• Around home - Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: I ♥ plants edition

    Hello and welcome once again to T stands for Tuesday. This week I’m taking a break from sharing my #junkjournaljuly updates to share the wealth of plants around me.

    The abundance of rain has yielded huge plants! This morning I picked these beauties.

    Fresh produce from the garden is the best. Especially since we aren’t getting a CSA box this year.

    As I was trimming the flowers off my herbs, I realized that they are quite pretty and could be used as a base in a bouquet. I wandered around the yard and came up with a sweet little jar of flowers to brighten my kitchen.

    When my neighbor saw me picking flowers she offered up her daylilies. 

    They are lovely on my table. Thank you, neighbor!

    My tea even had some plants in it. A little sprig of mint in my Darjeeling tea.

    This one takes the cake though…I happened to notice my compost bin had some tall things in it. Since I knew I hadn’t thrown anything in there lately myself I walked down to investigate.

    I have 2 tomato plants and 3 zucchini or ?? volunteers in the compost pile. I guess the organic soil is doing pretty well.  This is a better place for this sign. Time will tell as to what I’m growing.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: #junkjournaljuly edition

    Hello again! Welcome back to T stands for Tuesday!

    Last week was a busy one with the Independence Day Holiday. Lots of activities including a parade, cookout, fireworks but not many photos to document them.

    I thought it would be fun to share my #junkjournaljuly challenge pages here as well as Instagram. Here I can get a little more in-depth and frankly it’s easier for me to edit and organize.

    Day1: Introductions

      I decided to introduce the journal and project…not myself.

    I am using this journal in order even though I’ll have to add a couple of pages before the end.

    I have most pages documented before as well as after but I know I did miss at least one set such as this next set…

    Day 2: create a collage

    This page I almost completely changed for the original.

    Day 3: Use a tag

    It was kismet that this page already had a tag on it. I added the sunflower paper and lace to fit with my vision. A package of old rub-ons came in handy as well.  I thought this page was the perfect place to document this old, well-loved photo.

    Day 4: very vintage

    This page is basically completely covered with pieces of a 1968 map of Hawaii.

    I honestly loved the original page spread…but it wasn’t going to work.

    Day 5: favorite color

    You know it had to be pink! With a splash of orange…I do love orange too!

    The only little bits of the original page showing through is the math text and the stems of the flowers. I don’t love those tissue flowers but they worked to cover the yellow without once again completely covering the page.

    I’ll be posting more sets of these pages as I go along…not sure of the schedule but likely not waiting until T Tuesday either.

    I do have to tell you about my garden pests once again…you won’t even believe it!!!! You may remember last week my garden was looking lovely…my green beans were lush and full of leaves…

    Not so much any more. UGH!!! I found full grown deer tracks in the garden. Keep in mind this garden is maybe 5′ x 8′ and has a fence almost 6′ high around all but a 2′ wide gap where the gate is.

    Well not anymore…it’s not pretty but it is functional. I’m hoping Mr. G will build me a proper full height gate before next growing season but for now, this will have to do.

    Today has household chores in store…super exciting I know.

    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: great outdoors edition

    This weeks T stands for Tuesday is dedicated to the great outdoors. I wish I could take you on a current up to the moment tour but…its raining…again. You’ll have to settle for some photos that have been taken over the past week or so.

    Shall we start with the pest that is digging up my garden?

    Cute isn’t she…pain in my @$$ is what she is. Her and her now babies are digging up plants everywhere!!!! Did you notice she seems to be red and grey…I looked it up and there seems to be some crossing of the species. These squirrels are closer to grey squirrel size but with a red squirrel temperament. “Fantastic” she says dripping with sarcasm.

    We’ve also had a bunch of deer around eating my tiger lilies…I can’t blame this little fawn…mama left him rest in the tall grass by the fence.

    She’s looking at me like I’m the paparazzi….

    Here’s some adorable and equally destructive critters in the patch of clover my neighbor has in their yard.

    This robin and the cedar wax wings are busy eating the service berries from our tree like they do every year…the only problem is the berries seem to go right through them if you catch my drift.

    Do you notice the netting over my patio tomato plant? Squirrel deterrent. My in-laws used to have a huge strawberry patch…this was the leftover netting. Thank goodness!!

    I also have it on my deck boxes and the raised bed. Marvin is out on a supervised visit of the great outdoors on one of our non-raining moments.

    He’s such a handsome guy. I love how he poses for me.

    He enjoys sniffing the air, watching bugs and birds and generally lounging around.

    How do you like my new signs….

    My MIL bought them for me. There are a few more but I need to repaint to reflect what I actually have planted.

    My garden is finally looking pretty good. I’m excited to see how the yellow pear tomatoes do in this garden vs the raised bed by the deck.

    Yesterday I put up a few flags…immediately after placing this one atop the fence post on the garden this dragonfly landed. Must have been an excellent hunting position since he would not move even when I adjusted the flag.

    Marvin doesn’t love the heat…even though we’ve brushed and brushed him…he still has quite the coat. We know he’s warm when he does this… His other position is belly up on the floor. Poor baby…he’s a winter cat.

    Are you still with me…I know its a long post…

    For my art/beverage tie in we have this journal page. I kept meaning to post it but it never happened…as you can see by the date it’s a couple weeks old.

    I love how the book page shows through the napkin so much!!! The page really didn’t need a whole lot more in my opinion. A little recycled sari fabric and found text…done.

    Tuesday has lots of errands in store getting ready for the Independence Day holiday.

    What are you doing today?