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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Purely Pinspirational!

 Untypical Pinspiration


Typically this post is for things created from inspiring Pins on Pinterest, but today the post is about a Pin that I'd love to make, but won't.  This post was one of my first Food Pins. Mini Eggs Benedict Canapes.  Made with quail eggs.



















This morning on our hike to run the puppy tired, she flushed out a pair of quail.  At first I didn't bother to check it out, but I found the red flowers pictured below near the tree they came flying out of.  Upon closer inspection I realized that in the center of the mound of natural debris from the tree was a perfect little egg in the natural nest.  I wanted to bring it home and try this out, but with only one egg, the fact that it's wild, and me having my own supply of eggs from our hens, I left it be.  
 

I think we will periodically check on this little one to see if it has hatched and maybe there will be posts about it's progress.  Maybe....



Today's hike yielded these two beauties.  The top one is a wildflower I have never seen before today.  Small blooms on a rather large daisy like plant.  The other is a vine that produces flowers that look like morning glories.  Pretty!


Monday, March 25, 2013

Garden Monday

My super fantastic, master builder hubby has struck again!  Our yard is such a blessing and I'm constantly amazed at God's artistry.  Between the God's natural design, my hubby's hard work rocking & digging & building, and my finishing touches and upkeep, this yard rocks, literally.


New deck, rock wall, block wall gardening with an upcycled set of doors to trellis the cucumbers growing in the wall.  Potted tomato, bell pepper and strawberry plants with landscaping around the perimeter of the deck.
A new path to get to the blueberries so that they are easier to pick than they were with the weeds surrounding it like last year.
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The upper garden space has a new layer of wood bark for their paths, giving the space a wonderful clean, uniform feeling.
Sweet snap pea pods, growing in the warm sun!  Almost ready for me to eat, yum!


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Just an added beauty for today's post.  These small flowers are from a single spike from our Chocolate Soldiers succulents.  The spike has been growing for the whole of winter and is finally blooming after about 4-5 months since we first noticed it growing.  The whole thing is covered in soft fuzzy hairs. 


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Purely Pinspirational!














Where to start?.....well I'm working on a lot of different things at once and have gotten so gummed up thinking about working on any of them.  There is so much to complete that I've lost my inspirational drive.  Creativity is an emotion based thing.  I have to feel passionately about completing something for there to be drive to finish and see the end product. 


To list a few things that I'm working on: 

1. My nephew's birthdays are here, one just passed and the other is around the corner.  I want to complete a blanket for Donnie that I've been working on close to a year now.  For James I wanted to make fabric scrap letters for an alphabet set for him to play with.  I did a tutorial about this not too long ago.  Turns out, that project is wholly time consuming.

(That was really 2 things I guess, oops :) 

 2.  My friend Rita needs a project done that is kind of unique and giving me trouble coming up with the best way to accomplish what she envisions. 


3.  Persian attire pieces of which I have many needing to be completed.  As usual I have so many things started and unfinished.  There are a few pairs of leggings I want to complete.  One needs a waistband adjustment.  The other two aren't even cut yet, but the fabrics are a dream and I love just thinking about them.  Then there is an under dress that my Mom gifted to me recently, thanks Mom!  It needs some finish work.  The fabric is so pretty; brown with gold specks and swashes.  Subtle beauty is always my favorite.  To match this I made my own fabric print to make into an over coat for my gifted under dress.  Plain white linen fabric with a sunburst stamp print in gold fabric paint.  I'm very pleased with it's outcome and will share more about it in a minute.  There is also a maroon thicker fabric that I want to make an over coat with, but I'm nervous, cause I want it to fit tighter than my other Persian garments usually do.  I want a flatteringly fitted formal garment for those special occasions.  But I've had some issues with measuring just right, so I'm just stressing the details.

4.  Garment alterations for my personal wardrobe begging my attention number in double digits and that doesn't even include Hubby's wardrobe.  A red dress that needs to be taken in (hopefully a future pinspiration project showcased here).  I found a pair of maroon skinny jeans that are a little big and need fitting.  Several shirts needing simple changes to renew their look so I'll be excited to wear them again.  A shirt that I bought at the thrift store before seeing the large stain on it.  I'm thinking about doing a stamped print over the whole of the shirt placed perfectly to cover the stained area (hopefully I can showcase this one too). 

There are some other things too on top of these, but I'm starting to bore myself with the length of my ramblings.  Onto better things....

This last weekend I found a fabric for the pants and bought the white linen for the Persian attire.  Sunday I spent some time printing the fabric to match the brown & gold under dress.  I've seen pins on Pinterest that outline printing your own fabric.  Tea towels, scarves, onesies, and such.  So when I couldn't find a fabric to go with the under dress, I decided to give a try at printing my own fabric. 

From Pinspiration:


To Reality:








Monday, March 18, 2013

Garden Monday




 There is so much to do in the garden these days, most of it is admiration of God's handy work.  There are so many unique plants and so many of them bloom in spring.  This is a wonderful time of year.  The weather is changing from cold all the time to foggy mornings, warm days and cool evenings.  Great weather for hikes, which we've been doing a lot around here.  Our pup Gypsy is so full of energy and almost expects a morning hike.  Fortunately we live up against a preserve and can just hike out our back yard.  She runs like a mad woman until she lumbers back panting and happy as a clam.  I mostly hike leisurely along, taking photos the whole way.  I hope you enjoy the pics of our trips and of the yard in bloom.  




Wildflowers blooming.  The sunlight makes them so vibrant and almost sparkly.
The whole hillside is just full of these bloom spikes that I'm sure will only last a short time before withering in the hot summer sun.
These flowers are super super tiny.  I almost walked right past this small area filled with these small gems.
I love these plants.  I'm sure they've always been out here, but I don't remember ever seeing them before.  They are all crimped and overlapping in a maze of green.
Such dainty details in the flowers out in the preserve.  These flowers are on a bushy weed that is growing up through the actual bushes. The buds are velvety soft and the result of their bloom is stunning.




Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Garden Monday

Sweet tasty snap peas growing and now blooming.  It won't be long now before I'm munching on these crunchy delights.  I love snap peas more than potato chips and that's saying a lot.  These flowers are so beautiful.  The maroon and pink combo is gorgeous.  I just can't wait, I'm so excited!



Dog & Cat are best friends, well maybe not besties, but they are getting along and that is all I care about.  Gypsy isn't chasing the cat anymore and the cat doesn't scratch or hiss at Gypsy anymore.


These only bloom once a year and are a pop of color.  There are blues and yellows in the flowers along with the pink, but I'll not be able to show you that until next week when they are fully in bloom.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Garden Monday

Brussel Sprouts

Growing away, these winter veggies are loving this weather, some nice rain we had a little while ago, followed by some sunny, but not too hot days.  The arugula is providing me with a salad a day, along with the eggs I get from my hens.  The carrots, brussel sprouts, snap peas, chard & collard greens, are growing well and are on their way to be ready for me to eat.  I can't wait!

Brussel Sprouts

Snap Peas

Carrots

Rosemary