Pictures of my garden

These pictures are poor quality because they were taken with my cell phone, and at a bad time of day, but you get the picture. Also, they are over 2 weeks old. I'll get newer ones I promise.

This is the front flower bed. I have some yellow daylillies in the front and purple-leaf lorapetilium starting against the wall. They will grow up similar to boxwoods but with a nice deep red/purple colored leaf.

I don't know how much you can see (again I apologize for poor pic quality, but here is the garden you first see when you drive up. There is a small goldfish pond and I planted pink gardenias as well as pink gerber daisies. This is a slightly better picture of the garden with the fish pond. This is a 2-tier raised bed. The top bed has wild daylilies, and the bottom 4 beds have Marigolds and Lettice growing in them.

A worthy challenge

I have been watching Shear Genuis on Bravo and I love this show!! I have also envisioned a wonderful challenge that would test the best of hairdressers.

Get together a few small girls around 3-4 years old who have butchered their hair themselves, and tell the contestants that they have to fix the hair, and make it look intentional.

I can personally attest to how hard that is. My little girl butchered her hair a few months ago and you can still see some of the places she hacked at today. After 2 repair hair cuts.

Children's hair is usually more difficult to cut anyway, because it is so fine and because kids are more prone to cowlicks, and hair wanting to go in different directions. If their hair wants to lay to the left, 65mph winds and all the Aqua Net you could muster could not get it to lay to the right.

I say put the hairdressers in the hot seat with the kids and watch them squirm! Plus, I really really really want to see Tabatha interact with a small child. I'll even volunteer my child for the job, tee hee hee.

Modern Dollhouse

Here is an awesome dollhouse that is very modern.

I know this would not appeal in any way to my daughter. She is just too prissy. But I thought this was a very neat idea that appealed to the other end of the spectrum on little girls looking for a dollhouse. They were designed by Christoph Bitzer and Wolfgang Sirch. It has plexiglass sliding doors, beech furnishings, a kitchen island and shower.

Things that irritate me the most

• Payroll Administrators who cannot add
• Payroll Administrators who cannot subtract
• Payroll Administrators who insist on configuring sums in their head and will not use a calculator
• Payroll Administrators who think all mistakes must lead to someone else

Seriously people, I deal with Payroll Administrators on a daily basis, and at times it makes me worry. Do you know that roughly half (in my experience) of Payroll Administrators do not know the difference between a 28-day deductions cycle, and a monthly deductions cycle? Let me let you in on the gravity of this situation...

Half of the people in this country are having their paychecks deducted from by people who do not know what they are doing... Do you work for a government body or a school? Your likelihood of having one of these clueless people handling YOUR wages just shot up to over 75%.

And the bad thing is, when they make a mistake, they didn't make a mistake. Oh no. You screwed up, or the agent screwed up, or the EMPLOYEE screwed up, or the mother of all scapegoats... the computer screwed up. Computers are only as smart as the people typing numbers into them are.

So here's a suggestion... do some research. Drop by the payroll or Human Resources Department and check out the local talent. I know who makes out my paychecks. She is a very smart woman who has been doing what she does for 30 years and still takes training courses everytime something new is introduced. She knows her stuff.

Do you know the person making out your checks? Have you ever spoken with them? If you care about what happens with your money it might be a smart idea. If you have a question about something being withheld from your check, check it out. Trust me, these people are not above error as they might like to believe. It will most likely save you a huge headache and hassle, and I promise it doesn't hurt to ask.

Funky House Stuff

I have been on the prowl for fun ideas to put in my new home. I stumbled across this absolutely fun website, Modern Poverty. There were tons of whimsical, fun ideas. Like these drain stoppers: They look like fun to me, but they might not help with my daughter's fear of the bath tub drain. When she gets in trouble I only have to threaten to throw her into "the deep end of the tub" and she is back on the straight and narrow, pronto! (JK :))


They also had these fun cookie cutters that give the illusion that someone has already been snacking on the treats: These just look like so much fun to me. I love the little dismembered gingerbread men. I know, it doesn't take much to amuse me.

But these ice cubes are the epitome of fabulosity in a glass. They look like my favorite things in the world.... jewels. Ah...

They also make these wonderful vases out of recycled beer and wine bottles: I think they are absolutely gorgeous, and it makes me ambitious to see if I could duplicate the effect.











The website also sells many of the whimsical "Mr. P" products, including this "fun-at-the-office" wire holder-thingy: Of course I work with a bunch of accountants so the joke is hopelessly lost :)







And finally, for more office fun, the coolest rubber bands and I want some!

The next big thing

There is a really cool blog out there showcasing new fashion designers. Graduate Fashion Week has started a blog where you can see work being turned out by fashion design students. It also has a lot of in-depth information on what it takes to get into the fashion world.

Previous winners of the Graduate Fashion Week competitions have included Stella McCartney as well as Alexander McQueen.

I think it is so interested to see what new designers are coming up with. Of course there are some wild entries, but one thing this blog does not lack is flavor!

The Princess Bride

Disney certainly has been busy expanding the princess empire. Recently they paired up with designer Kirstie Kelly to design wedding gown collections based on the Disney Princesses.

You can check them out at Disney Bridal's website and see if what they have to offer is for you.

I will admit that when I first read the story I groaned. I fugured the dresses would be directly based on the princess' dresses, and how twee would that be? But I was pleasantly surprised. The dresses are adult and tasteful, with a hint of whimsy and romance.

They are of course appropriately over-priced for what you get bearing the Disney name tag, but not completely priced out of the general wedding gown market. All in all, it is a nice collection, and gave me a few ideas.

Does this mean I have given in and set a date? Hardly. I was just looking.

Tuesday's Twins

Felicity Huffman from Desperate Housewives and Edie Falco from The Sopranos.

New Schedule

Some of you know I work at Aflac's Worldwide headquarters. Anyway, they are starting a new initiative where they put in new shifts to better serve their customers (and keep their employees even happier) allowing us to work different shifts. I applied for one of these coveted positions, and lo and behold, I was given the shift of Mon-Wed 6am-7pm with an hour for lunch. I really couldn't be more thrilled.
The prospect of having Thurs-Sun off work is making me a happy bunny indeed. They are even going to give me a shift differential so my pay doesn't dip, despite me working 4 hours less every week. I'm not complaining.
A few of my co-workers have questioned whether I will be able to handle 12 hours of accounting per day, 3 days a week. Well, I already work 12-hour days during tax season when our payroll accounts are getting their accounts with us settled up and correcting mistakes discovered through end-of-the-year audits. And I have to do it 5 times a week then. So yes, I can handle it.
I'm looking forward to spending more time with my ever-growing daughter, and of course, remodeling my new house which happens to be getting more and more fabulous on a daily basis...

As to why I have not been blogging daily as a good girl should, I have been playing auntie to my best friend's baby which was recently born. She is a doll!!!