Kaseys Korner

to send or not to send

~ Christmas cards that is.  I'm really on the fence this year.  It's decision time tho especially considering we normally do a family photo card.  With everything that has transpired this fall (and considering I'm so far behind on work, etc.) I'm thinking for the first time (another first) that it may not happen.  How about you?  Sending or not?  Is there a criteria to making the decision?  I sometimes think it's an antiquated tradition considering how "in touch" we are today.  All the modes of communication available to us have made me wonder if it means the same thing as it used to?  I do like receiving a mailbox full of personal mail tho and there are a few people I only hear from at this time of year.  Hmmm.  Thinking, thinking, thinking. I did get inspired to create a card after taking the poinsettia photos I posted yesterday.  Now if only someone would come replicate it a hundred times, the decision would be made! 

The photo coordinated perfectly with one of my favorite paper lines, Webster's Pages.  The paper is so beautiful by itself that it hardly requires embellishing.  A little tag & ribbon:

combined with a special message (compliments of stickers & rub on lettering):

Oh, and a bit of bling (to match the glitter on the poinsettia) and it was done.  If only everything were this simple. 

flowers of Christmas

When I think of "Christmas" flowers I usually think of poinsettias, amaryllis and paper whites.  Am I leaving anything out?  I'm not sure why, but I don't usually purchase poinsettias and I don't care for the smell of paper whites so that leaves me with the one Christmas flower I do love ~ Amaryllis.  I have plenty of those but we'll talk about them another day (very soon).  This post will be devoted to the first mentioned flower ~ the poinsettia.  I broke tradition for the first time ever on Saturday and bought a glittered variety.  Something about the coloring and of course the sprinkle of glitter made me succumb.  (I also secretly think it's because the garden has been devoid of flowers for so long already.)  Here's the specimen that made me waiver and break:

I can't seem to do justice to its beauty with my camera lens.   The leaves are cream in the center and reddish pink on the edges.

More realistic then the blues, purples, golds and greens I see at the nurseries but definitely not natural with the glitz of added glitter.  Below, my requisite macro ~ you knew I couldn't pass up an opportunity, didn't you?

You know me too well.  Here's where it ended up ~ in my office, on my desk ~ basking in the afternoon light:

I hope it lasts the season.  I know nothing about their care requirements but if it keeps making me happy like it has for the past 24 hours, this poinsettia might be the start of a new tradition....

A nature inspired Holiday

There were no "black Friday" deals being purchased by anyone in our house yesterday.  Instead we were engaged in a flurry of decorating.  It's much more fun and a whole lot less stressful.  Ornaments and decorations are very compliant and don't require driving.  :-)  As I looked around at what we accomplished I noticed an overall "nature" theme that was entirely unplanned.  I think the garden is invading my subconscious!  That's not all bad, is it?  I thought I'd share a couple of snapshots to show you what I mean.  First a trio of butterflies (a cool clip-on ornament that is bought as a spray) has taken its place as one of this years favorites:

I have a zillion butterfly ornaments but haven't ever seen/owned an ornament like this one before.  I quite like it.  It covers a lot of area on the tree in a very elegant, easy manner.  What's not to like about that style?  Next is a vintage birdcage that looks perfectly at home on the buffet.  Of course, a birdcage has to have birds, right?  These have flown the coop but not to worry, they won't get far:

 

Maybe they flew out because there isn't any room for them inside ~ could be the tree-shaped Rosemary needs to be moved??  I had to leave the door ajar tho because I can't stop rubbing my hands over the foliage.  It smells just as delightful to me as any evergreen could.  Now if only the little gold birds could sing me a sweet song, all would be right:

 

Hmmm.  I don't think I'll hold my breath for that to happen but I sure like looking at them.  In the makeshift greenhouse, there's a competition afoot.  'Razzle Dazzle,' 'Charisma,' 'Green Goddess,' 'Apple Blossom' and 'Double Flowered Elvas' are all clamoring to be the first to bloom.  *sigh*  I really wanted them to pace themselves and put on a long, drawn out show (preferably lasting all winter).  But Noooo.  They all felt the need for speed.  I think 'Razzle Dazzle' has a slight edge:

It looks like I will have a mass of Amaryllis blossoms to share shortly.  That's okay.  The decorating is almost finished and I'll be happy to get back to flowers.

Thanksgiving wishes

Thanksgiving 2009 dawned clear, crisp and bright.  A good way to start the day.  Our dog has already taken up a prone position in front of the oven where he will "stand guard" the entire time the turkey is cooking.

The birds are feasting at all the feeders ~ I made sure to spread the "love" since we'll be doing the same later today.  There is an assortment of black-capped Chickadees (pictured), Mourning Doves, Flickers, Robins, Finches, Goldfinches & sparrows.  They keep me company distract me, while I'm deep in the midst of food preparation.  I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving.  I have lots to be grateful for this year so there will be many messages going into our gratitude jar.  Your what????  Oh, doesn't everybody have a gratitude jar??  This is one I made years ago:

It's very simple ~ just a ribbon, Thanksgiving cut out (get one from a card, whatever.  This one came from Crafty Secrets) and a jar.  I also stamped a "Thankful" message onto the side of the glass (using a StazOn ink pad) but that is 100% optional.

It works like this ~ before (or after ~ we're not hung up on the order) everyone who shares our Thanksgiving meal with us writes on a piece of paper something they are grateful for.  You can write as many messages as you'd like (it's my job to cut new strips of paper to fill the jar each year).  The messages are then put into the jar and someone reads them out loud.  It's fun to guess who wrote what.  Sometimes it's obvious, but other times not so much.  We even read last years before emptying the jar and filling them with new ones.  It's a fun tradition & great way to stay focused on the meaning of the day.  Blessings to all ~ may your day be filled with peace, love, family, friends, happy moments and full bellies.

bird food budget

It's a tale of two holidays in my house at the moment ~ anyone else experiencing that?  Thanksgiving decorations grace tabletops & the front entrance but now there are Christmas trees added to the mix.   I'm decking the halls early because I "think" I've almost talked myself into hosting our neighborhood cookie exchange again.  It's all hinging on whether I can get everything together or not.  Now you know what I've been doing.  The only bustling around that's been done outside is keeping the bird feeders full.  It's been a little over a month since feeding began and I'm starting to think the kestrel who forced me to take my feeders down last winter inadvertently helped my wallet.  I usually feed black oil sunflower seed, thistle seed and assorted suets.  This spring, thanks to a post by Catherine, I added Bark Butter to the birds list of staples.  They love it but I can hardly keep up with their voracious appetites:

I am "not so carefully" smearing butter on this feeder every morning.  Maybe I should start putting it out for special occasions only (or on snow days)??  The last time I visited the Wild Bird Store, I also made the big mistake of falling for yet another type of feed/feeder:

What was I thinking?  Can't say.  Maybe I thought the stacking cylinders looked easy to use and interesting ~ because they can be mixed and matched for a custom blend.  All true but not cheap!

 

The birds on going on a budget.  Seriously.  I feed them for my own selfish enjoyment:

But there are limits on even that.  Where do you draw the line?  I'd love to hear your budget strategies or how you decide what & how much to feed.

 

a frosty first

Those of you who know me, know all too well how much of a fair weather gardener I am.  I'm certainly not one who ventures out on a frosty morning to take photos ~ I just admire yours (from the warmth of my living room).  Something completely inexplicable came over me this morning tho while I was hauling the trash to the curb.  Some crazy impulse to grab my camera and give this heretofor unexplored venue a try.  Everything frosted that I turned my camera on was either brown or inanimate but I have to concede, there IS a beauty to be found in icy crystals.  You'll never know how hard that was for me to admit.  My favorite frosted photo from this AM was this one:

Freeze-dried roses covered in spiky hoar frost.  Okay, got to admit, that's pretty.  What about this little grouping of dangling rose leaves:

They're not bad either.  I'm getting in the groove now.  Let's take a peek at a rose hip stem:

Wow, a frosted star on a stem.  Glorious.  It feels foreign for me to even think that.  But okay, I'm warming to my early morning adventure.  (I can say that now because I'm back indoors & thawing).  Here's the last shot I snapped before heading back inside:

 

The vintage iron fence that was once surrounded by poppies, iris and later hollyhocks stood rather forlornly in it's icy cloak.  I was tempted (just for a second) to touch those crystallized fleur-des-lis until I snapped to.  Enough already.  It was fun (for the teeny bit of time I spent outside) but I don't know that it was so enjoyable I'd be anxious for a repeat.  At least I have some pictures to prove I tried it.  :-)

sneaky little clivias

You never knew that adjective could be applied to a plant, did you?  It's an incorrect usage ~ I'm sure plants don't have hidden agendas ~ it was just the first thing that popped in my head when I spied two buds almost hidden in the clivia foliage.  See them compressed between two strapping leaves??

I've actually been holding out on you since I first discovered them a couple weeks ago.  Shame on me.  I was beyond excited thinking what I was seeing was the makings of a big bodacious bloom stalk.  I've been waiting and waiting for it/them to push up out of the foliage so I could take a really nice photo for you.  Meanwhile, it's become quite obvious, that I do NOT have a bloom stalk at all.  Merely two buds gone rogue. 

I had to gently pull the foliage back to get these shots.  Darn.  Oh well, enjoy the moment, right?  I wasn't expecting any blooms yet anyway.  You might remember this is my first year growing clivias ~ I found both my plants deeply discounted (one at a nursery the other at a big box store).  I have long admired them during winter visits to greenhouses but they were so expensive I always passed on purchasing one.  After bringing these two home, they were repotted and placed in my makeshift greenhouse.  I was just preparing them for a trip to the basement (for a cooling period in hopes of forcing a real bloom stalk) when I found the buds.  

 

I guess the best thing to do now is let them bloom then move them downstairs??  A companion to the clivias (in the makeshift greenhouse) is this Paph orchid (unknown name ~ also bought 50% off ~ are you getting the idea I'm cheap???).  Its bud is very slowly (painfully slow if you ask me) continuing to develop.  I liked the image of it back-lit by morning sun:

 

I need to just leave them all alone and let them do their thing but it's so hard.  The suspense of finding out what I actually bought gets to me ~ I want to see something!!!  That's the downside to buying plants not in bloom and unmarked, right?  Oh well, they were purchased with the thought of helping me survive the long, cold winters.  The element of the unknown adds a bit of excitement to the dreary days and definitely helps fulfill that purpose.  Take your time, keep me on my toes, the days will pass and soon spring will be here again....

Can you believe I'm saying this already ~ it's only November!

fun mail day

I thought you all might like to start your Monday off on a happy note & see the surprise mail I received last week from my good friend Erin.  She sent me a handcrafted album to put my floral photos in ~ wasn't that the sweetest?  (She's like that!)

She also included this cheery handmade card with the album:

I am 100% perked up now!  Thank you Erin.  I consider myself a lucky, lucky girl to get handmade gifts from you.  Erin is an extraordinary scrapbooker, papercrafter and photographer.  She just started blogging this summer (so glad ~ long overdue!!!) so if you're interested in seeing her gorgeous creations & photos, click here to check it out.

In the spirit of friendship, I thought I would insert one of my own recently created cards:

I love these colors together, don't you?  They say "spring" to me which I seem to have on the brain.  A bit prematurely...   The journaling card & vellum friendship quote are from the "Flora Collection" by Anna Griffin.  Makes sense I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that collection, doesn't it??  The adorable felt bird is by Jenni Bowlin and the 3-D Butterfly is a K&Company creation.  I added a bit of bling to the card for extra pizazz. 

Not that it needed anything extra but bling is never bad, is it?  Here's a close-up of the bird & quote too:

I can't say enough nice things about my friends.  They lift me up and make my life infinitely better.  Cheers to good friends and thanks again for the great mail day Erin.  :-)  You sure put a smile on my face.

Not so brown afterall

This morning we woke up to our third "blanket of white" this fall ~ 8" of new snow fell overnight.  If I stay true to form, I should be depressed, right??!  No way.  Not this time.  This was the kind of snow Colorado is famous for ~ the kind that comes and goes almost as quickly as you can turn around.  Perfect.  Shortly after I got up, the sun peeked out, the clouds cleared and we were back to blue skies.  The snow is almost melted off the roadways as I type.  Yippee.  Now that the driveway & patio are shoveled, I can share a few surprises I found in the garden before the storm arrived.  Remember I told you everything was brown?  I guess I lied ~ but not intentionally ~ so please don't think less of me.  A spot of yellow I hadn't previously noticed caught my eye along the north rock pathway.  Getting down on the ground, I saw it was a lone bloom on striking Viola 'Tiger Eyes:'

I knew viola's and pansies were hardy but they have to really be sturdy to survive the few 15 & 16 degree nightly low temperatures we've experienced already.  I'm glad they are because just finding the one flower perked up my day.  Hopefully it will still be there when the snow melts.  Something else blooming that doesn't always thrill me ~ but this time of year is welcome as an exotic flower ~ a dandelion!

I'll happily leave it be because right now, it looks as pretty as my most cherished perennials.  I am desperate, aren't I?!!!  The color yellow must be the most cold hardy color of all (if color counts for anything) because there was one more yellow waiting to be photographed.  This one in the form of half a mum plant which somehow managed to survive in the vintage wheelbarrow arrangement.  Pretty amazing, huh?  The rest of the mums succumbed to the cold long ago and have already been composted.  Thank goodness for small miracles.  I think that's what the bee/fly (??) was saying too:

 

Heaven knows there's little else left for them to feed on.  Certainly nothing in the next two photos I'm going to share but these are interesting to me because they're still very much alive and green.  First the water lilies in the pond:

I don't have the heart to cut them back since they're still doing so well but I'm not sure if that's the right approach or not?  Having never overwintered pond plants before I'm a bit stymied.  Leave them until they're dying or cut them now?  If anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it.  The other water plants frosted long ago and were trimmed back and sunk to the bottom of the pond.  I planned for these to join them but I didn't figure they'd still be green after all we've been thru.  The last photo is of the artichoke foliage in the veggie garden.

 

I have zero experience with artichokes too.  I planted this one for my niece.  She absolutely loves them and I hoped she could pick her own from the garden when she visited this summer.  ha.  Dreamer that I was, it grew a bit but not enough to form any artichokes.  It seems very hardy tho ~ will it overwinter (zone 6)?  I thought I would try mulching it and hope for the best.  Maybe next year there will be a crop for her?  I'm just glad to find a few specks of color.  Thanks for indulging me.  I know a lot of you still have quite a bit going on in the garden so this is a pittance.  But I do know you understand how great color can be when there's little to be found. 

breakfast companion

Just as we were sitting down for breakfast, the quick flitting of a small bird caught my eye out the dining room window.  I knew it wasn't the usual sparrow or finch we've had an abundance of lately ~ his behavior gave him away.  Also, instead of perching and dining on the black oil sunflower feeder, this bird would fly in swiftly, snatch a seed, then take off to crack & eat it someplace else.  Once I was able to get a good look at him, I realized it was a Mountain Chickadee ~ our first for this fall/winter season:

We don't normally see Chickadees in our yard during the summer months so his presence is definitely an indicator of the season.  More often we have the Black-capped Chickadees instead of the Mountain Chickadee that's pictured.  The latter can be distinguished by the white "eyebrow" versus the solid black head of the Black-Capped Chickadee.  It wasn't so easy to snap a photo because of his quick movements but luckily I got a few.  Maybe I'll have more chances over the next few months?  Ever so often he would fore-go the feeder to sample the contents of holes in the Aspen tree:

 

I'm not sure what he found in them, but it's good he's cleaning them out for me.  As quickly as he arrived, he was gone

and we were left to breakfast with the sparrows.  Oh well, that's what we were anticipating ~ he was the unexpected treat for the day.  Hopefully it won't be our last meal together.