A Hot Air Balloon Right Over My Head!

Last Tuesday, I was working in the garden, trying to clear the pathways of the grass roots that invaded last summer. What a task!! I had really had one of those days that you never want to repeat. As I was about to collapse from fatigue, I looked up and directly overhead was a beautiful hot air balloon. It was so close, I felt like I might be able to reach out and tell the people in the basket "hi"! I definitely could hear them putting more hot air in...so lovely! It gave me such a smile! So, thank you, hot air balloon, for cheering me up!!

Valentine's Day Party

I have 2 lovely daughters, one of whom is very social, and one who is not. The one who is social works at The Tomkat Studio and is constantly around party ideas, parties, etc. Because of this, she decided to throw the non-social daughter a Valentine's Party for her and some of her friends. She decorated the place all up, organized a couple of games, one of which was valentine family feud, which judging by the amount of laughter going on, was a big hit. These kids are 17-19 years old, and they had a great time!

One of the favorite treats that my boys always love are homemade oreos. I never make these, as they are a lot of work, but their sister will patiently bake them and fill them, which makes her brothers so happy. These didn't last long at the party.

I just received these bottles! Aren't they cute?? Love them. Purchased them at Specialty Bottle. The paper straws are available at The Tomkat Studio, of course.

The Strawberry Lemonade Punch was lovely, and simple to make.  The recipe is available here: www.bettycrocker.com 

The cupcakes below were a boxed vanilla cake and then a standard cream cheese frosting with sprinkles. They were very tasty. The cupcake toppers were from The Tomkat Studio.

Love Love Love

I found these on http://cathypentondesigns.blogspot.com in her newest post. Can I just say, "LOVE"? I really love the way they look. I have to say, better than the ones I had done a few weeks ago. HMMM....

Spring Gardening

Over the past few weeks, I have been steadily working at cleaning up the garden area and getting it back to  being plantable. Last summer, I had the unfortunate experience of having my watering system fail, which caused me to lose my plum tree, my grape vines, and the cat's claw that was surrounding the garden to cool off the area, from the cinder block fence. Of course, I also lost everything in my garden, pretty much. It was all in all, a very disappointing summer/fall/winter. I haven't really been able to get out there and work on it until now.

Luckily, I have been able to devote some time to working in the garden, and the weather has been so amazing it has made it even enjoyable. I still have some dead grass that needs removal, as well as the dead grapevines that are not showing signs of life. 

I have had to keep my little chickens kind of cooped up for a bit, since there are some new starts in the garden that I would really like to keep, and not sacrifice to their stomachs. They really need a little run, so I do have some plans to fence in the little area to the right of the chicken coop for them to have some added space, but where they won't cause trouble with my plants. I think that will make them happy.

Although it isn't very visible in the above picture, I did manage to get my favorite flower planted. Yes, tulips can grow in Arizona. When I was a little girl, living in Yuma, our teacher asked us to draw our favorite flower. My mom had planted some tulips that year, and that is what I drew. Actually, I think that might have been the only year she planted them. Even so, I remember my teacher telling me that you can't grow tulips in Arizona. I argued with her that you could and I know that she did not believe me. It is possible though. If you want to start the bulbs yourself, you need to keep the bulbs in the crisper section of your refrigerator for 6 weeks to fool them into thinking that it's a cold winter, and then put them out. Or you can cheat, and buy them already semi sprouted from the garden center, like I did. Either way, they are truly beautiful, and still my favorite. If only the dogs didn't like to tromp through them, they would look so much better!

2012 Arise and Shine Forth

In our ward, we are coming up on New Beginnings for the year, and are debating on what little something we can give the girls to remind them of the them. This is, of course, not a necessary thing. However, I do have so much extra supplies from projects that for the most part, something like the necklace above would really cost less than $1 per girl. This is just one example of something we might do. I actually really like it, but the down side to the copper is that it does need to be cleaned periodically to keep it shiny.

Valentine's Day Decor!

My sister-in-law & I decided we needed a new banner for Valentine's Day. I had seen some sewn stuffed hearts and these are our version. They are super simple to make, and stuff. We just used scraps of fabric, so there wasn't anything to buy. To hand them, we just sewed a skinny ribbon onto the heart and then tied it onto a long ribbon that is used to hand them across the entryway. LOVE them! Too bad I can't leave them up all year long...

The streamers are ruffled streamers that I saw a tutorial for. Very simple to make and very inexpensive. The tutorial can be found here...http://www.danamadeit.com/2011/05/tutorial-ruffled-streamers.html

Fruit Tree & Berry Cane Pruning

The weather is beautiful, in the 70's, and it just feels so wonderful outside. This is why we live in Arizona! The mad flurry for spring planting has begun!

Our yard has a little micro-climate on the north side of the house. This spot gets very little direct sun, and the soil really does stay pretty moist all year, even in the middle of the summer, partly due to the air conditioning overflow drip that continuously drips into the area. Anyway, this spot is definitely cooler than any other spot in our yard. Every yard has these. It just takes a little observation to notice them. 

This spot is perfect for the berries and fruit trees. Last year, I put the raspberry and blackberry canes in, just a few of each. The raspberry canes took off, although they aren't quite thick yet. The blackberry canes didn't do as well, so I ended up replacing a couple of those on top of the clean-up chores. I also had transplanted 12 little strawberry plants last year. Wow, they really spread, and are now all over the area. I have yet to get any berries this season probably due to the fact that my husband decided to turn off the water to the yard. Why? It's a mystery. I finally figured it out, and managed to get the drips working again. YAY! 

 My friend gave me 3 banana shoots from her neighbor up in Mesa 2 years ago. I had plopped those down without much thought into the area. Last year, they had gotten frozen, and I thought that I had lost them. Much to my surprise, one of them really grew, and even put off another shoot. So, those are looking ok. We shall see how they do this year. 

What started out to be a quickie trim of the apple and peach trees soon turned into something much more, when I realized the raspberry and blackberry canes needed a quick prune of their tips and the strawberries that are so happy underneath them, needed the undergrowth cleaned out.

After consulting a book on how to prune an apple and peach tree, I attempted as best I could to prune them. May I say, very nervous? Anyway, it turned out not to be as bad as I thought. It did, however, make a big mess, that the dogs proceeded to track around the yard. "Oh, goodie, mom is making us some toys!" Hopefully, this will be the year we get some fruit off these little 2 year old babies. 

Since raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries are all heavy feeders, they needed a little organic fertilizer, some water, and some mulch, and the yearly chore was done. 

All in all, it was a delightful day!