Plant geek: Fall containers

This week was a whirlwind of travel for work.  I actually arrived early for one of my appointments.  My early arrival was a function of being paranoid about traffic.  The previous day included a drive that was planned for one hour and ended up being three hours! At the risk of being late, I left well before sunrise.

When I made it to the charming little town, I did was I usually do - looked for a Starbucks.  You can bet on clean restrooms and a chance to grab something with caffeine.

On the walk back to my car, I saw this great little restaurant with the BEST fall arrangements.

Check out the window boxes.  I love the variety of textures and the height. 

When I was messing with the photos, I tried it in black and white.  When the color was removed the arrangement was still just as striking.

  

Near the door, this beautiful topiary was installed.  Love it!

Plant geek: What do you do with an afternoon off?

 The weather for the past week has been spectacular in Kansas. It is so rare for us to have temperatures this cool in May.  We are also experiencing low humidity which is simply a miracle.

The spring weather also has me anxious to do some serious house cleaning and to work on the garden and flower beds.  We have a pretty good start on the garden and last Sunday was one of those all day cleaning days.  There is still so much to do!

I had been thinking through my schedule and discovered an afternoon with no appointments.  I went ahead and decided to take some vacation leave and see what I could accomplish.

It happened that the weather was super - sunshine and a cool breeze.  The blue sky and white clouds were stunning.

My first order of business was weeding in the garden.  Weeding isn't necessarily fun, but with a beautiful view and great weather, it's not so bad.

 I enjoyed seeing what was growing and loved thinking about the possibilities ahead.  Our potato plants have the tiniest of buds.  (I am a huge fan of these little flowers.)

 I was also glad to see that our rabbit prevention system worked for our broccoli.  Our broccoli plants were rabbit food until we put up this crazy contraption.

 My weeding continued to a couple of flower beds around the yard.  The clematis was blooming!  And, I am sorry that I didn't give it some attention earlier because a lot of the growth was trailing on the ground instead of around the support of the old school bell.

 One of my favorite sights in both leaving the house in the morning and coming home at night is the violas by our cellar door and the pansies by the front door.

 This deep purple clematis is near our garage.  It's never had better blooms.

 The irises are blooming in this amazing rotation - first, the white flowers and then it's just this chorus to different colored blooms.

 And, the columbine is beautiful again.  This color is "old fashioned" to me.  It makes me think of my grandma and how much she would have liked these blooms.

So, on an afternoon off, a plant geek works a little and geeks out over whatever is blooming at the moment. I am also saying many prayers of thanks for the blessing of beautiful weather.

Thank you cards with paper flowers

Over the winter break, I had the chance to work on some handmade cards.  You can tell how busy things have been if I am just now posting about something that happened in December.

I tried out some simple cards using Stampin' Up! paper and a 'Thank you so much!" stamp.  I made the paper flowers using pages from an old book.

The paper flowers were made in two ways.

Flower number one was super easy.  I used a circle punch with scalloped edges.  I roughed up the circles a little bit and smoothed them out to add some depth.  Then, I stacked a few together, punched a circle in the center with a mini hole punch and added a brad.

Flower number two was a little more detailed. I used the circle punch to create a cardstock base and then used the same punch to create circles that would eventually become petals.

This picture gives you an idea about how to fold the circles into the petals.  Double-sided tape is one of my favorite crafting staples and it works perfectly as an adhesive for the petals.  Once you have the petals created, just stick them on, six per base.  Then, I used a mini punch to make a hole in the center for the brad.  Finished!

I think the flowers would also be cute embellishments on a gift or on a picture frame.

Beautiful blooms

While running out of the house early in the morning, I noticed that our flowers near the front door were still blooming despite the hot, dry summer we have been experiencing.

Thankfully, Friday and Saturday both included cooler temperatures and RAIN!

I am so thankful for the rain and so are the plants.