Friday Favs and Another Card

This week I've been spending a bit of time on inspireMe which is the new official website for websterspages. It's a cool site - check it out.

Also always love Ali's blog and like the weekend creative idea she has this week.

I'm a great fan of Cocoa Daisy and love her kits. Ali has designed the kit for July and I'm sure it will be excellent.

Gardening: this week has been rainy until today so hope to get out in the yard and do some weeding.

I've made another card - this time for Dena's challenge at inspireMe.

Sorry for the white background, but with the flower going off the side, that's how it needs to be scanned. For this I used some older Daisy D's paper and Bazzill cardstock. Cards are so quick and easy to make - satifies my instant gratification.

Have a good weekend.

A Card for Amanda

My step-granddaughter graduates from high school next week. When I first met her grandpa, she was a long-legged seven year old; now she's a six foot tall young lady who's headed to culinary school in the fall. Where does the time go?

So, it was time to make a card for Amanda. I can't remember the last time I bought a card....I'd much rather take the time to make one so it's special for the recepient. So, here's Amanda's card.

(cardstock: Bazzill, PP and rubon: Basic Grey)

The inside reads, "Congratulations" "Spread your wings and fly." Hope she likes it.

Finally Scrapping Again

It's been over a week since I got in my scrap room and did anything. I feel like it's been ages.

I have a kit from PersonalScrapper that came the first of the month, filled with Chatterbox papers. I looked at it and thought, "what I am going to do with this?" as it was filled with pp that would be good for doing kid photos. Since my youngest kid is in her early 30's, I was stumped. So today I took it all out again along with the idea sheet that came with the kit. One of the ideas struck a chord with me and I remembered that I had several goofy photos of my wonderful son-in-law Greg. It didn't take long to put a page together after that.

Greg is/can be a very serious person when it comes to his job with The Energy Trust, but he has a wonderful sense of humor and is often seen being ridiculously funny. These photos capture his child's heart perfectly. Don't ever lose that childlike quality, Greg. Be yourself - you are an original.

25th Day Photos

I've signed up for Shimelle's free class to take and scrapbook photos on the twenty-fifth of each month for a year. It seems like a cool idea to document changes and slices of life over a period of time. So far, I've got several pages prepared for the photos in an album I made, I've taken photos for the 25th of April (they are not in the album yet), and I've been taking photos today. Since it's Sunday of a 3 day holiday there is little going on around here, but that's OK cause that's what's happening today.

You can join anytime, so hop on over to Shimelle.com and get started.

A Good Day in the Garden

Another warm day here - 90 degrees. And my roses are blooming. I think they are blooming earlier than usual because of the sudden warm spell. The first one to bloom was one called Happy Child - it's a beautiful sunny yellow. The next is one of my favorites - Secret - that was given to me after Willie's death, so it brings sweet thoughts of him. And the most recent one is Portlandia (named after Portland, OR) and was a gift from the Japanese visitors I hosted last summer. This is the first year it has bloomed and it's a beautiful orange-pink with lots of gold at the base of each petal. Here's a photo of the Secret and the Portlandia. You can see how small the Portlandia's blooms are, but it's a climber so you would expect that.



Recently I noticed that the majority of flowers in my front yard are pink, blue and lavendar with a little white thrown in. So, I decided that I would use that pallette in the window boxes that sit below the two kitchen windows in the front. They get only a little morning and very late afternoon sun. Got them planted today - a hot pink tuberous begonia in the center with some coleus on either side and a millions of bells in a bright pink/lavendar on one end with white bacopa on the other. They are mirror images of each other. It was too hot to put them out this afternoon so I'll probably do that either tonight or in the morning. I'll have to rephoto them later in the summer when they are full size.

Here's a close-up of the hot pink begonia. I think it's a real stunner.

Happy gardening.

A New Front Entry

I've been wanting to do something different in my front yard for a long time. Finally, this spring my friend who is an interior designer suggested that I hire a couple young men she knows and get my project done. We drew up the plans, and I hired the two who work in the housing industry and who are only sporatically employed right now. In just two weeks, my yard has gone from total 'ho-hum' to 'WOW' with planting still to be done.

The old front walk to my house was a narrow (28") concrete walk right next to the house. It was not very inviting and impossible for more than one person at a time to walk along it. Here's the view of the front yard from the little porch by the front door.

You will notice that there is no grass - I covered it with cardboard and shredded leaves last fall in an attempt to kill it. I had originally planned to put in raised beds with bare gounds between them. Instead, this is how it now looks. I still have planting to do on the berm.

The following photos show the yard where the new walk is planned and the final result.

On the left side of my house - looking at it from the street - is the gas meter, so I have to retain access to that side with the new design. So, the following photos show the before and after of that.

The final two photos are taken from the street looking toward the front of my house. Keep in mind that that pile of soil will be double dug and amended with fertilizer and compost and will then be planted with an upright Japanese maple, grasses and euphorbias. Will probably plant some spring blooming bulbs and some flowering perennials. Whatever goes in there has to be somewhat drought tolerant as I don't want to be watering all the time. That's why I got rid of the lawn in the first place.

So, there you have it. My new front yard. I can't believe it's done after wanting to do it for so long. I've owned the house since 1993 and have dreamed of this since then.

Five Friday Favs

Ok, Dena, I'll give this a whirl

-Sunshine, even tho it's officially 103 degrees today. Earlier in the week it was barely 60 degrees and cloudy. Gotta love Oregon weather.

-Homegrown baby leaf lettuce. I planted several plants in an old window box that is not longer sitting under a window. Every morning there are enough little leaves to pick for salad that day. I love that I can move my lettuce patch to safety each night so the snails don't feast on it, and can move it from sun to shade as needed.

-Grey's Anatomy. My daughter got me hooked on this a couple years ago. Thursday nights just weren't the same during the writers' strike, so now it's like welcoming back an old friend. I like how the characters are developing or disintegrating (Yang) this spring. Looking forward to Thursdays each week.

-Basic Grey. I have loved this manufacturer from the very first release. Lately, I've been looking at it rather than buying (can you say too much hoarding going on?). But Tina showed my some of the new Boxer line yesterday that she had bought on a trip up north. Any resolve I may have had dissolved at the first glance at this beautiful paper. So, I went on line and ordered some from Rocky Mountain Hobbies. Now I'm going to be checking on the mailman until it arrives.

-CSA. That's Community Supported Agriculture. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this hot new trend, consumers prepay for a designated number of weeks of organic local produce. The consumer then assumes some of the risk with the farmer, and the farmer has a guaranteed income for the season. It's a win/win situation for me. Fresh local, organic produce every week and I don't have to weed, water, worry about insects or drive all around town looking for good food. I got my first 'box' last week. Yummy baby greens, butter lettuce, cilantro, broccoli, rainbow chard and radishes were inside. Because of the wet cold weather earlier this spring, there was no box this week :(. Opening that box is like Christmas every week. I can't wait for the next one.

So that's my favs for this week.