Going To Peru

It's been crazy crazy busy around my house this summer. I had all these plans and so far I've not had any time to do them. But the last two weeks, my busyness has been for a good cause. We had a garage sale to help our middle son Patrick. He is raising money to go to Peru the end of this month on a missionary trip with our church. We had so much stuff donated to sell that we had the garage sale two weekends in a row. It was such a blessing to see people give extra when they found out what the proceeds were going for!! I have to say I'm very proud of my son, he is my shy one. To see him step up and do this has been such a blessing for his dad and I. Through this I have already seen his faith grow, because he has seen how God is providing for this trip. I ask that you keep him and the whole team in your prayers as they travel and do the work God has put before them. Thanks!!!

Garden Art Day

Garden Art Day

Today I participated in one of the events at The Calendar Garden. This is my first time at this cute garden center. It's just outside of Magnolia, Texas. Today was Garden Art Day. We planted red, white and blue flowers just in time for the 4th Of July. I had lots of fun with the other ladies. I plan to go the the next one in July.

This is the blue glazed pot that I planted red, white and blue flowers in. It will look very nice on my craft cottage porch. I think I am going to stick some American flags into it.

Red, White and Blue Flowers Fellow Gardeners

Lemon Cucumbers

Lemon Cucumbers
I wanted to post this picture of my heirloom Lemon Cucumbers that I have been growing in my garden. My hubby said he thinks these are the best cucumber he has ever eaten, they are very good. They are called Lemon Cucumber because of their shape and size. They don't have a lemon taste though. I plan to use them for Bread and Butter pickles, if I can enough before they are eaten.

I had been waiting and watching for my butterfly, checking everyday. However last week was very busy for me. I was helping every evening with Vacation Bible School at my church. Started working out at Curves. So one morning last week I went out to check and my butterfly had come out of it's Chrysalis, only I had missed it!!! I have to say I was a bit disappointed!!

Today I went out to the craft cottage to make some greeting cards, but I ended up doing some cleaning instead. Which it really needed. I'm not finished, but I can now see my work table. My sweet husband came out and said " I don't think you could get another thing in here", Hmmmm is that a challenge?

Between my garden and everything else going on I haven't had much time to work on my crafts, but I hope to get back to my crafting very soon!!! I have several projects I would like to finish before the summer is over.

In My Herb Garden #4

Just a quick update on my Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar. Yesterday evening I went out to check on my caterpillar, In just a few hours had already gone from the pre-pula stage into the Chrysalis stage!! I wish I had checked back just a little earlier, I may had seen it happening. Oh well, I guess I can't stand over it like a mother hen!! Next the Chrysalis should become transparent, then I will know the time is near for a beautiful butterfly to emerge. I am enjoying watching this metamorphosis process!!!! I do hope I get a picture of the butterfly before it flies away!

In My Herb Garden #3

This morning I went out to check on the Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar. I noticed that he had attached himself to a stem on my dill plant. This is the pre-pupa stage. From what I read it will stay this way for 1-2 days and then the chrysalis begins forming. And it should emerge as an adult butterfly in 8-14 days. I hope I am around when that happens!!

In My Herb Garden #2

Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

The other day when I made my morning rounds of my gardens I spied this little guy munching away on my dill plants. It's a Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar. I only have two dill plants, because I have a small herb garden. My dilemma, do I leave him alone or do I remove him. The only thing these caterpillars eat are dill, fennel, parsley and rue. Well out of those I only have dill. So when I found that out moving him wasn't an option anymore. My friend said I should leave him and she would let me have any dill seeds I want. So I decided to just enjoy watching him eat my dill and grow. Maybe I will even see him when he becomes a beautiful butterfly!!!

Altered Bottle and Fabric Tag

I really enjoy doing altered art of any kind. This an old vintage bottle I added some fun things to. The pendant with faces are from my collection of old vintage photos, the pendent was originally an older piece that I either got at a garage sale in a box of costume jewelry or it was in some stuff someone gave me. I can't remember which, but I had fun redoing it . I have a photo of what it did look like before I changed it.

This is "The Before" picture.

Not the best picture, but this is "The After" picture

This a fabric tag I made for a very sweet fellow blogger, I hope she likes it!

I made the little bird nest out of copper wire and I made the eggs out of polymer clay that I tinted light blue with just a small amount of blue clay added to white clay. Then I shaped them into egg shapes, put them in the copper nest and baked them. The nest is about the size of a quarter.