lovin right now

wow.. a post on a sunday.  my blog used to be so on schedule.  but after such a busy summer, in the kitchen and at the day care, i feel the need to post and schedule posts for whenever!  look at me go... 

my current infatuations are pretty simple.  I like my hot coffee that i don't finish in the morning put in the fridge to be drank later in the day cold as a cucumber.  must be the heat index outside.  i'm totally hooked on colby jack cheese sliced, cubed or string.  i am totally enjoying pasting and securing pictures and things in my journal using washi tape that i bought on etsy.  it makes the pages thicker and holds them in place with a very pretty flare.  my favorite has red and pink cabbage roses with a green background.  i have never been a flip flop fan but when i purchased some new bathing suits at a very discounted price at jc penney before our florida trip i bought a pair of white frip flops with silver glitter thongs and loved them enough to send my sister back for two more pair.  at just 2.27 each i figure it didn't hurt and now i wear them all the time.  real good for the arches you know... not!  daily rituals is a book that i have on loan from the library right now and i love it.  it fascinates me to read about how artists, writers and creative people live their lives and do what they do.  

i am also hooked on a website, also about artists and creatives.  this one is about their homes and interviews on their lives.  pretty cool.  here's one of my favorites so far.  or my favorite picture from her home rather.  click the pic to be directed to her interview.

and the website is

freundevonfreunden

a "thing"

I am beginning to have a thing for hanging plants.  This is not a good thing seeing as how I don't have a single plant hanger hung from our ceiling anywhere in our home.  Our house being only five years old I don't see Shaun jumping to poke holes in the ceiling even if I do feel it beautifies our world.  Well... maybe if I put it that way to him he'll do it.  I have recently brought out an old macrame hanger that I bought at a yard sale many years ago and hung it at the day care.  It puts a little hippy in the room and I love it.  It reminds me of the Sunshine Family dollhouse we had growing up in the seventies that had a hanging plant pictured on the plastic.  Here's a look at how lovely they can be from around the web.  Oh if only I could sit still long enough to learn how to make them.  Maybe this winter.  All pictures were found on pinterest.  Click the pic to be linked.  How lovely!

Here's the Sunshine family pic... someone listed it for sale on ebay.  See the hanging plants?  Man.. you can find anything online.

How fantastic!  Is it still in your attic Mom?  Who am I kidding... I know it is!!!

days of our play care

Some days, at the day care, I have more kids than other days.  Then there are the days when I have less.  And sometimes it's easier to do projects with less kids.  And sometimes it's more difficult when you are trying to do the same project with several different ages of kids.  Today, however, the simple project worked great and to my delight the kids I had today took part and went with it. We created simple journals from cereal boxes, paper and yarn.  I had cut up the boxes and paper a few weeks ago when a blog inspired me called growcreative.  The post for her cereal box journals is HERE.  I make it a point to not take credit for something I didn't come up with.  I'm not sure why I waited for the right day to make the journals with the kids but today as I was pasting pictures in my own journal outside when two of my kids got here I knew it was time to share the project.

We put the journals together and all went outside with our heads full of ideas for our pages.  One wanted a leaf taped on to a page, another found a caterpillar and drew a fantastic picture of it and another was busy making "letters" while the other was tracing blades of grass.  It is so much easier to feel an at-ease of control when little minds aren't focusing on being wild... which is ok sometimes too.  I like for the kids to be themselves here while also trying to help them find themselves creatively.   By nap time one of the boys wanted to sleep with his journal... awww... I didn't let him.  

I loved this little project and loved watching their minds wrap around the pages outside.  They are all growing up so fast and I have the pleasure of watching them do so.  

weekend shots

As I was creating this post this morning I realized that the last seven days have been filled with new.  New friends, new recipes, new blooms... it's all in how you view your world.  Picture your world in pictures.  To others it can be fascinating as well.  Even if it is spent in bed.  Learn to appreciate the world around you, the comforts of your home and your space in this life.

Saturday morning.

The only zinnia of it's kind that I still own... waiting for seeds.

Julia Child yellow rose water was made.

Fair entries.

After trying to chase her off all day Saturday, Sunday evening we gave in and after finding out how sweet she is we are looking for her family that she obviously belongs to.  She has been fixed, plays and wants in the house something awful.  We gave her some flea and tick guard and two meals so far.

Calendula blooms which I have been beheading like mad and drying in my linen closet.

Three different colors of cosmos I have grown this year.  The white not pictured.

Not sure what this is but a stern warning was given for it not to be mowed down until I figure it out.

Red sky at night... sailor's delight.

Red sky in morning... sailor's warning.

Empty then only to be filled again.  They are headed south though with the temperatures acting like it's August again.  I still seem to find myself canning almost every evening.

A new dc friend.

A new green relish recipe tried this year.  Very yum.

A new friend I fell in love with walking into Kroger and had to have.  The others had grown very long.  I decided on one to watch it grow.

Houseplants on the outside loving life.

This one is from this morning on my way down the drive to work.

tis the season

I was seriously walking through the yard towards the shop on a hot, humid, not to mention balmy afternoon yesterday while singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year".  Santa's got it all wrong!  Summer time, tomato time, garden time, seventy at night time is, in my own opinion, the most wonderful time of the year.

Tis also the time of year for fruit flies... gnats... in your house if you have any piece of fruit or vegetable sitting out for any length of time in your home.  If you've seen one please believe me there are more.  Many more.  I have shared my recipe for gnat juice twice now and felt the need to share it again.  Mainly because I had to log on today to look up the recipe myself.

By the way, one of my sisters, in a pinch, made the gnat juice using regular white vinegar and it worked.  So if that's all you've got by all means try it!  You will be amazed at how quickly the little buggers go for the concoction!

greenery

Hello... my name is Laurie and I have a large plant obsession.  Not large plants... just plants in general... large obsession is better. When I vacationed with my family in Florida this summer I asked my loving husband to water my plants for me.  He all but freaks when asked to do this chore.  Luckily none of them died while I was gone.  All but four, excluding the terrarium, of my houseplants enjoy the summer outside on our covered porch.  In total my plant count outside right now is around fifty two.  Though to walk around the porch it doesn't seem it to me.  There's just greenery in corners and my African violets are blooming and they all enjoy it so.  The plants do come in during the winter and are all over the house.  Not all fifty something come in... some of those are herbs and flowers that would be deprived of sunlight in a bad way if brought in.  I treat my plants not as though they were just another decoration but more as friends... some of them almost twenty years old.  After all I do talk to them, nurture them, feed them and they are living things.  Not like a chair.  My dream one day is to have a greenhouse.  I dream of one of those glassed in greenhouses that you can watch the rain trickle down from the inside that would become quite steamy and tropical when heated for my friends during cooler months.  Pictures like these leave me reeling and drooling for my dream to come into fruition.  I even saved a whole block of bricks when we built our house to use as the floor.  I have a plan... I just hope I can hold out and I'm not quite sure where this room would be exactly... but it would be very dreamy for me and my friends to hang out in.

from flightsofwhimsy


from myfotolog.tumblr


from moontomoon


from ginnybranch.tumblr on pinterest


and

from tdclassicist.blogspot.com

And who can forget the herb greenhouse from the movie Practical Magic?  Not I.

let's play a game

The Robertson County Fair is next week and this will be the fifth consecutive year that I have had entries.  I mainly enter in the amateur photography and canning sections but have been known to venture into others.  I have to take my entries this coming Sunday and have just about waited until the last minute.  Which, is why I need your help and am calling it a game!  I need help choosing which picture to enter in the Nature-Color division.  If you could just choose your favorite from the following pictures and let me know.  I am going to temporarily open up my comments for this so please feel free to use that or you can email me your vote.  I would completely appreciate the help!  Thanks a bunch!

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