internet fame and floral bliss

My esty is famous! Ok, maybe not really, but the lovely lady behind the blog Savvy Moms Save did blog about abookfull! And, as readers of my blog, you now know about it. She just finished up a little blog give away party and by reading and following the instructions on her blog you can enter to win all sorts of goodies from a variety of venders (including, but not limited to ExpressionsVinyle.com, Half Tees, and, of course, abookfull). It's a party! Literally. Be sure to check it out.

In other news, Braeden and I went on a date to the fabulous Dry Creek Urban Cutting Garden yesterday in Cedar Rapids. The lady who started it is a regular at the Farmer's Market we attend every Saturday (like this morning). We've chatted with her the last couple weeks and she told us about her garden and how she planted all the beds this past spring using environmentally friendly composting and building materials and so of course she was my favorite. She showed us pictures of her place and informed us that it was open for anyone to come and cut their own flowers anytime during the season. While we have been buying flowers from at the market her every week, we were intrigued by the idea of going and cutting our own. So we did.

We got to her house (271 27th Ave SW) and walked around to the back where there were beds of zinnias and herbs a plenty. At first we were a little hesitant because we weren't sure if we needed to knock on her door and tell her we were there, or what, but as we were standing out by the little awning where the scissors and tools were, our flower lady friend (whose name I realized I don't even know) came out and chatted with us for a minute, told us how the gates worked, then told us to "go and be free amongst the flowers." After that we felt much more comfortable wandering around in a stranger's garden. And it was fun! I highly recommend it. (In her garden, of course, not just any stranger's garden. That is not recommended.) If you want to find out more, feel free to send an email to drycreekurbancuttinggarden (at) yahoo (dot) com. (Although, Braeden emailed her Thursday morning and never heard back, so maybe it's best just to appear. Follow your heart.)

Here we are at the beginning of our adventure. We're pretty cute...

One of the little zinnias in the garden. I decided that the little ones are my favorite. My most favorite!

This was this amazing archway that she built out of metal she found at the landfill. I want one.

I took this picture of Braeden wading through the rows of flowers. I told him I wanted one of him walking and he said, "I don't know how be walking." I think that is pretty evident from this picture, since he is just standing there. Also, despite his fluency in English, Spanish, and Catalán, he clearly struggles in his native tongue. "I don't know how be walking." Ba haha.

Our flowers! We got so many. And they were so pretty. And only 50 cents a stem! And what is more poetic than walking around with flowers in the crook of your arm? I will tell you: nothing.

All in all? Our date was a smashing success! I'm really glad that we got to go. Also that Braeden took me.