i hear the cries

Friday afternoon we decided to kick off the weekend with a stop by my favorite place on earth and spring/summer Second Home-- the Lowe's Garden Center. It's still a bit early in the year to begin planting outside, but I'm starting to get really antsy to get my hands in the dirt, so I figured a quick visit would maybe take the edge off a little. (Do I sound like a drug addict? Sometimes I feel like one.) Plus we wanted to get the supplies and seeds to start some of our veggies indoors. It's not too early for that-- it's the perfect time (ya know, if you're in Zone 7 like me...) (interestingly, did you know that a lot of groups have re-done the cold hardiness/heat zone maps (due to climate change) and dispute the long-held USDA map? They would have me being in Zone 8. Verrrry interesting...). OMG that was a lot of parenthesis. Sorry.

ANYWAY. So in my plant-and-seeds-induced euphoria, I excitedly Instagrammed a picture of my haul. And to my great surprise, guess what I almost immediately found piling into the Comments of that picture? CRIES FOR HELP.

Sorry for the awkward splicing of the photo...had to use 2 screen shots to capture all the Cries, and since the most advanced graphic design program I have on my home computer is PAINT...well, that's what you get.

 I hope you can read them all. People are desperate!! Literally begging for my help!! And if you know anything about me, it's that I'm a giver. When it comes to giving advice, that is. Especially when that advice is solicited. I'm sure you all recall my life-altering Plants 101 lessons from last summer. And I mean, that was basically unsolicited rambling. But now-- the people have spoken, and the people want to be gardeners! They want to be one with nature! Or maybe they just don't want their front bed to be the lamest one on the block- I respect that, too. So obviously my heart is THRILLED at the thought of planning some educational (BUT NOT BORING, because I would never be boring) flower-themed blogs for the near future. I really wanted to do it this weekend, what with starting my seeds and all. But theeennnnn the weather had to be all Old Man Winter and freezing cold and I love flowers but I'm not insane. I'm not potting seeds when it's 35 degrees with 35mph wind. And I'm not doing it in my kitchen either. So...soon. I'll let the anticipation build for a few more days, or until it's warm enough to be outside for 3o minutes without becoming miserable. In the meantime, feel free to pepper me with all of your burning gardening questions/thoughts/conundrums/things you want to know about. It makes me happy. Plus it gives me time to Google all the answers. What? I mean, I never claimed to be some kind of Legit Gardener. I just Google stuff and call my mom a lot.

So since it was too cold to garden, I did the next best thing: convinced Matt that we should go shopping at the outlet mall in Commerce. It was a highly successful day-- as I had suspected, the end of the clothing-season plus the President's Day sales equaled some mad crazy deals to be had. 

And then I was even MORE productive because when I came home, I realized that in order to make room for this...

...I needed to do some serious editing of the closet and get rid of stuff to free up some hangers. And buddy- I was on FIRE! Look at all these hangers I freed up! I swear, I tried to do this a few weeks ago and was only able to get rid of like...3 shirts.

 

That's 28 freed hangers, by the way. I counted. And I only went through my shirts and dresses! Didn't even make it over to the skirts and pants! I mean, no need to be an overachiever, right? This was more than enough hangers to hang up my new things. But the best part is that the two giant bags I filled with the clothes to get rid of? I'VE ALREADY DROPPED THEM OFF AT THE DONATION PLACE. Seriously, pat me on the back. My last "take to Goodwill" bag (which was on my 30 (days) before 30 list) was literally in my room for months, and I couldn't even drop it off when it was on my LIST! These bags? Less than 24 hours. What can I say, ladies? Sometimes I amaze even myself.

With that, I bid you adieu. Time for Walking Dead (and two more nights of The Bachelor this week??! Can I get a what-what??!) and nail-painting! Enjoy your day off tomorrow, those of you lucky ducks that get it. I'm not one of you, in case you couldn't sense my bitterness over the internets.