Mini - patrolling the perimeter

Mini out for her usual morning inspection of the grounds.


Rocky is inside - the dew is heavy on the grass and he hates to get his feet wet. Our 'Little Prince' stays on the deck.

For the Beady-Eyed Bunch

Different colors, different designs. Since I seem to get stuck in a rut with colors and design I asked a friend at work to help me. I have named her - Cinderella Horn, designer/colour consultant. I like what she came up with - it has been very nice to do something different. She chose a palette of reds/pinks/silvers/whites/black, picking out 5 color combinations and designs. I spent time stringing the beads and started the bracelets this week. There will be a slight delay on the 5th as I am missing a type of bead for one of them and have ordered it. This is what I have so far:











My eyes are happy to be beading something besides my usual colors! I will post the progress here as I go along.

I am looking forward to the Beady-Eyed Bunch Solstice gathering in June!

Before

Finishing my landscaping on the side of my house - holes are dug, border has been pounded in, plants purchased. Now I just need to go find top soil, mulch, and plant the darned things. Oh - and then pound in that last bit of border.


From the other side - my neighbors to the left in this picture - those of the horrid box o' wood - have opined that it just might be my responsiblity to wash the mold off of their house in addition to landscaping it as well. I'm wishing them good luck with that!

Wii!!!

Box o' Wood

Last year I put in Coin Grass and Korean Spice Bushes to hide the horrid Box o' Wood. They all survived the winter and are growing well. In this picture they look like they are pretty tall


However, from my yard, where I have to look at the horrid Box o' Wood, it looks like it will be another year or two before they start to do their job. Grow, grow, grow!


Iris are blooming all over the place. My last pictures of them - I promise!

Mother's Day + 7

Here we are - the entire family out to a very very nice dinner the evening before Mother's day. Mom, very wisely, decided to avoid the crowds on Sunday and we went to the Melting Pot, a wonderful fondue restaurant on Saturday evening. It was Dan and Tammy's treat and was one of the most leisurely and enjoyable dinners ever.


I really need to quit cutting my own bangs!

This is my little Brother Ugly. You can see he has an unfortunate malady - his right hand is about the size of his head. I try not to make fun of him, though.


Here he is, using his giant hand to feed Tammy. She is such a good sport!


We ate too much!!


It was wonderful - thank you, Dan and Tammy!

Tammy and The Bead

My Beautiful Sister-in-Law, Tammy, has been learning how to make lampwork beads - those are handmade glass beads. Am I ever happy about that! I am lucky enough to occasionally get one for a special occasion. Hooray for Tammy - keep it up!

She goes to a studio in downtown Indy - can't recall the name of it right now, though. It is a large studio and well equipped. This is a picture of the torch stations around a wonderfully large brushed aluminum table with excellent lighting overhead. I visited during a 'First Friday' studio tour and the beads in the foreground are made by the owner of the studio and are for sale.

Meanwhile, that is Tammy in the very middle!


A bead Tammy was working on at the time we visited:


Now she is putting 'stringer' (aka more glass) on it:


With any luck she will send a picture of the completed bead so I can post it here.

We have a new tree in the neighborhood!

My next door neighbors - Craig and Meighan - have planted a Japanese Maple tree on the corner of their garage which is very near the corner of my garage.



And here are the proud parents of the new tree - it is a beautiful color and goes so nicely with our houses. Craig and Meighan are Not the 'wall o' wood' neighbors - they are the nice young couple (you can see that I have come to terms with the wall o' wood people - not).
This young couple has a bright future in agriculture!



I have to admit - I stop and do little inspections when I go outside. Just to make sure the new fellow is doing well. He will get some good TLC and will be a happy tree!

Survivor

No - not the TV show - the Iris! I had one bloom and it survived the night. I had to take a picture as it is raining now and the deer may come maraurading tonight under cover of rain and mist.

Iris

Maybe - just maybe - the deer will allow the Iris to live this year instead of nibbling their little heads off! They have never gotten this far so I thought I would nab a picture in case the vicious deer decide to go on a killing spree tonight.





And practicing again in the backyard with my new camera.