A whole lot of nothing...

...has been going on with this blog. I feel like the past two months have been a whirlwind of work, family events, and never ending to-do lists. But then sometimes, things slow down enough to enjoy the little things. And the fuzzy things.

Priorities, people.

Tricks and treats

It's that time of year again - time for the annual pumpkin carve-off that Josh and I have each October. It's not really competitive, but it's definitely serious business. Josh had his design chosen a week ahead of time, while mine was Googled at last minute. We are both happy with our creations and hope they hold up long enough to use them on Halloween. We also feel that his bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather, which has been the topic of hot debate within the family. Pretty amusing if you ask me.

His & Hers.

Bring on the trick or treaters! We're ready for you!

Long time no see!

Worst. Blogger. Ever. Who wanders off from their blog for two weeks? This gal, evidently! Truth be told, there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement going on in the garden front. I do, however, wish to share this beautiful blossom with you. This beauty is half dahlia, half peony -- my two favorite flowers in my favorite color. Of course, the woodchuck ate the first blossoms that it had earlier this summer, and it took the rest of the summer for it to rebloom. I was thrilled to be able to enjoy it again before we hit freezing the other night. I hope I get to see it again next summer!

The highlight of my gardening career.

A little project, or the benefits of yard sales



The bubblegum house from hell.

 Here's a little project I finished this past week. A friend and I went yard saleing a few weeks ago, and we both came back with some fabulous treasures. She ended up with a vintage chair that she scored for $2 (nice!) and I had a multitude of little weird things that I planned on turning into craft projects.  At one sale, I ended up filling up a box of random items, and this was one of them -- a Lil Kids Tiny Toy Shop. Hideously pink, but I love the form. Look at the little shelves! And the arched doorway. And the little roof! It had potential.

So I did what any self-respecting crafter would do: I hauled out the spray paint again. (Not that this is becoming a problem or anything. I do not have an addiction to spray painting things now. Nope.) And what color would convert this pink nightmare into something fun? Why yes, the answer is black. Very good! 



Pumpkins! Get your pumpkins here!

 Here's our converted house -- it's now a pumpkin stand. My first vision was to turn this into a little garden shed or something, but with the Halloween season fast approaching, it didn't take long to convert the idea into a holiday decoration.

Projects like this are a great way to use up the little doo-dads that you have kicking around.  Granted, I bought all the cute little pumpkins at my favorite craft store (Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA), but the rest I had in my stash. The patterned stuff is all paper and a fabric ribbon, the skull is a bead that I received in a swap, the bucket that the skull is sitting in is something I had picked up from Home Depot.  (Josh says there's an actual use for them, and thinks it's amusing that I saw them and said, "Aw, little pots!" They were in the washer and nail aisle.)



We've got big pumpkins and small pumpkins!

 I had moss kicking around from several other wreath projects, so that had to go in here. I like that it makes it feel like it's being overgrown.  Much like our front garden. (Ha.)



And some fancy stuff in bottles -- probably magic potions.

 I made the signs and window boards out of grungeboard from Ranger. The bottles I picked up at the AE yard sale this year, and they were originally clear so I colored them with alcohol inks and added glitter. The number 13 is actually a weird magnet thing that I also got at the yard sale, and I needed something there on the roof.  An unlucky number seemed appropriate.



 



Don't mind our broken windows!

  I have also had this stained glass window thing from Jolee's sitting around forever. It's one of those things that I have always thought was super cute (thus why I bought it probably about five years ago) and just couldn't find the right place to use it. It has finally found a home. (Or rather, a pumpkin stand.)

And there you have it -- trash to treasure. Well, I think it's treasure. It's certainly better than the bubblegum mansion I started out with. It was seriously fun to make, so for that reason alone I'm pretty happy with it. Josh seems to like it a lot too, so hopefully this is just another argument for the benefits of yard saleing. (See, I actually did something with some of the stuff I bought! It's not just junk I brought home!)





World domination and new rosebushes



Taking over the world one bug zapper at a time.


I had a friend who warned me about trumpet vines -- she said they take over the world and that we should get ours out of the front garden. I mentioned this to Josh, who has been very excited about attracting more hummingbirds, and he wasn't sold on the idea.  Then he read about them online and how they really do take over the world. So it got moved. 

I can't recall if I have mentioned before that we have what used to be a giant bug zapper in our backyard. (In other words, we have a very large, very ugly metal pole in the corner of the yard.) My brilliant husband put two and two together, and voila! A new home for the trumpet vine.  Hopefully it will grow right up this puppy and we'll have more hummingbirds than you can shake a stick at. The pavers aren't really that white in real life -- I took the pic when it was sunny out and the just seem to glow.  (They're the same gray as the pavers we used to edge the patio.)






Everything is turning up roses.



So what took over the trumpet vine's place in the front garden? I'm so glad you asked! It appears that most garden centers have their perennials and other good stuff on sale since its the end of the season. Yours truly ended up with two new rosebushes at about half off the original price. So if they survive the winter, we should have a lovely rose garden next year. I also stuck my two iris bulbs in here, so hopefully they do something magical too. 

Pettengill's in Salisbury is having a big festival this weekend with antiques and crafts. (And plants, of course.) I hope to make it over there to see if they have anything on sale again. We went to their spring festival and it was marvelous. That's where we got the glass bird bath -- a guy makes them out of recycled glass pieces and puts them all together to make beautiful garden stuff.

I love beautiful stuff. These people must see me coming a mile away.





Roses on a rainy day



If you clip it, it will bloom.


It's pretty disgusting out this morning, so I thought a nice, pretty blog post would perk things up around here. After listening to the wind howling all night and the rain hitting our window (which for some reason sounded like someone hitting the bottom of a pan with a spoon -- it was not the relaxing sound of raindrops that I had been hoping for), let's consider a brighter topic -- rosebushes.


I am nothing if not completely clueless about how to care for rosebushes. The only thing that I really know is that they love attention, much like all the other divas in the world. (Hey, beauty like that takes some work!) So when a blossom fades, I snip it. And once, when I saw some little aphids on its leaves, I sprinkled some anti-aphid stuff on it.  And that, my friends, is pretty much all the care that this thing has received.  (And it gets watered.)


Yup. I grew that.

I am shocked to report that this rosebush has actually doubled in size since I bought it. It seems to LOVE being pruned now and then, and in gratitude, shot up and out and has been blooming its little heart out for the past month. I am in awe. This is in my garden. And nobody has eaten it yet. And it's still alive. And it's actually really pretty.


Really? My garden?




Another look at how the colors change through each blossom's life cycle -- they start out bold and brilliant, and as they age, the colors fade to softer pinks. I think they're just lovely at any stage.



The divas... Mariah, Whitney, Christina, Celine...



I can barely spell delphinium







D-e-l-p-h-i-n-i-u-m.

I found a pleasant surprise this weekend -- my delphinium came back from the grave! (I realize that's a pretty common theme with my posts around here.) This had been chewed down by the devil woodchucks, and managed to come back again and actually blossom. I am beyond thrilled. I love the colors in it -- it kind of reminds me of the purple Rose of Sharon that we have. Did you know that delphiniums are also called larkspur? I had heard of larkspur, but didn't realize it was the same flower.  And, according to wikipedia: The name "delphinium" derives from the Latin for "dolphin", referring to the shape of the nectary.  They are also very poisonous to humans. So there. Now you've learned something today. This blog is nothing if not educational.




Delphinium, aka, larkspur.

I loaded these photos onto the blog over the weekend, and thank goodness I did that -- I have not been able to see straight for the past 18 hours. (It's kind of interesting typing this -- if this blog post makes no sense whatsoever, blame the following story.) I managed to pull something in my neck/back of my head yesterday while at the gym, giving me a near-migraine. This happened while I was on the elliptical -- a machine that does not require neck movement whatsoever. It was a searing pain when it happened, and then was just annoying for the rest of the day until the late afternoon. Then it became terrible again. I spent my evening with a hot pad on my neck, and took some Tylenol PM which had the exact opposite effect that I was hoping for -- I might as well have had a large cappuccino before going to bed. Josh came up with the idea that I should put Icy Hot on my neck as well, hoping that would sink in and help the situation.

Little did we remember that a certain little tiger cat LOVES Icy Hot. It is about 1,000 times more exciting to her than catnip. So as I was drifting off to sleep last night -- finally -- I was quickly woken up by what appeared to be a fur stole around my neck, licking the back of my head and purring. Then she started kicking me. Then she ended up on Josh's head, rolling around.  He told her to go to sleep, and she then ended up near my face, with her nose in my ear. I removed the hot pad that I still had around my neck and laid it down at my side to divert her attention. 

She slept with her arm around the hot pad all night, like it was a teddy bear. I told Josh I thought I heard her muttering something about, "My precious..." We left for work with her laying on the bed next to it. She was not giving it up. I'm hoping we don't have to stage an Icy Hot intervention when we get home.