got it :-) Lucy

I'm not in the same class as the rest of you--in knowledge, garden size, or, even, common sense. However, I have done some pollination (with a Q-tip), then wrapped the bloom in tulle to keep the bees out.....and I love my plants. I actually mourn when one of them doesn't make it through the winter storage. Last year, my tubers which were marked with the label maker and stored ended up being "unknowns"...because the letters somehow disappeared. (How THAT happened, I do not know--and I'm not totally stupid.) I had, thankfully, embossed the name, then inked over the etching on many copper and steel tags, and, then, attached them with wire to some of the storage containers. This spring, when the plants came up, I attached a metal tag to each stalk; this is the first time in 6 years that I haven't been confused--an easy thing to happen, since I tend to be a random thinker. I've used maps, diagrams, marking pens, marked posts etc....all with disasterous results to my mental health. I lurk around this forum to glean tips about organizing from all of you experts....and I only have about 25 different dahlias. I thank you all.

lol, I picked her up from school yesterday and we went back to her class to get her backpack & binder. I asked, 'you have everything?' and she said yes. Later, after 5pm she tells me she forgot her spelling words in her desk. Well, Wednesday is the night they have to put spelling words in alphabetical order and write them three times each. She knew this but I wasn't thinking about it, we had been at the doctor's office & radiology all afternoon, but she brought it up. She said she guesses she can't do her spelling since school is out. My first thought was she did it on purpose and I wanted to call her on it. I didn't. I thought about it for a while and a couple miles down the road, I said that when we get home, she can call her friend that's in her class and ask for the spelling words. She claimed she didn't know her phone number but I told her I do. When we got home, I double checked her binder and the usual spelling list wasn't there but the spelling words were. I found a loophole... the teacher sends home an optional sheet on Fridays. It's an activity they can do over the weekend and at the bottom, it gives the next weeks spelling words so they can start practicing if they want. Well, of course she was bummed that I found that and proceeded to write them out three times each but not in ABC order. DH had her redo it in ABC order. Then we watched TV for a while. She had a great attitude. Her mom sent DH a text message an hour after she went to bed to have SD call her. He wrote back that she was in bed and if she wants, she can call in the morning before SD leaves for the bus. She called before any of us were up and wanted to talk to SD so I went and got her up. I heard SD telling her about going to the doctor and say her arm doesn't hurt anymore. She started to ask BM how she was doing and then abruptly says ok, I love you too. Bye. BM apparently didn't want to 'chat'. That is the FIRST time BM has called SD in a very long time, I can't remember the last time she called her. The doctor called me a few minutes ago to say the X ray shows no break. He said she probably pulled a muscle if she fell on her hands playing on the trampoline. There's not much to do for it, he said to apply heat and showed us how to stretch the muscle. It will resolve itself in a few days if she rests it. and I do agree that some lying... about school work or brushing teeth, etc. are common at her age. I don't know if it's normal or alarming, and I understand the lies she tells her mom to get mom's attention, but she is old enough to understand that there are consequences for those kinds of lies when mom gets CPS or the police involved. There could be great consequences for DH and me. I was more concerned with her lying about injuries, being hit, and things she complains to her mom about but doesn't tell us. We don't find out until BM calls DH to chew him out or now, until she calls CPS. SD never complained to us about having to eat foods she doesn't like and when she told DH about her arm, she only mentioned it once and he didn't see a reason to go to the doctor and she never complained to us about it again. And we don't know if SD complained to her mom or if her mom is the one that is asking her if she was seen by the doctor but I don't know why BM would put it on her daughter to get dad to take her to the doctor if SD isn't saying it hurts. I'm probably overly cynical of BM, but I'd say she knows SD fell on the trampoline and got hurt and didn't want to pay for a doctor visit so she told SD to tell dad her arm hurts so he can make sure it wasn't hurt too bad. SD told him a couple of days after coming back from BM's, after she got off the phone with her. BM might have reminded her to ask dad. DH looked at it, and didn't think it was broken and considering SD had gone to cross country and was swinging her arms around earlier, concluded it wasn't too serious. SD never told him she fell down on the trampoline. I'm sure she didn't want to get mom in trouble, although we don't know exactly what happened so it could be an innocent **stuff happens with kids** accident or it could be she was not being supervised and got hurt. We don't know that and we already know BM isn't going to tell us if she did anything wrong. But, when SD came home this last weekend, she did tell DH that she collided with her sister on the trampoline and cut her lip. She said her teeth went into her sister's leg. That was on Sunday and on Monday, she didn't call BM but she did call BM on Tuesday and after she got off the phone, she again told DH that her arm hurt. On Wednesday is when CPS went to the school so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how coincidental it all is. I'll admit that I am pessimistic when it comes to BM. But, I've never been wrong about her actions.. not yet anyways. I have been surprised that she has done some things I've predicted because I honestly was fooled at first and she presented herself as a GREAT mother. But, maybe because of my 'control freak'ness, I noticed little details that went unnoticed by my DH about her. I mean, she did things that I found odd being a mother myself. I went through custody issues with my son's father and we would fight over who gets him more, not who has to take him. She was always asking him to take SD on her weekends but if he ever offered to let her make up the time, she said she was busy. She never asked to makeup the time either. Then, when she refused to help her daughter do a school project, that pretty much sealed my opinion of her... she actually told my husband that if I want to do 'mom' things (like bake cookies, which I guess really upset her) that I can help her with her school project too. Hearing her say that shattered my image of her being a wonderful mom because I can't imagine saying or doing that to my own child. It's been downhill since then and she has aspired to new lows as a mother, in my opinion. The only one I did not see coming was her moving away and giving us custody, that blindsided me because we had just spent several months (and thousands in lawyers) to fight for custody and she fought it so fiercely, I never imagined anything would cause her to give up her daughter so easily. Maybe that is why SD was so affected too, she saw how fiercely her mom fought to keep her, only to be discarded two weeks later for a stranger. (so, yes I have had a hard time not resenting and hating BM for doing that and I need to learn how to let that go, but it's hard)

I get both framing the art to suit the art only, and framing it all "alike". Personally, I frame all of my art to suit the art, but it also has to suit my home as a whole and possibly go anywhere in that home. Thus it's all "Gallery Framed". And so while I might have a small hint of color in the bottom mat of a double or triple matted piece, the top mat is always going to be some shade of cream, or tan. That top mat might be fabric, or wallpaper, or just about anything really, but it's going to be some ivory/white shade. The mat is there to provide a neutral backdrop to the art, no matter which room I place it in. And all of my frames are either black or gold. I have some pieces, like my Persian tapestry and an original watercolor, in larger more ornate moldings, as it suits them, but those frames will still be black or gold. It's the same with the thin "poster" frame molding that is on some of the more contemporary pieces or an old poster of a WWII plane. They will all be black or gold and have some form of cream as the top matte as well. But, my sister has a fine arts degree and her own frame shop, so I get the family discount. I can't imagine paying full retail for framing something these days! She did a museum mount piece for a customer recently that was over 1K! And that's why I'd like to gently suggest that you at least measure the frames for the pieces and see if they are standard off the shelf sizes. Those are pretty easy to change out DIY, and you can always apply the kraft paper dust sheeting to the back yourself as well. I've also painted frames black when I found garage sale pieces that worked for me. I have a couple of $1 garage sale poster finds right next to an original fine art photograph, and it all works because of the gallery look. I could give a rat's behind that one might be considered "art" but not the others. It all speaks to me about form or line or color, so it's all art to me. :)