Squaresville

Mystery Fabric Goodie Bags!

2008-09-04T18:57:00.005-05:00

In a wonderful sewing marathon last weekend (Matt was in Chicago), I got like 50 new sets of potholders started. I also worked on an idea I'd been kicking around for a while: scrap bags!
They are A: a great way to destash, B: a great way to get new generations interested in sewing. It sure worked for me, C: sheer capitalism.
The bag is actually a piece of muslin that I printed instructions and suggested uses on. Thank god I haven't jammed my printer yet!

Here's what they look like:

I crammed as many scraps as I could into each roughly 11" by 7" bag, plus a spool of thread!
Look for more at Strangefolk Festival!

Dorkathlon

2008-08-25T17:52:00.002-05:00

Finally, all those years of being teased and bullied by the cool kids are going to pay off!
I am SO in the Dorkathlon, people!
I mean, you used to read my 8th grade diary, right? I left off at 9th grade, during the Mike Pirnik Unrequited Love Months, right? Remember all those dumb things I used to write? There's 3 more years of that, and some of those years are heavily Smiths and Cure-influenced! Some diary pages have candle wax from my "I am obsessed with flames" stage!
Maybe it's time to whip that baby back out and stop blabbing about my garden or sewing or Maggie.
I could start in on my infertility woes, but...hmmmm...Dorkathlon or uncomfortable topic? Dorks trump incalcitrant reproductive parts every time. (and that's the second time today I used the word "trump" as a verb)

Vote for me. You will not be disappointed, my friends.

Woo hoo!

2008-08-23T12:35:00.003-05:00

I was pleasantly surprised at Tower Grove Market this morning by my friend Dana. Apparently, Squaresville was mentioned in The Daily Sauce las week. Figures that I canceled their daily newsletters!
I'm so glad to see that they noticed the "meticulous" craftwomanship. I do love some meticulosity.

http://www.thedailysauce.com/issue/L/3822

And now to: add the rest of my inventory to my Etsy site, do laundry, finish a pair of pants, sweep the floor, think about trimming back the tomato and gourd vines, make chocolate zucchini bread, grocery shop and run a package to a customer.
Maybe I'll just make some iced coffee and bask in my glory.

Oh, while I'm here, I need to let you read about my friend's battle with her insurance company over her adopted child. It's completely crappy how companies are just in it for the money. Where are the businesses that use The Fred Factor?
Here's the website for the adoption/insurance woes.

Now back to that coffee...

yawn

2008-08-21T19:50:00.010-05:00

So very tired...

In a nutshell, I went to lovely Lewiston, Maine last Thursday for a wedding and flew back home Sunday and started school Monday. All this is after working super long days at school getting my classroom ready for the Youth of Tomorrow, mind you.
Maine was wonderful, as it was last year. I stayed with my dear old pal Kate in her new creaky and well-loved house. There were kitties, there was a cemetery full of crows, and there was the obligatory lobster.
The wedding was nice. I even got a manicure and an emergency dress for the rehearsal dinner! In times of stress, I totally snap into calm, cool and collected. "The General", you might say. I got to do that this weekend and it was fun. I even got to read Corinthians 2 during the service and did not get shaky or stuttery. Sweaty hands, but nobody saw them.
I'm the short one with the granny purse, not the statuesque cutie in the palest blue silk dress. (Sorry, Kate, but we'll never be sexy. We're cute to the end! Besides, sexy takes too much work) This was taken shortly before it rained, a la Guns'N'Roses video of "November Rain". Did you know Rikki Rachtman was the guy who dove under the table in that video? Neither did I. Let's just hope this marriage turns out better than the video one.

While pics were being snapped, I walked around the church and thought you might like these pics.
The Androscoggin River ( I think):

And a rustic barn and patch of monarda:
I drank spiked punch at the reception. Well, one sip. One sip was enough for my brain to yell, "DO NOT SWALLOW THIS POISON THAT SHAUN HAS OFFERED YOU" so I listened to my poor brain for once. It fears weddings with open bars.

After the reception, I hung out with some old Boston friends at a coffeehouse. Some band from New Hampshire was playing and the drummer looked just like a smaller Matt. Shaun bought me a tasty beer and we all felt old.

I spent the night in the same apartment we stayed in last August. In the middle of the night (or wicked early morning at this point), I opened my eyes and saw a man standing in my room with his arms crossed. Not threatening or anything, but it startled me enough to close my eyes and keep them this way. Ghost? I didn't have my glasses on, but he was so clear in the dark shadows. And how could I see anything without my specs? I don't know if I was dreaming or just deliriously tired, but it was cool.
The betrothed couple liked their gift ( and I think it was the coolest) and modeled it for me. Watching them explore the thousands of one-inch squares and seeing Kate recognize so many fabrics really made my whole trip.
Awwwww.....

The whole weekend made me really appreciate Matt and what an awesome person he is. Somehow we have gone two years without a major or minor argument. It's rare that we use a harsh word with one another, and if it happens, it's usually me retching about soggy corn flakes in the sink ( the only thing that makes me vomit). How is it that people who are perfect for eachother find eachother? Do we have options and one of them arrives in our lives?
Besides being on time at the airport, he had done laundry, cleaned the skanky bathtub and run the dishwasher! We won't discuss that he let my potted plants out front die.....the geraniums will make it, but the lovely scented pennyroyal is done for.

School has been okay so far. Already, I've discovered some knuckleheads! Where's my 2 week honeymoon?
I'm also mildly stressing about making enough product for the multiple craft affairs coming up. Strangefolk, Tower Grove, Rock and Roll Craft Show, blah blah blah. Part of me just wants to say "Eff it" in order to avoid the anxiety. But, the other half wants a new tattoo. Give me some motivation, people!

My whole self, though, wants to just sit on the porch and eat ice cream right now, so off I go.

P.S. The other day a squirrel freaking chewed through a screen on the porch to get to the container of bird seed I have out there. Then, he couldn't find his way out and ran circles around the porch, knocking over many plants. If he had broken my vintage McCoy planter that matches my mother's, he would have been a dead squirrel. Finally, he figured out that I had propped the door open and he zipped out, bypassing the steps. Just a big leap and he was gone.
Bastard! Next time I won't drag the dog off him! She might be down 2 teeth, but she's ready for blood!

Get Your Mitts On These Mitts

2008-07-19T13:02:00.007-05:00

But first, a self portrait. I like how the sun is all hazy over the tall grasses. Too bad you can't see the GIANT dead spot in the neighbor's yard, left by their mosquito farm/blow-up pool.

Look at the freaky green color my eyes are. I was watching for a blue jay.

Ah, the quintessential toe shot.
Here are the aforementioned mitts.

So, I finally photographed all the new mitts in stock. *sigh* It just takes so long to list them on Etsy. Here are some pics:

Garden Update, Part Two

2008-07-18T09:22:00.007-05:00

It seems I take a garden photo in the middle of each month, so here's July's.
The bees, people, the BEES! Honeybees have finally arrived and are just bonkers over the dill, the cosmos and the sunflowers. There are at least 3 different bee types, plus big ol' bumblebees. They are peaceful, and don't bother me when I stand watching their work. But, I don't want to chance it, so I linger only long enough to check for ripe corn and to collect cosmos and cornflower seeds for Squaresville Seed packets. Coming soon to a market near you!

Goldfinches appeared in the yard this week, snacking on the cup plants and sunflowers. This, sadly, is the best shot I could get. But, so pretty and yellow!

Here is Brave Little Cardinal with its eyes closed. Look at those tufty little tufts of tuft! It looks like an old man.

The baby cardinals are about 2 weeks old at this point. Far as I could tell, they hatched on July 4th.

The babies have since left the nest and have moved on to other yards, guarded by Mom and Dad. It has been suggested that next year I get a web cam to watch them hatch and grow and go from monstrous alien blobs to fuzzy little peepers.

*sigh* Back to sewing bags. I'll have more bags than you can shake a stick at at the next Tower Grove Farmers' Market. Plus, coasters and rad oven mitts! July 26th-mark it on your calendars!

Six Out of One Hundred? Nay...

2008-07-17T10:47:00.003-05:00

This is copied from another blog, but it involved books, so...
Supposedly these are 100 books everyone should read.
The statistic is that most adults have read only 6 titles on this list. Cretins! Peasants!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read. (I'm including any books I've started but haven't finished.)
3) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)"

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (well, I read the first one)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (Have read most of it while bored in church)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( Read a TON of him in college)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Started it, hated it)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma- Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (Probably won't, as it is a "popular" novel)
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (One of my faves)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( Another favorite)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (en francais)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding (Don't judge me! It was fun!)
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (en francais) (yes, I read it in French AND English!)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( I keep hearing this is good...)
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (Shouldn't this be included in #14?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Only 52? I have issues with some of these choices, though. Where is the Wally Lamb? The T. Coreghassan Boyle? (horribly misspelled) How about Rabbit, Run?

Coming Up!

2008-07-14T19:16:00.004-05:00

Squaresville Goods will be at the Tower Grove Farmers' Market July 26th. Please hope for a mild morning with no rain!

Also, we have a spiffy new site for CraftaNostra. Check it out August 9th.

Strangefolk? Hells yes! Autumn is at it again, and has us for 2 days this year! Like she doesn't have enough to do, what with kids and fixing errant websites!

So, back to sewing....

Quilts You Can Know

2008-07-13T14:26:00.007-05:00

These are the baby quilts I currently have for sale. They are about 40" square, I think. Each one is $130, and if you would like to purchase or find out more details/photos, just comment or email me!
My favorite is obviously the skull one :)

Quilts I Have Known

2008-07-13T14:21:00.007-05:00

I'm trying something different with this blog setup. Here are all the quilts I've made that I have pics of. They aren't for sale, as they are already sold. But you can commission one....next year!

We have a lot of records.
I still love orange and pink and zinnias.
Ancient Dresden plate blocks from Grandma and 1" squares from Cat's yard sale-ing.
Don't remember why I look so pissed off...I may have been just squinting or thinking, "Here's your goddamned quilt, asshole!"

Craft Mafia Event

2008-07-10T14:12:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow evening, the St. Louis Craft Mafia will be in effect at "Let Them Eat Art" in lovely Maplewood, MO. We'll have our booths set up in Citizens Park, which I believe is near Citizens Bank....
Times are from 6 to 11 pm. There will be all sorts of cool entertainment, music, and hopefully meat on a stick.
Or, you can just look for our awesome new banner, created by moi!

Babies

2008-07-08T11:28:00.004-05:00

Laurene noticed there were three baby cardinals, not the two I had thought.
Here is a surprisingly decent picture of them, awaiting food.
Their nest is hard to get to on the ground, and is above my head. There's a huge astilbe in front of it, and I am certain there are millions of spiders to block my way. So, I have to take pictures through a window.

Here are my scores at the antique mall yesterday:

Now, back to messing with my website!

How To Waste Time

2008-07-06T15:56:00.006-05:00

Where we grew up, we didn't get cable. It would have cost too much to have it wired in from "town". So, I miss out on many, many 80's video references due to my parents' tightwadness.

That is where YouTube steps in to school me about videos by David Bowie (referenced in Flight of the Conchords), Duran Duran, Kate Bush and yes, Star Blazers, which my brother and I were complete raving lunatics about.

This video explains all my terrible dance moves, even though I've never seen it before today and I haven't worn knickers since 1985.
Now, I do add what I remember from belly dancing class as well as some inspiration from Sassy Girl, who was a frequent patron of Mod Night back during my Drink My Face Off On A Wednesday Night And Make Your Roommate Call In Sick For You Days.

Yes, I did that and I'm only mildly ashamed. Don't judge me!

Independence Day

2008-07-05T13:17:00.003-05:00

Remember these? The baby corn grown in cardboard boxes?

Well this is what those little sprouts turned into:

Yesterday, I declared my independence from bland store-bought corn. Corn loses its sweetness as soon as it is picked, so imagine how tasty grocery store corn COULD be if you ate it a few hours after it was picked!
I'll tell you how tasty it was: mind-blowingly good. And to think I grew it from a seed!

Also yesterday, the cardinal eggs hatched, and we are now the proud landlords of two baby cardinals! They look like grey blobs until a parent bird shows up, then you can see their little yellow beaks and mouths.

So, here's celebrating homegrown corn! Soon, it will be tomatoes and squash and peppers and onions and chamomile tea. That's right, I'm growing chamomile and harvesting the blossoms for tea.

Maybe next year will see the start of Squaresville Seeds!

I Have A Problem

2008-06-20T16:07:00.004-05:00

See him?
There are tons of lightning bugs hiding out in this sunflower artfully wrapped by gourd tendrils. I'm sure I will regret letting the gourds grow, but that's months away.

The beginnings of my opium/heroin empire:

This is what I have a problem with:

Lowe's should not sell their 2008 seeds for a quarter each. A QUARTER! Where will I grow all these lovelies? Watermelon? What was I thinking? Crenshaws and zucchini? In 2 years, I will have no yard left.
Columbine? Am I serious? There is no shade in my yard, except for under the hydrangea and tall grasses, which are scratchy.
Didn't I learn my lesson with morning glories, namely that they are perennials and reproduce like Catholic trailer park crack whores?
(And yet, I fight the temptation to go back for more seeds)
I did find the perfect aqua blue paint for the ceiling of the porch. One man's mistake is this woman's $5 deal.

Goodbye to My Youth

2008-06-19T11:21:00.008-05:00

So, I'm in the midst of chopping up a Rubbermaid totebox of old t-shirts. They are intended to become a t-shirt quilt, which I hope doesn't look too "kountry krafty".
Things are going fine, until I get to my Lollapalooza tee from 1991. *massive wistful sigh*
So many great memories! Freakin' Jane's Addiction from 20 feet away! Stupid boys Lexi and I went with! WEARING A DRESS IN A CROWD. 'Nuff said.

I'm wistful because that experience still seems so fresh to me, to be excited about:
1. seeing bands (even though I haven't seen a live band in like 2 years),
2. to be excited about cute, albeit stupid, boys (even though my 3rd wedding anniversary was yesterday)
3. to be looking forward to going to college in a Big City (Boston, baby!)
4. Life (even though I am about to get an HSG exam, which I will let you Google yourself)

I also sacrificed my ANCIENT U2-Boy t-shirt. That sucker was HUGE! Why did I think it looked okay? It would fit a family of four easily, yet I surely wore it. Tucked in, possibly tied in a knot...ugh...
I bought this shirt at Rice's Market, which was/is a giant flea market that my great-great grandfather, A.L. Rice, started eons ago in Solebury,Pennsylvania. He was named after Abraham Lincoln, btw. I was probably with Lexi and/or my brother when I bought it. I am mildly ashamed to say that it was originally tie-dyed, but had faded and then I dyed it pale green.

Regardless of the shirt's history, this album is one of my All Time Favorites. So gritty and raw, and Bono's head wasn't the massively inflated solar system it is today. In fact, the first song on"The Gold Album" by The Bouncing Souls, starts off with the same sounds as "I Will Follow", breaking bottles and whatnot.

Lex, this shirt's for you!
Upper Hand was a cute local hardcore band from Doylestown, PA. I tried to find a link, but the only one that looked promising was to some Warminster band's Myspace page. It involved a lot of black hoodies and screaming, so I spared you the emo angst.
The writing on the right shoulder is where...ahem....I had one of the members sign my shirt.....Ah, those Perkins' nights!
That's all for Memory Lane. Back to the scissors.

pho-toes

2008-06-14T13:58:00.007-05:00

In March, the garden looked like this:

These are from my Yahoo! Garden Group plant swap. They didn't bloom last year, but sure did this year!

Corn! Do you like my bean trellis made from citronella torches?

In the front bed, there are onions, carrots (which need to be thinned), Matt's pepper, and a buttload of lettuce.
In the middle square, my tomato kicks ass, the orange cosmos from Monty is ready to pop, and I think the wispy stuff is spider plant.
The back bed has sunflowers, blue cornflowers, more cosmos and my basil patch. Next to the compost bin is a white pumpkin from Laurene's discarded one last fall.

And, the black hollyhocks next to the white Shasta daisies next to a yellow lily that bloomed the other day. All day, there's been a huge black butterfly hanging around that area.

Garden Update

2008-06-09T20:10:00.003-05:00

I have all sorts of wonderful photos of my weedy garden, but Blogger is taking too long to load, and I'm an impatient woman, especially with ONE DAY of school remaining!
You will have to wait, all 3 of you.

How about a list of updates?

1. Only 3 classes left to teach, and then it's a summer of reading on the back porch. My irritation level is at an all-time high, but I'll make it through tomorrow.

2. You know you've had a good night when someone says "Allison, you are a dancing fool!"

3. I sexy danced with the husband's great-aunt Virginia to "Hot In Herr" at a wedding.

4. Matt's mom requested "Superfreak" at same wedding. BTW, the Roberts Orpheum Theatre has the worst food and appetizers. Our wedding food is still the best I've had. But, we (and Matt's Uncle Jack and other older family members) climbed all the way to the top of the theatre seats and Matt worked the spotlight!

5. Home grown lettuce is yummers and you should come have some. There's lots.

6. My corn grows about 2 inches a day, and is beginning to show its lovely corn-bearing tassels. Unlike a stripper, these kind of tassels are the kind I want to see in my yard.

7. DJ Frankenstein will be "in the house" at Crammed Organisms this Friday. It's also his birthday, so bring him gifts.

8. Sewing has stalled again, but should pick up next week when I am FREEE of work!!!

9. Massive hair cut due tomorrow. I warned my mane that if it didn't start behaving, it'd get chopped. So, to Erin we go.

10. My hollyhocks, which only put out foliage last year, are enormous and inky purply black and I love them.

11. We have mowed our yard twice since the young hoosiers mowed theirs. I hate them so very, very much. So much so that I want to throw dog poo on their garage roof. How can you respect anyone who gets rid of a dog because she sneaks out through a BROKEN gate?

12. My Vietnamese neighbor is growing a mystery squash in his yard, which I lovingly/nosily keep an eye on.

13. Speaking of hoosier, is it hoosier to make a bean pole tower out of bamboo citronella torches? Cause if it is, well.....

Back on the chain gang

2008-05-21T18:01:00.003-05:00

One of my diary characters found me and has posted on "Jumping the gun, not rope"! Hi Scott! It makes me sorta nervous about these folks finding me, but it's all in good fun. City Gardens rocked! So dirty and dangerous and full of hot hardcore or punk boys from Jersey...what more could an impressionable, overly smart 18 year old want?

February 21, 1988
Sunday

See Feb. 18th. Jen called and said that afterschool Friday, a guy named Matt in 10th grade or so, went up to CeCe and asked her for my phone #. Then he got in a car with mike. I have no idea what's going on. I hope someone cute really does like me. It's about time!
-Al

February 22, 1988

CeCe told me everything. It could be Mike! Jen and I are having a t-shirt contest to see who can wear the most obnoxious t-shirt. Yuch. My period is coming around March 1. My stomach hurts already. Everyone is getting sick. H. is on crutches for her knee. Mike went home sick today. Poor dear. Nina was in a bitchy mood today.
See ya,
Al
_________------------------______________________--------------------------------------

1. Oh, stupid, stupid 15-year-old Allison.....it almost pains me to think that I was so sprung on Mike! And how sad (and foreshadowing of my love of The Smiths) to read "It's about time!"
Keep in mind, Sassy magazine hadn't come out yet, so I was still a Seventeen and YM disciple.

2. Funny, I don't remember having PMS symptoms as a young lass. I guess I did.

3. How would I know if Mike went home sick? My school wasn't that freakin' small!

4. H. had knee surgery, becoming the first of 3 close friends who had the surgery. Weird...

5. My garden is kicking grass and taking names! Photos to come!

Tomorrow

2008-05-09T21:55:00.002-05:00

Wow, only 2 weeks since my last blog?
Well, there was Spring Break, and a week of nausea that included 3 days without coffee, if you can believe that, and well, it's been nice outside.
The garden is sprouting like mad, due to the TON of rain and warm weather we've been having. I'm actually surprised that I don't hear the dehumidifier running in the basement.

Tomorrow, my friends and I will be chillin' at the Tower Grove Farmers' Market in the TG park here in St. Louis. The market is run by the nicest couple ever, Patrick and Jenny, and their stellar friend Chris and Jenny's great dad......Jenny's Dad. Jenny is the type of gal who makes me want to be nicer instead of bitchy and intolerant. However, when your idiot neighbors put a huge tree branch IN the "No Yard Waste" dumpster, one should be allowed to stand in her garden and loudly announce that some people must be fucking idiots if even the Vietnamese family can read the "No Yard Waste" sign on the dumpster.
Oh, I've been busy calling the neighbors idiots, too. So, if I get shot, you'll know why. The beauty supply store is...hmm...maybe two blocks away? Three?

Anyway, Pat and Jenny and Chris and Jenny's Dad are people after my own heart, what with their Local Harvest grocery store and reaching out to the community via an EBT machine and working in schools (!!!) over the summer. I am thankful that they allow us crafters at their FARMERS market, too. Plus, Jenny's Dad is a crossword fan just like me.
You can come buy cute market totes and matching bird potholders for your mom, or honey or meat or coffee or crepes or super hot salsa. There'll be bands playing and people with dogs and yoga and apple tarts.
Now, to wind the clock and to remind myself to pick Alecia up tomorrow morning!

What I've Been Doing

2008-04-14T17:18:00.007-05:00

Recycling in action. I cut a toothpaste box in half, added some potting soil and a corn kernel and...voila! A plantable container! Yes, that is a toilet paper roll and a tea bag box.

A view from the steps. Ignore my hoosier neighbors' dead newspapers lying on their walk. I swear, I really did not pick the rest of their daffodils. It wasn't me!
This, my friends, is where sweet corn comes from. A tiny pale green finger looking for the light.

Le Jardin 2008. Thank you, Matt, for building the squares! Please also note my bourgeoisie compost bin. It was on sale and I was tired of messing with my bent plastic garbage can with the plywood/brick roof. You can see I'm surrounded by hoosiers (plastic toys in yard) so I don't need to add to the downfall of my block. The blue glass lantern is used to keep Matt's pepper plant warm these recent COLD nights. The screen door (found in alley) is covering the first basil I couldn't wait to plant. They're doing okay so far!

From Under the Rock...

2008-04-13T12:33:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a while. Blame it on the MAP test screwing up my schedule and happiness!

The 2008 Garden is off to a good start. I planted a bunch of various flower seeds last weekend, as well as a pepper, German chamomile, onions, more spinach, lettuce and carrots. My corn has sprouted but I'm still waiting on the squash to germinate.
Photos to follow!
Let us go back in time, my friends:

Feb. 20, 1987
Today the YF went skiing at Elk Mountain. There is a new boy, Kevin, who is SO gorgeous. His cheekbones remind me of Mike's. OH MY GOD! Kindy was talking to a hot boy when Laurie and I got off the lift, and by the time we were at the top, they were at the bottom frenching. He's 16, name=Lyle. Kevin was looking at me so many times. Laurie and I sat in front of them on the way up and they (Jon K. and Kevin M.) listened to everything we said. Jon gave me a Cramps tape to listen to. Goo Goo Mah is the neatest song! I was listening to it and in between songs, I heard Jon say "Leave her alone, she's listening to the Cramps." And when we were at the place, Kevin kept on staring at me. He is so cute!
Love,
Al
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Okay, so my friend was a slut. A ski slut, no less. This never happened to me on a ski trip! There was a band trip later in high school where a local youth saw me and followed us around. Skateboarders....gotta love 'em!
I'm trying to figure out the logistics of getting off the ski lift, then knowing that the "frenching" was occurring when we were at the top of the mountain.....Kindy must have filled me in later. She did later go to the Catholic high school near us...
"Frenching". That kills me! Don't you think that frenching on a ski slope at night would lead to a painfully chapped face?
And god, was I acutely aware of who was looking at me and when! He was probably looking at me not out of teen boy lust, but out of wonder that I was such a rampant dork.
I still love The Cramps, and even had the classic yellow "Bad Music For Bad People" t-shirt, although its current whereabouts are unknown :(

I Can Grow Anything!

2008-03-14T18:05:00.004-05:00

I got 4 dendrobium orchids from Freecycle on January 1, 2007. I carefully watered them, kept them from drafts, and put them on the back porch all summer, where they reveled in the Amazon-like climate that is summer in St. Louis.
Once it got cool, I brought them into the bathroom. Two went on top of the medicine cabinet, and the other two perch on the toilet tank. Apparently, I did the right thing, because look what opened today!
This may be the most beautiful thing I've grown, aside from my moonflower or morning glory/hyacinth bean hedge. I do mean hedge, no exaggeration.
The other orchids all have flower stalks of varying lengths, so my bathroom will be exotic for a few months! M's cousin is getting married next Saturday. We had discussed how expensive wedding flowers are, and I joked that I might have orchids for her. Well, I'm pretty sure I will, but I don't want to share!
Thanks, Mom, for my green thumbs!

Why I Love Big Cities

2008-03-09T19:45:00.002-05:00

I grew up in the country. No sidewalks, street lights, public water, bus stops, homeless people, no nothin'. So, when I was considering colleges, I knew for a fact that my country ass belonged in a city, where I could experience all the cool stuff I read about in Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis's books, minus the drugs and poor life decisions.
Boston gave me sidewalks, a subway, crazy homeless folks, pigeons and gross tap water. I have never regretted my choice, and am glad that I live in a city (for all its problems) now. The country still beckons, but that's when I'm older and retired. Or when country school districts aren't filled to the gills with Meth Addict Megan and Paris Hilton wannabes. Yes, I judge unfairly.
This blog has a million reasons why I love cities, particularly New York. When I considered myself a writer, I was always listening to others' conversations on the streets or on the T. I heard some awesome stuff, some of which I wrote down. Mostly I wrote about the people I saw, instead of their wacked out dialogue.
There's something so brazen and snappy about New York. When I'm there, I feel younger and cooler. Not that I think I'm a total dork now, but it reminds me of my Boston days of crazy hair colors and outfits involving striped tights.
Read, my friends. Read and laugh until you almost pee yourself.
If I were to contribute one, it would be the conversation Matt and I heard in a pastry shop near NYU. A bunch of 20-somethings were seated around a table. It seemed like some students from a summer college program who knew each other loosely through the dorm they were staying in or a class they were taking.
One girl was holding court about what a slut she was, all the sexual things she could remember doing, blah blah blah. It was obvious that all the geeky guys there were totally turned on and thinking they might be the next lucky Slut Victim. The other girls were getting annoyed with her, but Queen Whore kept talking about her boobs and underwear until I was ready to get up and slap her filthy mouth.
It almost ruined the chocolate masterpiece we were enjoying, but it did make for good conversation afterward.
Ah, I love New York.

Feb. 19, 1988

2008-03-04T18:40:00.002-06:00

Feb. 19, Friday

Yesterday, C. and I were discussing what we would do if MP came up to one of us and said, "I want yer sex!" It was funny. Tonight I'm leaving to go skiing, so I won't write until Sunday. Anyway, today I saw MP again. Someone named Chris just called and told me that a boy in 10th grade likes me. I don't believe the, though. She (or he) said he's in the library 1st period on Wednesdays. Come Wednesday, I WILL NOT march in there and stare!! I'll send J. in.
Help?!
AL
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God, again with the MP. I was 15, remember. And again with the damned " I want your sex!"!! That song has cursed me!

I totally remember this conversation with C. I had a steady babysitting job after school for a woman from my church. I'd get home, pee, and she'd come pick me up. Nina had 2 girls-a 2-year-old and a.....maybe 5-year-old. It was fun, as the girls were good and they had a super cool haunted house. Plus, Nina and her husband had a Porsche 911, which she occasionally picked me up in. They bought it during the oil recession in Texas in the 80's. Remember that? All the oil farmers went bankrupt or something. Nina also informed the girls in the Youth Fellowship that if we ever needed birth control, she'd get it for us, since she was a registered nurse. I was in the front seat of Nina's car, coming back from the Youth Fellowship summer retreat. (Which was SO FUN, I can't believe I never wrote about it. I bought "The Joshua Tree" by U2 and hung out with older kids and watched "Witness" for the first time. Mmmm...Harrison Ford.......)
In the rear view mirror, I caught the eye of my older friend Betsey. We were a little shocked, but that comment cemented Nina's coolness in our minds!
When C. and I were discussing the improbable event of MP wanting to boink one of us, I was in Nina's kitchen. The kitchen had been the scene of several possible ghost encounters. Things would disappear from the top shelves, or you'd put a glass on the counter, go away and return to find it moved. It was dark outside, as it was about 5 pm in February. At the time, it was a really, really funny conversation. We were like, "What if we had sex on his skateboard?" and such. It seems kind of stupid now, though.

JM was slowly becoming my friend at the time. She was always willing to do my spying and I enjoyed her humor and sensibility. You will note that I didn't believe the person who called me. Perhaps JM was a good influence. She was a total Jersey Girl, even though she wasn't from Jersey. Big hair, weird clothes....very Jersey. Years later, her parents bought a brand new house and paid cash for it. They also got a Jaguar. We joked that her dad was in the Mafia, as they were very Italian. Perhaps we weren't too far off! Ol' Ralph was a made man!

And I guess I totally got my ski trips screwed up. Eh, you go to one Poconos ski area, you've been to them all.