It's not really gardening -

it's more like hacking through a jungle with a machete. In fact, I'm using an axe, my wood saw and only rarely, the clippers.

I got pretty inspired by the garden show in Gig Harbor last weekend. Everyone's garden was so very lovely. And tamed. And weed-free. Oh, I know - they've worked on them like crazy people for weeks. With probably a team of helpers too. It's not like they look like that all the time. It's just for a weekend, to show off for the garden tour.

But in my fantasy world I should have a garden that looks like all those magazine spreads of fabulous cottage gardens, kitchen gardens, beach view decks with fire pit, and a huge patio with the built in kitchen, pizza oven and fireplace all spread out. Maybe a tiki bar in the corner too. In my dream house I have all of it. It's a beach-front farm with gourmet kitchen patio. Oh, I almost forgot the pool. There's one of those too. With a cabana, outdoor shower and guest house. Why limit your dreams?

Instead I have a tiny little postage stamp patio. And a teeny weeny little patch of grass with a few plants in the borders. A crunch of too many tomato plants in a corner near the back door. And then everything else at the moment is weeds higher than the fence. Or ivy slowly creeping in and covering what I thought was the front yard.

My next door neighbor is an empty lot of green things that will continue to live and take over the earth, even if we have a nuclear or global warming disaster that takes us all out. Ivy. Blackberries. Creeping morning glory or chokeweed junk. Holly trees. You can't kill them. I've tried - repeatedly. Nothing works. But the hacking is necessary, because if I don't make a tiny little dent over here on my side by the fence, then by next summer, you won't even know my house is here. The jungle will grow right over the fence, over the house and continue on.

The back yard neighbor is a rental house with kids who only stay there for 6 months or a year at a time, and nobody owns a lawn mower or any other garden type tool. They don't even go outside. So it might as well be a jungle too. In between renters, somebody comes by and hacks down the chin-tall weed-grass. But at this time of year, it's so contrained by one single yard, that it's bursting through all the little fence cracks trying to break free.

So I'm out there the last day or so trying to tame the jungle. I can't really call it "gardening." The cat's don't care.

And if you're curious about what my little casa/home studio actually looks like - here's a picture of the front today. It's a work in progress and clearly I need to do a little hacking in the front yard too.

Gig Harbor Garden Tour

It's been so long since I've blogged over here, that I almost don't even know how to do it anymore. Rather than make excuses or long explanations, let's just say I've been off doing regular life stuff - taking my focus off business for few minutes just for brain space.

But this weekend I'll be at the Gig Harbor Garden Tour. I had the lovely opportunity to participate in this show last year for the first time and it was so enjoyable, that I'm doing it again. It's a garden tour of private houses all over the Gig Harbor area, and they change each year so this year will be all new ones.

You need to buy tickets either in advance (online) or at the first house. You get a little badge or bracelet or whatnot, and then you get a map and more information. I don't have many details, so I'll just post the link to their website for all the latest scoop - http://www.gigharborgardentour.org/.

It's Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 10-4. I'll be at Dick & Sara Bowe's house (garden #3) with Dianne Kimball (pottery, garden art) and Randy's Nursery (hardy plants).

Note - I just checked the website myself to see if there were directions, and you can buy tickets through tomorrow (Sat) online. I guess you have to actually do that part first. And when you do, you are given a will-call location as to where to pick them up. Otherwise the addresses are not published and there is no map available until you've got a ticket. So go buy a ticket and head out to see us. The gardens were really special and something to see last year, so I expect these will be spectacular too - so much work goes into getting them ready.

Latest Logo

This is my latest logo-type thingie. I had to mess around with making a little square digital image for a few things in the last month, and this is what I came up with.

I'm working on getting new business cards printed with it too. A little different version because it's a smaller rectangle size. If you've seen my business card from the last year or so, they've been chocolate brown with bright flowers all over it. But I'm running out of those soon and needed new ones. I thought I'd go with something a little fresher and lighter this year.

I spent a whole morning working on it, but it's so hard to see the little tiny image on your computer screen. It's not until they arrive in the mail, all printed up, that you finally get a sense of whether it worked out or not. When I hit "submit order" I was kind of happy with it. Now that I'm looking at it more, I'm thinking it's a little boring. It will be at least another week before they get here. I suppose I'll fret about it some more until then - because you just can't get enough fretting into a regular day.

First Thursday - Pioneer Square

It's so funny how the universe works. Always on the day I'm packing for a show, the phone starts ringing with orders. It's like the powers that be out there somehow know that I'm ready to sell stuff and the message goes out. My lovely customers respond - calling in their orders for soaps, sprays or whatnot. They all have kind words and happy things to say about the products. What a joyful way to take the stress out of an otherwise anxiety or stress-filled day. Not a one of them needs anything immediately right now ("no worries, no hurry, just send it when you can").

Ok, if I'm being totally honest, sometimes it feels like a little extra stress to know that I've got a pile of orders waiting for me on the day I unpack and try to recover from a long weekend. But that's not too often. Usually the orders are pretty easy and I'm just grateful to have them. And even more thankful to have such nice, sweet customers too.

Today I'm packing up for First Thursday/ArtWalk in Pioneer Square tomorrow. It's my first time at this, so I don't know much. Hours are 11am - 8pm, or thereabouts. The real artwalk hours are around 4-8, dragging on a little later if the weather is nice and people are out. So we're hoping for a few lunchtime folks to stop by too. We are lined up on Occidental, along the park. And it's at least 27 artists who are signed up as of this minute, but it's open to last minute folks too. A few will arrive later in the day due to work schedules.

I just hope the weather is better than the last couple of days. I'm really tired of all the drizzle and chilly. More honesty here. I'm just really tired of it all at the moment. It feels like it's been a long month. And if I have to spend another day outside for 12 hours in the damp and cold, I'm going to be really sad. At least there are hot soup and sandwich places right there. And I'll be close to my car if I need to jump in and heat up. I guess summer is going to show up for the weekend and I have a couple days off then. Huzzah!