Stroller Sig Alert

 Bumper-to-bumper strollers...

...at the public library.

It was story time, y'all.

Soon...

Come on, tomatoes...you can do it!

SOP Week 5

I'm a week behind: this was the Week Three challenge. This area looks better! Here it was before...

The unwanted patterns are now sorted into complete and removed from Etsy inventory; incomplete; and not counted but unwanted. Next, I'm going to pull some of them out and give them to someone who wants them (hi, Miss D.!).

I'm behind in part because I had some actual editing work this past week. Now onward to last week's challenge, which has become this week's challenge: we'll revisit cleaning up the bulletin board.

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Smoochety smooch! That bit under her nose is delightfully fuzzy...

Working Girls

 A tale of two bee sisters.

 This gal is working the pollen for all she's worth...she's covered!

At the same time, this bee girl was getting nectar out--her head was totally stuck inside all the tubules. Oh how I love my bees!

Before and After

 

The top shot is so weird...it looks as if I Photoshopped it, which I did not (I don't know how to use that newfangled technology!). My sunflowers have burst into bloom...more tomorrow!

Breathe Deep

How I wish you all could breathe deep and smell these lovelies fresh from my garden. The bush from whence these came has gone berserk: it sent up skinny canes about seven feet in the air and then proceeded to make dozens of roses at the end of each puny cane. I haven't the heart to cut it back while it is blooming--I think a real rosarian probably would--so I've been bringing in fresh roses every day. They only last about two days, but ahhhh...the aroma is heavenly, sort of a sweet lemony scent. The rose is Karl Lagerfeld.

Foofatini con Monkey

Sometimes you just NEED a vodka peach fizz with a plastic monkey, you know what I'm saying?

SOP: Week Four

 I did tidy up the pattern area, but only tidied (rather than sort and dispose of--so we'll come back to that later). We bought a cool old wire display rack at an estate sale on Saturday, so the pic above...

 ...was transformed to this picture: all of my trugs and clay pots are on the cute-o rack! I love it!

This is the view from the outside of the potting shed.

This week: my bulletin/inspiration board. I kinda love it all cluttered, but it's over the top...stuff falls off frequently. It needs to be refreshed, methinks...

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

 Class, get out your dictionaries! Turn to the "L" section, look up the word "lazy," please...

You'll find this picture under the word. See also: sleepy, drowsy, slothful, resting, stink-eye.

Trying to bring a little levity and cuteness into a very sad day...thoughts are with those affected by the horror in Colorado...

Behind

Sometimes the back view is as interesting as the front...these dahlias are not striped on the front side. Ah, Mother Nature...one always needs to look down or up or behind to get the fullest picture, yes?

Gophers 2, Foziewisp 0

Another rosebush bites the dust, having been bitten (and chewed and gnawed and eaten) by the Walking Gophers. Maybe they are zombie gophers?

Fun with Stickers

I found this amusing...

Hello!

 Hello!

 Sweet Socks, a cat who lives at the Mission Hills Nursery with her sister, Reina.

Bonus: a chicken (who also lives at the nursery with the cats...peacefully, too!).

SOP: Week Three

Well, as predicted, I was busy this week with preparations for our houseguest--where is that robot housekeeper like the Jetsons had?! It's 2012, people!--and then enjoying her company. I'm not even sure I did ANY photo sorting...oh, well.

Next up: this little mess o' patterns in the garage. Etsy pattern storage is a problem: I have, um, some patterns. This area is adjacent to where the listed patterns are stored. This pile is a mix of patterns that are incomplete (so I can't list them) and patterns that just have had no action on Etsy and are being removed from inventory. It's a conundrum, because I don't quite know what to do with them all. I believe many thrift stores throw sewing patterns away, and that would make me sad! In the meantime, they need to not be lying about willy-nilly, don't you agree?

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

 Um....

Really now...?!

Food, Good

 We had lunch at Underbelly--it's a SoCal take on a Tokyo ramen shop. Mostly, they serve ramen.

 And edamame...and beer.

Behold, the veggie ramen, full of deliciousness. I could eat this every single day and be very happy indeed!

Ahoy, Skipper

Doesn't it look like a little rocket ship? This is some sort of skipper butterfly on a lantana flower. These dudes don't seem quite as skittish as the monarchs and painted ladies, which fly away when I get near (and no, Mr. B., I'm not squealing as I approach them). Sweet!

P.S: Thanks for all the fun comments on yesterday's post...I breathed deep and smelled everyone's memories, and they made me smile!

Nostalgia: Visual and Olfactory

A new box of crayons: is there anything more evocative of being six years old? It's not just how pretty they are, all lined up, like colorful little soldiers in bright and shiny caps--it's also that SMELL. Breathe deep, and you're back at the kitchen table, coloring away, not a care in the world.

Here's a partial list of other smells that instantly take me back to a happy place:

* Freshly mown grass
* The smell of rain on concrete
* Spray starch
* Chlorine on sun-warmed skin
* Coppertone suntan oil
* Permanent solution: viva la Toni perms!--corollary: Breck shampoo
* Pencil shavings
* Furniture polish
* Dentyne gum and perfume = my grandma's pocketbook
* Christmas trees

I left off food smells because there are too many to list...

Tell me yours in the comments, please!

Cinnamony Goodness

Homemade cinnamon rolls! Yay! First time I made them, and they were a huge success, I'm happy to say.

These are overnight rolls--they come from this cute blog, Perfection of Pink.

I recommend them...give them a whirl!

SOP: Week Two

Here's the "after" shot of my paper area (well, ONE of my paper areas!)

Yay! Click here to see last week's "before" shot (I'm trying to save Picasa space...I'm starting to reach my limit, so I ask you to please click back to see the "before.") During this process, I came to quite a realization: I do NOT have to save every scrap of paper that comes my way. Wow! What a revelation...

We have a house guest coming this week (Woot woot! Hi, Miss D.!) , in part due to the wonder that is Comic-Con, although I don't partake--I have been once, and it was way cool, but that was enough for this gal--so I won't have time for a project this week. However, I am on an ongoing quest to clean up the  incredible mess seen above: the photo files on my computer.

It may not surprise you to learn that I take a LOT of photos...for every photo of Tallulah Mae that you see here, there are 10 others, for example. Ahem. And I just dump them onto the computer without organizing them. Until NOW! Now I"m grouping them in logical files...I'm in 2009, y'all! This is obviously more than a week's worth of work, so we'll check back at the end of the summer to see how I'm doing.

So far, so good!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Happy dog.

Fourth Frolics

 Tallulah is tired of waiting: Let the parade begin!

 I adore the little neighborhood parade--it is small, it is cute, it is charming.

 Cute fireman shot, as well as all the kids on their various conveyances.

 Many dogs...many babies.

 Dogs in tutus--always a hit with the crowd.

 And you MUST have ice cream on national holidays--it's the law. Tallulah Mae is not a scofflaw.

She enjoys a good cup of ice cream, dontcha know.

Hope your day was as fun as ours!

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, y'all! Three cheers for the red, white, and blue (and black and white and grey).

Onionlicious

This yummyness is a sweet onion pie, baked by Master Chef B. Sweet onions, eggs, a bit of cream, reduced-fat cheese, pie crust (courtesy of Marie Callendar). Um, yum! Served with fresh corn on the cob...is your mouth watering yet?

*&#@*$'ing Gophers!

 Sorry to fake swear, but behold what the gophers have wrought. This was a rosebush. They have gnawed it off at the roots and killed it dead.

Look closely at this pic: you can actually see the marks of their gopher teeth--it looks as if someone has planed this wood with a tool.

Oh yeah, gophers, IT'S ON!!!! (P.S. I'm not going to kill them, despite their destructiveness. We will win, however, because we have opposable thumbs and the Internet (perhaps no match against their giant gopher teeth...).

Next up: this.