Carved cane

After many long months I finally finished the cane. It is made of Aspen and sized for myself. That way no one will want it...way too short. Hehehehe. A method to that madness huh?
And no..I will not be staining it or painting it. I want to leave it with a natural finish. It is sealed well though and made in a way that the handle can't come off..ever ...so very safe to use.

I only hope that I never actually need it.

Here we are Shirley

Gary and I in March

I just got in touch with an old high school friend, Shirley and it was soooo wonderful to find her.
I am looking forward to hearing about our lives in the many years we have lost contact.
Welcome back to my life Shirley!

You were on my mind form time to time and if so great to be back in touch.

Brother and me

George and I at Easter.

September Painting

Here are the paintings for this month. Gary's on the left and mine on the right.


As usual the happy trio,
Jan, Olga and Pat, and in that order.

ALOHA!

Mystery Plant

Here is a plant that I got at a plant exchange. The idea was you bring plants and take others home. It was set up in a parking lot and a few tables were at the edges. Many brought them dug up and in tubs or in old pots or in boxes and bags. It was raining the day I went. But so much fun. I had many to share myself.

Anyway...this plant I forgot the name of but was assured it was prolific and pretty.

I planted it and it grew well. Very well. It spread a lot and got very tall. The first year it had no flowers and ihad to dig many of it out. I transplanted some and still it got no flowers. I had it two years. This year I used it as a focal plant in the center of a couple barberries and moon flowers. I tore off all the lower leaves and it got bushy. And lo and behold one day I noticed buds. It was gorgeous!! Yellow daisy like flowers grew all over it. It is tall...about 7 foot high. I wish I knew it's name. But I will continue to plant it here and there. Maybe the secret is let only one grow and water it a lot. Seemed that it liked this treatment.

It dies back each winter and comes back multiple the next year. I have had it 3 summers now and this was the first time it flowered.

Coleus in Pots

These first 3 show the pot on the right side of the garage and the growth thru the summer.
The 4th is is the left side of the garage as of yesterday.

Don't forget to click on each picture to make it full size. They look best that way.
I combined some pictures to show you the growth thru the summer.

I was quite pleased with how big they got.

Zinnias

My zinnias did great this year.
Here they are in late Sept on the way out.
The pot to the right has basil in it.

The yardstick is a 4 foot one.
The pot is only 18 inches high so you can see they are huge.

These zinnias used to be bigger and are now sagging and bending forward.
At one time they were taller than me, But are still over 4 foot tall.
See the orange one way over the top of the ruler? That used to be much higher.
The tree behind has shaded them a lot and now they stretch forward.

South Dakota trip-Custer State Park & Tatanka

Real buffaloes at Custer State Park

The gorgeous scenery.

The depiction of Native Americans on a buffalo hunt at Tananka.

South Dakota trip-Crazy horse and Mt Rushmore

Above -Crazy Horse as it will be when finished. It has been worked on for over
60 years and will take another 100 years to finish.
Below- as it is today.

Mount Rushmore...it is finished..lol
But actually it was not finished cuz the guy died before he got to put some final touches on it but it was left as is as a testimonial to him.
Again...I took tons of pics and some really nice ones.
Unfortunately the ones I took of the night time illumination didn't turn out.

South Dakota trip-The Badlands

I fell love with the Badlands. Oh my..I want to live there. The first pic was taken from the parking lot of the place we stopped at. We had a special guide for a tour thru them and he was so informative. In fact..he stayed with us for 2 full days. After going thru the Badlands we went to the famous Wall Drug store. No pictures of that though.

I took tons of pictures but this blog only lets me upload 5 at a time in a post. But I guess that is enough to show what I saw. I might still get a Picaso account and upload tons there. Then maybe I will be too lazy. Time will tell huh?

South Dakota trip-Corn Palace

Our First stop on the trip...the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

Above - Gary looking very touristy.
Below-A bench sitting cowboy flirting with me or
maybe me flirting with him...not sure now.

Another full view of the corn place where the whole outside of the building is covered with different natural colored corn.

Sad,,,the doll musuem was closed but I loved the building which was for sale.

Would make a nice house now wouldn't it?

Redecorated guest bedroom

I am in love with the newly redecorated guest bedroom/craft room.

Even Gary loves it a lot. he did a great job repainting it.

I have not finished with hanging pictures and adding all the craft stuff but that will come with time.

This room used to be the master bedroom but we switched to my craft/bedroom. We both love the higher ceiling and bigger room with huge windows. I don't mind the switch as long as I have a place for my craft stuff.

Now that we no longer sleep in separate bedrooms, we now have a guest bedroom..just waiting for company. Yes..since retirement many things have changes and Gary made a huge change in wanting to be closer again..hence sleeping in same room again. Now the king bed seem big enough. and I must admit I like it our reunited ways too. It has taken some adjustment but it seem to be ok.

Now it is just getting all the crafty stuff out to make it more bedroomy. and all the while making the guest bedroom not so junky.

I have decided to store a lot of stuff and plain get rid of some. I can rotate what I put out and not have to have it all out at once I suppose. That will take getting used to too. But..times and habits can change. Heck..I am even thinking of taking down my magnet collection in the back hallway...all 650 of them. And keeping only one wall panel up to display ony about 50 at a time.

Yes..I have them all on display on cookie sheets and huge metal pans hanging on the wall like huge pictures but dusting them is getting to be a bore and I am tired of them. Ergo...hide most and rotate.

To perm or not to perm

I am in a bit of a dilemma. Now that my hair is grown out a bit, I do like some curl to it.

But this morning I wanted to go to the Farmers Market and since I was gonna work outside later didn't want to curl it so I left it straight after wetting and styling a bit.

If I perm it I won't be able to do that. But if I don't perm it..the set doesnt last in humid or wet weather. Oh what to do?

I do love the shorter style but find that the sides lose color so quick. I guess that there are pro and cons to either length I prefer huh?

For now I think no perm is the way I want to go. That way I have the best of both worlds.

But also it means I have to have it trimmed more often..like once a month. It has only been 3 weeks and I can see major growth already that is making it look a bit shaggy.

Men have it soooo easy. I envy them.

July Paintings

Once again time for paint class and I really like this months.
It still amazes me that as we all paint with the same instructor, and try to do the same things, each painting is so different.
I think th t this month Gary's and my pic really shows how much small changes make.
They can change the whole feel of a painting.

Pat, Olga and Jan's

And finally, Gary's and mine.