Friday Funnies

5 Things Thursday

Today's post is going to be about flowers---but not just mine.

1. Justin is from a gardening family, so the dirt under his nails is inherited! Every year, he plants flower pots for their condo balcony. Months ago, I saw and ordered these baskets that hang on decks or rails. I thought they would be perfect for them. They finally arrived a couple weeks ago. Justin sent me these pictures:

This year he planted squash and sunflowers. There's not a lot of room--especially if they want to sit out there some.

Here are the basket holders. It looks so nice with downtown as a backdrop!

2. We've been slowly getting Stephanie and Nicky's landscaping in shape. 

 Little by little, it's coming along. This bed runs all along the side of their house. 

The hydrangeas are in full bloom. I had--Sara--our garden girl--plant yellow marigolds to line the bed. I'm always looking for things that show well from the street.

Stephanie is so impatient. I haven't been over there for a few weeks now, so these pictures are old. I'm pretty sure the flowers have filled out nicely!

3. We have a lot of flowers on the patio.

I never think to take pictures from this view. I'm usually looking out the other way.

When planting pots, I go for color and texture. They have to be watered every day. That's Butch's job! We can never count on rain---even when it's predicted. It just doesn't happen!

The crape myrtle is just starting to bloom. They bloom on new wood. All these years, I've kept them cut back. I don't think I'm going to do that any more. I'll just let them grow tall, but still keep the shoots cut back so the interesting trunks show. 

It's when you look at a picture that you notice things that aren't right. In the picture above, the chairs are all messed up! I hate that hodgepodge mess. Each of those chairs has a match. I'll have to go out and move them to where they are supposed to be. There are a lot of things that bug me out there---that take away from the beauty I'm trying to achieve. I've decided I'm going to hire a young teen to come over and let me boss him around---"move this, put this here, clean out this, etc." I don't have the strength or inclination for most of it. The pool shed needs cleaning out. The pool works area needs cleaning out. And there are rocks and old pots I want moved. I think 2 hours should do it. I'll offer $50 on the Next Door app. I surely should find a taker!

4. The other day, when I was upstairs, I decided to snap this shot.

You have to be looking down to really see my knot garden. I designed it 23 or 24 years ago. You can't tell, but there is a part that is red-ish.

5. I know I'm wearing you out with this, but I am just so blown away by it that I can't get over it!

 Just 4 days later!!!

And after only ONE week!!! From dead to life!! I don't know why I should be so surprised. After all, Jesus did it in 3 days!

I promise that this is the last post about my sago palms. Promise! Well, maybe....

What I Buy Wednesday

One of the things I like to do when we're at the beach is to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. In June, when we went down, we were really being cautious due to Covid---and it was Florida! So, there was no shopping.

As it turned out, the deals came to me! I couldn't resist these bargains!

The top purse is kind of a peach and coral. The bottom one is gold. I love metallic purses because they go with everything! I had to control myself to just get two!! I do love a good bargain.

I don't really count food purchases because they aren't necessarily splurges. But I just had to share this purchase. On Sunday, while we were on our way home, we stopped at a farmer's market.

These vegetables are so beautiful!!! This picture doesn't really do them justice. Those tomatoes are so huge. I'm keeping some of them out just to look at them. ALL of this was $22.28! Quite a bargain compared to the place I usually go to. Even though this place is a little further out, it's worth it. I'm planning to go about every other week. 

I never thought going out to buy vegetables. would be a fun outing. But it's an outing I'll look forward to. At least it's something to do outside of the house!

Spoiler Alert: I have a really big surprise for next Wednesday!! Can't wait!!

Travel Tuesday

Well, we're still not traveling but we did go on our annual golf/scrapbooking weekend to the farm with friends---although it's been two years for us! I accomplished quite a lot. In fact, I did 20 layouts from Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon. I ran out of things to do, so did a layout for Karolyn. That was fun, but I don't have a picture of it. I really enjoy doing layouts for other people.

Anyway, I'm going to share 10 of those layouts today. Here goes:

 "Making their dreams come true." Whenever I have long titles, I like to use my label maker along with one larger word to accent it.

"Pandemc Puzzles."  I really liked having the opportunity to use these old puzzle pieces on this layout.

 "Eating Habits" is about Mitchell when he lived with us. He said we had dollhouse food!

"baking with Evie & Josie." I did an old technique of putting part of the title on a transparency and layering it over a larger word.

 "Family Vacation 2017."

 "My Favorite 'tea & tales' Memory" is from AYM last week. I didn't have a lot of room for patterned paper, so I made little quilt blocks instead. I used acrylic paint to attach the transparencies with the title and journaling. Also, I used a map from my memorabilia from the trip as part of the background.

 "Fun at the Beach." Nothing unusual here.

"Tea & Tales." This is about my book club's trip to England. I put the title on top of the map from Hampton Court--home of King Henry VIII. I forgot to show the accordion fold out on the left that holds another dozen pictures. I learned quickly that I did not want to do a separate album for each trip--especially since we are traveling so much. Now I try to keep each trip limited to a single double page spread.

 "My Favorite Thanksgiving Tradition: Setting the Table." is for AYM. Since we were in the country, we did not have internet access. So, we could not do any computer journaling. Wherever you see some, I did that at home before I left. On this layout, I layered the photos with Washi tape. They flip up.

"Thanksgiving." This one is about our family gathering in 2019. I ruffled the ribbon in the upper right and lower left corners to add dimension. I haven't done a "stacked" title in years.

That's it for today. I'll share the other 10 layouts next Tuesday.

Scrapbook Sunday

It's been awhile since I've shared any scrapbooking. Here are a couple layouts I did for our "round robin." Every other month, we trade sets of pictures and make layouts for each other. For these two, I did a couple of new techniques.

I did this "Circle of Friends" layout for Pam. The border across the bottom is made out of 2" circles. You fold  the edges on four sides that then makes it into a square. It works especially well if it's a patterned paper on both sides. It's a little time consuming, but looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

I did "Snow Much Pain" for Karolyn---about her breaking her shoulder when she fell off the ski lift.

The border on the left is made with 1 1/2"x3" rectangles that are folded in half and layered. I decided that this was a fun way to use scraps.

I pulled out the circle punch I used for Pam's layout and a 1 3/8" square punch. Now, I cut all of my scraps after each layout. I'm storing them in this container. Now when I want to do either of these techniques again, I have everything pre-cut.

I decided to do the same thing with extra pictures. I cut them 2"x3". I think they will make good borders or an end page. 

I've actually been putting together quite a few kits. That makes it easier to sit down and put layouts together. Lately, Saturday and Sunday mornings have been my scrapbook time. I'm noticing that my scrapbooking has evolved to more "moment" layouts rather than just vacation, birthdays or holidays. I really prefer pages that tell the stories of our everyday life. I think that gives a good portrayal of how we live. At least that's what's interesting to me.

A Few Things

I already shared on Monday how this sago palm was coming back to life.

Well, here it is just 4 day later!!! 4 days!! OMGosh! This is a miracle! For sure.

I've been going out for my daily walks around 5 a.m.---still in the dark. As for sunrise, this is the best I get.

With all of the trees, I only get to see the sky changing colors. Still, it's really pretty. It's so quiet at that time of day---no mowers. The birds can make quite a racket, but I like the sound of nature.

Butch gave me some cantaloupe for breakfast one morning. Apparently, he has forgotten my cutlery rules. A bowl or dessert plate requires a salad fork. I don't like it when the fork is bigger than the dish. There's no where to put it. As you can see, it is sitting precariously across the bowl.

Remember this:

This pile of shoes at the bottom of the steps in the garage--I had no idea what was up with that.

Now they've moved inside! I guess Butch has decided this was going to be his new storage area for his shoes. At least he has them neatly in pairs!

I took this picture because the flowers all look so pretty--even from a distance.

The tree hydrangea is so full of blooms, it looks more like a big bush. Notice that the hydrangeas to the right still have not bloomed. I don't think they will this year after all. 

Maybe next year they'll look like this again. I hope so.

Well, that's about it from around here. There's talk that our Mayor might take us back to phase I. If so, not much will change with us. We're not really doing anything. I'm having my pool parties---it's very easy to social distance in the pool!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Friday Funnies