May Flowers

Another late start to my morning. Feeling a bit lazy, drinking my tea and working on the computer before I actually get to work on things. I have a custom order for a shore bird painting and I'm going to work on that today. My panel is prepared with gesso. I gesso and sand layer after layer on my masonite to prepare it to accept the oil paint.

January Closing

Lazy days are turning into lazy nights and lazy weeks.

Birdbath Action

This bluejay comes into our yard every single morning to take his daily bath.

Cute, Cute, Cute.

We shipped off two goats recently.

Our Birds and Our Kitchen Remodel

Our robins eggs are ready to hatch.

Pretty Blue Eggs - Here We Go Again

We originally thought she'd abandoned her nest

Hummingbirds, Doves, Robins and A Butterfly

More Robins

A few more videos of the little darlings.

This one was taken about four days ago when there were still three, before the tragic fall.

Aren't the squeaky noises they make cute?

A Sad Day

This morning

Our Babies Are Growing Up

Take a look.  The first four videos are from yesterday.

Lazy Sunday

It felt so nice to sleep in this morning

Springtime Nesting

I'm not the only one that's been nesting, busy redecorating our home that is.  Things are busy in our yard.  Robins and squirrels are feeling the pull of spring, too.

A pair of robins have begun building their nest on our back porch off the bedroom.   Some squirrels are busy as well building their nest in our next door neighbor's palm tree.  The thing is, that same palm tree is going to be cut down by PGE in June.  Wondering if the squirrel is going to make it out on time.

Here's some pictures that Mike captured.

Gardening

Yellow Yarrow and Horsetail

Some of our plants in the backyard died over the last winter, so we needed to replace them.

Mike's Quail he carved.

I love Statice, the flowers have almost a paper like feel.

This afternoon, we went to our favorite local nursery, Mid City Nursery, and picked up several plants.  Some of them are going into pots and some directly into the ground.  Mike just tells me to place them where I want them to go and he pops them into the ground.  Well, after he does the hard part and digs the hole.  While he was busy doing that, I made some burgers for dinner with grilled onions.  

We were pretty busy this week, lots of orders.  Thank you!  Today we worked on orders, I washed and hung out some laundry along with our bedsheets and blanket.  Oh, they smell so fresh and sweet after being blown about and air dried in the sunshine.  It was very windy today, too.  It even blew over my clothesline.  The sheets were like a sail, filled with air and tipped it right over.  Only one thing (one of Mike's t-shirts) got dirty from that fall and had to go back into the laundry bin for next time.

Garden Tea Party

I had a garden tea party in my backyard yesterday.  There were twenty two ladies present.  Two women couldn't make it.  One had to cancel because she was experiencing back pain.  My cousin, Darlene, couldn't come because she just began chemotherapy treatments for a very recent lung cancer diagnosis.  I'm so very sorry, Darlene, and you were sorely missed.  Aunt Yvonne wanted to see you. 

On Friday I cleaned house and Mike cleaned the yard and windows.

Saturday was reserved for my baking.  The weather was a little on the warm side this time of year for having the oven on all day.  Our neighbor from across the street, Richard, came over while I was busy baking.  He and Mike sat in the kitchen, keeping me company for a little over three hours.  They two sat at the kitchen table and watched me go over my recipes and mix up one batch after another of this or that, all the while Mike kept trying to sneak or beg for samples.  We had Richard busting up.  Whenever he wants to get his kicks he just wanders over to our place to see what we're up to.  Which is usually his form of entertainment.  ha ha

I made chocolate chip scones, plain scones, Russian tea-cakes, coconut chews, mini lemon tarts, mini strawberry glace pies, chicken filling and lastly, egg salad filling. 

Thanks to Richard, I ended up making one more thing.  He remarked, "You know what you need, Lisa?"  I said, "What is that, Richard?"  He said, "You need something green."  I asked, "You mean for St. Patrick's Day?"  He said, "Yeah!"

I knew that there were some egg whites in a container in the frig and thought a good plan of action was to make some kind of meringue shell (green) filled goodie and settled on Divine Lime Pies.  So I made that, too, and I think it was one of the more popular things.  Everyone loved them.  So thank you, Richard.    

I don't usually get to spend all day cooking like this, so it was a fun treat for me.  Although, next time, I'm definitely going to spread things out and freeze some cookies and scones ahead of time.  It's just that I've been busy working and haven't had any time to do anything ahead of time.  I hardly even ever have time to cook dinner for the two of us after working all day.  Most days we just eat what is in the house or run to Raleys to grab something.  A cooked tri-tip, a salad from the deli, things like that and call it dinner.

I went through my vintage linens, washed and ironed them and got everything ready.  Just because something might be a little tattered or stained, I don't get rid of it.  A little hole can be repaired and a small stain here or there doesn't bother me.  If it did, I could always sew a pretty repair patch on it to cover it up and give it some character.

I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped to.  I was busy and also forgot.  One thing I'm mad at myself for is not getting Shilah making the tea and Angelina making the little labels for the teapots.  Darn it!  Thank you for making the raspberry scones, helping to make the tea and getting all of that ready and for assembling the sandwiches, Shilah!  Thank you, Angelina for your help!  Thank you for your help making the egg sandwiches and for making the cookie balls, Pam!  Thank you for making the cucumber sandwiches, Jan!  Thank you for making the Tiramisu, Oana!  Thank you for making the little desserts, Tipti!

And a thank you for my little hostess gifts, to Auntie Helen for the teapot and cozy and Barbara for the teacup and tea bags!  So sweet of you both to think of me that way.  Hope I didn't leave anyone out.  If I did: Thank you!!  And thank you to everyone that showed up and I hope you all had a good time.  Who knows, we might have another one next year.  What a delightful way to welcome spring.  Gives us an excuse to do some spring cleaning and get the yard ready for summer.

Purchased potted flowers for table decor and I dressed up the pots with taped on paper scraps.

Uncle Richard hung around and sat here for a time observing all of the ladies.

My clothesline is adorned with various pink fabrics and some bunting to dress it up.

The back porch tea room, seating for eight.

See our heart on the wall?  That's a new item for our shop and you can find it here.  We can do these in pretty much any size, with or without the metal ring heart.

The table is ready, time to eat!

Angelina trying to decide what to go for first.

So many goodies.  Shilah brought some raspberry chocolate scones.

A friend brought some chocolate goodies.  There was enough food leftover so that everyone got to take home a small plate filled with goodies.

Shilah and Melinda, friends since high school.

Jen and her sweet little baby girl.  Shilah and Jen have been friends for many years, too.