Sugar Skull FTW!

My AVALANCHE of recent gardening posts

might lead you to believe that's all I do.

Au, contraire!

I am also an enthusiastic quilter!

I'll be taking this beauty to a craft show this weekend.

Wish me luck!

Although I'll probably make most of my money from my $4.00 tissue holders,

maybe someone will decide she can't live without

a hand-embroidered sugar skull lap quilt.

(Psssst... remember:  visitors to my blog can head over to my Etsy shop

and enter the code word MINNIE at check-out to receive 10% off!)

A Victim Of My Own Success

How many seeds should you sow for your garden?

It turns out, poking about EIGHTEEN Sungold tomato seeds into starting pots

when you want about THREE plants is probably overkill:

So... yeah.  After putting sixteen tomato plants into my garden,

I ended up with SIXTY-TWO extra little tomato plants.

Someone better take some of these off my hands,

or I'm going to have to sneak some onto the neighbors' doorsteps at night.



ETA:  I took a bunch of extras into work, and they were gone, baby, gone within hours.
I took the rest in the next day and again, I saw staff member after staff member
leaving the break room clutching a new tomato plant!

So maybe... I'll plant as many next year, too.

People love getting a new baby tomato plant!

I Have Achieved Zucchini!!

Look!  I have grown a ZUCCHINI!!

(Stars are not actually part of the zucchini.  But wouldn't it be awesome if they WERE?)

I know, I know... given zucchini's reputation, experienced gardeners are thinking,

"Well, aren't you adorable, all excited about a zucchini!"

But, this is what I managed, zucchini-wise, last year:

However, this year, I used planting soil as rich as chocolate cake,

and a nice deep planting bed.

I planted Zucchini Astia...

...which has been developed for container planting.

AND,

I tried something new!

I planted some zucchini in some

right side-up Topsy-Turvy planters!

I planted tomatoes in the bottom of these last year, and they did... okay... so I was meh

on planting them with tomatoes again this year.

Then I thought, what about using them as a super-deep hanging planter, instead?

GENIUS!

As you can see by the difference in leaf size,

they aren't as crazy-robust as the zucchini plants in the bed ...

... but they are indeed producing zucchini!

WOO!

I AM NOW OFFICIALLY

A SUCCESSFUL ZUCCHINI GARDENER!

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUUUUUN!

Who knew I could recycle my April Ludgate moon-gear so soon?

It was a solar eclipse today, y'all!!

It was AWESOME!

A student in my class handed out "Eclipse Glasses" to everyone on Friday.

Thanks, Macy!

Forget the Maracas; Bring Home A Plant!

When heading home after a trip, what kind of souvenir should you pick up?

You could go the crazy-tacky route...

...OR, you could bring home a plant!

Now, before I get hate-comments about moving plants across state lines and such,

let me just say that cool orangey-green aloe plant came from a nursery

in my very same area code.

I'm a lazy lima bean when it comes to vacationing, and I head to the beach

less than two hundred miles away.  So bringing home a living reminder

is totally cool and legal.

Maybe the teensiest bit not cool and/or legal was the time I visited 

The Happiest Place On Earth...

... and brought home a scented geranium cutting instead of 

a Small World sweatshirt.

 Look how beautiful that violet-pink is, though!  How could I resist!

I just pinched off a little branch from some of the pretty, pretty landscaping,

and slipped it up my sleeve.

So now instead of a faded shirt or tacky figurine, I have a sweet-smelling geranium

that I've poked into the ground all over the garden.

Again, I didn't take this plant out of my state.  I live in SoCal,

so Disneyland is even closer than my vacation beach.  And as an aside,

let me tell you that ALL SoCal residents go to Disneyland at some time.

Parents might not "believe" in TV or refined sugar or competitive sports,

but they don't fight Disneyland. 

Garden Markers With A Side Of Sushi

It seems I've saved the colorful spoon from every yogurt shop I've patronized --

-- so they seemed like a good resource for plant markers:

Wrong!

The permanent Sharpie ink completely faded after about three months.

But what else to use?

Hmm... what about that other disposable eating utensil I hoard?

What about, chopsticks!

I used my Pigma PERMANENT pen...

and the combo of wood and ink worked so well these guys even went around the horn

and are still legible a year later in the sunny garden!

What Was She, Twelve?

Just look at that slip of a girl:

  

Yep, that's my mom.  She was, I think, twenty-two at the time of this picture.

Married at eighteen, a mother twice over by the time she was twenty-one,

she dealt with toddlers and cloth diapers and cooking regular meals

 while I at that same age was apartment-slumming without my own vacuum cleaner

and regularly making a dinner of ramen.

(Cup O' Noodles.  It's like kibble for college students.)

She was protective of my physical safety (no playing in the street for me!)
and expected me to do well in school, 

but I joined this club or that sports team because I was interested,

not because she pushed me or thought it would look good on my college application.

She parented with a light touch: I remember few lectures, but she perfected a Really?! expression that could make me rethink a decision without a single word from her.

She also didn't sweat the small stuff.
I was in charge of my own clothes, my own friendships, my own school assignments. 

(Though she would, without complaint, help me out with late-night school reports.)
But why would she bother telling me to put on a sweater,

when I knew my own self if it was cold outside? 

(He looks like a tick!)

The best thing she ever did was nurture my love of reading.  She read to me and my sister before bedtime, and when I got older, and these started coming home from school--

-- she not only NEVER told me I had chosen too many books,

she also would check off a few more after I handed my wish list back.

Is it any wonder my book stand looks like this?

So, thanks Mom!  I'm glad I had you for a mother.

To you and all the other moms:

Happy Mother's Day!

ETA:

Mom and her girls, Mother's Day 2012:

We should have sat on her lap and recreated the original photo, eh?

Good-bye Mr. Sendak

I found out this morning Maurice Sendak died,

and I was as grief-stricken as a baby boomer losing a Beatle.

I shared his books as a teacher, as a parent, and as a librarian.

My own copies of his books are, as all the best books should be, well-worn and well-loved.

His books contained humor and darkness, violence and grace,

and they were delightfully free

of the boring safeness that too many children's books have.

Rest in peace, old man.

You will be missed.

Celebrating The Moon, April Ludgate-Style

Last night was a SuperMoon!

(Photo courtesy of my sweet husband.)

I decided to honor the Ruler of the Moon, April Ludgate.

This is from my favorite show on TV, Parks and Recreation, episode "The Treaty."

Catch up on Hulu, why don't you?

So I made my own moon hat and scepter.

Would you like a tutorial for your own tinfoil hat?

It's complicated!

Ready?

STEP ONE:

Wrap foil around your head, and twist it into a point.

Aaaand, you're done!

(Though now that I look at it, I realize April added a crescent moon to the top of her hat.

Argh!  I guess I did need a tutorial!)

Do Not Challenge Me, For You Will Lose

It LOOKS like a harmless nut...

... but it's as evil as the One Ring!

Some backstory:  there was a leak under the kitchen sink that had been dampening that area for months.  It had been so long, I had stopped noticing the messy boxes of spray cleaners that were on the kitchen floor instead of under the sink.

But after writing myself a bossy note, 
I vowed to deal with the problem.

Unfortunately, it was an intermittent leak,

which meant I could never pinpoint exactly what was leaking.
Finally, I figured out the key to locating the source:

tin foil.

I placed it under the sink, and listened for the plink, plink, plink of falling water.

Once I did, I could easily see exactly where the water was hitting,

since it left a perfect tiny puddle of water.

I crawled under the sink (FORESHADOWING, PEOPLE),

covered the puddle with my hand,

and slowly raised my hand until I found exactly where the water was dripping.

It turns out it was NOT my sprayer, as I suspected, but my nasty old faucet,

all corroded and gross underneath.

(Don't judge my sink.  As I've said before, this isn't a housekeeping blog.)

I've done a little plumbing so I felt confident I could replace the faucet.

I picked one up at Home Depot, brought it home, and got to work.

(This is what kind of trashy housekeeper I am: I totally thought when seeing the high, arched faucet, Hey!  I could still get water from the faucet for my tea, even when the sink is piled high with dirty dishes!)

After a fruitless half-hour trying to free the faucet from the sink,
I realized Home Depot wasn't just trying to make a few extra bucks
by recommending the sink basin wrench. 

It's a one-use tool, but it's the only way to loosen the nuts.

I borrowed one from my neighbor (thanks, Ken!),
 and after jamming myself into the SQUARE FOOT of space under the sink...

... I got to work, slowly, painfully, trying to loosen

that stupid, horrible, corroded nut.

Minnie decided to help by poking her paws through the empty holes,

crawling in next to me and rubbing against my head,

and perching on my hip as I lie on my side.

I finally locked her in the office; I should have realized
she was trying to save me from PURE EVIL.

For about an hour and a half, I unscrewed that nut

quarter-turn by torturous quarter-turn.

Finally, FINALLY, after smashed fingers,

a banged head,

and a bruised back, 

I worked that nut loose.

SUCCESS!

(I miss old school Office.)

Now, doesn't my new sink look pretty?

(I'm totally guilty of doing that before-and-after staging thing they do
with plastic surgery photos.  I told my new sink to wear some nice eye shadow
and stick out its chin so it wouldn't have turkey wattle neck.)

But... I don't know what to do with that EVIL nut.

Should I wear it around my neck, like the teeth of vanquished foes?

Or enlist Frodo and Sam to cast it into Mount Doom?