The Great Outdoors

August already!! Where has the summer gone. I am not looking forward to winter. I think we are finally going to get a little cooler weather soon. Yesterday was just terrible. It was in the 90's with heat index, I think of 112º. The humidity was so bad it seemed like it was hard to breath. I'm really trying to get my orders done. I worked on one all day today, should have it done tonight. Also made a turtle for a fundraiser we are going to next week. I used a pattern by Crows Roost Prims. I just love the way my turtle turned out. 

I don't know if any of you heard about a guy that goes up and down the Mississippi river cleaning up all the garbage that people throw in the river. His name is Chad Pregracke and he is from our area. He has been on the national news several times. He started cleaning up the river when he was just a kid and now it's this huge non profit organization.  Once a year they have a big barge party where they serve up a Fish Fry and Shrimp Boil Dinner along with live music and a art auction. So I'm donating my sea turtle. Should be lots of fun!

I had someone on facebook suggest I make a calendar with all my wonderful flower and bird photos. So I have that in the works right now. It's going to take me awhile to gather up and edit my pictures. So watch for my calendar sometime in the late fall. I'll post on here, where and how to buy it! I'm really excited!

So with that here are a few photos from this week that may be in my calendar!!!

New Guinea Impatiens

Swallowtail Butterfly on my Zinnia's

Swallowtail

Mr. Bumble Bee loving the Zinnia's

Another shot of a Swallowtail.

Monarch Butterfly that I got a shot of on Sunday. It was flying around my milkweed plants laying eggs.

And then today I found this newly hatched monarch caterpillar while I was pulling weeds around my milkweed plants!!! I'm so excited! I could not believe how tiny he was. He was about a 1/2" long. I'm going to try to keep track of him. Can't decide if I should bring him in and watch him transform. My daughter did that one year in high school, for her science class and it was the most amazing thing to watch it turn in to a beautiful butterfly.

And here is a sweet hummer that I was able to get a shot of this morning!

That's all for now folks.

Early Work Mercantile

Time for a new update at Early Work Mercantile! I have a couple new items for sale starting today! I have my sweet little simple prim pig.

And one of my Primitive Crow Heart Make Do's

Be sure to check out the other artist there! There is some amazing work there. I'm proud to be among them.

The other day it was perfect weather so I decided to read the paper out on the deck. While out there I noticed a chickadee coming to one of my feeders continuously. It would get a seed fly up to a branch, crack it open and fly to a bird house that we have on our back fence by the lilac bush. Then fly back to the feeder. I then discovered that the chickadee's were nesting in there. I had no idea. This bird house is in such terrible shape. I'm very surprised that they are nesting in there. The roof has a big hole in it. When my hubby first put that bird house up around 12 years ago, all I got in it was sparrows for the first couple of years then nothing after that. I got my camera and got a few shots of one of the babies leaving the nest!!!!!!!

And also while out on the deck, I was able to capture a shot of a cute little chipmunk. My hubby hates these critters. They are all over the place.

And here are how my apple gourd seeds are doing. I planted 10 seeds and only 3 of them sprouted. Took them about 2 weeks to pop up through the ground after I planted them.

Here's a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that landed on our hedges the other day. It was attracted to the tiny white flowers blooming. Why couldn't it have landed on one of my many beautiful flowers I have growing!??? It's poor wing (left) was pretty damaged. It didn't seem to have any trouble flying.

And here is a view of my side garden by our back door.

Click on picture to get a better view.

Well that's it for now. Need to get back to my sewing. Orders are awaiting!