Saturday, May 4, 2013

Been Gone a Long Long Time

Hi Everyone!
Remember me?

I know, it's been a while.

I've been keeping myself busy around the house lately.
The weather here has been toasty.
We had our first triple digit number last week.
I think we were at 101 degrees last Wednesday.

I've been enjoying spending some time outside
working in the yard.
It's not been too bad and when I do get hot
I have to say I sure am enjoying this baby.


The garden is growing like crazy.
I have more lettuce than I know what to do with.

The tomatoes are growing so fast.
These Big Boy Varieties are about the size of my fist right now.


My first bell pepper.


Our hibiscus are looking good right now.
I wasn't sure this one was going to make it
but with a little loving care
she's turning out beautiful blooms.


We have four bird feeders in our back yard.
We live in bird central.
I fill these large feeders in the mornings and by the afternoon,
all four of them are empty.

Next to the feeders,
I keep suet cake cases.
When I ran out of suet cakes,
I began filling them with bits of yarn
and I like to watch the birds come and grab some
for their nests.


We have two back patios.
The main one runs almost the length of the house,
the other is under a Ramada next to the pool.

The Ramada patio has been empty since we've moved in
since we didn't have enough patio furniture.
Last weekend we finally found a good sale and now
have some furniture in there.


I'd like to make some new pillows to brighten up the space.

The flowers on the table are so pretty.


I love the contrast of the lime green sweet potato vine
with the dark green of the vincas.

I've been busy inside too.

No, I still haven't redone my bedroom.
I'm still pretending it doesn't exist.
I do have to get on that shortly though.

I've been working on some smaller projects.

Remember my pantry jars?


I love these jars but I find that I'm constantly
in and out of the pantry grabbing them.

I don't like a lot of stuff on the counters
but I wanted these to be more accessible.

As you can see,
they had the original shiny silver lids 
with key tags for labels.

If I wanted them on the counters,
they would need an update.

I sprayed the lids with
Oiled Bronze Spray Paint.
Then I attached oiled bronze knobs to the tops
with E6000 glue.


I found the free printable labels
over here at The Painted Hive.

I didn't have the right label paper to print it out on
but I did have some clear contact paper
so I used that.
I found out the hard way that even after they sit
for an hour, the ink does not dry
very well on the contact paper
and it smudges very easily.

I redid the labels and this time
hit each one with a shot of hairspray.
Yup.
It worked.
As soon as the hairspray was dry,
the labels didn't smudge.
I just peeled the back off the contact paper 
and applied them to the jars.


They look so much better in my kitchen now.

And one last thing.
Katie's dear sweet boyfriend, Travis,
is home from his third tour in Afghanistan.
We have been so thrilled he is home safe and sound.

Of course,
I haven't seen very much of my Katie lately.
She's been busy with this guy, I guess.


Have a great weekend!

xxx-ooo

Holly