Finally warming up outside

and trying to get back to normal around here.  The birthday party for my son was a big success although the weather could have been a little warmer . . . still everyone had a great time.

Now that the weather has warmed up this week, I once again have been spending time in the garden.  The fountain is finally up and running and the wisteria is in bloom and smells just heavenly!

I even started my herb garden!  I've got rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil and tarragon . . . just to name a few . . .

I was feeling creative and made a sign for the garden too . . . I started with a scrap piece of wood and base coated it with gesso.  I then glued a layer of some tissue paper that had a pretty rose floral motif to it (it's kind of hard to see it from this photo) along with a crumpled piece of paper that says "5c per bunch" that I generated and printed through Photoshop.  I then penciled the outline of the "HERBS" lettering and painted that in with 2 coats of green.  I painted the edges with a dark brown and then stenciled a few vines around the inner edges in a sandy colored acrylic paint.  I dry brushed some areas with the sandy color acrylic paint and inked the inner edges with brown.  Copper wire attached to some cup hooks and some rafia tied in a bow and I'm all set.  I just love the way it turned out!  It's still drying and probably could use a coat or 2 of sealant on it.  I'll hang it up tomorrow since it's starting to rain right now and complete my herb garden theme.

Until next time . . . enjoy and Happy Creating!

~Connie

I’ve been a terrible blogger lately . . .

Been spending most of my time in the garden, doing a lot of cleaning around the house and driving back and forth to baseball practices and games. The new storm door is up and so is the new vinyl fence! The house is spic and span and we’re ready for a party!

My older son is turning 21 so we decided to throw him a party and invited the whole family. We haven’t done one of those for quite a number of years so we thought that being a significant one, he deserved it. He’s been studying really hard and will be done with finals tomorrow. I’m sure he’s looking forward to start his summer vacation too!

I haven’t done much creating of late. I did my monthly SNL kit that was a bit of a challenge for me this time. The theme is Art Journaling and the color palette was beautiful, but I seemed to have a hard time thinking of things to put in the kit and putting elements together. All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute!

I bought some new little decorative bird houses at Michael’s that I found in the $1 bin. I did manage to prime them but I have to pick a day to paint them. It seems my color scheme in the garden is turning more towards yellow, white and blue with touches of red here and there. I have a red Astilbe which is just starting to send up some shoots, but the red clematis didn’t make it through the winter. The red chrysanthemum I bought a couple of years ago has sent up new shoots so now I have about 5 of those. I’ll probably also sow some red Nicotina.

My white azalea started to bloom this past week too and looks beautiful!

I’m sure I’ll post more pictures of the garden in the weeks to come.

It’s Blackhawks fever over here at my house! With Chicago’s 5-1 victory over Vancouver last night . . . . we’re advancing to the final 4 and anxiously awaiting word on when the series against San Jose will start.

Hope to be back again soon.

Until then . . . Go Blackhawks! (and Happy Gardening and Creating too!)