My dog is famous.

HUGE AWESOME NEWS!

The mailman brought me a box today. I love boxes. And I especially loved this box, because it contained...

...merchandise from the Cheezburger Network/Madison Park Greetings! Featuring my photography and the lovely mug of my sweet dog Gia.

She is on two greeting cards...


...and a magnet!

She's pretty embarrassed about the hangover incident.

And the cat is pisssssed that none of his pics made the cut.

He'll just have to get over himself.

So yep, we're pretty excited to have Gia's face plastered all over some awesome Cheezburger products. And best of all: a portion of the profits from the products will be donated "to support a number of charitable rescue and shelter organizations which are providing a valuable service both locally and nationally."

Sweet.
In the weeks to come, info on where to purchase these goodies will be made available at www.madisonparkgroup.com and www.cheezburger.com. I'll post official links when they're ready!

The July garden

Well hello there. I have fallen off the face of the earth. But I thought I'd pop back in with a belated July garden post, because sadly I don't have pictures of anything else right now.

The crocosmia is all fiery orange in August now. But I like the July phase too, all smoothly buttoned up and green and nodding.


The hydrangeas just kill me, they're so pretty. Our plants are old and huge and thick. Now the blossoms are heavy and drooping, almost done for the season.

But first...it was like Christmas waiting to see what color they'd be. I was hoping for blue.

Oh. What's that there?

BLUE.

BLUE BLUE BLUE BLUE BLUE.


And then there's this little annual. Like a spark. Or a dragon's head.

Ahhh.

The sun is sinking a little sooner these days, and I'm cringing to even think of winter. But watching my yard unfold this summer has been a treat - truly like unwrapping a present, never quite sure what to expect. I've learned: Plants will take over your house very quickly if you are not careful; wisteria is intense; bindweed is terrible; so is creeping buttercup; and English Ivy; Rhubarb and raspberries are indestructible; clematis is not indestructible; herbs like sun, but not that much sun; sigh. moles.; birch trees are lovely but oh so messy; groundcover is your friend; and most important of all, never ever get overzealous with the planting in the spring in a new house where you do not yet understand how big those dormant winter plants will get. Ooooh look at all that empty space! Let's fill it up with pretty things! THAT SPACE WAS EMPTY FOR A REASON (e.g. Jurassic Hostas, gigundo hydrangeas, spreading crocosmia, etc. Lessons learned.

And many more to come.

Swap meet album

Several weeks ago I went to a local swap meet and haggled with a nice fella for an old album stuffed to the gills with photographs. When I got it home, I examined each photo one by one, read all the handwritten captions, and put together a picture of the family held inside the album's pages. Here are some of the highlights (please click on photos to enlarge. it's worth it.):

The cover has gorgeous embossed trees on the front.


This pair stopped me in my tracks.


"We cut down the old pine trees."


Beach scenes


My absolute favorite image in the book, captioned "Three mermaids."



I wish we still had bathing suits like this.


"On our way."


Poring over the album made me think about my own way of preserving images. Admittedly, I've been a slacker. I have a couple years worth of somewhat organized photo boxes, but I have very little in albums and most of the past 5 years or so exists only in digital format. I recently started getting caught up in printing my backlog of photos and have vowed to put them into an album. I absolutely adored going through old photo albums as a child, and I can't imagine denying that pleasure to any future kiddos in my life. A photo album is a treasured thing indeed, and I'm determined to keep the tradition.

Well. If all else fails, at least I'll have the well-organized photo albums of complete strangers to show off :)