A Little Sketchy

Two projects I've started today. The first sketch is bits and pieces of an idea I'm hatching for Caroline's hot pink + pink +green + brown nursery. We'll see what comes of it. And the cowboy theme is for my first nephew, Luca! Am headed to Houston tomorrow to visit my Aunts and cousins, have a great weekend!

Sunday Afternoon

A break from the rain finally! Enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon. A few things found on my to do list today:

* bake plum-berry whole wheat tarts

* plant lucky clovers for the kitchen window

* peruse the Sunday ads

* start a new painting...and maybe finish it

*pray for my husband as he attempts to hang new sheetrock in our linen closet. (we enjoyed a lovely week of mold demolition after a leaky pipe last weekend)

Photoshop drives me nuts

I've been making new buttons and banners for the website and blog and have learned all kinds of new tricks today about photoshop. One tip: save your files as .png (pronounced ping) instead of .jpeg if you'd like your lettering to stay crisp with no pixeling around the edges. I thought the note to myself was funny and wanted to share, originally I was going to use my handwriting for the new banner, but my hand had other ideas.

mind + body + soul

First, let's start with Body- I'm eating chocolate covered pretzels right now and definitely feel like my inner aspect has been nourished. seriously- they are so goooood. Anyway, have a few things that are fun to share.

::mind::Was listening to talk radio today as I ran a couple errands for work. Mark R. Levin was being interviewed, if you're interested in thoughts and observations regarding our founding philosophers and how we've arrived in our current political frame of mind check out his book. I haven't read it yet, but am curious and excited. Politics were easy peesy back in 1984- I thought Ronald Reagan was king of the world and Walter Mondale was some creepy guy from Russia trying to take over the White House. nice.

::body:: I grew up as a tomboy and never really learned the womanly arts of hair and makeup. I can fake it pretty good, but I'm clueless. So I felt like I'd stumbled across the big sister I always wished for in high school when I found this girl on YouTube, sweet! I feel like I've hit the jackpot, she offers tutorials and reviews on makeup and hair. Coincidentally, Marta at martawrites is doing a panel study on beauty if you'd like the insight she's uncovered.

::soul:: Just finished reading an amazing story this week. Couldn't put it down- heart beating fast and wrenching in the end. It's so beautifully written I keep thinking of the characters as real people, wondering what they're doing and how life is turning out for them. At the end I felt my soul calling out for something more. A need to understand/be a part of more than the little story I see unfolding around me in Shreveport.

Le Tour de Jardin

A few weeks ago I got to view some of the prettiest gardens in Shreveport with my gardening friends. I looove the garden tour, this was my second one- the creativity and beauty are so inspiring! Here a few of my favorite pics.

If you're looking for gardening ideas Better Homes and Gardens website has easy to follow garden plans for every style, soil and time. Found lots of inspiration for our backyard, we started from scratch after ripping out 33 (!) boxwoods and all kinds of aimless debris.

Here was the front of our home, pictures we took with the realtor the first time we visited. Good thing we didn't mind boxwoods...

the sad little patio- "boxed" in

we thought the boxwoods out in the middle of the yard used to surround an old tool shed, but our neighbors told us the previous owner had two chairs in the middle of them, it's where she enjoyed the backyard. You can't see it too well... but there's an old gas lamppost keeping the hedges company... and that's poison ivy growing up the chain link fence..

Ta Dah!! We've painted the house, pulled up the rickety gas lamp and now our new plants are filling in pretty good this spring. The lamb's ear in front was a small gift a sweet friend gave me right before our wedding, look how much it's grown!

the patio is just starting to flower, I had a nice surprise when zinnia's started popping up everywhere. i dug them up and replanted them together in the bottom right corner of the pic (they'll bloom in a couple weeks)
our lovely backyard... free from poison ivy, shrubs and fire ant mounds!

Happy Memorial Day

It's been a busy month, wow! Mother's Day, graduations, and 6 birthdays in our family made for lots of projects. Hope you're summer has kicked off to a great start this Memorial Day weekend. Found myself repainting our kitchen {Ozark Shadows by Benjamin Moore- pictures coming soon!}, organizing our church's attic, feeling the burn in Pilates class, fellowshipping with the ladies in the toddler room Sunday morning, tubing on Cross Lake, cervesa + salsa + grilling in our backyard with friends, starbucks, starbucks, starbucks!

This is Drake's finished painting, around the edges are stripes to match the big fish. Matches the MiGi Splash nursery set, was great helping you KiAnne, thank you!

Drawing it out

Finished a painting this week and thought you might enjoy peeking into my sketch book. It's funny, I never noticed how messy or how many times I sketched over other patterns until I was finished and reopened the book.

and just starting the painting for baby Drake...
will post the finished project next week!