Big purple flowers

Spray painting with stencils and objects has become my new obsession.
First, I sprayed a selection of keys.

Which was cool, but I wasn’t sure where I would go with this.
So I grabbed red paint and added a few hearts, but that seemed dumb so I made lots of hearts.

And the more I looked at this mass of hearts the more I saw big Dahila-type flowers.

And the finished result makes me ridiculously happy.

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for the bees

This year I planted artichokes for the first time. I was so excited when these cute little artichokes started growing and I thought how fun it would be to eat my own artichokes! That is until I noticed that deep in the leaves, there was lots of aphids! As a gardner I don’t do much beyond watering and pruning of my yards. I might fertilize if I get around to it, but that happens rarely.

And when I see a plant-especially something I might eat- full of aphids it makes me wonder how much pesticides does it take to get that bug free so it can get to the grocery store?

So I opted to let the artichokes just grow, flower, and see what happens.

These are amazing flowers! They are heavy and just crazy looking! I picked some to dry for decoration, but I haven’t figured out how to de-bug them yet.
One thing I noticed is that the bees love these things!

As I was snapping pictures I watched the bees rolling in the center of the big purple anthers (where the pollen is). The bees rolled in the flower until their entire body was covered in pollen!

I recommend planting one of these, next year I am planting another artichoke plant or two for my bee friends!

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Weekend of Color

After seeing some of my favorite bloggers using the hipstamtic app I decided to add it to my iphone and play. Next on my list is a polaroid app.
It is basically a way to take old-school photos with your phone. My husband is not real clear on why someone would want to take “old, cruddy, washed out pics” with the technology of an iphone. I agree it is a contradiction but I am loving the results.

“blue sky”

“a dash of pink”

“summer color”

I love the way color looks in these photos. The colors so bright it almost hurts your eyes.
What’s the appeal of these old school apps? I have a very nice camera on my phone that takes pretty good photos and videos. I have a very nice nikon that is a few years old but takes incredible photos.

I think the appeal for me is that yes we can take perfect pictures that are gigantic files. And yet, perfection is very overrated.

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looking for those magical moments

This summer
no big plans each day
no list of things we must accomplish
just enjoying what each day has to offer.

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