Inspired by Pinterest

It's happened again...I just have to make some new things I've seen on Pinterest.  

Such as these Kale chips! 

OH YUM!

Crispy, crunchy, healthy, yummy.

Here's a link to the the original post. 

Credit where credit is due....

The second inspiration didn't have any readable instructions...just a series of photos pinned. So, unfortunately, I can't give credit to whom it's due.

Here's the original "pin" (left) which summed itself up nicely.

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I used an ugly canvas I picked up at a garage sale...gessoed and tissue papered it before painting it green.

I thought the green left behind my leaves was a little boring so I went back with painted and retouched them. 

Looks pretty dumb on the shed door but I happened to have a nail there for the photo op.

Have you been inspired lately?

 

Busy, busy end of school

Ever have one of those weeks that you have all planned out way a head of time...then when the week begins you completely forgot that you had a zillion things to do?? That's been my week. I think the 3 day Memorial Day holiday weekend was what started me off on the wrong foot. Monday turned into Tuesday in the blink of an eye. 

 Tuesday I was a bit under the weather...allergies and such.
Wednesday was filled by inventory at the school library.

Yesterday I got to go to the Arboretum as a chaperon for Little J's class. I really love it there. We should really get a membership...but I digress.

The girls enjoyed the Japanese garden...

especially the koi.

I enjoyed a moment of quiet serenity myself. 

But we can't forget about the flowers...

So many beauties. 

It was hard to choose which to share.

This was my favorite floral photo of the day.

Soft and dreamy...and pink!

Today will be my "catch-up" day. 

The team of fairies I wished for at the fountain never showed. A girl's got to dream, right?!?!

How are you preparing for summer?

 

Spring is in the air

We've got a pair of chickadees busy preparing a nest in the bird house I plucked out of a FREE pile at the curb while on a walk last year. Those birdies have it stuffed so full that the nest is trailing out. 

I'm not sure how they plan on raising babies in there.

 

We are finally getting some moisture. It's been so dry that grass was crunchy.

The crab apple blossoms love it.

I'll be cutting some off in a bit to bring inside. Too bad the blossom stage is so short lived.

My neighbor's tree is further ahead than ours...at least I get to enjoy it from afar.

 

Rocks and friendship

A favorite pastime is searching for fun rocks to add to our collections. Well...it's mostly our girl and I that can do this for hours on end. 

It was great to walk out from our hotel straight to the shoreline.

The shoreline at this part of the lake is rocky...not sandy. It kills my feet to walk on for any length of time even though the rocks have been worn smooth.

We brought home some treasures...

I don't think we got any agates...have a book on reserve at the library to help me identify.

We just picked ones that spoke to us. Such as penguin rock,  pyramid rock, a couple with faces and some with a ring slicing through. Others just said take me home like the stick.

My ultimate excitement was when I found sea glass!!! There were all small pieces but genuine sea glass none the less. 

There were several shades of green and clear as well as a blue and a piece of pottery or maybe milk glass?  I want to go back just to sit and sift through to find more. Sad but true.

I spotted this rock while hiking and had to grab a picture.
Such a funny face...


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And now to the friendship part of my post....
My BFF is in town for a convention and we haven't seen each other in 17yrs!
I'm picking her up in a couple hours so we can spend the evening hanging out at our house until she leaves bright and early in the morning for home. 
I am so excited that I'm giddy!

An evening stroll

My neighbor and I went for a walk such as we do several evenings a week but this time we walked to one of the nearby lakes with our cameras.


There's a wonderful trail through the woods along the lake.

It even seems slightly magical...

Can't you just imagine this as a little house for a fairy or gnome?!

And this...an arch for tiny woodland creature weddings.

I seem to be all about the photos lately! Probably because we finally have wonderful weather...gotta soak it up!

Wordless Wednesday

Spring has sprung for my birthday

Those telltale signs of spring have finally decided to show themselves.

Helping out the birds

My friend Helen sent me an email today reminding me about helping the birds now at nesting season. I KNOW I've seen others in previous years set out a basket of goodies for the birds to use but for the life of me I couldn't find any of their posts. Of course I may be mistaking one blog for another in my searches. I read A LOT of blogs!

Anyway..in my search to find the sweet basket posts for Helen, I came across another simple solution.
Since I had a nearly empty bag of lemons, I opted for this solution.

I added:

• yarn scraps
• thread
• ribbon
• dryer lint
• torn fabric strips
• Spanish moss

I took a crochet hook to pull some scraps partially out so they'd be more visible for the birds. Not sure if this is needed but I did it anyway.


I hope to see some nests with some fun colors while on my walks this year!!

Just a walk in the park

It's such a beautiful day!! It's bright and sunny. A perfect day for a walk.
I love how warm the sun is this time of year in comparison to the air temp.



After going to get water at the spring I stopped by a local park to take a little nature walk.


I don't think there will be any picnics today.

This is where the canoes are usually stored.









This cute little squirrel stopped to posed for me...wasn't that sweet.

Nature is amazing

If you just take a little time and look a little closer, you'll find a beautiful and wondrous world all around you.

Garden beauty

Before my garage sale I made some flags from scraps to put up by the street so people would know the sale was here. As it turned out, we had so much stuff the flags weren't needed. They've sat on my sewing machine case until today. I decided to pretty up the garden a bit.

Incidentally...the garden is doing very well. I have green tomatoes on all the plants and a couple yellow pepper on one plant. I've been harvesting herbs nearly daily. The lettuce is looking pretty poor but I'm going to try and let it dry out a little more. I think it's not well enough drained.

I picked up a small stoneware pitcher from a garage sale last week. The lady didn't want to bargain much with me because she said it was made by a famous MN potter named Robert Briscoe. I'd never heard of him but looked it up when I got home. I paid $5 for it...she said she paid over $30.
Last evening, I went around the yard and picked a pretty bouquet for my new pitcher.