You Know You've Gone Too Long Without Posting When...

... You check your email and find a note from a concerned reader asking if everything is ok. 

Don't worry, folks, I am alive and well! 

Work has been pretty crazy lately, I've been spending a lot of time outside my office around people I don't know well, or at all.  As an introvert, this has been kind of rough psychologically, since spending time around people, especially those I don't know well, can be draining.  Combine that with a busy concert season, some extra hours at the library, and lots of social stuff going on this summer, and I just haven't been inclined to do anything except zone out in front of the TV when I actually have some free time.

I do have a few amusing photos to share from the past month and a half, though!

In case anyone was wondering what I wake up to most mornings:

Elvis is super excited right now, because earlier this month, we finally had a fence put in!  Now he can run around the entire back yard all he likes, and he has been taking full advantage of the situation.

I've been showing this photo to pretty much everyone.  Even though I look kind of awful in it, Bailey's curiosity with the camera on my phone is just too amusing not to share:

I was trying to get a picture of me with both the degus to send to my husband, at the last possible second Bailey decided to upstage Barnum.  I love that you can see his little orange teeth. :-)

One of my very best friends is getting married this fall, and her bridal shower was in June.  As so often seems to be the case, I was nominated to make the hat.  We were kind of ill-prepared for hat-making, but somehow I managed to attach every last bow and ribbon to a single paper plate without a single piece of tape:

And while we're talking bridal showers, over the weekend I attended a coworker's bridal shower.  It was a gorgeous day, and it was an outdoor shower, basically in the middle of nowhere.  Here's my view of the giant cornfield that was literally right next to where I was sitting:

My blog hasn't been the only victim of my busy schedule.  My poor little jewelry business has fallen by the wayside these past few months as well.  I tend not to do many shows during the summer anyway, but I haven't been able to find a single show I'd have been available for so far this year.  It seems like there is something going on every single weekend!  But now that fall is approaching, I need to get in gear and start scheduling some shows!  Wish me luck. ;-)

Seize the Day

How was everyone's weekend?

Mine was pretty darn fantastic!  I spent Saturday in New York with one of my best friends from high school, as well as one of her sisters and he sister's friend.  We had tickets for Newsies, and as we were making our way toward the Nederlander one of my friends stopped short and gasped when she saw this: 



Also exciting: the Godiva store was to the right of Chop't.  We had truffles for dessert. :-)

I've only been to Chop't once before, when visiting that friend in D.C, but was amazing!  And my friend loves Chop't so much she would probably benefit from some sort of 12-step program, so we were both incredibly excited to see that they were in New York, too. 

My salad consisted of baby spinach, romaine lettuce, crumbled egg, carrots, broccoli, sunflower seeds, and smoky bacon ranch dressing.  SO good.

Yum!!!

Then it was off to the Nederlander, where we waited in a line that wrapped around the block.  It was ridiculous.



Yay!!

I hadn't seen the movie in awhile, possibly since high school.  Which is probably kind of good, because they did make some completely arbitrary changes that might have bothered me more if I'd seen it more recently.  But changes or not, it was an incredible performance, and so much fun!!  I haven't seen any other shows that are nominated, so my opinion may not count for much here, but I will still be extremely surprised if it doesn't win the Tony for best choreography. 


Covert picture in the theater before the performance started.  I'm a rebel!

 Next we headed down to Veselka for dinner:



7 plates for 4 people.  But we're not gluttons. :-P

Everything was amazing.  That picture above?  It's not even everything we ordered.  There were no leftovers, unless you count the 3 quarts of borscht my friend ordered to go. ;-)

Pond Ponderings

Lately I've been thinking about the things I can to to further beautfy our pond area:

We don't have any lighting in that area, so while it's nice to hear the sound of the waterfall at night, we can't see it.  I found this gorgeous light on the Home Depot website, and I think I will pick a few of them up:

It got great reviews, and I think it would look wonderful around the pond! 

I debating getting some sort of underwater pond lighting, but since the pond is on the small side and the water lilies pretty much take over, I'm not sure it'd really be worth it.

I'm also planning to pick up some more goldfish, since it looks like only one made it through the winter.  He needs friends. ;-)

For the time being I'm sticking with the usual 29-cent feeder fish and hoping for the best, but how cool is this calico fantail goldfish?

Maybe next year, if I'm feeling confident in my ability to keep fish alive...

Last, but not least, I've been thinking about seating... After all, how can I fully enjoy my little pond paradise without a place to sit?

My mother-in-law told me about this bench she saw at Lowe's:

The design is adorable and it's small enough that it wouldn't overwhelm our not-very-big pond... but I'm not crazy about the color.  I'd hate to spend $98 on a bench just to spray paint it... So something tells me I'll be prowling thrift store and yard sales this summer. ;-)


I'm hoping to take care of the light and fish situation after work today, since tomorrow I'm seeing Newsies and eating dinner at Veselka with some friends from high school.  So excited!!  What are you plans for this weekend??



Garden Photos 2012 - Getting Started

I got a later start than usual on gardening this year - too much rain!  But my gardens are off to a good start.

I decided to change up the large planter in the front yard.  No more icky, scraped up plastic thing (which is now home to our roma tomatoes, as you'll see later), instead I got a nice cedar one:

For years now, I've done coleus surrounded by alyssum, but this year I decided to start completely fresh and do a spike plant (I already managed to lose the card and I don't remember the exact variety!) surrounded by trailing vincas (Mediterranean apricot broadeye, which I used in another part of the yard last year).

I hadn't planted zinnias at this house yet, but I used to plant them at our apartment all the time.  I decided to return to an old favorite, the swizzle cherry and ivory, in the front flower bed.

I also planted some petunias and some of the extra vincas, along with the usual perennials - coreopsis and blue flax. I'll share more photos of that garden once it's filled in a bit more.

I rearranged the rozannes so they'd form a straight line in this bed, and eventually fill the whole thing out:

And I moved our herb garden to a tab le on the patio:

So far, we just have chives, parsley, basil, rosemary, and dill.  I've been picking up a few herbs from the farmer's market each week, so I'm sure there will be more here soon!

We're also trying our hand at growing tomatoes:

We're also going to add some peppers, and maybe spinach and/or kale in the near future.

Elvis's beloved catmint is back in full force:

Or at least I'm assuming the catmint is his favorite, since it attracts the bees he so loves to stalk!

And here's the pond, all spruced up:

I finally laid down some weed fabric under the rocks, so now I won't be stuck pulling weeds in that area practically every day.  At least one of our fish survived the winter, as did a lot of the snails we bought last year!  I even found one of those pea-sized babies, so hopefully we will have a nice, self-sustaining, algae-eating community of Japanese trapdoor snails for years to come.

And of course, all that gardening and lawn care is hard work, and our old hammock was in terrible was in terrible shape, and could only hold one person... So we treated ourselves to a nice, new, two-person hammock to relax in and enjoy our back yard:

Next project: a fence!  (But, uh, we're paying someone else to do that!)  Expect videos of Elvis running around like a maniac in the near future. ;-)

This Little Piggy

So... I guess I just went 5 weeks without posting.

It's been a crazy month, between work and trying to get my gardens in shape.  But by far, the most exciting thing that happened during my hiatus was the return of the Easton Farmers' Market for it's 260th (!!!) season.  I'm absolutely loving all the fresh produce!

This past weekend, the Pig Placement Network was at the market, and I got to meet this little guy:

So stinking cute!!!  The lady said he's only eight weeks old.  I have no idea if potbelly pigs are even legal in my town, but if they are, I totally want one some day. ;-)

Up next, I'll be posting some garden photos!  I've rearranged and/or improved some areas, and this weekend I'm planning to get a container garden going on the patio for herbs and veggies.

Oh, and while I was off neglecting my blog (oops!) Rebecca of Baby Sloth gave me a Liebster Award!

 

 'Liebster' means 'favorite' or 'dearest' in German. This award, which originated in Germany, recognizes up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. In accepting the award, the recipient agrees to: Thank the person that gave the award and link back to their blog, copy and paste the award to your blog, and reveal the 5 blogs you have chosen to award and let them know by commenting on their blog!

(I could actually only come up with 3 blogs that are definitely below the 200-follower limit, plus one that doesn't list the number of followers, but is awesome just the same!)

1. Kathy (Keeping Up With No One) - My wonderful sister-in-law, who started a personal finance blog earlier this year.
2. Niki (Debt Free by Thirty) - Another fantastic personal finance blogger, and fellow fan of Doctor Who and The Adventures of Pete and Pete!
3. Faye (A Tree-Climber Goes to Texas) - One of my college roommates who abandoned me to live in Texas, but I love her anyway! ;-)  She only posts intermittently, but it's always fun to read about her adventures.
4. Alicia (Eco Friendly Homemaking) - I'm actually not sure how many followers she has, so she may be over the 200-follower limit, but you should definitely check out her blog (and her online shop!) either way. :-)