Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.
May10

Waiting on the weather…again

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It’s been a rather slow week here. We’ve been getting April showers in May. The most exciting thing I did was go food shopping…and go to the dentist….and go to TJ Maxx where I got a little retail therapy in. We finally got some health insurance which eases my mind somewhat. Of course that’s an added expensive.

When I went out to get in the car to get the chip in my front tooth fixed I found this fella sunning himself:

We’ve been seeing a few of these garter snakes in the yard this year. I’ve also seen a bunny, which I prefer to see. Brian took this for me.

Our snowball bush is mighty bushy this year:

This is way too big as are most of our trees and shrubs. Here’s a Mt. St. Helen’s azalea we planted in place of the hedge:

It’s quite striking, isn’t it?

We have so much to do inside and out. We haven’t had a chance to go to The Home Depot for the new vanity and toilet I’d like to get too. We tend to drag our heels on things like that. I think if I had new things I’d revamp the bathroom decor! I sure know how to add glass tiles from doing them in the kitchen.

I think we’ll get busy with the gardens again tomorrow and Saturday. There’s always switching clothes from winter to summer too. That’s an involved job too!

May7

A job that is never finished

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Brian and I were out in the yard Friday and some of Saturday. I did more Friday and then did a little of this and a little of that on Saturday. Today I am zonked and having some lady issues, but we both think I overdid the leaning over and using the edge tool. I love that half moon shaped tool. It can make a sad looking weedy edge look lovely in a matter of minutes.

We now also have two corral gardens! The second one didn’t cost us a penny as Brian moved an old plastic fence we had in the old garden. We like the round gardens  as they are easy to maneuver the mower around them. The one from last year will be used for zucchini, watermelon and other vine plants so they can spread nicely. I can’t have tomatoes and green peppers in the same area as zucchini, etc as it’s too hard to get to them through the vines and big leaves. The circle is nice again as we plant the veggies around the perimeter of it. We don’t plant more than 10-15 of each kind anyway.

I replanted a border garden I have under my Japanese Maple tree. I needed to add more Sweet William/Dianthus there. I also decided to add more ferns behind the flowers to fill in the space directly below the tree. I have plenty of ferns, hostas, vinca vine and Lily of the Valley this year. A pal from high school is coming for some of the Lily of the Valley and Hostas. I edged that area, under a hedge and down the side of the house. Then I planted flowers in front of our huge evergreen where I already have Bleeding Hearts, a ground cover, ferns and a Clematis. I added burgundy Salvias and pale pink Nicotiana . I have my squirrels decorations in there too. (I know, I know-where are the photos? )

And then I started on the fairy/gnome garden. It’s getting taken over with ferns and Lily of the Valley there.  I added Snapdragons and other tiny flowers. I will have to write down the names of them.  These are from my camera phone…. before the garden was planted

With a few flowers

This Clematis must have 30 blooms on it right now. I should get a couple more plants for this garden as they love it there in my Lily garden which is about a 1/4 cleaned out-oy.

I am hoping my PT Cruiser’s tire is finally fixed. It was getting flat in 3-4 days and we just kept adding air to it. We had it at the service station thinking it was a valve, but it wasn’t. I was reading on a Facebook fan page for PTs where a lady left the same message about her tire losing air. A man said to have it rebeaded, so Brian took off the tire today and just had that done. I think the rim gets fixed. So between the $38 valve and the $23 rebeading, I better not need a new tire!

May5

A new collection

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Right before our anniversary last month, I was in a gift shop browsing around. They happen to have a 25% off sale on Vera Bradley quilted items. I know they’ve been around a number of years, but lately I’ve been eyeing up their smaller bags as I just can’t handle a big purse anymore. Sometimes I’ll take two purses on trips, the big one with all the cosmetics, etc and the little one to use for shopping. So I saw the chartreuse, black, gray and white one and decided to get it. I love it and it’s little compartments for my phone and wallet…well I didn’t have the wallet until I found it on eBay! I also got the other ones-they all have names-I know the red one has Scarlett in there.  I’m waiting on an eyeglass case for eBay.

They were a fraction of the price of the ones in the store and they were new with tags! The little one in the front has my MP3 player in it and I’ve had it a few years.

That’s my back massage chair. And they are all machine washable. I have enough right now, but I like the backpacks, but they are up there in price.

Made this ATC for a ‘feather’ challenge. I happen to have an old rip off calendar and Elizabeth Denison was intriguing to me. She had to ‘make do’ with accessories, and she used feathers! Another swap bot lady sent me the sweet little feathers as she saw on Swap-bot I was in that challenge and she was sending me a ATC also.

I got two ‘gadgets’ in the mail yesterday. First an ‘extender’ so our WiFi could get to the bedroom part of the house. It took a bit to set up as the software wouldn’t work right. I had to get my laptop to find the device and it did. I can use my iPad in the bedroom-look at movies in bed, i.e.. The second was the Magellan eXplorer device. I had to become a premium member of Geocaching.com and I think my phone app is easier to read. Plus I had to go download local caches from the website. The phone app finds them for you! I think I’ll have to try it to get use to it, but I’ll need my glasses on as the screen is a bit tiny. If my pal Carole can find around 150 with hers, I hope to find at least 10 to begin with.

And some of my gardens are shaping up nicely. So many weeds to contend with!  I did a lot of work on Friday and did a bit more today, but I was very achy. I moved some ferns from the fairy garden and dug up Lily of the Valley slips. They are taking over! They bloomed so early, I didn’t get to enjoy their scent that long.

Check out this gorgeous petunia hanging basket. It has Pink Lemonade and Picasso petunias in it  and  is close to 3 feet wide. It was $22-around here-easily $35.

Below there is a Mt St. Helen’s Azalea which is new. Brian cut down the one hedge and I think we’ll gradually cut out the rest as they are old and are more brown than green.

I really am not going to garden on Sunday, but we will have something on the grill. I cooked last night, but couldn’t tonight.

May5

Photo Hunt-Zap

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Almost two years ago, the three of us went to a Phillies game. It was about 92 degrees and we had to sit in the sun. Not a pleasant experience, but I had water and also my mist fan. So about an hour or so into the game, it started to get breezy and then the sky got dark. There was lightning and we are glad we didn’t get ‘ZAP’ped. It started to pour and we got drenched and had to run to the car and drive home that way. We came home to find water pouring in where the pump is-never happened before. We had to scramble to get rid of it and clogged up the sink in the bathroom down there-still that way.
Anyway…thought you’d like to see the video board at Citizen’s Bank Park.

May4

First flower buying trip of the year

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That maybe the only flower buying trip of the year! We had a few extra bucks from a winning scratch off ticket that Bri’s dad gave us ($40!), but spent lots more. I decided I’d better propagate the huge petunia plant I got with a mixture of pink lemonade and Picasso something petunias. I had Brian with me and he was loading up on green peppers and tomatoes plus the ones I got.
Anyway, we were there 1.5 hours and I am ready to get digging, though my left elbow is giving me a hard time (I have a stretchy thing on it in the photo).

That’s an example of the Pink Lemonade petunias near my head there! We filled up the Mariner.

We then went to a family restaurant close by near where Brian worked a few years back. I got at least 3 helpings of mashed potatoes and turkey in one! I brought half of it home.  Then we went to a little 5 and 10 style store and I got some fat quarters of fabric, a little flag and seeds.

The landscape is gorgeous in Lancaster as I have told you before. I didn’t bring my camera with me, but wish I did. We really saw a lot of Amish people and buggies yesterday!

It was a nice outing with my hubby.

Apr30

Some more flowery ATCs and things

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If you catch my blog and voted for me for my contest piece, thank you! I haven’t checked, but I think I’m in 4-5th place out of 18. I showed this piece in about 4 different places and I got about 21 votes. I said to Sean 20 would be nice and since one was my own-I got 20!

Anyway, Brian and I took a walk in the park. We tried to find the cache there that we couldn’t find about 2-3 weeks ago and now there are 2 feet weeds and poison ivy coming up. We couldn’t find it. I then saw there was a good size one near our township building and in under 10 minutes, we found it!

Right under the azalea bush there-lol

We drove near here and just couldn’t find where three were-we didn’t get out of the car for two. I am getting a little nervous about ticks now, so I’ll have to really start pinning my hair up and wearing lighter colors of clothing. I did take all that outfit off when I got home and brushed my hair well.

Here are some art pieces I made recently

My Groovy ATC

That’s me and I’m pretty sure I was hula hooping.

This was to have a Vintage theme. I made a copy of an inside cover of an old book of mine that’s about 100 years old for the background there. The oval is from an old book. The  ‘creating charm’ is from a store bag that had old advertising stuff on it.

I originally made this for the trade. Can you see the Viewfinder slide and the 8 ball? Then I added a sticky flower stencil I added glitter too. Too cool.

Apr28

Photo Hunt-texture

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Meteor showers bring Moon flowers
This is a ‘textured’ entry for a Utrecht Art contest on Facebook. If you like my play on ‘April Showers Bring May Flowers’ please visit this link and click ‘like’ at the top. I’d love $50 to buy supplies. I have some gorgeous papers from an online company. I cut out the moon flower myself. I knew I wanted to do a play on ‘showers’-so did the meteor shower. Brian sees the Van Gogh ‘Starry Night’ influence from me seeing the real painting in New York City in February.

Apr26

A few more swaps

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Not the most exciting week with rain off and on. I have been doing swap pieces between things breaking. Yes, it seems that our bathroom is calling out for repairs now. We put in a new vanity many moons ago-like 25 years ago when Sean was sitting in a little baby seat. The drawers are shot from opening and closing and being overfilled. We have to get a new one. I was looking at the home center sites and found a few I liked. I then went to Pinterest and followed a link and found one, with the lovely glass bowl for a good price. It would have cost $60 to ship, so might as well take a hop, skip and jump to the Home Depot and see if they carry it in white, though I would go for the dark too.

I also need a new toilet, so we might as well get that put in at the same time. And maybe further down the road, we can get Bathfitters or the tub reglazed.

Sean is in his last few weeks of his classes this semester. His professor kind of threw them for a loop as they have a few powerpoint presentations to do. I think he is worried and may be over thinking it. Wish him luck.

Here are a few other things I just mailed off:

We were to hand drawn something and also include a ladybug

This is a ‘skinny’ and  what would you do in the summer. The lady who got this likes dolls, so I added Barbie-the ‘original’ Barbie.

Hope to get some annuals soon and get working in the yard.

Apr24

May flowers in April

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Early, so early! Now it’s chilly again. I haven’t gone out to look at the following flowers as we finally got rain off and now since Saturday night.

Lovely white irises

Lily of the Valley

I am doing several challenges on Swap-bot.com.

This was my choice of design and it’s called ‘Spring Chicken’. I got a package of really cute chicks and bunnies and the lady in New Zealand likes these sort of ‘die-cuts’, so I thought of that when I was making this.

A decorated envelope for ‘May Day’ is going to Oregon.

Monday, my entourage and me went to my hometown. I was getting my hair done and then we went to the tail end of a book sale and out to PF Chang as we had a $15 off gift card. I grabbed a few books like a Metropolitan Museum of Art  book on Van Gogh. This was nice as we had just seen his show in Philly. I got a few novels-Twilight for one as I’ve never read it. I have seen the movie, but I’m sure the book is better. I have enough books for many years of reading! : )

Apr22

My first geocache find!

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One out of six ‘ain’t’ bad! I think a few I jumped the gun on before we knew all the ins and outs about the hobby. And why were we looking for a micro the first time around? And who knew there are evil ones that mimic pine cones and magnets on dumpers?

This was behind a Baptist Church about 15 miles from here. I was so happy to see the container! I stood away from the actual find site so you could see it’s kind of in the sticks of Nottingham, PA.

It had cute little things in it plus the log which I signed. I forgot to take something, but I put $1 in it I was so happy to locate one. This was spur of the moment after we had browsed around a flea market place in an old barn. We’ve been there a few times. Bri got a used chain saw (please don’t break it) so we can trim some old bushes that just aren’t doing anything this year.

Then since we were in God’s country, we went to a nearby park. We were right where the cache was when my phone died. We saw landscaping fabric ‘in the middle of the woods’ and didn’t pull at it to see what’s underneath. We know where it is and will go back with a hand shovel and gloves if we are out in that area again.

We did have a nice walk in this very rural area.

Brian is enjoying taking photos too. Gets his mind off of worrying about things.

We are pretty sure it was right near here-that brown patch on the left.

It was around 6 pm-I was wondering if the critters were coming out for dinner. Had on the wrong shoes too. The paths were stony.