Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A New Pregnancy Page

One more page for the baby book. Guess I should get around to taking a few more belly shots since this one is now 6 weeks old.

Only 6 more weeks to go!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Some Photos








I've been terrible with updating my blog lately. Just seems there's too much to do and not enough time to do it.

I took the kids to the park a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to posting the photos. I took my camera and in order to force myself to learn how to shoot in something other than the program modes, I threw it into manual mode and started snapping. It took me at least 10+ photos of nothing but bleached out faces and backgrounds before I got the settings to where they would give me a photograph of something that you could at least make out. What can I say? I've got a steep learning curve.

I had fun playing with some actions and textures on these, too!

Monday, June 1, 2009

He Loves Me


He Loves Me, originally uploaded by tlheyman.

Gene brought these flowers home for me last week. I've declared Calla Lillies my new favorite flower. They were so pretty, in fact, that it gave me an excuse to play with my camera and Photoshop. Aren't they lovely?

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Under Attack

My roses are being skeletonized by sawfly larvae. Also known as rose slugs (thank goodness for Google)! I planted four rose bushes last year and each is currently being chomped away by these little green worms. It's making me crazy.

We moved into this house two and a half years ago. Because it was a newly built house, it only had one small flower bed in the very front with a few shrubs and a bunch of mums (as it was Oct. when it was finished). The minimal landscaping that was there was strictly for curb appeal to help the house sell. So, needless to say, it needed a lot of attention, which I was more than happy to tackle.

The following spring and summer I spent countless hours planning the beds and picking out the flowers, shrubs and trees that would fill them. You could find me outside on any given evening, sometimes as late as 10 pm, hammering stakes in the ground to mark where a certain plant or shrub or tree would be placed. It was a major project but one I threw myself into willingly and 100%. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I spent the first summer here planting the front yard and last summer planting the backyard.

Because of the amount of time, effort and care that went into the gardens of this house, I take great pride in them. I anxiously await spring each year so that I can see the many plants and shrubs emerging from the dormancy of winter to return to their beautifully intended state. I love that each year they grow a little larger and the gardens are beginning to look as I intended. The colors are mixing and complementing each other and the plants all bloom at various times of the year so that something is always in full color. It's a wonderful thing. And, it's even more wonderful because I did the work to get it there.

So, needless to say, to find my beautiful roses being attacked by these nasty green monsters makes me crazy. I've been hand picking these worms off the leaves for the last two days.... which is the most effective organic method, they say. However, they're really hard to see and I know I'm not getting them all. I sprayed them with soapy water two nights ago but I'm not sure that was much help. I've read everything from sprinkling flour on the plants to dousing them with olive oil. But, bottom line is, from what I understand, roses are very prone to pests and diseases and unless I want to regularly treat them with chemicals, my roses are always going to be chomped up and diseased. Maybe I should have researched them a little more or taken heed to my neighbor's comment of roses being way too much work before I decided to make a bed full of rose bushes.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Beginnings

The beginnings of our first backyard garden.


Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Feeling Accomplished

I did 50 minutes of yoga today and a three mile walk at the park tonight. Warm weather is such a great motivator!