Cactus Flower

What a perfect day today!! Temps in the upper 70's and dry air. Much better then last week that's for sure with the 90º temps and the humidity. I took advantage of this nice weather and got out and pulled weeds which defiantly needed it. When I got to my flower bed behind the garage there was my prickley pear cactus blooming! And it has 3 other buds that will open soon. It took me forever to weed around that thing. I did have my gloves on but you still get pricked by those tiny little yellow needles that stick in you.

Primitive Halloween Ghost Door Doll

I know most of the country has either been in a heat wave or being flooded with rain. It's the heat here in my neck of the woods. Another day with heat advisories. In the 90's, with heat index over a 100. This is more like July/August weather.

Well I've been staying inside creating and thinking cool with Halloween goodies! Finished up this ghost guy today. He's a big guy, measuring 24" long. I'm headed over to etsy to list him after this.

So for now everyone try to stay cool and don't forget about our pets that are outside that need plenty of fresh water. I always worry about them when it's freezing cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer along with the wild birds too. I try to fill up the bird bath every evening with clean water. OK...till next time.

Super Yummy Casserole Dish!

We had this for supper tonight. It's one of my favs! I just have to share this recipe with you all! I don't remember where I found this recipe but its a good one! Very quick and easy to make. I love making casseroles. Just put a bunch of stuff together and bake! LOL If you like cheese you will like this one. It's sorta like lasagna.

Husband's Delight

Ingredients

8 ounces wide noodles
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/4 cup green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (I usually added more of this)
3 cans (8 ounce each) tomato sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup cottage cheese
1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
3 to 4 green onions, chopped
2 cups shredded cojack cheese

Directions

Cook noodles according to package directions. Cook ground beef, green pepper and garlic until beef is browned. Drain the fat. Add tomato sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir in noodles. combine cottage cheese and cream cheese in a bowl. Add sour cream and green onion. Layer half the noodle mixture into a greased 13x9x2 inch baking dish. Top the layer with the cottage cheese mixture and then the remaining noodle mixture. Sprinkle with cojack cheese. Bake uncovered in a 350º oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through. Serves 8.

Yay! Finally Got A Hummingbird Picture!

I have 4 hummingbird feeders and there is one that gets the most activity. It's a mini size feeder that I got a Lowe's that you stick in your potted plants. So I parked my lawn chair out in the middle of our backyard waited for him to come. It didn't take long, about 5 minutes. So I sat there for about 20 minutes and got a bunch of pics. He would come by every 5 minutes. Then I weeded out the best one to post on here.

I took a few more pics too. Here is one of the front of our house. I like to use lots of pots of flowers around my yard. Don't exactly have the best soil for planting. We have lots of clay in our area.

While I was sitting out in the backyard. Just under the shed was one of the baby bunnies watching me. They sure are growing fast!

Then these pictures are of some of my most favorite geraniums.

Primitive Halloween Witch Pumpkins

Here is something new for Fall 2009! These guys were fun to create! Been pretty busy this week with babysitting as my daughter and son in law are having finals for their chiropractic classes. Then they have 4 weeks off before they go back to school. I'll probably be able to get a ton of stuff done then while they are on break. Will be listing these guys in my etsy shop tonight.

Photo Challenge: "GET UP CLOSE, USING MACRO"

Since I love taking pictures, I thought I would enter the photo challenge over at Brenda Photo Challenge blog. I just love using the Macro setting on my camera. You can list up to 3 photos. So here are my pics! It had rained a little this morning so I captured some of the flowers with rain drops on them.

This is a pic of a flower called Spiderwort, which I love!

I have many varities of this flower, Astilbe

And this is just the flower everyone knows, Marigold!

New Primitive Crow

I had a very productive day today! Only babysat an hour this morning then had the rest of the day to be creative. So I finished up this crow guy today. I think I like the way his stick legs look. I may make a pattern for him if anyone is interested. He will be listed in my etsy shop some time tonight. I'm also working on another new Halloween item. Hope to have it finished in a couple of days.

Look Who I Got A Picture Of !!!

One of the baby bunnies!! Hubby and I were sitting out on the driveway grilling some chicken, when he saw something moving in the hedges along the driveway. I already had my camera ready as I was waiting for the hummingbirds to come back to the feeder to get a picture. So I slowly walked over to the other side of the hedges and he just sat there!! Isn't he cute!!

Bunnies Have Left the Nest

This morning I checked the window well and all the babies were gone. Last night while my daughter and I went and got mexican take out, my son in law was out walking around with my granddaughter and he saw that one of the baby bunnies was out of the window well and was in my garden under the hosta's. I guess that was when they started jumping out. I checked on them last night at 11:00 when I went to bed and there were 3 or 4 left. This evening when I was cooking some brats on the grill I saw one of the babies in our backyard eating some grass among my hosta's. So they are probably all over my yard living on their own now, which makes me happy. I tried to get a pic of the little guy in my hosta's but as soon as he saw me coming he took off into my daylilies.

Enjoy the pics from my garden! :)

7 baby bunnies?

I checked on the babies about a half hour ago and now there are 7 babies! I don't get it. All day I checked on them and there were just 3. Mommy bunny was a few feet away from me so I came into the house right away so she could tend to the babies. I wonder would she be bringing in babies from some where else?? Or could there be a tunnel that maybe the others were down in?

Update on Baby Bunnies

I'm so mad! Today I go downstairs to do some laundry and I happen to glace over to the big window we have by the washer and dryer and see the neighborhood black cat follow a baby bunny across the front of our garage. So I run outside and the cat takes off. I capture the little baby in a little plastic bucket and put him back in his nest in the window well. And I find the other 3 babies huddled in one corner looking scared. They are only about 3 inches long and don't think they are ready to be out of the nest yet. Now all I'm going to do is worry about those babies. I think the cat belongs to a neighbor that lives 3 or 4 houses down the street from me. I wish people would keep their cats inside. I do!!

*Another update since I posted a couple of hours ago. The cat must have come back. I was trying to watch for him. There are only 3 babies left now. And I found the baby half eaten in my front yard under the bushes. :( I'm so sad

Baby Bunnies Outside My Backdoor!!!

Sunday I was outside sitting on my back step talking to my mom on the phone when I noticed what looked like a rabbit nest with a bunch of fur and leaves in one corner of our basement window well. I was pretty excitied that maybe I would get a chance to see the babies sometime. Well.....today when my daughter and granddaughter walked out the back door there was mamma nursing her babies!!!! She wasn't even afraid of us and we were like 3 feet away. If you look close you can see a couple of the babies underneath her. Oh I hope to see them again. I will try to take more pics of them in the days ahead.

Halloween Pattern is Available!

Ok folks worked on the pattern today for my Primitive Halloween Black Cat Door Hanger. It's for sale at http://www.patternmart.com and also in my etsy shop.

Too Early for Halloween??

I've been knocking around a few new ideas for Halloween in my head lately. I finished up this one yesterday. Actually I made a door hanger very similar to this one about 3 years ago and sold it on ebay. That was back before I was making patterns to sell. Don't know if I should list it in my etsy shop now or wait till the end of the summer. I will be making a pattern for it too.

I took out a ad in Country Sampler magazine for the Web Directory section. It will be in the August/September issue which comes out last week of July and news stands on August 1st. I just hope it will stir up a little more business for my website. So I'm trying to think of some new Halloween and Christmas patterns.

How Fast Does Your Blog Load?

I came across a post from Susie from Yankee Lane Primitives on how long it takes for your blog to load. I did mine and it was around 8 seconds. Sometimes I can't believe how long it takes some blogs to load. These people might be losing viewers who don't want to wait for the whole thing to load. So check out your blog here at Stopwatch http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/index.html

Some things that Google recommends you look at for a faster loading page: The number or size of your pictures. The number of posts showing on one pageWidgets and other java scripts. I know a few weeks ago I took the music off my blog and noticed a big difference on how fast it loads. I think I need to cut down on the number of posts per page too.