I've had it with catalogs. You recycle them, and more just keep coming. So I finally came up with a way to get back. I cut things out of them for collaging. Until a couple weeks ago I just cut out pictures of things. Then I had a brainstorm. Colors! Textures! So I started cutting hearts out of red things. Red dresses. Red cars. etc. And then three friends came over last Saturday and we had a high old time with stamps and glue and embossing powder and paint and pens and made ourselves a glorious mess of very unusual Valentine's Day cards. Three women, and no kids. It was like being back in kindergarten, and I'm happy to report we all shared with each other very well. ;-) I sent all of mine so I can't show you. However, the most peculiar card I made was for my nephew in the Marines. I enjoy tormenting him. His drill sargeant at boot camp even accosted him about the odd letters I sent (one was written on a long roll of tickertape). Anyway, I cut out big hearts as described above, and then cut out the little faces of models in the catalogs, also in hearts, and pasted them into the centers. They looked like they were wearing hoods and strange hats. Then I cut the letters "l" "o" "v" and "e" and pasted them on the back like a ransom note. heh, heh. We got my friend's husband to address the envelope and her daughter will mail it from Maine. Unfortunately this will probably not be sufficient to throw him off the track that his "eccentric" aunt was somehow behind it all.

We flew from snowy Boston to warm Miami -- not for romance, but for school vacation week with our three kids. When we got to the hotel at almost 9 pm, we found that all the restaurants were booked, of course, so we ordered room service for dinner and ended up eating around 11 pm when we were all half asleep! My "romance" for the day -- we went out onto the balcony to admire our view, and when I turned around to walk back into the room, I walked RIGHT INTO the glass door. With my face, mostly. My top lip got cut and I was bleeding all over the place and my forehead had a big red egg. Not my finest moment. DH was so upset and ran and got me ice, was very attentive and sweet. This morning I guess it was also nice when he looked at me and said, "well, you don't look TOO bad." I look like I got some kind of injection in my upper lip.

Great ideas everyone! I love the idea of storing pictures and keepsakes in them (I have plenty of those!). The window frame idea is also intriguing. I like the idea of displaying them on a table but my kids are too young for that now, maybe when they get older. You've all been so helpful that I took a couple pix so you could see them.

Hi! I'm looking to try some candy lily seeds this year- I see old posts about these plants putting out lots of seeds and folks who have the, offering seeds for trade, but those were posts from a coupke of years ago. I'd also like to try some Elise Lewisia from seed. I have seeds to offer as trade, or SASE works if I don't have anything you want. I have seeds to offer: - pink echinacea (was in my yard when I bought it- very hardy, may be tenessensis variety or maybe just a standard pink?) - white swan echinacea - groundcover sedum: possibly fulda glow - a bit of dragon's blood sedum groundcover - some cardinal climber - a few seeds of different types of morning glory - general (common) edibles like lettuces, herbs Thank you!