Comments on: That’s when the grin should start http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/ Watch out. We've got sharp sticks. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:37:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Erin http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-6388 Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:05:10 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-6388 Hello! I can't remember how I got here, but your blog is most entertaining. :) "the bridal industry has left me with the impression that the most important thing is how one looks and particularly how one looks in photographs" It's not just you. I keep having conversations with my mom and sister along the lines of, "Try this [makeup I would never ordinarily wear]! It will bring out your features in the pictures!" Yeah, but up close, I look weird and not like myself. Apparently this is okay. Good luck with the yard-conquering and your wedding plans! Hello! I can’t remember how I got here, but your blog is most entertaining. :)

“the bridal industry has left me with the impression that the most important thing is how one looks and particularly how one looks in photographs”

It’s not just you. I keep having conversations with my mom and sister along the lines of, “Try this [makeup I would never ordinarily wear]! It will bring out your features in the pictures!” Yeah, but up close, I look weird and not like myself. Apparently this is okay.

Good luck with the yard-conquering and your wedding plans!

]]> by: Alex http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5989 Sat, 07 Apr 2007 14:34:01 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5989 I've been thinking that we might try and do what Harvard does each year with its lawns (which it only really tends to before commencement), on a smaller scale. Step 1. Get everything wet. Step 2. Rake it over like crazy so it is a big, muddy, aerated mess. Step 3. Load it up with excessive amounts of fertilizer and grass seed. Wait three weeks and presto! You have a beautiful looking lawn, for wedding guests and/or fat cat donors-slash-parents of undergrads. I mean, that _should_ work, no? I’ve been thinking that we might try and do what Harvard does each year with its lawns (which it only really tends to before commencement), on a smaller scale. Step 1. Get everything wet. Step 2. Rake it over like crazy so it is a big, muddy, aerated mess. Step 3. Load it up with excessive amounts of fertilizer and grass seed. Wait three weeks and presto! You have a beautiful looking lawn, for wedding guests and/or fat cat donors-slash-parents of undergrads. I mean, that _should_ work, no?

]]> by: Kim http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5896 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:54:05 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5896 Wow - you're going all out for this wedding tour. At least by the way you've designed it, it should be fun. Have you considered moving the venue to a park or something? Otherwise, I'm seconding the "buy lots of plants last minute at Costco" option. Wow - you’re going all out for this wedding tour. At least by the way you’ve designed it, it should be fun. Have you considered moving the venue to a park or something? Otherwise, I’m seconding the “buy lots of plants last minute at Costco” option.

]]> by: Jennifer http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5862 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:40:19 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5862 Ahem . . . Hrmmm . . . the west coast is feeling just a tiny bit slighted. "Might" be fun? Hey! I'm going to be there!! Of course it will be fun! If I need to I will run interference between you and any agressive photographers or annoying wedding-magazine 'traditionalists" to ensure fun. I plan to have fun. I'm looking forward to it. As for the lawn, yes, when the weeds and grass are green, and shorn, it's hard to tell them apart unless you're nitpicking, and anyone who nitpicks your yard during your wedding party deserves to have their aesthetics offended. Also, if you go to a lawn center and buy a bag or two of grass seed and put it down and water it daily for a couple of weeks (you can get faucet timers to automate this) then it will fill in a bit. I think there are some 'green' fertilizers you can put down as well. That plus some potted plants and maybe a borrowed awning/canopy dealie and you're good to go. Good luck!! Ahem . . . Hrmmm . . . the west coast is feeling just a tiny bit slighted. “Might” be fun? Hey! I’m going to be there!! Of course it will be fun! If I need to I will run interference between you and any agressive photographers or annoying wedding-magazine ‘traditionalists” to ensure fun. I plan to have fun. I’m looking forward to it.

As for the lawn, yes, when the weeds and grass are green, and shorn, it’s hard to tell them apart unless you’re nitpicking, and anyone who nitpicks your yard during your wedding party deserves to have their aesthetics offended. Also, if you go to a lawn center and buy a bag or two of grass seed and put it down and water it daily for a couple of weeks (you can get faucet timers to automate this) then it will fill in a bit. I think there are some ‘green’ fertilizers you can put down as well. That plus some potted plants and maybe a borrowed awning/canopy dealie and you’re good to go. Good luck!!

]]> by: Diane http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5849 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:50:52 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5849 You've made a good start. Just keep whacking away at the debris. Anything that you don't want and appears to be invasive...hit it with round-up. Not organic, but effective. Now seed/fertilize/keep cut the parts you want in grass. I go with Juno's plan of acquiring other people's pots and plant them. You can even make "raised beds" by stacking them up and just planting the top ones. People will be less likely to wander into the flowers if they're in pots. Plus they make a bigger statement when they are closer to eye-level. Good flowers to try: wave petunias. They get huge, they flower lots and one will spread about 3 feet across in no time at all. They are also quite hardy, so can go outside pretty early if you're willing to cover them in case of a hard frost. You’ve made a good start. Just keep whacking away at the debris. Anything that you don’t want and appears to be invasive…hit it with round-up. Not organic, but effective. Now seed/fertilize/keep cut the parts you want in grass. I go with Juno’s plan of acquiring other people’s pots and plant them. You can even make “raised beds” by stacking them up and just planting the top ones. People will be less likely to wander into the flowers if they’re in pots. Plus they make a bigger statement when they are closer to eye-level. Good flowers to try: wave petunias. They get huge, they flower lots and one will spread about 3 feet across in no time at all. They are also quite hardy, so can go outside pretty early if you’re willing to cover them in case of a hard frost.

]]> by: Kate http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5846 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:47:59 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5846 (Re: the lawn, my mother wants to add her support for the notion that green weeds are just as good as green grass. As for flowers, she says she personally would wait until about a week before, go to Costco or Trader Joe's or wherever, buy a whole bunch of the cheapest potted thing that's already or on-the-verge-of flowering, and stick that in the ground... ie, don't give them time to die on you. But you could turn up the beds in the meantime, if you really want.) (Re: the lawn, my mother wants to add her support for the notion that green weeds are just as good as green grass. As for flowers, she says she personally would wait until about a week before, go to Costco or Trader Joe’s or wherever, buy a whole bunch of the cheapest potted thing that’s already or on-the-verge-of flowering, and stick that in the ground… ie, don’t give them time to die on you. But you could turn up the beds in the meantime, if you really want.)

]]> by: Lacey http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5844 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:22:36 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5844 I'm thinking that the corner there could be filled with flowers or shrubs or something. Maybe potted or fake (yeah not feeling the fake thing) or borrowed. Just fill it in with a little potting soil after breaking up the existing dirt because it doesn't look like grass is readily grown in that corner. Maybe plant flowers that are showy and hardy. NO idea what those would be, just sayin'. I'm all for the idea of flowers. Maybe, if nothing else, till it, smack some wild flower seeds in there, and pray thing pop up. :D I’m thinking that the corner there could be filled with flowers or shrubs or something. Maybe potted or fake (yeah not feeling the fake thing) or borrowed. Just fill it in with a little potting soil after breaking up the existing dirt because it doesn’t look like grass is readily grown in that corner.
Maybe plant flowers that are showy and hardy. NO idea what those would be, just sayin’. I’m all for the idea of flowers. Maybe, if nothing else, till it, smack some wild flower seeds in there, and pray thing pop up. :D

]]> by: Kate http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5842 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:42:51 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5842 I was in a wedding last summer, held on the bride's family farm... and in order achieve the proper aesthetic, the mother of the bride drove two hours out to the farm every weekend (and many weekdays) for three months prior, to devote herself to landscaping. God knows how many bridesmaid-dress-matching-bulbs she planted, but I believe it was in the hundreds. (Mrs. S, if you've somehow found this, it was beautiful!!) ...I'm thinking you guys might just need some lawn fertilizer? (Shockingly anti-environmental that suggestion is.) (Still, might be wise to keep Shelley off the grass for a few days if you do go for that.) I was in a wedding last summer, held on the bride’s family farm… and in order achieve the proper aesthetic, the mother of the bride drove two hours out to the farm every weekend (and many weekdays) for three months prior, to devote herself to landscaping. God knows how many bridesmaid-dress-matching-bulbs she planted, but I believe it was in the hundreds. (Mrs. S, if you’ve somehow found this, it was beautiful!!)

…I’m thinking you guys might just need some lawn fertilizer? (Shockingly anti-environmental that suggestion is.) (Still, might be wise to keep Shelley off the grass for a few days if you do go for that.)

]]> by: Juno http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5840 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:57:55 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5840 I'm thinking maybe some fast growing and sturdy grass seed as well as the watering and mowing. A shitload of petunias etc and some miracle grow will get you amazingly pleasing color for not too much effort. But start right around mothers day (after first frost, enough time to get going is the goal). And ask friends with suburbia to look in the garage, shed etc for pots and planters not presently in use. Anyone with a yard has a metric ton of that stuff in corners. I’m thinking maybe some fast growing and sturdy grass seed as well as the watering and mowing.

A shitload of petunias etc and some miracle grow will get you amazingly pleasing color for not too much effort. But start right around mothers day (after first frost, enough time to get going is the goal). And ask friends with suburbia to look in the garage, shed etc for pots and planters not presently in use.
Anyone with a yard has a metric ton of that stuff in corners.

]]> by: Mama Urchin http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5839 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:36:01 +0000 http://www.knitsisters.com/2007/04/04/grin/#comment-5839 Umm, yeah. It looks to me like you have a lot of work or a lot of expense ahead of you, maybe both. Maybe try and go schmooze the guys at the garden center. Umm, yeah. It looks to me like you have a lot of work or a lot of expense ahead of you, maybe both. Maybe try and go schmooze the guys at the garden center.

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