Seen and heard in upper Cleveland

I go to upper Cleveland County on a fairly regular basis and today I stopped by a few of my favorite Fallston places, along with one new favorite!

I started at Ginger's Gardens, where I was looking for a Mother's Day present for my mom. She'd sold the thing I had in mind, but I saw a lot of other cool possibilities... plus it was a nice day to walk around outside past the flowers and ponds, etc. they have set up. Here are two pics I took on my Blackberry while I was there.

Then I went past the new mobile Dairy Queen that's been setting itself up near the pharmacy and jewelry store in town. I bypassed the DQ in favor of trying out the Sweezy House, the new restaurant that opened there earlier this year. I had meatloaf, potatoes and green beans, in addition to sweet tea (of course!). I also ordered dessert to-go. Although the meal was great, the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (which I believe is homemade) was WONDERFUL! There aren't any photos of it, though. It was too good to last long enough for a photo.


From there I stopped by Ashe's outlet between Fallston and Shelby on N.C. 18 (Fallston Road) and found out that they'll probably be closing in about a month. While I was there, I got a great deal on a featherbed. King size originally from JC Penney... $13! That's what I call a shopping triumph.

That's all for now... hopefully I'll be able to do more of these over the summer... it's kind of fun to give out the dish...

Wedding rehearsal photos

Despite a few bad moments, my cousin's wedding on Saturday went off rather well. Here are a few pics from the rehearsal. I didn't take very many though, because it's hard to take photos and learn how to be the maid of honor at the same time...

At any rate, here they are:


(CAPTIONS: Cousin Jeremy, my sister Erin, my cousin Molly and my sister Olivia and my uncle giving away my cousin Mandy to her fiance Stanley)

Doggie pics

I had to grill some food today for a photo shoot that will go with an upcoming Food page on grilling. While I was outside, I took a few photos of the food on the grill and also took a few of the dogs, who were being remarkably lazy today.

Despite the relatively comfortable temperatures now, here's a look ahead at what the dog days of summer will look like at my house.

Washer woes

I had bold plans to wash about six loads of laundry on Sunday... I had a lot of clothes and sheets and stuff to catch up on, plus it's time to wash the dogs' beds.

Unfortunately, all that had to go undone.

The knob that turns my washer on broke off.

Laundry rebellion!

I tried using a wrench and pliers, but to no avail.

So I'm resorting to my college laundry solution. Take it to mom's house this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day, mom!

(I will not, however, have her do the clothes for me... but only because I'm the good daughter.)