Path of the Stars

Dale and I are sprucing up our home's exterior this year. After laying down a fresh layer of mulch on the yard, and power-washing all the concrete, we moved on to lighting.

We added new post-top solar lights, bringing a soft glow to the fence we share with our neighbor.

Then we added lights lining our driveway and the path to our front door. 

The way the light spreads into stars on the ground is incredibly pretty. 

Charmed Life: Tulips

Last Fall I decided to try growing tulips in six of the planters that line our patio. They're growing!

Micro Organizing

One of my favorite ways to spend time when life's been unsteady is to over-organize my belongings. This Threads and Bobbins Project has been on my radar for years. 

I've got around 50 spools of thread, each with their matching bobbin. My previous organizing system involved spool toppers that held the bobbin to the top of its matching spool of thread. The problem with the system is that because the spools are not of even height, the lids to my thread boxes wouldn't close. The stack was quite tipsy.

So I got myself some bobbin cases to hold the threads and bobbins separately. But how to match each thread to its corresponding bobbin? I decided to number them. My first attempt, using paper reinforcers, nearly worked. But not quite. 

So today I used a black ultra-fine tip Sharpie to mark the front and back of each bobbin, and the top of each thread.

Voila!

Completing this organizational task makes my heart go pitter-patter. 

When there's chaos in our world, in our household, and in my brain, having a small corner of order and calm delights me.

Some Evenings are Like This

For Jodie

Me.
Tonight.

Couch Potato

Happy Haunting

Our neighborhood has hundreds of kids. Homeowners love to dress up their houses for Halloween. This year, Dale joined in a major way!

Lots of webs

Plenty of spiders

Two are big and hairy!

Lots of their little buddies

are scurrying all over the place. EEK!

Welcome, welcome, little trick-or-treaters!

Bwuuhh-ha-ha-ha-ha

Ready for Fall

Kit stopped by yesterday to play dress-up with me. Well, dress up the house that is. We put on our creativity hats, pulled out the Autumn and pumpkin decorations, and gussied up the living room and entry way.

These two vignettes are on the mantle. The owl is a new addition this year. I found it at a thrift store a few months ago. He's very expressive!

We raided Abby's toy chest for some colorful blocks to use as pumpkin risers.

We also decorated a few shelves on the bookcase.

Whimsy and humor are a must!

Dale decorated the front porch. It's a masterpiece. I'll try to share that tomorrow.

The Last Sunflower

in my backyard

Its neighborhood

Its brilliance

Its geometry

Its texture

Today's Strawberry Harvest

Eight! 

Count 'em. Eight large strawberries!

I thought my plants were done fruiting since so much of their energy is used sending out new shoots at this time of year. This may the the most large berries I've harvested all summer. So tasty!

These deserve to be eaten with a scoop of high quality vanilla bean ice cream this evening. What a treat!

Can you tell? I'm always surprised when things I plant grow and flourish. For example, I now have six sunflowers in bloom, and at least two more that will show their color tomorrow. Love it. Last year none of my sunflowers grew.

Patio Visitor

At the end of July, we had a special visitor. She came into the patio to cool off with Dale and me,

To drink deeply,

And take a shower.

Then she flew to the awning tether and shook out her feathers,

Lifted her face to the sun, and rested.

What a treat!

I almost missed seeing her because her coloring matches our fence and morning glories so well. The camera on my phone did a great job of catching all that movement. Dale got some beautiful photos, too, because he was sitting closer to her.

Points of Light

I adhered marbles

to the knotholes in our old fence.

As the sun sets each evening

the light shines through

gifting us

with colorful points of light.

And when the vines die back this winter? 

They'll be the stars of the show.

Seasonal Change

As I moved out of July, the stars, stripes, red, white and blue decorations came down. In August and September, sunflowers reign.

So I pulled out my supplies on hand. I decided to use these:

along with this wreath form that just didn't work for my butterfly wreath idea.

I edited out using these elements of stickers and ribbons and signage. They'll grace a future sunflower or Autumn project.

I turned the supplies into a sweet and simple Sunflower Wreath. 

It's hanging in our entryway, to be a spot of joy as we leave the house.

The Simple Life

Each morning after our walks, Dale and I sit on the patio to cool down and enjoy the breeze.

It's a nice morning view. Our wall of Morning Glory vines is filling in nicely. Give it a couple more weeks.

:: chef's kiss ::

The Perfect Strawberry

Look at this pretty gem

This year our five strawberry barrels grew full and lush and green. They flowered and the pollinators helped them out. The "strawberry rocks" kept most of the bugs away.

We got around 3 dozen little berries this year. They tasted terrific on top of vanilla bean ice cream. This was one of the last I picked. 

We probably won't get many more berries this summer since the plants have sent out their runners. But, oh! We savored the few we grew!

Plan C

... aka it's time to abandon this wreath idea. 

Plan A

What I planned on doing in March 2024 was to make a Spring wreath featuring butterflies. I figured it would be a quick little project using supplies on hand. I gathered:

Flowers

Materials for the scrap paper butterflies I made in April 2024

A black "bicycle wheel" wreath form

Pop dot adhesives

Baby clothespins

Spray paint

The inspiration was:

I set to work: 

First I spray-painted the wreath form silver.

Then dry-fit the butterflies I had on hand in place. My vision was to have butterflies in lots of colors and patterns and in various sizes. Super cute. 

But I abandoned the idea of using the scrap paper butterflies because making them was fiddly and it took too long to make a good-looking finished product. I couldn't imagine making over a dozen of them, especially since that meant engineering three sizes of butterfly templates. After all, this was supposed to be a fast craft.

So I mulled the project over.

Plan B

I purchased 4 packages (4 designs) of iridescent butterflies in early April 2024.

Then the project sat for a year. I couldn't figure out how to proceed. 

:: play Jeopardy music here ::

With Jodie's help last week (over a year later), I decided to try sandwiching pop dots between the clothespins and the butterflies. We clipped 3 different sizes of butterflies in 4 different designs to the wreath form in an "artistic" formation.

Man, that just didn't work. 

• First, the wreath form should have been a different color than the butterflies. Everything was visually jumbled.
  
  
• Second, the proportions were all out of whack.
  
  
• Third, the butterflies kept "flying" off the wire wreath form when the clothespins didn't get a good grip. 

My frustration was real. I didn't even bother to take a picture.

Time to mull this project over again.

Plan C

This morning I decided life is too short to bang my head against this particular wall. BUT!

Maybe the butterflies will be a sweet addition to my bedroom wall:

The pop dots easily came off the clothespins and attached to the wall. 

The entire installation and putting extra supplies away took all of 15 minutes. 

Depending on the time of day and how the light comes through the window, the butterflies show off their various colors. As their shadows move throughout the day, the butterflies appear to fly.

It's time to get inspired and work on a different project. 

My brain weighs less now that the butterflies are off my mind.