Cheery pink cherry blossoms

I had my mind set on sharing cherry blossoms with you today...but you'll have to make do with a pix of my cherry blossoms from last year because we had a rather freakish wind storm that blew all the current blossoms right off the tree...

WhOOsh in an instant and with camera in hand, they were gone before my eyes, skipping off down the road and escaping over the fence much like the neighbors cat! Hrumph!

Well anyhow...without any further ado...

These blossoms are so pretty in the back corner of our yard/garden. I love it when they bloom every Spring and besides they are so pink and pretty they just make the corner so cheery and bright!

I added a really cool texture layer called "stained linen" from one of Kim Klassen's textures

This week on Texture Tuesday our theme was 'garden'...

Go check out some of the other beautiful photos linked there as well...8]

Hope you are having a super-duper cheery day!

Graffiti is not one dimensional...

My hubby works for the Railroad and I will admit that I have always been somewhat fascinated by graffiti...some of the profane or the hateful remarks stir sadness or empathy but mostly I enjoy watching for the the artistic quality of scrawled letters and images that are on the train cars...

So you can imagine my delightful surprise when I found this talented graffiti artist via the web...She goes by  becca and you can see more of her work here

and you can read and interview on her here

Enjoy!

found via reformschoolrules.com

nature unfurled...

This is a photo I snapped earlier this week of a fern frond stretching to greet the Spring in my shady garden...

I just love how it is all curled and spiraled up sort of reminding me of an octopus tentacle...

This photo is layered twice with Kim Klassen's textures...

The first layer is the most recent freebie called "yesteryear"...

then I layered "Golden" at 190 opacity over the top of that and added the text...

The bottom two photos are untouched photos from the same garden spot...so you can compare what a difference the beautiful textures make. 

 Hope you are getting out and enjoying the Spring sights and sounds...you never know what beauty might be waiting for you if you just take a look!

The splendor of the grass...5 things Smell

Aahhh...the smell of new mown grass. How it evokes the senses and stirs the childlike memory.

I remember the many, many times flopping myself back on the grass in our yard and listening to the neighborhood lawnmowers humming in syncopated rhythm. The air alive with the smell of cut grass and me just taking it all in...

Then there is the memory of the last month or so of school... when the days were heating up and the windows were opened wide to air out the stale rooms...
                                                    image via Pinterest

the grounds keeper would be out mowing the grass, the the new cut grass smell wafting in the windows...somehow making those last few days of school tolerable.

                                                                 
                               via Mike Sheehan

... last night when our weather was nice enough for the Hubby to mow, I was excited to once again smell the cut green grass for the first time this year...ahhh welcome Spring!

"Came the Spring with all its splendor All its birds and all its blossoms, All its flowers, and leaves, and grasses."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Wishing everyone a beautiful weekend!

I will be away from the computer the rest of the week and through the weekend...I do hope that everyone will have a super weekend to spend with their Mom's or with their children,
or just reflecting on the goodness of what a blessing it is to be living in a free country!



Leaving you with some goodness
from

magazine issue 4 is out here

something fun from

http://www.design-seeds.com/

something amazing to watch from

http://vimeo.com/5009334

...

wishing you the best!

Happy B-day to Audrey Hepburn

 "For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others." - Audrey Hepburn

I love Audrey Hepburn...Happy birthday to one talented and beautiful lady and yes I mean Lady.

                                                                                        

More Flower Week goodness and anemone's

Just a quick post today...

I wanted to continue to showcase the fun Flower Week tutorials over at 

...today Emily is sharing with us her fun gathered flowers along with her fabulous templates in 2 different sizes...

 

Please tell her "hello" when you pop in for your templates...she really does a nice job with her step~by~step directions!Give it a try, I know I will... 

I just have to carve out the time, but I have some ideas of  fabric I already want to use 8}

Also over on Design Sponge  Sarah from Blossom and Branch is doing a continuing series of flower facts and will highlight a different individual flower in each post, arranged alphabetically...

It is called Flowers a-z...

I started out here with the anemone {a} flower so that we can start at the beginning and catch up to where they currently are , which is the flower {l} lilac...

Sunny days and happy hearts!

flower week and signs of Spring

You must know by now how much I love flowers... 

Emily is offering some awesome flower 

tutorials on her blog all week over @ Jones design co. , ...

I had to share  the link with you in case you wanted to 

hop on over to her blog and check it out for yourself...

In Central Oregon we are in zone 5 so our season is a little later than some to get started...

I was out over the weekend weeding and saw signs of Spring in our yard {finally}...

the flowers below are from our rock garden...

and my bulbs are just starting to break through the ground {yipee}...I hope to see more growth soon...

Also over the weekend I started working in my inspiration journal...

 and here is a sneak peek of things to come:

I'm not yet exactly sure where I will go with this but I wanted to get some pattern/color/texture/design  inspiration down in a book to refer back to...

I am excited to see where this leads me!

See you soon! Hope the rest of your day is wonderful...