Almost summer!

Wow, how did that happen? Just yesterday (ok maybe not yesterday) I was shoveling snow & next week is summer! Only a month until we go to Florida! Hopefully it won't be a thousand degrees every day like it was when we went in 2012! 

I'm THIS CLOSE to finishing another card (I know!!) .... but it's been soooo nice out so I've been spending most of my free time planting & digging & yanking & swearing a lot. Here is what I've been up to...

This is what our front "garden" looked like before I started using that funny looking tool there. 

After edging, adding soil & compost, planting & mulching, this is what it looks like now: 

And may I add, I did every stinkin' bit of it myself! There were no husbands or sons involved in the making of this garden. I have added a few more bits here & there since taking this photo ... a few more flowers & decor. I just love it :)

This weekend I worked on the nasty pain-in-the-tail random looking shrub that has blocked our front porch since we moved in here: 

And now ....

I planted a Butterfly Bush in its place. I won't tell you how I'm feeling today after getting that beast (& apparently it had children) out of the ground! * ouch * #gettingtoooldforthis

Osteospermum (fancy word for daisy)

Peony about to open 

A peony that IS open. In my yard, the white ones bloom before the pink ones LOL

I'm usually not a fan of geraniums but I love this striped one. 

I will have tons more flowers to show you as the season goes on. Lots to do in my yard & all my plans include new gardens. Out with the old & in with the new! 

Monday. Again. Already.

Wow, this weekend went by in a flash! And I didn't even do anything FUN! What was supposed to be a weekend of church festivals & lying by the pool, turned into a trip to Woodman's & a decluttering bonanza. It was just wayyyy to0 hot outside. I love summer & all that is has to offer, but I'm really not a fan of the heat. Give me anything between 50 & 70 degrees & I'm good. 

Now here's a smart puppy!! 

It was even too hot to swim! I think the pool water probably would have been boiling. Or at least simmering :)   I took a bunch of crap gently used items to Goodwill on Saturday, then decided to take a trip to Woodman's since it's right there. 3 hours later (truth!) I was home making dinner. After dinner I got to cleaning out my son's closet, & I know have 3 more bags of crap gently used .... ok, CRAP to get rid of.

And Sunday I asked the boys if they wanted to go to the pool. Nope, they were fine hanging out in our air conditioned house. I did go work out. Did you know they do NOT keep gyms very cool in the summer? They're gonna be sorry when they see me splayed out on the floor one of these days. Did I mention I don't like HOT? 

So I got a lot of cleaning & decluttering, food shopping & cooking done. Speaking of cooking .... about that photo from my post the other day.  Some of you guessed it was a fried Oreo & you were right!! 

I personally didn't try any, but everyone else said they were fabulous. Look, I even found a recipe for them HERE! 

In case deep fried Oreos don't float your boat, they also offer Twinkies, Snickers, Milky Way, beer and butter .... all in deep fried form. 

I didn't have my good camera, just my phone ... but here are a few more pix from our day:

Milk is just 25 cents a cup at this stand .... & available in all these yummy flavors. Last year they had Birthday Cake & Froot Loop! 

Every kind (& name) of hot sauce you could ever imagine. And yes, you get to taste test. There is a warning sign though, an adult must be present for a child to test the hot sauce. Hm. Wonder why.

For your next batch of ass kickin chili....

My cousin & his wife & daughter were with us. He's smirking because he KNOWS she's not eating this cream puff correctly. You don't eat it like a sandwich, silly ...

You twist it in half like an oreo & eat each half separately, like my hubby here. Sheesh. Amateurs! 

And for those of us who don't like cream puffs (I know, I get flack every year) there is this bad boy .... the napolean! First time I had one of these was at the Folk Fair in High School .. many MANY years ago. Love these so much, but you get a whole SLAB at the fair for just $5. Two people eating this & there was still half left. They don't exactly hand out doggy bags at the fair so we had to toss the rest * sob *

And on the way, after an entire day of eating, we saw the following: 

Peanut Butter Bacon Bison Burger
Deep Fried Maple Bacon Cookie Dough
Bacon Flavored Cheese Corn
Bacon Bottom Porker Pizza (my husband actually did have this, but I didn't get a picture)
& of course ... Bacon Covered Bacon

Seeing a common theme here?? They should really have cardiologists walking around with security! 

Linking up with: 

Monday Madness

MeetUp Monday

Inspiration Monday


   *****Have a super week!*****

Friday randoms

Ok, it's Saturday & I'm late .... but that's because my computer/ internet/ router has been giving me fits. My son thinks it's the router & I do think he's right, because instead of 2 stories up in my room, I am now in the basement RIGHT NEXT to it & my computer is fine. Although, I still can't seem to get the pictures I wanted to post. Guess my phone pix will do.

Anyhoo, here are my randoms for the week:

1: Despite the computer issues, I've had a good week! Last week Saturday was especially fun. My older son & I trekked to Milwaukee {where it's been construction season for the last year} for Brady St Days (an east side festival) & German Fest. I enjoy both, but I don't think he loved either. The east side is too ... east side-ish for his taste, & I think he thought they were going to recreate an entire German town for German fest. Basically though, it's Summerfest with Amercanized German food LOL.

Brady St Festival - whole street blocked off & filled with music, crafts, food & drink

German Fest, on the Summerfest grounds by the lake. Here my son is eating the best. pretzel. ever!

2: Since we did go to two different festivals that day, my final step count on Fitbit that day was 18,406 - I believe that's a record for me!

3: Next week is both my & my younger son's birthday. He was born two days before my birthday. Talk about a great birthday present! Well ok, the c-section was kind of un-fun .... but well worth it :)  I took Thursday & Friday off so we could have a 4 day celebration, can't wait! 

4: I got my hair cut & highlighted on Wednesday. My "summer" highlights, even though summer is more than half over. Even though this is not me in the photo (although it could be, my hair is the same length & styled very similar), it's the photo I sent to my stylist & the result is EXACTLY the same. Love her!

Source

5: I don't know if this is national news or not, but it seems there is some kind of lion running around the streets of Milwaukee. There have been many reports & sightings, & just a couple of days ago police also spotted it but weren't quick enough to catch it. Of  course, there are all sorts of funnies about this situation floating around the internet.

all about Wolski's

I hope you all have a super fun weekend!! It's August already!! Yikes!!! 

Linking up with: 

High Five For Friday

Five on Friday

Friday Blog Booster party

Wordless Wednesday - HOT

Happy hump day! And hump day = Wordless Wednesday! 

This about sums it up for me. I like summer & all it offers, but I don't do "hot" very well. I feel like I'm melting. I actually took this photo a few summers ago. Clearly, it was a steamy day. This poor squirrel just sacked out on our deck railing & didn't move. I think if I had gone out with a mister & some ice water, he would have welcomed me with open arms. Paws. 

Linking up with: 

Wordless Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday

Wake Up Wednesday

Almost Wordless Wednesday

A quiet weekend

For I think the first time this summer, we didn't have a ton of plans for the weekend. Well, we HAD planned to go to the county fair on Saturday, but a big ole storm came through here Saturday afternoon, & I pretty much lost my desire to leave the house even after it stopped. The humidity rose sky high & everything was .... well, WET. Ick. So we skipped it. This is the first year in 5 years we haven't gone. We've been in 4H the last few years & the boys have always had projects in the fair. We sorta decided to NOT this year. Fine by me, there was a lot less stresss in the house than there usually is the week of the fair. 

So .... we stayed home & just enjoyed the yard. I really have so much work to do in the yard, but I don't do well in humidity. I will not be moving south any time soon.

I have no idea what kind of bug this is ... but he was enjoying my flower & I thought he was rather unique. 

My lovely petunias .... one of the many plants that do well in pots for me, but not in the ground. I'm thinking we have B-A-D soil.

Rose breasted grosbeak .... nice of him to pose for me!

And these guys .... omg they made me laugh. The turkey babies were taking dirt baths :)  They are SO cute when they're little! 

We're building a fire pit & my kids had just finished raking the dirt smooth so we could lay the brick. This guy probably thought "Hey!! Really nice of you guys to make it pretty for us, thanks!"

That's really all I did this weekend ... take pictures in my yard LOL. We all need to just relax once in a while, right? 

Linking up with:

Monday Madness

Merry Monday

Something To Talk About

What did you do this weekend?

High Five for Friday

Ok, let me explain....

It's summer.

I was sick for over 2 weeks. 

We've been UBER busy. 

It's summer.

It's hard to believe I actually had *more* spare time when I had little ones running around. Everyone told me I'd get busier as my kids got older. Didn't think it was possible. 

It's possible.

I'm going to have to rename my blog. There is no such thing as "mom's time". Moms GET no time! 

But I wouldn't have it any other way.


So .... kind of half "High Five for Friday" & half "what have I been up to since my last post" ..... in a nutshell:

1: A trip to Legoland Chicago. A separate post about this fun day will happen as soon as I get through all my pictures :)

2: Our County Fair is going on right now. We are in 4H, which means showing projects & working at the fair. Thankfully, for the first time since we've been doing this it is NOT in the triple digits this week! 

Lexi, my cousin's fur baby

3: I had my new brother & his family over July 5th. It was part birthday celebration for him (his birthday was a few days prior), part July 4th celebration & part meeting more family members. I ended up having about 15 people & it was a blast. Thankfully no rain! Having that many people in my house would make me break out in hives lol....

4: Baseball, baseball, baseball ....

5: Annual picnic at the Zoo for my husband's work. Unfortunately it wasn't the best weathers, but we still had fun. How can you not have fun when the animals pose for the camera & say "cheese"?

Hope you all are having a great summer! I think I actually have some time to do a little blurfing tonight - I need to catch up!!

*~* linking up with Lauren Elizabeth *~*

SO much free time!

Ahahaaaa - had you there, didn't I? I don't have free time! In fact, I am totally stressing out, because our County Fair is in a little over a week, & the boys & I are all entering projects. I don't know why I thought it would be fun for ME to enter - all it is, is added stress. And my boys play baseball all 5 nights this week. So .... free time?? Uh-uh!

BUT somehow I did find time to make a card. You know why? Because I no longer have any "stuff". I realized that all my time was taken not by actually making the card, but by looking for all the "stuff" - the papers, the embellishments, the sentiments ..... that right there is a time sucker!

And here's something funny - this image is colored with Copic markers. I hardly ever used Copics even when I made a LOT of cards. In fact, I got rid of most of them. I have about 10 left. That's the funny part. It was actually easier for me with just the 10, because I wasn't stressing about which colors to use. I didn't have many choices! hahahaa

The papers are OLD. Basic Grey Infuse. One of my first paper packs. That is one thing I *didn't* get rid of - any of my Basic Grey pads. I will always love them :)

And .... I still have plenty of Stickles, lol. Funny though, I have about 12 bottles - many colors - but I always reach for the clear. Stardust is my favorite. 

I'm entering this card in a few challenges:

7 Kids College Fund - Anything Goes (alcohol markers optional)

Stamp & Create - Let's Get Wet (summer image)

Tilda's Town - Summer Fun

Lovely Hanglar Only (which I guess now includes Magnolia) - Flower Power

Thanks for visiting ~ hope you have a fun-filled week!

Steamy Sunday

It was HOT today - first really hot day we've had this year. Can you tell how steamy it is? 

And that was at 9:00 this morning, before it even got *really* hot!

So you are not going to believe this, but I made another card! That's TWO since January! Woohooooo I'm on a roll! 

I was going through my beloved High Hopes stamps & found Swinging Shannon. Since it IS officially summer I thought it was perfect!

Not only is my coloring a bit rusty, but I also found out my scissor skills aren't quite what they used to be. I mean, I've always hated cutting - but it was like I forgot how to work the little knife thing!

I had ordered a whole bunch of SU paper last year, & they are all still sitting in the box. I needed a really really dark brown & nothing I had in my drawer even came close - until I looked through the box. I was just going to sell it all, since it was all unopened. But wait -- what's this gorgeous dark brown called "Early Espresso"? It's perfect! So ... I guess I won't be selling that pack, since I clearly HAD to open it! It went with the  Basic Grey Porcelain perfectly!

And it just so happens the High Hopes' blog theme this month is SUMMER! I think this qualifies :)

I'm linking up to Everything Etsy's Crafty Girl linky party HERE. Go check out the fun - there's a giveaway involved :)

Hope you have a super week!  

Cutter Bees are SHARP!

In case you were looking to buy some --- they cut paper, wire, & even fingertips! Ask me how I know......

So I finally got my card done! I got this adorable Tilda weeks ago & was finally able to do something with her. I was starting to think the snow was going to fly before I got this summer card finished, lol



So I AGAIN used my Copic markers to color her -- are you impressed?? I've been using them even more than my pencils lately! The papers are Basic Grey Sugared -- I added some raffia around the flowers -- & added a butterfly JUST so I could enter this card into the Just Magnolia challenge this week! Well, also because that spot was bare, lol.





Believe it or not, I also finished the inside of the card AND made an envelope!! It's already to be listed on EBAY tonight. Thanks to my wonderfully talented friend Deb for the tips on making the envelope. I needed a thicker one than I'm used to making, & she shared the dimensions with me. Thanks Deb!! Deb just started a blog -- Deb's Designs -- be sure to go check it out! She is AMAZING!




Thanks so much for visiting!! I don't post often anymore so I'm thrilled when you visit! My 3 year blogoversary is coming up quick --- just a few days -- so I'm trying to get together a wee bit of candy to celebrate! That will probably be late too, just like every thing else, so patience, little grasshoppers!!