Package for Me!

My bridesmaid dress for my BFF's October wedding arrived this week. It's super cute and not so bridesmaidy. (This was my pick! I love when the bride listens to the opinions of the girls wearing the dresses.)



I even might not dye this one!

Now I just need to find some shoes... this is turning out to be a rather difficult task.

Ps. Like how both my monsters interjected themselves into this pic?

Pps. Excuse all the extraneous clutter, the bf locked the keys to my garage... inside the garage. I'm going to have to borrow some bolt cutters from the office.

First Garden Haul!

Finally!!



This is what I picked this morning. Its the first time I've picked more than one vegetable at a time. However, once my tomatos ripen, I'll probably have at least a bushel. I'm feeling some homemade salsa canning in my future.

Is that light I see?

There at the end of the tunnel? A teeny glimmer of hope? Far off in the distance? Please let it be so!

I am exactly, finally, half way through my graduate degree program. Geepers. It only took me... ohhhh... 2.5 years to get here!! Geepers. (I know, I said it twice, I'll say it again. Geepers.)

But... I'm finally at the point where... after this Monday's final exam is completed, I only have one more first summer session left. Just like I only have one more spring session left.

I don't know if I'll graduate next August, or next December, but man... that feels good. Getting down to the... "only one more of these left" categories.

Oh free time, I might see you faintly sparkling off in the distance, a tease that feels just the teensiest bit more attainable every day.

But just a teensy, miniscule bit.

Red Front Door

I love red. A lot. And I love Behr paint's Red Awning. I've painted my bedroom this color in the last two apartments I've rented and while I knew it didn't really work with my "beach cottage" theme, I wanted to somehow incorporate this color in the new house. And so, when it came time to install a new front door, I knew exactly what color to paint it.

View of the neighbor's from my living room.


New door from the inside.


Her it is again with the new molding.


And from the outside.


I'll have to remember to take, and post, some pictures of it now that the all-glass storm door is in place and I've painted the mailbox and house numbers oil-rubbed bronze.

My grandmother would be so proud

My grandmother grew the most beautiful roses at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She had an amazing green thumb. I always knew that when I had a place of my own, I would plant roses and holly as a way of remembering those happy visits to the little house my grandparents built in 1956. The smell takes me right back to that place.

She turned 95 on May 3 this year and although the Alzheimer's has started to rob her of her memory, she's still going strong physically. I send her roses every year for her birthday.

She is part of the legacy of strong, capable women in my family. She put herself through school at a time when women didn't go to college. She taught English and business, even serving as acting principal for a time, and kept the books for my grandfather's grocery store. She raised two amazing children, my aunt and my father. She worked hard for her version of the American dream.

She is my inspiration in life and in the garden.

A little like Don Quixote..

Except, I was not afraid they were giants. I love windmills! I joke that I'm going to put one in my front yard and buy an electric car to plug into it.

These can be seen in Sommerset County, Pennsylvania, from the PA Turnpike.

They've also put some up in my home town. Maybe one day I'll actually take a picture of them...

Spoiled.

The dating moratorium ended about a month ago.

He's awesome and wonderful and everything else.

And he spoils me just a little. Which I've never liked before.

This. I like.

:)