Not so thrilling thursday!

When all else fails i fall back on the flowers! Today was fairly uneventful {except for one small bit of news which i shall keep to myself for a few more days} but that doesn't mean that i didn't take the time to appreciate and enjoy the beauty that is all around me everyday. I did take a walk to the bank today and the sky was just beautiful, of course i did not have my camera with me but cam showed me a cool photo he took on his phone of a rainbow cloud. My contributions reside at the back of the yard in my "wild garden" this area could use a little taming but i thought the newly bloomed lilies were beautiful and i love the lines and texture of the ferns!

Oh Sheila!

Crystal's Jeep Sheila gets a little front end work done.  This thing looks and runs like a tank, but hey it gets the girl from point A to point B until recently when some braking issues forced Sheila into a ditch.  The close call got Crystal paying a bit more attention to the creaks and clunks and so she had someone look at it in Kzoo. Well after we recovered from the shock of the repair estimate {i mean really dude look at the truck do you think we need the high end lifetime warranty parts on this thing} she carefully drove it home where she received some much needed T.L.C. from Steve.  Thank you Steve {and Dawn for letting us take up your free evening}.

Good things come in little packages!

Today i had the pleasure of meeting and photographing a beautiful newborn.  Ella, a pint sized little bundle of joy weighing in at about six and a half pounds is eleven days old today and she was an absolute sweetheart!  Thanks to her mom and dad {first time parents} for sharing her with me and handling the session like seasoned pros.

The Grass Will Grow Back

Actually i think that is the name of an old country song, but it's message rings true if you have kids. Our lawn has bare spots all over from the gang of kids who are always playing one sport or another on it, but i know that someday the sounds of kids screaming and playing on the front lawn will be silenced so for now i enjoy it and realize some day the grass will grow back.

For the love of Chocolate!

Is it because of my love of chocolate that i unabashedly gasped and exclaimed (yeah out loud to myself) "oh my god, that is beautiful" or is it that i look for the beauty in everything?  Any way you wanna look at it that is a "purdy" chocolate bar!

CMU Bound!

We celebrated my oldest niece Chelsea's graduation today!  The weather held and it was a beautiful day and wonderful party. Because she has been accepted to Central Michigan University, my brothers Alma Mater, many of the decorations were CMU themed.  Some of you may remember a post a while back where i was "cracking down on clutter" well it was on this day that i ran across this old CMU jogging suit of Crystal's!  An idea was born and i dressed her old Pooh bear in the outfit and put it out amongst the decorations.  Huncle Paul, as Crystal once dubbed her Uncle Paul bought this outfit for her when she was a baby. Paul also planted flowers in the letters C-M-U. Are her parents proud of her, you bet!

Photo 1 - Crystal, Huncle Paul & CMU Pooh

Photo 2 - Crystal, Chelsea & CMU Pooh

Photo 2 - CMU flowers

"Smile, You're Beautiful!"

Thank you anonymous sign maker! Of all the hand painted signs i have seen along the roadside this one immediately put a smile on my face and made me pull a U'ee to take the photo. How nice that this person took the time to share their talent for sign making to bring joy to all those who pass by!

American Woman

One of my favorite iconic symbols is the American Flag! I love it's red, white and blue loveliness and what it represents. Over the past few days i have been creating this scrap wood American Flag. Last year i was going to buy one at the Lavender Festival but of course i thought to myself "I can make that" so that is exactly what i did. I did want it to be a bit more rustic looking but i have decided to let the weather take care of that for me!

Why is this man so sexy?

Well if your answer is "duh, because he is scrubbing the kitchen floor" then give yourself a pat on the back! Domestic chores always make men appear much HOTTER, right ladies? We discovered a cleaner, Awesome that single handedly was able to remove 15 years worth of wax and dirt from our kitchen floor. Now i don't want to use the kitchen, looks like we will have eat out from now on.

Does your man help out with the household chores?

Antique'in

What a lonnnnggg day. Had to head back to Washington Township which gave me an opportunity to pop into an Antique store i missed while i was out there yesterday, found a cool old door (it is actually a very weathered beat up door but that is exactly what i was looking for). Sharon and i hit a Salvation Army, Micheal's and then Home Depot to pick up some top secret items so that i can work on my project i started yesterday. Finished Chelsea's grad party slideshow to the sounds and sights of a great storm! Then there was the phone call that Crystal was having her truck pulled out of a ditch after sliding in while trying to stop during these wet conditions, the call came from her so i feel blessed, it could have been worse.

Lunch with the CraigsList Killer?

Seriously that is what my calendar said today. This joke of sorts started about 2 weeks ago when i exchanged a series of emails with a gal who wanted to by an item from me that i forgot to take off C.L. when it sold. Like i said we exchanged a few emails and it seemed we had a lot in common so i would tell cliff about the emails and his response to my strange behavior was "oh she's probably a stalker"! Let's face it there are some very strange people out there and a bunch of them have found their way to C.L., but my gogo gadget senses were telling me that this lady was nice enough and we decided to meet for lunch today at Chilli's, so i marked my calendar "lunch with the CraigsList killer" in the event that she did turn out to be crazy and kill me in a public place, the evidence would be on my computer! Well i am happy to report that Donna (the C.L. killer) is delightful and i am still alive. She brought me a cucumber plant - which ironically i have not been able to find at the 3 locations i have gone to buy my garden plants and i gave her a bag of lets say "findings" (err ahh junk) she is an artist and loves to create from found items, guess it beats filling up the landfills.

Any hooo while out on that side of town i couldn't help but stop by and take a photo of the Octagon House.

Who remembers the Octagon House from when they were a kid, didn't it seem like it was soooo far away?

The last photo is a teaser for a project i am working on with some help from cliff, care to guess?

UPDATE: i added more photos to June 13, 2011 post "Art Meets Function" my camera died that day and i was down in the Clem today so i took some more, plus from what i understand they have recently been painted so some may even be new from last week.

Weeds to Wonderful

Cliff and i started the garden project a few days ago but we ran into a small problem with some unwelcome visitors (ants) so after a few home remedies i was able to convince them to move. We finally finished getting the plants in the ground today and fenced it in. We are growing roma tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and japaleno peppers. I see some salsa in my future.

What are you growing in your garden?

Did you know ants wont cross a talcum powder or baking soda line, put a circle at the base of your plant to keep them off.

They also do not like vinegar!

I finalized my attack with some dry grits, don't ask if you don't wanna know but they say it works.

A Celebration of Fathers

Tonight Paul, Sue, Cliff and i took papa out to dinner at Slow's in Detroit where we had a delicious dinner including pulled pork, corn bread, mac-n-cheese, baked beans, jambalaya and beef brisket. From there we went to one of Papa's favorite haunt's - Nemo's where Papa told the story of his first visit there with Paul after a game, of course he was only about 4 or 5 and when papa walked away to get some cokes and fries some men sat down near Paul which i guess freaked him out because when Papa came back to the table he found Paul sittlng in the lap of a beautiful women comforting him because he had been crying. Next it was onto the play "Ernie" at the City Theatre, a tribute to the late great Ernie Harwell, not sure how long the show is running but it you get a chance to see it i highly recommended it, the actor who plays Ernie sounded so much like him.

Frantic Friday

Twenty plus little girls at a party is definitely a frantic way to start a friday, although it was fun and i got a lot of great photos it did wear me out. But today's photo has nothing to do with that, it wasn't until my next destination in Ferndale at a fellow photographers Gallery showing that i first discovered these beauties while walking back to my car. I am crazy about poppies and equally enamored by all flowers of the blue hue! Had to have them so hopefully i will get to enjoy them for years to come in my own backyard. I see a greeting card in their future too.

(on a technical note these are some much brighter in my iPhoto than they are her on blogger, bummer)

A little bit of sunshine.

Today was a rainy day and that kind of put a damper on few outdoor projects i was going to work on. I did however have one bright spot in my day a short visit with little Gracyn, she is so animated now and i had her cracking up!

Jumping for Joy!

Autumn and Girl Cameron were caught jumping for joy today celebrating the start of summer vacation for Autumn. Couldn't pick just one photo because they were all so funny!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Cliff and i got a surprise invitation to the Tiger's game tonight he made sure i knew that we could possible witness history if Verlander threw a no hitter. Even though that did not happen it was a great game and we had the pleasure of watching the Tiger's win from the Champions Club where they had quite a spread of food.

Art meets Function

As Cliff and i were walking off our burgers i got this great idea that it would be cool to photograph these beautifully painted fire hydrants. Unfortunately after the second one my camera battery died and i decided i had to shoot a third with my phone so i would at least have a few because two just didn't seem to be enough.

Three down, one to go!

Cameron joined the ranks of high school graduate today when he walked the stage to get his diploma! He plans on heading to Macomb this fall to start his college career. We are so proud of him!

Quilty Chicks

Spent the night and most of today with the Quilty Chicks up in Armada. As is often the case with Quilty Chicks, someone needed fabric so a trip to "Sew Together" in Richmond was put into motion. Not being a quilter myself i thought i might just pack up and go home and then i said to myself - "self, this could be a good photo opportunity". The photo above is just a sampling of the goodies we came across.