Where did the week go?

I've been busy creating my monthly SNL kit.  And . . . seeing that it is July . . . there's always the Christmas in July festivities over at DSP.  I made a bow (always good to practice those!) and a background paper for that as well.  I've also been working on another kit of my own.  I found a color palette that I really like . . .

Isn't it pretty??  It definitely has a very bright and summery feel to it and inspires me to create something in bloom!

Speaking of blooms . . . there's lots of things going on in my garden as well.

The mini sunflowers are ready to bloom . . .

and the bee balm and coneflowers are just bursting with color . . .

and even more White Swan coneflowers in another part of the garden are looking great too!

I'm off for now and looking to possibly finish the kit that I am working on . . .

Until next time . . . Happy Creating!

~Connie

Garden Journal

It's been raining off and on for the past 4 or 5 days here so I haven't had much time to get anything done in the garden.  I was able to work on and put together the Garden Journal that I've been wanting to do since last year.  I'm really happy with the results too!

I had a 3 ring binder that I bought last year along with dividers and page protectors for the main pages.  I used 6 x 9 envelopes and punched holes in them to put all the packets of seeds that I have.  I also wrote the name of the seeds on that particular envelope so that they would be easier to find.  I divided the binder and used separate envelopes for the different types of seeds  . . . annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, etc. 

I found this website called Homestead Garden that has templates to print for the main pages.  After printing the main template, I then reinserted the pages into the printer and took a number of the many garden and flower photos that I have, set the opacity to about 25 or 30 percent and printed a background on the pages.  I then was able to write any particulars and information on the page and soon my journal is chock full of terrific information and hopes and dreams for my garden!  I'm really happy to have started this and it was a fun way to pass the time.

This morning I had a bit of a surprise while taking my stroll in the garden . . .

At first I thought that it was a slug, but upon closer look and consulting with hubby, we decided that it was a snail!!  That's the first time I've seen one in my garden . . .

Until next time, Happy Gardening and Creating!

~Connie

Another sign and more blooms

I did manage to finish the other sign I was making . . . this time the color scheme is mauve, brown, cream and green.

I just need to find a place to hang it!   Maybe in the front garden this time.  I'll have to see and get hubby to help with that.

Here's a few other things that are now blooming in the garden as well . . .

This clematis is doing well and has been for a couple of years now.  The white Henryi clematis didn't survive so I have to be on the look out for another.  I have one other purple clematis that is supposed to be the same as the one shown above, but it looks more red and is no where near as big as this one.

The delphiniums are just starting to open as well . . .

And here's what the pink climbing rose looks like fully opened.  Definitely more pink and what I was looking for!

Hope to be back again soon!

~Connie

Oh! How my garden grows . . .

Summer has made it's presence known and it shows throughout the garden.  The weather has been hot and muggy with lots of sunshine.  Yesterday was rainy for a bit, but all in all we have nothing to complain about here.  Things are really taking off in the garden . . .

The Snow in Summer is in bloom and looks just beautiful!

. . . and the pink Oriental Poppy that I started from seed last year and moved to a new location last fall made a come back as well.  It has about 5 or 6 buds total this year where as last year it had only 2 flowers.  The first flower has opened and I can't wait to see the rest . . .

My pink climbing rose is looking good as well.  I was afraid that it would get the black spot as it wasn't looking good last fall so I treated it with Bayer Advance for roses and it's doing great!  I think it's called Eden . . . the flowers open up as white with a hint of pink on the edges and as they mature they turn more pink . . .

I still have some other pictures to upload and organize so I'll have more from the garden again soon!  I've also been working on another sign to hang up in the garden as well and should have that done later today.  Hope to be back again soon.

Until then . . . Happy Gardening!

~Connie

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!)

Still in the garden . . .

and enjoying my time there!  Bought some impatiens to fill in some areas at the front of the border.  They are a pretty mix of white, pale pink, pale lilac and a deep pink.

Anemone are popping up all over the garden right now as well.  I moved clumps here and there and even to the front garden last fall and they look fabulous!  I just love these little white flowers!

The Snow Maiden Iris are looking good too!

It's been raining off and on these past couple of days so I've been in the mood to read more as my creative spark seems to be limited to figuring out what else I want to plant and do in the garden.  I started Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy the other day and am hoping to read some more today.

Hope to be back again soon!

~Connie

In the garden . . .

I've been spending most of my time this past week in the garden.  Dividing plants that I didn't take care of in the fall, moving things around here or there and scrutinizing what goodies are coming up where.  I try to mark most of the perennials and bulbs, but sometimes the markers get faded or they get moved from trying to clear debris in the flowerbed.  LOL.  Makes me laugh . . . hubby and I go for a stroll in the garden every morning trying to decipher what plant this is or what plant that is . . . and looking for open space so we can plant some annuals or something new.  We've got quite a bit going on with the grape hyacinths in full bloom already . . .

and Tete a Tete daffodils . . .

I even found some white hyacinths at Home Depot.  They just smelled so good!!

All in all things are looking really great so far.  Hubby even agreed to get some phlox as well . . . said he really liked the blue in this one . . .

I'm certainly looking forward to spending more time out in the garden and can't wait until the new privacy fence is up!  Hopefully, it will be up later this month or early in May.

I was having some bad luck with a certain lilac bush that I purchased a couple of years back so I had to purchase another.  I'm happy to say that this new one did survive the winter and came back this year.  It's still too young to produce any flowers though.   I had a lilac at the other house and it just filled the yard with a wonderful fragrance all through Spring.  As I was coming home today and parking the car in the garage, my neighbor gave me cuttings from his lilac.  He happened to be out cutting some for his daughter's birthday and decided to give me some as well.  What a sweetie!  I've always thought it was unusual that half of the bush has white flowers and the other half has purple . . . and they smell so good too!

Hope you're all enjoying Spring and taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  It's such a wonderfully promising time of the year!  Maybe that's why both my boys were born in the Spring . . .

Well then . . . until next time . . . Happy Gardening and Happy Creating!

~Connie

First day of Spring??

The calendar may say that it is officially the first day of Spring, but I don't think Mother Nature got the message . . . at least not here in Chicago.  Yesterday, hubby and I spent some time raking up the grass and pulling out the last bit of dead vegetation in the front garden.  Last night I captured this beautiful sunset out my front window . . .

This morning . . . this is what we woke up to!

We were warned about this, but I was praying that it would be mostly rain.  As I'm writing this, it seems to be coming down even more and it's pretty windy as well.  Hopefully this won't last too long and we can get back to being out in the garden again.

Last night, while reading through the blogs I'm following, I caught a video on how to make a crocheted necklace.  I just grabbed the first set of supplies that I could find and here's what I came up with . . .

I think it turned out cute. It's very light-weight and I love the colors!  Julia from Vintage with Laces posted the necklace she made with a link to the video on her blog.  This is definitely an easy project to do and didn't take much time either.

I'm thinking of pinks and greens for the next one . . .

Until next time . . . Happy Creating!

~Connie

Lone Rose

I know I promised a freebie and I should be done with it tomorrow. I had a little surprise in the garden that I couldn't resist. Here it is almost December and I have one lonely rose blooming! I've notice a number of different rose bushes in bloom throughout the neighborhood too. Quite rare for this time of the year. Anyway, I decided to cut it and have it in a vase on my desk.

What a pleasant surprise!

Hope to be back tomorrow . . .

Beautiful weather

Last month we decided to take advantage of the terrific weather one Sunday and took a ride downtown to Millenium Park. We took the Nikon camera with us and took many pictures, but I also tried taking some pictures with my new Blackberry Tour. I was going through the photos and just realized what a little gem of a photo I took of my son in front of Cloud Gate.
















Since the weather has been terrific these past 2 weeks, I've been busy in the garden as well. I did manage to plant some alliums and was able to divide and move some of the perennials. The yards look pretty bare right now, but I figure I'll have a nice jump start in the spring when planting season comes back around!

On another note, I am working on a new freebie kit for anyone who might be interested. Since this is the month of giving thanks, I guess you know what the kit will be about. Hope to have that done in the next couple of days.

Until then . . . enjoy the great outdoors wherever you may be!

Keeping busy in the garden

I'm still doing alot of work in the garden. I found a climbing rose called "Eden" and I immediately fell in love. I just had to have it!

I decided to dig out the "Henryi" clematis in the front yard since giving it some Miracle Gro a couple of weeks ago didn't do much good. When I dug it up I realized that the Ostrich ferns were choking it even though I thought I had cleared them out of the area. So I decided to take all of the ferns out and basically start from scratch in that area. I put the black heavier trellis there and am hoping this rose will do well there.

I also bought an arbor to help screen the alley and anyone trying to look in the yard. Although my hubby had his doubts and wondered where it was gonna go . . . I think is looks great! I didn't have to even move any plants as the wisteria was in the perfect spot already. All I had to do was redirect it from over the garage windows to over and through the arbor.

In a Patriotic Mood

In keeping with the upcoming holiday . . . I thought I would post my interpretation of the Red, White and Blue!

These are all pictures of flowers from my garden! When we moved into this house, there was nothing but grass and a few small evergreen shrubs in the front yard. There was a small vegetable garden that had not been used in years and was over grown with weeds.

I started this garden with the intention of keeping with the red, white and blue color scheme. I do have a bit of yellow though and blue usually includes the purples as well. All in all the garden is coming along nicely and just keeps getting better with each year.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Until next time . . .

Summer is officially here

and I've been spending lots of time in the garden . . . weeding and planting and moving things around. We also went to Morton Arboretum recently.

It was a hot and sticky day and being that it was our first time there . . . we weren't sure how things worked and how the park is laid out. We ended up exploring only about 1/3 of the grounds so we'll definitely have to plan another day to go back again! It's a wonderful place and they have really great gardens for kids to explore. There was this pond in one part of the childrens' garden where I manage to get this awesome picture of some waterlilies . . .

We also went through a maze garden and in the middle they had an open tree house where I managed to take this picture . . .

Even though it was really hot, we did manage to hike one of the trails and along the way we encountered this little guy . . .

All in all it was a really fun day! I collected a small bunch of several different pinecones that I happened to find on the ground throughout the day . . .

I hope to be going back again and explore some more real soon!

Gardening galore

I've spent the better part of the past week in the garden and have been taking lots of pictures! I started a new garden blog over at Dave's Garden so that I can keep track of what's going on, what I have and what I'd like to do in my garden. I've been having lots of fun and am also extremeley sore from all the digging and yard work that I have been doing. Since rain is expect the next couple of days, I'll get some rest so that I can plant the new flower bed! I took this picutre of the Pink Oriental Poppy that managed to survive and bloomed yesterday! I looks awesome!






Now that it's the start of a new month, the new SNL challenge will be out so I will have to find some time and pull myself away from the garden for a while. The theme is butterfly garden and the colors are really pretty so I'm sure I'll be able to put a kit together being that I'm really into this gardening mood lately.

I'll put a link to my new garden blog and Dave's Garden website in the side bar for anyone who might be interested. Hope to be back soon! In the meantime, Happy Digi-Scrapping and Gardening!

What a busy month it's been . . .

with Sam's First Communion, Mother's Day, the Spring Band Concert, Ian's birthday and lots of things breaking down and needing repair. And at last . . . I've got my patio furniture too! I'm so happy with the beautiful set we found. Here's a sneak peek at what it looks like . . .






So I've been pretty busy in the garden as well. We moved the fountain closer to the patio so we could hear the water more and even planted a River Birch! I'm expanding the flower beds as well . . . so my whole body is pretty sore from all the digging, tilling and moving of rocks, etc. The garden is really looking great though! Here's a photo of the white iris I planted a couple of years ago . . .




I'm not sure if you can see it . . . but the reflection in the globe looks really cool and if you look hard enough, you can probably even see me all the way in the background with the camera. Those are just some of the photographs I've taken for the Project 365 scrapbook challenge that I haven't been able to scrap just yet.

Earth Day

I did my part for the Earth Mosaic and uploaded a picture. I actually took quite a few pictures today and made the new avatar that you see for my profile pic. I thought it came out kind of interesting. Anyway, here's the pic I decided on and uploaded for the Earth Mosaic project . . .

I figure it should definitely have some greenery in it and I like that the hens and chicks look great even in the winter here. Many more things are coming up in the garden right now as well. The grape hyacinths have appeared . . . the anemones have little buds all over them and the clematis and alliums are also coming up strong.

And, if you're interested in the Earth Mosaic project . . . here's the link . . . http://earthmosaic.org/index.html

Another freebie for you!

I just finished this cute kit for you:



The papers and elements are 200 ppi and the kit contains the following:

1 light yellow tiled paper
1 light green paper
1 yellow gingham paper
1 black linen paper
1 bee element
1 "Bzzzzz” word art element
1 drops of honey element
1 black ribbon with brown stitches
1 sunflower
1 yellow gem circular frame
1 bee hive element
1 crown element

It is available for download here:

HoneyBeeKit.zip

Hope you like it! I had a lot of fun creating it and am in the process of finishing up another kit along these same lines . . . featuring ladybugs and daisies. I hope to have that one available soon as well.

In the meantime . . . enjoy this one!