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I am not capable of doing one thing at a time.
This would be me peeing, and rearranging my “fancy” soaps. Honey happened to be walking past & found this scene wildly amusing. Since he felt the need to document the occasion, I felt the need to share it with the world. All 3 of you dear readers now know that I am compelled to multi-task even while sitting on the toilet. Some people just take a magazine, but not me.
Anyone else do strange things in the powder room? Yes, I will call it a powder room as that sounds much more refined & lady-like than bathroom. Because clearly, I am the model of refinement when I pee with the door open, allow my husband to photograph me while peeing, and then post it on the internet. *sigh*
God love three-day weekends. And I’m not even religious.
Clearly, Riley-Cat loves 3-day weekends, too
Yesterday I thought a lot about it being Memorial Day. Up until probably last year, I viewed Memorial Day as just another holiday,
but I now see it for the important day of recognition that it is.
I thought of my dad who served in Vietnam & my grandpa who served in WWII. I thought of how lucky I am to be alive because they did serve. Growing up, my dad used to tell my brother & I that his job in the army was to deliver the mail. Which was true. Except that in order to deliver the soldiers’ beloved letters, he had to travel through highly dangerous areas, not once but twice daily.
Two years ago at my grandpa’s funeral, I learned that when he was overseas, his ship’s departure time was changed to an earlier time & he never caught word. The ship was bombed & everyone on board died. Except for grandpa, who was probably sitting on a barstool at the time. Thank God for grandpa & his alcoholism. (again, I say ~ I’m not religious, but the G-word just keeps popping out & it seems appropriate in this context!) And please don’t take my speaking of my grandpa’s alcoholism as me being flippant. My grandparent’s alcoholism was as much a part of them as anything else, and I don’t fault them for that, nor do I love them any less.
At any rate, between my grandpa missing his ship & my dad making it through dangerous territory twice a day for who knows how long, I AM LUCKY TO HAVE BEEN BORN. And I think I need to remind myself of that from time to time.
Thank you to grandpa, who I know can hear me even though I’m not saying it out loud, and thank you to dad, who I promise I will tell in person. Or maybe I’ll send a card because I’m not good at expressing the sentimental stuff.
Honey & I went to a wedding Saturday, which is always fun. I swear, Alaska is the only place it 
is acceptable to wear jeans to a wedding reception. I could never, of course, but it is nevertheless acceptable with certain couples & venues. I don’t think I got any photos of Honey & I, but I did take this photo of our gift to the bride & groom. I just love the paper & I thought the little crocheted flower was quite clever of me. I had bought a baggie full of them at a community garage sale a few years ago, but they’re so damn cute, I haven’t thought of the right project for them yet.
Sunday I worked on several craft & sewing projects, none of which got finished. Really, the story of my life. If I thought I had any followthrough at all, I would make a declarative statement ~ I WILL finish one project tonight ~ but that’s just too much pressure. Better to see where the evening takes me.
Monday I worked in the garden, and did get one flower bed finished. I mapped out my plan, dug out the grass, mixed in the peet & good soil, and finally got my lilac in the ground. The bushes are called Japanese Barberry, which was my cheap alternative to a Japanese Maple. Geesh, trees are spend-y!! I stole some hostas & strawberry plants from the backyard to fill in some of the holes, and voila! It’s sort of a random little flower bed, and I will likely rearrange it later on, as when I put something in the ground, it rarely stays put. I always plant too close together, or too far apart, or it’s not getting enough light, or it’s all in a row (how very un-cottage like!) instead of scattered, etc.
Our 3-day weekend with a bbq with Bucky, Michelle, & our friends Brian & Jenn. We had a house full of dogs, and yes, my new garden survived. Just barely. And here is me & Porter about 2 minutes after everyone left. Note: I am sleeping on one of my sewing projects ~ one of two pillowcases. Cute, no? I also got the same poppy-fabric in a turquoise blue. Honey is not thrilled that I’m flowering up “his” couch. I let him know that if I wanted to put flowers on the couch, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it. Sorry honey, but that’s the way it’s gotta be.
nighty night ~
I just ordered the last frazzle that Miss Jeanetta had in her etsy shop. My mom bought one & after seeing it in person, I knew I had to have one, too. Frazzle is just too cute & since I feel totally frazzled on most days (plus I’ve been obssessed with turquoise blues lately), it seemed the perfect addition to my crafting room. My crafting room that I drag all my tools & supplies out of & into the living room to work because I’d rather be in the same room as Honey. Plus, I love having things that my friends have created so as to inspire me to get off my butt & put some of my ideas in action. There are so many amazingly creative women out there, & I often feel I have nothing entirely special or unique to offer. One day my etsy shop will actually have something in it…..
The smell. I love the smell of spring. One day the air is normal, and the next it has exploded in sweetness. I love the day that I realize the smell has arrived. It happened last Thursday, when Honey & I were walking Doodles at Construction. Construction is our favorite, if only for its convenience, place to walk Doodles. About a quarter mile from our house is a construction site which will be filled with houses by the end of summer. We let Doodles off-leash & he does what Doodles love to do ~ RUN! Lately we’ve been loading up his backpack with rocks (one on each sideof the pack) to outline our garden beds. Like I said, rocks are the best free landscaping medium around. Although, at 2 rocks per walk, it’s going to take a while.
Honey made it home from his bachelor party in Gustavus, a really really small town a quick plane ride over the mountains, pronounced gus-davis. Not his bachelor party, our friend Colin’s. Honey said they tried to talk him out of marrying Topaz, but he wasn’t having it. That’s a relief, because I already have my dress picked out.
It doesn’t sound like the boys got into too much trouble, and they were not told to never return to Gustavus. Besides drinking lots of whiskey, they played golf, whiffle ball & croquet. What wild men! Oh, and Colin had to wear a red velvet dress, previously worn by our friend Bud at his bachelor party/camping weekend. Honey is so lucky we were already married before the dress made an appearance. Not that he doesn’t have the figure for a floor length dress.
My garden has entered into stage 2, thanks largely to mom. She took me plant shopping on Sunday, and when she told me that my garden “needed” them, how could I possibly argue? I had originally tried to spread out the plants I had purchased from Fred Meyer, mostly annuals, but decided I ought to focus on making each flower bed beautiful instead of making each bed look frightfully skimpy. Mom helped me pick out some perennials, which I finally remember are the ones that come back each year. P is for Permanent! I also got some ground-cover to fill in the bare spots, and if I could remember what they were called, I’d tell you now.
I knew I wanted a hydrangea before I had even seen what the flowers looked like, and I can’t say as I’ve ever even smelled one. I just love the word Hydrangea. Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? So, now I have a lovely hydrangea, and it will be planted at the corner of the deck, at mom’s suggestion. Porter, as always, is right there helping.
My lilac tree, another something I’ve wanted for ages, will be planted at the other edge of the deck. I thought about planting it on the other side of the yard, to give added privacy from the crazy neighbors to our left, but it will be way too long before it’s tall enough & by that time, we may very well have new neighbors that we like. So, in front of the kitchen window it goes. It will get good light, won’t cause shade where I don’t want it, and if I’m patient enough, will give me a lovely view from the kitchen. When I’m yelling at Porter to stop digging.
Can you see my vision?
After taking Doodles for a walk this morning, I spent the entire day outside working in the yard. I started by raking up the dead moss from the lawn, then moved on to weeding & aerating the soil in one flower bed. I hadn’t anticipated creating a new flower bed today, but nevertheless, I have a new flower bed off the deck. The deck, which I hate, will hopefully have posts & a railing in the not so distant future, creating more of a country-porch feel.
This was what I started with, and actually, it was just the tree & we just planted the boxwood last week & extended the rock border over to the deck. And speaking of rocks as landscaping material ~ HUGE in Juneau. While we’re walking Doodles, Honey & I always look in people’s yards for ideas. Virtually every yard will have some form of rock landscaping, I imagine because of their wide abundance. Whether they’re black & white speckled rocks smoothed from years of glacial activity, or flat, slate-colored rocks from the beach, we have rocks everywhere.
and this was my vision for the little space:
Porter seems to like it, too. Is he not the most gorgeous dog ever?
This is my end product. It still looks horribly bare, but I have to keep reminding myself that the cottage garden I envision in my head takes years to create. Unless you have a lot of money, which I don’t. I do love gardening, though. So therapeutic. Man, I can’t wait for my plants to start blooming!
Our lawn still needs some serious TLC. Honey sprayed the lawn with moss killer a few days ago, and I don’t know what my next step is. More moss killer? Fertilizer? Just grass seed? Mom’s coming over tomorrow to assess the situation & to make sure I haven’t placed my plants improperly. When it comes to gardening, I learn as I go. And I get lots of tips from my mom, who has been gardening for as long as I can remember. I do have gardening books, but I tend to get so excited about a project that I jump right in without doing my homework first.
Besides a new garden, I also gave myself a nice little sunburn today. (Self portrait taken because Honey is in Gustavus for a bachelor party this weekend) It didn’t occur to me to put on sunscreen, nor do I even own any presently. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny again so I can even things out 
I don’t know if there will be any gardening in my future tomorrow, however. With each passing minute, my poor body gets more & more sore from the hours of digging. If only I could channel Porter’s digging for good instead of destruction. I am sure he’s still trying to figure out why he is not allowed to dig in the yard and I can. Me, the lowly person responsible for feeding him & cleaning up his poo, can dig but Doodles the Wonder Dog cannot. Yeah, life’s just funny that way.
Today’s forecasted high temp ~ 65 degrees!! Say it isn’t so!
For those who didn’t see my comment a couple posts back, I was a juror in a murder trial this past week. Yesterday the defense rested, and after the closing arguments, I was randomly dismissed along with one other juror to make the final panel of 12. I thought all along that if I was dismissed as an alternate, I would be disappointed to not see this process through to the end, but it turns out it was a huge relief on many levels. I will describe my experience (no gross details, I promise) in another post, but right now payroll beckons.
TG
hello my friends ~
Even though it’s already been a week since my last post (my, how time flies when your life turns insane all at once), I will not likely be writing much in the next week or so. I have something incredibly huge going on, and it will be too hard to not write about it. But I promise that as soon as this is all over, I will share in great length what all the secrecy is about.
Happy birthday to Honey, who turned 26 yesterday. Honey, who loves to remind me that he will always be younger.
today’s post is getting out there a little late, but i have my priorities. 2-hour grey’s anatomy ~ hello!
i thought i would have a hard time finding pink in my house, and while pink is not a prevelant color scheme in my home, i do loves my pink dishes.
my small collection began with this sweet pitcher & glasses. i didn’t take a close-up, but they have a floral design etched in. when i spied them in the display case in a sellwood, oregon antique shop, i knew i had to have them. my grandpa bought me the pitcher and i bought the glasses. if you knew my grandpa, you are aware that this was a monumental ocassion as he was not prone to spending money on a whim. except for my wedding gift, which is an exquisite pitcher with etched stars that belonged to his mother, this was the only gift i remember him buying for me so it’s all the more special. unfortunately, i am afraid to use them but i imagine them being used on a summer evening, on a perfectly-cottaged front porch, serving a lovely after-dinner cocktail. can you picture it? 
of course, there would be dessert of something cool & fruity, and they would be served in these little beauties. at the moment i can’t for the life of me remember where i got them or who may have given them to me. i’m thinking they were from my mom, who i really need to have come over & help me inventory all my family heirlooms. at any rate, i love the detail on them. they don’t quite match the pitcher & glasses but that’s the best part of a dishware collection. and i cannot have enough dishware, despite what my husband says. these dessert cups get used pretty frequently. they’re great for dips, but they really love to house german raspberries, which are just so yummy.
i do know the pink dessert plates were from mom one christmas. she likes to get creative with the holidays, and this particular year us kids each had a theme. mine was entertaining. since adam doesn’t eat sweets (just wrong, i know), we generally don’t eat a lot of cake or pie or anything requiring a dessert plate. they have, however, become the official plate for birthday cake. the pink platter was also from mom, picked out special for me from my grandparent’s belongings. it is the palest of pale pinks & i love it.
up until a couple weeks ago, my house was still decidedly fallish, requiring a spring-decorating fix pronto. what’s a girl to do? lay out as much pink as possible! these are all from mom ~are you sensing a trend here? the hanky in the middle photo was from jerusalem’s etsy shop, as well as the spring nest in the background. just promise me that when you check out her shop, you’ll leave some goodies for me.
till tomorrow!
everything comes back into style.
who remembers bubble skirts??
day three ~ green!
my favorite plant ~ started from a plant belonging to my mom, which came from her grandmother. apparently, the grandkids got a plant while the great-grandkids got a quilt. my mother felt jilted for years, and never told me the quilt i loved as a child was actually mine until last year! anyway, the plant refused to grow for months. it just sat there, doing nothing. i swear we didn’t do anything differently, but one day it just started to grow & hasn’t stopped since.
a really lovely clock i purchased in leavenworth, washington last summer. as much as i love it, it pained me to see it in a catalog for less than half the price. ouch. the candlestick is part of a set that we got as a wedding gift. you can see bits of my favorite plant, and the wall in this photo (you’ll see befores & afters eventually, I promise) is painted saybrook sage, and says “cottage” perfectly. even my mom says so.
this last photo, also worthy of a before & after, is of my entertainment center door. it was one of the first projects i did when we moved into the house, and one that i actually finished. except that it still needs shelves built where there used to be drawers. currently, we are using leftover flooring as the shelves. crafty, eh? the knob is from anthropology ~ don’t they have the coolest stuff?
