How does your garden grow?

Mine starts with a trip to the nursery and a call to the gardener.  :o)  Since my back surgery, I haven't really done too much of the 'reaching' kind of planting.  Heck, he had it done before I would've gotten my shovel! 

 

Before....

 

 

After.  I picked up two flats of zinnias.  Gotta love the colors!

 

While I was in Turkey, he brought over a peach tree.  I don't know why but I thought okay, I like peaches.  lol  So, nectarines on the right, peaches on the left and apricots on the far left, out of the picture.  It's a little yard but maybe we can have some fruit next summer.

While he planted the zinnias, I did mending until there was some shade.  I planted some dahlias, petunias and portulaca in one planter.

 

Had some left over so planted this little pot.

 

This one on one side of the back door,

 

And this for the other side.

 

I put one by the front door and gave the rest of the flat to my neighbor.  I didn't have any more potting soil or containers.  lol  I guess a flat was too many.  I can't wait for them to fill in and bloom some more.  It was just beautiful here today.  Hope you got some sunshine on your end of the planet too.  :o)

Springtime and chocolate!

I have been trying to be better about walking consistently.  Some days I am more motivated than others.  Sigh...  But yesterday, a house in the neighborhood had these gorgeous ranunculas planted in the front walkway.  Oh my, they were so bright and beautiful, they looked like tissue paper.

And in my backyard, our fruit tree has got blooms galore on it.  I would call it a plum tree or nectarine tree but I can't remember what I planted.  LOL  I guess we'll know soon enough when the flowers turn into fruit.  :o)

Saturday two of my daughters did a 5k walk for the Ronald McDonald House charity.  This was at about 5:30 in the morning so we aren't lookin' too pretty but at the end of the walk you got a cup of chocolate milk and goodies so that's why we're smiling.  lol  From L-R, Ashley, Missy (Ashley's MIL), Stephanie and me.

Mmmmm.  There was a rice krispy treat, a cookie, some pretzels, a banana and a marshmallow.  And the chocolate was sooo delicious!

And how the heck did Easter arrive SO fast?!!!  Since it's this weekend and we'll have a small family gathering, I decided to put out some decorations but not too many.  It'll be here and gone before you know it.

It takes water???



This is the rose bush my friend gave me as a memorial when my mom passed away two years ago this month.  Boy, talk about pressure, trying to keep it alive with my two brown thumbs.  It was looking pretty bad about a month ago but with me having time off from my surgery, I had been better about watering it regularly.  Who knew that's all it takes?  Water!!  lol

I shared the name of this rose before but in case you missed that post the last time (probably two years ago), it's called Angel Face.  It produces the prettiest and most fragrant flowers.

And to keep my post pink and flowery :o), here is a card I made at a workshop at my friend Neena's house a week or so ago.  I never think to buy flower stamp sets and Neena always does.  I love the way it came out.  The roses are double stamped to give the watercolor look.  We used the argyle embossing folder for the bottom half of the card. 



Hope to be stopping by a little more often now that I am up and about like normal (almost) now.

Crafting in little bits....

I am limited to the amount of time I can sit at a time so when my daughter had her Stampin' Up! workshop at my house last Sunday, I had to take some breaks here and there but at least I was able to play and enjoy the company of friends.

We made several projects with the Big Shot.  One was this cute little framed project for a little "pretty" you could put just about anywhere.  We used decorative paper for the background, a piece of ribbon, a framelet to cut out the shape of the staying and a stamp to stamp it.  Oh, and a little dimensional flower at the bottom corner.

This "blurry" shot is of the one I did.  I liked the little tea pot.  It's still sitting on the table because nothing in my house is pink so I can't figure out where to put it.  LOL  (And in case you're wondering, nothing in my house is dark blue either!)

 

Stephanie tried to find thin flashing so we could make these garden plant sticks but the only thing she could find at the hardware store was too thick to run through the big shot.  So.....these are aluminum soda cans cut open as you can see by the picture on the far left.  Cherry Coke!  lol  Great recycling idea though, right?

This one is cute too because you can personalize it with the name of a plant, a person's name for a gift, etc.  Awfully cute to put out in the garden though!

We used embossing folders to make the designs on the cut out.  A little bling and it might even keep birdies from eating your seeds!  :o)

I did get a little sewing done (very little).  Hopefully, my road to recovery is about completed.  I go to the doctor today.  We'll see what he has to say.

Little outside time, little sewin'.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  I have not lost anyone directly from serving in the military if you live in this country, we have lost too many.  I hope you had a chance to stop and thank our soldiers for our freedom.

I spent some time outside this weekend and a big ol' butterfly was flying around the garden.  it was so nice that he or 'she' stopped long enough for me to snap a quick picture.

My daughters and I are going to do another craft show in June so I wanted to pick up some kid prints for some bags like the cherry one I posted about here.  One of the ladies at the retreat made one out of Hot Wheel fabric and I thought that might be a good thing to sell.  I went to M&L Fabrics in Anaheim and though I didn't buy any Disney prints, I found some pretty cute stuff.

So, off I go to do some cutting.  Those bags won't make themselves.  Darn it!

Flowers, bag parts and a card

I'm still working with my Nikon camera that my girls got me for my birthday. I still get a lot of blurry pictures so I played with the settings and took some pictures in the yard. I love my old Sony. It took such nice pictures and it was a point and shoot camera. This one is bigger but it's mine so I'm trying to work with it. :o)
Pretty zinnias...

My mother-in-law, Betty, passed away several years ago but she always had these little flowers in her garden. I love how they look like tissue paper flowers and that in each plant you can get lots of colors. It's called Portulaca and it's a succulent (I looked on Yahoo! lol) They're doing pretty good in this spot in the yard. Yay! (Don't mind the big weed in the picture. There's always one!! haha)

My roses are 'finally' blooming. I'm not sure if I wasn't watering them enough or what. I only have two in the yard. This one is Angel Face, from my friend when my mom passed away. It is so fragrant. I love it.

Last night and tonight I cut some of the kits I need for the bridesmaid bags for my daughter's wedding. I have several more to cut before I get to the sewing.

And tonight I made a card for the wedding we'll go to on Friday (for Brenda, from the shower last Saturday). I saw a simple card online and liked the simplicity of it so I used the basic premise of the card as a starting point. (I like mine better. lol)

Kelley made Brenda & Peter a wooden doll cake topper. When I talked to Brenda, they weren't having a cake at the wedding. They were doing a small dinner after the ceremony for a few friends and family. Me and my big mouth offered to make a cake since it can be small and there are only about 20 people who will be attending. I'm such a glutton for punishment, aren't I? lol If the cake comes out nice enough, I'll post pictures. It could be a disaster as I haven't made a cake in quite a while and my tendinitis has been acting up with all the rotary cutting and gardening I've been doing. Gee, you think I should back off some of these things? :o)

Recovery and my finished block

A while back I posted about this rose bush called Angel Face that my friend Cindy gave me after my mom's funeral service. I planted it on Labor Day, which was two days after her birthday but I wasn't sure if it was going to make it.

But it came back just look at this beautiful blossom! And this rose has such a beautiful scent. Remember when people used to talk about inventing smellavision? Now we need smellablog. :o)

And on sewing news, I finally finished my Berry Picking BOM on Monday night. This was the last block and one of the biggest but I love it.

And then last night I got the row sewed to the main piece. Now to sew on borders but I'm trying to decide if I should just finish it up with the fabric from the kit or if I should add a bigger border so it fits a bed. Oh, the thoughts that go through this tired old head of mine. Maybe a good nights sleep will help me decide.

Now what? And 'hello Shannon' :o)

I can't grow tomatoes. I will spare you pictures of what my tomato plant looks like. It's VERY sad. But guess what? I can grow jalapenos.

But guess what else? I don't like spicy food. LOL Now that's some smart farmin', huh? What I need is for my tomatoes to grow like my jalapenos because I love me some 'maters. :o) Guess I'll go buy a crate of tomatoes and maybe try my hand at salsa. You can 'can' salsa right? CanCan....hehehe.....I got a picture of jalapenos doing the can-can but I should've pictured them doing the Mexican Hat Dance!!! Arriba!!!! Ole'! :o)



Okay, let's get serious. Mmm, maybe not! Let me take this moment to pretend that I'm Queen Latifa and send a "shout out to my girl Shannon" in Kansas. hehe It's a small world we live in and the Internet makes it even smaller. I got an email from a friend, Nan, who I know from one of my Yahoo groups. She works at the quilt shop in Kansas called Quilting Bits & Pieces, the shop I am doing my BOM Berry Picking from. This is from Nan's email:

"Something funny happened yesterday at the shop. Shannon, my Monday co-worker asked me if someone named Liz did the Berry Picking BOM. I said yes, why? She said one of the blogs that she reads, "Busy Liz" had pics of Berry Picking blocks and she looked really close at her computer and decided they were our fabrics! I said, yes they are! :) It turns out, Liz, that she found your blog from Reeze's blog on the sidebar of favorite blogs. Cool, huh? She said she loves your blog and all the cute stuff you do."

Well, isn't that somethin'? And what a small, small world. So Shannon, this is where I am on my block. I'm still a month (or two) behind but I'm getting closer to getting this one done and then it's onto that monster block! The last one is a biggie - a basket full of jelly jars and 'stuff'.


I am also working on some scrappy summertime baskets for a swap. The block is from Quilter's Cache and it's called Bouquet. I've got three more sets of five to finish so I better get busy and get these mailed off. Lots to do.........

Bye Shannon!!! :o)

Blooms `n dresses

I've seen so many bloggers share their gorgeous spring flowers so I'm jumping on the band wagon. (Yes, I probably would follow them if they all jumped off the bridge too!) :o)

I will be the first to admit I have two brown thumbs but I keep trying! The only reason I can grow these roses is because they are a shrub. And they're all over the place so I'm assuming "anyone" can grow them. *sigh*

They smell so good. They are right under the kitchen window and the fragrance comes in with every breeze.

I swapped out the I Love Lucy dresses from the swap on Backporch Friends. Everyone did such a nice job. I'm not sure how I'll set mine yet. These will sit a while since I have so much more to work on that takes priority.

One of our swappers, Betti, found this fabric in her mother's things. She said it's from the 1940's and everyone who swapped got one of her blocks.

And one swapper, Kris, made these blocks with a little apron on it. Isn't it just the cutest!?

Well, off to go straighten up my sewing room only to make a mess again. I am going to go have a little sewing retreat Thursday-Sunday with some friends in Lake Arrowhead. I have to clean so I have room to pack my bag! What a sad tale, huh? ;o)