pitcher plants

on my birthday (the weekend before last), our neighbor stopped by to chat, and after just a few minutes of conversation, my parents, brother, neighbor and i all went for a drive to search for the carnivorous plants he had spotted earlier in the summer.

i'd never seen a pitcher plant before. when they were spotted along a stretch of rarely-traveled road, they were just far enough into unsafe territory that i couldn't stand too close. the ground was uneven and the wild weeds grew so high that i couldn't tell how low the ditch was. there was also poison ivy, so i took photos from the side of the road.



across the way, in a swamp-like area, we found some more. i could get closer to these, so thought i could take some close-ups and try to figure out how insects get stuck in them. they didn't seem to open and close like venus flytraps.

when i looked inside the flower, i determined that the insects were attracted to the knobby thing in the center, but got stuck in the gunky insides of the "petals". (wow, i am definitely not a botanist.) i thought this made a lot of sense, since it looked like there were a little black insect remnants inside, so i took a lot of photos of that particular part.



when i returned home, i opened our field guide to north american wildflowers, and it turns out i was really wrong.



the insects get stuck inside the pitcher-like "leaves" at the base of the plant.

i didn't really take many photos of that part. oops.

after a zillion mosquitoes showed up to wish me a happy birthday, we returned home for blueberry pie and ice cream.



it was just one little fun part of a really nice birthday, and one i didn't expect.

my niece's cat and the flower factory

my niece katie has a cat named after forrest gump. i am not really a cat-person but this cat is hilarious to me. and he posed for a very dignified profile photo. nice whiskers!

in other news, our local flower factory is closing. the flower factory was once like a craft/floral/party wholesale club where you needed a membership, but more recently, it just sells about anything you could imagine. i have picked up some great deals on martha stewart scrapbook paper and american crafts stamp pads (as well as other fun things!). i will miss this store, with its odd mix of items, like these imported children's funny cutlery and funny tableware:

(Click on the photos for more detail)

Look closely - it says (among other things): "Tell Me! So dear to my heart. To have both the quality of tenacity."


This is even better: Make you of the kid exaltation begins an ability ownly.

Lst' Go!

oh, antiquated world

stowed away in the school where i work, i found this tiny box of "consumer sequential cards" from 1978. i'm certain they were once a helpful manipulative for determining the order of things, while facilitating discussion about real world skills. but now, they are just really interesting photos of common scenarios that don't really happen that way anymore. they'd probably just confuse a lot of kids today, so i'll post them here instead:

going to mcdonald's for breakfast:


along with the many, many advertisements for hashbrowns, check out the uniforms! and, of course, the styrofoam packaging. this one is not really that odd, just old-fashioned. just wait.

calling from a pay phone booth:


i can't recall the location of any glass phone booths anywhere anymore. i don't know if you can tell from this photo, but a phone call in 1978 was 20 cents.

waiting while a gas station attendant provides full service:




she waits while the attendant squeegees the windshield clean, in her red pacer, with the same door handles as the similarly red amc spirit that we had around the same time. my memories from this era are fuzzy if anything, but i do remember those door handles. i don't remember ever having an attendant provide car service, unless you count some experiences in the past few years when i've turned into a gas station and not realized that was the process for that station. what do you think she was listening to on the radio? i think it was the carpenters.

buying a coke out of a vending machine:


i love this photo. the orange pants are perfect for it. we drank bottled coke when i was young so these cans look strange to me, especially that someone actually used their index finger to open the can. sidenote: i remember that in elementary school if we won a contest or something, the prize was always being able to walk into the teacher's lounge and buy a tiny bottle of coke out of the vending machine. awesome.



this part is especially weird now. after you drink the coke, you throw the can in the garbage, where it will probably land on a pile of styrofoam egg mcmuffin containers.

selecting ice cream at baskin-robbins:


i think he is taking a number?


this scene really does remind me of childhood. one of my brothers used to pick me up from kinder care and take me to baskin robbins sometimes. remember the clown cones?

my favorite part is here:


my initial thought was, "he took his ice cream cone to school? and his school had pink desk chairs!" then i realized that he is probably still at baskin-robbins, and they offer school desks as seating. i don't think the baskin-robbins in the greenwood park mall had school desks, but they probably had a lot of people dressed like this guy.

have a wonderful week!

fun, fun, fun, fun.

hooray! one of my rings was on the front page of etsy today, and it sold! i'm so thankful for the shop exposure. twenty-six people included me in their shop favorites today. i know that's not unusual for some sellers, but it's still a big deal to me! little happinesses are all around.

more little happinesses:


this treasury was featured on etsy's front page tuesday. thank you to BeCharmedDesigns, who was included in this fuchsia treasury. she responded by adding me to the treasury that made it to the front page today. cool!

the rebecca black video is already classic. in fact, i'm certain i was about three weeks late for it. i love the reactions to it as well. sped up, slowed down, dubbed over with eazy-e, analysed by critical teen reviewers, covered by acoustic guitarists and a meat loaf tribute artist, or just completely parodied by snarky kids who are actually pretty hilarious. i'd post links but you can find them all in the youtube sidebar.

also three weeks after the fact (but really, i just learned of these things): did you know that jimmy fallon now has his own ben & jerry's ice cream flavor? you should know this. you should also know that it has potato chips in it. will i try it? yes, i will.



happy april! (i will try to write about things other than treasuries.)

worth watching

We'll show this to the kids I work with on Friday. It will be our second annual screening. I am bringing "goslabi" sauce.

funny dreams

i've had strange dreams over the past few nights that i've remembered. three nights ago, i was late meeting amy and heather for tea because i had just dyed my hair in all different colors (multicolor striped, even white) and couldn't get it to change back. two nights ago, i stayed at the guest house of a college friend, and when i washed my face, all of my skin peeled off like a crazy sunburn.

today at work i laughed at various points in the day when i remembered the dream i had last night.

i was at my workplace, except it was inside my high school (i love how dreams have that quality - "i was here, but here was there"), doing some routine filing, and one of the kids i work with said, "miss julie, look out the window!"

outside the window, there were llamas.

so i took a few kids outside to look at them more closely. a co-worker was standing outside, and informed us that due to construction of a nearby property that had impeded on the llama sanctuary nearby, the llamas were now roaming free outside my workplace/high school.

somewhere amongst the llamas, sitting on a rock maybe (?) was adam lambert. with blue hair. he didn't really say anything, and none of us said anything to him. he was just there. the llamas were more interesting, i suppose?

i used to keep a dream journal and realized that in addition to my recurring dreams (randomly losing a tooth, having extra fingers or toes, and forgetting i was enrolled in a class until finals week), i had more dreams than i realized that took place at gas stations.

do you ever have crazy dreams?

not etsy related at all

i just watched lasers slicing jimmy fallon's corneas.

now you can, too!

(but i will totally understand if you don't want to. it's fairly gross and a bit creepy.)

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