All posts filed under: Life Adventures

In My Garden

I wrote about my garden as it started to sprout and grow back in May here, so I thought I would get a few photos of the garden now and see how it has developed. It seems that some of the plants have come and gone, like the rhubarb and the sunflowers but some plants have taken off and created their own little rambling world.  The tomatoes have all grown and tumbled (some literally) and grown into huge plants.  Cherry tiny tomatoes are jostling with beefsteak big guys all trying to survive the squirrels together.  Unfortunately the squirrels prefer the large slower growing tomatoes whether they have ripened or not.  Consequently I have not had the pleasure of more than one or two tomatoes larger than a couple of centimeters. The tomatoes under the Mulberry tree are taking forever and ever to grow and then even consider going red, some have mutated into unusual shapes. I wonder if this one will ripen or will it get stolen for a squirrel’s breakfast. The chilis have been …

Ten Things which tell you I am a Brit Living in the States.

  I have lived in the United States in the great midwest since 2003 and while I have become assimilated in many ways, some departments of my brain remain staunchly British. You would think that living in a country which speaks the same language (ish) would be a piece of cake to move to. I watched every episode of Friends and hung into Carrie Bradshaw’s every word, so it should be easy, right?  Not so much, there are lots of small things which are different, but not different enough to be immediately obvious. I remember the occasion when I asked someone over the phone if they could put a catalogue in the post for me, after a few minutes of confusing confusion, I learnt that if you want something delivered to your door, it is ‘mail’.  If you want it in the local newspaper, ask for it to be in the ‘post’.  Lesson learned. I never did get the catalogue. I am still getting things mixed up and some things I just can’t get the …

A Bloggers Year in Books (so far).

I have just finished my latest read which was ‘Half Broke Horses’ by Jeanette Walls, it took me a monumental time to read as I started it while we were on vacation and every time a another book came into the library I wanted to read, I put done ‘Half Broke Horses’ to read the new book. The crazy reasoning behind this is that I own ‘Half Broke Horses’ and the books from the library are usually on a two week loan which is quite the deadline for this slow reader.   The thing was, I kept starting new books and putting this one down, but a week later I would ditch the new read and carry on with ‘Horses.  In this time, I started ‘The Library at Mount Char’ by Scott Hawkins which I gave up on because it was just too darn odd and violent for me.  Odd I can easily deal with, I even like odd, but with violence, not so much.  So back to ‘HBH’ I went.  Then I started ‘Our …

Grey Hair, Don’t Care.

  Here I am to report on the hair situation. It is all grey, not even a teeny bit of dye left, it has been that way for a couple of months now and I like it! I also like that I don’t have to dye it at all ever ever ever again, although I have been thinking about going purple which may colour the grey bits or it may not.  Either way purple would be a temporary move. At the beginning of the summer, I wondered if the sun and heat would alter the colour at all, make it yellow or dry it to a frizz, but I seem to have got away with it because neither has happened.  Phew! It is in great condition and I am super happy about that even when it is at it’s most floppy and unco-operative, bearing in mind that in my world of hair styling, unruly hair means it won’t tuck beind my ear and stay out of my eyes. Did you see that Kate Middleton has …

The August break, joining in with film photos.

I am joining in with Susannah Conway this year again and taking a photo a day for The August Break. There are daily prompts which can be taken on whichever camera you may choose. I am lucky enough to have a Minolta 35mm camera from 1980 something, so I am planning to take each photo with that. So unless I also take a digital picture too, I won’t be posting everyday until I get the film developed. Hopefully I will snap other photos with my camera along the way, and use up the film so that I can get them printed a couple of times during August and see what I came up with. Will I get a serious case of ‘fear of missing out’ if I don’t post an Instagram August Break picture daily? Maybe, but I think I will just stick to the film camera and see how they come out. Hopefully not all out of focus or wrongly exposed. Just think, this is how we took all photos only a few years …

‘Taking Stock’ July 2015

We only half way through the week and it has been a good one so far.  On Monday I went to Vans Warped Tour with my teen and it was one of the hottest days of the year so far.  It was a good hearted day as Warped usually is, the bands perform with gusto and will often host a signing which is a marvelous thing for the fans. My complete life saver that day was my Bohemian Traders scarf which is big and light and keeps the sun off my neck like a dream.  Wearing a scarf didn’t make me any hotter, I don’t think I could have been any hotter no matter what I wore, or didn’t wear! At the end of the sweltering day in true St Louis style, there was a massive thunder storm and we got soaked to the skin!  Always an experience, what would a day out be without some crazy weather to remember it by. I am about to write some letters with the new stationery I received …

Weekly Photos 30/52

1. My dining table has been taken over by a week of model making and painting! No complaints from me, they can take over the house if it keeps the kid off screens! 2. I am a little bit over excited to see my little eggplant plant growing an actual eggplant/aubergine. Yay! My gardening skills are not up to much, so I am very proud and I hope the bunnies or squirrels don’t eat it up. 3. We went for a walk at the Shaw Nature Reserve this weekend and in the historic Bascom house they have tea and coffee ready to serve up in a lovely selection of mugs or cups. We opted for the lemonade as it was a very hot day. 4. The teepee at Shaw is always a magnificent sight, even without the cover which hasn’t been on for a few years now. Some cool clouds too. I am posting the weeklies today because tomorrow I will be at the St Louis leg of Vans Warped Tour with my teenager. It …

My favourites from The 100 Day Project.

This mandala was the final one for my time with The 100 Day Project hosted by The Great Discontent magazine and the fabulous Elle Luna. I loved the process of drawing a mandala every day and I came up with many surprises, the main one being that I could draw something every day, not get bored and I liked most of them! It just shows what you can come up with a bit of a boost, a great idea and a little structure. If I had to draw ‘anything’ every day I might have struggled more with the blank page for three months, but the mandalas were lovely to draw and paint and photograph. I have picked ten of my favourite mandalas to share from my 100 days of making mandala journey. This one started with the lettering in the middle and I enjoyed using the cupcake colours. Number 16. Doodles was the name of the game here. It was nice not to have to draw the grid to start the mandala. Number 28. Another …

Packing Tape Image Transfer Ideas.

I was browsing Creative Bug this week and came across the ‘Image Transfer’ class which to be honest I would have skipped, but my youngest wanted to have a look. So we watched the intro and the first lesson which was packing tape image transfer. We had tape and we had images in magazines and old books, so we thought we would give it a go and it looked pretty straightforward. We found that book images worked best, black and white were especially effective. We didn’t use photocopies, but I would imagine that they would work well too. The key is to find a picture or part of a picture which will fit within the parameters of the tape. No good picking a big image with you can only partly use, if you want the whole thing. Pick out the best part of the picture and place your tape over that. Once the tape is firmly pressed down with no air bubbles (I used a ruler to rub the tape onto the paper), tear or …

One Hundred Words for a Warm Day in July.

Walking. Deer. Woodland. Library. Curry. Cauliflower. Magazines. Cooking. Pizza. Water. Slide. Swimming. Humid. Making. Lemon. Balm. Music. Books. Grey. Neon. Water. Mud. Workout. TRX. Sweaty. Phone. Mandala. Strawberries. Face. Train. Jigsaw. Puzzle. Warm. Photographs. Glass. Pens. Pencils. Drawing. Recipes. Shopping. Slicing. Reading. Crochet. Yarn. Wool. Miles. Roasting. Eggplant. Aubergine. Flower. Fruit. Vegetable. Laundry. Smells. Oil. Blog. Words. Writing. Thinking. Planning. Green. Orange. Food. Calories. Counting. Pool. Giant. Cool. Kids. Mine. Fun. Busy. Tea. Coffee. Frothy. Sunglasses. Sunscreen. Sun. Tarot. Owl. Nature. Magical. Rain. Watering. Growing. Plants. Soil. Dry. Screens. Light. Sleep. Texts. Talking. Chatting. Learning. Wondering. Hiccups. Snoring. Dog. Floor. Thanks to Susannah Conway for the idea for a 100 word blog post.