Lazy Day

Not much happening today and not much ink on my fingers lately. Okay, so I'm in a little downswing creatively. Finished all my Relay cards and was shortly inspired by a Tim Holtz video, but even that doesn't seem to be sparking anymore.

These roses are so perfect I couldn't resist sharing them. I didn't grow them. They are in the yard of the home that we just sold and all I did was trim them this spring. I didn't know if they would even come back as I really don't know anything about raising roses, but I knew that they were terribly out of control. There were actually three bushes, a red, a white and this one. The only problem is I keep having to wash my desk as they keep dripping some kind of sap. Anybody ever had that problem with roses? If I have roses they are usually purchased from the florist and that doesn't happen very often... hint hint Dave.

Dave is off at his all day paintball D Day war in Granite Falls and I'm just chillin today. Tried to shampoo my carpet this morning and shampoo-er isn't sucking the water up so I will have one semi clean but very wet place for a while. Next thing on my wish list.. new shampoo-er.

Garden

My veggie garden popped over the weekend. It rained so that helped in it's care while we were gone. I think I am going to set the cat trap in the middle though because my onions are getting mysteriously broken.

Deck Flowers

The lily in this picture is one that I bought at the NW Garden Show this year. It is "chocolate" but I think it's not a very good representation of that. The nasturshum in the same pot is also chocolate, but actually just red. I like red anyway, so not too dissapointed. The almost ready to pop green on the right and the tall thinner one on the other side are the ones I started from seed in my aerogarden.

We put up this baby gate between the office deck and our private deck to keep residents from knocking on our door... it didn't work. So the biggest planter here is on rollers so that I can get in and out, but hopefully discourage passage. It also didn't work with the worst "invader."

Fuschia from small starts this year. Last year we bought three huge plants, so guess I can be more proud because we "grew" these from babies.

The read leaf begonia below is from last year. I brought it in during the winter and it survived and is flourishing.

Right side of the office door. The petunia's from the aerogarden did very well.

Lef side of office door. I have to keep pulling these back because they are taking over. Not that I mind!

La Wis Wis Revisited

We needed to have some time away this weekend, so we made an impromptu visit to La Wis Wis campground near Packwood WA. My family came here ever year for my entire childhood and I've enjoyed bring my kids and grandkids back several times over the last few years. I had some trouble posting pictures tonight but will try again later in another post. We visited the usual places; the blue hole and Purcell Falls. You just haven 't visited La Wis Wis unless you go there.

The falls have change a lot since we visited last with Christy and Al and girls and Clyle and Skip.

Unfortunately it rained for most of the visit. Dave accidentally brought the rain flap for our larger tent, so we put it over the top of the original which was a blessing and a curse. I'm sure it protected us from some additional rain, but the last day it had formed considerable condensation and was dripping on us.

Even with the rain, we still had bouts of sunshine and we both enjoyed it very much. It was nostalgic as always as I recalled all the fun family times that I had there as a child.

As we were cleaning up and anxious to be heading out, I carried the last bag of trash to the garbage and a wave of emotions came over me. It came on quite unexpectedly and I had a pit in the bottom of my stomach that I had lost something never to be regained. I longed for the days when my brother and sister and I ran in these woods playing whatever game that we saw fit for the time, and fishing with my Dad and him teaching me how to gut a fish, and Mom cooking those great campfire dinners. All of the family and friends that would meet us there and spend weeks on end during the summer times. There is so much familiar here, yet so much that is gone... my Mom and Dad, the relationship that I had with a brother and a sister, the family and friends that are nothing but a memory now. At this time the memories just don't seem to be enough. Now it's back home, back to work, back to the familiar, back to this life now. I don't even know if I want to ever go back to La Wis Wis, those memories were so hard today.

This is SO bad!

This is the remains of an avacodo plant that I started from seed 9 years ago! I put it outside last year during the summer and it did just fine. So as soon as the frosts were over, I put it out again. However, we had unseasonably warm weather that first week and it burned the leaves. So I moved it to a cooler place on the deck, but that didn't help, it still got burned. So I brought it in the house. Not wanting to put it in it's former place of honor in front of the window, I left it sitting by the front door... the door we rarely use.... and forgot about it. Before I knew it, it was a pile of dead leaves on the floor. Dave wanted me to get rid of it but I hung in there for a last hope and started watering it again. Lo and behold! There are dozens of little starts all the way down the poor bare stem that formerly held big leaves. I think by the end of the summer that it will be back to it's former glory. At least I think the little starts are still alive. They could just be petrified! Stay tuned...

Christmas in June

You've heard of Christmas in July? Well, I just got a jump on it is all. Since I have to do so many with no left overs this year, I thought I better get started. The snowmen here have Martha Stewarts glitter which you can't see. Martha's glitter is much better than the other glitters that I have.
The stamped ones were an after thought, as I think I am mainly going to do Cuddle bug embossed cards with cut out images. These trees are hand drawn and cut out. The red is just a background since the white doesn't show up well against white.

The trees on this one are the little cheap stamps from Walmart. I found out that you can lightly sand the cheap stamps to get a sharper image. I even have some expensive stamps that don't give sharp images that I am sanding now. I haven't had that problem with Close To My Heart stamps though.

This is just some of the cards I did today, I actually got 9 done. My room is a disaster now, and I really have to clean it up before starting again.

How do you like my new header picture? After playing with inks today, I looked at my hands and thought of my blog name, so snapped a pic for it.

Quickie Garden

I wanted a vegie garden this year and drew up plans for a redwood frame earlier this spring. But with everything that we have to do here, there just hasn't been enough time to get it made, no less chase down all the lumber and hardware. So I'd pretty much given up on the idea for this year. Until........ I found these great frames at Lowe's. They were only $40, and this is two. No hammering, the only hardware are the long nail-like stakes that go into the ground to hold it in place. I love it! I put it together in about 20 minutes, and that was including bringing the piece in that I put on upside down to have Dave rescue me and take it apart. It was so easy I didn't have to read the directions... okay, so if I had maybe I wouldn't have put the piece in wrong. But anyway, we went to Maple Valley today and got some really good composted soil for $12 half yard, picked up some chickie poo for $10, and a few plants for about $25, and voila! Insta-garden. This weekend I will dig out my drip-line with mini sprinklers and we'll be set. Besides the marigolds that face the road, there are two kinds of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, a red hubbard squash, 2 zuccini (I really only wanted one, and could only get a 6 pack, but managed to give away the rest) 2 acorn squash, a green pepper and a tomato. Oh yes, and a few onions planted willy nilly. They are suppose to be beneficial to tomatoes and peppers.

We really have no "secret place" here and are kind of in a fish bowl right at the entrance to the community, but hopefully I can go out there and not be too harrassed by the residents.