I cut hansa rose back this year.. it was blooming at the top of seven feet canes, fine for me, but no so great for my wife. She loves the smell of this rose, plus behind it I planted John Davis, the were both the same hieght and it looked odd. Normally do not cut rogusas back, but honestly, it looks soooooooooooooo much better now. the foilage has filled in and you cant tell I hacked it in half, its around 4.5 feet now and the increased light has prompted John Davis to grow up even further. Silverkelt

It gets quite a bit of sun, but is next to a fense on the east, so it is shaded from about 3 or 4 on (except the top leaves which are taller than the fense). I water it pretty deeply about once a week. I use a drip system. I try to fertilize it, but not as often as I like. I've been using Miracle Grow--I was doing about once a week, but have been busy, so less often. I don't know what type of ROS it is. I got it from my aunt. She had different colors, but I think it might be white hibiscus looking flowers (smaller than regular hibiscus). She lives by Tulsa and all the ROS bushes I saw up north were blooming about a month ago, but they are not as hot here.

I always take off my jewelry every night before bed, even my wedding band. I like to apply hand cream, and I just don't like sleeping in it. I used to just put it on my nightstand table, but after a few scary 'can't find my engagement ring' situations, I realized I needed a better solution. (Apparently my 5 year old DD already has a taste for bling. She was wearing it very proudly! lol) I found this little clamshell bowl at a local store for $3. I like that it is more like a bowl than a dish, so little eyes can't see shiny and sparkly things easily. And now I always know where my rings and watch are. Oh, and also visible in the photo. I use granite samples I've picked up during my kitchen remodel process as coasters.

While ironing tablecloths for the party, I've been thinking about this thread and glue guns. Lars reply especially started my thoughts about how I could use the glue gun in some of my jewelry designs. For the last couple of years, I've been experimenting with dried leaves and flowers. They are very delicate and fragile and I have ruined more than a few carefully placed scenes while trying to glue them into place so I could preserve then in resin. They must be glued down in some way before the resin is poured or they will start floating and moving out of place in the resin before it starts to set. It's very time consuming and fiddly work and waiting for the glue to try while holding the flowers/leaves in place is very tedious. So my thought was that if I can get better control of the glue gun and expel tiny pin points of glue rather than big blobs, the glue's quick drying action would be perfect for my needs. Maybe something like putting it on a toothpick and then applying would work. The quick drying would also mean that the leaves/flowers wouldn't get wet and saturated from the glue like it does with other types of glue I've tried. Getting wet make the flowers even more fragile. The other thing I don't yet know is how or if the glue gun glue will react to the resin. Resin can be fussy stuff too. I see a lot of experimenting in my future, but I am very excited about getting in the studio to see what I can come up with. This pendant took forever and I think the glue gun would have made it a much easier and less time consuming project. The hat was all for fun, but I'm deadly serious about my jewelry and ways to improve my product. Thanks again to Lars and to the rest of you who have given me ideas to ponder while ironing. Speaking of ironing, I'd better get back to it!