Journal pages

Its back to work for me today. After having been off for almost a week its going to be hard to get back into the routine. Just a quick post for now. Here are recent journal pages that I have done this past month, when I would get a spare moment.

I have also started another different type of journal that I will share with every one some time this week. I hope every one had a Great Memorial Day week-end. And have a terrrific Tuesday.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO

Happy Memorial Day!

Its certainly been a nice long week-end for me. I recovered from the nasty little virus by saturday. Saturday was actually a really nice day weather wise. I got my 2 acre yard mowed and then worked over at Mom's house, cleaning off her front porch and back patio. Yesterday I cleaned my carpets which wasn't too bad as I only have 3 bedrooms with carpet. I also cleaned all the windows in the house too. And even they aren't hard to clean as they are the tilt in windows, easy peasy!
Yesterday was a good inside day as we had thundershowers off and on all day long. Every once in a while the sun would pop out and I would go outside and take pictures of some of the flowers.
Love them with the rain drops clinging to the petals.
The picture above and picture below are made on my deck. I have it fixed up the way I love in the summer time. Its a great place to hang out even in the rain.
The next picture is of the wonderful compost bin that my Sweet Hubster made me this week-end. I had been yabbering about wanting one and had sent him a website of one that someone had made so being the great carpenter that he is(you really are,DB) he made me one just like it.
I can't wait to fill that sucker up with all kinds of wonderful compostable stuff. I really want to use compost to feed the garden instead of fertilizer. He is going to set it out in the yard today.
It was really raining hard in that picture. Next shot is of my poinsetta plant. I always repot poinsettas after Christmas and put them outside in the summer. They make really pretty plants and this one has stayed red. I have some more that I put in the ground too and they make nice big green bushy plants, great fillers.
And next is my "knock-out" rose that my sweet son bought for me. He works for a plant company that supplys HD's with plants. He knew I wanted one so he bought it for me, wasn't that a sweetie?
I have a rain barrel that the Hubby put under one our drainspouts so I can use it to water my flowers and plants with the wonderful rain water. I try to go green as much as I can.
My Nastursiums are blooming like crazy in my back flower bed. Love them, I start them from seed and they are sure fire winners in my book. You can even put the flowers in salads as they are edible and have a peppery taste plus make your salads pretty too!
The next picture is some of my moonflower's that are popping up from seed. Almost every thing I am growing this year has been from seed except of course my perienals that come back every year.
And I have also started some Lemon cucumbers. I have about 10 or more regular and pickling cukes already in the garden but a friend of mine gave me these Lemon cuke seeds so I have to give them a try. She said they are delish!
So you can see that we had a nice rainy day but I sure didn't mind at all. In fact I have actually been in my Art studio alot this week-end too. I have been working on my Art Journals and also made a shadow box for Mom but forgot to take a picture of it. I will today as we are going over there this afternoon to cook out. I also made a collage for me. I really enjoyed creating some art again. And, this is where I sit in my studio when I am on my laptop, like right now. Its a great view out the 2 big windows and heavenly to smell the fresh rain too.
Thats the collage I have been working on. I still have a little more tweaking to do on it and then I will post it.
I hope every one has a wonderful Memorial Day! To me its the official start of summer time, when the living is easy!!!
XOXOOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXO

Summer time's creatures and other stuff!

How about this little creature? He was visiting us yesterday when I came outside he was on a stepping stone leading out to the back yard.


And this pretty moth was right up above from him on the brick wall. He stayed around most of the morning but the little green guy went his merry little way.

I hope every one is having a great Sunday and a wonderful Memorial Day week-end!

xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxox

Still alive

Wow, I sure have been gone from Bloggersville for several weeks now. There are several reasons for my missing in action. The biggest would be I have really been working in my yard and veggie garden every chance I get. Next, I have been helping out at Mom and Dads as my brother had to have a defibrillator put in his heart. And then of course its the end of the school year and that's always a busy time too. And I took some time off this week to help with brother and now I have some kind of virus or flu and feel pretty crummy. I went to the doctor yesterday and they tested me for the flu and said I didn't have that so it must be a virus. I just ache all over and very nauseated and feel bad in general. I seriously don't have time to be sick but at least I am off work any ways. I am going to try to take advantage of this and do some artsy stuff while I feel like it. I also found out my blood pressure was really high again so I am back on the blood pressure meds again. But enough blabbering,,,I will post some pics now.
First some pictures of the house and garden. I really don't have a lot of really good pics of the garden but I did snap some yesterday. I will work on getting some better ones.

We had about 3 weeks of almost non stop rain and when it did slow down some and the sun would pop out it made a tremendous amount of grass pop up in the garden. So for Mother's Day I asked for and received a mini rototiller. My sweet DH spent most of Mother's Day tilling the garden for me to try to get out all the grass.
The yard behind him is not our yard, the neighbors next to us are not very tidy and don't have their yard mowed very often and its a ugly nuisance. I did try my hand at using the little tiller too.
We also have a lot of children in our neighborhood and they like to come over and hang out with us and they are always wanting to help us. Dan put them to work picking up some rocks out of the garden.
If I start to feeling a little better I will take some more pics of the garden. Its really starting to grow. I have about 12 different tomato plants, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, white squash. I have sugar snap peas, pole beans, red potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage. We have white radishes and green onions and okra is starting to sprout. I have strawberry plants, blueberry plant, and several different herbs. I also have watermelon plants and cantaloupe. I have ornamental gourds, birdhouse gourds, and mammoth sunflowers.
So now you know where most of my free time is being spent. Next are some pictures of the flowers I have around the house.
This is my front porch. Its mostly shady most of the day and has my ferns on it. We have vinyl siding so the hub stretched the red cable across there for me to hang the ferns and the hummingbird feeder. I love to sit on the porch and look out at my flower beds.
Kitty likes to hang out there too. My inpatients have just started to grow and will be thick soon.
The next pictures are some of my plants by the deck steps.

So this is my world lately. I am going to try to do a little art today while I am taking it easy and hope to post some of it tomorrow. I did do a tag swap with my friend Jane from NY a few weeks ago. And here are some pictures of the tags I made.

I hope every one has a wonderful friday. I will post some more tomorrow!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!!!!

Yes, the rain gage is showing 5 inches. I haven't emptied it and I am sure we are now up to over 6 inches. We have had rain off and on all this past week. It really started coming down heavy on Thursday night and hasn't let up since. It was nice at first because the garden needed some rain but now its starting to be way too much!
So we finally have a diagnosis on what is wrong with my Dad. He had a tick on him about a week and a half ago and my brother found it and got it off of him.
Now the doctors are telling us that he has a bacterial infection from it and its called EHRLICHIOSIS. It has made his blood platelets drop and has wrecked havoc on his nervous system. He is still in the hospital but will be transferring to a Nursing home hopefully tomorrow for Rehab. He is so weak that he cannot hardly walk.
Ticks are really bad here especially in the spring when they first hatch out.
I have always worn Deep Woods Off that has Deet in it when I work outside. I don't like wearing it but it keep ticks and Mosquito's off of you. I don't want to get any kind of disease from those pesks so its worth wearing the Off.
So far my garden has not suffered from all of this rain. I went outside yesterday in between the down pours and took some pictures of the garden. It needs weeding really bad right now but with all this rain its rather hard to do. Here are a few pictures of it so far.
I have 10 different tomato plants. Cherry tomatoes, Better Boy, Homestead, Early Girl, Bradley's, etc... They are really growing and have blooms on them too.
I have several strawberry plants in a raised bed.
And also several different kinds of herbs.
And watermelons and cantaloupes.
Turnips and greens
Cauliflower, Cabbage and Broccoli
I just looked at the weather and we have more rain predicted for the rest of this week too. I mean seriously,,we need some SUNSHINE!!!! My grass is getting really high but its too wet to mow it and the garden needs weeding. I sure hope my hard work doesn't suffer from this wet spell.
I hope every one had a great week-end. And have a great week too, please send some Sunshine my way!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO