Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Stargazer Tome - Collage Page

I've spent some time working on month #3 of the stargazer tome patterns. This means I've managed to do something on each months patterns but none are completed yet except for the back page **sigh**

Todays page is centered around the watercolor girl I had finished earlier. The background fabric was some I had dyed using Adirondak watercolors...don't know how permanent it is but it's not like the tome is going to get washed either so I'm not gonna worry about it. I've tried to inclued things I love, like flowers, the sun, cats, flutterbys, frogs, fish, ladybugs, birds, turtles....couldn't find dogs that looked like my babies so I left them out...Both realistic and cartoon characters have been included so it shows the serious and fun sides of myself...


















Some of the fish and tropical flowers came from the fabrics that Doug brought me back from his trip to Hawaii (WITHOUT ME I MIGHT ADD) a few years ago...it was one of those suck up presents to keep me from being too irate...lol...

The sewing down still needs to be done but I've put MistyFuse on everything and have it ironed in place so nothing should get lost before it hits the Purple Princess.

Drawing

Making the tome girls has challenged me to do something I was never good at...drawing...especially faces.



















I've been doodling some faces and finally decided maybe I should start with eyes.


















Here are a few I've been working on.














Lots more practice shall be required...lol...

They've Got Hair!!

The tome girls now have hair!!!

Girl #1's make-up was repaired after the head turning episode. Girls #2 & 3 have had blush applied and all three have had chins added and nose jobs.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about #1's hair...thinking about just leaving it as is...my hubby said (before #2 & 3 had their hair fixed) that they all looked like me in the morning...

I'm taking it as a compliment.




**The girls hair was stitched in place, not glued. I tried to leave the curls hanging over her forhead in the green haired girl but it seems to have wrapped itself around the hair bob, which was cut off of the lace made for her dress. The pink haired girls hair bow was made from the angelina fiber/thread pieces that were left over from embellishing her dress.

More Gardening

Imagine my surprise when I came across these little beauties after cutting up bushes and pulling weeds! The little yellow iris are so pretty and delicate looking compared to the larger white ones that were blooming a couple of weeks ago. These are much smaller in height and in petal size.





More columbine from seeds of mom's plants. These were hiding amonst the overgrown foliage and weeds I haven't yet removed.

This plant has grown since the last pictures I took...Wilbur still occasionally digs at the hole next to this plant.


Another view of the dismembered bush.

These are smaller low growing gardenia bushes.

Fern coming back up.

I planted peony bulbs the first year we were here in 1999. This is the largest that I have seen this peony and it has never bloomed but the foliage is pretty.

Stella d'oro lilies.

Pennyroyal mint growing by the back fence. I had it in my flower beds at one time as a ground cover but it mostly grew up and leggy and I transplanted it out back instead.

Daisy getting ready to bloom.

Creeping groundcover I got from my mom. It gets really pink in the sun and stays more white and green in the shade. Hopefully one of these days it will finally take off.

One of two of my Abelia plants. This one has had a very hard time. I had it in front of the composter but it kept getting stepped on until it was only a small twig left. Now after transplanting it into the middle of the garden it's coming into it's own finally. Bee balm is coming in around it.


The jasmine that was just buds last week is finally blooming and the scent especially in the evening will take your breath away.

I think this bush is a Nandina. For the first 5 years we lived here the thing was only about 8" tall. It wasn't until I brought in the topsoil and compost and built the garden around it that it finally started to grow and grow it has, it's about 3' tall now!!

I just love the two tones of green in this hosta. It seems to grow much slower than the green and white ones do but I'm hopeful that somewhere down the line it will be large enough to seperate and share with my family members who garden.














This is the first crepe myrtle that seeded itself in our backyard. It may actually be a shoot from the plant next door as opposed to seed starting as it took off right away and shot up within 2 years time. I cut the top out of it and tied the trunks together this year so it will be less bushy.














A view of the side flower garden which is filling in all over the place.
Jasmine growing and blooming up the side of the deck.





Wild strawberry plants with strawberries on them.




























And the purple plant that gets monstrously tall and gets little white flowers on it...and spreads like a weed..Another of those plants I have a 'righteous plenty' of.













I planted this azalea 3 years ago. It has salmony-pink flowers that smell heavenly but it hasn't bloomed since the first year...guess I need to fertilize it or something.












The purple groundcover I can't remember it's name...reminds me of lavendar lantana.

Gardening

I've been out gardening this week. It's been quite pleasant, warm but with a breeze. Received a little sunburn on my shoulders but that's okay.

These are about 1/2 of the tubers that I dug up out of the flower bed where some kind of weed/tree kept trying to grow...hopefully I've gotten it all but I won't hold breath.



















In the backyard I weeded and trimmed branches out of one of the bushes and on the wisteria plant (which I still have to finish). Wilbur has made a nest under the wisteria but he was inside when I took out the camera. I transplanted some black-eyed susans and a purple plant that grows like a weed and gets fairly tall by summers end.

Michael was quite helpful and collected all the branches and weeds and threw them into the pile out back for me. That is a distinct advantage of having boys...they don't seem to mind hauling all the yard waste around and enjoy lighting it on fire even more but we will wait for Dad to be home before we do that!
My friend, Sharon, gave me this rose bush a few years ago. It was small but has grown so much since then and is a prolific bloomer. Looks like it needs to be strapped up. Maybe I can get Doug to fix my trellis for it.

































Wilbur and Charlotte (courtesy of Wilbur) have their own entrance to the underside of the deck...where they have dug (again courtesy of Wilbur) a large hole that is full of water...what is it about dogs and muddy water and drinking it anyway?? YUCKY














The lemon verbena is filling out...I have a 'righteous plenty' of it as my friend Rachel W would say....as well as the bee balm.


The name of this bush escapes me but in the spring it was full of pink blossoms..it has to be trimmed back to keep it out of the way of the gate and I thin out the center branches that are crossing over one another too as well as the dead wood. It looks pretty naked but will be every bit as full again next spring.













This cactus plant was dug up out of the flower bed...Charlotte kept getting into it and breaking out all over her belly so it now resides in the planter box.












One of my little crepe myrtle trees, violets, lambs ears & iris.













The side bed has greened up well in the last few weeks.