IN THE GARDEN AFTER DARK

#fmsphotoaday: after dark ...

Today was a day of intense labor outside. The weekend was so overwhelmingly warm - in fact so much so that I suffered a mild case of heat exhaustion, so when the temperature were once again comfortable with an occasional breeze, I felt okay about going back out and finishing up with the gardening. After much weeding, transplanting, and moving of a few day lilies that were being overtaken by the bleeding heart and things are starting to come together for this season. It's always a work in progress but I feel like I'm finally starting to make headway on a degree of permanency in my informal eclectic landscaping style.

 

Mike and I have been having on on-going discussion about just what should be planted in the vegetable garden area this year. We've been quite adventurous in our attempts at full-blown vegetable gardening but when we get into the full season of Tanglewood and house guests the garden tends to suffer. So this year we decided to scale back a bit. We went with zucchini and summer squash, a few cherry tomato plants, some fresh basil, and a couple of cucumber plants. AND we must have pumpkins for Colin and Lucia for Fall/Halloween celebrations and decorating. Mike also likes the garden area being more open too so we're trying it with no fencing this year. Bunnies are for-warned ... nothing in there that might taste good to your delicate palates. And let's hope the deer will stay cool in the woods further up the hill and ignore our plots this summer.

 

For the ICAD challenge today I chose to illustrate a popular observation in our kitchen ...

 

all supplies from kits by Tangie Baxter at www.scrapbookgraphics.com

Thanks for stopping by ... all comments much appreciated :)

0603: ON MY TABLE & FAUX STITCHING

It took a little more than a few visits to see Grandpa Mike while he was teaching for Colin & Lucia to feel totally comfortable going in to visit him in his studio on their own. However, there was plenty of time for them to become completely at ease with their searches for Grandpa Mike when they stayed with us on their own for 10 days. So you can imagine the feeling of "special-ness" when Colin asked for AND received a special dinosaur treasure he happened to spy on a studio shelf on one of these surprise studio visits. (I'm not sure who felt more special ... Colin or Grandpa Mike.)

 

Lucia's moments of "special-ness" came when she and KK had to "do up their faces" each morning and pick just the right necklace and/or earrings to go with the outfit of the day.

 

And for the index-card-a-day (ICAD) challenge today the prompt was to incorporate faux stitching for attaching elements or as a part of the design. I also chose to integrate my mixed media/art journaling challenges on the same piece of art and work with the word-of-the-week for the Art Journal Caravan ... transcend.
 

all supplies from kits by Tangie Baxter at www.scrapbookgraphics.com

 

PHOTO A DAY CONTINUES

I took the month of May off from formal posting of my photos in response to the daily prompts issued by Chantelle at www.fatmumslim.com.au. However, I did still take photos each day and kept up on my project life entries (to be shared another day) ...

But now we are in the month of June and it's time to get back on track and into the routines again.
JUNE 1: something beginning with B ... not very original but a record of my every day life - my usual breakfast of almonds and a hazelnut latte.

Later in the day I encounter another significant "beginning with B" item that I will be searching for. We had lunch at a favorite local breakfast/lunch spot called Haven. I absolutely love their blueberry herbal iced tea and would like to find a source for the bags (?) or whatever is used so I can make mine own brew here at home. So refreshing on these beastly hot days were experiencing here in the Berkshires.

 

 

JUNE 2: a moment ... today was a day of several small moments strung together were errands and running from here to there to tie up loose ends. I took a moment to grab a quick lunch at Panera ... chicken cobb salad with avocado with ... you guessed it ... berry iced tea once again!

 

In case you're interested in playing along with the photo-a-day challenge you can find the list of daily prompts HERE.

 

 

A PHOTO A DAY: January Recap

 

The challenge: to take a photo a day according to the given prompt.You can learn more about this challenge hosted by fat mum slim by visiting her website. (just click on the link) Consider joining in on the fun in February.  It's a fun way to document your every-day life and push yourself to think outside the box. A quick peek at the February list:

 

and ... my first photo for February: fork ... a rare Northeast winter day in the Berkshires with no snow on the ground makes me start thinking about digging in the dirt with my gardening fork.

 

Drop me a comment if you decided to join in on the fun - just leave me a link to your post and I'll drop by.

 

 

 



STRIPES

The prompt from the photo-a-day challenge with #fmsphotoaday today is STRIPES and that got me thinking ... STRIPES also serves as a fun prompt for the THURSDAY 13 list.

I am most pleased any time I can combine challenges and prompts into one task ... can you come up with 13 things that naturally or almost always have stripes? Don't forget to click on the links above for more info about each of these challenges and to see what fun things others came up with in response to the prompt.

Here's what I came up with ...
 

1. flags
2. sargents
3. zebras
4. the road
5. referees
6. tigers
7. watermelon rind
8. barcodes
9. tv test patterns
10. bumble bees
11. barber poles
12. skunks
13. candy canes

... a fun mental diversion and exercise ...

SILLY TURKEYS

1014: makes me laugh ... these silly turkeys made me laugh! They've been roaming the neighborhood for several weeks now. They seem to be quite fearless as they travel from yard to yard going from here to there. They don't even hurry when crossing the road as a car approaches. Silly silly turkeys.

 

... wonder if they'll still be around in November ...

AUTUMN JOY

1011: something close up ... a perfect name for this flower ... Autumn Joy ... everything else is in the garden is looking a little bit ragged and worse for the wear, but not this little fall gem. I tweaked the photo a little bit with a new-to-me camera app. The app is 100 Cameras in 1 HD and it has 100 different effects that can be combined in as many ways as you can imagine. And, I can take photos with my device directly through the app.

 

However, the really amazing thing is how Mother nature has been tweaking the flowers on this plant of late ... early September the flowers were a beautiful fushia pink. Now, deep maroon red.

 

I love watching Mother Nature "arts" her way through the seasons.

WORDS OR PICTURES

1010: emotion ...

I LOVE RED!

1009: red ... let me just say my love affair with the color red continues. My fabric stash of red fabric is always growing. It doesn't seem to matter how many red patches I sew into my quilts or how many red quilts I make, my tub for red fabric seems to stay just as full. And that's not a bad thing if you're planning on quilting for many more years. We all know (and probably suscribe to the notion) one can NEVER have too much fabric!

 

So when we moved to Massachusetts to a house with multiple bathrooms, what a perfect opportunity to explore a more permanent decorating opportunity using my red things. I can't begin to tell you the grief I've taken from my family at the red and white towels in the guest bath.

What was I thinking!

Don't I know the red towels will fade and the white towels will become pink!

My answer: Hello! Have you never heard of using the color catcher sheets from Shout?

 

And so I've continued on my merry way picking up red and white pieces as I shop the antique and thrift stores. I've found some fun items that one might not use in an every-day-morning-noon-and-night bath, but work well in the occassional-use guest bath.

 

The washer and dryer is also located in this guest bath. The fellas had to remove the doors to install my new front loaders so I've been working on a quilted curtain to serve as a door over the laundry area. I need a total of 72 blocks and I think I'm about a third of the way there so far. I admit, I've been working on it for a while, but I also am trying to make my blocks scrappy. And there's the rub. If I follow Juanita's rules, I should try to make my scrappy quilt without repeating any of the fabrics in the different blocks.

 

Yup, you guessed it ... I keep running out of red fabric.

Time to go shopping!

ANGLES & PERSPECTIVE

1008: angle ... it started out like any other day and quickly fell apart. Journaling my way through helped me pause, reflect and look at everything from a different angle.

 

The background was ready so white pen in hand (I like to use a Gelly Roll from Sakura) I let thoughts and feelings pour out uncensored on the page knowing these are not words that I would want to reread again or have anyone else accidentally stumble upon. 

 

So the plan began to form. I printed my core thought on pages torn from my altered book tearing each word grouping with a ragged edge and then adhering to the journal page. I wanted my journaling words to still be there as a reminder to me but not make any sense to anyone else.

 

Adding a tip-in page to provide a little bit of shelter for my thoughts and feelings helped as well. The vulture, not a very nice bird, serves as a good visual reminder for me when I find myself in similar situations ... very much like the Mr. Yuk stickers we use on containers of poison liquids. 

 



  

 My heart is healed, soul forgiven and lesson learned.

... art heals ...

 

Later:  a timely post by Danielle LaPort ...

LIGHTS IN THE NIGHT

1007: light ...

• sun LIGHT  back LIGHT
• tail LIGHT  head LIGHT
• LIGHT as a feather
• cigarette LIGHTer
• shine a LIGHT upon my path
• bright LIGHTs  sky LIGHTs
• Christmas tree LIGHTs
• LIGHT touch
• flash LIGHT
• day LIGHT savings time
• Buzz LIGHT year
• candle LIGHT
• LIGHT step  LIGHTweight
• heavy vs LIGHT
• electric LIGHT LIGHT switch  porch LIGHT
• LIGHT source
• faster than the speed of LIGHT
• LIGHT of my life
• LIGHTning bugs
• flickering fireLIGHT

and a funny quote from Muhammad Ali:  "I'm so fast that last night I turned off the LIGHT switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

I love my collection of seasonal night LIGHTs ...

GRATITUDE: GUTTERS & DRAIN PIPES

It was not a pretty day the first day the basement floor began to turn into my own personal lake. Having just moved from the west coast to the east coast, from Oregon drizzle to Massachusetts downpour, from hubby being there with me to rescue boxes, carry out buckets of water, and to fix the problem to being all on my own ... as you can well imagine ...

after the third time I just sat in a wet soggy mess on the stairs and cried!

 

Fast forward in time to a year ago ... house in Oregon is sold and hubby has joined me in Massachusetts. 

 

... now we wait for the rain ...

 

As any Oregonian can tell you, the waiting game, the waiting for rain wouldn't take very long, but in Massachusetts we have actual rainy seasons basically two times a year - in the spring and in the fall. Mike needed to see where and how the rain came in before he could figure out a solution.

By this time I have moved all packing boxes and stuff on shelving so nothing that could suffer from water damage is on the floor any more. Eveything is pretty much piled on tops of tables in the middle of the room. Off the floor and  away from windows where the water can come in as the water table rises.

 

... and so the waiting game begins ... praying all the while for a whopper of a rainstorm ...

 

Eventually, the rains came down, the water came in, all my stuff was safe, and the best part ... I had help carrying out buckets of water and cleaning up with the shop vac.  

All of this is to say ... today I am thankful for ... GUTTERS and DRAINPIPES! Yesterday Mike finished connecting the last of the pipe to the gutters we had installed this summer. Trenching through the rocky soil (residue from the original inadequate quassi drainfield that surround the house) was not fun for Mike but he is good at what he does when it comes to digging and now the drain pipes are all burried directing the water to the city drain system in the streets. Whew!

 

As for me ... no more excuses ...  I can finally start sorting and organizing as I unpack more quilting supplies boxes in the fabric storage room and of course, there is the other half of the basement with boxes of holiday stuff and who knows what else.

AN ASIDE: don't you think it seredipitous with the horseshoe nailed to one of the rocks Mike dug up ... it may be time to go buy a lottery ticket!



INSPIRATION BOARD 2

1005: shadow ... great inspiration piece for possible quilting ... fun shapes to piece ... those diamonds could be strip pieced and sashed with black to make the window panes ... some three dimensional draping or pleating could work for the curtain shadows ... and look at all that wonderful black space just waiting for some great contrast thread quilting ... looks like Darth Vadar peering in my night-time window ...

READING

1004: what I read ... anything I can get my hands on most of the time. I absolutely loved my nook until I got my ipad. Now most of my "book" reading is done on the nook app on my ipad.

 

I love immersing myself in period historical fiction and am currently reading the "series" by Philippa Gregory about the women behind the men during the War of the Roses.  The White Queen, The Red Queen, The Ladies of the Rivers ... I must say that confusing time in history is beginning to make a little bit more sense to me now.

 

I also love the series TOMBS written by Ken Follet. Thank goodness for tablet reading. I think I might kill someone if I dropped one of those huge books while I dozed off as I reading. His books tend to remind me of James Michner ... really digs in deep to the storyline bringing it to life like no other.

 

It's a funny thing in this day and age of technology. I find myself most nights ear buds in place going to sleep listening to a book on my ipod. Rarely do I make it past 15 minutes which is a good thing. I have difficulty turning of my brain when my head hits the pillow. Such is not the case when someone reads a bedtime story to me. I have even been known to listen to the audible version while reading along at the same time. Seems like the ultimate in being spoiled, but why not indulge myself once in a while.

 

One of the things I don't read very much is the newspaper. I tend to get my current events from a variety of media. However, I do find that reading The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal is a more common occurance for me these days. Do you suppose that is because of apps on my ipad?

 

My bookshelves will always be filled with my much loved hobby-related books and magazines. My wall of quilting related books and my growing collection of mixed-media art journaling related books and magazines serves me well for inspiration and motivation. Most days ... usually morning coffee in hand ... you will find me curled up in a comfy chair easing my way into the day while thumbing through the pages getting my creative juice flowing. It's like my mental stretching routine before I start the work for the day.

 

I've never stood in line for concert tickets or at a store for a shopping spree, sale or grand opening, but I have stood in a line that wrapped around the corner, out the door, and down the block to have a book signed by an author ... but that's a story for another day.

 

What's your favorite read these days?

TODAY ...

1003: today ... was a busy day with a very full to-do. Best course of action on days like that: don't think about it. Just put your head down and get started. Don't look up until quittin' time :)

LUNCHTIME

1002: lunchtime ... facetime ... the best way to connect with family that lives far away ... schedule a lunch date today. It's on the calendar ...  Eryn and I enjoy breakfast dates, coffee breaks, and lunchtime together on a regular basis.

STANDING ...

1001: where you stood ...

Quote: The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. Aesop

 

A list of 10 places I stand regularly:

1. in the shower
2. at the kitchen sink
3. in front of the stove
4. at the longarm
5. in line at the grocery store
6. in line at the post office
7. in line at the lunch counter
8. in the rain
9. in front of the pellet stove (or over the floor vent)
10. shoulder to shoulder with a friend

I stood my ground; I set my boundaries; I stood up for myself.

 

 

 

 

A GOOD THING

0928: a good thing ... a fresh brewed cup of coffee with son barista

LOVE/HATE

0927: love/hate ... I love the way I feel after my morning walks but I sure HATE getting up that early to get them started.

BORDER THOUGHTS

0925: frame ... like ... borders on a quilt. Border decisions are always some of the hardest to make. Borders can serve a lot of different functions: read more HERE