Spa-aaaaah!

Ahhhh...I just wrapped up hostessing a BeautiControl spa party here tonight. How nice. Friends, quiet, yummy smelling (and unfortunately not edible) lotions, sugar scrubs, creams and anything else scented you can rub on your skin. I smell like the counter at Baskin-Robbins, one flavor per body part! I got some rockin' hostess gifts and I think all my friends had a relaxing time. Oh, and the gal color typed me...turns out I'm a "spring"...she said it's hard to tell for sure when people--get this term--"color enhance" their hair! Love that! And I'm one of the only wierdos who colors her hair to be darker than normal instead of blonder. Anyway...now I have solid reasoning to buy all my shirts the same color of light turquiose (sp?) that I loved to start with...

Speaking of spring...ever wrestled an old-fashioned rose bush? Not a pretty sight. I just want to give a nice kuddos to my leather and canvas, up-to-the-elbow rose gloves for protecting me this afternoon! The thorns on those suckers are N.A.S.T.Y.--worse than Janet Jackson even. Oh, but the blossoms are worth it! I'll see if I can dig up a photo from last year. Seems I always forget to photograph them at peak bloom.



Ok, here is one and seriously this does not EVEN do them justice...this is from '04 and towards the end of blooming...the nasty things really just droop with tons of blooms and smell heavenly.

Now, as much as I've griped about the thorns, the plants do a have a special story behind them. My dad brought me the starts for 3 pink and 1 yellow bush. He grows them in his yard in Denver. Those starts, somewhere down the line, came from my Grandmother Beulah's garden in Northern Kansas. I like to think if she were still around she would love to walk my beds with me and talk about all the flowers and give me advice on how to do things. In a way, she does. My mom and my dear Aunt Cle both learned a lot about gardening from her and they, in turn, have taught and inspired me. Certainly a special legacy that I hope to pass on. This summer, Elena wants to build a "sunflower house" like the one in a book we read at storytime. That's a start!