a special lady...

Yesterday was Mom's birthday. She has been gone 10 years now.... not a day goes by without wishing I could just pick up the phone...or hop a plane... ... my sister said the same in her email last night...we miss her every single day.













Everybody who knew her said the same.. she was a special person, with a special twinkle... and was just about this "cheeky"... almost til the end.










After seeing Susan's great looking biscuits the other day ... I baked some on Mom's day. Mine were more like scones .. rustic and with raisins. Mom would have been sitting there at the kitchen table eagerly awaiting the ding, ding of the timer. Straight from oven to table I went... and sat there with coffee .... savouring 2 lovely, steaming scones ... .. "yummmming" all the while, just as she and I would have done had she been here. She used to love it when anybody baked... anybody except her. As a matter of fact as she got older..her favourite thing to make for supper was reservations. We called goodies "baddies" ... I still do. Not sure if it began because we figured we were being bad or because the treats were just so darn good they were "bad". Tiny she was but with a pretty good appetite; especially if somebody else was doing the cooking. If she had to fend for herself, a cup of tea and some toast would do. One cookie or scone or piece of cake was never enough for any of us though when we got together for a visit . ... and in this I include my sister ... because we do make pretty good "baddies" if I say so myself. We'd be sitting there...then give each other that look... flash a wicked grin... and snatch another off the plate just because... then we'd look all serious and jump up and pretend to do a few jumping jacks or high knee lifts to burn off the extra calories.... hahahha... ... fall back into our chairs laughing and giggling at our silliness .... to enjoy seconds or thirds with a lovely cup of tea. What fun we had doing the simplest things together...














She loved flowers and would have loved a simple bouquet from my garden too... a single stem of little yellow lilies bloomed amongst my daisies on this special day....

Susan made me do it...

Not physically.. 'cuz she does live thousands of miles away...but, in a manner of speaking she did, because she posted beautiful pictures of her geraniums... it just seemed a natural reaction to run outside with my camera to see if I could capture a few pretty petals of my own.










... then I baked another batch of lemon blueberry muffins ... still working on the fresh berries I bought....... they are great fresh and warm from the oven, but I am freezing several batches too.













mmmmfffpphhh... oops... s'cuse me... yum! mmm, so good with a steaming mug of coffee.......










another beautiful sunny warm day.....










the flowers are loving it....... so am I... and tomorrow...I'm baking biscuits!! ... which is also entirely Susan's fault.... because how could you not want to sink your teeth into some of these perfect golden beauties? Yep... she was baking this morning too ... oh, I am such a copycat ! I just have to give my fav old biscuit recipe a go.... how can I resist?

play day...

Mowed the lawn a few days ago..dusted 2 days ago... golfed and baked yesterday... hah! time for a play day!

So... I made a second little tiny kimono just for fun. Recognize my fabric? One and the same.. Henry was sitting on it for his pics. The pattern info mentions that you can put a skewer through the sleeve area for hanging...perhaps even add a thin silver or gold cord to the tiny skewer and use them as Christmas tree decorations. I can see them in a shallow shadow box frame....













Some days it is fun to do a small thing that can be finished in "jig time" as they say...well, I don't actually know who uses that saying.....but my sister and I do say it on occasion; adding the "as they say" part, as we do, and then wondering...who says that anyway? ..........lol....

After another warm one yesterday.. although not as warm as a few days ago.... there was the welcome tap, tapping and trickling sound of rain in the downspout late last night...and all through til morning The lawns needed it; they were beginning to get a bit crispy looking.

Fresh blueberries were on sale yesterday...so... perhaps today I will also bake.... lemon blueberry muffins....mmmmm...... lovely and lemony..... my mouth is watering just thinking about the lemony part.

yet another crafty "thing".....

The tiny pansies in my last entry reminded me of these cards. It never ends once a person begins with crafty "stuff". There are soooo many fun things to try and even if you only do it once, sometimes it just has to be done. Just to see if you can do it. Have you ever saved and pressed flowers? Here is one to use some of the sweet little pansies, violas or bits and pieces of interesting greenery or other fun stuff you may find in your garden. (or the neighbour's) ... they'll never miss a few tiny leaves...













I bought some blank cards and envelopes... probably at Michael's... arranged some of my pressed flowers and leaves in positions that I liked...and put over some 3 inch wide matte tape. These are not from this year ..and now..I'm sorry to say I can't remember what the tape is called...but bet I got it from Michael's also. It is a bit wider than packing tape. The tricky bit is getting the tape situated when all the fly away bits do just that...fly away! The static just seemed to lift them off the paper !! arrgghhh! ...but...I did get several nice ones finished and sent them off as gifts. I saved a couple for me...













My Mom bought me two cards that she saw in a Victoria book and card shop. Just as she thought, I wanted to try making my own. They were my prototype...

the first two are mine and this is one of the originals.













original in the centre..mine on either side.

..... all plans should be loosely woven.....

hahahhaha..... I was going to begin with the number 201...but how un-fun would that be? No subjects or fun titles? no little bit of intrigue or piquing of interest? ...

You know how when you carefully plan a day? And then... you get a phone call? somebody cancels... or the weather changes? the golf course closes on account of lightening.. or.. the car quits.. or .. well, if you like to make lists or plans..then you know it all too well. A perfect reason to make them loosely woven... plenty of room for spontaneity or changes... or to crumple and toss them entirely... OR... better yet... keep them and remember to write down all the extras you did during a pretty busy day and pat yourself on the back when you glance at it last thing before a well deserved early night! .... sometimes I make lists, but mostly don't bother anymore. Decided it was a waste of time making them as I never seemed to accomplish most of what seemed important in the morning. Life got in the way...or I didn't feel like doing some things..or other "stuff" just became more fun. Like, going outside and forgetting to come back in. I do it for hours at a time. How that many hours can fly by while I pick and dig I don't know..but they do.













The last beautiful petals of the spent peonies....













a few bright rays of sunshine through the leaves of the Mayday. Good thing I looked up...... cuz, I realized how black it was to the north... and sped up more than a notch..










.... still wanted to mow the lawn in preparation for a few dim days with the forecast of showers. Look Susan...I, too, have a "beast rouge" .. perhaps they're related? ..or are most beasts of the rouge variety? I'm pretty fond of Old Red... he does a great job and is totally reliable.













How do these little guys grow in such teensy spaces?... and so healthy looking too? the ones in my garden should be so green......













This sort of reminds me of Shakkei in Japanese gardening... .. the borrowing of a distant view through strategically pruned greenery or perhaps a window or door opening ..etc. .. except the viola is not very distant...

200th post!

Hmmmm.... must not be quite as prolific or gabby as I first thought I was .... some folks are still not at their first year anniversary and have already posted a 300th entry!.... I better pick it up... hahhaha... or... not. It doesn't matter at all if we do it daily..or weekly... or whenever.... as long as it is still fun to do.

Yesterday was fun.... Maggi came to play. We do dolls, bears or other assorted crafty stuff together every so often. She is my sewing guru... seeing as I just learned to sew with a machine in the last few years..and don't do nearly enough to get very proficient at it. I have had this little pattern for years... just because I love Kimono and all things Japanese-y ..... but have never been able to understand the concept of the stitching explanation ... Maggi figured it out.













This is my little effort.













It is not quite as tidy as it might have been had I chosen a different backing fabric. The front is brocade and already has a tendency to be sort of puffy and not press well...but, then I chose a backing fabric that was pretty slippery on one side... just because I liked the colour combinations... and it was a b^*%# to try to press with the same size trim all along the length of the stitched piece. I want to redeem myself...and do another right away with something that is non-slippery! Sadly...I didn't think to picture Maggi's before she left. It was lovely colours...and perfectly even and pressed......

However, I do have these pics of a little dragon that she made for me! Isn't he sweet? He is not too fierce at only 3 inches tall...but I won't be sending him out on any knight searing jaunts anyway, so it's okay.










He will be sitting comfortably in my curio with a hug of little bears.










I love this little guy!

just another perfect day in paradise.....

The Pink Pixies bloomed yesterday....










Dragon's Blood too....













oh, look,.... a field of astors .. well, not really a field, but a bunch..













This little guy was so busy he was ignoring me... I don't really like bees but he was pretty funny going in and out of every single penstemone trumpet flower.....










Aren't these the loveliest pastel shade of pansy?

a grey day...

Yesterday the sky was grey and the day cool. Very cool. As a matter of fact it was only +8 C in the morning! Seemed like it was about the same in most areas of Canada... Johny Day in Montreal recorded huge clouds on his Flickr site... Susan in Nova Scotia showed miles of beach with overcast skies... dark, cool looking ocean..brrr... didn't hear from my sis in B.C>.... hope it was cool for her...they need some moisture and a cool day for sure..... it gets reeeeelllly hot there.

We needed a break from the hot dry days...and ..I needed..... a baking day! It was perfect. Definitely felt the need to warm things up a bit without turning on the furnace...hahahha..... and why not just turn on the oven? We were out of bread anyway.... so that was first on the list. Put on a sweater and get going. Well, first after going in and out to turn on and off each solenoid for the 5 watering zones in the yard and time them for about 20 minutes each. It needed water and who could trust the weather man? However, the auto pilot for the sprinkler system only did the flower beds for some reason...we must try it again next week to check out what happened. It may just be that the power outage a few days ago caused it to revert to an alternate program. So there was a bit of "inning and outing" for an hour. We always pat ourselves on the back about our irrigation system and how well it works... ...seeing as we did plenty of messy, dirty, hot, summer digging about 10 years ago.. and installed the whole system ourselves. The yard was a wreck and looked like giant moles had been hard at work trying to convince us to leave or something. So far it has been the only one in our neighbourhood that has worked properly. Service men are seen daily at all of the other houses that had them professionally done. And..even then... they come to us for advice when they have leaks. Huh?? As if we know what we are doing..hahahhah..... Mr. BumbleVee did study up on it as he does with all of our reno projects...but quite honestly..we just go by any info we get from the suppliers and the installers... and go for it. ..the same as with our drywalling, tiling, plumbing, , etc... however, I do say in the same breath that we go for it with great care and attention to every minute detail. Maybe that is the key.









Anyway.... had fun mixing up a batch of multi grain dough... left it to rise...then on with some blueberry muffins...









... organized some stuffed eggplant for supper..then...well...then...I ran out of steam and had a nap!










.... later, when I went out to enjoy the flowers and see if everything got a good soaking... I found this pretty little half of a robin's egg sitting on the Pink Chintz Thyme. Just turfed from the nest in the blue spruce I think...... It looked so cute, I just had to take a picture of it.









Bread recipe and more on my other blog...

Sit tight for just a few minutes more Henry.....

So... who wants to play fetch? Anybody? Come on... toss me this old stick, okay?













No?... but,....it'll be fun. You'll see.... come on... let's go outside and play....













Now?... can we go outside now? ..puhleeeeeez...

Okay.... well, when?













Hmmm... maybe it is long enough... ... now he is marching back and forth like a little drum major... waving his stick around... obviously reeeeelly trying for attention ..

This is little Henry..... much like my other tiny creatures...he only reached that magical height of 2 and 1/2 inches seated. A teensy bit taller standing... which he only does to get my attention for something special...like stick chasing. Well...that and food....

He is a needle felted puppy... using some Alpaca Merino mix wool. His nose is embroidered with black Perle cotton and he has black onyx bead eyes.

I began him some time ago... but Bob T. Bear encouraged us to do some crafty thing this past week.... it was the perfect impetus needed to finish off a project... thanks Bob!

a good day....

Petals are beginning to fall.... the penstemones are beginning to droop... they remind me somewhat of laburnum clusters now. I don't have the heart to toss them... perhaps there is one more day in them yet...

Ran out of steam last night so didn't finish the ceiling...but tonight... got the last few panels cut and trimmed...and voila! New ceiling. It looks wonderful!!










So professional, clean and new looking... and with 4 pot lights in the room as well as the glass block window... lovely and bright. Now for cupboards and drawers...and I might even look for one of those ironing boards that can be built into a drawer and only pulled out when necessary. Which at my house is not often. Wonder who makes those?










And.... I managed to run a load of washing through all by myself. Yep... totally unsupervised. Feel pretty much like a big girl today. Of course, I had the handy info booklet in hand...but I did it. I was feeling so good about it that I went straight to my treat cupboard and "rewarded me". Have you ever seen these? Pretty tasty little morsels... 'course, they are 230 calories per 25 chips if I remember correctly... and they go down so fast.... you won't want to keep them around on a regular basis.

still beautiful....

Almost 3 days now....and still lovely....

Today we got a slow start...but the ceiling in the laundry room is now going swimmingly.... but, supper's gonna be late......










Four pot light cannisters to cut around.. a couple of 45's in the corner you can't see...and some dado cuts to make.. and.. well... we will get it completed today..but it will be dark.










Look how nice and professional it looks.... ooohhhh .... can hardly wait to see it all done. Then...cabinets to build.

We have done a suspended ceiling in the past (my exercise room)... but...it was several years ago. Can't get the exact ceiling tiles anymore... but found something close. Not that it really matters... totally different rooms...and who really examines each of your ceilings anyway? I was thinking how great it is that my sweetie remembers how to do all of this stuff ... even if we have only tried it once. So... was asking some questions so that I would remember what to be ready for ..etc...and then he used those famous last words... it isn't rocket science....sigh.....

Sure enough..... it seems that the 2 foot sections of cross members that we purchased are not quite 2 feet ....and won't sit right on the main braces.... hmmmm.... geeee..... maybe we have to purchase 4 foot lengths and cut them each and every time? This could get a bit more expensive than first thought...plus be a lot more measuring and cutting.....one now has an end cut off... trash bin. And... somebody had to drive off to Rona to see if he can discover the reason things don't measure up. Silly me... I asked if there were perhaps some pamphlets of info so that we could just refresh our memories on how to do it.... Glare! you know the look! yikes... okay...I'll just go change some sheets and try to see if I can figure out how to use the washer this weekend.

Last weekend... it seemed perhaps it WAS rocket science to operate that baby.... perhaps I will need to upgrade my skills... maybe a training module or special weekend course at NASA...











I'm certain there must be special papers needed to do laundry in this space age laundry room. Mr. Bumblevee seems to have the washer all figured out already... as a matter of fact... he had to supervise all 9 loads of laundry that we did on Sunday after the washer being out of commission for this length of time... I was having no luck at all getting the blinking thing to work.










Obviously I am doing something wrong. It keeps defaulting to "Child Lock" ... and then... it won't start. Finally figured something out though. If I just continue to hold down the Start button when that happens ... it will start! But, come on !!! There is a way to de-activate the Child Lock and I did figure that out.... but, somehow it defaults to the "on" position every time I touch the machine. However, there was a power outage the other morning just before I tried to do the first load unsupervised... perhaps the programming got screwed up when that happened? I'm hoping that's all it was.... or my mister may become the official doer of the laundry around here. This reminds me of the remote control.... why can't there just be a simple switch??......

Lazy summer days.....

Yesterday was perfect...and, today another one.... glorious summer days. Warm enough though and it is nice when the sun goes behind a cloud..or probably more accurately, when a cloud floats in front of the sun. Perfect for puttering about in the garden areas... and if it gets too hot in the sun..I just follow the shade as it shifts from area to area... watering a few new little babies with my watering can. I love to do that. Forget the hose. It is just more fun to use the watering can. Plus, I like to dig the soil a bit and don't want to get it all wet at once.. just need to do small areas at a time. You know...just enjoy the hours. And, it IS hours too.... they pass by so quickly when I am out there. Mostly, just standing around with a silly grin on my face.... sipping some juice.... looking at my little pansies... checking my new hens and chicks I brought home from Vikki's... wondering what the one little guy is that got dug up and transplanted with them. We think it might be a lamb's tail or something similar. Whatever it is...it is doing great...likes the spot I chose for it. I have one really dry area at the bottom of a rather green area... poor soil... rock plants, cacti, fescu and some sedum type ground cover.. and my new little fuzzy plant. I didn't bother to change it or add better soil... the desert type plants there love it. I just toss in more found pebbles from time to time. The new transplants should do very well... they were all planted on the full moon when we got home from B.C. Remember the last full moon?..it was the big Strawberry Moon.... perfect!













I decided I just had to bring some of the peonies inside. They are on the side of the house where I see them each morning when I open the bedroom windows.... but... then... throughout the day... they are pretty much out of sight. Not good enough. They are too beautiful and have too short a bloom period. I need to see them all day every day while they are perfect!













And they ARE perfect too... all by themselves .. but I decided to add a few sprigs of the amazing deep hued penstemones.... even better....





























The velvety clouds of angel pink remind me of some of Iwona Jankowski's huge flower paintings. I once bought a tiny horse ACEO from her on ebay when I was beginning my little collection. .... .. ... she has some interesting paintings.