Catching Up

A nice, nearly month long case of the Flu really slowed me down here but the worst is over and I am finally recovering.
Its nice to be able to breathe without coughing up half a lung.
I dove right into making a plushie out of felt.
Painting on its shirt proved to be kind of hideous, so I have to remember to pick up super fine brushes next trip out to the craft shop.
I sent the plushie off to its owner on Thursday and went straight into making Halloween treat bags to gift people with this year.
Making those has been relatively easy.
They are made out of felt also and some have overlays fitting for the season.
Mom picked up the Zombie Cupcakes book, by Zilly Rosen, for me the other day, which is funny because I had been looking at the silicone bakeware.
Other than crafts, I have gotten Honey into photography seeing as his phone takes such good pictures.
So we take rides or walks through a local cemetery or catching pictures of a nice sunset.
That is what I have been up to for the last month now.  I have been taking it easy and enjoying the change of the seasons when I can.
And now I must get back to those treat bags and I will post pictures when I have them all finished!
Have a great weekend, everyone!

Weather Watching and New Projects

So I finally managed to find my good Sony camera and its battery charger and they will both reside in my purse now so I never lose them again!

I was out yesterday taking some pictures because the cooler weather is coming and soon enough there will not be any flowers to admire or tend to.

I love watching the bees flying around these bushes by our fence, they always wind up looking like they've been diving in flour because they are so heavily coated in pollen!

 

 

Mt white rose bush has been blooming like crazy and has a light and airy fragrance to it.

 

The pink rose bush is also going on a bloom spree now that the beetles have subsided. I have also stuck with using the soluble nutrients for them, although I still try to stay organic.

 

The whole back yard has come such a long way in such a short time.  Mom really put a serious amount of elbow grease into fixing up the areas around and behind the big shed and I am very proud of her! :)

 

 

And here is my dwarf butterfly bush or, "Bertha" as I call it now!  It was supposed to be the smaller one, but instead has taken off and eclipsed the tri-color butterfly bush in size.

 

 

I'll have to see if Mom knows what variety of flowering bush this is as I have never actually noticed this one bloom before, but it has delicate, white flowers and they were just too lovely to pass up.

 

 

I am trying to get as many pictures of our painted friends as I can because in a short amount of time we will be putting them away for the season.

The best part is that they are always smiling!

 

 

This is the panorama of the back yard before we got started last year. Big difference!

 

 

 

Aha, my furry watchers! Rose and Bea are always around the fence to cheer me on or ask for cookies!

 

 

 

Aside from the cards and the usual crochet/knitting fare I have lined up, I have also taken on a new crafting project in the form of hand made plushies.

 

I saw a simple design with instructions and you can customize these as you wish to fit whatever you have in mind for birthdays, holidays, etc.

The original directions for making one of these little plushie people can be found at the link below

 

http://violetthepanther.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=48#/d4rsrl1

 

The girl who originally posted the pictures and instructions also has a gallery full of artistic goodies and more plushies that she has done, all good and all adorable.

 

I have already had two more plushie ideas float or barrel through my mind, one of which will be a Halloween Fairy for our neighbor's daughter, seeing as she is the one who suggested that we have a painted Halloween fairy in our garden!

 

So its off to the craft and fabric shops tomorrow for supplies and then back home to begin on plushie goodness to make people happy!

 

And for me, that is what it is all about. I make things, people get enjoyment from them and are happy, which in turn makes me happy.

 

Thank you for joining me & have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

The Little Things

I got a response from the makers of Jobe's Organics, Easy Gardener Products, today.
They said that the bone meal and feather meal contained in the product attracts the critters and the only way to keep them out would be to put up a barrier, which is not very feasible at this time so I am going to have to use a repellent spray to try and discourage them from foraging in my flower beds.

So the smell of the organic fertilizers will attract the critters to the area, I honestly did not know that, but I am learning!
I will continue using the soluble fertilizers from now on to minimize critter troubles. No big deal.

I have been using a repellent spray to keep the skunk from trying to hole up under the big shed on the north end of the yard and it seems to be working as we do not smell the skunk on that side of the house, but we did smell one on the front side towards the street early this morning.

So far we have seen your typical fanfare of birds, rabbits, skunks, raccoons and we also saw chipmunks a month or so ago!  I have not seen a chipmunk in years and they are still just as cute as the last time I saw them, I just wish I could get a picture!

I have some of my drawing to share with you today as well.
These are various little doodles I have done in my spare time as a way to fend off boredom or just relaxing.

This is my version of Marius and Pandora from the Vampire Chronicles.

Can you tell I am a big fan of roses!

Some calla lilies with a top banner.

Seaside. I love the beach, there is just so much beauty!

I am guessing that this drawing was a result of wanting to be outside, but being prevented from it because of the foot of snow on the ground!

This one I still need to add a background to, but I am getting better with faces.

I am not sure how well the detail for this one shows up, but it is just a cute little card I made for my Honey around Halloween about a two years ago.

These fellows I like to call Weirdos.  I made this over the winter using a computer program called Photoscape.

I have also found some new programs for making patterns that can be used as backgrounds on websites, blogs, etc., so I am very excited to get started with them as soon as possible.

I have also joined a little creative community called COLOURlovers over the weekend.

You can log in and use patterns, palettes, shapes, its a lot of fun for me!

Dad and I were out around front a little while ago, checking out the big. dark clouds and we heard thunder.

Now we are getting a steady sprinkle of rain, with some short bursts of thunder.

Looks like the water bill gets another break!

I am so excited to have new tools and goodies to work with and I cannot wait to show you what I create with them.

And if you have any suggestions to me, I would greatly appreciate it as I love learning new things and talking to people.

That is all for this post, I think I will sit back and enjoy the sounds of the rain.

Have a great day everyone!

Sunny with a Chance of Gorgeous!

We have been getting steady rain for the last few days and everything is loving the break from the hideous heat.

In a previous post, I had talked about putting Jobe's Organic Rose Food spikes around my roses.
I came outside one morning last week to discover that every single one of the food spikes had been dug up.
I am contacting the company through email today to see if they have had any other customers who have had this happen and to see if they would know of any ingredients in the food spikes that could tempt a critter into snatching them up, so I will let you know what the response is.

I have new pictures to share as well as new video of the bunny who inhabits the neighboring yards.

I was out yesterday morning and took pictures of the flowers around the garden and the bushes in the fence line that have been blooming like crazy.


These are two of the fence line bushes that bloom a light pink, blue, violet or white with a reddish middle.

The Oddball rose in all its glory, now that the pests are no longer invading on all sides.

I find this white flower to be especially pretty!

We also have a fire pit that was purchased earlier in the summer, but because it has been so hot in the evenings as well as the daytime, we haven't been able to put it to use.

We finally got the chance to use it over the weekend.

Nothing like a roaring fire in cool temperatures to make you feel cozy!

And fire pits are good for keeping mosquitoes and other airborne critters away.

One of Mom's Leprechauns peeking out to say "Hello!"

The beautiful bud on the pink rosebush.

Morning dew on the rosebuds.

I am happy to report that the other Oddball rosebush is starting to mount a comeback!

I honestly thought it was done for after I transplanted and the heat kicked us in the teeth, but it was just taking things slow I guess.

And here is the video of the bunny munching out amongst the clover.

(You may want to enlarge the picture.)

The sun is out and its warmed up some, but its a beautiful day and I  think I'm going to go play with my little friends!

Have a great day!

Tending and Hauling

The recent crop of cherry tomatoes kept up busy last week.
The Honey and I were out every evening, picking the little tomatoes and checking in the big garden for other produce.
Here are a few pictures of our recent haul of cucumbers and the giant head of cabbage.

We are still finding big cucumbers in the garden, they grow along the sides and up the fencing.

There is now one head of cabbage in the garden as I just cut another one out about a half hour ago.

Once cut, I take the bigger, raggedy leaves off and leave the excess in a nice, shady spot for the bunnies.

Outside of bringing in produce now, I still have my battle with the Japanese beetles, but even that is getting easier since we picked up traps.

Here is a picture of the trap I set up for the beetles.

The trap works by placing a pheromone bait on the lower third of the yellow bag hook and that will bring the little monsters over to it in droves!

I didn't have the trap on a post yet and the beetles were following me through the yard!

The company that makes the traps is called Safer.

I have used their gardening products before and haven't found anything unsatisfactory about them yet.

In six days my package of extra bags, bait, and spray should be here so I will have all I need to combat the Beetle Empire! (insert victorious laughter here.)

Here is the short video of the trap so you can kind of see it in action.

In other developments, there is now a nice area around the back of the big shed taking shape.
Mom was out to Menard's again as well as the local nursery, and she picked up cobbler rocks.
She's placed all of the rocks around the area where her Heather and Azaleas are located, mulched it in good and it looks really awesome considering nothing used to be back there.

as you can see, there is a plethora of painted things back here, mostly for the solar lights that have been hung like miniature lanterns, but its a lot brighter and open back here now.

On the crafting front, I am doing the projects I had started over the winter.

I currently have two knitting/crochet projects.

This is the beginning of a large blanket.

I am using Red Heart yarn in Aspen and I am down to my last one, so I will have to go out and pick a few more up at some point.

This is a kid's blanket I am doing. The squares will all be linked together with coordinating colors in solid blocks.

I keep these as weekend projects, especially for Sunday since there is usually nothing interesting going on that day.

That is all that is going on for today, but there are more veggies coming in and the flowers are regaining vigor now that the beetles have something else to occupy them!

Have a great day!

Busy

I didn't have time to get out my craft project today.
But I was out later after the sun went down.  My honey was watering the garden and afterwards we went searching for veggies that were ready and this is what we found so far.

The bell peppers are doing nicely.

We also have Jalapeno and Chile peppers growing and the cucumbers keep turning up bigger!

We also have two Cherry Tomato plants in pots that have been putting out daily, as well as five bigger tomato plants, both in pots and out in the garden.

The ones in the garden are very big and the fruits should start to ripen soon.

I also took some pictures of the lights around the flowers as well as a picture of one of the fairies that I have sitting amongst them.

I thought these mushroom lights would add a little whimsy to the garden, seeing as we have so many gnomes and fairies scattered about!

             The rose bush has begun to bloom again after its last pruning and the spraying seems to have kept most of the bugs away for now.

This girl sparkles like crazy in the sunlight!

The wind damage from the last storm was worse than I thought and I am so glad that no one was out on the sidewalk in front of the house.

We have a tree out there in front that must have gotten its lowest limb split in the storm the other night, but it was the wind today that brought it down, right on the sidewalk!

The temperatures for the next ten days are supposed to be nice and we have something of a chance of rain tonight, which is good because it saves us a little on the water bill!

 Earlier I was reading in Southern Living magazine about putting down moss in place of grass for a yard and I have to say that I like the look of the moss.

There was definitely a more natural look to it than just your every day, cookie cutter yard in the suburbs.

Dare I say, it looked enchanting!

I have some house plans tucked away that I was tinkering with and reading that article just gave me some inspiration for the landscaping that had been vexing me for awhile.

But the garden is doing extremely well considering the high temperatures and lack of rain we've had lately and it definitely keeps me busy.

We also have a family of skunks instead of just the young couple.

We noticed the baby and mother go scurrying away from my roses and back behind the big shed last week.

I have been constantly going behind the small shed to make sure that the hole that a critter dug to get under has remained covered.

I had to bury two medium sized river stones in the hole to make sure that the critter couldn't get under, though it keeps trying.

That is all for today, but the end of the week and the weekend should provide for more post worthy happenings.

Have a good night all!

Storms

There were some wicked storms last night with heavy winds.  A lot of people had wind damage and tree limbs everywhere.  I can't really complain, we've been needing rain because the ground had become so dry and people's crops have been dying from the heat.
It is an issue on every farmer or gardener's mind right now.

The tomatoes in pots were unfortunately blown over due to being so top heavy, but the ones in the garden are bigger and better looking than ever!

I had done some pruning to a few of my plants a few days before the storms rolled in, but I had to go back out this afternoon and spray for the beetles, they wasted no time hopping back onto my roses.

There is new growth on both of the butterfly bushes and I have noticed more little butterflies hovering around lately, along with dragon flies.

I'll be out tomorrow, taking pictures, doing some feeding for the butterfly bushes and more food spikes for the roses, since the local wildlife carried the last one off!
I had placed a food spike behind my white rose bush and came out the next day to find it had been dug up,although I didn't think critters went after plant food.  It definitely had me stumped!

I have a crafting project that I have been working on lately since I have more free time, so I will post pictures of that as well.

That is my story for tonight, have a good night all!