Yard update....

I've gotten so behind in my blog posting! There is so much I want to share and I keep procrastinating, wanting to get the photos "just right" and in the right order, etc.

 And then a week goes by and I see that a photo I took a week ago of part of my yard has already changed! Then I decide to go take more photos... and... what a vicious cycle. I finally decided to just "do it" and post what I have, or more time will go by and it will all have changed again.

I did manage to make a few "before" and "after" collages, so you can see how things have changed. I'll just dive right in.

Below is the new flower bed we dug along our back fence. There's a nice raised rock bed there that was full of weeds. We planted a few vine maple from Washougal (my former home) and some glads and a few other perennials we found growing by our mailbox in the front yard.

Now (above) there are daisies coming up, our glads are sending up the flowers and I've planted some annuals in the lower bed... although you can't see them very well here. They are slow to grow as not raised.

Above...our north fence line that was nothing but "nothing"! Hubby had his weights there. Now my two raspberries that I salvaged from our Washougal house (4 years ago) are doing great in the ground! The daisies from a neighbor's yard are doing great too and starting to bloom.

Below... we scrounged some flat rocks from another neighbor across the street. There are more to get too. Want to use them for a path in our backyard (hopefully), if we can get more. My hubby used them to build a "temporary" barbeque for our Memorial Day picnic! He built up a fire pit using the rocks and some plastic shelving that hasn't found its way to the garage yet, then added gravel inside the firepit to build it up. Used briquettes for our barbeque and it worked very well. We might just keep it. Heck with buying a barbeque!

Above, my brother-in-law with another little BBQ.  I wanted to show this because of the nice lawn... well it's even greener now! We've reseeded it since this photo on Mem. Day. Things have grown ALOT since the end of May!  Our redwood chairs got some new (used) cushions from my other sister and now I really need to get those chairs painted.

Below.. our "patio" area in early May. All weeds and empty tubs full of dirt. Yuk. Since then and before Mem. Day, I sprayed, weed eated and cleaned it all up. Our "patio" area is still only on gravel but hopefully we can make it nicer with time and lots of elbow grease.

I know our "patio" area doesn't look like much yet. But... .it looks a heck of alot better than it did last Fall after we first moved in! ( was trying to kill the weeds with the blue tarp). I think the green grass on top of the gravel looks better than the dead weeds on top of the gravel! Oh well.

Since I last posted in mid-May, there is so much growth on everything. And of course, the grass grows where I don't want it to, and doesn't grow where I want it to! We don't have alot of flowers blossoming yet... just some daisies and some chrysanthemums that have decided to bloom early, and some pansies and our Spider Wort that I brought from Washougal (below). It has gorgeous purple flowers but I'm finding that it doesn't like the heat so much and the buds stay closed most of the time!

My front yard "rock garden" area and flower beds are looking great. The pansies are coming in thick now and no slugs to eat them up! This dry climate doesn't have slugs, but I guess there are other predators, like ear-wigs. Ick. Do NOT like ear-wigs. They are already eating my daisies.

In our front raised rock flower bed, I have NEVER seen such big chrysanthemums! They are HUGE....around 3 feet tall and big round bushes. Some have hundreds of little buds (now flowers) on them but they are really small. I think I need to prune them all off so they will bloom normally this Fall! 

I'm used to mums being like this:

My front rock garden and pansies.. doing very well.... also see the flower bed with my glads coming up? They are looking great and I'll have to stake them pretty soon. Am thinking of putting a little white picket fence there along that wall to hold them up.

Hubby reseeded the front lawn (above). You can see all the new lighter greens and it does look so much better! That entire area by the glads was all dead and weedy. 

He got a little plastic tub thingy to put in the ground for a little "bird bath" and he got it all in and we put some rocks around it, but darn, it had a leak! So have to pull it out, get my handy dandy glue gun to glue the crack, and put it back. I think the birdies will like it.

That stick above is the dead part of the vine maple I planted last Fall from my son's place in Washougal... but... wait.... there are new little plants coming up at the bottom, so we WILL have a vine maple there! I love vine maple in the Fall.

Our tomatoes are doing awesomely (is that a word?). Hubby got them from our local discount store and they looked awfully sad... I was afraid they might not make it. But with some TLC and tomato fertilizer and lots of watering and staking, they are flourishing and we've already gotten our first tomatoes for eating. 

I'm loving this little back corner of our "patio". I will just keep adding plants and adding more. My marigolds are loving all the sunshine, and no slugs to eat them up!

I planted more seeds in this little teal blue plastic tub (below) from the Dollar Tree, and they are coming up already. Those seeds LOVE those plastic tubs (now if I can just keep our kitten (now cat) out of them). She loves digging in the tubs. See that empty green one in the back in the above photo? I finally gave up on plants in that one as she has chosen that one as her "outdoor potty". 

I've labeled all of my seeds and perennial plants that I've put in the back flower beds, so I'll know what they are. The seeds I do know, but some of the perennials have died for this year, but I hope they come back next spring, and I want to know what I put where! Little plant label stakes were expensive, so I bought two plastic file folders and cut them up, cut points on the ends and stuck them into the ground. You can see one in the teal blue bucket above. Very cheap and very handy.

And one more thing........ remember all those rhoddy and blueberry cuttings I got from my son's place? Well, I checked on one the other day and it has tiny baby roots on it, so it's time to plant them I think! That's next on my (never ending) to do list.

These (below) are the cuttings stuck in wet sand. I've kept it wet for almost two months.. not much work as the plastic over it keeps the condensation inside. I think I'll plant them first in some little pots or some of my bigger tubs.

Phew... I've made myself tired just reading this blog post! I think the yard progress is up-to-date for now. It's only July 6th, so am hoping for more blossoms to come and a few more plants to be planted yet. I never know when to stop. Oh.. and I planted some potatoes in one of my tubs... and they are coming up. It's an experiment to see how they do planted shallowly in the tubs, and then I'll cover them with straw.

Sorry this was so long..... that's what happens when I procrastinate.

Until next time.........  oh.. and we've been on a couple of driving excursions... so I hope to post a few(?) photos of those little sight seeing trips! You know me, I can't do "just a few".


 

Shabby w/ burlap wedding/engagement cards.

In my last post, I was trying to catch up sharing a few things I've made over the last few months. I succeeded in getting only two things posted. I'm just too wordy! I had to quit with those two as my post was already too long!

So here is another share - an engagement card and wedding card that I made for my nephew and his fiance (now married!).  The engagement card was made over a year ago, and I just finished the wedding card in time for their May 15th wedding. I tried to match the wedding card fairly closely to the engagement card, as my "niece in law" said she wanted to display them both in a frame!

Here they are, posted side by side:

I wasn't sure what their style was, so used some burlap to make the card look a little shabby and grungy.. who doesn't like that? Their wedding colors were purple and gray as my niece in law said that's the only two colors they could agree on! 

The insides had verses I found on the internet, and I printed them out in the same font and used a lot of brown ink disressing on both cards. I used more burlap inside, and little strings from the burlap under the buttons. I managed to find a couple more of those pretty vintage buttons with purple gems in the middle, that I had used on the engagement card. I really wasn't thinking ahead when I made the engagement card, as to saving things to use on their wedding card. It was just pure luck.

 I love making handmade envelopes and used the WRMK Envelope Punch Board for both. The cards were both 5x7 so I made the envelopes big enough to hold the thickness of the card. I used some goldy beige glitter paper for the engagement envelope, some gray satin ribbon and one of my shabby paper flowers that I made using matching scrapbook papers. The tabs with names I printed on my computer and then cut them out with fancy edge scissors and distressed the edges. Here's a close-up of the engagement envelope. I sure love how it turned out.

For the wedding card envelope, I used white glitter paper. It wasn't as fancy as I was on a rushed time frame to get it done! I made a tag so that it was similar to the engagement card envelope and used the same purple ribbon (though it looks blue in the photo), and at the last minute found a bunch of white tulle to tie around it.

Here are a couple of more close-ups of the cards. I really do love how they turned out and love the look of all the burlap. See those vintage buttons on the top? They were so perfect for this card!

 I used vintage images I found on Pinterest that were free for personal use. I tried to keep them similar. I had decided on the "dance" theme for the wedding card, as my sister told me they had taken dance lessons together just so they could dance at their wedding.......... so I wanted a vintage image of a couple dancing. Do you know how hard it was to find a good vintage image of a couple dancing, in the same era as the couple sitting on the moon?? Very hard! 

 And here's Jacob and Julie dancing at their wedding!

Until next time.............. stay cool! Was 105 here today..... in Oregon.... on June 5th?  Crazy!

Saturday Serenity - June 11, 2016

I haven't felt too serene lately and thus haven't posted on my "serenity" series. Life has just been too busy! When I made a trip up to Portland, OR for my nephew's wedding in mid-May, and then went the next day to my former home in the mountains (where my son now lives), I realized how much I had been missing GREEN! I've been blue because I miss the greens of nature.

And I mean I like green all around me! Yes, I have a green lawn (finally) and some plants with green leaves, but I grew up with lush greens of every hue, everywhere, all the time, year-round. And I miss it living here in the dry climate of central Oregon.

West of the mountains, there is lush, wet, dewy grasses, moss hanging from the tree limbs, shades of bright and shades of dark, and in between. I feel most serene when I'm surrounded by those greens, and I guess I'm feeling a touch homesick for my "home" west of the mountains, where green lives.

And the needles of the pine trees, 

freshly washed

to a deep rich green.....

shimmered with droplets

that blinked...

like clear crystals.

~Billie Letts, Shoot the Moon~

And I recall those Johnny Rivers lyrics:

"And I sing:

Green green, it's green they say

On the far side of the hill.

Green green, I'm going away

To where the grass is greener still."

Can you hear the music?

I'm most serene when I'm surrounded by green. I'm homesick, but I'm sure it will pass.

Is it green where you live? 

Catching up on things I've made.......

The time has sped by so fast since February it seems, and I wanted to do separate posts on each of the things I've made since then, but today I think I'll just combine a few things I've made in the last few months. I've been so busy in our yard and garden and attending a wedding 4 hours away, and making gifts, that I've kind of fallen behind in my tutorials and crafty blog posts!

I love sharing what I've made, so here goes:

1.  My attempts at Zentangle:
I copied pictures from a coloring book my sister had when I went to the coast in March (Florence, Oregon) and had so much fun! I ran across an art supply store that had Gelly Roll pens by Sakura and I bought a bunch of the metalic colors and they are so smooth and go on thick and creamy. Look at the 3rd photo down to see how well they cover.

My attempt at an alpaca - I think there was one in the coloring book, and I added the different zentangles from various other pages in the book.

This was a freehand square, and I used the different zentangle designs in the coloring book. It's alot of fun doodling, but zentangle really does have specific named designs for each type of doodle. I should have written down the name of the coloring book but I didn't.

Colored in using the Gelly Roll metalic (Sakura) pens. So pretty! I could sit and do this for hours.

Trying out the white Gelly Roll pen on black paper. Such fun.

2.  Quilted pillows for my nephew's wedding gift:
I am so rusty on my quilting! Papercrafting has taken over I'm afraid. It took me forever to make these... some ripping out, some cutting over again, some cutting the wrong size (how can I measure to cut a 15x20 rectangle and end up with an 11x 20 rectangle?), some scrounging for different fabric since I cut a piece the wrong size, and spending 2 hours looking for my "walking foot", and then not needing it! But in the end, they turned out pretty nice.

I tried an "easy method" that I saw on YouTube, where you make two 4 patches for each pillow, and the center 4 patch is smaller, and then you just iron it on with steam a seam, and zig zag around the edges. There is really hardly any piecing. But even though it's supposed to be "easy", it really still took alot of time.

I made these to match a gorgeous king sized quilt that my sister made for my nephew and his bride. They were married on May 15th. She sent me the fabric scraps so I could make matching pillows. Here is the quilt still on her quilting frame:

I loved these fabrics and she did such a gorgeous job on the quilting design. They are so rich and warm and yummy. I thought the square 4 patches would kind of match the theme of her quilt, and as an afterthought, added in the cream colored sashing (strips) around the center 4 patch in my pillows (see below).

Above is my attempt at "stippling" which is a random meandering line of stitching.. but it scares me to do this because it's so "final"!!!! and I couldn't find my quilting foot (but finally did) and I couldn't see the stitches very well because the thread matched too well!

I used a plain zig zag stitch around the edges of each 4 patch (above).

Here is the back of the pillow (above). I had cut the original linen beige backing the wrong size... so had to dig through my fabrics to see what else I had to match! I live 25 miles from the nearest fabric store and it was a day before I was supposed to get these done, so opted to try to use what I already had! I found this kind of westerny fabric, and surprisingly, it matched really well. (So long vest that I had planned to make! but have had this fabric for probably 20 years so I doubt the vest was ever going to get done). I had to piece one of the pillow backs, but it's hardly noticeable. I overlapped the pieces in the back so that the cover can be taken off and washed (and of course I had to prewash and iron all the fabrics!)

I was pretty happy how these turned out and the bride and groom loved them!

Well, I think that's about all I'll show today. More to come!
Stay cool!

Tiny wonky houses......

May was a SUPER busy month, but I managed to slip in a fun class creating a canvas board mixed media artwork piece! Mixed media is not my 'forte", but I've made a few little 5x7 canvas boards that are in my ETSY SHOP HERE.  Most of my canvas art is fairly simple... I painted a piece of canvas and glued stuff on top using mod podge! This class, given by a new "friend" I've met here in Madras, was so much fun and I learned some new techniques. 

I took the class mainly to meet other "crafty ladies" in Madras. I NEED some like-minded gals to craft with and it was my fortune to get this gal's name, who taught the class, from another gal in a shop I walked into a few months ago, asking about classes. 

This class was the day before my nephew's wedding up in Portland, Oregon, and I wasn't going to go at first, as I had so much to do and was making him and his fiance some quilted pillows and a special wedding card (to be shown on a later post) and I felt really pressed for time! But I really really wanted to go, so I pushed myself and got the wedding gifts done by Friday and most of my stuff packed for our trip, just so I could go to the (all day) class. I'm so glad I did. I learned some really fun and new techniques (to me anyway) for mixed media (and met some new friends to boot!)

Here are a few techniques I learned:

Texturing (above)....... using stencil and texture paste and a little palet knife, you stencil designs onto the canvas which are raised... then paint over them with one or two colors. See the little dots in the sky?  

More texturing (above)......... I painted, then textured, then painted on top, and then used a brown waxy paste to make it look antiqued. I also learned to use little tiny words which are kind of embedded into the paint and outlined them with black pen. I swiped silver "Inka Gold" metal gloss paste over the words with my finger. The words are Tim Holtz cut-out words that I mod podged on over the paint.

Drawing around things with a pen (above)...... I pasted all of the shapes on using scrapbook paper that I tore, and then mod podged it down. After it was dry, I drew around most everything with a Pigma Micron pen to make things "pop". (I love things that pop, don't you?)!!  I had so much fun drawing little dotted lines and scallops and swirly bobs.

Using "Zendangle"...... see the little dangly things I drew above? Zendangle is a new technique I've just head about, a form of Zentangle, but you draw hanging hearts, stars, circles and shapes from a rod (in this case, the piece of back and pink scrapbook paper). I love how this looks on the little pink and blue house.

This is an 8x10 canvas and I put "texture" on it first (which I've never done before), using old tissue sewing patterns. The texture made the board kind of bumpy and old looking. I adhered it using mod podge.  After it was dry, I then painted the lower 2/3 with green and the upper third with blue for the sky. Then I did the stenciling with a circle stencil and texture paste, and some swirls (which you can't really see), to give it some raised areas.  

Then I did some stamping with black Staz On ink (see the right upper corner?) and in other areas using decorative music stamps and scrolls.  I tore scrapbook papers to build the little houses with their roofs and doors and chimneys. The gal who gave the class had all of the supplies so I had a blast picking through her scrapbook papers, paints, stencils and pastes, etc. I tried to be really spontaneous and not take too much time to pick out colors. All I knew was that I was making this for ME for my pink bedroom, wanted it mostly pink and green and whimsical!

Using Inka Gold Metal Gloss paint (silver)...... I had seen this used on YouTube alot.. and have always wanted to try it!

Wow is it gorgeous... I just smeared it on the edges of the canvas using my finger, and here and there on top of the texture, and over the little words at the bottom. I love it!  It comes in 18 colors and I want them all!

This butterfly was white chipboard and I found it in a pile of stuff and as an afterthought, stamped some black on it, but some lines and dots around the edge and smeared the Inka Gold silver paste on it. I really like how it looks fluttering above the house, although it IS kind of a giant compared to the house!

Can you see the greenery in between the houses and to the right? There is a little birdhouse on a post and on the right a tree with a blue window? Those were things I just tore out of a garden magazine I took with me to the class, and they were mod podged onto the canvas at some point. The pink door with asparagus I cut from a piece of scrapbook paper... who wouldn't want an asparagus door with a little green heart shaped doorknob?? Me!

I'm very happy with my little canvas and it's now hanging proudly on my pink bedroom wall. I do so love little quaint houses and some day want to make a quilt full of these whimsical and wonky houses.

Until next time.... stay cool! (Was 102 degrees here today).