Kiss my Aster!

KMA does G2B12

2012-05-11T16:45:00.001-05:00

Last week I went to Little Rock for a little bloggerfest called Garden2Blog that P Allen Smith and his radical army put on. I flipping loved it.
A scad of other bloggers went so if you want to read about what we saw and ate... read their blogs. I want to thank the sponsors that paid for our trips and stuff in my own special way.

This is part one of 2.

A Half-Assed Book Review and Full-Assed Giveaway

2012-05-04T19:44:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I got a copy of Niki Jabbour's The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener in the mail. It's arrival pretty much coincided with the arrival of a REALLY early spring here in Chicago. So I've been so busy with work, that I've only paged through it. But man, it's like reading a menu with mascarpone stuffed French toast on it and not being able to order it.

Because when I flip through it... this book is hella sexxy.

It's really step by step, meaty as hell and has tons of photos, most with cute-as-a-button Niki doing garden chores. I can't flipping wait to sit down and read the bejeezus out of it.

Interested in reading it yourself? Well, you can win a copy AND A BOX OF FREE PLANTS From Proven Winners (r) (Stuff like Superbells (r) Lemon Slice Calibrachoa, Luscious (r) Berry Blend Lantana, Senorita Blanca (r) Cleome and WAY, WAY more)

All you have to do is go to THIS PAGE or THIS PAGE and "like" it. Then go to THIS page and post that you did that other liking. (Okay, it's a lot of liking. But you'll freak over the prize, yo)

The winner will be announced by 5pm, Tunisia time, on May 11th.

All these blogs are participating in the giveaway, too. Because they are my Proven Winners (r) Sister-wives.

The Year Round Veggie Gardener
Punk Rock Gardens
Cowlick Cottage Farm
Red Dirt Ramblings
J Peterson Garden Design
North Coast Gardening
Gardener to Farmer
The Dandelion Wrangler

and Storey (The publisher of Niki's book and also my soon-to-be-born book, get it?)

Listen (doo dah doo) Do You Want to Know A Secret?

2012-05-01T10:46:00.002-05:00

Doo dah doo
Do you promise not to tell? Whoa oooh
Closer...

December 2012 release
What do you think?

New post at Fine Gardening

2012-04-30T22:45:00.002-05:00

Check it out. Here.

For Sale: Vintage Sofa (And A Little Lagniappe)

2012-04-25T19:08:00.001-05:00

The facts:
1. We moved and were in need of a second sofa.
2. We don't have a lot of chowdah (money)
3. We like vintage stuff
4. Dan found a vintage pink sectional, in Gary Indiana, that had reportedly been in plastic since the 1950s.
5. Dan made plans with his ass-kickin', Tank Girl sister to go get the sofa in Gary, throw it in the back of her dump truck and deliver it to our house. Yeah, she has a dump truck. She's pretty bad ass.

I did not go with them. I cannot vouch for anything that did or did not happen after the above bulleted list

Hearsay:
1. The sofa did have its covering, but it had cracked in many places
2. More interestingly, according to my husband and sister-in-law, a carcass/skeleton rolled out of the innards of the sofa whilest loading it into her truck.
3. "Bigger than a mouse, smaller than a dog"-- So, a cat or squirrel died inside my sofa.

Okay. I buy and wear vintage. I have to deal with the fact that I don't know if someone died in those killer stacked heels or if someone got it on in that silk dress... I'm pretty good with giving it a wash and moving on. So, we had a guy come in and clean it and...

I'm not even gonna think about how the dog forced his head under the far right portion until he was able to reach something he wanted, then walked away, chomping something brittle...

And I'm not going to think about what that stain is that didn't come out.

Fire King, Kitchen Paint and Pinterest

2012-04-22T12:48:00.001-05:00

I'm looking to paint the kitchen the color of Fire King Jadeite. I'm not sure if I'm having a hard time with this because I'm a brain dead, full-time working mom or if this really is as hard as it seems.
I'm just about to bring the creamer into the damn paint store but I don't trust the lights in there.
I thought Martha would be able to hook an Aster up, but sadly, no...

So, my friend Pamela at Red, White and Grew posts THIS on Pinterest and nearly solves all my problems. .
Check it out...

Benjamin Moore makes this thingie so that you just show it a photo and it picks the colors to match. I tried using the photo I snapped in my kitchen and it came up with a dark green, cream, white and black. Um... No.
So I Googled up someone else's Fire King collection and this palette came up. I can see the Clean Green working...

"You should have made some plans with me, you knew that I was free. And now you won't stop calling me, I'm kinda busy...." -Gaga

2012-04-22T12:18:00.002-05:00

OK. Here's the rundown.
Newest blog post at FineGardening.com-- Start acting real sick so you can stay come and weed, yo

Newest post at ProvenWinners.com-- It's about booze, I mean Supertunias

Newest article for Green Profit-- About how to get Gen X and Y into garden centers

If all goes well, I can write a REAL blog post here today. I've got my fingers crossed...

new post at FineGardening.com

2012-03-31T14:10:00.001-05:00

I'm teaching these old Yews who is boss around here... Read it here.

New post at ProvenWinners.com

2012-03-23T14:27:00.001-05:00

A little something I made to go along with the first section of the blog post.

I think it'd make a sexxxy container, yo.

New Post at FineGardening.com

2012-03-18T13:26:00.001-05:00

Shamelessly using my baby to get people to read my shit since 2011...

http://www.finegardening.com/item/22417/first-contact

The Greedy

2012-03-12T17:14:00.007-05:00

Just moved into the new house and we're doing a little bit of cleaning up, which means almost filling the "exisiting" compost bin. That thing is greedy! Remember The Greedy from the Raggedy Ann movie? That thing scared the shit out of me.

Anyways, I'm clearly going to need at least 2 more bins of that size.

I can never have enough...

Thrift of the week

2012-02-25T11:15:00.001-06:00

Size 2 radish dress
Vintage Montgomery Ward
One buck

Packing it in

2012-02-23T14:05:00.005-06:00

I'm home from work packing today, you may find this surprising but... I have a lot of weird stuff.

That tile trivet? You know that Kohler commercial where the crazy people want to base the whole house on a faucet? Yeah- that's how I feel about that trivet.

Word.

2012-02-20T12:45:00.005-06:00

NOM Skulls

2012-02-19T07:23:00.001-06:00

Silicone cupcake molds in the shape of skulls. Just ice 'em like brains... Totally worth the $5.50 even if I never get around to using them for their intended purpose. Hazel enjoys chewing on them.

If you aren't eating your pancakes out of a bowl...

2012-02-18T07:32:00.000-06:00

Think about it. #RecycleThatSyrup

New Good Enough Gardening Podcast

2012-02-17T11:31:00.001-06:00

Gem sweaters and orchids: The Postman Always Rings Twice

Dear Gifts from a Dear Friend

2012-02-16T16:54:00.003-06:00

Precious beaded and embroidered and appliqued and...beclipped vintage mittens and amazing leather baby boots (you can't tell how cool they are because of my mitten-centric photography)

A Naughty Post About Adult Ivy

2012-02-16T08:43:00.002-06:00

Right here on Fine Gardening's site.

Do you know about Adult Ivy? Yeah! No one does!

And I can't say this blog post will help... but it's good for a chuckle.

Bad Mommy

2012-02-07T17:00:00.004-06:00

I forgot to bring Hazel's blanket today when I brought her to day care. I had diapers, food, bottles... I was laden but that's no excuse, it's pretty cold out there today. I put the heat on "eyebrow singeing" on the way...

I let Dan know in the middle of the day that when he came to pick her up this afternoon, don't go looking for the blankie- I forgot it. I suck.

My darling husband has learned how to "make do" since he married me...

Clogged

2012-02-01T17:10:00.002-06:00

One more week and I'll have a tiny window of free time in which I hope to blog my ass off. But for now, I have a secret project I'm working on, Hazel has just entered a "clingy period" and oh... what's that? WE'RE MOVING. Which is always easy like bagel dogs.
I dream of days filled with blogging about plants, thongs, footwear and thrift store finds...
Just gimme a week.

Got some credit in the straight world:

2012-01-25T12:55:00.002-06:00

New post on the Proven Winners website by yours truly...

Check it out right here.

ok, I swear I'm done now...

2012-01-20T15:10:00.001-06:00

the last of the "Hey girl..."s at FineGardening.com...

Hey Girl-- Part 2

2012-01-11T09:37:00.001-06:00

Hey Girl... The Garden Series

2012-01-10T16:45:00.004-06:00