Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Pretty Spring Pics, and a Raffle for Charity!

First of all, for the second year in a row, Ian and I are walking in Walk Now for Autism Speaks. Ian is so adorable (the camera loves this kid!), all I have to do is send his picture, and everyone gives money to his walk, but I am not so adorable, so I have to entice people other ways. Here's the deal: go to my website and donate to Autism Speaks, and if you give your name I will enter you in a raffle for the cute summery throw pillows and embroidered tote below, shipping paid in continental US.


Even if you're not able to make a donation right now, please visit our site and see our picture and message about why we're walking!

Now, on to some pics! Spring weather is finally here (although actually it's been cool the last few days), and I've been tending to the yard and watching things come up. For starters, my hostas are going wild already as usual.


The little hydrangea that I planted last year, that had turned into a pathetic little stick that I feared had died over the winter, has come back looking lovely and healthy and seems to be starting to grow some blooms.

Here is a picture of my beautiful red azalea bush as promised, although I have to confess the picture did not come out the way I had hoped---it looks much pinker than the brilliant red that it actually is.

Ian and I also planted some tomato, pepper, and herb seeds. Here, some of the herb mix we planted comes up in a pot. I think maybe these little seedlings are basil.

While we're waiting for other seeds and bulbs to come up, we have also planted some annuals in pots.


For some reason, I can't find any hooks to hang the hanging baskets up on. I'll have to keep looking. I still need to clean the pollen off the front porch from the tremendous swelling of tree pollen we got last month.


Here is our new windchime that I couldn't resist because it reminded me of my home state of Texas. I'll hang it up properly, along with the hanging baskets, once I find some hooks.


Ian got into the action, picking out and "planting" this pinwheel in the flower beds.


Although we do live in the 'burbs now, we are compensated by a few simple pleasures like the gorgeous sunsets we occasionally get from the front porch.


Finally, I wanted to take you inside to see my little bunnies. I took the rest of the Easter decorations down, but I love these little bunnies so much I thought I would leave them out until spring is officially over!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Yardwork and swimming

I've been taking advantage of the nice weather to do some yardwork around the place for the past several weeks. I've been bugged for a long time by the fact that our deck stairs lead directly into a flower bed, and we had a lot of bricks around the yard left over from other stuff, so I spent Good Friday last week making a brick walk. I'm pretty proud of it!


As you can see, I also put down mulch and put up the little flag with a picture that Ian made on it next to the garden gnome he picked out for the yard last year.


I also planted a bunch of flower bulbs and some annual seeds as well---we'll see if any thing comes up! We still have a lot of bricks left over, so Clint and I are trying to decide if we want to use them to build a barbecue pit or a bench or something else.

Our cherry tree in the back is now blooming, and some red azaleas are just budding in the front---maybe I can have pictures of them by next week!


On other fronts, Ian has started swimming lessons at the local rec center, and is having a blast. I'm so glad he is able to take them at this age. Some of the kids in his class who are starting at older ages are afraid of the water.


After spending about a year telling everyone that he wanted to be a jockey (he's probably going to be over six feet tall, so no chance of that!), Ian now wants to an OB-GYN. Well, that's not exactly what he says; he says he wants to be "the doctor that help the babies come out of the mommy's tummy." We gave him an anatomy book for Christmas that he just loves and often sleeps with. Clint went in to check on him one night, and found this scene:

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Quilt pictures and more

Here are the promised quilt pictures:


Also, a close-up of the flowers on our trees:


Finally, a picture of the little guy with the Easter Bunny at a local Easter egg drop: