A Quick Road Trip

When we arrived to Salt Lake City, my brother and his wife asked us if we were interested in going on a little road trip.  "Where?" We asked.  Apparently, Las Vegas is a little over 6 hours away.  We've never been to Vegas before, so we didn't unpack and left the next day and drove through the night.  I've never done something so spontaneous before.  It was a lot of fun!  We left my brother's house at 7pm and drove and drove through the darkness.  It's an easy drive, we just took Interstate 15 South all the way to Vegas.  For most of the ride it's pitch black, because we are driving through farmland, then desert.  And then around 1:30am, all of the sudden, we saw near the horizon, all these twinkling lights.  It was amazing!  The city lights appeared and horizon got brighter.  An incredible sight after seeing hours of darkness.  We stayed at Planet Hollywood hotel, and it had the most amazing view.  This is a photo of the Bellagio and it's famous fountain show.  Can you believe this is the view from our hotel window, front row seats!  The fountain show plays every 15 minutes and is pretty spectacular.

 Here are photos of the show in the daytime.  The fountain is synchronized to music.

Here is Paris hotel right next to Planet Hollywood.  It has a pretty nice miniature version of the Eiffel Tower, where you can take an elevator to the top of the tower. 

One of the first things we saw in Las Vegas was "fake NYC".  In this photo, it kinda looks like the real thing, minus the fact that there are 6 palm trees right in front of the buildings.  LOL.  My brother said, "you just left NYC, and you want to visit NYC?"  Hahahaha

Here's the fake Statue of Liberty, as seen walking over one of the foot bridges that crosses Las Vegas Boulevard.  From this photo, it looks like a pretty good replica.

One of the things we did while we were in Vegas were the food buffets.  I can't believe I did not take one photo in the buffet.  Must have been the buffet trance.  LOL.  Buffets are a bit scary, in that there is such an overload of food displayed.  I guess it's a convenient way to feed all those tourists.    However, after 1.5 days of buffet food, I never want to see a buffet ever again. Haha.  My favorite thing at the Planet Hollywood buffet was dessert.  Cotton Candy!!  I felt like such a kid.  :)

Stunning View

We arrived at my brother's house in Utah in the dark of night so we couldn't see the landscape. This is our very first visit. When we awoke we saw their backyard. Oh wow, is it ever stunning! Their backyard are the Rocky Mountains and Utah Lake.This photo doesn't do it justice. It is so much nicer in person.

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My First Bloom

Our daffodils are just about to bloom and I'm not around this week to enjoy it. (sigh) Hopefully some will be in bloom when we return.

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This made me smile

On the subway yesterday I saw this cute artwork. What looks to be chickens in New York City. Totally awesome. At least they looked like chickens? What do you think, are they chickens, or mini dinosaurs? LOL.  Bigify the photo for a closer view.

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I didn't think yogurt could be this good!

It's crazy to think that last Friday, NYC was in the 70s. This Friday it's 41F, and yesterday it snowed. What the heck! Last Friday, we went to the Farmer's Market, and it was so warm and fantastic.  What a difference a week makes!  I love going to the Farmer's Market to support the local farmers, we are so fortunate that the farmer's market brings in locally grown or produced food from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Upstate NY, Long Island, and the 5 boroughs!  One of the most amazing foods that we found was this yogurt made from Hammond Dairy, of Amenia, New York.  This was by far, the BEST yogurt I have ever eaten.  And you know how they got us to buy a big quart of yogurt, 2 words, "free sample".  Hook, line and sinker!  Hahaha.  After the nice guy behind the table asked, "Do you want to try our yogurt?" I was sold.  I wanted to try Peach, because that's my favorite fruit.  Oh my goodness, delicious!  The yogurt is so smooth, and fresh, and on the bottom of the container, were chopped peaches and syrup.  And you know what's the best part?  I know what all the ingredients are listed on the container.  (Grade A Pasturized Non-Homogenized Whole Milk, Peaches, Organic Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Lemon Juice, Non-Fat Dry Milk, and Yogurt Cultures.)  All natural ingredients baby!  No weird preservatives or artificial sweetners in this product.  But most of all, I love to support locally raised and locally made!  This dairy farm is 110 miles north of us, and is near where the hubs grew up in the Hudson Valley region.  On their website, they say, "We have a herd of 200 Holstein cows (those beautiful black and white cows), and treat them like family. Each cow has her own name, her own place on the farm, and is treated in the best of conditions. Our cows are fed all natural grass, and range contently on our beautiful green pastures." Ethically raised cows, fed with grass, and they all have names?  Now that's something I love to support!  Here's their website, http://hammonddairy.com check them out!  And if you are in Upstate NY, you must buy the yogurt.  It is just Ah-Mazing!

Just About to Bloom

I am not so patiently waiting for my Samba Amaryllis to bloom. Here is where you can see where I got the bulbs from, and what color it will be. It was doing great, until this week, we got a cold spell and temps dropped from 60s to 39F. Boo! Therefore our unheated enclosed front porch has been chilly. I guess Miss Amaryllis doesn't like that and hasn't bloomed yet. I'm leaving for Utah in a few days for a much needed vacation, how much you wanna bet it's going to bloom while I'm away? (sigh) I wanted to try to pollinate the flower to produce seeds, just like Mr. Brown Thumb does. I hope I'll still be able to.

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Rachael Ray, Move Over!

Delicious Meal in 30 Minutes?  No problem!  When I was preparing dinner last night, I felt like Rachael Ray. I made this meal in "30 minutes".  The jasmine rice, I cooked in my rice cooker, which takes about 20 minutes to cook.  I bought a whole half of farmed raised salmon fish weighing about 2.5 pounds.  First, I cut the salmon into serving sizes, and then baked in the oven at 350 degrees with butter, 1/2 juice of a lemon, salt and pepper for 20 minutes.  The asparagus, I drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked it also in the oven for the same amount of time as the fish, but I should have only baked it 10 minutes.  This is a great dinner when you have little time to cook, and yet has lots of flavor!  I can't wait until my asparagus spears come up in the summer so I can use homegrown.  Yummy.

What Happened to Spring?

What we woke up to.  This is seriously annoying! 

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You Don't Need a Lot of Money to Garden

This year, Earth Day is on April 22nd. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to grow your own vegetable garden to start a more sustainable lifestyle. Last year when we started gardening, we definitely grew the $64 tomato. It's because we were ambitious with our gardening plans. A lot of the start up costs (over $1,000) were for our gardening fence, gardening tools, soil, compost and we spent over $200 in vegetable seeds and perennial plants like rhubarb, grapevines, and berry bushes.

It got me thinking about what I could do to reduce our spending costs this year.  Afterall, you don't need a lot of money to grow your own food.

Here are some things we did this year to reduce our garden spending.

1. Trade seeds with other gardeners
We only bought $61 in seeds and perennial plants this year.  While this sounds like a lot of money, to be truthful, $35 of that budget was spent on horseradish roots.  Since horseradish is a perennial, it'll grow year after year, so that $35 will pay for itself!  I am so excited about growing horseradish this year, and it's a good idea to buy perennials because it comes back, so the cost is only once.  However, I don't need that many of the same type of seeds, so I traded them with other gardeners.  Some seed packets contain 200 seeds, I definitely do not have space for 200 of the same plant.  Therefore, I posted on this blog about seed exchanges and on Facebook and Twitter.  I got a lot of great responses, and was able to trade my seeds for Canteloupe Melon, Thyme, Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Peppers, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Carrots, Okra, Brussel Sprouts, and Cauliflower. I also made my own seed packets!

2. Sign Up for Free Seeds
Mike the Gardener has a seed of the month club.  You can sign-up for membership for pennies a day, and every month, Mike will send you a variety of seeds.  It's like your birthday everyday.  And speaking of birthdays, Mike the Gardener also has a birthday club.  It's free to sign-up and on your birthday, he'll send you two free seeds.  This is what the hubs got on his birthday last week.  Mike the Gardener sent him scallions and spinach.

3. Recycle
We decided this year to recycle as many food containers as we can to use as seedling pots.  Don't buy plant pots when you can get them for free! Here's my seed starting table.  You see all those little white containers?  They are all pudding containers that my husband takes to work.  Yes, he eats a lot of pudding. LOL  You'll also see mixed in butter containers, yogurt containers, and even paper towel rolls which are great to use as "pots" since they biodegrade into the ground.

4. Compost
I can't tell you enough how easy composting is and how beneficial it is to your plants.  We made this free compost bin out of recycled wooden pallets. We compost all of the organic materials in our house, egg shells, coffee grounds, veggie scraps, you name it. And we have no shortage of leaves around the property.  A few months of composting green and browns produces this black gold, we save money by not buying compost at the store.  Gorgeous isn't it? It's so dark and rich!  The plants love it.

5. Install a Rain Barrel
Last year, we spent a ridiculous amount of money watering the plants with the garden hose.  So we installed 2 rain barrels.  Our first water bill was $300 for 3 months, and with the rain barrel installed we reduced our water bill to $130.  Not only are we saving on the water bill, we are conserving water!  The cost of the barrels has more than paid for itself in the amount of money we saved on our water bills.  Not to mention how great we feel for helping the environment by collecting water that is free from the sky to feed our plants.

6. Sign-Up for Contests / Giveaways
Around the gardening blogosphere, it's been all the rage to have "contests & giveaways". If the contest is giving away a gardening product that I believe in, I'll enter as long as it doesn't ask for any personal information.  Through a contest giveaway, I won these organic fungicides and pesticides, and this canning book, which is a great way to preserve our harvests!

And speaking of giveaways, Jan @ Thanks for Today Blog is hosting a contest giveaway, called, the "Gardeners' Sustainable Living Project" to promote sustainable living and Earth Day.  She is giving away a selection of prizes to help you live a more sustainable lifestyle, such as a rain barrel, a composter, gardening tools, gardening magazines, seeds, a whole LOT of gardening related stuff. 
Go here to check it out:  http://thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/2011/03/gardeners-sustainable-living-2011-win.html

This year, for the first time, I'm keeping track with how much we are spending on garden versus how much produce we grow to compare and see if we saved money by growing as much produce as possible, in hopes that we don't grow the $64 tomato ever again!

Sadness and Tears

When my husband doesn't get his way, like say we run out of homemade chocolate chip cookies, he always says to me in his puppy dog face, it's "sadness and tears." Hahaha. Yesterday, I was putting away dishes and I accidentally dropped my ceramic pie dish on the floor. And I felt, "sadness and tears." I hate it when I'm careless. So bummed, we got this dish as a wedding present. Will have to go see if Crate and Barrel still carries this one. (sigh)

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How Can a Store So Fun Be So Evil?

This weekend, I took my mother-in-law to my favorite store.  The Christmas Tree Shop.  LOL.  Okay, it's not my favorite store, but it's like a budget gardener's dream!  You have to weed through the tchotkes to find the gems.  Like this.  The little teacup planter is about 4 inches, and just the cutest. And at $1.99, it went into my shopping cart.

I also picked up these ceramic planters.  The one in the foreground is about 6 inches and the one in the back is 8 inches.  And get this, $3.99 and $5.99.  Yeah, hello!

The best part was this.  I stopped cold in my tracks, because I was mesmerized.  Last year, I wore my boots to death.  And ever since, I've been on the lookout for a new pair.  Oh my, how do I pick just one?  Well, it turns out, there were only a few in my size.  I guess 7 is a very popular women's size.  That helped me narrow down the choices.

Thank goodness this pair came in a size 7.  Hooray, I have new garden boots!  Cute aren't they?  And at $14.99, perfect for my budget!  I ended up buying some other stuff, non-garden related. This store is so evil on my wallet!  Haha

Winter sowing works!

Last month, I sowed some broccoli seeds in a juice container, outdoors in the middle of winter, as suggested by Alison @Bonney Lassie.  I never thought to do this, and was a bit skeptical at first.  Wouldn't the snow and cold ruin the seeds, I thought?  Low and behold, look what I saw in the container today.  Yup, that's right people, it's a broccoli seedling!  TOTALLY awesome!  I am soooo going to do this every winter from now on!  It was so easy, you just sow the seed as you normally would in a plastic container like a milk jug or juice bottle, and leave it outdoors in a semi-covered area so it's not rained on or snowed on.  And ta-da!  Come spring, germination happens.  Guess what people, Winter Sowing R O C K S!

Food Coma

Yesterday, after our fun at the farmer's market and Trader Joe's, we went to Killmeyer's Old Bavarian Inn for some authentic German food.  We love this place, the food is spectacular and so is the German beer.  I ordered the weinerschnitzel, which came with spaetzel and steamed vegetables.  Oh my, this schnitzel is good.  They also give you so much food, I only ate half the plate, and immediately went into food coma!  I love spaetzle, and this one pretty much hits the spot.  It's that good!

The hubs ordered the Bavarian Wurst Platter which comes with bratwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst with red cabbage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  If you like sausage, this is the way to go!

My mother-in-law got the Rouladen, which are Beef Rolls stuffed with onions, bacon, mustard and gherkins, and served with potato dumplings.  (I didn't want to be rude by taking a photo.)  Trust me, it's good!   The food here is outstanding, if you are ever in Staten Island, it's a must visit!

As Easy Herb to Grow

On Twitter, SnarkyVegan was talking about how she was having a hard time growing Oregano from seed. I also had a hard time growing herbs from seed too last year, so I can totally relate to the frustration.  Until I realized that I needed to be more patient, many herbs take a long time to germinate and don't have a high germination rate, so I started to put more seeds per pot. Especially Rosemary, Oregano and Lavender, they are notorious as slow germinators. (Is that a word?)  I finally had some luck with the Mediterranean Oregano from Burpee.  These seeds took about 3 weeks to germinate, but once it did, it was a really good grower!  I had this pot sitting on my enclosed porch all winter.  And look at it now!  I love cooking with Oregano, especially putting it in my eggs and pasta.  The smell is so amazing!  I am going to start drying it so I can always have it available in the pantry.  Totally awesome!

Enjoying the Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's

The hub's mom is visiting us this week, and we took her to the farmer's market in Union Square today. Their farm sells at farmer's markets in their area in Upstate NY, so we thought it would be a nice idea to show them one down here. It was a beautiful 70 degree day today. Just spectacular. A nice day to be outdoors. The farmer's market was brimming with people.

I spied that they had a vendor selling orchids.  Oh wow!  The orchids were so pretty, but they seemed to only have phalaenopsis orchids.  I'm on the lookout for a cymbidium.

This one was stunning!  It had great coloring and spots.

Trader Joe's is 3 blocks from the farmer's market, so we decided to go in to pick up some groceries. Also, Emily over at Ultra Epicure told me that Trader Joe's sells cymbidium plants so I had to see for myself.  I've never seen them there before. As soon as I walked in, there it was.  They had 6 plants, one of my favorites was this beauty.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  And it was only $23!  I contemplated getting this plant, but then I decided to wait because this plant was quite large, and we took the ferry into the city instead of driving.  So It would be hard to bring this home via subway and ferry.   I would have to figure out a time when we could drive in to get it.  Now that I know they sell them, I am totally excited!

After Trader Joe's we headed straight home because we did a lot of walking and wanted to rest and have a snack.  At this point we were all tired and hungry.  My mother-in-law had bought a jar of pickled stuffed hot peppers at the farmer's market.  We decided to open the jar and have some as part of our appetizers.

These were delicious!  They were stuffed with minced cabbage and they were sweet from the pickling juice and spicy because of the hot pepper.  Absolutely delicious.  I'll have to re-create this when we can this year!

For appetizers, we ate the snacks that we bought at Trader Joe's.  They have an amazing Red Wine hard salami, honey goat cheese, mushroom pate, buttery crackers and aged cheddar cheese.  This is my favorite type of appetizer, so good!

Here's my plate, the hot stuffed peppers were amazing over the cracker!  A perfect snack!

Gardening Books Obsession

I still find it hard to believe that around this time last year, we started gardening for the very first time!  Both my husband and I have parents who are avid gardeners, and growing up, neither of us were too interested in gardening at all.  In fact, when I was a teenager, I avoided it like the plague.  For me, I was never interested because my dad always made me do the chores that I absolutely hated.    Like weeding, watering the plants, digging up bulbs, and raking leaves.  I hated those chores, and STILL DO!  Haha.  However, nowadays I realize how important these chores are, so despite hating them, I do them because I want a nice garden.  I looked up when I wrote my first garden post on this blog, and I just had my one year blogaversary.  March 14th, 2010 was my very first entry!  Back then, we knew nothing about gardening, really everything was a hands-on learning experience and reading all YOUR gardening blogs.  The gardening blogsphere is so knowledgeable!  In no time flat, I became totally and completely obsessed with learning as much as I could about gardening.  I became a complete sponge.  This time last year, we owned one book, "Garden Primer".  It's still my favorite, and go-to resource. Fast forward one year and now we have this stack! 

Last week, the hubs received this book to add to our collection as a birthday gift from his brother and girlfriend.  I'm looking forward to reading "I Garden: Urban Style", and hope to get some good tips.  I was also happy to see some familiar garden blogger faces profiled in the book, like this guy, and this guy.  What are your favorite gardening / preserving books.  What do you recommend we get next?

Garlic Bed Doing Fine!

Last fall, we planted hardneck garlic in our new raised bed. I went outside to check on the beds yesterday. Woo hoo, looky here! Sprouts are looking awesome. This is our first time growing garlic, it seemed so easy.  As easy as planting fall flowering bulbs!  Everyone told us to put straw on top of the bed, but being that we are in Staten Island, straw is a little hard to come by.  Instead, we put shredded leaves on top to help insulate it over the winter.  We were blasted with blizzards this winter, and I worried about the garlic.  But low and behold, look at these beauties sprouting!  We planted 40 cloves, so I hope they all sprouted! 

I can't wait until it's time to harvest scapes. I've never had scapes before but I read all over the garden blogosphere how wonderful it is. I am drooling already. I can't wait to make pesto with it. Yum and yum.  Now that I know how easy it is to grow garlic, this is SO going to be a staple veggie in our garden!

Free Trees!

I saw this flyer on the bulletin board of Flying Saucer cafe on Atlantic Avenue today.  Million Trees NYC is sponsoring a giveaway of free trees for New York City residents to plant on their property.  There are several locations where they are giving away trees, in 4 of the 5 boroughs.  Interestingly enough, there isn't a giveaway site in Manhattan.  Strange... Each site has different types of trees that they are giving away, ranging from Magnolias, Dogwood, Pear, Cherry, Eastern Redbud, Katsura, and others. Here is a list of site locations.  http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/programs/pdr_tree_giveaway.shtml One tree can be adopted per address and it comes on a first-come first-served basis.  This coincides with their mission, "MillionTreesNYC, one of the 127 PlaNYC initiatives, is a citywide, public-private program with an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the City's five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest—our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land—by an astounding 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees."  Isn't this such a great program?  Oooh, I want a cherry tree!  I'll have to see if I have room on the property for one.

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Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm doing a little happy dance right now!  Why?  Well, back in October, I saw that someone in Brooklyn was giving away their lilac bush that they had in their backyard.  They were re-landscaping their yard and did not want the lilac any longer.  I love, love, love lilacs, and so I convinced my husband into going with me to dig it up from their yard and re-locate the bush into our yard.  The process wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, here's the story about that how we got this lilac.  Seeing these buds on the lilac makes it all worthwhile!  I was so worried that the plant wouldn't survive the transplant.  We literally had to dig and pull it out of the ground, and it had well established roots, and we had to cut a lot of the roots to remove it.  It was backbreaking work, but seeing these buds makes me so very happy.

I spied a lot of new buds, and can't wait until it gets warmer to see how well it does.  I feel so ecstatic that we were able to rescue this plant. Now if I can only be patient enough to watch it bloom.  I am bad at waiting!

Growing Alfalfa Using Recycled Containers

I've been fascinated with growing alfalfa sprouts ever since I saw Bren's video on her blog, BGGarden. It seemed so easy!  I bought some Botanical Interests Alfalfa seeds from Whole Foods last week.  I could not wait to try them!  Reading the back of the packet, the first step to growing alfalfa was to soak the seeds in a bleach and water solution for 15 minutes.  It calls for 1 teaspoon of bleach in a cup of warm water.  The reason for doing this was to kill any E. Coli bacteria that might be lurking in the seeds. You can get sick from eating sprouts! Really, ugh!  Into the solution it went, after 15 minutes rinse the seeds well with water.

In Bren's video, she is using this nifty sprout grower.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to invest in a sprout kit, so I Googled DIY ways to grow sprouts.  I found this interesting video.  In this video, he is using common recycled food containers to grow sprouts in.  All you need is a wet paper towel to get it started.  Okay, let me give this a try. I decided to use a soup container, and punched holes in the lid to allow flow of air.

I inserted a folded wet paper towel just like the video and sprayed it with water after putting the seeds in.  I actually put in more seeds after I took this photo.

After 1 day, I checked inside the plastic container and it's already sprouting!  Can you see the little sprouts growing?  Bigify photo to get a better look.  Woohoo!  I love eating sprouts, I can't wait to put this in a sandwich.  On the back of the Botanical Interests seed packet, it also said you could grow sprouts in mason jars with a sprout lid or cheese cloth covering the jar.  It also said to rinse the sprouts with water everyday. Since I'm following the wet paper towel method, I'm not sure if I have to rinse the seeds.  I'll have to watch them carefully just to make sure it doesn't get moldy in there.  Have you ever grown sprouts using this method before? 

Signs of Spring

I took a walk around the yard this morning and sure enough, I see signs of spring. I am not sure what is growing here exactly, looking forward to seeing it come to life!

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Piglets Wearing Rubber Boots, What?

When I'm on Facebook, I always see this strange ad to the right of my page.  Can someone tell me what does a little piglet wearing rubber boots have to do with "365 Things to do in New York City"?  LOL.  Every single time I see this ad, I just smile because it's so strange, because A) I have NEVER seen a piglet in NYC proper and B) the only time I've ever seen a piglet in this area was in the Staten Island Zoo, and it's never worn rubber boots.  Hahahahaha.  Looking forward to "spring ahead" and forward the clock one hour.  Hooray, for longer daylight hours!

Packages Galore!

It rained for two days straight here in Staten Island, grey, wet, and completely dreary.  I was a bit worried about the weather because our basement has a tendency to flood when we get an influx of rain.  Thank goodness the basement stayed dry this time, unlike last year when it rained non-stop for days.  Last year, we had 2 inches of rain flood our entire basement.   I was also worried because we had to be out of town Thursday and Friday of this week, because we were visiting family Upstate for the hub's birthday.  I knew that we were expecting deliveries of the new Amaryllis bulbs I had ordered and I received an email stating that our new Asian Pear tree and Red Currant Bush was enroute for a Friday delivery.  I hate not being home when we get deliveries.  Since we weren't going to be home to receive both deliveries, I left a note on my front door to request the UPS person to please put the packages under my front staircase so that it would be protected from the torrential rain showers.  When we returned home Friday night, the packages were safe under the front steps.  You GO UPS!  They totally ROCK.  Totally awesome, the packages were slightly damp, but for the most part, pretty dry!

Today, I followed the instructions and took the plants out of the box and put the roots in a bucket of water for a few hours and then planted them in containers.  I do want to eventually plant these outdoors when it's a bit warmer.  However, since we are still getting cold near freezing temperatures at night, I want to protect the new tree and shrub and plant them in a few weeks when it's definitely spring weather.  So after soaking the roots, I potted these in soil, and they will stay on our front porch until the weather warms up.  Here's a pic of our new Asian-2-in-1 pear tree, a gift from my brother and his wife, and their adorable boys.  They gave us these plants as a Christmas present.  This grafted tree will grow "Chojuro"and "Drippin’ Honey™" varieties.  I am so excited! The tree is self-pollinating and the fruits have different harvest times.  Chorjuro will be ready in September, while Drippin' Honey is ready in October.  I grew up eating these Asian Pears, they were always a special treat at our home.  I am so excited to be growing them in our backyard soon!  Also, a main reason we like this pear tree is that the fruit can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months!  Pretty awesome!

The other plant in the package was the Red Currant bush.  One of our main goals is to grow as much fruit as possible on our property, so we are really excited to add this shrub to our landscape.  We also love currant jam, so I can't wait until this shrub starts producing currants for us!

Here's the other package, my Amaryllis bulbs from White Flower Farm.  This was an impulse purchase that I made.  Both bulbs were on sale, so I totally could not resist.  These are the last Amaryllis bulbs that I will buy for the rest of the year...  I promised myself.  LOL

I pulled out the bulbs to check on the quality.  White Flower Farm does not disappoint!  Look at the size of this bulb!  So worth the $8.45 that I spent on it.  Don't you agree?

What fun packages are you getting in the mail right now?