Sandance Designs

Just Another Day in the Garden

2010-04-15T21:51:00.005-04:00

This morning I went in to Downtown Atlanta to meet friends for lunch. I love getting together with this fine group of folks. But, I really hate going downtown. On the trip into town, I noticed the tall buildings were hidden in a smoggy haze.

But, 50 miles south of the big dirty city, this beautiful afternoon greeted me when I returned home!

This spring, the blooms seem to be coming and going very quickly! This plant's blooms have almost faded. I know it was not in bloom a few days ago! Does anyone recognize this plant? It grows wild at the edge of my garden and I really don't know what it is!

UPDATE! My neighbor identified this plant as Red Buckeye!

There are a zillion Cleome seedlings in the garden! If you want big showy flowers that love hot summer days and will re-seed themselves like mad, Cleome is the flower for you! Sadly, most of these seedlings will have to go. The flowers can't possibly grow this close together!

This is one of my favorite garden plants! Most of the year, it is almost invisible at the edge of the woods. For a week or so in spring, it's gorgeous! This is a Native Azalea. Grows wild in our Georgia woods.

This is a closeup of the bloom cluster.

And this, my friends, is what a Georgia gardener's boots look like after stomping through the woods and spraying Roundup on poison ivy! That yellow stuff is not dust, it's POLLEN!

Spring has Sprung and the Pollen is Plentiful

2010-04-08T10:12:00.007-04:00

Spring has Sprung in the Sandance Garden and the world is thick with pollen. You can see a dusting of pollen on some of the flower photos.

I took this photo at 3am one night last week, when the daffodils were at their peak. These are my favorite flowers, and I have a lot of them. Many were rescued from soon-to-be-bulldozed sites.

Mattie, the Great Pyrenees doing what she does best...BARK! You can see that the Bermuda grass is just beginning to green up.

This is a funny little birdhouse pick in an iron pot full of some kind of succulent. I don't know what it is...it was rescued from an estate.

The spirea is now in full bloom. Most of the year is sits quietly forming a backdrop for the garden border. For a few weeks, it is glorious.

This snowball bush is 3 years old. This is the first spring we'll have blooms. I can hardly wait!

Wow. You can really see the pollen on this Flowering Quince! And something must think it's mighty tasty.

My grandmother had a whole bank full of phlox, which she called "thrift". My hope is to have thrift cover the bank by my driveway.

The front porch window boxes are full of pansies, which are doing very well right now. As usual, they look their best just when it's time to rip them out and replace them with summer annuals. It's a juggling act. The summer annuals have to be planted before it gets too hot, which means the pansies have to be replaced before the summer heat kills them. It's really difficult to dump out gorgeous flowers, but it has to be done. At least they have an after-life in the compost bin.

This is one of my garden favorites! Poncirus Trifoliata...called "mock orange" by its friends! Check out those thorns! They're at least an inch long. In the spring the mature shrub/tree will have white flowers, which are followed by small yellow-orange 1" fruit. I assume the fruit is inedible, as the birds won't touch it. These were planted 3 years ago, and have not yet bloomed. They are offspring of plants that were in my Grandmother's garden when I was a child.

The hosta are already up and growing fast. I think they grow about 3" per day right now. I need to set up some kind of deer deterrent before they chomp them down to the ground.

These are some of my favorite garden flowers! They were made by my sister and her husband out of horse shoes. They are truly perennial!

The grape hyacinth has about 'done its do', as my Grandma used to say! It's been very pretty this spring.

The forsythia is just past its glory, but still makes a pretty statement in the garden.

We have so many daffodils! These come along as many others are fading. I love these big double blooms. These resemble the ones Grandma called "butter and eggs".

The dogwoods don't seem to be as nice this year as in the past. Maybe it's just my imagination.

THIS is why I HATE deer! I don't think these tulips will be blooming this year. Anybody want to hunt deer off my deck?

I know spring is truly here when I see butterflies sunning. These three were slowly opening and closing their wings, and stayed still long enough for me to snap this photo.

It's easy to see why this is called "bleeding heart"!

And that concludes today's garden tour!

Stitching the Rainbow!

2010-03-23T23:19:00.008-04:00

How to you spell COLORFUL? I spell it SCRAPPY STRING QUILT!

A few weeks ago, I attended a "quilting day camp" with my quilting enablers...I mean FRIENDS!

One friend was cutting shapes from fabric and THROWING THE REST AWAY! I couldn't let that happen. It was lovely fabric!

Sew...home it came. Since I was in the process of painting my sewing room, it had to wait a few weeks.

Today I couldn't get any of my computer tasks to work, so I headed for my beloved non-computerized sewing machine! Once I got started, I was able to assemble the first 9 blocks in no time.

These blocks are pieced on to sheets on onionskin paper. This paper has been living in my sewing room for years, just waiting to be needed. The paper keeps the fabric stable while I'm working with it.

Since the blocks will finish at only 8", I'll need to make a LOT more of them. Happily, it's a great deal of fun.

Where is the Tin Woodsman when you need him?

2010-03-19T17:12:00.008-04:00

Where is the Tin Woodsman when you need him? I'd keep him so busy, he wouldn't have a chance to rust away on that road to Oz.

For the last three years, I've been trying to clean up the woods behind my house. There is only so much one woman working alone can do, so it's a very slow process!

We've had a lot of rain this winter, so I had very few days I could work in the woods.

Today was beautiful, mid 60's, not a cloud in the sky...so off to the woods I went.

These are the tools I took with me. A bottle of Perrier, a clock, a telephone, a tube of chocolate lip balm from http://www.goodiesunlimited.com/ , my house key, a pair of goatskin gloves, and my trusty lopping shears. All stylishly contained in a Neiman Marcus tote bag!

With a bag that snazzy, you know I'd be dressed in style. Check out the sexy black boots! The ground is damp and uneven and there is the occasional unexpected stump hole. I have stepped into a hole up to my knee, and don't want to repeat that wearing anything less than these boots. And they come in mighty handy when I have to cross the creek!

Before I started working, I had to take a few minutes to survey the situation.

Did you know that I own an island? Here it is! I call it "Rocky Island". The creek surrounds the island. When it rains, the poor island is usually submerged, so I won't be building a hut there.

I love the shadows the bubbles cast on the creek bed!

Just look how clear the water is! Yes, these rocks are under water.

Panther Creek winds its way through my back yard.

What gorgeous green moss!

I'm almost afraid to wonder what lives in this tree. It's hollow...it's leaning...it's on the creek bank...I expect it to fall within a year...and that will be another mess to clean up.

Brand new dead fall...This wasn't here a week ago!

Anybody want a few thousand River Birch trees? The ground is so soft, I've been pulling them up by the roots. They range in size from a few inches to several feet tall.

This big tree fell across the creek a couple years ago. I hope to wade across the creek and clean it up this spring...soon...before the snakes start swimming in the creek!

I managed to clean off a good sized area today. My two existing brush piles were so tall I couldn't add anything else to them, so I started a new one. Now, just as soon as I clear off about 100 times today's amount, I'll be all finished...until more limbs fall...

If you run into the Tin Woodsman, tell him I need help...now!

Art is Where you Find it

2010-03-14T01:09:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I was invited to a family shooting trip. Since we own these firearms, it's a good thing to occasionally practice with them. Shoot, it's no different than sewing...you just aim where you want to go...

During a break, I saw these items on the table....a patchwork tote I made, and the pistols my father my sister and me many years ago for personal protection in a mean old world.

I call this one....Still Life with Patchwork and Pistols. I like the contrast of the soft floral patchwork with the hard cold metal of the pistols.

Y'all just call me Betsy Ross!

2010-02-27T23:26:00.006-05:00

It's far from perfect, but the bargello flag IS finished! The finished size is 32" x 25.5".

Last Saturday (yes, one week ago!), Nikki Rainey led a class for our quilt guild, teaching us to make this bargello flag wall hanging.

The edges really are straight, even though they don't look so in the photo. It's hanging sort of unevenly on hooks over the door.

Thanks, Nikki, for teaching us how to make this project!

Saturday Snow - After The Storm

2010-02-13T11:48:00.006-05:00

What a beautiful winter day! Blue sky and white snow. I'll just let the photos do the talking.

A Snowy View From the Kitchen Window

2010-02-12T16:16:00.009-05:00

While snow is routine for much of our great country, it rarely comes to us in the deep south.

Snow started falling here about noon today. I was hoping for enough to look pretty for a while. Looks like we have it.

This is the view from my kitchen window this afternoon, looking out into the woods behind the house.

And this is how it looked a few hours later.

And this is the view from the front porch, looking toward the street.

I'm glad I don't really have any need to leave the house!

A Walk in the Winter Garden

2010-02-07T16:10:00.005-05:00

Today was the first time we'd seen blue sky in days!

Just when we think it's the 'dead' of winter, Mother Nature shows us she's still busy behind the scenes.

It was a delight to find these tiny yellow crocus in bloom.

Molly Kitty will be happy to know that her catnip is coming back to life!

I expect these blue asters to freeze long before they have a chance to bloom.

Nice to see the yarrow coming back to life.

This time of year, you have to look pretty hard to find something the wildlife has not consumed. But, they seem to have missed these nandina berries, hidden deep in the foliage.

One of my favorites! The native azalea has one small pink bud. These will be gorgeous in a couple months.

There are many fat yellow daffodil buds. These fat pointy buds are the double flowering variety.

These are some very strange daffs. The center will be green. A very old variety, dug up from an estate just before it was bulldozed.

The Encore azaleas now have buds! These did not do well for several years after they were planted. After 4 years, they're starting to perform.

I was afraid our extended cold spell had killed the large rosemary bush. But, a close look shows live stems and some surviving needles. I think it will need a pretty good pruning later in the spring. But, I'll leave it alone for now and let it recover in peace.

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 8 - Mission Accomplished

2010-02-04T11:42:00.002-05:00

I'm finally getting the bedroom put back together.
This is my favorite cozy corner.

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 7 - The Finale!

2010-01-30T00:32:00.006-05:00

I don't believe it! Two and a half weeks after I started the bedroom transformation, the painting is finally complete!

Stems and tendrils have been added, using Plaid FolkArt Thicket #924 and a script liner brush.

Now, to move the furniture back in!

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 6 - Dragonflies

2010-01-29T18:45:00.007-05:00

I love dragonflies and wanted to add some to the frieze. We have many varieties of dragonflies here, but I think the most beautiful are the widow skimmers.

If I had wanted generic decorative dragonflies, I could have used a stamp or stencil. But, I wanted widow skimmers!

These are the tools I took up the ladder with me.

The paints are:

Plaid FolkArt Light Blue #402

Plaid FolkArt Artists Pigment Burnt Umber #462

Plaid FolkArt Metallic Silver Sterlling #662

Plaid FolkArt Metallic Pearl White # 659

I have 4 brushes:

#6 Filbert

#3 Sable

1/4 Royal Aqualon Whisp

5/0 Sable

First I transfer the dragonfly outline to the wall. I have a photograph of the dragonfly printed out on plain printer paper. I taped the photograph to the wall. I slipped a plain piece of paper under the photo, and a piece of graphite paper under the plain paper. This give me a 'sandwich' of photo/plain paper/graphite paper/wall. The slip of plain paper keeps my impression from being quite so dark and difficult to cover. Using a fine tip pen or pencil, trace over the main lines of the dragonfly.

Next, paint the wing tips and slight colorless bands between the blue and brown sections. I used silver paint and the filbert brush.

Here I have painted the head with burnt umber (a dark, reddish brown). The tail has been painted light blue. I used the #3 brush here. Both the silver and light blue have now been over-painted with the metallic pearl white, using the filbert brush.

The light blue and burnt umber have been added to the wings, using the filbert brush. Immediately after applying paint to each section, I blended it with the Wisp brush.

A fine umber line has been added to the tail, and the blue spots added to the head. Both were done using the #3 sable brush.

This is the finished dragonfly. I cleaned up the wing edges by trimming around them with the 5/0 brush loaded with wall paint. I applied a tiny bit of the umber to the wing tips with the Wisp brush, but it does not show in this photo. It does show up in the photo at the top of the page.

This is how the dragonfly looks among the roses.

The dragonfly is life sized!

Next...adding stems and tendrils to the flowers.

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 5 - Fairies

2010-01-26T17:12:00.007-05:00

I have added 5 fairies to my walls.

I started with a stencil by Dressler Stencils, but decided against using it. I just sketched the fairy on paper, then transferred it to the wall with graphite paper and painted it.

I used two sable brushes, #3 and #5/0.

For the fairy body, I used FolkArt Acrylic Skintone #949, FolkArt Buckskin Brown #418, Apple Barrel Burnt Sienna and FolkArt Metallic Peach Pearl #674.

The wings are Folk Art Metallic Plum #668 and FolkArt Metallic Rose Pearl # 673.

Her hair is the Apple Barrel Burnt Sienna. Her little bottom has a blush of the FolkArt Metallic Rose Pearl.

Next, I think I'll be adding a few widow skimmer dragonflies.

Spinning Blues

2010-01-24T11:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took a break from painting and attended the meeting of my handspinning guild, Peachtree Handspinners. This is such a great, talented group of people; I am always so inspired by their work.

Since this meeting was a 'social spin', meaning we just visited and played with our spinning wheels, I needed to take along some yummy fiber to spin. I dug through my stash and found two pounds of blue wool and white mohair that needed a trip through the drum carder. If I wanted the colors to be more blended, I could run it through the carder again. But, I think I like it this way.

Here is the result of my date with the carder. If I had to name this color, it would have to be "My New Blue Jeans".

This is how it it is spinning up. Newly carded fiber is a delight to spin. It drafts so easily, it almost spins itself.

Well, I'm off to practice painting fairies and dragonflies, before I actually paint them on my walls.

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 4

2010-01-18T18:52:00.001-05:00

Now the fun part begins! Today I'm adding the roses to my frieze.

I'm using Plaid's Decorator Blocks. I'm not sure if they still make them, but they can usually be found on ebay. They no longer make the glaze paint for them.

You can see an article about this product on Plaid's web page:
http://www.plaidonline.com/apDB.asp

Since the glaze paint is no longer available, I had to devise my own. Here are the tools I took with me up the ladder:

In my tray, I have two brushes, one to load the red paint, one for the green.
The paints are Liquitex Glazing Medium, Plaid Folk Art #958 Christmas Red, Plaid Folk Art #924 Thicket, and Plaid #901 Wicker White.
I also have a small cup of water, paper towels, and Plaid Decorator Blocks. The blocks are Plaid's # 53211 Roses Roses.
The pallet is a simple foam plate.

Each block is a foam stamp cut in the shape of part of the design. There are 3 leaves, 1 open rose, 1 partially open bud, and 1 small bud.

Put a small amount of glaze medium, green paint, and red paint on the pallet. (Once I began, I decided to not use the white paint.)

To begin, dip a slightly damp brush into the glaze medium, then into the paint. Mix them together on the brush. Then apply the paint to the Decorator Block.

Apply the block to the wall, and press firmly. Remove, choose another location, and press the block to the wall again. Each impression will be somewhat lighter than the previous one.

I'm glad I took my own advice, and started on the least obvious wall. I think this first part looks too heavy and over worked.

I like the second wall much better.

This is a close up of the second wall.

The first ten feet took about two hours. It should speed up a bit as I progress around the room. I have to take a break about every two hours...that's about as long as I can hang off the ladder at one time.

After I've done all the stamping, I'll go back with a liner brush and paint a few stems and tendrils.

Later I'll be adding other elements...fairies, dragonflies and birds are the current contenders.

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 3

2010-01-16T12:33:00.000-05:00

Today I begin painting the frieze.

This is my critical supervisor, Mattie the Great Pyrenees.

I begin by stenciling lattice just below the ceiling. I'm using an ergonomic stencil brush, which is easier to hold for long periods of time. This part of the project will take about three hours.

The stencil I'm using is a a one-part stencil. Some stencils are applied in layers, with separate stencils. This one is much simpler to use.

You'll want to start in the part of the room which is least noticeable as you enter the room. I usually start at the corner nearest the entry door. Your room may have a better starting point. Remember that the beginning and end of your stenciling pay not perfectly align when you reach the end. So, you want that point to be the least obvious place you can find.

As I head up the ladder, these are the tools I take with me.

I have a roll of special stencil tape. You could probably also use any low tack (blue) painters tape. The small bottle contains alcohol, which will dissolve paint in the case of a horrible mistake. (I did not need to use it! Be careful with it, because it can also remove your base paint.) The Q-Tips are for correcting small mistakes, such as smudging along the edges. The rag is for cleaning up larger smudges. I like microfiber cloths for this. My tools are contained in a very old paint tray, which fits onto the top of my ladder. None of my newer trays fit!

Stenciling is easy! All you have to do is apply the paint through the holes. If you have a new pot of stencil paint, you will need to use a paper towel to remove the film from the top of the paint. I like to use the cream type stencil paint. You could also use acrylic craft paint, but it is messier and is more likely to seep beneath the stencil.

Dab the tip of your brush into the stencil paint. You don't want to use very much. Using a swirling motion, apply the paint through the holes of the stencil. When I stencil, my goal is to apply the paint in a uniformly non-uniform manner. I want some areas a bit darker, some with the base coat showing through. But, I want this non-pattern to be fairly consistent throughout the project. This faux-shading will lend depth to your project.

This is the beginning of the stencil work.

A closer view.

When you come to a corner, form the stencil to the corner. This part is a bit fiddly. You may have to use your fingers to push the stencil against the corner as you apply the paint.

This is where my beginning and ending points met. You'll notice they don't match up perfectly. If I weren't doing more to this frieze, I'd want to make them blend better. But I'll be adding several more elements, which will conceal this area.

I'll let this dry a few days.

Next up...painting flowers...stay tuned...

Transforming the Bedroom - Part 2 - Feather Paint

2010-01-12T14:49:00.000-05:00

Today I applied the decorative feather duster painting to the bedroom walls.

You will find many feather duster tutorials online. I think mine is much simpler than most.

Buy at least two cheap feather dusters. I found mine at Big Lots several years ago for 69 cents each. You will not be able to re-use them...you'll be lucky to complete the job using only one.

I like to use a paint that is just barely darker than the rolled wall color. In this case, I am using Behr White Peach (Satin) as the base wall color, and Glidden Chemise Pink (Flat) for the feather painting. This gives a very subtle effect, and looks rather like damask fabric.

To paint my room, which is approximately 13' x 15' x 8' high, I used approximately 1 cup of paint. I started with a quart of paint, and still have most of it!

Keep a damp cloth handy.

Pour the paint into a paint tray. Enough to cover the bottom of the tray well about 1/2".

Dip the tip of the feather duster into the paint. Blot it a time or two on the flat part of the tray.

You might want to practice on a piece of cardboard, first. If you're confident, you still might want to start in the least noticeable corner of the room, or where a large piece of furniture will conceal your first effort.

Once you start, try to keep going.

When using a color similar to the wall color, you will need very good light to see where you have painted. I used the room's overhead light as well as a floor lamp (shade removed) with 3 100 watt bulbs. I moved the lamp as I progressed around the room.

Apply the paint to the wall, holding the feather duster straight in front of you. This method is something like sponge painting, but much easier and far less messy.

Dab the paint on the wall. Dab, remove, turn the duster, dab again. Turning the duster will keep you from having the same imprint over and over. I can usually make about 10-15 imprints before I need to load the duster again.

This was difficult to photograph...it is not really this dark!

Work quickly, without over-thinking the process. The more pressure you apply, the larger and mushier the imprint will be. If you make an imprint you really don't like, wipe it off immediately with a damp cloth (assuming you're not painting over flat paint).

You will also want to keep your damp cloth handy to remove any imprints from the trim.

You move very quickly with this method. I was able to feather paint this room in just over an hour.

When you finish, check to see if you missed any large areas.

Because you're using very little paint on the duster, this is a very tidy process. I don't use a drop cloth, but you might want to. Because you have the nice long handle on the feather duster, you'll get very little paint on your hands.

Next.... painting lattice for the border, using a stencil.... stay tuned...

Transforming the Bedroom

2010-01-12T12:25:00.000-05:00

Long Time, No Post!

Winter has come to the Deep South! Ice and snow has been on the ground for nearly a week...an event almost unheard of in the southern limits of the metro Atlanta area. My patio still has a sheet of ice across it...ice skating, anyone?

So, I've decided to take this time to paint my bedroom. When I moved to this house, all the downstairs rooms were painted a dark beige/brown/taupe sort of color...think Steelecase file cabinet. Very dark, very ugly!

This photo shows the paint chip against the ugly walls.

Here you can see what a difference a little paint will make!

Four coats of paint later, I've finished rolling Behr's 'White Peach' on the walls.

Today I will use a feather duster to add a bit of visual texture with a shade of paint just a bit darker and in a flat finish instead of satin.

After that, I'll be painting a border near the ceiling. Stay tuned for progress reports!

The Newnan Mass-A-Cree

2009-05-24T14:43:00.000-04:00

Remember Arlo Guthrie's hilarious classic song "Alice's Restuarant"? He refers to the Alice's Restaurant mass-a-cree. Well, this is the tale of the Newnan Mass-a cree.

I'm usually a peaceful sort of gal. But, this week I massacred a bunch of wasps and boxwood. The boxwood was put in by the house's builder, no doubt because it was the cheapest thing he could buy by the boxcar load.

This boxwood was horribly overgrown when we bought the house four years ago. But, I was working hideous hours and never had time to prune it. So, it became even more overgrown.

Boxwood grows BIG. Why on earth it is ever chosen for foundation plants, I will never understand.

So, one afternoon last week, I went out to prune the boxwood. Only problem was that the local wasps had selected our boxwood for their summer vacation home. Hmmm....I'm really afraid of wasps.

So, I grabbed a can of wasp spray and one of my mother's old canes. I'd whack the boxwood, wasps would fly out, and I'd spray them. I went up and down the whole front of the house, whacking and spraying. After a few hours, most of the wasps seemed to be gone.

I grabbed my teeny tiny wheelbarrow and lopping shears. After cutting one tenth of the first shrub away, my wheelbarrow was full. What was I thinking? So, I just started tossing them on the lawn.

Two hours later, the boxwoods were all cut down to stumps. I almost felt sorry for the few wasps who returned home to find their home all chopped down.

Now the boxwood have been hauled to an out of the way spot, awaiting the chipper.

The boxwood will look pretty ugly for a few weeks, then they'll sprout back out. By fall we'll decide if we want to completely remove them and replace them with something more interesting, or if we'll try to keep them pruned to a decent size.

The boxwood in front of the porch had grown almost as tall as the porch railing. Cutting them back revealed yet another of the builder's shortcuts...no lattice to cover the front of the opening under the porch.

Ebay is Not for Neat-nicks

2009-05-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

Have you ever run across something you no longer need and thought to yourself..."I could sell that on eBay". Many people make lots of money on eBay (I'm not one of them!).

Some of you may know that I've been selling stuff on eBay. I thought it would be a nice little way to supplement my retirement income. What I did not know is that it would TAKE OVER MY LIFE!

I don't have items listed all the time, but when I do they can be found at:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/sandance

These days most of the items I list are for a friend. This is the collection of his wife, who was my dear friend...mostly Disney and Coca-Cola collectibles.

This week I had 24 items listed. 12 of them sold. Most of these items were larger than the standard little USPS Priority Mail boxes. Some of them had rather odd dimensions and required digging deep for boxes...trying many to see if they would work.

I forage for shipping supplies wherever I can, because I HATE to have to buy shipping supplies. The post office will supply Priority Mail shipping boxes, but they don't come in all the sizes I need. Which means I usually have a lot of box and packing material clutter. As it happens, I have just received a nice donation of shipping supplies, including a gigantic bag of foam peanuts...which takes up as much space as a recliner!

I used to have a cute little office. A desk, bookshelves, a nice closet with all my weaving yarns....ah....how well I remember the good old pre-eBay days!

This is what my nice office looks like this evening, after a marathon eBay packing session:

That red table cloth is what I use as a backdrop for many of my photos of eBay-bound items.
The floor model Ott Lite lets me take photos without flash, minimizing glare. The boxes under the table (yes, there IS a table under all that stuff) are full of items that need to be listed on eBay...someday...

I used to have a dining room. For a few short months it was my weaving and summer sewing room. (The real sewing room is next to the attic and really hot in the summer.) Now the poor former dining room is the eBay packing material and eBay item staging facility. It's where I keep the items I'm selling for a friend...while they're waiting to be listed on eBay.

This is what my formerly cute little room now looks like. If you look really hard you can find the BIG 48" LeClerc loom and a Canadian Production spinning wheel with a big 30" drive wheel!

I'm taking a two week break from eBay and am going to try to clean up this mess!

The moral of the story is....before you decide to embark on an eBay voyage, ask yourself if you can live with the mess that's bound to sneak on board.

Lunacy in the Garden

2009-05-01T23:36:00.000-04:00

I suffered a nasty sunburn while gardening last weekend, and have since been hiding indoors. Today I was back in the garden to see what surprises it had in store for me.

This silly flamingo basket holder has been with me for quite a few years. This year it migrated from the patio to the flower border! It holds a Wave Petunia. I hope the frame will eventually be covered in pink flowers. The idea tickles my funnybone!

The oakleaf hydrangea (the tiny flower buds were shown in a previous post) now has big clusters of flower buds. Soon there will be white flowers. The white flowers will gradually turn to pink and will remain on the shrub all summer.

Anyone for a picnic? The picnic table in the woods is now almost completely hidden by foliage.

And lastly, the reason for the title of this post....
Luna-cy! After working in the garden all afternoon, I found this lovely creature on a window shutter on my front porch. I rarely see the Luna Moth, and it is always a treat.

The photo quality isn't so good. It was nearly dark, and I had to take the photo with a flash.

105 Degrees in APRIL???

2009-04-27T13:22:00.001-04:00

The last few days I've been out working in the new shrub/flower border in the back yard. We started this 4 years ago when we moved here, but decided last year that it needed to be much deeper. So, last summer we installed a rock border and started trying to kill the extremely invasive and much hated bermuda grass.

I can only work in this area for the few hours a day that it is shaded, so the work goes very slowly. At this rate, my perennials will be in the ground by Christmas.

When the sun drove me to the shaded patio this afternoon, I decided to take a thermometer to the border and see just how hot is was in the direct sun. I couldn't believe it! No wonder I was feeling faint digging those holes! 105.4 degrees after the thermometer had been there only a few minutes. Ignore the 9% humidity that shows in this photo...the temperature part works, but the humidity gauge has never worked.

The thermometer on the ground should be positioned just about the same way the sun was hitting my back while I was working out there. I see a nice cold drink in my very near future!

Native Azaleas

2009-04-16T19:10:00.001-04:00

The shrubs I thought might be Native Azalea ARE! I'm finding more and more of these lovely shrubs in the woods. The ones deep in shade don't bloom very well, but those at the edge of the woods bloom nicely. These aren't the nice tame little azalea bushes you buy at the garden center. These will grow into sprawling tree size shrubs. They don't bloom for long, but they are so lovely for a few weeks.

Garden Ornaments from Recycled Solar Lights

2009-04-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

The 3 year old solar lights were dead.

New rechargable batteries cost more than new lights.

Instead of sending them to the landfill, I made garden ornaments from the old lights.

We're calling them "Fairy Bells".

This is the original light.

I removed and discarded the top, which had the workings for the light.

Then, I removed the base that fits into the post, and turned it around.

Then I turned the glass globe upside down, and reattached the post. The post fits over the stake.

And now we have "Fairy Bells" in the garden.

The only part I had to discard was the round flat top part that held the batteries and solar panel.

A Walk in the Garden

2009-04-03T18:17:00.001-04:00

Okay, so the title is a bit pretentious. Actually, I stumbled around the yard with my camera.

It's time for our annual April freeze. Summer bulbs, shrubs and perennials are raising their hopeful little heads, only to be smacked down again by Old Man Winter...Mother Nature's cantankerous worser half. Every year I go out and cover everything in the hope that I can keep it from freezing...every year I fail. Most things recover...some don't. Winter ain't over til it's over....which ain't guaranteed until May 1 here in Metro Atlanta.

I wanted to check on some shrubs that I hoped were native azalea. A few weeks ago I cleaned a bunch of Mother Nature's uglies off of a bank that leads down into the woods behind the house...blackberries, honeysuckle, zillions of ugly little birch trees. Honeysuckle had engulfed several shrubs that looked suspiciously like Native Azalea. After weeks of rain, I notice now that they have big fat buds, that certainly look like native azalea.

This photo is of a bud on a plant that I know to be a Native Azalea. It sure looks like a more developed version of the photo above.

There are a couple of plants that I've not yet identified. Be ye friend, or be ye foe? If you know what they are, please speak up. Otherwise, I'll be pouring over books trying to ID them. Notice the bloom spike at the top.

Growing at the base of this plant is another unknown. It sort of looks like Virginia Creeper, though I've never seen that growing on our property.

The ferns new fronds are beginning to emerge.

The oakleaf hydrangea thinks it's already summer, foolish thing! If you look closely, you can see the little flower buds emerging.

The hopeful hosta are already almost a foot tall. I want to tell them 'go back, go back'. Every year they come up early and are turned into hosta-cicles by an April freeze.

And we end our garden tour with my favorite non-plant

item in the garden...the bottle tree. I've almost consumed enough blue-bottled wine to fill it with blue bottles.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Maybe I'll offer you some of that blue-bottled wine.

So, this is a blog...

2009-03-28T18:44:00.001-04:00

Friends have encouraged me to start a blog. Does anyone care what I have to say?

I finally painted a few plain white ceramic objects, which have been on my work table since last August. The frog's purpose is to hold a pan scrubber, and is for my mother's kitchen. The Soap and Lotion bottles are for my bathroom, and will match the border I painted. The mugs are for my mother, who is a fan of Keeping Up Appearances, wherein the heroine cherishes her cups with the "hand painted periwinkles". Here's a photo of the afternoon's work.