Christmas for the Birds!

Our youngest granddaughter spends almost every Friday evening with us. I pick her up from school and try to make our time together as special as possible.  During the summer months, we do a lot of swimming and bike riding.  In the winter we spend more time in the kitchen or my craft room (which she refers to as "her" arts & craft room!)  I know that time is fleeting and, much too soon, she will be spending Friday nights doing things other than being with her Nana & Papa! 

Ever since she was a toddler she has enjoyed helping me with the garden chores.  We've planted flowers, painted rocks, made birdhouses, she helps to water the plants (at times she got more wet than the flowers!)  She especially likes to feed the birds.  I keep a galvanized container on the back porch, filled with bird seed.  On Saturday mornings she makes it her mission to fill up the various containers in the back yard where the birds feed. I thought she would enjoy making some Christmas bird seed wreaths for the birds so this project occupied our time one recent afternoon.

These wreaths were easy to make and was something that a 7-year old could do with little assistance from an adult. We made them one afternoon and the next morning unmolded them and attached some tulle for hanging. She was thrilled when she spotted the first finch pecking away at one of them! We have a few neighbors that are bird feeders, too, so we bagged up some wreaths and distributed them as gifts. The expression on her face, as the neighbors exclaimed over her gift, was priceless. It truly is better to give than receive!

The bird seed mixture is sticky so we found using waxed paper helped when pressing the mixture into the pan.

Besides being a fun granddaughter-Nana project, these wreaths serve a useful purpose. During the winter months natural food supplies for birds are least available.  Providing a food source for the backyard birds gives them a greater chance of surviving the winter. Well-fed birds in the winter equal happy, chirping birds in the spring!

Bird Seed Wreaths

4 cups bird seed
1/2 cup warm water
1 envelope Knox gelatin
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Combine the water and gelatin in a large bowl, then whisk in the flour and corn syrup.  Mix in the bird seed.  Press firmly into a lightly greased bundt pan ( used a mini bundt pan).  Let dry for a few hours in the bundt pan then pop them out of the mold so they can dry out completely, approximately 24 hours. Add a length of wide ribbon for hanging (narrow ribbon or twine will tear through the wreath).

Note:  These to not hold up to rain, so place in a covered spot or take down if rain is coming. In dry California that's not a big concern!

Fall In The Courtyard

The seasons change slowly in my area of California.  We are still having temperatures in the high-80's, yet the pumpkin patches and corn mazes are open. I have a hard time getting into decorating for fall when I'm still in my summer clothes! I've not done much interior decorating, we are going to be in and out the last few weeks of the month so I know I won't get too carried away with this year's decorating. I did do some fall decorating of our courtyard.  It was time to replace the summer annuals with flowers that will last through the winter; pansies and snapdragons are my favorites for that. We dragged out some old crocks from storage and I filled them with colorful mums.  A few pumpkins and we're fall festive!  I can't quite let go of summer so left my sunflower wreath on the door for a few more weeks.

When we bought our home in 1984, the courtyard area consisted of a small grassy patch and flowerbeds on each side.  It was hard to maintain and was really a waste of space.  I told my Hubbers many years ago that I wanted a brick courtyard.  Well, we had kids to raise, college to pay for, so that project got put on the back burner.  About five years ago we were finally able to complete that project.  I love our courtyard and spend a lot of time in it, especially in the late afternoons.  It's shaded by then, I sit out in one of the chairs and stitch or read.  I'm entertained by the hummingbirds coming to feed at the feeder or play in the fountain.  The fountain is also used by the finches and sparrows that frequent our yard.  Every now and then we even get a hawk that comes to take a water break! It's a very peaceful spot for me. Decorated for fall, it's even more special!

This morning my Hubbers and I watched a hummingbird taking his morning bath in the fountain!



I got my cat, Krisha, in 1981.  She lived 21 years.  I adored her.  She loved to curl up in this spot so her ashes are buried under the figurine.



My Hubbers lost two of his brothers to lung cancer last year.  One of his clients bought us this rose bush as a remembrance. It's growing like crazy!

My old guy, Harley, wanted his picture taken, too!  He will be 15 in January.  He loves to sit out in the courtyard with me!

Beverage Station

I love Pinterest and can spend way too much time browsing that website!  My Hubbers probably wishes I had never found it because I'm always showing him a project I want to tackle.  When I say "I" it really means, I would like him to help me!  I can cook, bake, sew, and garden but building things has never been one of my strong points.  Putting Part A into Part B just doesn't resonate with me.  Thankfully, my Hubby is quite handy with tools and can usually manage to do everything I ask of him!

Over a year ago, I saw a picture of a beverage station made from an old door.  I knew this would be perfect in our back patio, a nice place to keep the wine, glasses, and other beverage paraphernalia when we entertain.  I set out looking for an old door.  One would think they would be easy to find, not so!  My cousin (thanks, Robin!) came through for me with a door that was in her in-law's barn. It sat in our garage for almost a year before I started tackling the project over Memorial Day weekend.

My Hubby set the door up on sawhorses and I got busy with the task of stripping the old paint off of it.  I didn't want a pristine-painted piece but this door had so many coats of paint on it, the old paint had to come off.  My goodness, what a job that was!  The first stripper I bought barely made a dent so I had to buy some stronger stuff (I'm sure it was hazardous stuff, too!) The weekend was quite warm so I got up each morning at 5 and worked on it some more. My Hubby was on a bike trip that weekend and when he returned I had it almost ready to go.  He used some of his muscle to get the really stubborn spots.

At this point, I really didn't realize how many coats of old paint I was dealing with!

I'm not so sure I'm gung-ho about stripping furniture again!

In June he went on a 2-week biking trip.  Before leaving, he moved the table to the garage where I spent a few more mornings painting it. Then production stopped because I am not a good builder and shelves and legs needed to be added.  We were away from home to drag races, the Napa Valley, and it was so hot here that we didn't want to spend time in the garage. The last few weeks I've been doing what wives do best, nag, and he finished the door for me.  We had shelves made to fit at the local lumber company.  Our contractor friend gave me some old stair banisters he had in a pile. I found the hummingbird brackets on Amazon. In a few nights he had done the construction work and I was tasked with doing the touch-up painting.

Of course, I had to add a hummingbird element!

Reproduction bottle opener.

Original, and unfinished, door knob!

I love it!  It turned out just the way I dreamed it would! I know it will be a very functional piece for us. He's quite happy with it, too.  Good thing, as I have other Pinterest-inspired projects in the works for him to help me with!

Sunflowers and Bees!

Each year I plant a package of sunflower seeds in a corner of my flower bed. I love watching them grow, some days it seems like they grow a foot overnight! I look forward to when they will bloom, they are such a bright and festive flower! Once we have blooms, the bees flock to the flower heads, they are a natural pairing. In the fall, once the flower heads have dried up, I harvest the seeds and leave for the birds during the winter months. My flower beds are full of color but they also serve to nourish the birds, bees and butterflies.

I brought sunflowers and bees into the house for this tablesetting. The sunflower plates are new (Pier 1), everything else I had, so it was just a matter of mixing and matching until I got the look I was envisioning. I ended up having a lot more green than I wanted, so added a pop of pink in the Gerbera daisies, to bring out the pink that is in the pitcher.

 

Our front door even has a sunflower in the form of this wreath I bought through an Etsy vendor.  I have had so many neighbors stop and tell me how much they like this on my bright red door!

Today I'm linking up to Tablescape Thursday.

Mid-Summer Garden

Even though the temperatures are usually scorching, I enjoy summertime in my garden.  During the spring I'm doing a lot of winter clean-up, pruning, planting, and seeding. That's a lot of hours worked with little visible results.  But by mid-summer everything is growing and my maintenance mainly involves pruning roses, some weeding, and keeping up with the watering.  These are tasks that I can easily get done in the cool mornings before heading to work!

My summer garden is full of blooms and color!  Bees, butterflies, and dragonflies are everywhere, there is plenty for them to feed on.  The hummingbirds zip all over the place and the sparrows, doves, and finches find a cool drink in the water fountain or bird baths. All that work done in the spring has been rewarded!  I love to sit out in the yard, in the early morning, and watch all the activity. I've said it before, but I am easily entertained, and enjoying my garden is one of my favorite pastimes.


The zinnias are putting on quite the show this year!



 

I have a small patch of milkweed, soon it will be blooming.  I've seen some monarch butterflies but no eggs or caterpillars yet!

 

The flower heads on the sunflowers are just starting to form.

Bees are so endangered, I'm happy to provide a nice environment for them!

 

The Barn!

About 15 years ago, we bought some acreage in my hometown, about 20 miles from where we live now.  We wanted a little land, my husband wanted a shop building. So we met with an architect and began to set things in motion. But, we both found ourselves not being very enthused about the project and sat down one night to discuss.  We found out that we were pretty much on the same page.  Though the allure of having a large piece of land and the dreams of what it would all look like was nice, the reality wasn't so alluring.  At our age, we didn't want to be bogged down with such a huge financial responsibility, commuting to work wasn't appealing to us, and thinking about developing and maintaining eight acres to the standards we wanted was overwhelming.  We sold the land and remodeled our existing home.

We love our home, it has most everything we want and need.  We are blessed to be surrounded by wonderful neighbors.  We "only" have a two-car garage.  For most, that would probably be acceptable.  For a family with a race car, two motorhomes, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and nine bicycles...well, let's just say the garage gets crowded!  And that doesn't count gardening equipment, tool boxes, etc. ! My Hubbers loves to tinker in the garage and there was no room to do so!  While perusing Pinterest last winter I started looking at outdoor sheds, a place where we could store the gardening equipment and free up a little space in the garage. We contacted our contractor and made plans to proceed.  My only input was that I wanted it to look like a little barn and something that was architecturally pleasant.  One of our visions for the acreage we bought was a shop that looked like a barn. This is a much smaller version but I think we succeeded with the barn look!

The "barn" is nestled to the side of our house. It is only 4'x9' but that ends up being a lot of storage space. It now hides the view of all the swimming pool equipment, which is an added bonus! Prior to the barn being here, we had 2 chairs and a small table in the spot.  It was a nice shady place to sit in during the late afternoon but it wasn't used very often. The barn is a much better utilization of the space.

A barn isn't complete without a flag so we hung up a small wooden flag.  A galvanized wash bucket, planted with flowers, softens up the area a bit and adds to the ambience of the nearby porch.  I'm on the hunt for a few antique farm pieces to put out, too.

All our gardening items now fit in the barn.  The bikes are hung from the ceiling in the garage.  My Hubbers now has room to putz and putter!  We have a barn without the hassle of having to maintain all those acres of land!  It has all worked out!

 

 

I'm linking up to Inspire Me Tuesday! 

Spring Has Sprung!

After a fairly wet March, we have rolled into April with sunshine, clear blue skies and the signs of spring all around us. Every morning I take a walk through our yard and enjoy the latest changes.  The roses are blooming.  The vines, once frost-bitten over the winter, are showing signs of new growth. Seeds planted in the days before Thanksgiving are now sweet peas with their fragrant flowers. Bees and butterflies are making their annual appearance.  I think Spring is my favorite season.  After a dull winter, with everything dead and brown, it's such a delight to see color again!

Each year I think my old bench won't survive the winter, but I think we'll have this for another season!

A geranium in Grandma McGee's old pot.

The mint plant, also known as the Mojito plant, is ready for another year of refreshing drinks!

The espalier apple tree in bloom.

The tiger lilies are almost ready to open!

Fragrant sweet peas!

The lavender plant attracts many bees!

A very fragrant jasmine vine!

My favorite rose bush, nothing compares to the fragrance of these red roses!

A clematis reaching for the sky (and daffodils done for another year).