Making Arrangements

This weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time. There was no work to be done, no tight schedules, no stress from work, not many chores (except laundry, which is going to put off until Monday :)

I'm basking in my newly found freedom. I only have one job, and it's low stress, and my boss knows that I can't stay there forever. This is the time for me to figure out where my life and my career are headed.... who knows what that will hold but it's exciting and frightening at the same time. I'm taking baby steps.

My mom was visiting this weekend. We went to the Evanston Farmer's Market where we purchased catnip plants, a bag of mesclun salad mix with some little pansies in it, purple asparagus, and bunch of wildflowers. The one bunch was only $7 and I managed to get THREE arrangements out of it! Shown here is an arrangement I made in a vase that belonged to my great grandmother, Edith Boden. She had given it to my Aunt Dorothy, and she gave it to me before she passed away in 2006. I thought the vintage qualities of the tall foxglove and snap dragon stalks worked well with the shape and style of the vase. This particular vase requires loose, natural looking arrangements. It wasn't meant to hold flower-shop roses. Below is a close up of the beautiful fox glove.

The flowers below are on the dining room table - yellow snapdragons and dianthus (which is a bit rotted but still looks okay). My friend Laura showed me how to make the snapdragons talk! Amazingly, I had never thought they would have anything to say, but they do! :) Monkey was entranced by the wispy grass in the bunch and I think she jumped on the table to chew on some of it when we left the apartment.
The rest of the dianthus I bunched together in this cute little cluster and put them in another unique vase. This vase was left over from a film someone was shooting in a warehouse we were using as a studio. When I found it, it was filled with fresh yellow tulips, drooping and spilling out of the opening. Someone made this vase from one of those glass cubes often used in windows in bathrooms, so you cannot see directly through it. They cut a hole in the top and viola! instant vase. Very cute. I love it!

For dinner last night we cooked some of the salmon I brought back from Alaska last year. My mom brought us Oberon from Michigan! Unfortunately, it is no longer sold in Illinois so it's a real treat. I'm drinking one right now.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the beach with Laura. I got a little burnt.... which I definitely should have been more careful of, but hopefully it will turn brown. It doesn't hurt as much as it did last night. Laura gave me this beautiful little bag on Wednesday that she made herself. She makes things out of recycled clothing and fabrics, and everything is very unique and quirky. I loved this one! The colors and shapes are so unexpected.
Here are the cats enjoying their little grass plant that I bought for them at the grocery store. They have free range of this plant, but not the catnip. The catnip has to remain a controlled substance or it would be gone in minutes.

This is Elvis's "bed". I can't remember where this box came from but he has claimed it for his own. He plays and sleeps in it, and gets jealous if Monkey goes near it. Apparently he's LEGAL and he belongs to the Illinois Record Keepers Inc.