to do list for a good friday

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

How does your garden grow?

The sun has finally come out just in time for a long holiday weekend.  Having conquered my fear of trying to make plants grow (and now wondering what I will do with 50 tomato plants...) I am looking forward to finally making something of my big backyard.  Loving some of these finds on Etsy:

Antique Spoon Garden Marker - Hammermann; Midwest Seed Bombs - Visualingual; Rescued Galvanized Hanging Bucket - oldcrowfarm; A.R. Bee Keep Mason Bee House - andrewsreclaimed

Paper*Cakes Finds

It's Paper*Cakes birthday. The day she was born. Stop by her blog and celebrate with her selection of pretty eye-candy.

animal crackers

The wonderful folks at Etsy published this fun interview with Sharon Montrose, an LA-based photographer who specializes in unique animal portraits. 

All Photos: Sharon Montrose

Wouldn't an arrangement of these look fantastic in a nursery? The prints, which are pretty affordable too, are available here.  You can also see more of her work over at her blog.

MixTape Tuesday - 11 Years On

Peace, joy, to be loved, to have hope.

This is a list of things

 my future will bring

if I'm content to be who I am.

Recently I was cleaning out boxes and found a copy of a cassette I made for my friend Lori 11 years ago, the "Go-Girl" mix.   Over the years I've made her better mixes music-wise but this was the very first one and probably no other so perfectly captured where we were at the moment.  (Admittedly not every song stood the test of time - did you remember there was a group called Prozzäk? Because I did not.)

A lot has happened in those 11 years.  Lori lives here now.  It's been too long since our last coffee date and too long before our next one but the other day I recreated the entire "Go Girl" mix online and sent her the link.  And on opposite sides of the globe, on Monday morning (for her) and Sunday night (for me) we were both cranking up the tunes, dancing in our houses and celebrating wide open spaces, rays of light and feelin' groovy. 

Here are 11 tracks 11 years later.

Merry Unbirthday, Luke

The thing about owning a toystore and having a birthday in December is that there's never any time to celebrate.  It's kind of like being Santa Claus. So we don't often get to fete Luke until much later, like, say, today.  We trotted off to the Palate for a delicious unbirthday lunch.

The unbirthday boy blows out the candle on his unbirthday dollop of whipped cream.  Although he kind of looks as if he is cooing soothingly at it.  Or possibly doing his dead-on Jonathan Goldstein impersonation...

This is Denis. Isn't he adorable?  About 30 seconds later he informs me that he doesn't read my blog.  Boo. ("I read the headlines!!")

Moving Pictures: A Summer Place

"If anybody asks just tell them about the end. That's the part everybody remembers."

Warded off the chilly weather this morning and finally got around to watching the 1959 film A Summer Place.  (More after the jump)