LOOK! DO YOU SEE? ARE YOU AS EXCITED AS ME? If so, go calm down, jeez, it’s only seeds. THAT ARE GROWING!!! Well, I’m allowed to be excited, THEY’RE MY SEEDS THAT I PLANTED THAT ARE GROWING! You, well, YOU being that excited.. it’s a little weird. Get a grip, yo.
But let’s take a closer look. Just FYI, each little section goes like this: first 2, left to right, is salvia: red in back, purple in front. Next FOUR sections, front and back are pink impatiens. that leaves the last 2 sections, which are day lilies.

So do you see what I’m seeing? The red salvia are coming up nicely. The front however, looks like nothing is coming up. This sucks. Since we can see the red salvia coming up, and the seeds are nearly identical, I can only assume that the purple salvia seeds I collected weren’t viable. Darn. Obviously, they’ll still be there for the next few weeks, so there’s still time, but it’s not looking good.

Next, the middle sections of impatiens. When I was planting them I got all concerned that the seeds wouldn’t grow, so I was tossing a ton into each well, and .. well, they’re all coming up, baby! I hope I like these plants, cause it looks like I’ll have a ton! Why might I not like them, you wonder?

Think back to your biology days when they talked about genetics and heredity and the blue eyed mom and the brown eyed dad might still have the green eyed child. The plants that I planted in my garden last year were from a local nursery (ok, it was Lowes) and were likely hybrid, meaning, that they were the careful offspring of 2 different plants to create a carefully controlled outcome, like the pink flowers they had. Or, they weren’t hybrids, they were a carefully controlled “true” plant, that is a direct descendent and their parents had the same characteristics as far as the eye can see. Either way, they weren’t anymore! Now they were in my yard! Out of a controlled environment! Where any old pollen could come floating along on the legs of any old butterfly and WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN! they could have been pollenated by some impatiens 3 blocks away! So basically, these offspring may or may not look like the plants that I saw last year. Honestly, they were pink, and I’m not so hot on the pink, so I’ll be all up for some new mixed up color zaniness. they could all get together and be zany and I could film it for a new hit sitcom. It’ll be just my luck that they’ll all turn up.. pink.

So, back to my flat. Impatiens. CHECK.

The last two sections are day lilies. Looking these two sections over, I grew all sad and mopey and thought about how they don’t seem to be growing… Until I thought about the seeds themselves. Compared to impatiens and salvia, they are huge, first of all. They are also have a very hard, shiny shell. So… in a very non-professional gardener way, I dug one up to see if it had done anything. (I’m sure that’s highly recommended. Dig up your seeds! Don’t let them alone to grow in peace, dig ’em up and check ’em out!) And it had! It had a teeny teeny TEENY tiny shoot sticking out of it. I stuck it back in to finish sprouting. (This is a highly professional gardening act, and should not be performed without the aid of a bioagribotonist. Oh how I kill myself.) These suckers are definitely doing something, they are just taking longer.

I took a picture of the teeny shoot, but unfortunately I’m always taking these day to day pictures at the end of the day when it’s dark and the light is non existent, and well, it didn’t turn out.

So there you go. My update on the seeds.

I ordered my raspberry plants last week also, did I tell you? They are shipping this week, along with some strawberry plants too. I’m so ready for all the lovely warm spring. Definitely need to do the rototillering stuff next weekend. I’m going to have raspberry bushes planted next to my deck, with I think some impatiens next, and then day lilies. I need something that will be dead (an annual, I mean, aren’t I wonderful with the techno gardening terms? “need to be dead.” good lord.) at the end of the year next to the raspberry bushes so I can just rototill right down the row of them, otherwise they will throw out shoots and spread like the weeds that they are, so impatiens sounds nice.

So did I tell you? IT MIGHT SNOW TOMORROW. HAHA! It’s like nature is being all sarcastic to us. Silly nature. Just makes me glad I have started some seeds inside — I really should start some others, but I still am all kerflummoxed on WHAT to grow. I really do love how my impatiens looked last year, so I think I may buy some seeds of white, or maybe purple, and start those. I could easily use up another flat, maybe two, of impatiens, and if I don’t, I could probably give them away, or sell them at the spring yard sale (ooh, i wonder when that is).

On other non-gardening news, I have so much to do, and so much that I WANT to do, that it is tough to actually do anything. what I really need to do is clean out my pantry, it is positively abysmal. there is also tons of laundry to fold, dirty dishes in the kitchen to take care of, and the happy birthday banner for Jocelyn’s party is still hanging up in the entryway.

So instead of doing any of that, I sat down and browsed and researched and lusted over the Canon EOS 20D and 30D (which is *this close* to shipping), browsed around again for the zillionth time looking for a photography class and wrote all this gardening blather here instead 🙂 And now, I think I’m going to head to bed early to fight back against this scratchy sand-papery feeling in my throat.

– amy whispers in a low throaty voice, “Check out my… sprouts.”

… I have updated my “About” page.

(yay me!)

Just so this isn’t only about the about page, here’s a photo I fancy:

hung in foyer, and closeup:

My readymade magazine just arrived, and the crafty urges I’ve been telling you about have grown about 10-fold. And a few of them, I might actually just do!

This sounds really dorky, but I think I’m going to embark on a little art(y) project of a diorama in the box-out above my fireplace. I’ve been thinking alot about my lack of decorativeness and really, I think a lot of it is NOT actually me being decoratively challenged. It is because I AM FICKLE. And I know this about myself. So I think sub consciously, I don’t do much because I’m not sure I’ll like it in six months. Also, I really don’t know what sort of style is really me. I think I’m contemporary with some traditional tossed in. I know I’m not country, but I do fancy some french country sometimes. And what I REALLY know about me is I like to be a bit original. I don’t need 100% originality, but I think I’d like the whole look of a room to be all me, and not look like it could be someone elses. I’m not sure that makes sense, but I think it really means that someone else might HATE it and therefore, it will be all me and could never be someone else – LOL. Maybe (let’s hope this is the real one) it’s actually that it came out of my head and it couldn’t come out of someone else’s, and therefore it is all me. that sounds nicer 🙂
But really, I’m fickle. I know I’m likely to change my mind many many times. So, here’s my goal = EMBRACE THE FICKLENESS! Maybe just do things temporary 🙂 Thus, a diarama that will no doubt be fun to construct and do, even if it looks weird and like crap – hey, I’m fickle anyway, I can always just take the damn thing down.

Oh, and remember when I told you about my big plans for my brother’s photo of my mother’s piano? I was going to get it framed for myself at christmas. Well, it was going to cost over $500, so I scrapped that idea. I have a new one idea for it though. Pixelate it, blow it up huge, print it out and pin it up in my entry way. Or maybe the guest room. Other ideas is to make my own frame. Not sure yet.

I’m feeling so GOOD today, I hope it lasts. Tomorrow I am going to de-clutter and toss a crapload of shit. This mood however, does not mirror my mouth’s health. Specifically, my tongue. I thought about just putting the picture of this heinous canker sore that is decorating my TONGUE (seriously, on the TONGUE? how RUDE.) but it really is disgusting. I mean, it would just BE.. RIGHT THERE. You’d have no choice in your seeing it, because it’d be right there, to see, unless you’re visually impaired, and if you are, you’re in luck, because it’s gross. The rest of you, can click here if you want to see the grossness.*
I also felt domestic today. BEHOLD! these cookies were actually made with a minimal of kid-fussing over who gets to stir/pour/dip/scrape/mix/etc.

* Don’t you love how I spare you the sight of my cankerous tongue, and yet I have no problem TAKING A PICTURE and POSTING IT ON THE INTERNET in the FIRST PLACE. I truly am whack, yo.**

** (Actually, not so much whack, as, addicted to taking pictures of every itty bitty thing in my life, including my cankerous, painful, throbbing, breathing-heavy, sweaty (– oh, no wait, that’s something else. ahem.) erm, where was I? NASTY OWIE TONGUE! I did show you cookies, so hopefully that makes up for at least part of my dementia.

– amy

I’m in such a great mood. I’m sure it will be wiped out when I have to go to work on Monday. I think the “honeymoon” phase when everything is bright and wonderful and carefree at work (don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been carefree, I’m just talking about my outlook on my job) is over, and the drudgery sets in. I’m exagerrating, it’s not drudgery. I really do like my job. Still! It’s amazing, really. I do however, wish I didn’t have to dress up all the time. That IS drudgery.

But I digress. I didn’t want to talk about work, I wanted to talk about the weekend, and being happy and carefree! I was in such a great mood when I picked up my kids on Friday. I have been reading all these crafty home-makery blogs lately (loobylu and wee wonderfuls in particular, see my side list) and have been really WANTING to be crafty and MAKE something! MAYBE WITH TOOTHPICKS, or my SEWING MACHINE! I have a baby quilt I started before Jocelyn was born that I could finish, or a little blankey I was crocheting that I could also finish, but all this requires time, and I’m kind of short on that, so I was kind of tickled when I ran across these easy paper toys that take no time at all. Just cut them out and glue, and you’re good to go, on most of them. I made this sun box, and this bug box for Ethan, and next I’m going to make this little fuschia box for Jocelyn. Since they only take about 5 minutes, it won’t bother me *too* much when they get ruined, as I’m sure they will. I’m going to make myself a little box too to put paperclips in on my desk.

So anyway, on the way home, I was telling the kids all the fun things we were going to do this weekend. Make paper boxes! Go on bike rides! Make cookies! Maybe dig in the dirt! We got home and I — OH! I forgot to tell you. I got my BIKE! Yay! So, we got home and some neighbor kids were out playing, so while Ethan and Jocelyn joined in, I tried to hook up the bike trailer to my bike so I could take the kiddos for a spin, and I thought I had it all worked out. Loaded them in, but the wheels were flat, so not even making it out of our driveway, we came back with promises of “daddy will fix it” and we’d go out again tomorrow. So, today, James filled the tires, and I took them out around the block, but I obviously hadn’t hooked it up correctly, because it kept hitting the spokes of my back wheel (bad! bad! bad!) and it turned out when I got back, the gripper thingee had rubbed some of the paint off my bike frame (sad! sad! sad!) but oh well, and I have touch up paint and James figured out the correct way (i love that man. He can figure things out, AND reach things on the top shelf!) to hook up the trailer, so we have another outing in our future, this time, I’m going to make James pump up his tires too and come with! And it will be LENGTHY!

The short jaunt we took around the block was a big hit. I stopped to talk to my friend and after about 10 seconds, Ethan voiced his frustration with a sturdy holler of, “LET’S GET GOING!” and as I rounded the next corner, he urged me to go “FASTER FASTER!” This bike thing was a great idea.

So after bike adventures this morning, we hpoped in the car and drive over to a furniture city said friend had told me she’d gotten some furniture at, and damn, they had some nice things at good prices. We bought a coffee table. I’m so excited at the thought of having adult furniture again. We banished our coffee table out of the family room when Ethan was a baby and while it does make the room a lot bigger, it will be nice to have a coffee table to .. you know, put stuff on!

So bike, check. Craftiness, check. Furniture, check. that just leaves the spring which is sprunging all over the place, and bunko. i may not get to bunko today. I’ve been checking my little seeds and growing somewhat saddened each day as nothing is showing yet. Every day I think, “why did I think these seeds would be any good, anyway? SILLY AMY! SEEDS ARE FOR .. GARDENERS!”

And at first look today, I was still sad.

But then I looked CLOSER!!

I’m not completely useless as a garden type person! Yay!

I have more to write, but Ethan is talking my ear off about trains and diesel trains and diesel gas and my “Mmm hmmm”s and “yes dear”s are wearing thin and Jocelyn needs to be gotten up! So more later.

Take a look at this, in the meantime.

– amy listens to Ethan: “Some trains have snow plows. We need new batteries in our train. Mommy, this is a tape measure. Am I 4 yet? Mommy, I’m going to measure your computer.”

i think i had some freaky food poisoning or something. i have heard that there is no such thing as a “24 hour bug” and in actually, it is food poisoning. little scary.

I had toast this morning and have been feeling all surreal and light headed all day, until *ding* I thought, hmm, maybe I should eat something. So I did.

Now I feel all surreal, woozy, and leaden-tummied.

Can’t wait for work to be over.

I stayed home and worked yesterday because I just felt kind of run down and needed a working in your jammies kind of day. I actually got quite a bit done and was feeling pretty good.

Then at 1am last night, I awoke with an urgent need. Oh yes, the urgent need to vomit. And so crawl to the bathroom I did (i have never been more happy that we have cleaning ladies as when I was sitting in that bathroom alternately clutching the porcelain and spewing out my stomach’s innards, and curled up in a fetal ball on the floor) and puked and shivered and puked some more.

the kind man who sleeps in the same room as me heard my feeble cries and came and brought me tylenol, ginger ale, and more blankies. The tylenol and the ginger ale didn’t last long in me (i drank them way way too quickly) and after a fruitless bath to try to stop the shivering, I climbed back into bed to shiver, now WET, underneath the mountain of blankets. The trash can came in handy, when the rest of the ginger ale was evicted.

So now, here I am at home, hoping the folks at home don’t think I am just playing hooky (I’m sick! I really am!) feeling miserable and scared to eat or drink anything for fear of it coming back up. I’m taking small sips of water and gingerale and seem to be tolerating it OK.

I wonder where this came from, honestly, because I was fine and dandy yesterday. James fetched us Subway for dinner, and I’d hate to think it was food poisoning somehow. I just hope it clear up soon.

So. that’s me. Sick. Wish me luck in my porceain adventures.

-amy pleads, “don’t let the kids get sick, don’t let the kids get sick, don’t let the kids get sick, don’t let the kids get sick!”

Ahhhh..

Spring is in the air. It has been so beautiful the last couple of days. It was really a kick in the pants to get my indoor plantings underway so they’ll be ready when it’s time to set them outside.

So, Saturday night, I got out the flat I had bought last fall along with my peat moss pellet disk thingees and set about some planting.

Just so you know, I really have no clue what I’m doing. Last year, after spending over a hundred bucks on plants for our yard, I decided that seeds were the way to go. I would buy seeds and start them indoors first! Not only is this cheaper, but damn, it sounded like a lot of fun. I have a wee bit of experience growing things indoors from seeds, I started my tomato plant that way last year, and also all my herbs. The tomato plant did fantastically, but I kept it in a pot where it quickly outgrew the pot and so stagnated it’s growth. This year, I’m going to plant them straight into the ground after they’re started.

The herbs did well, but same problem. I used fairly small, plastic pots that prevented them from getting very big. I also set themoutside, where they got knocked off the porch and then I would not miss them until a month went by, and then I’d wonder, “Where did my basil go?” and have to fish it out of the bushes. (Shhh. I think the basil is still there.) I did use the herbs quite a bit though, and having them fresh was very nice. Last fall I bought some heavy earthen (but still pretty) pots to move my herbs into after they’ve gotten a good start. I’m also going to try to remember to move them indoors before fall so I can keep them alive all winter.

So, back to seeds. Fun, right? Then I got the bright idea, why buy them? Why not just harvest them? So I started collecting seeds from my garden – it was a lot of fun, actually. I gathered a lot of impatiens seeds, which are fun, and yet tricky. After the flower falls off, a small green pod forms and it starts to swell bigger and bigger, and turns a lighter green color while the seeds inside ripen. Soon, the pod is so close to bursting, that if anything brushes up against it, it will go SPROING!!! and break open in such a way that the seeds inside are scattered everywhere. Nature. Cool, huh! Tricky for actually COLLECTING the seeds though. If you grab it before it’s ready you can actually GET the seeds, but then the seeds aren’t ready. If you wait until they’re ready, the process of grabbing the pod can make it bust open and thus, you lose all the seeds. I would go out with my scissors and cut the pod off directly into a little cup. Then if it busted when it hit the bottom of the cup, no biggie, I’ve collected the seeds in the process. Often, I would carry in a little cup of pods and Ethan and I would have lots of fun busting them open in the cup and watchign the seeds SPROING! everywhere.

Petunia seeds are pretty neat also. The pod hardens and then opens up a bit when the seeds are ready, until it looks like it’s smiling. then you just pick the pod and try to dump the seeds out. Handy.
Impatiens seeds are very small, and kind of light brown in color. If I tried to collect from a pod that wasn’t ready, they would be super small, in very pale, and I would usually just discard them, as they probably weren’t viable. I took this photo Saturday when I planted, and it was night, so it’s not the best quality.

I did 4 sections (9 little “wells” in a section) of impatiens (yes, that’s a crapload of plants). I started out with just 2 seeds in each “well” (I have no idea what it’s called, the spot for each plant, i now dub thee, “WELL!”), and then started to doubt my seeds as I went along and started thinking about how bummed I am going to be if nothing comes up. So then I just started putting in however many stuck to the chopstick I was using, which was about 4-6 seeds in each well.

The first section I planted red salvia, and the next section, purple salvia. I had a beautiful little plant in my hanging basket that I bought without any labels, so I had no idea what it was. My neighbor across the street had the same thing, except hers were red. Some research later, I decided I it was “salvia.” I collected seeds both from my plant, and from my neighbors. I kept my basket throughout the season, but it was sickly and not doing great in the heat of the summer. It perked up and did much better in the late summer after it had cooled off. We’ll see if any of my collected seeds are viable.

The last 2 sections, I did day lilies. Some I collected from my yellow day lilies, and some from my neighbor Selena, but most of these seeds… Well, there’s no easy way of saying it. I stole them. I am a SEED THIEF!! Last fall, we visited my folks out in utah, and there were several trips to Liberty park in Salt Lake City. Well, they had beds and beds of daylilies that had gone to seed and were literally perfect for collecting from. Collecting seeds from daylilies is such fun, except that the seed itself is a little scary looking. The picture I have is crap, unfortunately, but they are on the large side, with a glossy, shiney black hard coat. They are a little wrinkly, and when you are looking at them in a dried side pod, ready to shake out, well.. they look like ugly little black bugs. They’re a little freaky, let me tell you! The freakiness continues even into planting. I beleive I stuck to 2 seeds per well for the day lilies.

So, one flat is all planted. I need to hop on the ball and get another flat planted, but honestly, I’m not sure waht I want, exactly. I also don’t know where I would put the flat where kids and kitties won’t meddle with it. I have purple petunia seeds that I collected from my petunias, but I’m not sure I really want petunias this year. They were beautiful, but they required a good bit of work in dead-heading and care. The impatiens were definitely a big hit last year, but I am not too keen on the color I had, which was pink. Definitely a big show of color though, mid season, and they lasted all season long, if a little droopy in the super hot periods.

Here is the mini flat I planted about 10 days ago. The three in back are tomato plants (which at least one of them has Tamara’s name on it!), the front left is rosemary, which hasn’t put in an appearance yet – the seeds I have for rosemary I am beginning to suspect aren’t viable. Then we have sage, and parsley (italian flat-leaf) which are looking happy and itty bitty and wee. So cute. After I initially planted them, I stuck the entire thing in a plastic grocery bag and tied teh top and stuck it on top of my refridgerator for a while. After a week I peeked in and lo, they were growing (excpet for the damn rosemary), so I put them on my sunny window, though a bit blocked by my forced bulbs.

As I stated before, these will be going into pots, some possibly sharing a pot – except for the tomaters – those will be going into the ground. I would also like to get a raspberry bush to plant outside – I would love to get my own berries and make jam! Oh yum! I am not sure exactly where it would go though.. They tend to spread, so it would have to be somewhere where I can get in and rototil around it, to prevent spreading. So before I plant more, I need to determine where exactly everything is going, and then plan accordingly. I need to do me some sketching.

I love gardening. I don’t know much, and I’m making it up as I go, but it is lots of fun.

And I need to hurry up, because spring has definitely sprung!!

– amy patiently ignores the fact that snow is a possibility in the forecast for next weekend.

I recently uploaded the pictures we took on our trip to utah last fall. We drove up to yellowstone and stayed in Jackson WY. I especially loved the Grand Tetons, which are featured in the new banner above. Also have pictures of Old Faithful and a myriad of geysers and waterfalls, as well as Jackson, and the kids playing in Liberty Park in SLC.
See the whole set.

1. Sneaking food into movie theatres. I LOVE to do it. Sometimes I’m disappointed when we go to dinner before a movie, because then there’s really no excuse to sneak in some snacks. And what fun is a movie if you can’t sneak in snacks?
2. Not cleaning up dog vomit.
3. Having cleaning ladies come to our house on a regular basis.
   Oh yes. This has occured, people. Our first visit was last Friday.
   Oh, I know I should feel guilty. How much of a yuppie could we be with our living in the suburbs and blatently wasting money on cleaning ladies when we could just scrub our toilets OURSELVES, but the truth is, it just doesn’t happen and when you have cleaning ladies you have to run around and pick up all the clutter and that’s just the kind of motivation I need to keep this place cleaned up. We have the, “people coming over” motivation, and the “relatives coming to visit”, and then there’s the “let’s pick up because we deserve to have a clean house and it will make us feel better” motivation, and guess which one always loses? (We promise to stop talking as if we are royalty.)
4. Eating bananas. Nope, nothing shameful about eating a banana! Totally guilt-free, there! Seeeeeee??? I don’t feel guilty about LOTS of things.
5. Yeah, I’m running out of items.

OK, so there’s many more things I feel guilty about then I do not guilty about. Oh! Writing on this webspace! No guilt there!

That’s all. Short post. THE END!