teenage boys rock

my sons left this morning for two weeks... they're spending time with my mom and dad. i'll miss them bunches and at the same time, i'm looking forward to personal time :)

first thing : wash all the laundry under their beds, hiding in the closet, and every sheet, pillowcase, blanket i can find. then i start straightening their shelves a bit, just a tidy-up sort of thing. as i was shuffling a stack of papers in my 15-year-old's room so they were square, the sketch on the top sheet caught my eye.

i gave it more than a peek, i devoured it! what a great smile i had... now i really miss them.

hmmmm... should i check out their website? let me know if you look into it :)

47 going on 15

i'm such a sucker for those weird 15-year-old polish colors and the little-girl stick-ons... grow up!

garden gate

today i picked my first real tomato... as opposed to my sweet little grape tomatoes. actually, i picked three; two beefsteaks, nice and big, and one cherokee purple... also big, with a purple blush and sugary sweet. yum!

why did the tomatoes take SO long this year? everyone else seems to have been having the same problem, what about you?

sometimes my garden gets a bit sorry-looking and overgrown by this time of year, but i've been a good girl this summer and stayed on top of things. the cantaloupe are growing, cucs are coming around, jalapenos are abundant! now that i have tomatoes, it's salsa and margarita time!

fresh picked

the garden has been busy growing... without enough attention from me of late. i made time to get out there today to get my hands in the dirt and feel the warm sun on my back.

first, i realized that the reason my birdhouse gourds look like mini pumpkins is because they ARE the mini pumpkins... the birdhouse gourds are growing on the fence. what a bird brain! my second thought was, "zucchini are a lot like kids... you gotta keep your eye on them or they turn into monsters."

after much snipping and pulling, the garden looks less like the jungle. the best part i leave to last...besides the routine picking of summer squash, today i harvested one of my favorites... fresh GARLIC!!!!!!!!!!

i'm changing the dinner menu...

front door neighbors

new neighbors moved in a month or so ago.

they are really very noisy and quite messy...

which seems rather odd,

because i'm certain they chose their home for it's charm.

they're literally at our front door everyday;

we've even periodically resorted to keeping the door closed

during this summer heat.

the first thing our family hears in the morning is their kids making a fuss!

somehow, though, i'm just not all that upset about all of this...

dipper

i am SO pleased with how the bird and the dragonfly turned out,

but i am disappointed with the flowers. I hate that!

i think maybe photoshop would help to rescue the parts i like.

then i could compose those with another image...

wish i was selling more artwork so that i could afford to invest in the software.

painting houses

this wreath will get hung on the gate into the garden...

signs of a teenager in the house

on my son's bedroom door...

happy 4th of july!

i have a feeling it's gonna be dern HOT today!

that watermelon will taste good!

got the chicken for the grill, makin' the shortcake...

HEY!

those flags you buy at the drug store are all rolled-up looking!

what? am i supposed to iron the dang things?

got arty yesterday...

tomorrow is our 20th anniversary and i always like to wear something special for my honey :)

fail

as i mentioned, our family went up to the cabin for a few days...

my husband and i took a took a walk around the lake and the winter slipped gently off our shoulders and summer began to soak in with the warm sunshine. being a woman, my eyes naturally took in all the "tinies" (one of my theories: men tend to see the vistas, the big picture, the adventure, while women see the "tinies", delicate flowers, pretty rocks, birds flitting in the trees, the soft flutter of a butterfly...).

well, this was the same walk we took last august. on that particular walk, i took my camera along, of course. as i found lovely compositions, my eyes spent more time looking at the possibilities than the trail. stone, foot, stumble, fall, break fall with hand, camera in hand, camera go boom, smash, ugh. needless to say, i didn't take my new camera this year.

... fail

the wildflowers were so precious, and there was an incredible variety! but no photos... fail

another little jaunt to the creek. found a diamond. really, a perfectly cut, flawless diamond. no kidding! but i can't show you how perfectly the dewdrop filled that little leaf with the most exquisite diamond man has seen... fail

i must never let this happen again. i must get a proper camera case!