Confessions of a Late Bloomer...

No, not that kind, actually.

You see, I'm a little late on a bit of landscaping. A couple of months, actually. After our rousing success tilling up and mulching the beds around the house, Matt and I celebrated by buying several huge containers of bulbs--crocus, daffodils, and tulips--to fill up the vacant beds so that come spring, we'd have something pretty to look at until we could start filling in with permanent landscaping plants.

And, then I got fired. And then I got hired. And then it was Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And, well, since then, nearly every day I've had free has been a rain drenched adventure. I'm not just making excuses, I swear, Knoxville is approximately 3-4 inches *ahead* on scheduled rainfall for the year. Now, I'm told by a few experts (read:my mother and aunt who are also guilty of not getting their bulbs in on time) that I can still plant these suckers, and considering how mild November and December had been, the cold garage I've been storing them in hasn't been that much different than our semi-soggy ground around the house. They'll come up, just, well, maybe a bit off schedule. Like, say, Daffodils in late March instead of late February, and Tulips all the way to May. I can't say this bothers me too much, this late blooming schedule--maybe I don't get the satisfaction of pretty yellow flowers in February (I'll plant pansies and get over it), but I also don't risk as much getting nipped when March turns ugly (like I *know* you will, March, do you hear me!?) and I get to have them longer into the season. The only trick here is, um, I pretty much have to plant them TODAY. You've heard of making hay while the sun shines? Well, today it's sunny, and a high of 50, and I'm off work--that pretty much translates to a mandate to plant bulbs. And now, since I've put this story on the internet for all to read and hold me accountable for, I've pretty much forced myself into it. Today's the day. I'm going to bundle up, get out my trusty little shovel and a bag full of bulbs, and get to planting.


In other, slightly less demanding news, I did use some time this weekend (while it poured rain, naturally) to get the cake blog up and running. It's full of cakes and basically up to date, and although I guarantee some tweaking with layout and colors and such to come, I think it's good enough to go ahead and link to. So yes, now feel free to check out Cortney Bakes Cakes . I don't believe there's much there any of you haven't seen before, but it will be nice to have to point potential clients to, a sort of online cake resume ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you, I'm off to throw in a load of laundry and wait for it to warm up outside a bit. I've got bulbs to plant!