Waiting for the Deep Freeze.....

 

......Well that picture turned out kinda dark... sorry about that... but i hope you can make out my new coffee cup!! I know i know i always say i'm not buying any more... but then i ran into this one... now i don't have that many plants . As you can see from the photo i don't have alot of light in my house... Its designed that way to help mitigate the HOT Texas sun in the Summer... to help my electric bill... But if i could i WOULD be a Crazy plant lady and if truth be told if hubby wasn't allergic i would probably be a Crazy Cat Lady too...lol 

Look!!! I spent a wonderful afternoon and colored the beans! I used watercolor markers. I'm thinking of changing the name to Magic Beans and maybe put it on the back of tshirt.... I have a family member that could do that for me... I plan on painting this on a small canvas and then using that for the tshirt image... Also plan on glitter on the beans.. you know for the magic part... Do you like the spirals?  

Amaryllis are still going strong... 'Red Lion' is just opening up its last bloom... Look! i had to put rocks in the pots to stop them from tipping over.. Definitely going to be on the look out for heavier pots... Arabian Nights from last year finally died back...  the bulb seems nice and firm so i put it in the closet and will forget about it for 3 months then pull it out and water it and see what happens... cross your fingers... 

You might remember the Red Yucca plants i started from seed last Spring... Well i didn't get them in the ground in time before the first freeze so now i'am stuck taking care of them all Winter... In and out, In and out... Out on nice days and In on the freezing nights... I won't make that mistake again... Its a pain... But i'm so excited i actually grew them from seed and they lived...We have a freezing week ahead of us... Hopefully they can handle my dark house for a week... No precipitation expected for us.. and honestly we are dry , we could use some water in whatever form... Stay safe and warm everyone in this deep freeze... Thank you to everyone who stops by and takes time to leave a comment... much much appreciated, makes my day!... Hugs! deb

Amaryllis and Ice.....

 

        Ice has come and stayed a day..... I'm so glad we ventured out into that Winter Wonderland... 

The roads were lovely and not slick at all but anything up off the ground was covered in ice and slowly melting... 

As we were out an about a great chunk of ice hit the car next to me and we were like where did that come from? A quick look up and we saw that chunks of ice were melting and falling from the over head power lines... that we parked under!!!!  I was lucky.. i think that would have hurt!!! 😲

My poor Viola or Johnny Jump Ups were literally coated in ice.. I thought they were goners.... but nope the ice melted  and they looked fine... like Ice? what ice?  .... 

And lastly an update on Amaryllis..... Thats StarGazer in the front and finally Glee in the back...Glee is  a little darker and the petals are more pointy... StarGazer's petals curl back but not Glee's... Short little Red Lion is just blooming like crazy... all gorgeous!  

They were a big hit when we finally had our Christmas party on the 8th...  You really don't appreciate how tall they are in these pictures... just amazing... now the trick is to see if i can get them to rebloom next year... :)  I hope you've had a wonderful start to your 2025! Hugs! deb

Time Marches On....

 .....like always.... some in my little Family Circle are sick... others are getting better... some are coming down with it... it has passed through all of us and touched us each differently ... hopefully soon it will be in our rearview mirror for all of us..

 

The flowers on the island mark the march of time... StarGazer is in full flower mode... Four beautiful flowers on the top of one stalk and still another stalk to go.... 

Red Lion stayed short.... I don't know if thats normal for this variety or thats just all the stored power it had to give... theres another bud down there barely just starting up a stalk... 

Glee is tallest of the three and happily still in bud... not even hinting at opening up...A mystery... so we shall see!!!! They  need a good drink today... Oh and check out below!

 My Christmas Present!  The yellow bead that has honey comb shapes in it and a bee shape... It finishes off my bracelet that hubby has been working to fill for years... .Its a rainbow of colors so it goes with anything... LOVE! 

And finally a sketch in the Idea Book... Beans the Musical Fruit! That was fun... and might make a fun little painting... 

Happy New Year to all who visit! Hugs! deb

Doodling.............

 

..............Our Christmas has been postponed because of sickness in the family... sigh.... but thats ok.... hopefully by the end of the week we can get together...   Its given me time to Doodle and Paint and Play... and thats what i've been doing... 

............just silly stuff really... i want a Birthday cake like that!   I might design a whole bunch of these Birthday Cake drawings.... might be fun... 

I sketched out little squares.... like a palette of all the blue acrylic paint i own...lol ... Then mixed a little white with each one to create the 'swirl'... When all dry i used a white Posca pen to draw lines and dots and snowflakes ... lots of fun... There's glitter in there too... did you doubt it?! :)

                        Terrible lighting.......A nice picture of that might make a nice Christmas card for next year... 

                       Merry Christmas Eve!!!! 

                                  Hugs! deb

New Family Members......

 

If you know me ... you know my penchant for  Amaryllis and if truth be told for Christmas Cactus too... I like to collect them.... My problem is i never seem to get to KEEP them as i move way too often.. Well last year i bought 4 to start my collection AGAIN... lol  i found Amigo, Ferrari, Arabian Nights, and Tinkerbell... Well Tinkerbell never did bloom then she withered and died... But i still have the other 3

This year i found....Star Gazer which is the tall one there in the picture, the middle size one is Glee and the small one is RedLion... it is already trying to open.. must be a shorty... Glee has the most amazing red color in the stalk and bud already , can't wait until it opens..  

The three from last year have not died back on their own like i thought they would.. but i have read up on them and saw suggested to stop watering them and put them in a dark closet on the 4th of July , then pull them out on Halloween and start to water them... so this next year i will give that a try...  

I'll show you more pics as they bloom :) ! Hugs! deb

I Painted a Forest....

 ...............this is just a few trees in my Forest of Christmas cards this year... 

... they were easy and so much fun... Not a professional or even a very experienced card maker here... just fun...

.............i keep threatening to make my own Christmas Cards every year... well this was the year... lol  

............ for those who want to know... I used Strathmore Watercolor Paper, and Cotman Watercolor Paint, Archival ink for the Bunny and Fairy and a combination of  Sharpie and Staedtler Watercolor pen for any outlining... Oh ! and a stencil to put the gold in... Super fun! ... Hope your having fun this Holiday Season! We have a Run Run Rudolph that the Grandlittles are participating in on Sunday.. We'll be cheering them on!!! Hugs! deb

This Guy.....

 

This guy was just truly amazing! Grabbed my eye right away... I think he stands like 2 ft tall... About a month or so ago hubs and i walked around Fredericksburg... our favorite haunt. Lots of vintage , flea market type stuff..  mostly we like to just look.. This guy was way more than i would spend and i have no idea where i would have put him... but isn't he just so impressive... ? 

While i was there i saw this too and LOVED it... i love the shape... i think i might try to draw it..or paint it... Speaking of drawing... 

            I played in my sketchbook again... 

Its an odd shape but i have a little vase i use as a pen and pencil holder so i tried to sketch it... Then it just looked so lonely on the page so i added the roses. The 'roses' were inspired by some roses i saw at the grocery store... The white pen is a Posca pen ,I always forget how effective a white pen can be... The black pen gets lost sometimes... 

                         Here's the inspiration..... 

I've done some more work on the windchime. But its on hold now as Christmas activities are taking over.... 

I have a mix of store bought and handmade Christmas cards this year.... I made a little more than a handful from a picture i took of my Christmas cactus bloom several years ago and then i had a handful of store bought cards i used up and now i have 10 of these Christmas cards to make..black pen, watercolor and i stamped the bunny... all different... and alot of fun... just hope i get them done in time... I hope your enjoying your Holiday season!!! Hugs! deb

ThanksGiving 2024...

 

I hope you had a lovely ThanksGiving.   We sure did... So much fun having the GrandLittles over with their Parents... The Eldest GrandLittle came over and 'helped' her Grandma cook the day before... I put 'helped ' in quotations but she really did help quite alot... We made a Pumpkin Pie together and Deviled Eggs and some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies... Then we rounded out our day by playing in the CraftRoom... and a little Outside... What could be better?  In the above picture don't miss the lovely card Kathy made and sent me . It was center stage for the Holiday! 

I'm not taking part in Elizabeth and Bleubeards Tparty but i'am in the habit now of taking pictures with my drink...lol You can also see my current project... Its a windchime or maybe you call it a mobile.. I've decided to use little swivel hooks you normally use fishing... My hope is it will help the line last longer with less tension on it from spinning... 

I collected all the Green beads i had in my Stash.... my motto lately has been 'Use what you have'... So Green/Gold it is... .... 

Hubby cut and sanded a beautiful piece of wood for me and i stained it... screwed in some eye loops and attached the swivels , tied on some fishing line and off i go... The Gold Feathers i found at Hobby Lobby some years ago in the Clearance Area... so glad i'm finally getting around to doing it... I'm not quite halfway across.. I hope i can keep coming up with different combinations of beads... I have 9 Feathers...... Tomorrow is the Day!  I start putting up Christmas Decor... or at least put away the Fall and Pumpkin things... I don't even think of Christmas until December 1st.. you?  Hugs! deb

Happy Halloween!!!

 

We are all ready for Halloween!!!  Hopefully we will get some trick or treaters... The first two years here we only got like one or two... But last year i went through a whole bowl of candy... fun fun...  So we'll see this year... The GrandLittles are coming over to help me hand out candy... FUN!!!  Those two stacks of pumpkins by the door are my additions this year.. I got them for free and i painted them and Hubby made a stand for them.  I painted them black and then dry brushed them gold.

I came up with this ghostly image while painting with the kiddos one day this past month and..... 

                        I turned it into a Halloween Card

I think i ended up liking the inside of the card better than the outside... I just love that cat stamp... Very Jinxy... 

The Littlest GrandLittle came over for a play day with Grandma.. Never know what we are going to get into...  We used dishsoap and straws and blew bubbles in the sink. Grandpa had reccently played some night golf with light up golf balls... What a cool effect... 

And last but not least ... i splurged at Chilis and had their Witches Brew Margarita... I haven't had a Margarita in forever. It was really sour and tangy...  Well i've enjoyed my Halloween Month... I wish i could say its cooled down ..... but nope... I hear tell this next week is supposed to cooler and wet... so fingers crossed some of that comes true... Hugs! deb

A Finished Project and Cuttings.....

 

Happy T day everyone! Thank you Bluebeard and Elizabeth for holding such a wonderful Party.  I'm so sorry for your frustrations leaving a comment. I hope a solution presents itself as i have no idea.... Have you done or considered reloading your system?  Above you will find my latest Facebook Marketplace find!  Its huge! Like 30" across!! A great addition to my Sun Collection... love, love, love

I scored Saturday Morning with someone giving away cuttings of Wandering Jew! A grocery bag full for $5...... YES please.. This vase was my Mother in Laws that she gave me years ago and sat in a cabinet all this time.. I thought it fit the bill wonderfully... I even gave some cuttings away  ..... 

But i don't want you to think i shorted  myself...lol  My goodness!  My plan is to let them grow roots over the Winter and plant outside in the Spring... Now long term plans are.... every Fall before they die back to the ground i can cut them off and root MORE over the Winter again... !!!!

My ticket to the Tparty AND my completed Project!! I found wooden fish at the Dollar Store. I couldn't pass them up... Originally i was going to paint them Silver.... and put them in my MasterBath on the top of the wall near the ceiling and just go around the room.....

But come to find out the Silver really just looked grey up there on the wall... So i changed tactics and went for colorful... For those that remember i do have my colorful Fish Painting hanging in there too...

There's some glitz and glamour that i hope there will be enough light in there to show it off... 

There are 18 total!  Yeah i never do anything in moderation... sigh.... 

And i was very tired of doing them by the time they were done....  Now Hubby has to get them up on the wall... I'll take another pic then....  They are a mixture of acrylic paint, metallic paint, pearl paint, glitter and the 'bubbles' were put on with texture paste through a stencil...  Happy happy T day everyone and i'll be around to visit... Hugs! deb

My 2024 Summer Flowers.....

 

My flowers this year did me proud... The petunias the Granddaughters helped me pick out lasted all Summer....... up until about 2 weeks ago they finally started giving up the ghost... but with 110F temps i really did expect that... I LOVE petunias... all the different colors and SOME of them still smell... My favorite is a varigated purple one called 'Sugar Daddy' .. could not find it this year.. 

This is my first time trying to grow Marigolds... I think it came home with a case of bugs because i had trouble with that straight away...Cleared that up and it did beautifully. It too now got scorched by the hot TX sun.. 

And here is a wild volunteer... 'Devil's Bouquet'... It does beautifully with little to no help from me.. If we go a particularly long stretch without rain i will drop some leftover from my watering can on it but otherwise nothing.. Infact we had a rainy stretch here a while ago and it shriveled up and died... just too wet.. 

So there i got pictures of all my flowers before they died...I hope you enjoy them.. Happy T day everyone! I'll be around to visit... even if i'm a little slow... Hugs! deb