Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Rusty Wire Succulent Door Hanger



Back in February, I believe.... I drove to a Antique shop called Junk Asylum in Eldridge, Iowa. Hubby found it while working there one day. (He's a heating and air tech) He said I would love it. So the next day I made a trip there and found a few goodies. One was a rusty wire hanger. Thought it was pretty cool and didn't know what I was going to do with it but I knew I would think of something. So today I turned it into a hanging succulent door hanger. I just love succulents!! They are so interesting and different.


This is the hanger before I added my succulents.

I just took some coco fiber liner and made a pocket and filled it with soil. Then I poked holes in the liner and planted my little succulents. Easy as can be! Can't wait for the succulents to grow and fill out!




One of the succulents I planted in the top is a trailing plant. It's called Dorotheanthus ‘Mezoo’

Very interesting plant with a gorgeous feathery bright pink flower!

My tulips are about done blooming. At least I got to see a few bloom this year that the deer didn't eat!


Another week is flying by!!! Have a great evening!!!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Country Life on the Farm

Boy am I beat! I sure did get my exercise today exploring around in the woods off my friend Melanie's farm today. She told me about a month ago when it got nice that I could come visit her farm and we could go look for mushrooms. She thought it would be a perfect place for me to get some pics of the wildflowers too. Well....we didn't find any mushrooms. It's just been so darn dry around here lately. We are expecting rain starting tomorrow all through the weekend. So that may help the mushrooms grow. Before we started our little trip through the woods I got some amazing pics of the few farm animals that she has.


She has one rooster and three hens. They liked eating cat food! LOL



The rooster was very handsome!


One of her two ducks on her nest


Her new stray kitty that found her named Gizmo. He was a very loving guy.

So then we got on her ATV and headed for the woods. This was a first for me to ride on one of these All Terrain Vehicles! No picture....LOL

As I said before but no mushrooms but wildflowers were blooming!


Red Trillium


Some kind of Phlox I believe


Violet


Not sure what this is.

Then we crossed the main road to the other side of her property that is along the Mississippi River. We walked and walked along the levee and came upon a Eagles nest, high up in a tree!


We had no idea it was there until we heard her call and she flew off her nest and was circling around looking at us. It was an amazing sight! We stood there for quite a while watching her fly around.






Butterflies doing what butterflies do! LOL


Hog House that used to house baby pigs



And some rusty farm equipment. They had plenty of that.

So that was my adventure today. It was a beautiful day that's for sure. I will sleep good tonight after all that walking!

Thank You Melanie for a wonderful day!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Primitive Note Cards

Very cool weather we've been having lately. Nothing like we had a couple of weeks ago in the 80's. Freeze warnings for the last three nights. I think tonight will be the last and then will start warming up again. I'm so anxious to get out and plant something!

Today I made a set of Primitive Note Cards and listed them in my new etsy shop Red Oak Images. I'm selling them for $6.00 a set of 4, plus shipping. I will be adding more in the coming weeks!!






This will be a short post for tonight! Hope to have some awesome photos for tomorrow. Making a little trip tomorrow to some place new!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

My New Photo Etsy Shop!

Been so busy the last couple of weeks making my bunny dolls and getting ready to open my new etsy shop which I opened yesterday!!! Finally! I had many requests over the years to make note cards with my photos and it's finally a reality! I will be selling photo prints of my work too, as soon as I get time to do that! My shop is called Red Oak Images and here is the link to it -----> Red Oak Images I also have a widget for my new etsy shop in the right hand column at the top. Just click on that.


Here is one of my collections of butterflies

I will be adding more note card collections in the coming days and weeks. And I will make custom collections too. Just let me know what you like and I'll put your special order together for you. Same with the photo prints. I can make prints from any of my photo in different sizes!

Tonight before the sun went down I went out and captured some amazing shots of our lilacs blooming!!



These Purple Lilac's are my next door neighbors


The Virgina Creeper is starting to creep everywhere again!


This year is the first time I've seen this tulip bloom after planting them 3 years ago!!! Why???? Because the deer would eat them as soon as the buds appeared. Got smart with my deer repellent. I use dial gold bar soap flakes. Just grate your bar soap on the fine setting of your cheese grater and sprinkle around your flowers. I sprinkled some inside the tulip flower and they were still there this morning! Only problem is you have to apply again after it rains. But this works pretty good for me. 


More Lilacs. These will be perfect for a centerpiece for Easter this Sunday!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!