Let's Blame it on the Red Bull

Alright, it's late and I am seriously a go-to-bed-at-10pm-girl. It's the Diet Red Bull. It's got me jazzed. If I could do cartwheels, I'd be knocking over furniture right now. Instead, I'm researching a few girl friends that I knew way back in Junior High. I just sent them emails. I haven't talked to them in about 19 years. This is about as irresponsible as drunk booty dialing. I need to call Zander, maybe he can help stop this insanity.

Grumbling Specs

In May I bought a pair of prescription sunglasses at Target. I've gotten glasses from them before. They're cute, fairly inexpensive and therefore a bit on the trendy side. Perfect. They were having a great sale, and I'm lazy about putting my contacts in, so I went for it. When I ordered the glasses, and when I picked them up, the manager was so talkative that at one point I faked a headache just to get away from her yapping... None of which was about my glasses and the almost $200 I'd just dropped. In fact, when I pointed out that the lenses were coming out of the frame a little bit, she just told me that's how all prescription glasses are, and continued on with her kitchen-remodeling woes. I've given these glasses my best possible efforts, but really, I hate them because they were expensive (to me) and not perfect. I took them back today. I didn't have my receipt. She was snippy and passive-aggressive. I told her that "someone" in the shop told me that's how prescription sunglasses are supposed to be. She told me everyone else that works there is incompetent. I was too embarrassed to tell her that she was the one who told me that. Anyway, she claimed that there was no possible way for me to get a refund. I ever so sweetly asked her to print out the record of my order, so that I could show it to the store manager, and see what they could do. That's when she cracked. "Oh forget it, I'll print your damn receipt". She printed out my receipt and then stood (unnecessarily) with me in line at guest services where I'd actually get my money back. She did a lot of mumbling, hmmping, and shaking her head... Just to be sure that I knew that she was not happy with me. Not happy with me at all. I got my $200 back. She did get under my skin though. I totally feel like the bad guy for not wanting to wear defective sunglasses. Not too bad though, because sometime this week I'm taking my hard earned moolah somewhere else. Oh, and I spent $50 on random crap at Target that I really don't need... Like the Diet Red Bull I'm trying for the first time right now.

This year we decided to go halfsies with Mike and Emily on a farm share. They've raved about it forever, so we thought we'd give it a try. Some revelations: A) Scapes taste just like garlic but with the convenience of a something like green onion. No peeling, just chopping. B) Beets taste so good when they're done up on the grill. Peel back the charred mess, add a little olive oil and salt. Oh, and if you eat them with your fingers, they turn you the most impressive shade of pinky-red. C) Unfortunately, chard tastes and feels disgusting in my mouth. I hate it. Blech.

This week, among lots of other goodies, we got a bunch of lemon basil. This morning I whipped up some pesto, but because of the lemony taste, altered how I usually make it. Here's my new favorite "recipe".

Spinach and Lemon Basil Pesto

2 handfuls of walnuts
a hunk of parmesan cheese
a cup or so of basil leaves
a thawed and drained pkg of spinach
a little sea salt
a little balsamic vinegar
fresh garlic

Because I hadn't made breakfast before I made the pesto, I had it on toast and it tasted pretty good.

After a morning playing with Baby E, eating cereal, playing with measuring spoons, lots of rolling over, almost continually standing up with a little help, going for a walk, and going in the swing, Joey is now asleep.



Now, I'm typing as fast as I can and trying to figure out what I want to wear to see Wicked tonight. I wish that going to a play was really dressy... Unfortunately, I'll have to save this little number for chaperoning the prom next year. I got it at Anthropologie for SO seriously cheap because its a bit weird and its missing a belt.

Lucky Stars

Among the many, many things I thank my lucky stars for... Zander shaving off the monstrosity is one of them.

Deck Decorating

Here's step one of the whole deck decorating process. Last summer I picked up a set of dishes that had mini little quilt patterns all over them. Too sickly sweet to eat off of, but wonderful to smash. I had a little bit of trouble sticking the pieces onto something 3D. Everytime I look at the pot now I think of all the not-so-pleasantries that came out of my mouth while I was making it. The urn underneath the pot came from the hardware store across the street from Psycho Suzies. That place is the best. It's like a new hybrid made with the quirkiness of AxMan and the usefulness of Hardware Hank. And of course it's cheap... It's like heaven.

This picture is of me right after I decided to take a break from the heat. Ooh la, la. Yes, that's dirt and sweat and maybe a little compost with manure on my face. Lovely. Oh, and I'm sun burned, too. I honestly cannot believe how hot it's been outside this week. It's fine when standing completely still if you've found a breeze. Otherwise, it's hot as hell.
Unfortunately, I've not been calmly sitting in the cool breeze lately. I've been working on a new garden around (you guessed it) the deck. Last year I dug up and tore out our lawn with a shovel where I wanted to put a new garden. It sucked. It sucked really bad, in fact. This year someone (who does not want to be named) told me the trick to creating new garden spaces. I think it's brilliant, and since this is my space, I'm including all of the steps. Just to bore you.
First I edged the space with rocks. I used a garden hose to sort of mark off how it would look first.

Then, I filled it all in with old City Pages. I got all of the pages really wet. That kept them from blowing around AND it kept me cool. I also think this might help the newspaper break down later when it's supposed to feed the soil.

Next, I threw a bunch of dirt over the whole area and started planning where stuff will go.

Alright, I'm still on a cooling off break. I might go see what kind of trash Dr. Phill is talking to today.

Reconstruction

If you've seen me lately, you'll know that our new deck is definitely one of my favorite conversation pieces. Lame, eh? I know it's lame to get so excited about something so superficial, but I can't help it. It's like we just got a new room for our house and NOW I GET TO DECORATE IT. And that, my friends, is such an exciting drug of choice. Tonight when it was too dark to take pictures, I put together some cute planters for the stairway. It's going to be a bit of a struggle for me to not fill the stairs up with plants, and go ahead and leave it open for dumb old things like walking into the house. Some people would say that I'm turning into my mother. Next, I'm going to plant all the way along the front and side of the deck to hide the footings. I'm hoping that Linder's still has some hydrangea left. Oh, and I'm also hoping to find some sort of vine to grow across the arbor. It seems like so many of the vines I'm seeing are for shaded areas. We have zero shade, so that's a bit of a challenge. I also don't want something that's going to crap out little flowers everywhere.

Here's another tribute to Frida. Zander's mom (who should have her own website that I could link to right here) recently gave me this awesome t-shirt. It's pretty boxy on me, so I took in the seams on both sides. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the sleeves. I like that they're still a few inches above my elbow, but they stick out too much. Any suggestions? The coordinating polyester number is from one of my favorite thrift scores. 2 yards of fabric for really cheap and then an extra 25% off because I bought it on a Tuesday sale. JACK POT. I used Simplicity 5505 to make some of it into an A-line skirt. (The view that's hem is straight across) It's one of those skirts that really doesn't need a pattern, because there's really only a front and a back to it, but it sure made sizing it a lot easier.

Great Necklaces over at Snapcrafty!

I love this necklace. I've been eye-balling all the cute stuff over at Snapcrafty for a while now. You can even buy the cute little trinkets to make your own.

Boom Island

Last night we piled friends and food into a Subaru and headed down to Boom Island. We, I mean I, ate way too much junk and drank a little too much Lemon Limone. There was a toddler that kept coming over to our table for a handfull of cheeze-its, there was bass pumping out of the pavillions, there was the quirky washer-throw game with it's ever evolving rule system, and seriously, you can't beat fireworks on the 4th. (Unless they're right outside your door at 4 am) What a great night guys!

Painting Sucks

So, you're wondering what I'm doing with my glamorous summer vacation? Wondering why my roots are Behr Honeydew instead of grayish-brown? That's what happens when you're painting the bathroom on the hottest day of the year and you're sweating so much your hands are slippery and you drop your diet coke into the full paint tray. Then, you've got to fish it out of there because it's leaking and you bang your head on the wall you just painted.

The shower curtains are two sheer pieces of fabric I picked up at Savers for $1.99, finished the edges, and added grommets to. It was an easy project except that I have an extremely difficult time accurately measuring and squaring large pieces of fabric. Anyone have a trick for it?


Many of you've seen this one already, but I'm still not finished, and I think working on it a little bit tonight might help my bathroom-painting-inspired-bitchiness.

Are Garden Pictures as Annoying as Cute Cat Pictures?

I love July. I still have lots of summer vacation left, it's hot outside, it's cool inside, and simple things like watermelon taste really, really good. Oh, and the sunflowers are finally blooming. Most of ours this year come from a bird feeder and a bunch of sloppy eaters. The birds keep dropping their food (or poop, gasp) and I keep transplanting the sunflowers that pop up (in the middle of the tomato area) into a better spot.

I think this hollyhock came from the same bird feed mix!

Last year this wheelbarrow was practically free from an estate sale. Of course the bottom is rusting out, but I keep telling myself that just makes for better drainage anyway. My mom, who is a brilliant gardener, gave me a bunch of her plants that she germinated over the winter. I couldn't remember what any of it was, so I just plopped them all in the dirt and hoped for the best. This arrangement cracks me up. I think it looks kinda nice, but seriously, who's the dork that mixed the big bunch of cucumbers in there?