Selective Memories

Isn't it strange how random memories come to you at the strangest times? This morning on my way to work, for some reason I remembered a day from, probably first or second grade when I went over to a friend's house. I don't know why I all of a sudden remembered that day, but I did. And it was so strange. My friend's name was (I suppose it probably still is) Emily. I distinctly remember 3 things about that day:

1) It was winter, and Emily's family lived on a lake. The lake was frozen and there was a couple of inches of snow out on the ice. We put on our snowsuits and went outside to play. As we were "drawing" a cat face in the snow on the ice out of footprints, Emily told me that her mom said that if she got her hair all wet from the snow that she wouldn't have to wash her hair. Even at the time I thought that was strange, but I vividly remember her saying this. So she proceeded to roll around in the snow until her hair was all wet.

2) When lunch time came around, her mom asked me if I wanted a hard salami sandwich or a bologna sandwich. I had never heard of salami before and had no idea what it was, so even though I hated bologna, at least I knew what it was, so I chose bologna.

3) Later that afternoon we were playing cards. I asked Emily if she wanted to play "Go Fish". She told me that she had never played Go Fish before, but wanted me to teach her. So I did. After we got sick of Go Fish, she asked me if I knew how to play "Go to the Dump". I didn't so she taught me. I quickly realized that Go to the Dump was the exact same as Go Fish, but instead of saying "Go Fish", you say "Go to the Dump".

Strangely enough my friendship with Emily didn't last much past 2nd grade. I guess I couldn't stand how freakin' dumb she seemed, even at age 8. No wonder I married a genius! This is also the girl that, in 1st grade when I won a pack of Smarties for being a Smartie asked me for one of the candies. Only hang-up was that I had just popped the last one in my mouth...but that wasn't a problem for her; I took it (it was blue) out of my mouth & she ate it!!

So that was my memory that popped into my head this morning. What's yours?

In Bloom.

On Saturday we worked on the yard from "sun up til sun down". Okay, maybe not from sun up, but definitely until sun down! We got up bright & early to make it over to the state fairgrounds an hour before (apparently) the largest plant sale in MN opened. We were pleased to see that there were a mere 20 or 30 folks already in line (versus the over 2,000 already in line when Andy had gone the day before). So we hung out in line for an hour until the door opened, and, armed with our maps, lists, grocery cart and wagon, we took off!

$160 later, we had a car full of flowers.

As soon as we got home I went to work on the flower beds around the front sidewalk, and Andy went to working on his shade garden. I dug up the uneven edges, evened it out and installed that black edging stuff that makes a flower bed look like a real flower bed. It looks a million times better. We've come to the conclusion that either there used to be a rock garden in that space, or else someone was "trying" to create "good" drainage by adding slews of rocks, because there seems to be a rock for each granule of dirt. After spending a few hours sifting through the mess and hauling out an excessive amount of extra dirt, I was ready to plant my annuals.

I planted pink impatients, black pansies, those other pansies, and a couple other things that I can't even remember. Andy added mulch after I took these photos, so with just enough water, equal amounts of sun & shade, these puppies should be lookin' good in a few weeks.

Our peonies are about to bloom any day now too. I love spring!!

She's crazy 'bout those dandelions!

As I was weed wacking (loves it) our insane weeds last night, I knocked down the hugest dandelion I've ever seen in all my lifetimes. This sucker had a trunk of a stem, and at least 5 individual dandelion flowers growing out of the top of it. I brought it into the garage for safe keeping so that I could take a photo of it, because, seriously, I've never seen anything like that before. Andy and I forgot all about it as we rushed in the house just in the nick of time for House. This morning as I was leaving for work I spotted it in the garage and brought it inside, ordering Andy to take a photo of it because it was wilting quickly. I left for work and a while later he sends me the following e-mail, with the photo below attached:

Here's the dandelion you wanted me to take a picture of. Lola helped.

Apparently he left it on the bench in the mudroom and went outside for a bit. When he came back in, it was gone.

She's nuts about these things. We went through the same thing last year too, there's just NO stopping the dandelion snacking. She runs laps in the backyard, chomping the heads of dandelions off as she screams by them. Anyone know of a pet-safe dandelion killer?? Cus we sure could use one, but then of course, we wouldn't be able to grow the worlds-largest dandelions anymore. I think I'm fine with that.

Our treasures

I still don't have the energy to write about the Craftstravaganza that was this past Saturday (it was incredible, by the way), so instead I'll share our purchases from the day.

Clockwise starting from bottom left-hand corner:
Purse made of re-claimed vintage fabric from Natalie & Friends
"don't fall a sleep" CD featuring local bands like our very own Bla Bla Blacksheep!
Screen-printed napkins from Michelle Brusegaard
The best-smelling bath bombs ever from Bodylish
Moss Confusion lotion from Heim-Made
A "big" plushie from Fantastic Toys
Skinny Dip and Sweet Juniper soy candles from Soymade Scents
Transferred image tumbled marble coasters "bikes" from Giraffe Art + Utility
Screen-printed Grain Belt poster by Adam Turman
Brown letterpress coasters from Papered Together
The talented and lovely Aisha Celia gave Andy and I each a skein of her hand-dyed yarn! How nice!!!
Handmade undies from Cricket Syndicate
Playing cards featuring various screen print artists, including our very own Lonny Unitus.

Not Pictured: The most adorable pink & green sundress from Audrey's Daughter (in size 12 mos for our niece), a few other pairs of Cricket shorts, and a Garden Basil candle from Soymade Scents.

I think you will be able to figure out who purchased what ;)