Working Hard Here at Home.

Oh My Gosh...I had no idea I hadn't been online in almost a month.  Thank you for those of you who emailed to inquire about me.  I am alive and well.  I appreciate your concern.

 

The weather has been very nice up until yesterday so John and I have been outside every day working in the yard.   We have put 2-3 hours into  weeding every day and  then worked on other projects. I have spent hours painting, sewing and planting. 

 

After three springs/summers of having one foot or the other in a cast or boot and surgeries in between, I have so enjoyed being able to wear a pair of MATCHING shoes for the first time.

I have also been able to work in my gardens and get something accomplished.  I finished my 3 months (2-3 days a week) of physical therapy two weeks ago  HOORAY.

 

Starting in one week, we will have some or all of our kids and grandkids home for various lengths of time and we want to have all the hard work out of the way so we can play in the pool and yard with them all.

 

So here is the first installment of what I have been doing.

 

 This is an old wringer washer that I bought for $20 from the man who put our sprinkler system in years ago.  It was ugly and starting to rust and I painted it mint green and bright pink.  It has sadly faded over the past five years.

                             You know how much I love COLOR.  This is wild plum and citrus green made by Krylon.  I was able to find it only at Wal Mart.  None of the major box hardware stores carried it around here. I hand painted this on in three coats. 

                    
                    I added a large planter and it sits in a place of honor on one side of the pool.

                                    
                                 We have several old wash tubs from John's great aunties.

                  
                 I filled them with wave petunia's and purple grass.  They also sit by the pool.

                                    
                                             I filled my Dad's back hoe bucket planter with Dahlias.

      Some friends gave us this table and chair set...much too blah for my taste but truly appreciated.

       I  painted the chairs and table with sunny yellow(again Krylon) and recovered the four chairs.

 

It now looks like this!!  Note the table in the left hand corner. It is about 12 years old and was an ugly tan.  I painted it purple.  I found these pink chairs last year at Rite Aid for $10 at the end of the season.

 

I have a lot more to show you so will try to post those over the next week or so.  I hope summer has come to your neck of the woods and you are enjoying happy days.  Put some color in your life!

Lost in Transition

 

I have been missing in action due to the weather greatly improving, having our oldest daughter and her hubby visiting and landscaping our back yard. Phew!

 

As you know we put in our in ground pool last fall and the back yard was left without a lot of grass in those areas around it.

 

One of the pool workers recommended a great landscaper so we called, he came out, looked around and gave us the bad news.  Ten thousand dollars... .. YES read that correctly.....  Again, TEN THOUSAND dollars would NOT even touch our back yard.  GULP.

We thought about it all of five minutes and said, "Forget that. We can do it ourselves for a lot less than that."

 

 We called and visited landscape places and nurseries, made up our own plan and found a wonderful family run landscaping business.  For some reason they really liked us and offered us contract prices on all the supplies we bought from them.  Basin and Sod Landscaping is the best around town!

 

 

 They delivered all the materials we needed for the main phase and dropped them off out front.

 

 

 We added arbor vitae shrubs from Costco--the cheapest in town besides Lowe's.  Our little pickup made 5 trips to haul 42 of them over a few weeks time.

 

                                 
 This is the end of the pool and how it was over the winter.

 

                        
  John prepped it  and the far side of the pool for rainbow rock.

 

 

 

 

 

We originally espied this huge flat rock perfect for lounging on.  It would not fit through our gate by 6".  They offered us this fountain for the same price so we took it! This corner is perfect.

 

 

 

The rock is all in and this plow/shovel was on the front of an old truck my dad owned years ago. He eventually made it into this planter in their yard.  My Mom sold the house after he died and we inherited it.  I will fill it with flowers soon.

This is looking at the side of the back yard  it used to be all grass. You can see the arbor vitae along this side of the fence.

 

 

 New sod put in. John is amazing and worked hours and hours every day but we still hired two helpers from the landscaping company to get this all done.

 

 

 

This is the far side of the yard looking where all the sod was laid and the shrubs down the left side.

Phase 2 coming next.

 

Of course I couldn't do any of the physical labor...I am still rehabbing my left ankle.....BUT hey I can supervise with the best of  'em!  (of course I had the final say in what went where and made sure they all kept well hydrated in the heat.)

Can't wait to show you what I have been doing with bright paint!

Liberate Your Art Post Card Swap

I participated in the annual LIBERATE YOUR ART postcard swap recently.  Unfortunately my computer crashed mid April and I was only able to pick it back up yesterday.  I missed being part of the bloghop to visit all the participants blogs.

I thought I would share my post cards sent and received anyway.
I found this stamp and put it on the backs of my postcards:

"Creativity is Contagious. Pass it on." Albert Einstein

This is a 'pink' and in my garden.  I loved the contrast of the flower with the green background.

                  After a rain storm I was out checking on my roses and took these pictures.

               This is my favorite....all the rain drops beading up on the petals turned out so nice.

             This was taken at a local amusement park with a huge ferris wheel just at dusk.
                                                                      

This was at the end of our drive way this past winter. Lights from a neighbor cast a red glow.

We sent out five post cards that were then resent all over the world.  Unfortunately I did not personally hear from anyone who received mine.

These are the postcards I received in return.  They showed up once a week. It brought joy every time one appeared in the mail box.

                 This card was labeled "Layered Autumn" by  Kat Sloma, the organizer of the event.  Kat wrote on the back of her card:  "Thanks you made the world a better place by Liberating your Art. Now go do it again!"

I love the serenity of the sailboat out on the water. This photo was taken by Karen Walker The back of the card said:
     
                "When you can't change the direction of the wind - adjust the sails." Jackson Brown.

                 This picture was taken by Michelle Gier of Michell Gier Photography in Canada
She wrote on her card:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Out deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine as children do.  It's not just in some of us; it is everyone.  As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  And as we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others."

This was taken by Suzette.  I love the way the trees are marching off into the distance. Her card read:

"What is this faithful process of spirit and seed that touches empty ground and makes it rich again?  Its greater workings I cannot claim to understand. I only know that in this care, what has deemed dead is dead no longer, what has seemed lost in no longer lost that which some have claimed impossible, is made clearly possible, and what ground is fallow is only resting...resting and waiting for the blessed seed to arrive on teh wind with all Godspeed." Clarissa Pinkola Estes  May the seeds of creativity find their way to your door.

                                            This was taken by Judith and is her original collage. She says she usually works in post card size, but this art piece is done on rough cut cardboard. This really speaks to me as I love collage.

This photo was taken by Bonnie. It shows the beauty in the muted fall colors of fallen leaves.   Her card read:

"I believe art matters.  I believe art is essential.  I believe art is about connection.  Connection to people and connection to the world.  This is why I am grateful and dedicated to be particiapting in this project."

"Art is the proper task of life." Friedrich Nietsche