Kermit?

We continue to have a yard full of tiny little frogs.  This little guy joined me at our bonfire the other night.  I kicked him off my chair when I realized he was frighteningly close to my HAIR . . .

I went in the house for a few minutes, and when I came back - he was there again!  Persistent little bugger.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Need I say more?

Backyard Birds

I never thought I'd enjoy birds so much - but since moving to this house 8 years ago, I've fallen in love with the bluebirds we get, and have started noticing all the different birds more and more.  

May 2013 Bluebird

I noticed right away when we moved in that the bluebirds are sweet little birds, perching anywhere they can find something to hold on to.  They perch on the corner of the house, the deck, the boat, the tops of trees, signs, etc., seemingly watching the world go by.  They seem forever happy and content - thus the name of my blog. 

We learned that if we don't have more than one bluebird house, the swallows take over.  We now have a trail of 4 bluebird houses, and have pairs of bluebirds in at least 2, maybe 3 of them.  The swallows have been chased to the 4th and farthest away house, much to our pleasure since they dive-bomb us (and the poor dogs) every time we get near their house!  This was not enjoyable when they took over the house closest to our deck and patio :)

We do have large hawks in our area too, so the prettiest birds are somewhat scarce.  We enjoy their presence when we do see them, and lately we've been enjoying the Baltimore Orioles.  They don't stick around all summer, but we keep them as long as possible with oranges.

Male Baltimore Oriole

Female Baltimore Oriole -(Queen of the Orange, perhaps?)

We watched the bluebirds relentlessly chase this large pileated woodpecker away from their home this morning.  The only time the bluebirds are at all aggressive is when they protect their home and/or their babies.

Pileated Woodpecker

We wish we'd see more of the Grosbeaks and less of the Cowbirds!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Cowbird

No good shots of the yellow finches or cardinals yet this year, but it's fun to see the color when all of them choose to gather on the deck at the same time.  

So, the birds (along with my alcoholic beverage of choice) inspired this week's crafty project:

Wine bottle bird feeders

Now I just need to get one filled with bird seed and out into the back yard!

The Lace Mat - Round 1

I agreed to join in on Jon Yusoff's Lace Mat Tat-along, and have finally completed Round 1!  Jon has beautifully translated/drawn this pattern from the 1930's, and it was just what I was looking for.  I had been considering making another doily, but couldn't quite decide on which one.  This is a perfect project - and being a Tat-along, it keeps me on task to finish.

So, here's Round 1:

I did not make that first picot large enough, so my center rings look too "squished".  I have been pondering starting again (the perfectionist in me) but I've decided to continue with it the way it is and see what other imperfections I can create along the way.   There is no doubt that I may be doing this a second time!

I've chosen to use a taupe/brown pearl cotton along with a light tan to keep my doily somewhat neutral in color.  The next round will be the lighter tan color.  

In weather news, it's getting to be Fall rather quickly here in Minnesota.  We had a beautiful weekend with temperatures in the low 80's F, and today the high was only about 62 F.  Back to wearing (GASP!) socks.

My vegetable garden has been tilled up, and most of my flowers are done.  Except for a few autumn sunflowers and morning glories that look a little sad and weedy from this distance:

But I think they are quite beautiful when I get up close:

And, here's a bird we haven't seen much of in our yard - a  Northern Flicker.  We had a whole flock of flickers today!

Onion Rings

I've never really thought about tatting 'Onion Rings' before - I've just followed the pattern and they seemed to work out right.  However, when tatting this pattern I realized I was doing my own thing to get them to work and not actually reversing when the pattern said I should.  Hhhhhmmmm.

Eye Spy

by Julie Patterson

in Yarnplayer's HDT 'Lava' Size 40



I continued and finished this bookmark anyway, with numerous little snafus that I won't point out! But it has prompted me to start a little studying of onion rings.  I've only reviewed a couple of links so far, but I intend to look a little further.  At this point, it appears that there are actually several types of onion rings with as many methods. Any insight would be appreciated.

I love this "Lava" colorway!  I also wondered as I was tatting away, if an experienced tatter would recognize where the colors change and see that I didn't necessarily do it "right".  I wouldn't notice such a thing at my level of tatting, but do other tatters see it?  I think this is a 'perfectionist' type thought :)  Oh well!  A non-tatter will never know the difference.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I've also been attacked by starving mosquitos while picking fresh strawberries.  I survived, and made strawberry rhubarb jam and some fresh bread.  Yum!

AND

My flower "pot" is beautiful this year:



Unfortunately, the deer that pass through the yard have found petunias to be delicious!



Where is that Fairy Gardener?

Somehow, I ended up getting myself into much more gardening than I can handle.  I love to have perennial flowers in the yard, and see things come back year after year and multiply.  However . . . I do NOT enjoy weeding.  AT. ALL.  So it got away from me last year, and it's taken me until now to get it back under control. 

We've done a bit of new landscaping around the patio.  It was overgrown and looked like this a week ago, after we rebuilt the wall in back:

and now it's cleaned up to this, still in need of some finishing:

And there are now peonies on this side of the house instead of overgrown shrubs.  I hope they grow fast so we can enjoy some blooming soon.  (Miracle Gro, I need you.)

And this little flower bed took HOURS to get cleaned up.  A naughty little gopher came up in here and destroyed several perennials.  Between the gophers and the deer, maybe this garden is doomed. Now it looks in need of some new plants . . .

The vegetable garden has a clean start and a happy toilet.   It's still fairly early for the growing season here, so things are just getting started.  I can assure you, my family will be sick of the green beans and tomatoes that will come from this wimpy-looking garden!

And the daily inspection of clematis and hollyhock progress has begun.  I LOVE hollyhocks.

Along with inspection of trumpet vine, morning glories and sunflowers.  Hopefully my little obelisk will have some blooms to photograph later in the summer.

I just hate the weeding part.  (I need to buy stock in Preen!)

Yesterday it was 92F degrees in Minnesota, and today it will be the same.  Until the forecasted storms hit this evening to bring the temps back to reasonable 75-80's for the week, I will remain in the comfort of my air-conditioned home while the weeds grow again to laugh at me on my next inspection round.  I swear the weeds just like to hear me cuss.  I really do need a fairy gardener.

Birdbath Art

Whoa! It’s MAY already. I don’t know where that time went, but I know I’ve been busy. And there’s so much yet to do as spring settles in and my gardens are begging for attention.

One fun project my friends and I have done over the past couple of weekends is make a sandcast birdbath. Have you done this? It is SO much easier than you’d think.

First, you shape a nice pile of sand/dirt into a mound.  This will be the shape of your birdbath/bowl, so you have to think about the shape and how deep, even and round it is.  Cover the mound of dirt with plastic sheeting (or torn garbage/leaf bag).  This will keep the dirt off of the leaf and out of the concrete.

Next, you find a great big leaf with good defining veins.  (We used huge rhubarb leaves.) Cut the stem off about an inch from the base of the leaf.  Place the leaf right side down onto the mounded dirt and adjust to create an even bowl.  You will want to have an extra leaf to patch the area by the stem.  The stem will leave sort of a trough for water to drain out of your birdbath, so it needs that patch to prevent that.  You can see where the stem would have been and where I patched it.  (I forgot to take pictures of this fun, messiest phase, but my camera was in the house as we were playing with wet concrete!)

Mix up some concrete – we used a wheelbarrow.  The fun part is slapping the concrete on and shaping it over your leaf.  You want to leave an inch or so of the leaf showing, and we found it created a nice edge if we wrapped that leaf edge back up around the concrete.  The concrete should only be about 1-1/2 inches thick all over.  When you get it right, you place a fitting into the concrete, but you don’t want it deep enough to get to the leaf, or you will have a hole in your birdbath.  You then add some more concrete to build it up around that fitting. 

Now it has to dry for a couple of days – I think it took ours 2 days.  Once the concrete is good and dry, you can peel it off of the leaf.  If you wait too long, the leaf will stick to the concrete, and it’s harder to peel off.  This is what they look like now:



Then we got to the painting part.  I loved this part!  We used inexpensive craft acrylic paints – the bottles I’ve had for years worked just fine.  Squirt paint color(s) into a tub or cup (they wash up fine) and mix in a little water.  We experimented with how much water to add to get the color wash we wanted.

Some did multi colors, others blackened the veins.  (Of course I was the one that had to be different and used blues and greens instead of reds . . . )  We used a gold wash over it all to add a little sparkle.  I also put a pearl wash over mine.  I can never be done when I should stop.

 

 

 

  I think they are gorgeous!

The bluebirds are now waiting for me to give it a seal coat so it can go out in the yard. A piece of rebar will go into the ground, and a piece of galvanized tubing will slide over the rebar and fit into that fitting on the bottom of the bath. I will take a photo of it when it’s in the ground (and hopefully surrounded by some flowers)!

After this painting session, I attended a photography class put on by some friends who are fabulous photographers.  "How to Shoot Your Kids" was the name of the class.  More on that another time . . .

WANTED: Time

How do you harness your to-do list? My to-dos are not becoming ta-das lately. I am having trouble concentrating on just one project until it's finished :)  I recently decided I should work on a tatted doily again instead of just making small motifs and stashing them away. If I can keep on task, I might have a doily to enter in the fair this summer - along with that hanky edging I'm working on. In any case, I decided I needed this book of doily patterns - Iris Niebach patterns are beautiful!

Hopefully I did not bite off more than I can chew with this one.

One of my diversions the past couple of weeks (yes, just one of them) is this jar of old bottlecaps and Scrabble tiles I found at an antique market.  (Funny how I went to a major garden center for spring home ideas and ended up buying antiques.)

My daughter asked me to collect bottlecaps (are caps other than the screw-on type on bottles anymore?) to make magnets.  Boy did we made magnets.  Any ideas on what else we could do with a million bottlecaps? 

And, hubby has been busy with some tiki torches.  Yes, the back yard is starting to look like a bar - but it's fun! We are looking forward to summer evenings with the torches lit.

See why I can't concentrate? 

No Tea, No Wine, No Tatting

I missed tatting on Tuesday with Tea, on Wednesday with Wine, and on Thursday, Friday and today.  I actually accomplished some other things though.

I made a batch of Strawberry Rhubarb jam.

I did a little sewing.

 I spent some time with a cute 2-year old.

And I made a little humorous art when the bathroom toilet had to be replaced. [Imagine questioning look from hubby when I said, "Wait!  Don't throw that out!"]

It adds some color to the edge of the vegetable garden :)



I did some planting to brighten up the deck.

And added some color in the yard until the perennials start blooming.

And I finally accomplished some weeding.  Which is still not done.

But the weeding is never done.  Yuck.  I put the weeding off as long as I can. 

Weeds are easier to pull when they're a foot tall anyway. 

And tonite we'll watch some fireworks over the Mississippi River during the annual Father Hennepin Festival.  Father Hennepin crossed the river here in 1680, and was captured by Sioux Indians.  The area was settled as the City of Champlin, and they celebrate each year with this 3-day festival.  Father Hennepin was a priest and explorer who explored the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.  He brought Niagara Falls to world attention, and our own St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis - which are the only waterfalls on the Mississippi River.

And that's why I STILL have not completed my doily. 

Soon.  Very soon.