Roses

I think I might have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. My mom bought me these two beautiful red knock out rose bushes a year or so ago. They spread like crazy and are rambling and for that I love them so. I love them so much that I planted two pink knock out rose bushes in my front yard next to the mailbox. Aren't they lovely?

Loving the Flowers in My Garden!

I am just finding every excuse to go outside (even in this unbearable heat) to look at the flowers in my garden. I just love looking at those big tall sunflowers - they make me smile just looking at them!

Then there are the roses. I love how they are not formal roses - just kind of all over the place roses. My mom bought me the rose bushes last year and i love love love them!

I love going out to the garden in the early morning and watering and talking to all my plants. Sometimes I think the plants are the only things that listen to me (LOL).

Next year, I plan on doubling the amount of sunflowers that I am going to plant. I love the seeds and they just plain make me happy.

ATC Cupcake Swap

For this swap the theme was cupcakes. It made my mouth water just thinking about it! I looked at tons of pictures of cupcakes, illustrated cupcakes, I took pictures of cupcakes, I even toyed with the idea of a 3D cupcake using real cupcake cups and cotton balls. But then I remembered one of my favorite pieces of Britannia "Keep Calm and Carry On".

Why not? Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake. Now that is a mantra I can live with!

Paul McCartney

Sara Jane, Haskell and I went to Yankee Stadium on Friday night to see Paul McCartney! It was such a wonderful show. He sang for almost 3 hours straight and I knew every song he sang! It was just a great night.

Mary Jane's Farmgirl Swaps #1 Group ATCs

I have been participating in the swaps on MaryJane's Farmgirl Chatroom for some months now. What an absolutely lovely and talented group of ladies!

Of course, it has just recently occured to me to start taking pictures of my swap items before I send them out. It didn't even dawn on me to do this until AFTER I had packed up my item for the quilted dish drainer swap. But I did remember for these three.

The first swap was really interesting. I love making these ATC cards. Usually we do it in bulk (20). But for this swap we were in groups of three. The first person had three blank ATCs they put something on it. Then they mailed it to the second person in the group who added another item. Then that person forwarded it to the third person who finished the ATC and then mailed the other two cards, completed, to the first two artists. All of the artists' names are on the back of the ATCs.

It was really a fun swap. I was the last person in our swap. I added the flower and the picture of the woman.

Swap#2 Fall Matchbox Swap

Here are some pictures from the matchbox swap. Inside each one I put a tiny yo-yo heart.

Swap#3 Altered Spoons

I didn't even know what an altered spoon was until I googled it. Wow! So many different things to do. Here are some of the pictures of my altered spoon: