if not now...when?

a new addition to the family...

our new baby.

the road to hippy-dom continues...

lisa - i think i'm more likely to get a call from the GREEN party than the liberatarians at this point! LMAO! :D

i'm ready to hit the road...

WTH is vermiculite??

and why is it so hard to find?!?!

we built some garden beds for the yard. (and when i say "WE" built them, of course i mean my husband built them while i hovered and told him what to do!) i bought this book, and this square foot gardening method calls for you to make your own soil mixture with compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. problem is, vermiculite is virtually impossible to find! garden center after big box hardware store after building supply either didn't carry it, never heard of it, or told me is was far too dangerous to use in my garden. sheesh. i did find one bag of it, and paid a small fortune for the honor. i got one bed planted, and i am looking forward to not paying $5.99/lb for bell peppers and eating salmonella-laced tomatoes. :) although, after tallying up what we spent to get to this point, i might have been able to take a few trips to whole foods... ;) i'm still on the lookout for another 8 cubic feet of that sneaky vermiculite, in case y'all got some lying around! ;)

my hippy side has been spending some time in the bookstore this week. first a garden, then mother earth news?? i'm sure i'm just about to get my republican card revoked for that one! :P  i also found this groovy magazine - mary jane's farm. totally cool stuff there - sthey even have a website and a message board. most of the people there actually LIVE on farms, and, well, i live in orange county. a girl can dream, right? it's fun to look at.

i love magazines. am i the only one who is just suffocating under an avalanche of magazines every month? i know i can't be. i only get one scrapbooking magazine these days. there is so much inspiration on the web, i'm afraid the magazines have become pretty much obsolete... home and garden and decor magazines are another story. some of my favorites are mary engelbreit's home companion (TONS of scrapbooking and craft inspiration in there), cottage living, romantic homes (a new favorite), and cooking light. IN FACT, i love magazines so much that i am putting up a challenge over at freckle friends later today that involve magazines..... come check it out! ;) and speaking of freckle friends, hope to see some of you at the crop this weekend. it should be a great time. susan is truly the ULTIMATE hostess, and that carries over to her crops. :) she pretty much rocks!

ETA!!! freckle friends is holding an auction in conjunction with the crop/fundraiser for autism speaks. in addition to the crop, they are hosting a silent acution that you can also participate in online!! 100% of the proceeds will go directly to autism speaks. they will have awesome handmade items from ali edwards, donna downey, stephanie ackerman, wilna furstenberg, and amy tangerine. they will also be auctioning off a canon printer. the bidding starts june 5th at noon, and will go until saturday, june 7th at 9pm. you can check out all the details HERE!!

hope everyone is enjoying june so far. the countdown to summer continues... 14 days until summer vacation!! WOO HOO! i'm not sure who is more excited - me or the kids. can't wait!

have a great day! :)