Mildred and the two Susans

Miss "M" shall be known as Mildred forthwith. I mentioned to Mr. Gadget that I was brainstorming for a good "M" name, and he said, "How about Mildred?" It's very unusual for hubby to get involved in any part of my dollmaking adventures, so I was quite surprised and amused. "Do you have an Aunt Mildred that I don't know about, or someone with that name from your youth?" I asked. "No," he said. "I know no Mildreds." I'll bet it's a name from some old science fiction movie and he just doesn't remember....

I put Mildred's name on a small manila tag that I brushed with some coffee stain to make it look like it's been around the block on the broom with her. I stamped her name with some neat little stamps I got in the scrapbooking department at the craft store. What a mess though! I need to speak to a scrapbooking person to find out how to keep ink off fingers. I can't use my gardening gloves or my dishwashing gloves. I think I'll need surgical gloves. Maybe Mr. Dentist would give me a couple of pair. It's the least he could do considering all of the time I've spent in his chair lately.

And here is one of the two Susans. She has a twin. I'm not much of a gardener as I've mentioned before. I've been known to plant a few impatiens, I mean deer food, in the front planting beds on occasion. But now that Mr. Gadget and I are traveling often and are gone from home for long periods, I can't really keep up a garden.

So I stopped in at the local Agway where I saw a sign advertising "buy 2 perennials; get 1 free." I bought two black-eyed Susans and got a freebie yarrow. I planted them in the front yard today, after a thorough check of my gardening gloves for spiders. I'm hoping eventually I'll have a nice garden in spite of myself. My neighbor, the one who bakes and also knows everything botanical, tells me these plants are drought resistant. I think that was a nice way of telling me that they will probably survive even though she knows I'll be giving them plenty of neglect.....

And in other botanical news, Big City Girl tells me that her very nice boyfriend sent her flowers at work the other day just to make her feel better about putting up with a cranky boss. Such a nice guy! The first time he came to the house, he brought me flowers.......so he won me over on the spot. I have only one small complaint about this boy. He's 6'5". Whenever I know he's coming over, I have to dust the fridge......