garden chair

One of my favorite things I did for our yard in Fort Worth was a little chair filled with thyme. I had knocked the seat out and used chicken wire and moss to create a sweet little garden. I decided to do the same thing again here.

I have been looking for about 3 years for a cheap old ladder back or ice cream chair...to no avail.
We are close enough to New Orleans that anything old is automatically labeled "antique" and I was NOT about to pay 30 bucks for a chair I planned to demolish. Sorry, I'm cheap that way.

Anyway, my sister (thank you!) gave me this sweet little chair.

I tore out the caning, painted it and gave it a couple coats of polyurethane....and now looks like this...


I used a coconut liner this time around instead of chicken wire because the wire kept sticking me. If it doesn't hold up, I'll redo it next year.

It has verbena, ivy, creeping fig and purple oxalis in it. I can't wait for everything to fill in. I know it is going to look amazing in this little niche. I just need to relocate the ladybug house now....maybe. 

once the Morning Glory took over during the summer....

Happy planting

Dean and I always have had a nice, large veggie and cutting garden....until we moved here.
Our backyard is fairly narrow so we could never decide how we wanted to put one in ...without taking up the whole yard. Having two dogs, we really needed to have a yard for them too.
That being said, we never got around to making one and the last several years, I've had my veggies in pots on the patio.

But then this man....


and this younger man...

Built me a simple space that is perfect for me.
They put it together in a couple of hours on Saturday after they played golf. It is small, only 20 feet long by 2 feet wide, but I'm very pleased with it. I can't wait 'til fall when I can plant my lettuce and argula in it instead of a pot!


Once finished, we planted it with veggies I already had in pots on the back patio...so now we have our patio back.
Right now we have tomatoes, basil, cilantro and red bells in it.
I've seeded the length of it with nasturtiums...cannot wait for those to grow.

After they finished it, Dean stepped back and decided he wants to do a few more things using this basic box. Whatever he decides, I know it will be perfect and I'll be happy planting away in it.

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes. "
~Author Unknown

summer is coming

When the Morning Glory starts to bloom


and strawberries are as big as the palm of your hand


(doesn't it look pretty in this glass of wine?)



and you can harvest from this little herb garden nightly but it grows right back for the next night...


you know summer is right around the corner.

paperclay ornaments

Dean was out of town last weekend and I made some ornaments for YOE.

I had some paper clay on hand and got to work making ornaments. After several fails, I decided paper clay is not for me. As much as I love it, I just don't have the skills for it. I'm not ever going to make is as a "sculptor!"

Luckily, I did manage to make a few things out of it which I thought turned out pretty well.

A trio of little paperclay pins...


paperclay birdie in a party hat....


And two paperclay snowmen...



While all the glitter was drying on the other ornaments, I made these felt bunny ornaments for someone else:


Last but not least is this little bird in her nest:

I used a small antique ladle and bent the handle back so it doesn't need a hanger.
I was going to embellish it a bit but once on the tree, I decided to leave it alone because the tinsel picks up the lights so well.

My little YOE tree is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see what it looks like this year.

red bird

Look what was sitting in the middle of a 4 lane road...



I don't know if he'd smacked into a car and been stunned (or what) but since it was after 5 pm, my vet was closed so I just checked him over myself.
He didn't seem injured and was pretty active, peeping at me the whole time I was holding him.

I moved him to an area with some bushes, said a prayer over him and left...but as soon as pulled into our driveway, I turned around and went back for him!
I'm happy to say in the 5 minutes it took, he had already flown off and was up in a tree.

crochet cell phone cover

I needed to make myself a new cell phone cover to replace the one I made a couple years ago.

After seeing these...


I made this....


Wishing you all a happy week!

Strawberry Festival

Dean used to go to the Strawberry Festival as a child and wanted to go again with our kids.

We piled into the car, the festival was about 45 minutes away in Ponchatoula. We had to park about 4 blocks out but it was a GORGEOUS day.




Kaela invited a friend and they went on some rides. Kaela loves the kind of rides that would make me sick....her friend, not so much.

This ride was just a warm up....

for THIS one.....



.how do you like going upside down?


that ride was a little more than even Kaela expected!

The lines to the rides were really long so Matt and I went found some shade while we waited.


Then he won Kaela a big dog at the basketball shoot....first try.




lots of people, lots of food.....


I can't imagine walking around a festival in these shoes...


The strawberries were picked that morning and out of an entire flat of strawberries, there were only 3 that were bad.


We dipped some, froze some, sliced some with sugar and left some whole for snacking. They were so delicious....next time we are getting two flats!


by Monday ALL the chocolate dipped ones were gone!