Kaseys Korner

neighbor appreciation day

Recently I was gifted with an Oriole feeder and several jars of grape jelly compliments of my newest neighbor.  She said she'd decided feeding them was not her thing.  I applaud the fact she recognized she didn't have the time, inclination, energy, whatever, to feed them.  It sometimes feels like a part-time job even to me ~ and I enjoy it.   During peak oriole season you'd never believe how many jars of grape jelly they go thru ~ I should keep track next year!  They eat so much the feeder has to be refilled three or four times a day ~ that takes dedication.  If you aren't ready for that kind of commitment, it's probably best to do nothing then to feed sporadically/randomly.  At least that's how I feel ~ what about you??

Anyway, back to the gift, because I benefited from her realization, I wanted to do something nice in return.  I thought a card with one of my oriole photos was appropriate:

It's very simple and so was the message inside:

Accompanying the card were a couple of Rhubarb Walnut muffins, made from homegrown rhubarb:

The very same recipe was whipped up & served last Friday (the 13th ~ which was not unlucky at all) to Gail of Clay and Limestone.   That's the day I had the privilege of hosting her in my garden.  She truly is the warm, kind, gracious person you perceive her to be when you read her blog postings.  As you can imagine, it was a very pleasant way to spend a couple hours and something I never expected when I started blogging (meeting people thru the Internet).

I'd say it's been my lucky week. 

My thanks to both of you ~ Gail for taking the time to stop by and Dora for the Oriole gifts and being such a nice neighbor.

a fox and easter eggs

Thursday night I wandered into my office (without turning the light on) looked out the window and what do you think I saw??  A small red fox sitting on my front flagstone patio!  I've never seen a fox that close before.  Of course it would be night time so I couldn't take a photo.  I've been cursing myself for not trying anyway  ~ I should have at least attempted one.  The yard & garage lights were on so I might have been surprised at the outcome.  He/she did not linger because the neighbors dog was on the loose.  Now that I have confirmed we do indeed have foxes in the neighborhood, I will be watching for another sighting (and have my camera ready!)

Onto the Easter eggs.  We've been busy dyeing batches around here just for the fun of it (and because the weather has been too lousy to do much else).  They make so many cool egg coloring kits these days ~ marbleized, pearlized, swirled, etc. ~ it's impossible to resist playing.  Maybe we should hide a couple for the fox??   hmmmm, think not.  I'll let him scavenge for himself. 
Anyway, because of our egg dyeing and the Easter holiday tomorrow, I thought you might like to see some garden-themed eggs I made this time last year:

How cute are they?  (if I'm allowed to say so myself?)  More than anything I'm especially partial to the vintage egg carton that I lucked upon at the flea market.  I keep thinking how amazing it would be to have your eggs delivered in one of these (right to the door). 

These eggs are not the hard boiled variety tho, they're paper mache (so they'll last forever).  I painted them with acrylic paints, also a very fun medium to play with and added the garden words using rub on lettering.  The tag was stamped and colored using watercolor paints.

I will probably not be back to posting until Monday so I hope everyone (who celebrates Easter) has a great Sunday.   Maybe it will be nice enough where you are for all those adorable dresses they sell but are never warm enough to wear here.  That's okay ~ you can eat chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps in any kind of outfit, right?!!!

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.

Thanksgiving tree

Back-tracking a bit this morning to say how great you all are!  Here I thought I wasted a bulb by "dissecting" it and now (after all your great comments) I'm encouraged that daffodil could possibly survive the severing and bloom another day!  So, the experiment is not officially over, it continues until spring.  (I can hear my Mom groaning now ~ she didn't "get" why I would do such a thing in the first place). :-)

Meanwhile, indoors instead of out, I decorated my first ever Thanksgiving tree and thought you might like to see it. 

 

If you don't mind looking at terrible photos that is.  Sorry for the sun glare ~ any other time of the day, it's too dark in this spot to get a good photo and I hate to use a flash (and I'm feeling too lazy to try again).  The base of the tree is grapevine (I took apart a grapevine wreath and wound it around a post).  The rest is Thanksgiving-themed garland (with all the fake pumpkins and gourds on it), some orange ornaments (used on my Halloween tree), a little gold "ting-ting" and big ribbon bow.  Fun and easy, right?  I also wrapped gold lights around it ~ which makes it really warm and inviting at night.  I was thinking a partridge would fit really well with this theme instead of on your traditional Christmas tree ~ whadda you think?  If I have time, maybe I'll search one out...  Or maybe not.  Who the heck decorates for Thanksgiving anyway?  It seems like anymore we skip straight to Christmas from Halloween. 

In other positively riveting news, there are lots of these starting to push up from the new Amaryllis:

 

which means it won't be long before we have some gorgeous color brightening our lives again.  It's going to be especially nice since we've been cloaked in winter brown for a month already (because of the lashing Mother Nature gave us with that earlier than normal hard freeze & snow).  Now I better get busy hauling the remaining tender tropical containers into the basement (that have been stored temporarily in the garage).  Then I think I'm ready for winter (if that's ever possible)???  I'm relieved to say I got the last of the bulbs in the ground yesterday.  I was beginning to wonder if that would happen this year!  Aren't you so glad you've caught up with the mundane details of my life?!!!! 

fun fall project

If you're like me, you'll want to fire up your drills when you see this project.  I wish I could say it was my original idea but it came from the pages of last years (2008) Southern Living special issue called "Fall Decorating."  I found the issue too late in the season (last fall) so I saved the idea to re-create this year.  I'm so glad I did.  I love the results and my neighbors are asking if I'll make them one too so I think it's a hit.  Southern Living used real pumpkins for their project but I wanted mine to last a lot longer so I bought 3 fake ones in various sizes ~ that way I can use the project next year too.  The plastic pumpkins were very easy to drill ~ I used two different sized drill bits (this is what I was working on last week when the weather had me in such a bad mood).  You also need to cut the tops out of the two bottom pumpkins & the bottoms out of the two top pumpkins.  Clear as mud?  Good.  Now here's a look at the finished results (all duded up) during the day:  (I still plan to add a few more real pumpkins around the base)

The pumpkins were stacked together after a 100 count string of white lights was spread evenly throughout all three (which is why you need to cut the tops & bottoms).  I pulled a bit of the light string out of the bottom pumpkin to weave around the grapevine at the base of the urn but you could also just add another string of lights instead.  Isn't that the best project ever?  As gardeners, you most likely already have any number of containers handy that you could use as a base.  Or you could also use a pedestal instead of a container, just a thought....  Want to see the night-time effect?  I thought so. 

oops.  Looks like I had my camera turned at an angle.  I didn't realize that when I snapped the picture.  It really isn't crooked as you can see in the daylight photo!   I'm thinking I'll leave this up right thru October because it would be nice for Thanksgiving as well, don't you think??

Edited to add:  That crooked photo was really bugging me so I just went out and took another one.  Here it is not leaning!!

I'm happy now!  :-)

Garden Shadowbox

One of the most enjoyable craft projects I've created this past year has to be the shabby pink shadowbox below with (what else?) a garden theme:

 

I found the cabinet at a flea market (as well as the vintage hand rake) and the idea was born.  The rest of the "ingredients" are a compilation of garden artifacts I collect whenever I see them.  After I took these photos I added natural shred to the bird house opening (for nesting material) and three small blue eggs to the nest.  Here's a side view of the same project:

I'm honored to say, this project is currently featured in the June 2009 issue of Create & Decorate magazine.  I thought you wouldn't mind me sharing it with you today. 

If you build it

will they come??  The fairies that is.  Have you noticed all the Fairy Garden paraphernalia the greenhouses and nurseries are carrying this season?  Two of my favorites have a big assortment of tiny accessories right by the cash registers and even some display samples of little gardens already built.  Tiny birdhouses, little arches, garden tools, etc.  They are all so cute.  I decided to create own version:

I placed two stone toadstools underneath the lilac bushes, added some moss around their bases then the piece de resistance, the miniature glass conservatory.  The latter is intended to be a tea light housing but look how nicely it works in a fairy garden.  The small tools & pot I had in my craft supplies ~ bought at my local hobby lobby store.

 

I have a few pink lily of the valley bulbs I will plant around the toadstools then I think we'll be set.  What do you think?  A fairy tale, a ridiculous idea or a fun addition to the garden??

seed labels

The start of March marked the sowing of the first seeds in my little corner of the world.  Instead of the usual hurried and scrawled penmanship on blank popsicle sticks/seed labels, I decided to enjoy the process this year.  Once again, I dipped into my craft supplies and came up with Staz-On Black Ink and a set of alphabet stamps that have seen me thru many a craft project:

 

The repetition of inking and stamping, inking and stamping, inking and stamping was somehow relaxing and enjoyable, no matter that it took a little longer to create the labels.  I'm happy with the results ~ neat little sticks, lined in rows:

 

The pots then safely encased under my teeny Smith & Hawken greenhouse until some sign of life is spotted:

 

Now the excitement begins in earnest.  The daily checks (sometimes multiple times) to see if anything has germinated, the transplanting of tiny seedlings into individual containers and marking their growth until they can be hardened off and safely planted outdoors.  I start seeds on a small scale anymore, compared to what I used to do but the process is gratifying nonetheless.  To me, it definitely marks the start of "garden season."  Come April, I'll repeat the process with some beloved annuals and then I'll really know it's here.

PS  I may or may not be around much the rest of this week.  We have company staying with us so it will depend on how much time I have.  Rest assured, if I don't make my daily rounds of visiting, I'll get back to it next week!