July pages for Simple Scrapper

I'm continuing my past due blogging--finally! I mentioned last time about getting caught up with teaching. I also had a couple other things that tied me up: 1) getting a newer version of PSE, so I've been transferring photos over and coming to the uncomfortable realization that my computer is too slow and old and I need to start saving up for a new, faster computer, and 2) I got Lasik. It went well, but my left eye got some oil trapped under the lend, which makes it feel like I have a dirty contact on all the time and gives me a bit of a headache. I will have to wait for my eye to absorb the oil for it to get better, which my eye is taking it's good, sweet time on. Sigh. Back to blogging, a bit at a time!

Now that I've shared my last two months for Simple Scrapper, I want to share what's in the hopper for next month:

This is a page I've meant to make for a while, but it took me a while to find the sleepy photos on the right in my computer. I used scraps for the page, aside from the background paper, and I love how happy the colors are. The photo on the left I had lying around after I didn't use it on a past project, and since we were at a breakfast place, where Dominic ordered pancakes, it seemed to fit perfectly, especially since it's a page about his dad teaching him how to make pancakes.

This page came about through the story starter for July, which is about sunshine. We haven't had a lot of it this spring, which has made my garden very happy. I included some of my favorite recent photos of my garden, a couple of which I had taken in the rain. The title popped into my head; it's a song, but I don't even remember who sang it. It seemed perfect for the page. I loved stitching, but it gave me a headache looking for the holes I had punched (&#$@! eyeball).

Thank you for checking out my pages! If you have been missing scrapbooking magazines, check out Simple Scrapper; every month, membership brings a full digital magazine with lots of inspiration, plus access to story starters and sketches/templates. Inspiration is a click away!

Long time no see!

Hello, spring. Thought you were going to skip out on us this year.

Evidence of spring in my garden:

My muscari bloom, then die back, then sprout in the fall. I never cut them back, but they always come back in the spring. Even this spring, oh-so-late in coming.


These are parrot tulips, I think. There was one beautiful one in the garden when we bought the house; after a few years, I split it. Now look at all these beauties. I still have one errant one in the big garden that I can never seem to move. I always leave part of the bulb, I guess.

These are peony tulips. I got them from John Scheepers, planted them in 2002 a few weeks before Rowan was born, and look at how great they still are. I thought tulips were supposed to die after a year. Guess not! (At least from Scheepers they don't seem to die out.)

More John Scheepers tulips from 2002. I learned to take photos of flowers from my MIL: get close and eye level, if possible.


Here's an interesting thing: those last tulips seem to be naturalizing. They popped up this spring by my daffodils, clear on the other side of the garden. No clue how that happened. But I'm enjoying it, though anal-retentive me is wondering if I should dig these up to put them by the other tulips.I think I'll just let them be.

Holy daffodils, Batman!

We have had a big heap of snow here in Minnesota since November. Now that it's starting to warm up, and we've had some rain, the snow is going away. It completely vacated my back garden this past weekend, and while I was washing dishes in the kitchen, I looked out and saw these:



Those are my daffodils, coming up strong. Hello, spring. I wasn't sure you'd make it to the party. (In the center ring is a big peony; I split it last summer, so I look forward to seeing what it looks like this year.)

In addition to the daffodils, my backyard hosted a robin fiesta:

There were at least 10 robins feasting on worms. Looks like spring is finally coming.

I say coming, not here already, because it's supposed to snow tonight. The state basketball tournament starts tomorrow (Go, Maple Grove Crimson!), and that usually means snow here in Minnesota. Spring here is a bit of a tease. Guess we'll have to wait a bit longer.

Book rec and garden pics

Don't forget you have until tonight at 9 P.M. Central time to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win the Bazzill flourishes stitching template!

I have done a ton of reading this summer; most recently I finished In a Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson. Along with the poetry of Billy Collins, Bryson is a perfect summer read. I've read Mother Tongue, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, and now the book on Australia (true confessions, not all three this summer). You can't help but feel good and even enlightened after reading his books. I often laugh out loud while reading. If you're interested in what else I'm read this summer, you can follow my Good Reads link on the right side of the blog.

With the exception of my pink clematis and my now-dead rhododendron, my gardens are doing amazing. July is the month they say "Ta-da!" Here's some of what's blooming here in Minnesota:


This is a close up of the most blooming section of my garden. You can see a couple shades of coneflowers, some heliopsis (false sunflower), gooseneck loosestrife (which is getting too much to rein in for me, so I'll be digging it up and tossing it when the weather lets up), allium, and my sickly clematis. A robin likes to sit on the metal structure that holds the clematis and poop on it. I don't know if that's what is killing it, but I'd look sickly if a bird crapped on me every day.


These pink lilies didn't show in the above shot. They are quite lovely.


A close up of some of my yellow flowers. Yellow is my favorite color, and I love this lily. I think it's called "Happy Day." Isn't that great?

These are called balloon flowers, for obvious reasons: check out the incipient blossoms.


Bee balm for me is hit or miss. It tends not to spread wildly, which it generally tends to do--anywhere but my garden. Still gorgeous though.


This is called a Buffy's Doll lily. Any guesses why I planted it? Ha!


This is butterfly weed, an ugly name for a gorgeous blossom. It is supposed to be kind of touchy here, but it loves my garden. It always comes up waaaaaay late in the spring--end of May, almost.


I didn't use fertilizer this year and somehow ended up with a metaphoric ocean of daisies. Guess I'll have to split them next year.

(Note: I didn't show any of the areas where I need to deadhead or weed, which are plentiful. It feels a little less humid today, so I may feel up to going out and wrasslin' with weeds.)

Rainy days

Last week I woke up, looked outside and thought, "Holy cow! We got hail!" Ever the photo documentarian, I took my camera outside, only to discover that what I thought was hail were only really big weeds:

These mushrooms came about because we've gotten a heck of a lot of rain. How much rain? Here's the rain gauge for last week:

Yes, in one week, almost 4 inches. I heard on the news last night that we got 12 days of rain in 14 days of June. (Can I be arrogant and point out my coralbells in that picture? They look so gorgeous.)

Two things happen with rain, aside from a hard time getting out and mowing. One is beautiful gardens:

The other is indoor scrapping time. Here I got started on this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

I don't buy themed products much anymore, but I am a slave to Making Memories and October Afternoon's travel papers and Christmas stuff. Here I also used some Collage Press.

This next one is fully inspired by product. The paper has a bird flying in to feed two hungry babies. My mother-in-law was named after a bird, Phebe. I had two photos from summer vacation left over of her feeding my two boys. Perfect combination of product and story.

Honestly, during LOAD I almost killed myself trying to fussy cut paper, but here I am doing it again. With such gorgeous paper, I don't want to cover it up, so to make it shows when I'm using 4x6 photos, the only option is fussy cutting. I'm glad I did, though. It's a pretty LO for my wonderful MIL.

Well, here I am!

The summer is almost done, workshops are about to begin, so it's time I achieved my goal of starting a blog. So here I am.

A little about me...I teach high school students English, I am a wife, a very tired mother of two very active boys, a reader, a scrapper, a gardener. I grew up in Maine, went to Minnesota to attend college at St. Olaf (Um Yah Yah!), and now live and work here still.

I have been a crafter my whole life, first with cross-stitching, which I still do, then gardening when we bought our house in 1998, and starting in 2002 I scrapped. I still scrap, as you can see by my links. In the summer, my heart belongs to my garden, though. The photo on the right shows why. That's my big garden at its glory in July: heliopsis (false sunflowers), gooseneck loosestrife, purple coneflowers, asclepias (butterfly weed), liatris (gayfeather), Asiatic lilies, and right in the middle a daylily that I think is called "Happy Day." Every morning for a week I look out at my garden and see that bloom. Happy indeed.

Last night I scrapped for a few hours at Archiver's, so I'll post some of what I did tomorrow.