Green

I didn't even know what to call this one, since I have not made it a birthday, thank you etc.  I want to have some cards in case anybody  needs one so will add the label when it is needed.

I got the idea from a card I found somewhere, I'm sorry I can't give credit to the original artist.  Of course, mine has many variations from the original.  I cut the oval with two dies and used embroidery floss.   Have been working on Christmas and just needed a little diversion.

Begonia

I remember when Pastor and Mrs Leisy moved to New York and he gave me a hosta that he called his "baby."  It was huge and really beautiful.  This is my "baby" begonia.  I bought it in Snohomish the summer we left there in 2008.  He goes outside every summer and inside for the winter.  He will loose a lot of his leaves in the house, but as you can see, he recovers quite well.  I had to put him in a new pot this year as he outgrew the last one, and he really took off after that.

 The plant is 2' across and I measured one leave and it was 12" long by 8" wide.  I am going to hate seeing the leaves fall throughout the winter, but I know that it will be back in it's glory come next summer.

Cactus

I was so happy and surprised to see that this guy was blooming.  The blossoms are huge!  4+ inches across.  It only has 3 buds, but I am so pleased.

More flowers

Just a couple quick picks of some flowers today.  Things are starting to come together now.  I know that I took one of this lupine last week, but it has darkened up so much since then. 

  It looks so pretty to look out my office window and see this.

 I do not have good fortune with roses, so I am thrilled to see this blooming in my garden.  I took this one from the vacant lot where we moved a new home in. 

This dianthasus has grown nicely in the last two years.

Garden update

I am so pleased with the growth on this lupine.  It was quite small last year.  Just don't look at the big weed beside it. 

Look at my Plumeria! It actually looks like real leaves now and not an obscene gesture. I thought that I had posted this earlier but couldn't find it, so the second picture  was taken about a month and a half ago.  It just seemed to really shoot up in the last week.  It will be interesting to see if it actually blooms this year.

Last weekend was the Relay for Life, and I sold 60 cards and met my fundraising goal.  Now I will be working on some card kits to be put together for Operation Write Home.  They will be assembled by other crafters this month and then shipped off to the troops for sending home to their loved ones.  Then I will start in earnest on my Christmas cards.  I've done a few already. 

What I've been up to lately

We all know that I haven't been stamping lately, so what have I been up to?  Well, lots of stuff, but the most fun has been in the garden.  This is some of my late blooming tulips.  The rest of the tulips have come and gone weeks ago, but these guys continue to brighten my garden.

This is my little fledgling vegetable garden.  I did trim the grass around it after I took the picture.  I planted two different kind of peas, beets, lettuce, carrots, spinach and two kinds of squash.  The onions are from last year.  They froze and were quite soft, but then started to grow again so I transplanted them so they weren't willy nilly in my garden.  Not sure how well they will do.  They are actually going to seed and I'm considering leaving them go for the seeds just in case they don't produce good onions.  I have to have my marigolds at the end since that is the end that faces the road.

We had the roads paved in the community last week and had to get some topsoil to fill in a ditch and just happened to get several yards more than what was needed, so I completed this flower bed on the side of the house that I've been working on for two years.  It started on the far end around the rock, then last year I dug up the sod and brought in topsoil and now it is all the way and I am so happy with it.  It will look much better when my little annuals bloom and I get a few perenials in there too.

I scavenged the driftwood from a lot that was vacated, and the strawberry pots with sedum's I started last year and are doing nicely.I didn't start the fuschia plant by myself, I bought it and another one last week.  I do have several other baskets that I started but they are still babies.  I will photograph them when they get larger and prettier.  Today I bought some pretty double pink ivy geranium and can't wait to get them planted.  All my annuals are planted at the entrance and I'm having a time keeping them watered, as I haven't set up anything yet, so I have to haul water by the two gallon watering can, and that is a pain!

Card a Day 40-41

The inspiration for this card came from the new Paper Crafts.  The background trees are heat embossed with clear E.P. and then the paper is distressed inked with T.H. Shabby Shutters.  The tree is Unity.  I stamped the trunk in brown, then the leaves on different colored CS.  I'll do anything to keep from having to color in a stamp!  haha.  Leaves are individual cut out and adhered. 

This is a new stamp I picked up last week on sale in Florida.  It is Inkadinkado.  I really love it.  Paper is DCWV.

We came home from our trip to these daffodils in bloom.  There is actually more blooming here than there was in Florida!  Just had to add some flowers now that it's fake spring.

Cactus Eva

I bought this catctus last year in full bloom, brought it home and immediately all the blossoms shriveled up and fell off. I was so dissappointed. I put it outside this summer and pretty well ignored it except to give it water with the rest of the pots on my deck. I brought it in a couple weeks ago for fear of it being touched by frost and it had a few buds on it. I really expected them to die, but it didn't! However, it used to be lavender. There is a shoot coming out of the top that looks like it is going to be white so I'm thinking that somehow the germination that made it lavender didn't work. But that's okay, because I'm thrilled just to have it bloom.

Oriental Lily

These were a little late in opening it seems to me., but they are just as beautiful. It is 98 today and climbing. Thank heavens for air conditioning!

Aero Flowers

These are some of the flowers that I started from seed in the aero garden.

The Asters are by far the prettiest, but these other little guys, the scabiosa, are really interesting.

When they first bud out they look like they are all done. No petals, just what looks like a center of a flower, shown here in the background. And then they fill in with the delicate little petals.

Garden

My vegetable garden is coming right along. We have lots of lettuce, healthy brocolli and some nice little squash starting. I should be begging people to take my zuccini's any time now. I'm anxious to see the red hubbard. My tomato on the hand is not well. It has a virus and I fear it is a fatal one. It killed the pepper plant, since they are the same family the virus struck both.

My flowers are doing fabulous. You have to walk very gingerly on the deck as not to step on petunias that are really taking over.

This is one of the asters I started in the aerogarden. And here we have the "chocolate" nasturshums I bought the seeds of at NW Flower and GArden show. Hardly chocolate, bu I like red anyway.

I'm very happy with all of my endeavors this year. Even the entrance and the new flower bed on the side of the yard. Especially considering what I have had to work with here as far as the soil. I bought topsoil earlier this spring from a well known nursery/topsoil provider in Kent and was very very dissappointed with it. It gets wet and turns to rock, I swear. When we got the soil for the vegetable garden we went to Cedar Grove and it is very nice composted soil. I will go there next year for all of it.

I have been playing with the inks and some more Tim Holtz stuff lately and will post later. I love everything that he does and to Dave's woe's , and working on getting the whole collection.

Job Switch

Today didn't start out real good. I got terrible stressed trying to deal with the realtor on the sale of the house, the fax machine wasn't working right and of course rents were coming in. As soon as I got the realtor taken care of, I proposed a switch with Dave. He wanted to work on getting the "good" fax machine working anyway, so I went outside to mow and he stayed in the office. Sometimes I think we have our jobs backwards anyway because I love being outside and don't mind the physical labor. But of course, there are limitations. I got the front of the community mowed plus our yard mowed and trimmed. I have to keep moving these pots of petunias back so that people can get to the door. My veggie garden is doing very well and I had some lettuce from it today in my dinner.

These are some hostas that Marjie from Auburn Park gave me a couple weeks ago and they are doing very well.

So, the switch saved my sanity today and gave Dave a rest from working outside so it was a win-win situation. Maybe again tomorrow?

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!

More Tulips

It still amazes me how I can take two bulk packages of tulips and end up with a clump of just one color. These are the last of my tulips to open and they were such a nice surprise for bulk bulbs. While we were sitting watching tv tonight some girl came running down the street and grabbed a handful of tulips, bulbs and all and ran off with them. I guess that's what you get for trying to beautify the neighborhood.

Today is day 3 on nutrisystems. The manager of customer service never did get through to me. I called her back four times and she was never at her desk. Just typical of their "wonderful" customer service. But the diet is going well despite them. I was actually full after dinner tonight too. The only problem is..... well.... how do I put this nicely? There's a blue cloud floating over our house. I got one dinner that was shrimp and since I don't eat that, I gave it to Dave and he had it tonight. He got the same problem just from eating one meal! Oh boy, are we in for it or what?

Flowers

These little guys are in my front yard in the bed that I started last winter. I love the little pink and white varigated ones. I was surprised to get them in a bulk package.

I got out some today and planted some annuals in the front. I decided to not wait since they are small and I can fit them in around the tulips. I'm really anxious to see how it's going to look this summer.

My First Tulip of the Year!

I didn't expect to see this today. The buds are all pretty small yet, so it was a nice surprise. Dave is off getting a new fuel pump and water pump in the Jimmy today. Our mechanic is try to pay for post graduate studies for his kid I think. Anyway he's been gone all day so I was going to just putter on the deck planting some of my petunias. Got most of them done and was just going to trim a dead flax in the front and ended up spending quite a bit of time out there.

Tomorrow we're off the the Home and Garden show in Everett with Alexis and Skip. I'll be sure and bring my camera.

More...

If there is anything that I like more (or at least as much as) paper crafting, it is flowers. Especially if I have grown them. I couldn't resist getting a few more pics of them while they are still vibrant. I finally figured out how to take the date stamp off too. It's good for community pics but not for my flowers. This section of daffs is still going strong. They opened later than the ones just down the row. It is a little overcast today so the sun isn't shining through the petals so much but I think it is still pretty.

This is the lighter pink helabore in front.