Sweet William

A couple of years ago, my friend Jennifer sent me a package of Sweet William in honor of her son, William. Those who know Jennifer, know the story of her sweet baby who now resides with Jesus.
I planted the seeds in a cute little pot right away but for some reason, the seedlings didn't thrive.....maybe because it gets so hot here.

I over planted the pot last year with some clover seeds. They promptly came up and lived right through the winter....see?



I decided to take a photo of the little gnome in the pot, surrounded by the soft clover.

Imagine my surprise to find a Sweet William poking its little head out of that pot!



Today, there is just one bloom........for Jennifer's own Sweet William...but I am happy to see that there are several others getting ready to bloom within the next week or so.

What a wonderful surprise!

Ironcraft challenge #17

In honor of the Royal Wedding, this week's challenge was to create a handmade wedding gift.

When I go to weddings, I always buy something off the registry so I almost didn't do the challenge. But, I decided I could keep whatever I made, so off to the web I went.
After ditching several ideas, I decided on an envelope book and used THIS tutorial . The only thing I did differently was to substitute a place mat for the cover because I didn't have any scrapbook paper large enough to make it...the envelopes I had were 6x8.

finished envelope recipe book:






since I was keeping it, I hand wrote the labels instead printing them out.



After making it, I thought of how you could make a gift card holder the same way and made this:


IC challenge #17....Check!

Mosaic Monday

Here is a birdbath I made back in 2002...

I gave it to my in-laws who had wanted one for their front yard. I really love how this one turned out.




I took these photos when we visited at Christmas and I didn't have time to clean the basin out. There is a sun in the middle...just hard to see it clearly.


I had forgotten how lovely this one turned out.....

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

John 11:25-26

Friday Flashback!

Oh my goodness how I used to LOVE Saturday mornings.

gotta love the oldies but goodies....

Remember this one?

ready for a break...

The kids are both ready for a break from school.....and by the looks of it Matt needs knee pads!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Christian, husband, father, friend, hugger, handyman, provider, high stuff reacher, wine bottle opener, electrical gadget fixer, appliance installer and repairman, Christmas light put up and take down person, grill, short order cook, joke teller, mentor, good advice giver, trying to make a better life for his family... man.

I know I didn't cover it all....but this gives you a good idea of how lucky I am.

Thank you Lord for putting Dean in my path and giving me the sense to open my heart to him.

Happy Birthday Dean....I love you.

Ironcraft #15

This week's ironcraft challenge was to create art using peeps.

I groaned when I read that.....I wouldn't eat a peep if it jumped in my mouth so the thought of working with them kinda grossed me out.

I decided that I would buy just ONE pack of peeps and do something little just to say I completed the challenge. With that in mind, I decided I simply could NOT proceed without tasting one again. So, off to the store I went. I bought my pack of peeps and 1 peep dipped in chocolate (everything is better with chocolate, right?)
I got in my car and ate the peep. I could barely choke it down. Apparently, some things are NOT better with chocolate!

I get home and start thinking of something little to make.....but then once I started thinking of ideas, my brain simply would NOT shut up.

I thought about peeps and the round table, 1 eyed, one eared flying purple peeple eaters and about voo doo doll peeps....and frankenpeeps and Harry Peeper peeps and even a "peeping" peep. I thought about 3 little peeps and the big bad wolf and little red riding hood and the big bad peep, and Mary Peepins, and the Village Peeple .

And, and,and...the list can go on and on and on...in other words, I had TONS of ideas.

I could have done some great dioramas if I'd had the time but between work, family and massive clean up thanks to a BAD KITTY named Leo, I had just enough free time to do a few things. (BTW, anyone want a free cat?)

So instead, I made peeps on the cob....

which Matt taste tested for me....and prefers not to do again.


and then I made Princess and the Peep...



and a slightly sticky peep pincushion...


I considered myself done.

But then, I though....Okay, Val, those aren't really ART, right? I decided to use the rest of the pack and do something a bit more creative.....so I decided to use the fairy house I made for last year's YOE challenge and incorporate the peeps into it.

so what do we have here? A peep fairy inviting some friends to something?


a peep PARTY perhaps?


are those fairy peeps dancing around a maypole?



are those topeeparies I see?

why, YES! That must be the frog king, making a grand entrance with the royal peep fairy family!

And look! A fairy ring, complete with frog servant ready to light up the festivities when night falls!


and over looking to keep them all safe from unwanted visitors, is the fairy steed.

Yes, fairy lore states that Corgis are the fairy's steed! Although his saddle mark is not visible in this photo, he has a lovely one.

I'm sure he feels quite regal today.


Who would have known I would have had such fun?

lizard hunting

Suki loves to hunt lizards....


and the lizards love to tease Suki.......


especially when they are outside and she is trapped inside!

See?

and after an unsuccessful day of hunting through the window, she collapses into a disgruntled heap on something I'm working with....just to teach me a lesson for keeping her housebound.

which gives Leo the chance to try......

he especially loves it when they skitter across the window screen!

a little green onion tip...

see these green onions? I've got a tip for you!

instead of dicing them, I use kitchen shears to cut them...


so much neater and faster...see how pretty and uniform?but that's not the tip...not the REAL tip....



here's the tip...

If needed, when we move, I buy 1-2 packs of green onions for 33 cents. (Sometimes I take them with me!)

After cutting off the green part, I plant the little white bulbs with the roots. They'll start growing immediately and you can harvest them once they get long enough again.

The corner on my patio keeps the wind from breaking the sprouts and protects them from freezing temps. They haven't died yet and we've been here 4 years now.


Here they are...along with tarragon, oregano and baby lettuce just starting to grow...all thrown together right outside my patio door within easy reach.....


so what are you waiting for?

springy stuff

I don't do a lot of spring decorating. I look at my yard as the major decoration for spring and summer.....since we work in it so much.

But when I took down my little shamrock garland, my mantle looked so naked and sad....I felt compelled to make something.

Since the fall rag swag turned out so well, I made one using springy colors.

I am really pleased with how sweet it looks (even if it doesn't go with my house colors!)

The egg cups on the mantle will go on the table for Easter...they just need somewhere to live until then. The eggs in them are delicate, more on that later...



center of the swag, centered with a vintage wooden egg we got while living in Germany.


close up to see the fabrics :-)

Well...that's about as springy as this place gets...inside!

Ironcraft #14

This week's Ironcraft challenge was to make a postcard sized art card.

I've never made one...never even WANTED to make one. That being said, I went at it like I was making a collage...sort of.

Since I didn't have paper with words on it, I made some using publisher...but it had spaces so I added paint, fabric, foil flowers and lots of glitter.....of course, I didn't plan ahead...just added as I went along so I painted LAST instead of first!

Overall, I enjoyed the challenge and am pleased with the results:


And yes, I DO Believe in Faeries!

Gunter!

After my last Gunter post, Kaela and her friend took pity on me and said they'd go see Gnomeo and Juliet with me! I was so excited!
I bundled up Gunter and a toy gnome to drop for Toy Society and off we all went.

When we got there, the movie was GONE! (They hadn't updated their website yet.)

I decided to do the drop anyway and ran into a packed theater showing HOP. I stuffed Gnomeo into a cup holder, took my picture and ran back out.




Here he is...I hope someone rescued him!


Since we were already at the movies, we went to see Beastly instead.
Dean didn't want to see it anyway so this was our chance to watch it.

Notice the girls sat BEHIND me....ashamed of my date with Gunter. I wasn't upset though...they both had enough perfume on to choke a horse.

Lucky for me, Gunter was a good date. He didn't eat my munchies, kept his hands to himself (hee hee) and best of all, he kept his mouth shut during the sappy scenes!

How in the world?

How in the world do you fall asleep like this? (I sure can't)


Poor Kaela.
Monday's are sooooo hard! She always has a ton of homework so she does it in the dining room to have more room.

I was cooking dinner and poked my head around the corner to check on her......
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......

How soft serve cones are really made....




Happy April Fool's Day!