1000 Things: Birthday Edition

Eleven years ago, I bought this ridiculous, makeup-oriented card in South Africa:

 

 

 

That year, my sister was turning 17, and I knew she would think the card was funny... but of course when her birthday rolled around, I forgot to send it to her.  And then I forgot all about it until my "Get Rid of 1000 Things This Year" project led me to clean out our stationery box last month.  If you're trying to get rid of 1000 things, do yourself a favor and start with your stationery box.  Ours was a total gold mine. 

 

Fortunately, this card surfaced just in time for my sister's birthday-- I popped it in the mail a couple of days ago, and it should be in her mailbox today, just in time to wish her a happy 28th! 

 

By the way, where does the time go?  28 years is a long time, but the day my sister was born seems like yesterday. 

Bean Counter

After the terrace garden escapade of last spring, we've decided to try all container gardening this year.  Last year, we had really good luck with our containers, which yielded kale, lettuce, and tomatoes.  This year, we added a few beets (have I told you how much I love beets?  I hope the ones we planted flourish so I can tell you how delicious they are), purple beans, spinach, and purple watermelon that supposedly grows up on a trellis (in our case, a piece of twine hanging from the roof of the house).  We had a really late spring, so our seeds have only been in the ground for two weeks.  But take a look at these champion beans: 

 

They're loving the sunshine almost as much as we are!  They grow and change every day.  They live near our front door, so we get to peek at them multiple times a day.