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...

Wow...I won!

It seems I never win anything, but this time I actually did it...I actually won something really cool over on

...and this is what I won...

Can you believe it? I know me either!

I can't wait to get it...the magazine's not quite out yet so I will have to have patience for it to arrive, but that's OK by me...

when it gets here I will let you know, and share some of the goodness inside :)

http://www.blogguidebook.com/2011/04/summer-with-matthew-mead-sneak-peek-and.html

5 things...TASTE...carrot cake

Over the weekend I baked a carrot cake Birthday Cake for my beautiful Daughter who happened to turn 22. It really turned out good ...I'm just sayiin"...

Here's what I did:

I used the Betty Crocker Carrot cake mix and used the ingredients listed on the package except I subsituted canned pineapple juice for the water. Then I added all sorts of add-ins to make it taste more home-made.

I added :1 tsp. vanilla, 2 c. peeled grated carrots, 1 c. raisins, 1c. chopped walnuts,  1/2 c. diced pineapple...

I allowed extra baking time due to the added ingredients and whoola! a moist delicious carrot cake...

I grabbed a cream cheese frosting recipe I had on hand and put that together:

3/4 lb.(3 sticks) butter, softened

1 lb. cream cheese at room temp.

3/4 lb. powdered sugar

1tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Whipped it all together until light and fluffy and covered the cake.

It made plenty to add as filling and have enough to tint and pipe.

And even though we were all pretty full from just having consumed massive amounts of grilled shish-ka-bobs, we all couldn't resist that cake, yum...

I wanted to share the recipe just in case you would want to make it for your Easter dinner dessert or jot it down for future use...Hope you enjoy!

April Challenge...memories of summer past

 Last week, I wanted to see if I could keep up with posting a little more frequently and just found that although my intentions were good, life keeps stepping in my way...none-the-less, I won't give up on the idea of the "5 things" posts...I'll just have to rethink how I might want to do them in the future...maybe all at the end of the week? or just whenever something comes up to insert in one of the themes?...I don't know yet... I guess, I'll have to get back with you later on that :0)

So for today I decided to jump in on the 

April Collage Challenge at

Mary Green's Green Paper Press...

I did a digital collage using using parts of each of her ephemera

I felt that the piece could be interpreted that the memories could be by the birds or by the girls...you choose :)

Happy days to you!!!

5 things~ touch tuesday

I wanted to use a vintage photo of a hare in celebration of the upcoming Easter season...

I also chose the image of the Hare because of the idea of how soft bunny fur is to touch for my post on Touch Tuesday.... 

Mind you I have never touched a Hare per-se but I figured even if it had rough fur I bet its ears would be velvety soft...and their noses too!

XXOO

Kim Klassen Cafe...Texture Tuesday 

Our  photo must contain at least one layer of Kim's WarmSun texture
this week...

NOTE:

I tend to work a bit heavy handed with my background textures, liking the vintage

 loved-worn feel to them and the above image as well as the one I used last week 

were layered over the photos twice...

I decided trying again using a lighter hand and different approach...and really liked 

the different feel it gave the image and so decided to add that here as a addendum...

Kim Klassen texture warm sun with color dodge layer properties 

Things to share later in the week...

hear:

taste:

smell:

5 things...Sight Monday

sight: bokja design

via
Bokja is the Beirut-based duo of Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, whom along with their talented team of craftspeople create these amazing chairs and lounges. Using beautiful vintage textiles from Central Asia and the Silk Road, each peice is unique with an amazing story behind it.



...These are so beautiful and so creative to me...you never can tell where inspiration like this will pop up in my art at a later date :)

Things to share later in the week...

touch:

hear:

taste:

smell: