365 ~ 119 ~ Coulda Fooled Me...

As much as I love gardening, I am also guilty of using silk flowers.  I do not grow plants inside my house or on my back porch.  Why, you ask?  Because they die.  Simple as that.  :) 

I made this happy arrangement for my back porch, and as the sun was coming up, they almost looked like they were blooming... What do you think?

365 ~ 118 ~ Beans N' Bokeh

Where is Jack when you need him? 

365 ~ 117 ~ Egg rolls anyone?

My first cabbage of spring...this one was shredded for Baked Egg Rolls - one of my families favorite dishes.  The second harvested cabbage was "bartered" with my best friend for green onions and cucumbers from her garden.  :)

365 ~ 116 ~ Pretty Weed

Butterfly weed is so pretty, I almost hate to call it a weed. 

It freely seeds itself throught the garden and when I find a plant growing where I don't want it, I simply dig it up and move it to the butterfly "area".  It grows tall, over 2 feet and looks pretty in a flower garden.

Caterpillars LOVE it and will eat it to a stub, but it always comes back...God has created it to do exactly what it should.

365 ~ 115 ~ Muncher

I try to keep a lot of plants in the garden for the caterpillars to munc on.  This little guy will become a gorgeous Florida Swallowtail Butterfly with a radiant blue coloring.  Here he is munching on some butterfly weed which has a pretty orange flower...see tomorrows post.

365 ~ 114 ~ Self Portrait

Chillin' on my swing.

365 ~ 113 ~ Bathtime

The final bath after 2 weeks of puppy slobber and rolling in the dirt. 

"Daddy, I sure don't like baths, but I LOVE you!"

365 ~ 112 ~ Happy

I just can't seem to throw away this broken piece of a windchime...  it makes me smile.

365 ~ 111 ~ So Sweet

It's that time of year again...when the pineapples begin producing.  Last year I had 7, this year I only see 2 growing right now...but it's early, a couple more could pop up.  After all, I have about 20 pineapple plants throughout the garden, you just never know what sweet surprises they hold.

365 ~ 110 ~ I'm so Blue

I had to share this one too.  I wasn't sure how the blue on blue would work, but I really liked the shadows and the angle on this shot.

365 ~ 109 ~ Sugar Plumbago

I'm not sure why, but Blue Plumbago in the sunlight always makes me think of a sugary frosted icing flower...they just have this sparkle to them...

I was happy with this shot SOOC.  I am really loving the new red "barn" color of our shed...it made a great backdrop!

365 ~ 108 ~ On A Mission

I am playing catch up on my photos today.  For the past 2 weeks, I have been "puppy" sitting...or MONSTER sitting.  This precious 6 month old puppy is 8 lbs heavier than my 7 yr old Boxer, and has about 10 times the energy, pulling power and chewing ability! 

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, I took the photos, but did not have time to post them...I was pretty much exhausted by this little cutie!

365 ~ 107 ~ Scardy Squirrell

I don't think this little guy is ready for "heights" yet... LOL

365 ~ 106 ~ Stir Fry

While I won't pretend to know much about photography in general, I DO know that food seems to photograph best in natural light. I usually take food outside just out of direct sunlight to get a good shot. 

(here's an example from my Feb. 13th post)

However, it isn't usually sunny at dinnertime, and often I want photos of what I made.

Last night was a good example...  I made a beef stir fry.  This is an example of what a flash can do to an otherwise tasty looking dish...makes it look like dog food basically.  Ewwwww.

The light was pretty low in the dining room, but I took a shot anyway and worked with the exposure a bit on Picnik.

365* ~ 105 ~ 100 Steps...

We went to a car show down the road...as we stepped off the motorcycle, I took the 100 steps and ended up smack dab in the middle of the parking lot... here is what I saw around me....

Loved the color...it was 'almost' pink, more like lavender.

Hubby use to have a car almost just like this when we met...he sold it because he was becoming a "family man" (I LOVE him)...I think he should get another one...don't you?  I would totally go grocery shopping a LOT more, hee hee.

That's my honey trying to run from my circling camera! 

Discussing "car stuff"... 

365 ~ 104 ~ You can't catch me!

I'm puppy sitting. 

Stormie is having fun, but she's met her match for energy.

365 ~ 103 ~ Birth of a Bean...

This will be a sweet, crispy green bean one day...

365 ~ 102 ~ Fetch!

The other day we took the boat out.  It was our annual "test run" to make sure the boat is running smoothly after winter.  The weather has warmed up and the water is nice.  We brought our little punkin, Stormie, with us.

365 ~ 101 ~ Buffet

I am doing a "slightly" Shabby Chic changeover to my home, and this buffet was on the list of things to paint.  It is oak and I know lot's of people will cringe at the fact that I painted it, but I love color and light and I can't deal with too much "wood", lol.  So, here is my "Bird Song Blue" buffet...I love it!

My friend and her daughter were admiring it and saying how much they liked it when her precious 8 yr old says to me... "Aunt Kathy, no offense, but it kinda looks old"... Yes!  Mission accomplished. :)

365 ~ 100 ~ Cloning...

I wanted to take a shot of the towels on my clothesline.  We are in the middle of painting our shed red and I totally didn't pay attention to the ladder in the photo.  Instead of moving it, I decided to play with the "clone" tool and remove it.  What do you think?

SOOC

Color Vibrance kicked up a notch, Clone tool to remove the ladder, and soften tool.

Went for a vintage look on this one... BUT forgot to use the photo without the ladder, LOL

365 ~ 99 ~ Busy...

... very busy, pollinating all those lovely spring flowers.

365 ~ 98 ~ Budding Love

365 ~ 97 ~ Soup's On!

It rained the other day... I wanted soup.  I wanted potato soup...and broccoli cheese soup...so I meshed two recipes together and came up with... "Roasted Garlic, Potato, Broccoli and Cheese Soup"... long name...luschious soup!

365 ~ 96 ~ Romancer

This Rose has a lovely scent and a gorgeous color... in spring and late fall it is happiest and covered in fragrant blooms....this Romantic rose is called Don Juan.

365 ~ 95 ~ By any other name...

Truly the sweetest scent ever... Belinda's Dream Roses...

365 ~ 94 ~ Ready to Roast

Roasted Garlic is so incredibly delicious!  Mash it into mashed potatoes, spread it on toast, put it in guacamole, use it to make roasted garlic soup!  Oh Yum.

365 ~ 93 ~ Sleepy Frog

Hubby saw this cute little guy parked on the windowsill on the side of our house.  He asked me... "Do you need to take a photo?"... me:  "what?"... "Don't you need a photo for your picture blog thing?".  :)  He's precious... I love him! :)

365 ~ 87-92 ~ Birthday Fun!

Yup.... I had a birthday...it just keeps happening...every year, another year older, hee hee. :)


This year for my birthday, we went with out bestest friends to Maggianos for dinner (YUM!), and afterward we headed to Old Town in Kissimmee, FL so that my best girlfriend, Kim and I could be flung 400 feet into the air in a slingshot...doesn't that sound fun??? :)  It was!


87, 88 and 89 - Maggiano's!!! YUM.

Bruschetta and Ceaser Salad for starters...

Chicken Francese with Pasta ...enough for two LARGE meals...(we brought a cooler to take home goodies)...

This is supposed to be Tiramisu...by I have no idea what happened to it! Hee hee hee

I did not take this photo, I couldn't...but I wanted to share it.

90 ~ The Slingshot...

The next day we went for a long motorcycle ride, which included Blackpoint Wildlife reserve...this is what we saw...  YIKES!  He's big...see his tail, how it curls around?  He was on the bank and then began to slink into the water and down the canal where we could not see him.  It's never a good thing to be on the opposite bank of a canal that contains a 13 foot gator that you canNOT see... we left after this shot was taken. :)

91 ~ Gator

Here we are at the river in Titusville.  Our official...my wife is 43 photo shoot, lol.

92 ~ Us. :)

AND, just for fun...if you care to see how goofy and strange I really am... you may watch the video below of me and my bestest girlfriend being slung into the air.  If you're really feeling adventurous, you can watch the second one too.  Yup, we couldn't just ride once! :)

365 ~ 82-86 ~ Where Have I Been?!?!!

I was asked... "Where did you go?" by Kara... So I figured, get on the band-wagon Kathy...come on!  That was the little push I needed. 

It's not that I haven't been taking photos, and it's not that I haven't been on the computer, lol... I just haven't been posting...it's Spring!!! My FAVORITE time of year... I've been busy just doing and living and playing.. :)

So, my next 3 posts will be "catch up" posts (sorry Tracy!)...I'll be back to normal after this! :)

82 ~ I have a lot of "painting" projects and "re-do" projects going on... mostly in my head, but here is one I managed to get done.  I love light and bright and I realized I had too much dark wood in my house, so I chose to "shabby chic" my oak buffet... here is "mid-project":

83 ~ My adorable nephew races RC cars, here he is carefully evaluating the track... :)

84 ~ Did I mention these races are not just for kids?  This is my brother-in-law making repairs to one of his cars...he raced several times throughout the day...

85 ~ This is a rare moment...my Mother-in-law smiling at a camera!!!  She never lets me take her photo, but she actually cuddled up to my hubby and smiled...of course he was being his silly self! :)  She loves her babies...he is her #8.

86 ~ This is what they watch ALL day long........

Next post...wanna see me get sling-shotted into the sky? LOL