a little crafty-ness

I actually sold two sets of iris folded note cards from my etsy shop- how exciting is that!?! The same person bought them both, to give as gifts. I'm sending one set directly to the recipient, with a gift card, kinda like you get when flowers are delivered. I haven't done much crafting lately, but this has me inspired!

I also bought some flowers for the patio yesterday, and planted them today after work. It's amazing how much more home-y a few pots of growing things make even the smallest patio! One is a Carolina Jasmine, which is a vine with fragrant, yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers. I have it in a big pot with a 5 foot trellis stuck in it. I'm being optimistic here, because the vine itself is pretty spindly, but hopefully it will grow. The other pot is swedish ivy and two types of red salvia; I'm hoping the hummingbirds might try the flowers of the salvia... when they bloom, that is... right now, they're only buds. I have no idea how plants will do on the patio over the summer, considering that it faces west, so probably will get pretty hot, but I guess I'll find out!

and, a hummingbird update: I had been worried about the nest, especially with the wind and rain we had, but all is well! Yesterday, I saw the mama bird feeding two baby birds!!! Today, I got another glimpse of the babies, so I know I wasn't seeing things... now, I just need to find my camera!

now, to bed... we switched our work hours even earlier- now, instead of working from 6:30 am to 3 pm, I get to work at 6 am... this means I get up around 4:30 am- too darn early in my opinion, but leaving work at 2:30 is pretty nice. (even if all I want to do is head home and take a nap!)

Snow on the Mountains

I went for a short drive today after work, to take a couple pictures of the snow left over from the weekend storm. This is one of the best ones: Snow on Four Peaks. I really should have gone a couple days ago; the snow is already melting quite a bit. But, let me tell you, it's kinda cool to drive east in short sleeves with the window open, and see the snow off in the distance! The paper today said that this is the first time that snow has fallen as low as 2000 feet altitude in the Four Peaks area in many years.

On Sunday, I tried to talk Tom into driving up to Flagstaff. We decided to stay in, and it was probably a good thing- I turned on a local weather report, and they were reporting snow still falling, with 24 inches already on the ground! Altogether, Flagstaff got 30 inches of snow; Prescott got between 9 and 12 inches. Here in Gilbert, we got about 1 1/2 inches of rain between Friday night and Sunday morning; Queen Creek, which is much farther southeast (but still considered a suburb), reported 2.91 inches. The paper said this rainfall puts us at 70% of normal, which has lowered the fire risk somewhat. That's a good thing- but, I hope this bit of rain also helps the spring blooms, since I want to see some wildflowers out there soon!!!

one more entry

Here's a couple pictures from our 2nd anniversary brunch at Top of the Rock restaurant at the Buttes resort in Tempe. Who would have thought two years would go so quickly, and that so much would happen in that time?? I am so lucky to have someone in my life who understands me as much as he does... my Thomas.

it's still raining...

and cold, too- when I was out earlier today [I found a really nice new SB store 9Recollections, which is owned by Michael's Craft Stores) and I finally found an AVEDA store... yay!], I could actually see my breath! I have the HEAT on right now!! I didn't realize that the low spots around here are retention ponds without the water (I mean, yes, I knew, but I didn't know, you know??). Anyway, they're all full of water now... I saw on the weather channel on TV that the midwest and Ohio River valley is getting some severe storms too... hope you guys are all okay, and staying dry! interesting fact: weather.com says that right now (8:20 pm AZ time) it's 54 degrees (feels like 54 F)in Warren, IL but only 42 degrees (feels like 35 F) in Gilbert, AZ. How messed up is that?? (but by next weekend, it will be in the high 70s again.)