LILIES

My yellow lilies are budding, they will be blooming soon.

MUSIC

This is Bella doing her little dance. The toy on the table plays music, the alphabet song, and animal sounds. She loves it! Almost forgot, that's Bella's daddy working on the laptop and those are Bella's mommy's knees, to catch Bella if she falls.

GLASS

My hubby got this at a rummage sale for 1.00. I think it's a syrup container. Whatever it is it is sitting on my table. I like the color of this.

TRACTOR SHOW

Yesterday hubby and I went to a tractor show. There was a flea market too. But we mostly went for the tractor show. Saw quite a few interesting tractors. This is a Massy-Ferguson tractor, it caught my eye because it is so big.

This one is a Farm-All tractor. My grandpa had one like this. He used to take us kids a ride on it.

PROJECT 365

The hubby and I cleaned off the deck. It was really a mess. Moved some stuff and swept the floor.
BEFORE

AFTER

This is Bubba, he's a miniature dachshund. No he's not climbing the tree but he wishes he could. There's a squirrel up there.

I was trying to take pictures of the lightning bugs, but it didn't work. All I got was dark and shadows.

My hubby doing the weekly mowing. We have almost 2 acres of ground to mow so a riding mower is a must.

I found some thread and a doily was inside the spool. Didn't remember the pattern so I just ripped it out. Made some pretty little coils.

Our deck really is weathered looking. My hubby put some weather proof stuff on it.

We have a park and there is a little pond there. It's a nice place to take a break.

MACRO FIRDAY & FABULOUS FRIDAY

I am joining Laura over at Blogging From Bolivia for Macro Friday and Jennifer over at McDougall Photography for Fabulous Friday. Head over and check them out. There are some really great pictures people are sharing.

I finally finished my green doily this week. I wanted to make sure you could see the design so got really close for this shot. I've got a point and shoot camera so getting close is the only way to get a macro shot. I also changed the size. Just click on the picture to see it close up.

Don't forget to head over and visit Laura and Jennifer.

COILED

I found some doily thread that had a doily in it. Didn't know what the pattern was so ripped it out. It made these pretty coils when I was pulling out the thread.

BOOK REPORT TUESDAY

"Dreams in the Golden Country" by Kathryn Lasky
Product Description(Amazon.com)
New dreams and old traditions flourish and clash when a Jewish girl and her family emigrate from Russia to America.
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (March 1, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0590029738
ISBN-13: 978-0590029735

MY THOUGHTS: This book is written like a diary. Zipporah is the one doing the talking. She is 10 years old when her family immigrates from Russia to America. She keeps a diary for about 18 months. All her hopes, dreams and tragedy's are written here. The first thing she has to do is go to school. Since Zipporah can't speak English very well they put her in with the first graders. But she learns fast and moves up through the school system. Zipporah's one big dream is to become an actress in the theater. Does she make it in the theater? You'll have to read the book to find out.

MY RATING: 5

PASSION

Our dogs, Katie and Bubba, are very passionate about the squirrels that come to visit us. They will stand under the trees looking up and barking for the longest time.

CLEANINESS

Me and the hubby finally got the deck cleaned off yesterday. It had collected lots of "stuff" over the season. Too much furniture, leaves and vines. Got it all swept and furniture moved around and some taken away. Now that it's all cleaned up I sit for hours and read. One of my favorite places in the summer.

BEFORE

AFTER

PROJECT 365

Bella smiling with her new teeth showing.

My chicken cookie jar.

The old(in the back) and the new(front) saucers.

The gazing ball in my garden.

A close up shot of my orange lily.

My hubby found this beautiful doily at a rummage sale. It just needs some TLC.

Me along with the lily's.

RUMMAGE SALE FIND

My hubby brought this beautiful doily home from a rummage sale. All it needs is a little TLC.

ORANGE LILLY

I was taking pictures of my re-worked garden and got some close ups of the orange lily. I like this picture. I then added some texture called "Rock" in InfanView. That is a software program I use for my pictures. It's in the effects browser. InfanView is also a free download. This is the original picture.

This is the picture after I used the "Rock" effect on it.

INVADED

We are being invaded by saucers. Well,kind of. These are the seats for the twins. They take up some space in the front room. But the babies love the toys on them.

A PHOTO CHALLENGE

Allie over at Allie Photography and Mikayla over at My Life In Words are the co-hosts for a new meme I found. It's called........................

{A Photo} Challenge

Here's how it works.
Each week Mikayla or I will host the challenge on our blogs.
Every theme will start with the words A photo, hence the meaning behind the title.
Each challenge will run from Sunday morning to the following Saturday closing at midnight.
Starting next week, we will alternate back and forth between the two of our blogs hosting the challenge.
All of the theme's with dates are posted here for your convenience.

This week's theme is a photo of something close up. So I took some pictures of my favorite subject.....chickens. Not real ones. The ones in my kitchen. I have well over 200 chickens in my kitchen. And of course I have favorites. These are a few of them. They sit in my kitchen window. But this one is my real favorite. I had to search high and low for this chicken cookie jar. I found this one at Hobby Lobby.
Window Chickens

Chicken Cookie Jar

NEW TEETH

After three days of crabbiness, fever, loss of appetite and diarrhea, Bella finally broke her 2 front teeth and a bottom one. She cut 3 teeth at the same time. Being a new grandma I'd almost forgot the agony of cutting teeth. But it comes back to you. Luke cut his 3 new teeth the same way. He got his new teeth in May. Now he's cutting his top incisors.

Bella's new teeth


Luke's new teeth

PROJECT 365

It's been an interesting week here. For one thing it's been so stinkin hot. High 90's along with high humidity. Several days they had heat warnings out for us. Took the kids outside a couple days after it cooled off in the evening. But the mosquitoes were so bad had to come back in. Anyway here are my shots for the week.


The city came out and smoothed out the big piles of dirt they made last fall. They put a new drain in that ran across our yard. No more standing water!!!!



Bella and Luke had their first Oreo cookie. They loved them, but boy, where they messy.
Bella

Luke



I took this shot of my Peony about Dusk. I love the way it came out.


Our back door. And Bubba sitting on the step waiting for someone to let him inside. The dogs didn't even like the heat. They went side, did their thing and back in the house.


I have no idea what this thing is for. But my hubby put in my garden last year. The birds like to roost on it.


Bella with her new hat on. She wore this hat the whole time we in K Mart. Oooops, I forgot the tag.


I've been collecting stuff on my desk all week. Books, mail, snack bags. I can't even see the desk on one end. Time to make a clean sweep. And on top of all that, my hubby brings me this giant mouse with Cheese on it and asks what it's for. Long story about my hubby. He goes to rummage sales and brings all this weird stuff home.