{Vintage Mix Stock Flowers}

Would you believe these flowers are from my very own wildly 'rustic' garden?

Me neither.

But they are.

Just picked them out from the greenhouse this past monday.

My giddy-greenthumb heart dropped when the greenhouse keeper advise me to cut the blooms off immediately after planting.

You know, to encourage new blooms...?

Wah.

I'm trying to be a real keener this year
in regards to my garden
so, sadly, I did as the lady recommended.

But not without snapping a quick pic of just how gorgeous these flowers are.

--Funny, how anything with the label 'vintage' tacked onto it, instantly becomes superfabulous?!

Wanted: Gnome

 

What could go more perfectly with my new toad house?

But a Gnome, of course.

granny's garden

In my grandma's garden, you're

likely to stumble upon some of this action:

And maybe even a little of this:

Nude dudes and nekid ladies.

Or art, rather.

My grandma is an artist and sculpturist and in my day we were

 accustomed to seeing bosom and whatnot,

sculpturely speaking of

course,

whether it be in the living room, bookshelf, or... garden.

On occassion, we've even attempted optical illusions with them and

pretended they were our friends.

Like so:

Easter 2008

Aaron offered the suggestion today that maybe the garden

statues were there to frighten the slugs away.

Like scarecrows with birds.

Interesting thought.

Of course, he came up with this conclusion after grandma sent us

on the prowl for slugs....

$1 a slug.

Admittedly--

we did not look very hard.

Regardless,

someday I hope to have my own garden museum of free spirited art work.

After all, the human body is a beautiful thing...

As my grandma has nurtured me to believe, no matter what the perkiness or size.

One last thing. 

Granny's Morning Glories were truly looking glorious this morning.

See.

Cause for Applause

I'll start by saying this has been quite an afternoon!

Just finished lunching with my mom at Montana's, dessert included (Mountain Brownie somethin' or other- yeehaw!) and at this present moment the Frostwire tunes are a blarin', my blueberry tea is steeping and the house is empty sans my giddy self.  Let the blogging begin!

The kids went to the lake this weekend with gramma (we love gramma!) and actually have yet to return.  Sometime this evening we should be expecting them, so I'm told.  So of course, James and I had the weekend to ourselves and not a plan in sight which faired well for us as last weekend the kids were gone but we had plans up the wazoo (Dallas' grad and so on..).

This is not a weekend-ly occurrence that our kids are gone back-to-back so, while missing them dearly, we are relishing the freedom.

Saturday, we spent sipping on Iced Caps and frolicking through Home Depot.

Bought a new BBQ.

The old one (a hand-me-down from a friend) kept flaring up, hence, the weekend before's date to the dump.
We really do go on the most romantic of dates ;)

And so, putting our marriage to the test, we assembled our new BBQ.

We're still kicking it in wedded bliss.

Therefor, mission accomplished.

Sunday, BBQ, of course.

Mmmm, Dill-licious Spuds!

That evening-- Movie night!  Haven't had one of those in a while now...

Featuring: The Time Traveller's Wife.

FYI, the book is 100 times better.

Having just watched the movie last night, this morning I was tickled to receive a text from James stating he himself is a time traveller and that he had just ran into his future self and, damn, I should know I'm a lucky girl...

Silly rabbit, I already know I am :)

If that wasn't enough tom-foolery for one weekend, I also manage to whip up cake pops for Aaron's kindergarten class.  I was assigned July birthday snack, which must of course be celebrated in June as school is out.

Cake Pop: Cake in lollipop form, dipped in chocolate.

Bazzinga, as Dave would say.

All wrapped up and ready to be devoured.

I was a superstar this morning dropping these bad boys off.

They applauded me.

No, seriously... they did.

It rocked.

And lastly, my daisies were looking especially lovely last evening after I gave them their shower.

See.

Happy Monday y'all!

I applaud you :)

'Til Next Time, May

This past weekend (Saturday actually) was a sight to behold, or loathed entirely rather.  Another bout of snow, or, I hate to admit-- a blizzard. This is what we laid our depressed eyes on, Sunday morning:

Eww, right?!

The good news is it took only a mere day for it all to disappear.


Among other things this weekend, I rescued a red Skittle out of Ava's left nostril, cheered for Aaron at inline, had an all day Star Wars-a-thon (Aaron was in heaven) and enjoyed a night out with the family at our friend's house.

Last night, after receiving news of a frost warning (thanks Garry!) for the first time in my greenthumb-loving life-- I covered my beloved garden with an old sheet.  I figured if my gramma was losing sleep at night over my garden, would it really be too much to kindly cover it up with a little blankey.


Of course not.

These, I call my button flowers.  I think they look like lovely little buttons- and I love them :)

Actually, as you can see from the pik, they are titled 'English Daisies'.

Also, Ava finally got her first real haircut.

For the first two years of her life we battled potential mullet formation with little trims to the hairs on the base of her neck.

The following two years, many a bang trim.

And finally, yesterday, the whole kitten-caboodle.

I'll have to ask Kirsten how many inches she thinks she may have taken off.  Her hair had nearly grown down to her cheeks! 

Today, being June the first.  I will be looking forward to a seasonably warm month with the anticipation of Dallas' high school graduation (coming this weekend!), the ending of school, the unexpected song of the ice cream truck passing by, wandering Farmer's Market and maybe a glimpse of baby goslings at the lake.

June?  Where have you been all my life.

Garden.

This is what we have to work with. 

It could be worse...

Some people don't even have a garden :(

Greenthumbness: Limited; although improving yearly thanks to my gramma.

Lovely Assistants: Aaron & Ava

Pretending to be flowers.

Sidenote: Ava's new fave choice of footwear- Aaron's old cowboy boots.

...To be transplanted.

You'd think after nearly draining the bank account at the greenhouse we wouldn't run into this problem:

Not enough flowers (hence, the big gaping hole missing flowers)!?

 

Ugh... back to the greenhouse.  Maybe tomorrow.

Pat on the back for me-- selected my greenery and arranged my own planters!  Two of them :)

Real Busy-Like

Whatta week!  I figure a photo montage would be the best way to deliver the goods.

First, our darling daughter started ballet this past Tuesday- Yay!!  Ava has anxiously been counting down the days for her classes to start and was jazzed about her first session.  I wondered about being a little over the top with the whole 'outfit', but I was pleased to find the other little ballerinas were equally frilly and pink (sooo adorable!).  The weather was really crappy that day so I wasn't able to get the best photo of her so these will have to do!

Aaron instructing her on achieving the perfect diamond shape... I have to say, the boy was paying attention.  He'll be hanging with me while she has her classes, which I'm very pleased about as Ava has spent countless hours attending hockey-- she's more than done her time!

So cute!

Wednesday, I tagged along with Aaron's kindergarten class on a field trip to the greenhouse (I was hoping to get picked for this one!!).

Goofing-off on the bus ride.

Man, how did he get so cute?

Get ready for it.....  GLORIOUS rows and rows of the most beautiful, luscious hydrangeas I've ever seen!  I took at least two dozen photos of them-- I couldn't contain myself.

Some fancy editing.....

Counting down the days 'til the May long weekend is finally here so I can get my garden on!

Wednesday evening-- Inline Hockey evaluations.  It's a bittersweet thing really.....  Hockey season just ends and inline just starts up.  Still amping myself for a 2-3 evenings a week schedule....

 

He's gonna have bigger pipes than me at this rate.....  And check out the sweat he worked up?!!

And, last but not least...  A pic of me and my sis from a birthday party we attended on Friday.  I love her bunches and we have alotta fun together :)

 

And who can deny James and Dustin's affections...... certainly, not me.

Garden Fairy

My sis-in-law, Brandee, got me a garden fairy for Mother's Day this past May.  I found the perfect spot for her in my one-and-only planter, among my petunias. 

This morning, while getting the kids into the truck, I noticed just how pretty she looked in the sunlight-- especially with one of my morning glories entwined in her wings.  Naturally, I quickly grabbed a few pics with my camera (yes-- even during the early morning rush, I still managed to snag a few shots (AKA, taking the time to smell the roses).  She was the perfect model!  Isn't she beautiful!

Tea Parties & Shopping!

Girls Day today!  Ava and I decided to go to the Ellerslie Greenhouse tea party along with my grandma and her husband this afternoon.  Ava, of course, was truly excited to be attending a real tea party!  We had iced tea, squares, scones, tarts... all good things tea party-ish.  And, for our listening enjoyment, they also had a really talented blue-grass band (Cabin Fever) playing live.  After browsing around, Ava and I took off to Dot's Fashion Warehouse for some late afternoon shopping.  Ava, my little fashionista, took great delight in giving me her cute, little opinion on what wardrobe colors I should choose!

First Morning Glory

My first Morning Glory bloom of the season-- can you believe it?! Here I am talking about fall and just now the darn thing starts blooming. I haven't done my research and take into consideration that they could, naturally, be late bloomers (I'll have to ask my Grandma Mary Ann, as she's my personal gardening guru). I have a pretty sad looking garden this year. In between being dug-up by the cable company and prodding from the painter's ladders (condo board's been busy this summer...), it really hasn't stood a chance. I'll be lucky if by some miracle I manage to successfully nurture a full grown squash! *Fingers crossed* As for now, I will take great delight in the beauty that is my first Morning Glory.