Hand in the Dirt {how does my garden grow?}

This garden of mine is growing quite nicely!  I do owe it a bit of weeding, but in general it seems to be thriving. 

I'm going to contribute the success to these.  Puddles.  Which means it's been raining.  Plenty.  Meaning I'm not guilty of forgetting to water my garden.  Cheesy grin!

Here you can see a row of potatoes that are getting full, bushy, and green.  I only planted these about 2 weeks ago and they are racing taller every day. 

A closer look at an individual potato plant.  It's my first year growing these.  Can't wait to see what happens... and goodness knows I love potatoes!!  Bet they are incredible fresh from the dirt!

The peas on the trellis are doing their pea thing.  Climbing and climbing and getting so intertangled with each other.  There are a ton of flowers and I am so looking forward to seeing those turn in to pea pods!

A closer look at the wee pea flowers.

The squashes are happy. 

I have summer and a winter butternut variety.  A total of 8 or so plants, but I still wonder why this particular one is so much bigger than all the others.  And the leaves are getting so big that in a rain storm the water makes them heavy and they lean on the ground for support.

This is my first time growing orange peppers.  I love how early they are emerging and really looking forward to seeing the orange color!  Hello fajitas!

Here's a look at on of the grape tomatoes plants.  Lots of fruit emerging, but I also seem to have something eating on these.  Going to have to investigate a bit more.

I always seem to have a doggy shadow when I get about my gardening work.  I know they are just as excited about eating things straight from the garden as I!

And I'm not sure I've properly introduced you to my favorite rock in the garden.  This particular one is part of the stone wall that the Mister built for me in the spring.  I just love the character and it's even more interesting in the rain.  Makes me smile every time I see it!

Hope your gardens are doing wonderful too!

The 5 O'Clock Puppy

Sammy, our youngest golden pup has this thing about her and I feel an overwhelming need to tell you about it today.

(And for the record Katie is the dog in these pictures. Confusing? maybe, but let me explain.)

Sammy is certainly...

...cute
...sweet
...loud
...affectionate
...silly
...smart

All the things you would normally expect to describe a puppy. 

But, as I started out, she has this thing about her.  She wakes up at basically five in the morning. Every day!

It doesn't matter how late I keep her up, how much exercise or stimulation she gets, or if she has free roam or is in her crate.

5AM.

Before roosters.  Where in the world was I notified that I had brought home a 5 O'Clock puppy?

Now does it make more sense why I have to show you pictures of the 'best dog ever' and the lake on a bright sunny day?  Katie could win an Olympic gold metal for sleeping in, hence, best dog ever title!

And there is no way you'd want to see pictures of what I look or feel like at 5am.

Although, I admit, that it's been a year of this early to rise puppy behavior and I am just starting to learn how to smile that early in the morning. 

So you want to know what really terrifies me?

Daylight savings time.

You know when we fall back?  As in 5am becomes 4am. 

Terrifiying, dark, cold, early, snowy 4am.  All I know is that this pup better be following the morning light and not the actual clock time.  I mean seriously, can you direct me to a training manual for how to train a puppy to sleep in? 

This is a new one for me.

Illustration Friday: Space

I recently found Illustration Friday and decided to jump right in. 

This week's topic is Space.  For me Space = Universe and I couldn't resist the temptation to play with related words in this multimedia piece.

The light pink words at the bottom read, "Just need to believe that what should will be.  That it will all work out.  That I can find passion in what I am to do."

A topic comes out each Friday and you can see what other artists have created here.

Creative Tuesday: Blog Icon/Button (#63)

This weeks Creative Tuesday challenge was to create a blog button.  *cricket, cricket*

I admit this is something I've tried a bunch of times and I don't feel like I'm very good at it.  But, in the spirit of the challenge I decided to give this another chance. 

You see, I can't work small.  I've tried.  Even in my quilting I've tried.  So, to help me through that, I started with very small paper.  I created hand doodles in pencil, and then traced over the designs in pen and marker.

I'm not sure where I originally got the idea that happiness is a mushroom, but there is something very whimsical and mysterious about mushrooms and so it's stuck.  I also decided that the mushroom spots, should be paw prints to represent my pups.  Happy stuff and dogs.  That about sums up what I ramble about these days.

Once the line drawing was complete.  I scanned it in and loaded into GIMP to crop, add color, and scale the drawings.

This is a picture of the computer screen showing the first round of coloring I tried. 

 

Here is an idea of how the button looked.  Something was off with it, right?  The letters were too muddy and the top of the mushroom popped in the wrong way.  But, this is why I like using a digital editor so much.  It's a few clicks to change the color around. 

As you can see I went through a few iterations until I realized that my blog name just wasn't big enough to be legible once I shrunk the icon down to actual size.  Nothing a quick re-draw couldn't fix.  I also highlighted the paw spots in a yellow to bring them out better.

And after much playing here is the button I decided on.  I still see little things that I would or could change, but we'll call it done for now.  This was a really fun experiment in visual branding and I also welcomed the GIMP practice!

You can find out about the next weekly challenge and see what the other artists put together at the co-op blog.  I can't wait to see what Mr. T has in store for his own button re-do!

Wishing you puppy licks and sunshine!

Weekend Swimming

Admittedly, most of my sewing time this weekend was spent on Prisms... and although I've made progress, it's slow going.   When I wasn't sewing I was doing everything in my power to spend time with my family.  That meant lots of hiking, taking the dogs swimming, and hanging out with the Mister.

What a great weekend!

Just even looking back on these is making me smile on this dark thunderstorm ridden morning. 

Did you do any splish-splashing this weekend?

Prism Progress

I'm getting closer to having all the pieces cut out and in place for Patchwork Prisms.  Only six days left to finish... dun dun dun...

Here's hoping I can muster enough energy to reach the finish line.  And that sewing triangles is 'easy.'  What are you hoping to finish soon?

Creative Space Sneaky-peak

Here are a few things going on in my creative space.

I got a new set of fabric paints to play with.  I'm really excited to try painting and then thread painting that hawk in my mind.

I started making hand sewn mushrooms.  I need a lot of practice!  I need to work on more even stitching, hiding the thread, and that mushroom on the right doesn't seem to have the right proportions.

Sammy is constantly surfing around the room looking for fabric and shoes to steal.  And look how tall she is getting.  She can almost put her head on my desk.  That's sure to be a whole new world of trouble coming!

The baby apple tree is thriving in the window.  I'm still surprised to see all those leaves and how tall it's getting.  And yes, I talk to it!  Maybe we should name it?

Here's proof that there was sunshine flooding my desk again this morning. 

I also have a whole stack of cut triangles waiting to be arranged and assembled for the Patchwork Prism quilt... you know the one that's due next Thursday.  As in one week from today.  As it panic is setting in and I'm going back and forth as to whether I should push hard and go for the deadline or not.  I think I may dedicate tomorrow to it and see how far I get.. then take it from there. 

I've had this jacket pattern on my desk for nearly a month now.  Must make cute jacket!  Of course every time I go to make it... I get stuck on what fabric to use.  Silly, I know.

And I thought you'd like to see one of the art works that decorates my wall.  The colors, movement, and texture of this work are always inspiring me! 

And that's a sneak peak of what's going on in my creative space.  Are you feeling creative lately?

She Helps With Laundry

The following story stars our one year old puppy Sammy.  She has taken what I thought was an innocent interest in laundry time.... but it may not be so innocent. 

I'll set the opening scene. 

{Scene I: The laundry has been washed, dried and collected in a laundry basket to be taken upstairs to be folded and put away.  Sammy circles the basket with hungry eyes.}

Sammy has been known to take an item or two and run around the house with the item in her mouth.  Innocent enough, right?  Well, I don't think so.  It seems she focuses her attention on my under garments and she may also be doing a bit of chewing on said under garments.

Yes, it appears that I am blindly putting away the under garments that Sammy has run around the house with (not taking any notice of possible chewing) and then wearing them some days later. 

{Scene II: I'm at work.  I finally take notice of the chewing (it's not on a sock). Arggg!!}

All was solved by a quick run out to a department store and I guess the ones she chewed were in need of replacing anyway.. but man 'o man that puppy has been trying our patience lately.  You can also add a pair of flip flops to the list of things she's destroyed this week. 

It's a darn good thing she's cute.

What has your puppy (or dog or cat) done lately that has made you laugh?