4th of july

Happy 4th of July!
It's been awhile since my last post and now it's a holiday, ah, a day to rest and celebrate our freedom's. And to see fireworks with my Mr and to be a part of my community. Our local high school puts on a pretty good show and it's so much fun to see everyone come out in light spirits to enjoy the show. Maybe Miss Marley (aka Miss Fearless) will join in on the outing.

Since it's been awhile and I'm caught up in craft show preparations- busy, busy - just one more to go! I thought I'd share some of the non-little flower interests I've had of late.

First up is the slow food movement, I love this idea and have been trying to make dinner everynite and eat outside when we can. I try to plan out our meals for the week when I do the shopping, which means trying to include lots of organic, fair trade, and local foods into the cart. Sometimes it's a challenge but I'm hoping that every little bit helps.

Second is gardening. I'm teaching myself to include the herbs we grow in our garden into our meals, some are easy like oregano and basil then others are a challenge like mint, we have so much mint and all I can think to make it tea. We have a shady yard so it's hard to grow veggies but we're hoping the tomatoes, squash, eggplant and peppers somehow will make it onto our plates later this summer. We had a pretty good strawberry harvest, my tip for shady yards, plant early strawberries, they can get a head start before the trees fill in and you'll hopefully have a nice bunch to eat each day.

The third thing I'm into right now is spiffing up the house, I have a nice print collection going and I'm slowly framing them up to hang, and after show season we can finally do a bit of painting to brighten the place. A new rug was bought and I have lots of fabric to sew up into pillows and drapes. I'll take some pics once we get into it. Just 2 more weeks to my final show!!

About that show, I'm totally freaking out! I've never done a 3-day show and an out of town show is just nuts! This show has a list of rules to follow, forms and documents to submit and did I mention tons of rules! I also had to book a hotel, find overnite parking, book little Marley in the kennel, find a house sitter (who can't handle Miss Marley and all her antics!) Have my Mr. take a few days off from work, and I haven't even begun to figure out what we'll eat for the 3 day's I'm going to be in a tent from morning to nite. My Mr loves festival food so he'll be in heaven but I need something healthy so I don't get sick. I'm hoping all the locals can direct us to a few places that have healthy to-go food and hopefully a good fruit slushy place will be nearby. And then there is my display, luckily the show is providing us with a table and tent but I need lighting so I have to rig up some track lighting or make some lamps! So many details! See, a little freaking out is definitely in order! Thanks for letting me vent!

Have a terrifically fantastic 4th and a lovely long holiday weekend.
xoxo, Linda