Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Color - Glorious color and Thankfulness

Good evening friends ~ Here we are into another week, for us right now, the beginning of the end of yet another day.

It was cooler today than yesterday and for that we are thankful. Tomorrow we have a 50% chance of rain and I hope it happens, as things in the gardens are needing a good soaking. Hand watering isn't quite the same as a watering from heaven.

We had an unexpected auto expense today, but had the money to pay for it, for that we are thankful.

Our home, and vehicles are paid for, we have groceries, our bills are paid, for those things we are also thankful.

Here are some more sunrise pictures from the other morning. I was starting to fix our morning coffee when I noticed the sunrise out the window so grabbed my camera and headed outdoors.

I gasp when I see the wonderful colors and cloud formations of some sunrises. I hope you enjoy these pictures as I did the real thing. Each new day is a gift, may we appreciate each one and enjoy the many blessings that come our way. May we learn, grow in love and all things good.

Click on pictures for a larger view.










The other day it was so hot and humid out I did NOT feel like doing anything outside at all, so I cut out squares of fabric for a quilt I've had in mind for a couple of years now. By suppertime, I had the squares all cut out, had laid them out on the bed and now I look forward to sewing them all together then adding the embellishments, which are crocheted pieces which will be sewn on and I will also do embroidery on the whole piece. Ideas are still cogitating in my brain.

This piece is for my dear husband, the love of my life. I can hardly wait to have this done, and am enjoying each stage of the process. (Excuse our bedroom as it is still in remodeling mode.)


Here are the stacks of squares for each row.
There are nine rows, with 7 squares across.



Here are some of the crocheted embellishments I made.



This is my first quilt, and will be my last. It is a gift of love to my DH for all he means to me. The paisley pattern has been a favorite of ours since we first started dating. We had matching shirts back then, and the four purple/pink squares in the middle of the quilt is from the one remaining shirt that I found recently that had been in the attic. I have bought paisley patterned skirts through the years, and have saved them for the material, as I've outgrown the skirts. :-) I did some research on Paisley when I got this idea, and found out that Paisley in Zorostrianism stands for 'life and eternity'.

Love is eternal.


******

Today I did more work on my Zebra Longwing butterfly.

I've still got to draw in and then embroider the hamelia paten flowers and a bit of greenery.



That's it for tonight, time to get horizontal and read for awhile before sleeping.
Hope you all have a restful night and a great day tomorrow.

***

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
Epictetus




Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Friday, June 25, 2010

Summer blooms, etc.

Good morning. Can hardly believe that it is Friday already. Below are some pictures taken this week.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I'm working at my job today and tomorrow, so no gardening those two days. I'm just going to say that the first one is of the Blackberry Lily or Leopard Lily bloom. The rest I'll fill in later, as I've got to get a move on. Click on pictures for larger views.


**************

When words escape,
flowers speak.
Bruce W. Currie

**************



Duchesse de Brabant





Dwarf Orchid tree bloom.



Old Blush bud.



Pink Pet or Caldwell's Pink



Trumpet vine blooms.



Vanda Pencil orchids



Vincas







My shed's garden with crepe myrtle in full bloom.



Queen Crepe blooms in the foreground.



Latest lavender filled sachets.





Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sunlit clouds this morning, rainbow this evening


“Somewhere over the rainbow,
skies are blue,
and the dreams
that you dare to dream
really do come true”
Lyman Frank Baum










Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

It is always sunrise somewhere



“The grand show is eternal.

It is always sunrise somewhere;

the dew is never dried all at once;

a shower is forever falling;

vapor is ever rising.

Eternal sunrise,

eternal dawn and gloaming,

on sea and continents and islands,

each in its turn,

as the round earth rolls.”

John Muir






















Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Friday, June 18, 2010

Six out of seven

Good Friday morning to all of you. I'm off to work in a bit, work again tomorrow also, so no gardening for the next two days.

I did get six out of the seven things I listed that I 'hoped' to do yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised.

The one thing I didn't do was embroider more on the zebra longwing butterfly.

I filled 400 caps with herbal powders. I timed myself and it takes about 12 minutes to fill 100 with my handy cap-m-quick. What a great little tool.

I filled the two sachets that I had ready for filling and the smell of lavender is very soothing. I decided to do some bead embellishment around the edge and like the look.

I did get quite a bit done outside before it got too hot and that felt great. Then we had a nice thunderstorm with lots of rain yesterday afternoon.

I inadvertently cut rose blooms off my pink pet when trimming things up the day before so picked them for a tiny bouquet.

Pizza was yummy and we have the other half for supper another night, probably tomorrow. As tonight I feel like reheating left-overs from the night before, serving it over a brown and wild rice mix.

That's it for now. I need to make our lunches and get ready to head off to work.

Enjoy your day whatever you do.










*****************

Rethink how you work. Just because you've always done something one way, it doesn't mean it has to be like that forever. If you can modify something to better suit how you work, do it. Streamline your tasks and don't aim for perfection. Take breaks. Do everything you do well and find the pleasure in it - it will be there lurking, you just have to find it. Be proud of what you achieve every day because you are providing a comfortable home for your family, you are making the most of the resources you have and looking after what you own. That is a good thing. And most of all, stop thinking that you'll never get through it all.
Excerpt from Rhonda at Down-to-earth blog.

*******************

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Month of June

Good morning everyone. Coffee just finished perking so I'm about to have that first wonderful sip.

I've got several things I want to do today, and by the end of the day I'll see how many of them I accomplished. :-) There is clean laundry to fold and put away, a couple of potted plants I want to move to the front patio, some garden clean up from yesterday, fill some of my embroidered sachets with French lavender, fill some gelatin caps with herbs (my herb order came in late yesterday afternoon), I'd like to embroider more on my zebra longwing, I hope to make a homemade pizza for supper tonight too.

Yesterday morning I did some work weeding, trimming and planting of my little sheds garden. DH weed wacked for me since I was having cramping muscles in my right/back/shoulder blade/rib cage area. I had mowed the day before, and a couple of areas needed to be trimmed with the weed wacker. I love gardening and enjoy the work, but lately, sometimes I have to ask for help.

Yesterday I noticed my lily or iris plant had the flower stems and I had to take a couple of pictures. I don't know if this is a candy lily or a blackberry lily, should know in a day or so. I loved the way the sun lit up the leaves with the stem and buds inside.





Hope you all have a great day.

*************

"It is the month of June,
The month of leaves and roses,
When pleasant sights salute the eyes
And pleasant scents the noses."
Nathaniel Parker Willis, The Month of June


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Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Flowers, Laundry tip, next embroidery piece

Good afternoon. It is another hot and humid day. Right now the weather page says it's 92, but feels like it is 111. I was out this morning mowing, weeding, planting, trimming. Got a load of laundry washed and hung out, just brought it in. While I was doing all that, the bread machine was making a loaf of garlic/Italian herb bread, so that the place smelled yummy when I came in.

The laundry tip is one I tried the first time the other day with a load of white laundry. The tip is add 1/2 c. white vinegar to your final rinse as a fabric softener. It works and your laundry does not smell like vinegar either. It's definitely much cheaper than fabric softener, something I've not bought in many, many years. I really enjoy using my homemade powder laundry detergent and now the vinegar as a softener.

It's about time for a nap, but here are a few pictures.



Here is a piece of paint chip on our jacuzzi deck, from pressure cleaning the area the other day. I love hearts, and they just pop out at me sometimes. I didn't save this one except as a picture. :-)



Here we have the lovely Pandora vine, Pandorea jasminoides



The next two pictures are of our Queen Crepe. I think we've had her three years now. These are her first blooms this year.






Here is my next embroidery piece of a Zebra longwing. It's from one of my own photos, and I'll be adding hamelia paten blooms too.



That's it for now. I hope you are all keeping cool, and are having a nice day.


Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Oh the humidity,

Good morning Friends ~ I hope you are having a nice Sunday. I went out early this morning to plant some things, then decided to clean up a bed I had let go and it was filled with succulents. Oh my, I didn't get very far as it was horrible working out there. The sweat was running right off the end of my nose, my clothes were sticking to me, and I said to myself, that's it for now, I can't take any more. It was only 9 a.m. I checked the weather and at that time it was 84, but with the humidity at 79%, it felt like it was 103. After a shower, and cleaning up the kitchen, I went out to take a picture of the area I started working on, and found a few gems while I was out.


Here is the little bed underneath our Norfolk pine.


This was a real surprise, and I saw that I had already missed a bloom opening as there was a closed up one next to this one.





Here we have Vincent Godsiff.


Pink Pet or Caldwell's Pink


Louis Philippe


St. Francis and feathered friend



There is no spot of ground,
however arid, bare or ugly,
that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an
impression of beauty and delight.
Gertrude Jekyll


Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL