I love hollyhocks. The bugs nibble at them, their petals are ruffled and transparent, the birds land on them only to weigh them down and poop on their leaves, and despite the fact that they're an annual, they just keep coming back. A little bit fragile, a little bit hearty. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. Oh hollyhock, I can relate to you on so many levels.

Sorry for the crap picture, I'm not sure what happened and no amount of photoshopping is going to fix this one up. Anyway, here's some recent thrifty-action. I already have one good pitcher, but this one is so perfect I couldn't resist.
More thrifting here... This dress is organic silk IN MY SIZE for under $5. And yes, it will look oh so cute with a little something red and frilly sticking out from the hem.
Today, I'll be:
1. Thinking about what a sweet movie WALL-E was. It might be the best Pixar yet.
2. Picking up our third load of veggies from the CSA. Lots of lettuce so far.
3. Getting ready to head up to our friends' cabin for a few days. I'm so excited for a bit of reading on the dock, hiking, playing board games and swimming!
4. Fret about having to wear a swimming suit in front of these friends.
5. Check out a couple of things at the library.
6. Bake some bread from that 5 minute book.
7. Listening to Jason Mraz and The Weepies. Maybe a little bit of Sia thrown in there.
8. Running late for my noon appointment because I'm killing time on the web.

Just Perfect

This is just one example of the quality blogging that goes on around here. Zander hasn't seen this fine sample of my dabbling in the digital arts yet, but I have a feeling he'll think it's just perfect.

Build your own Blingee

Eight

How many legs does an octopus have? Eight. How many maids a milking? Eight. How many days a week? Eight. (According to the Beatles) What number are we on THE LIST? As of this evening... Eight.

Summer is lovely when you live in Minnesota, but especially when you live in Minnesota and get summers off, and especially when you live in Minnesota, get the summers off, and love to dork around in the garden. These poppies are so ugly when they're not in bloom that when they are blooming, I take about a thousand pictures of them.

And here's some more of our funky honeysuckle vine that I thought was a trumpet vine.

Today I'm going to...

Go back to school (boo) and find some artwork that one of my students left behind and now wants to show off at his graduation party tomorrow. Cross your figures that I wasn't in a "pitch everything" mood the last time I ran across it.

Go pick up our first CSA veggies. I'm pretty excited about this, and can't wait to see what we get!

Go pick up some rocks with one of my girlfriends... Might sound boring to you, but I love this girlfriend, and I seriously really like picking out rocks for the yard. They'll each be about as big as a loaf of bread, maybe that makes them stones.

Find a clothesline that'll suck back into itself like a tape measure, so I can hang some wet laundry out on the deck.

Check the Korea forum approximately 100 times today and see if there are any referrals that will bring us further (farther?) down the list. We're still chillin' at #9. And chillin' really means not at all chilled out but instead slightly to moderately agitated at all times.

frilly under-things

I thrifted this slip about three years ago, and I love it so much because it transforms my somewhat boring teacher clothes into something that my inner saloon girl would wear. My sister-in-law always has a perfect bit of sparkle, and another friend wears v-neck t-shirts and adorable shorts too short for my stubbs. And they both rock that look. While my gardening overalls are so comfy, maybe I need to leave them in the garden more often. As I write this entry, I can just feel Eckhart Tolle reminding me (in his very soothing books-on-tape-voice) that clothes don't define me. Hello, duh, but still going to remember to get out my saloon slip a bit more often.

Big Bike Bec

My dear friend Rebecca is saying her final** goodbye to the MS ride, and any little donation helps the cause. It's easy to donate and to read about the why, how, what and who, just click here.

**I'd never actually come out and say that she's gone into retirement before, but final just sounds so final.

"Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well-that would be the end of the universe. But try dropping it...Sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens." Eat, Pray, Love

Easier said than done is what I say, but worth thinking about.

Zander is out of town, and this is usually my time to rip up stuff around the house... Maybe rip out a floor, or knock down a shower, or I don't know, rip out a little more floor. I must be getting mellow in my mid-30's, but in the 5 days he has been gone, the only major thing I've done is work on this old stereo cabinet. (Which I found in the trash at my school)
Before

After

On a side note, I started reading Eat, Pray, Love today. I really like it so far. I'm working my way through the eating section of the book right now, which is causing me to eat myself through the house too.

Joey's Turn

Joey is about 2 1/2 now, and he's so fun to be with. One of my favorite things that he says about 1000 times a day is "Joey's turn." Everything is Joey's turn. I hear a lot about how it's Joey's turn to open up the rain barrel and lick the water off the cement. Seriously, gross. And how it's Joey's turn to stack chairs on top of chairs and turn the lights on and off. This is such a cute age. PS: Stop trying to look up my cat's butt.

School is OUT for the summer!

Schools is out, and man-oh-man, it couldn't have come a second too soon. I'm so ready for a little free time in my life. I'm also excited for my seniors to get their lives started, while of course remembering all the wonderful lessons taught to them by their favorite art teacher!

Lucky #13

Have I mentioned lately that we are lucky #13 on the waiting list for our adoption? Things are moving so slowly that it makes my bones hurt, but nonetheless, they are moving.

The cute little onesie was found here via mighty junior. Isn't it adorable?

Here's a touching post on adoption that I read today.

I LOVE these beaded creatures. Especially the lion. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to paste a picture here, so here' a link.

I also really, really like this painting. It's a bit too rich for my blood, but I keep hoping a print will pop up on Etsy one of these days.
Here's the shop!

Something Else to Worry About?

I don't wear a lot of makeup at one time, but I do wear some and I wear a moisturizer everyday. When I saw this list of chemicals in makeup that should be avoided, it freaked me out a little. What do you think? If you do worry about this kind of thing, do you have any products that you recommend? I checked the Aveda website and they proudly claim the nice sounding ingredients in their products, but I hardly doubt that their soaps only contain grapefruit and fairtrade love.

Weekend Gratitude

1. a very sweet and long-overdue phone conversation that banked in at just under two hours.
2. sleeping in every single morning of this three day weekend.
3. having the scooter all fixed up and cruising around town.
4. a big bunch of strawberries all cut up and calling to me from the fridge.
5. cutting out weekday coffee and really, really enjoying it on the weekend.
6. signing up for a CSA for the summer.
7. lots of down time with my sweetie pie.
8. tearing up our yard and re-dreaming what it'll look like.
9. sleeping with the windows open.
10. not doing one little bit of the cleaning I should have done.
11. lots of reading.
12. catching up on all my internet reading, too.
13. catching up with friends bearing bananas.
14. coughing out more phlegm that I knew could possibly exist. (Strangely satisfying)
15. lilacs blooming by the garage and covering up kitty litter smells from our garbage cans.
16. not thinking one little bit about going back to work until this very second.

Boring Alert!

This one right here is my very favorite kitchen gadget. Now if only I could find something to peel the freaking garlic for me, then I'd really go to town with all the herbs in my little garden...

Latest Self Portrait

Weekend Goodness

This weekend was the perfect dose of fun, relaxing, working in the garden with the perfect amount of sun, and just bought a new hat and wore it all weekend long goodness. Here's a little of what's been going on in the garden...

This guy protects my new herbs from the giant bunnies that rule our neighborhood after dark.

I don't know which is worse: our view of the alley, or the alley's view of us? These tires and trumpet vines are my attempt get us a bit more out of sight.

Here's Z planting our tree the day after Mother's Day. It will be kinda cool if this tree can be planted in the same year our little babe arrives.

We have the saddest, most sprout-up-where-ever-it-will-look-the-stupidest-and-be-the-most-inconvenient tulips I have ever seen. This one would stick its tongue out at me if it could.

Prom this year was lovely, and a large part of the loveliness is that it's finally over. I get a small stipend for doing it, but man-oh-man, it's hard work... Over 500 guests, party favors, a DJ, really bad tasting punch, sweaty teenagers, and lots of breath-a-lizing. I took the day off yesterday, and spent my time in the sun trying to get our yard back into shape. My biggest accomplishment was prying out the broke-down arbor that my climbing roses were consuming and replacing it with the springs from a bed I found in the alley.

Speaking of mindless tasks, I've been embroidering scenes from Jen Hart's Spaced Out pattern onto an old denim shirt the last couple of nights. It has the same mind-numbing effect as coloring in a coloring book, except when it's done I'll wear it instead of hanging it on the fridge.

Charming

I miss feeling so bored that I start to play with the things that I'm zoning out at. Diem Chau's stuff looks like beautiful playtime to me.

The Dealership

Do you suppose that the general manager at The Dealership would be a lot nicer if I wanted to buy a brand-spanking-NEW car? Do you think he'd be nicer if I didn't schedule an inspection for the not-so-spanking-new-car? How about if I didn't try and talk him down a thousand because the head gasket was leaking fluids? What if I was wearing something a little low cut and didn't have my hair in sweaty-gym-pigtails? Or black ink under my fingernails? And a Frida ring on my middle finger?

Dear Dealer Guy,

Don't wear your pleated khakis so tight. Your face looks like red blotchy indigestion. And you should probably try not to wear that high school hockey = golden days look on your face all the time. It is embarassing. Also, don't come right out and imply that people who race around in their Subaru wagons are dorks. There are lots of us, and we don't need to go muddin' on the way to work, but we might see some cool free stuff in someone's garbage on the side of the road. Oh, and please don't make it so obvious that you're not taking down my number when I tell you to call me when you can come down a thousand. I know you're pissed, but your job is to make that feeling shiny and cold and have a new car smell. Oh, and if you don't mind, you should try and NOT seem like the exact kind of guy that would measure my ass and assess my worth if I'd dare turn around in front of you. While these few tips won't help you make my sale, I they might help you be more successful in the future. Not that I care. I know this sounds really bitter and all, it's not really that I am, but I'm kind of out of things to write about on my blog, and I really kind of think this might make for a good story. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Cheap Skate/Probably a Lesbian Anyway