When I should be thinkin' of Autumn...

I am still working on beachy things. I know I should be working ahead, creating new and different things for the fall and winter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the sound of wind and waves is in my brain. Here are two new beach signs I painted yesterday. Thought I try undercoating with black and then an antique white on top to get a shabby look. I did consider using a crackle medium but opted instead just to sand the white to make it look worn. The lettering is a tan/taupe color.

I have painted a few things for fall. I really need to get to work for the fall shows I've signed up for. But I guess I just "wanna go down the ocean, Hon" (Baltimore natives will understand that)
Find other Beachy Things

http://www.countryworkshop.net/

Dylan's 1st

Saturday, at Holly and Chad's house, we celebrated Darlin' Dylan's First Birthday. The party was originally scheduled for 2 in the afternoon but after watching the weather forecasts the time was changed to 5. The temperature was 102 degrees with a feel like temp of 110. So Dylan spent most of his party in a just diaper.

The heat didn't seem to bother the kids too much, they were in the pool or playing in water stations throughout the yard. But this old Mom Mom sure can't take the heat anymore.

I missed getting a photo of the cake before the piece was cut for the Birthday Boy but it was adorable.

Dylan loved his cake! You can't tell by this photo but he did really get into it!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Bouncing

I just realized that it has been almost a week since I put up a post. Really busy, but not just with one thing. I've just been bouncing from thing to thing.

I've had quite a few online orders for this time of year. That's a good thing. After the "hot, hot, hot show" in June I am hesitant to set up anymore summer shows. I have been working on The Country Workshop Website and am so glad that people searching on google and yahoo are actually finding it. I think I may need to pay someone to go in and take a look to see that I have used the correct words in the titles and keywords for the search engines to look at the site and listings.

We've had some really hot dry weather here in Maryland. Thank goodness we had several days last week of soaking rains. I had been watering the gardens but letting the lawn go dormant. Our grass was brown and it is now a wonderful green again.

I think every local farmer must have been praying for rain and their prayers were answered.

Friday morning at 5:04am there was a 3.6 magnitude earthquake in Germantown, MD. Now I know to some of you that's just a ripple, but it almost never happens around here. Lou and I must have sleep through it, but Lucy didn't. I woke up to her standing on my chest, looking into my face. At the time, I thought she just needed to go outside and hit Lou in the arm and told him it was his turn to take her out. We found out a bit later, on the local news, what had happened.

It's probably a good thing we slept right through it...Thursday night we had watched the movie 2012 about the end of the world. It probably wouldn't have looked good for me to be running through the neighborhood, in my Mickey Mouse pj's yelling, "The sky is falling...The sky is falling!"

We did have a nice dinner with our neighbors on Sunday. One couple has their house up for sale and already have bought a new house, so this was probably our last get together as a "neighbors".

This coming weekend is "Darling Dylan's" First Birthday Party. There is also a 30th birthday party for Dylan's Daddy immediately following DD's party. Chad's party was put on hold after Holly was in the accident. It appears it will be another scorcher of a weekend. I don't think Dylan's little pool is going to be big enough for all the birthday celebrators.

One Year Later

Last year this time our family was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cali and Dylan.
This weekend was Cali's Party for her First Birthday!

Next weekend, it's Dylan's turn. Can't believe how fast the year flew by!

Gettin' Ready for Halloweenie

I've started thinking about new items for Halloween, Autumn and Christmas...I know it's still early but I need to think ahead for the next season. I can remember when I was a visual merchandiser for a local department store, by the 4th of July we had back to school merchandise out. The beginning of September we were starting little by little to add Christmas decorations and by the middle of October the displays were fully Christmas. Then we couldn't leave the store on Christmas Eve until every piece of tinsel down and put away.

The Witchie Witchie sign is definitely for Halloween decorating.



The Spider sign can be used all year long (certainly if you are afraid of spiders).
I got the idea for the spider saying while watching Ghost Hunters on tv. One of the members of the group is deathy afraid of spiders. He's not afraid of the supernatural, but is afraid of spiders!

I'll be adding Fall and Winter merchandise to the website in the upcoming weeks.
http://www.countryworkshop.net/

Extreme Makeover Baltimore

Extreme Makeover is doing a project right up the street from where I grew up. It's a project for Boys Hope Girls Hope and is to be a home for girls who live in a bad neighborhood or home environment. This gives the girls the chance to excel in school by giving them a safe place to live and learn.

Local Channel 2 has been covering the progress and this project will be finished by the end of the week. It started on Friday. You can see videos and articles on the wmar website

Baby Bunnies...

Over the weekend, as I was watering the gardens, I noticed an area of dried grass and fur packed tightly against the house but mostly hidden by the hosta plants in that garden. I realized it was a rabbit nest and have watered the plants carefully as not to drown the baby bunnies. From time to time you could see movement but no babies. This is not an area where Lucy usually goes, but one morning I found her sniffing it. This week we have our grand dog, Dre with us, who is a known bunny stalker. Holly is a speaker at the International Papillomavirus Conference in Montreal this week and Chad and the baby went with her, so we get to watch our first grandchild.

Last night as I was coming down from the shop, I noticed 2 little bunnies hiding under the hostas and the one bold one sitting out in plain sight. We took the dogs out the front door when needed for the rest of the evening as we didn't want to happen to the bunnies what happened to the poor fox toy below.

This morning the babies were gone.
At least that makes it easier to take the puppies from the house to the shop with no wabbit huntin'!

Watering the Gardens

We've had a heat wave here in Maryland. A week or so of 90 degree temps, but the humidity was low, which made it bearable. Then we had several days of early spring like weather. Beautiful clear, blue sky days, when it was actually chilly in the morning and was great porch sitting weather in the afternoons. Today, the humidity is up. The temperature is suppose to hit the mid to upper 90's and Wednesday it should be over 100. It has been a challenge to keep the gardens watered. I'm sitting on my porch, writing this post, and every so often I move the sprinkler, which is set very low, to another part of the garden to soak the soil. The hydrangeas are already fading. They usually don't look like this to the end of August. But having the sprinkler on is attracting even more birds than I usually see...they appear to be having a wonderful time in the water.

But it is still better than 48 inches of snow!!!

I painted several functional, vintage look, rusty watering cans and have finally listed 2 of them on The Country Workshop website.

I am learning everyday something new about the layout of the website. Can't believe the time it takes to take pictures and size them, write descriptions, and decide what words and phrases to use to get picked up on search engines like google and yahoo.

Time to move the sprinkler...and I need to get up to the shop to paint a special order I want to get out tomorrow.

Have a good day!

Independence Day...

Wishing All a Wonderful Independence Day.

HBO is running their mini series John Adams his weekend.

If you haven't seen it already, it is the historical story of how our nation came to be,

and the role of John Adams and all the Patriots played. They gave up much to form this country. I believe that many Americans today do not know the history of how we became
The United States of America.

If you get the chance to catch this mini series, do it. It is well worth watching.