WAIT WHAT?

It's May... what on Earth happened to April? OOPS! So much for me posting at least weekly on this blog. Life gets crazy sometimes and this Summer is not going to be any different as we try our hardest to get our house ready to be sold so we can be in a new home before Christmas.

So lets see what we can say about April... I reached over 2000 subscribers on my You Tube channel. For some reasons over 2000 people enjoy watching me craft, make art and following Scott and I on some of our life's adventures.

A very large moon at the beginning of April had me pulling my camera out to try to capture it. I love taking photos of the moon through tree branches... makes my heart happy.

I've been doing a bit of sewing/quilting again and I so love it!

For April I came up with the idea of designing house blocks in a 12x14 rectangle for a swap.  I started with this idea but after making this first block I decide to reduce the number of pieces to simplify the process so I could get 7 blocks made before the end of April. I am looking forward to putting my neighborhood together.

I finally finished staining the inside of the upper cabinets at our house so that task could be crossed off our huge list of things to get accomplished before we list it to sell. We are slowly pecking away at the what seems like a never ending list of things to do to the house down in Cayce.

 The blooms at the cottage were amazing this year and I am wanting to start a bunch of cuttings from the azaleas here to take with me to our new home.

 Early spring mornings looking up through the trees below the cottage leads to a lot of reflection. I remember as a teen taking this type of photo and my Grandma would tell me I was "wasting film"; I think she would have LOVED digital photography.

This fungus seems to be all in the cedar tree by  the driveway at the cottage.I just find it so intriguing. Too bad it is detrimental to fruit trees causing deformities in the fruits.

Bargains were found for my arting. I'm going to use the big placemat as a stencil.

 Last weekend Scott and I drove up to Hendersonville NC to attend the Mother Earth News Fair. We had an enjoyable day and learned a few things while we were there. First stop was learning about building with Cob. The children were really "getting into it"; by the end of the talk some were covered from head to toe with the mud.

 Scott walked up and perused the table of literature about cob. We did not buy any books on it but may later.

Cheese making

Natures bouquet that was growing where we sat to eat our meal of crepes from one of the food trucks.

Of course when in the mountains where you can see more mountains you HAVE to take a photo of the mountains. It truly was a glorious sunny day.

Primitive painting! Earthen paints can be made at home and are safer to have on your walls than commercially made paints.

 And on  the way back to our car I saw this bumper sticker and had to snap a shot of it to share. Read all you can... even the banned books!

 I am doing a BOHO tag swap with some of the folks that follow me on You Tube. I created this one on Monday during a live show. I like it ok and learned a lot from making it. I learned some things I will not do on the next one. I will need to make 6 total and I know they will all be different but all in a BOHO style. I will keep one and mail out 5 and then I will get 5 back from the 5 people I mailed mine to and I am planning to put them all together on a ring as a book. I'm thinking several tag books in a basket would look lovely in my next Hobby room. So more tag swaps will be in my future I am sure.

So that was April... HELLO MAY! 

Our 33rd wedding anniversary is May 11th. It's hard to believe that much time has passed already. May your May be full of joy and happiness!

Hello Again!

 After the week of long hours Scott had last week we decided to walk along the river while down at our house on Saturday. The break from repairs and upkeep on the house and away from the thoughts of work of any kind was just what the Doctor ordered. We SO MISS the Cayce Riverwalk as we knew we would. So getting to revisit it was such a joy.

The River was up a bit so the fishing must have been pretty good. We saw several people fishing along the bank and one group of fellas just below the locke's damn in a boat. The section that had been closed since the horrible flood of October 2015 has finally been re-opened as repairs have been completed. We could see where so many trees were lost from flood waters pulling them down as well as killing them and  they had to be cut down for safety. It really opened things up along that stretch of the riverwalk.

White Egrets

Cormorants

Trumpet Vine

Fungi Amoungi ... ha ha

One of the old trees that was taken down for safety.

On our return to the cottage the cats were so happy to see us and cat piles in front of space heaters were the mission. Callie and Tippy were in their happy place to be sure.

It is feeling like Spring is REALLY going to make an appearance in the next couple weeks and I will be so glad. I'm ready to be warm again.

March

Hello my friends! Here it is March and the weather has been so crazy. There is currently a stiff cold breeze blowing against the cottage and I have a couple space heaters going to take the chill off inside. I am planning to turn the oven on to bake some sweet potatoes in a little while to help warm the place a little more. The furnace ran out of fuel oil and Scott went and bought 10 gallons of diesel to get us through until "Spring" but he couldn't get the furnace to start back up and we didn't have the money to call the repair man out to get it going again and that is why we are using the space heaters. I am really hoping we are out of this little house before next Winter... fingers and toes crossed.

 Howie and Tippy have been doing their best to keep us warm when the temperature dropped this month and of course handed out lots of kitty love as well.

 Amelia (above) and Bernadette (below) got their yearly checkups and shots early in the month. They're doing pretty good for a couple old gals.

 Piper (above) has a new playmate, Coal (below). Coal showed up out on  the back porch one day and decided to stay but our 3 cats didn't like him one bit so we asked Greg if he would like to have him . So Coal met Piper... didn't go too well and the first week he was there she growled and hissed constantly but now he has sort of grown on her and they play together. Both Piper and Coal had check-ups and Coal has been neutered.

 These two photos of Coal were taken when he had just returned home from having "the surgery". He is tiny and only weighed 4.4 pounds at his check-up and the Vet says he won't get much bigger.

 This is a "Zine" made out of one sheet of 8 1/2x11" cardstock. They are alot of fun to make and swap with other crafters.

 This showed up on the cedar tree by the driveway here at the cottage and it turns out it is bad for apple and pear trees as it cast spores that cause deformities in the fruits. It caught my eye as it looked so creepy cool. Now I am hoping no one near by has fruit trees that will be damaged by this fungi. Here is a link to the article on it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosporangium

Today is the first day of Spring - HAPPY SPRING YOU ALL!!!!

February in Review

Greg had bought a discount bag of bananas one weekend we were down at the house thinking it would give him bananas for the week. Little did he know the 4 bananas on the top of the bag were the only regular sized in the bag the rest were mini-bananas. The look on his face was priceless!

 We just LOVE our cottage kitty trio; they each have a unique personality that is all their own. Callie goes on "patol" about the yard making sure no interloper invades HER yard.

Callie on a rest break

 Howie is the largest of the three and the biggest baby. He waits for Scott EVERY night so he can get a good scratching and a cuddle from "Dad" cat.  During storms Howie is almost inconsolable and will cry and cry.

"Painty Papers" and a few "extra" goodies from my swap partners.

Mixed Media Mash-up for week 45. I cut this up and turned it into painty paper journals.

This past weekend we were down at our house doing a bit of work in the yard and garage. So much was in bloom...

Red Bud tree in the backyard.

There were so many bees working the air was filled with their voices.

 My Camellias were full of blooms!

The Hawthorne cherry tree in the front yard was stunning and alive with bees as well. It and the cedar behind it I planted years ago when they were each about a foot tall.

This Tulip Magnolia always puts on a grand show every year.

The kitties really missed us while we were away and stuck so close to me when we got back. Makes me wonder if they had some trouble with something or someone when we were gone.

Howie and Callie - Sibling Ying Yang

 Yesterday Scott and I went up to Travelers Rest to walk at the park and then go to Goodwill for "Old Fart Tuesday" - Seniors Day so we could save another 25% off our purchases.

Scott took this photo of a gorgeous choke cherry at the park.

Our "treasures" from Goodwill!