The general decency of people is on a rapid decline, have you noticed? Being a non-confrontational person in this day and age has it’s benefits - because then I’m not clumped in with the aggressive morons of the world - but it also has its pitfalls, because I don’t say a da*n thing about this stuff. People like me have delayed reactions. Ten minutes after any given event I repeat everything in my head with all of the things I *should* have said, and the results are always way better in my head than they were in reality.

Here are a few rmmmpf moments I’ve had lately:

• Dear Mister “We got an offer, but it wasn’t good enough” - It may very well be the only offer you get. And unlike you, it was sincere. I hope if you do get other offers, that they’re lower than ours and that you get a nice little taste of your foot. I also hope you get to have a little side of humble pie with that.
• Dear Miss “I’m gonna keep doing whatever I want to do because I live in a bubble and I have my own rules in here” - Go right ahead. I am enjoying seeing that whole “what goes around comes around” come to fruition.
• Dear “Some day maybe I’ll know what I did wrong” - I’ve never had an experience where I didn’t ASK if I didn’t know. Some day, maybe you’ll realize that one-way streets are pretty limiting when you’re looking to go in another direction. You have to make a turn and find a two way street eventually. You’ll never get to where you want to go. And also? You’re a grown up, you should know better, and you should be the bigger person.

There. I just had to get a few things out of my head, that is all.

Weight Watchers Weekly Weigh-in #4!

My FOURTH full week in the Core Program. I rock, I hit THE number on the scale today - one that I haven’t seen in SIX YEARS. WAHOOOO!!!

I am 2.2 pounds away from my next gold star, and only 5.2 pounds away from my 10% target goal (gold keychain).

Reward ideas, anyone? Anything but clothes.

It seems like forever since I just chatted and caught up with everyone. Maybe it’s just the summer - maybe it’s that I’ve been really focused on work, but I’ve gotta make more time to stay connected with the people I care about. I keep thinking “next week…” and “when the kids go back to school…” well, how about now? Now’s good. Now works for me.

I’ve got some things to share first, tags from friends who I hope don’t feel neglected (I do reply in e-mail, I swear it) and they deserve some blog linkin’ love.

A whole bunch of stuff to read here….

I’ve been working on Snarkypants (aka Lisa’s) blog design for a few days - and just completed her upgrade, design and plugin installation. It’s really cute and fun, she gave me creative license with a few must-haves (coffee, cats, books and computers - absolutely!), and I turned it into a whole new look with many new features and functions - her WordPress blog has much more “oompf” now.

I should mention that Lisa splurged on this design as an early B-day gifty for herself. Much deserved, I say. A new look, a cuppa joe and a handful of Werther’s - she’s ready to blog!

Go on over and have a look - let her know how you like her new digs!

I ordered my stuff for fall. Have you ordered your stuff for fall yet? I will be antsy for the next two months waiting for them to get here so I can get them in the ground. Hubby is building two new beds for flowers, and one for our vegetable garden next year - so we’re planning and sketching and picturing all kinds of fun beautiful things in our yard for next summer!

Here are my new additions (click on the thumb to get the details from the garden center where I purchased them):

Bed 1:

Russian Princess Lobelia
I have one Lobelia this year and it’s about 6 foot tall with several long stems covered in red flowers that our hummingbird and butterflies just love.

I’m adding four more, these will go up against the privacy fence across the back of an 8 foot bed.

They’ll bloom pretty much all summer.

Oriental Lily Collection
24 of these, so 6 each of the Lombardia (top left), Stargazer (top right), Dizzy (bottom left) and Simplon (bottom right).

Lollypop Asiatic Lily
These lilies will all be grouped together in front of the Lobelia. If you didn’t already know - I love lilies. I especially love stargazers and my goal is to have enough of them to stand cutting them and having bouquets in the house.

Lilies bloom mid-summer but the greens start first thing in the spring.

Maiden Pinks
Six of these ground covering flowering Maiden Pinks will fill the space in the front of this bed.

Visually, I’ve got tallest to shortest, and the color scheme is all red, pinks and white.

It’s gonna be beauuuuutiful!

Bed 2:

Mixed Delphinium
Delphinium blooms all summer as well (twice) and stands about 5 feet tall. The pink, blue, purple and white is the same mix that I have right now in dwarf delphinium, and they’re really delicate and beautiful - and yes they draw in the pretty fluttery critters, too. I’m adding 6 of these.

These will stand against the privacy fence in the back of the second 8 foot wide bed.

3 months of Tulips
It’s hard to figure out which tulips bloom when and how many to get - so I’m so grateful that these places put packs together like this. We loooove tulips, so three months of them will be wonderful - and very colorful while we wait for the Delphinium to pop up from behind them.

I got way too many of them- 36 will be divided between this bed and another area in the yard. Unless I compact them, which is entirely possible. I like dense foliage. :)

Mixed Dwarf Asters
These are the low flowers that will sit in front of the tulips, and once the tulips die out, the asters will fill in with about 12-15″ height in mounds to cover the empty spot and they’ll continue blooming through the fall.

One thing I’ve learned this year: Bunnies LOVE asters. Love. Eat them up. We’ll see how they fare within our bunny refuge baby havin’ camp here. (Zorro is at it again - we think she’s pregnant.)

This second bed is going to be very colorful!

We have a few other plants that we just couldn’t resist. We recently had a piece of concrete sidewalk that went to our old back door broken up and removed, and filled it in with dirt and river rock. It’s bare, so Catybug and I decided we wanted to dry a few different things for that space to have something special and try something new.

Ambrosia Fragrant Abelia
They boast that this is more fragrant than a lilac - this I have to smell! “One of the best shrubs we’ve found in some time. This cold hardy shrub is covered with sweetly scented blooms from late spring to early summer. Star-shaped flowers start out as pink buds and open up to white blossoms.”

This one will get to about 6′ tall - so it will cover our big empty used-to-be-a-back-door spot that bugs me to death.

Pink Buttercup
I picked up 12 of these, ummm I don’t know what I’m going to do with them yet, they’re a small ground covering plant that will flower all summer. I may put them between rosebushes on the side of the house, or something.

I’ll find a spot.

Ice Stick Tulip
These will definitely bring in the spring - they’re really early bloomers so I will know when I see them popping up with the crocus that I don’t have to tolerate the cold much longer.

These are super cool - I just got 10 of them so I have to find a really nice showy home for them. along with this next batch of bulbs….

Superba Butterfly Tulip
These are TOO cool. The petals of these tulips look like butterfly wings! I only have 8 of these on order, so it will be several years before I have enough to share.

They say these are for zone 4-8 - I’m in zone 5, so I’m stretching a little but not too much. Crossing my fingers on them, but I think they’ll be okay here.

Blushing Bride Tulips
Just five of these, they’re late season bloomers so if I put this special batch of tulips together, I will have something new and unusually stunning coming up for a nice long period of time in the spring to summer months.

I love the gradiation on these - and if they follow the butterfly tulips bloom time, they’ll be just perfect.

Zebra Iris Collection
Iris tend to triple in spread every year, so I’m not too worried about spending a bunch for just one of each of these.

The Batik Zebra (top left) is royal purple, the Tiger Honey (top right) is a beautiful rich gold, the Baboon Bottom - haha! (bottom left) is pink and white, and the Gnu Flash (bottom right) is gold, gray, silver and violet.

They probably all smell like grapes, yummmm. I love Iris. I’ll put these near my jumbo German bearded iris and they’ll spread like wildfire.

Little Business & Baja Daylilies
Both of these daylilies are double bloomers. Hubby loves the red, and I love that they bloom all summer, take a short break and come back again in late summer to fall.

I picked up 3 of each of them, they’ll get their own spot and make a nice color bursting focal point in the yard.

All Summer Hydrangea
Last, but certainly not least - and definitely the largest - this big beautiful bushy Hydrangea.

I have two hydrangea right now, they are moody, thirsty plants who apparently had a rough time last winter because they weren’t properly sheltered, so they’re wussing out in the bloom department. I’ve been keeping them watered well and I keep waiting - but they got nothin’ for me but pretty green foliage. Nice, yes. But I love hydrangea blooms, and miss them! I need something more hardy & reliable.

They are being replaced with this one, which boasts:

“All the beauty and romance of other large flowered hydrangeas but so much more rewarding to grow! All Summer Beauty is covered with big, blooms of deep blue (in acid soil) or soft pink (in alkaline soil) from midsummer often until frost. Best of all, you can count on getting those fabulous blooms form on the current season’s growth- not on that of the previous year.

Therefore, harsh winters or late spring frosts are not a problem for this hydrangea! These handsome plants have large, glossy green leaves and grow 3-5’ tall with a similar spread- just right for mixed borders, foundation planting or a low-growing hedge. Sensational for long-lasting fresh and dried bouquets!”

And there you have it. Oh! I also picked up 14 Surprise/Resurrection/Magic Lillies I bought on ebay. They should be here in a day or two.

I will be a digging fool in late October - and I can’t wait to show you how it turns out over the course of the spring and summer next year. I should just plan a big garden party and invite ya’ll over for a tour and some barbecue, huh? That would be too much fun.

Weight Watchers Weekly Weigh-in #3!

My third full week in the Core Program was okay. I say “okay” like I failed, and I need to get my head out of that gear. I did lose. I ate out twice last week, too - so losing is a great thing. I’m just such a stubborn over-achiever, that’s all.

I got another 5 pound star sticker too, and now I’m actually looking forward to the next one - which is just a 4.7 pounds away. I’m just a wee frustrated because I thought I would do so much better this week. Bleh.

Back to work for me - I have a ton of projects in queue! Did you know I’m booked out through the end of September now?! WoOt! I love being busy.

I’ve finally launched this design that I’ve been working on for a couple of months, and would LOVE your feedback. Please, browse, let me know your thoughts. Also, if you’re a client - browse for your project and if you haven’t left feedback on it yet, I’d love it if you would do that!

Very, very special thanks to those who volunteered their time and honest opinions and feedback on this project as I was going. You know who you are. (I do, too.)

You’ll also notice I continued the very top menu here to my blog. Flow is good. (Now my photography/photoblog needs a facelift. I know.)

If you see anything that needs adjusting, let me know. I only have a few browsers available to me here, so it would be a great help to know how it views for you. I also have to load items into the shop yet - that will happen in my spare moments over the next several weeks.

Questions, comments, complaints - bring ‘em on!

I completed another painting today, she’s the cutest little puppy girl in her little red dress! This one is going to be a birthday gift - so I’m excited for this portrait to reach it’s final final destination.

You can view Baby Buffy’s portrait progress here. Final scan & detail images to come!

I completed Tess today, you can view her painting as it progressed here. I think her mom will be pleased (mom, let me know if you’re not pleased!) - I’ll get the final scan & post details once she’s dry.