president or traffic or work or disappointments dictate. Today a new friend did something so very sweet for me. I was moved to tears not because of sadness, but because of the pure sweetness of her gesture. She is a gem, and a friend I'd like to have for quite some time.



Tonight was my first night going to the Mosaic Guild meeting. It was at Judy Sell's house out in Stillwater. I'm really drawn to the fact that she collects junk and just glues it right in.



Here's a detail of her fountain. She told us that the hose is there because she just was so done with the project and needed a way to finish it off before her daughter came home from camp. I too share that same type of impatience!

Zander is officially in San Diego. Check out the story of getting to the airport here.

Big Time Bloggers

The boys over there at Big Time Attic are blogging! They're leaving for San Diego today and plan to update their blog throughout the convention. I'm missing Zander already! But, I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, doing some reading, and working out in the garden.

henna hands

Tonight we headed over to Kumal and Archana's house for some swimming, eating, and henna hands! They made Indian food for us that was absolutely amazing, and then transformed the plain old cut up fruit that I brought into a really yummy dessert. Archana showed us the henna designs on her hands and feet from her wedding. I've never seen anything quite like it. I love how feminine it is without needing to be pastel-ie. I'm starting to think about teaching at the highschool. Wouldn't it be fun for the students to research some traditional Indian patterns and then try henna on themselves? I love it now, so I think that in highschool I'd have been thrilled.

more minty

Alright, I admit it, I'm obsessed with my mint plants.

1 watermelon hollowed out like a jack 'o lantern filled with:

watermelon guts minus the seeds
1 can limeade concentrate
lemon juice
a friggin ton of mint
rum to your liking

put this in your blender/food processor, but DO NOT, dear friends, ingore the sissy "do not fill past this line". That line is your friend, and if you don't pay attention to your friends they will vomit watermelon all over your semi-just-cleaned-kitchen.

1. Fun BBQ last night.
2. Despite the above, no one vomitted.
3. We have no real BBQ stuff, except a grill. Which I believe is all you really need if you want to spend your extra pennies on cute shoes instead of meat paraphanilia. The guys that took over the grilling (Thanks Kumal and John!) were reduced to flipping the meat with my heat resistant spatula and a pair of pliers.
4. The cops showed up with a gun and wanted to know if we'd seen a black guy in a white t-shirt. Duh, yeah, about every second of every day... Cops do not like sass mouths.
5. Went inside and played TABOO.
6. Mad this morning that I forgot to stinking take pictures. ARRGH.

PS: Thanks Shad and Kevin for lugging over the keg and other goodies!

Have I mentioned how much I'm loving summer in Minnesota? Particularly here, in our little house, with my sweet husband. He's been totally endulging me by letting me show him every last detail of the garden. "Look, the cucs are growing!" "Isn't our spinach adorable?" I know this isn't a hobby that Zander would choose, but I think he's basically enjoying the ride. I really love seeing echinacea in the garden. Every time that I see it I remember that it's an herb that helps you heal, and gosh darn it, it's perdy. I'm loving taking care of my garden. My fingernails are just black lately. Gross. I love helping my little plants grow and watching what they do along the way. During the school year I complain about having to nuture people all the live long day, but I really miss it during the summer! But seriously, I wish that I'd stinking get pregnant. My life is so full of great people and love and rituals and fun, but that want is a constant taste in my mouth. Everything reminds me of it. Not in a sad way, but an impatient way. Hurry up body!




We had a great time at the Craft Conspiracy meeting last night! Sumra was a great host, the embroidery was fun (especially the french knot!), and the food was fantastic. I'm excited for the next meeting where Archna will teach us all about henna design. I'm really happy with how the group is coming together. If you're crafty and haven't had a chance to join us yet, it's not too late. The meetings are always on the first Thursday of the month. Come! I'd especially love it if the Duct Tape Princess would come and teach us a thang or two!

grout queen

Yesterday was all about projects that I had started earlier in the summer, and was feeling guilty about not finishing yet. They are done! I grouted 3 pieces, one of which cannot be shown yet because it's a secret. I like to mosaic, but I really like how things looks when they're grouted. It's so satisfying!



Here's a detail shot. I'm going to take this little frame into the shop today and get some tips on really cleaning it up.



Zander and I had a really good weekend. We worked so hard on our patio on Sunday that we could barely move on Monday! The Wendy's we had for dinner that night was some of the best tasting food I'd ever had. Must...eat...something... Those Mandarin salads are TDF. Not really, but I wanted to use some savvy computer language today. Anyway, I'd love to show a preview of the patio, but I'll wait until there's not a huge pile of dirt in front of it! On the 4th we headed over to Mike and Emily's and sampled all SIX of the salads they made, washed it down with some Huber Bach, and then played some Taboo. I wish our game could have been taped our something. It was hilarious, if not a little bit sick. Our neighborhood had a thick haze when we got home. We had bits of firecrackers and bottlerockets all over our yard. One of the neighbor girls told me that her brother went crazy that night. I believe he might have. That family came and swept our driveway on Wednesday night to clean up some of the mess. They certainly didn't need to, but that was a really nice gesture. Tonight is Conspiracy night. Zander to the Cartoonist kind and I'll head over to the Crafter's kind.

Warning: Materialistic Rant

Anna and I had a little church rummage sale date this morning, only to discover that the sale is NEXT week. Darnit anyway. We did run across a cute little sale on the way where I scored an adorable pleated polka dot skirt for a quarter. I'm wearing it now and it makes me feel quite girlie, in a good way. We also stopped in at ARC Value Village. I spent about 10 bucks there, and got a nice assortment of little goodies. My favorite is a Chinese checkers tin that has fake Chinese writing all over it. Oh, and my new devilled egg plate also feels like quite a score at 69 cents! Like good conversation, one thing led to another and we found ourselves over at Brookdale for a coffee and then wandered ourselves into Forever 21 for a gander at the teeny-bopper skirts. Oh my, I bought one... OK fine, two, but they were cheap and cute, and I wasn't thinking about sweatshop labor. Until I got home. The bag is here, right next to me on the couch, and I was holding onto it contemplating taking both skirts back, when I noticed on the bottom of the bag it says John 3:16. Well, I went to their website and there is no mention of their mission statement or religious affiliations. However, there are a LOT of websites that talk about what an evil company they are. Anyone know anything about why the bible verse is there?

Polaroid-o-nize me baby!

Try this here.

Sampler

Last weekend one of our neighbors had a garage sale. I had high hopes, but alas, there was nothing there for me. He was however, handing out pamphlets for his drinking water business. We could get a water cooler and those big water coolers for about $8 a month. Wowza. I spend that much on water anyway. I think they run the water on our street through a poop and dirt tank that filters the elements into the water. So I gave Water Guy a call on Monday. In my message, I told him that I'm WAY interested, but I'd like to sample the water first. He hasn't called me back yet. He does store some of the water jugs outside next to the garden hose. I'm wondering if that's why he hasn't taken me up on the sample yet?