Wednesday shopper

As I was leaving to go shopping yesterday, I took time to look at my garden.

I've been harvesting lettuce like crazy,



and I thought the onions were doing well until I pulled one and found it was mushy. Not sure if it means it's not ready, or if it means it's not any good.

I admit, the lettuce is doing quite well, and the tomato plants are starting to show a bit of growth. However, I can't tell if that is spinach or weeds to the left of the lettuce. After my friend Scott turned the soil and did away with the rotting newspapers, I now have a bumper crop of WEEDS in the garden. Remind me to NEVER EVER turn the soil again. That's the beauty of a lasagna garden. You never disturb it, but keep adding layers to it. Looks like I have some serious weeding and repairing to do in that entire part of the garden.

Doesn't look like I'm going to have to find places for my bell peppers. I simply had no room for them and didn't plant them. Now they are dead.

Along with a lot of weeds, my rows of peas have now turned into massive plantings. Before it started to rain, I ran to our local drug store for

the pink stuff. Can't you just hear "indigestion, upset stomach, die-uh-ree . . . ." OK, you know the lyrics.

As I was leaving the drug store, I took a photo of some SLCs. What, you ask, are SLCs? Our local weather caster named the acronym. It stands for Scary Looking Clouds. And yes, we had them all day. No blue skies in any of my photos yesterday, that's for sure.

Next it was off to the Salvation Army, where their pricing was so confusing, even the clerks didn't understand it. I asked if the white and green tag discounts were for seniors only, or if they applied to everyone. After several workers discussed it, and reread the sign, they determined the discounts applied to everyone, but seniors got an extra discount. I think a drunk sailor must have written that sign that seemed to make sense to no one.

First I was off to look for some tea cups and/or a nice tea pot. As you can see, all I found was run of the mill junk.

Next, I looked through the sheets and found four (two flat, two fitted) white ones that I plan to cut up and dye. I am also going to make some fabric paper using them. I also found a pale pink pillowcase with a nice lace edge, which I will also be dyeing and using in my art art quilts. After looking through several bins and containers, I also found one tablecloth I want to cut up and use in a project.

Next I was off to the bridal area.

There was a plethora of lovely gowns, none of which were any more shapely than one of my dress patterns. However, they gave me ideas for my June Dress Up dress.

They were everywhere, even hanging to the ceiling.

As I was heading to pay, I saw these in a display case. I was in line and couldn't get a good picture because people were getting impatient that I would take photos. When I asked, I was told these hands were not for sale.

All in all, I did quite well at the thrift store. Even though I bought 4 sheets, one pillow case, and one tablecloth, my bill was only around $5.00. If I could only get dye that cheap!

As I was arriving home, I was greeted by the tornado sirens. Although the tornado missed us for a second day in a row, we got a lot of good coverage, because people from the Weather Channel were at our National Weather Service (NOAA) office located near the airport. Late last night, we had rain, rain, rain, and hail, along with high winds. It's springtime in KS!! Hope your weather was bright and sunny.

Update: I thought it would be helpful for those who are not familiar with tornadoes to see what I live with each spring.


A diagram of tornado alley's rough location (red), and its contributing weather systems I found in Wikipedia Commons.

To put it in perspective, I live in the bottom left dot on the semi circle that represents "Tornado Alley." It's the red dot right above the top tornado icon. You can read about the name in depth at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Alley, or you might be just as interested in this version from that same article:

The most common definition of Tornado Alley is the location where the strongest tornadoes occur most frequently and was first coined by Jennifer L. Wiley in 1904. The core of Tornado Alley consists of the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, eastern South Dakota, and the Colorado Eastern Plains.[5] However, Tornado Alley can be also be defined as an area stretching from central Texas to the Canadian prairies and from eastern Colorado to western Pennsylvania.[1] It can also be argued that there are numerous Tornado Alleys. In addition to the Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas core, such areas include the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley and the lower Mississippi valley.

Cited references can be found in the above linked article.

No matter how far out I go from my circle of internet friends, I find someone who is familiar with my blog pick of the day. Today's blog is no different. Meri Wiley, who lives in AZ, whose blog is called ImagiMeri's Creations, is no different. I'm sure some of you are familiar with her blog, especially those of you who make paper clay dolls, paper dolls, or love old graphics and images she generously shares. Those of you new to her blog will find something delightful, I'm sure.