I sent out my second quarterly newsletter yesterday. The newsletter is usually quite brief, highlighting new work, giving my upcoming art show schedule, listing retailers that carry my work, and giving a special deal or coupon. If you'd like to be added to my mailing list, just drop me a note and I'll sign you up.

I thought it would be nice to briefly introduce my retailers here once a week over the next couple of months. I'd like to start with Aquablue.

Aquablue, run by LeAnn Ebersviller, is an aqua massage spa where, if you're in the neighborhood of Fargo, North Dakota, you can drop by for a relaxing massage and a little retail therapy! LeAnn has made a point of selecting products made in the U.S. and Canada-- not just manufactured here by some ginormous company, but made by hand by artists and artisans. Handmade candles, bath and body products, home and gift items, and of course, jewelry, all selected to help you slow down, relax, and put a smile on your face (works best when taken in conjunction with that massage, I hear). I was delighted to discover that she has featured a pair of my earrings on her product page!

Makes me wish Indiana weren't quite so far from Fargo....

I can't believe it's April 26th, and I really, really want to turn the heat on in the house. I so need to move back south.

Friday Cat Blogging

I did try a garlic chives soup, and it was not bad-- chives, some fresh oregano, a potato, some actual garlic, chicken stock. Fry it up, then blend it. Stir in a little cream. A little more fibery than I would have predicted, but not bad. Unfortunately, it only used a vanishingly small portion of my available garlic chives, so I'm still looking for other things to do with them....

Lots of good cat pics this week-- here they are relaxing in what they think of as their sun cubicle, and which I think of as my light box.

Yes, Ballyhoo has been reading some James Joyce. He says that reading great writers will help him with his novel, which he still will not show me. We can only hope he's right about this, although it doesn't look like he's getting much reading done at this moment.

Not sure what they're looking at here.

In honor of Earth Day, I got out in my garden (at this point barely distinguishable from a weed patch) to clear away dandelions, grass, violets, and those other things with the purple flowers that the bees like (there are plenty more on my lawn for the bees, don't worry).

Things that survived another winter or have sprouted already:
lemon balm
black peppermint
berries and cream mint
oregano
garlic chives, garlic chives, garlic chives
sage
garlic chives
apple mint (in a container)
chocolate mint (in a container)
lemon thyme
french thyme
orange spice thyme
mother of thyme

Mint and oregano I know what to do with (even as abundant as mine-- I have baby oregano plants beginning to colonize the lawn) but the overabundance of garlic chives has me stumped. I can't stand pulling out and composting perfectly healthy, edible plants. On the other hand, they're taking over. Sprinkling them on baked potatoes just won't do it. Garlic chives, anyone? Got any good recipes? (I'm thinking they'd make a good soup....)

Two biggest mistakes I made when planting this garden, by the way: putting in Pennyroyal, and putting in Mother of Thyme. The pennyroyal I eventually managed to banish, but the mother of thyme is still creeping onward.

Friday Cat Blogging

I was woken up early this morning by a shaking of the bed. No, a shaking of the house. No, a shaking of...everything. This Florida girl has never felt an earthquake before, and it was verrrry disturbing. Like when the space shuttle takes off, but stronger. I think the cats found it offputting, too.

Ballyhoo appears to have gotten over it, anyway. I know, sorry about the dark picture. I didn't like the way the flash looked, and he wasn't considerate enough to sit in a sunny spot for me.

Ah, spring. The problem is, all I want to do now is go walking around. This is a problem because, although exercise is welcome and needed, my feet reject all my shoes this time of year, and I end up rotating through wave after wave of blisters until the delightful weather is long gone. Every once in a great while I find a pair of shoes that loves me back, and I wear them for about 8 years straight until they're literally falling apart, having long since lost the glow of youth. I usually wait until I am forced to conclude that the property of not giving me blisters counts for nothing if I'm getting burns on the bottom of my feet from the asphalt due to the large hole that has developed in the bottom of the shoes. Then I throw them out, go buy a new pair, discover that they give me blisters, and regret my having forsaken the tattered rags that were my old shoes. Oh, how I pay for so betraying my old friends.

All of which is just to say that I now have two separate sets of blisters on my heels, blisters on my pinky toes, and proto-blisters on the pads of my feet, and I deeply, deeply miss the sandals I threw out last year. *sob*

Hmm, I just published a new post that I drafted on Thursday, but when I published it, it showed up down there, instead of up here. Go scroll to after Friday Cat Blogging and you'll find it!