Shrooms on my planter

I walked outside this morning to tend to my garden and saw these crazy mushrooms in my planter. Not sure what they are

Such a busy week. I've barely had time to sneeze   I have messed around in my art journal trying different techniques with my gelatos and silk acrylics

So I haven't had a lot of time to focus but more doodling.   Isn't that part of what an art journal is for? I don't always write my thoughts, sometimes it only reflects a feeling. 

Loren

My little 2 year old granddaughter Loren is a hoot!  

She loves coming to NaNa's house. We always find fun and interesting things to do.  This week we decorated NaNa's

 yard with chalk and we decorated ourselves

We swam

And played with NaNa's watercolors

 I guess we think its make up

Today I bought Loren her own watering can. This should be interesting

 

I will be writing more about her adventures in the future. She makes me giggle every time I see her. 

Yard yard yard

Once again I've spent the entire day outdoors. My poor hubby can't catch a break lol. I started early this morning painting a birdhouse and making a miniature garden for my mom

Then had her over for breakfast and surprised her ( kind of). 

Planted a couple hanging baskets then remembered that I had Elephant ears to plant. I completely forgot about those! 

So I went out front and planted them in the places I wanted them when I had an idea hit me!  Flower beds!  This is where hubby comes in. I remembered that we had some landscaping bricks on the side of the house so off we go loading up the cart. Poor guy only dumped the cart twice lol. Got them put in then decided I needed more plants and mulch. So off we go to Lowes. I swear I am officially done buying plants. I've been obsessed this year but boy does it look pretty. Anyway, flower beds are done!  Now I can beautifully hide the areas where the grass won't grow. 

I'd say things are shaping up around here!

Garden

Sitting outside. Early this morning drinking a cup of coffe and listening to the birds sing. What a wonderful way to begin the day.  I decided to work a little in my Art Journal this morning

 

Naturally I got distracted and noticed that I have grapes on my vines. It's always a competition me vs squirrels as to who gets the grapes throw in an occasional Cardinal and I've got a battle on my hands. I am determined to win this year!

Now I don't mind sharing but they like to hog everything!  

I toured the Yard to see all the beautiful flowers In  Bloom

Black Petunia

Lavender for tea

 

Then I became curious. Hmmm I wonder if I have any vegetables beginning to produce?  So I walk over to the garden and WOW. I was surprised !

I have cucumber, zucchini and tomatoes starting to grow. It won't be long now!

 How I can't wait for fresh tomatoes!

Miniature gardens

So this is it, one of my latest obsessions, miniature gardens or fairy gardens. Depends on how you wish to see thing!

I personally have both. I started these last summer and had so much fun creating them that now that I'm home I'm sure I will obsess even more. I will be constantly keeping an eye out at garage sales and send hand boutiques for containers and objects to build with. I won't keep them all, I will give some away and some I will sell. I have no room for much more! 

This was the first one I made last summer. I used perennial ground cover in it as a back drop. I just have to keep thinning it out which is great I can use it in other plantings!

As you can see its well established. I made my little flip flops out of clay as well as the chiminea. My granddaughter is obsessed with it and has rearranged the rocks. I just left it as is. It sat on my patio table all through summer and winter. This year I decided to make a display for it so I got out an old chair I had in the garage and painted it, this was the result

I finally found it a permanent home in the yard

Oops I guess that was a screen shot. 

Oh well!

This year I made a fairy garden or two and counting....  I'm giving some as gifts

I can't possibly keep them all! 

I have sooo many projects to post I can't wait to share. 

I was at Michaels the other day and found these cute little cupcake papers on clearance

and decided heck I can make cupcakes. There are always people at my house so they won't go to waste. I ended up scanning over different recipes I wanted to make something summery and I ran across a recipe for cherry lime aid cupcakes. Yummo!  I used cherry 7up. Frozen lime aid and the juice from maraschino  cherries in the batter in place of the water. So tasty! For the frosting which was almost a flop at first I ended up folding cool whip into my original frosting because I ran out of powdered sugar and the consistency was all wrong. I also added lime zest. The result was so good I will do the same thing in the future.  I will post the recipe

(Recipe found on this blog)
http://m.lawrence.com/weblogs/the-flying-fork/2011/aug/8/cherry-limeade-in-a-cake/?templates=mobile

I'm a great cook but a little rusty at baking but now I have time to perfect it me thinks!

Until next time. Have a splendid day!

Update

I've been too busy for anything for me so I've decided enough is enough. I closed the salon and just put one in my house

As you can see.. I'm keeping pretty busy!

I've been making art some of which I will post soon!  This one I painted for my salon area to fill in the blank wall  Just a fun quirky little piece.

My true love has been my yard this spring. I've done so much I don't know where to even begin. 

The first thing I did was build an Herb garden with bricks. I planted cilantro, sweet basil, Greek oregano, Italian oregano, curry ( boy that one smells STRONG) Sage, 3 kinds of Thyme, Marjoram, Chamomile. I can't wait for tea!  Lets see, what else? Oh. Rosemary, Lemon Balm, different mints but those I potted. They go nuts! I planted a few more. I will take pics and post as they grow.

I've also added a vegetable garden

Super excited to watch it grow!

I can't wait for fresh tomatoes.. It kills me to have to buy them at the store.. yuck!

That's all for today.. see you soon!