More Edible Flowers?

I am currently in the back seat of my mom's car, headed to our vacation destination: the beach! My dad is driving and Doc is up front with him. We just finished listening to a whole cd of greatest hits from the 60s, and now they're blaring the Rolling Stones. They dug into the bag of snacks a few minutes ago and Doc completely ripped the resealable seal off the bag of Nutter Butters so they're on a mission to eat them all. My mom is in the back with me, reading on her kindle. I'm curled up in my snuggie (of course) and just finished reading the current issue of US Weekly and now am bored. So here I am, trying to blog from my phone. Hope this works, because typing on this thing is too much of a pain for this to end up not even working... About the title of this post...I was out in our side courtyard with Lolli a few days ago when I noticed something weird. The flowers that I'd planted in my triple pots on Mother's Day were looking a little scarce.

I know for a fact that I planted more flowers than that in the top pot! Doc and I counted how many flowers we had and divided them out between the number and sizes of pots we had to fill. I specifically remember that the top pots got 5 flowers each and I planted them in an X pattern, like the 5 on a die.

The first time I noticed my flower pots looking a little thin (which is not when I took these pictures) I actually found a whole flower with it's roots and dirt attached laying on the ground beside the pot. I thought it was weird but just picked it up and replanted it.

So now I'm out there again and the flower that I had replanted is gone again, but this time it's nowhere to be found on the ground. And now, not only are some whole flowers missing, but some of the remaining plants have had their heads pulled off.

What in the world?!?  I told Doc about and he said he'd noticed it too.

"Do you think a raccoon or something is eating my flowers?" I asked him.

"Oh I think someone's eating your flowers alright," he said, "but it's not a raccoon."

Gulp. "Then what?"

"Lollipop." he said matter-of-factly.

"Oh yea right! It can't be Lolli. It's the flowers from the top tier that are missing. She can't reach those!"

"She can if she jumps up on the furniture."

Crap. I suddenly realized he may be right. My cute little fur baby isn't just biting me, chewing up furniture, and peeing on my bed anymore. Now she's eating my brand new flowers too.

FOR SALE: One 5-month old Maltipoo puppy. Enjoys long walks, nipping ankles, and eating flowers.

Just kidding. I love Lolli, even if I don't LIKE her sometimes. She's ours for the long haul.

But I wonder, do you think she started eating flowers because she saw me putting them in drinks?

[Update: we finished the Stones cd. Now the duo up front is singing along to the Beatles. I feel certain that my dad and husband are going to be hoarse by the time this road trip is over.]

Our Cherry Blossom Tree

When Doc purchased the house we live in, a cherry blossom tree came with it.  The tree is planted in the very back part of our yard - not the front or even the side courtyard - so we're the only people that get to enjoy it.  Well, us and our neighbors as they drive down the alley way into their garages and close the door behind them.  Which is a shame, really, because the tree is be-yoo-tiful when it blooms. So, to change that, I had this brilliant idea to take a picture from the same spot everyday for 30 days, turn them into a slideshow or video of sorts, and then post them here so you could all enjoy the blooming of our cherry blossom tree too.

I just clicked through the pictures I took and there are only four.  Four pictures instead of thirty.  Crappola.  And you know what?  None of the four pictures captured its true beauty.

Might as well show 'em to you anyway, right?  The first picture was taken right on the cusp of spring.  The tree wasn't completely bare anymore and it showed the slightest signs of getting ready to bloom.

The second picture doesn't show much change, except that we opened the garage door.

Picture number three is a pretty bad picture thanks to the super bright sun, but if you look closely, you can see a few pink blooms.

Finally, here she is in all her glory.  Well, as much glory as my four photos captured anyway.

I should've taken a picture today to round out the cycle.  Had I done that you would see the leaves still there but no more pink flower blossoms.  It's a shame it blooms and then goes so fast.  Now we have to wait eleven more months to see it again.

I did go in for some up close shots one day.  Here are the pretty pink flowers.

Anna scooped some flowers up from the yard one day to make her own little flower arrangement.

Doc mowed the yard today so even all the flowers that had fallen off onto the ground are gone.  See ya next year, cherry blossoms.

A Tulip-Filled Walk

For those of you that don't know him already, this is Henry.

Henry is a wire-haired dachshund that belongs to my parents.  He joined the family shortly after Minnie did.  Henry is vacationing at our house for a few days while his mom and dad (who are also my mom and dad - does that make us siblings?) are off gallivanting in California.

Even though he's sometimes too barky and gets carried off by owls, Henry is a sweet, sweet dog that loves to cuddle.  He does have one slight flaw, though.  Henry suffers from a symptom that causes him to have a bad hair day everyday.

The symptom is called I Don't Like To Have My Hair Brushed and can become a real problem if not treated properly.  I try my best to treat his symptom while he's at our house but it doesn't always seem to work.  I'm worried that it's contagious because lately Lolli has shown signs of the I Don't Like To Have My Hair Brushed symptom, too.

So anyway, Henry's at our house for a few days and today I got brave and decided to take both dogs - on leashes - on a long walk.  And to make things even more difficult, I decided to take my camera with me too.  It was an adventure, to say the least.

This past weekend when we walked with the kids to the park, I noticed tons of tulips popping up around the neighborhood.  Because I love tulips so much, I decided while walking the dogs I would take a picture of any tulips I saw.

These first pictures are of a flowerbed that I love.  It just happens to be at the end of our street so I get to admire it all the time.  I'm envious of their bright, colorful flowers!  In one corner they've got red and pink tulips...

...and on the other side they have peach, pink, and white.

Since these were on our street they were the first ones I photographed.  I took several shots trying to get the lighting right and then, after getting completely tangled up with the dogs and a nearby mailbox, I decided from then on that I'd only allow one shot per set of tulips.  No tweaking my camera settings.  I was not afraid to be the weird girl randomly taking pictures of the neighbors' flowers, but I was not about to be the weird girl randomly taking pictures of the neighbors' flowers and then falling on her butt after her dogs wrapped her up.

Next on the walk were some deep purple tulips.  I've never been a girl to claim purple as her favorite color - I've always leaned more towards pinks - but I really loved the purple tulips.

Some wide open pink ones:

A lone pale purple one:

More deep purples!  These were pretty popular.

Oooh, yellow.  Pretty.

I like this flower bed because of all the different colors.

By this time we were getting pretty close to my turn-around point in the walk, and I was getting ready to call it quits on the picture taking.  But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw this house.  Talk about tulip jackpot!

Unfortunately there was a mom and baby playing at the house next door, so I didn't want to get too close.  I decided to take the dogs around one more block and then circle back to see if we could get in for some good shots.

Speaking of the dogs, the walk was really easy to manage when they walked like this:

Doesn't that look cute?  Like two best friends, walking side by side.  The problem is that only lasted for seconds at a time.  Then something like this would happen.

Lolli would start strangling Henry with her leash and then she'd just sit down.  Sigh...

The walk around the extra block worked because when we made it back to the jackpot, the coast was clear.  Just look at all the tulips (with buttercups, too!).

I broke my rule and took more than one picture at this house.

This was one of my favorite pictures from the day.  Now I don't know if I like the deep purple or the lighter shade better!

It's a good thing I already had my hands full with the dogs and camera, or I would have been tempted to go back and get some scissors to cut myself a bouquet.  Would that be considered stealing?  Probably so.  I think we will definitely be planting some tulips of our own this fall.

Cause for Celebration

Excuse me, may I have your attention please? I have a very important announcement to make. This is my 100th post!

Can you believe it? I feel like I just started Give Everybody Nice Sweaters yesterday, and now here we are, 100 posts in. When I made this blog one of my New Year's Resolutions, I told myself I needed to write at least 100 posts over the year. And I've reached that goal already and it's only August. Yay!

I've had several folks ask about the title of the blog, so I figured this is just as good a time as any to address that.

The title is a lyric from a song by Ingrid Michaelson.  I've been an Ingrid fan for almost two years now and it's one of her songs that Doc and I danced our first dance to at our wedding. It's not everyday that you find a love song that mentions rogaine and sewing on patches.  It was perfect for us.

So after finding her perfect love song, I started downloading more of her music and really fell in love.  The lyric on my blog header is from "You and I," now one of my all-time favorite songs. It's not uncommon for it to pop up on our iPod and for Doc and I to dance to it in the bathroom while brushing our teeth.  I love the tempo and upbeatness of it. And I really love the lyrics.

"Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance" is probably my favorite line.  I love sweaters. I love to dance. I would like to be rich. But most of all, I love the idea of the line.  Yes, let's do get rich (in that non-monetary way) and then let's share it with our friends by giving a hug or a smile or a warm meal or even a nice sweater. And then let's all be happy and enjoy life and dance together.  If everyone lived by the concept of this line, wouldn't life just be so much funner?

And yes, I know funner is not a real word.

So, that's the thought process behind GENS. And since I'm assuming that several of you have never heard the song (ahem, mom), I'm adding the music video here so you can give it a listen. Don't be surprised if it becomes one of your favorite songs too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLudBmn1uK4]

Fun song, right?

Now, where were we? Oh, right...100  posts!!

This calls for something fun! How should we celebrate?

Hey, how about a giveaway?

Yea? Are you in?

This is what I'm giving away. A wooden test tube vase, made by moi.

It's distressed white and has five test vases, each with a green stem painted on.

But if green stems aren't your thing, you can always turn it around and just have it solid white.

Unfortunately, the flowers aren't included.  You'll have to do that part on your own.

My favorite thing about this particular vase is that the piece of wood has a natural perfectly round circle in it.

I painted the inside of the circle green.

This vase can be yours if you're the lucky winner! To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. But don't just leave any ol' comment. This is your chance to give me feedback.  Tell me what you like about GENS. Tell me what your sick of reading about. Is there a cool tutorial you want me to try? Have you been wanting to ask me something? What do you want more or less of?

Some of you may be thinking this is just a ploy for me to get lots of comments. And to that I say, so what if it is? Reading your comments is the best part of having this blog. It makes me feel like I'm not just wasting my time. So tell me how you feel. Give it to me straight. I can handle it. (I think.)

One comment per person please. Although I don't blame you if you have your spouse leave a comment too to better your chances. I'll pick a random winner (by having Doc pull a number out of  a cup) on Sunday evening.

Ready, set, comment!

Science Fair Revisited

Little known fact about me: in the fifth grade, I won the science fair. I'm sure my mom gets full credit for coming up with my experiment, because there's no way I thought of it. We took a tray of plants and put them in different growing environments - some in natural sunlight, some in artificial light, and some in the dark. Then, we gave a few of them miracle grow while the others only got water, and we noted the growth of each plant.  My tri-fold display board had a black background and then we made a huge plant out of green paper to glue on top.  We placed the data and observations of each plant in one of the big green paper leaves, and then I placed all the real plants on the table in front of the board.

The win came as a total shock to me. I mean, I hadn't used a lemon or potato to make electricity or anything cool like that.  Sure, some of the plants had turned yellow and others had spots and holes on their leaves, but who cares about plants? Certainly not fifth-grade Lucy. (Which is odd since now, at the ripe old age of 27, I've practically turned my blog into one about flowers and plants.)

When my mom picked me up from school that day I tried to do the American Idol fakeout when I told her about the results. You know what I'm talking about - the Idol contestants drag themselves out to their anxiously awaiting family with a long, sad look on their face before reaching behind their back to pull their golden ticket out of the back of their pants. And then everyone goes nuts. So as I opened the door to climb in, I said in my saddest, most you-won't-believe-it voice ever, "Ugh, guess who won the science fair?"

"YOU DID!" shouted my mom.

Of course she already knew. That's the way things go when you're mom works in the school district and 95% of her friends are teachers. She knew about the time I got in trouble in 6th grade for some English paper before the school day was even over. She knew in high school that I had made the cheerleading squad even before the results had been announced. She always knew everything. The science fair fakeout announcement was totally pointless.

Why am I bringing this up now? Glad you asked.

These are the plants we chose for our triple planter way back in the spring.

We chose them because we planted them late in the summer the previous year and they were awesome. They quadrupled in size and were always blooming.  This year, we bought two huge trays of them - both the same color - and split the two trays up between our two triple-planters.

Fast-forward about a month and this is how they were looking.

Obviously they've been growing, but we had yet to see any good flowers. And look at the colors of the leaves - they're all a different shade of green.  These pictures have not been altered - the top pot is really two shades lighter than the bottom pot.

What the heck?

I was perplexed because the plants were clearly alive and growing, but they definitely weren't blooming like they had the year before.

And that's when I put my ol' science fair observations to use. The different shades of green are because the small top tier holds much less water than the bigger bottom tiers. And they weren't blooming because they hadn't been fertilized. Duh! Who knew my fifth grade experiment would come in handy?

So I quickly broke out my bottle of Miracle Gro and went to town feeding my little flowers. Then as I watered each day, I made a point to give the smaller tier extra water.

And now look at them!

They're finally all green and blooming! Even in the extreme heat we've been having, they are still looking good everyday. I may just have to go dig around and find my old science fair trophy to display next to my pretty pots.