Gardening, Treasuries and Jewelry Shows, Oh My!

Lavender about to bloom, sedum and a white thrift from
the raised flower ring

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile here, I must admit the allure of early summer was too much to ignore!  Who wants to sit inside in front of a computer when it's so pretty outside?  Bike riding, gardening, and playing outside with my little one are so much more fun!  I've also been busy prepping for my show tomorrow in Gladstone!  If you'd like to attend, click here to see the flyer with all the info!  I'm pretty excited about it and it's great that I'm able to co-host with another lovely jewelry crafter, Sue, that I met at a vendor show in the spring!  I'm hoping that lots of customers come especially since the show I met Sue at went terrible not just for me but for nearly seller!  Oh well, win some lose some right?  I would never have met her if not for doing that show!

Impatiens, torenia, tiger and wine pansies with vines, and
a red petunia from my pots and baskets

I've also been taking a much needed break from creating by working in my flower garden and I wanted to share a few images with you!  Gardening is one of favorite hobbies outside painting/jewelry making and now that it's almost July I can see that all my hard work has paid off!

Pink and white dianthus
and daisies in the raised
wildflower garden

I've been working hard on the landscaping outside our new home we bought in 2009 and I really did have my work cut out for me!  We bought it from a single man so of course not one little flower or any kind of landscaping was done at all aside from a seriously neglected cedar hedge on the brink of death. My husband at first wasn't so keen on the amount of his money (he made sure I knew who's money I was spending, lol) I had spent on perennials (totally worth it so long as you don't kill them), mulch, brick, soil, and oodles of annuals to overfill all the pots and baskets on and around the porch over this and last summer.  After much digging, trimming, hauling landscaping stone, bulb planting, weeding, fertilizing, and several bags of soil and mulch later I had transformed our barren and weedy yard into a plentiful garden full of color from spring to fall!  Now that the hard (and expensive) parts are done and I have my raised flower beds hubby now likes it (so long as I'm the one who does all the gardening) and our yard looks like somebody actually loves it!

I have much more than what I've photographed here, I'm waiting for my gerbera daisy to bloom again, the rain beat up all the blooms on my geraniums, not all the daisy varieties have popped up yet in the wildflower garden and veggies just aren't that interesting to photograph (nor have I weeded the veggie garden)!

Lastly I also wanted to share with you several treasuries I've had the honor of being featured in lately!  Thanks so much to those who have included me and thanks also for checking them out!