yoga catYesterday was National Night Out. Our neighborhood didn’t have an event planned but a neighbor did come knock on the door saying they were having a hotdog roast and fire. Cool. I already had supper nearly finished, so we planned to join after. Of course, Gracie thought it was a good time to do a little yoga at the front door.

ping pong hailWe knew we were under a tornado watch but went out anyway…heck, we were just across the street.

The clouds and thunder rolled in and scared us home none too soon. Within a few minutes we were getting ping pong sized hail. That’s the biggest I’ve ever witnessed.

grill cover holesWe were very fortunate. We lost no tree limbs…or power. Mr. G got his car in the garage just as the hail was beginning so I don’t think there is any damage there.

This morning I went out to survey the yard. Our grill cover has several holes punched through. Again…not a big deal, other than the fact that we just bought the dumb cover a month or so ago.

sad tomatoes

 

My garden fared very well considering. I did lose 20+ yellow pear tomatoes but my big tomatoes suffered no loses.

Never mind the grass growing in my garden.

 

 

hail damaged hostas

 

 

My very large hosta plants seemed to have suffered the most. The 6inch wide leaves have holes ripped through them.  Again, we are very fortunate. Just about 8 miles down the road they had baseball sized hail that was taking out windows and doing much greater damage.

All in all I can’t complain. Yeah we have a little yard clean up to do but we’re all fine and the light s are on. It’s a good day.

 

20130805_2899I picked up a new mug from the clearance rack at Menards, of all places.

One lone mug with my initial…I had to buy it.

It’s much bigger than my standard size so I’m not sure I’ll use it for coffee or tea.

20130805_2901

 

Maybe I’ll use it to hold my paint brushes….

I usually keep them in a cute little pink bucket.

Hmmm….decisions.

 

 

20130805_2907

 

 

 

Although, it might work better here on my desk.  I’m going to leave it here for a day or two and see how I like it.

Next on the list for today is knitting group, Target and grocery shopping.

I actually have been  get some projects finished while attending my knitting group.

knit dishcloths

 

 

 

 

Here are a few dish cloths to prove it. :)

 

turning leavesAnd can you believe this!?! We have leaves starting to turn already. I haven’t even picked a ripe tomato yet. Our growing season was majorly shortened this year.

Alright …enough blather from me…I’ve got things to do, people to see, blogs to visit.

What are you doing today?

You could stop by the home of T stands for Tuesday for starters.

mystery solved

 

EDIT: For those of you helping me on my flower/weed identification…here she is! A sunflower!

beautiful dayWe’ve had such gorgeous weather lately. It inspired me to create this journal page day.

Blue sky and puffy white clouds.

A field of flowers…beautiful day full page

I think I was also inspired by a recent trip to the MN Landscape Arboretum.  So many beautiful flowers. I took well over 100 photos in the 1.5 we were there.

I’ll share more of that day in a later post.

 

 

coneflower

This was the last photo I took that day as we were walking back out to our vehicle. That’s it straight from the camera…no edits…no fussing with color balance etc….with the exception of my watermark, of course.

coneflower edit

 

 

Here’s the same photo after playing around in Photoshop. It has a completely different mood.

I could play in the digital world all day but there are things in the real world that need my attention today.

 

magical placephoto assistantPrincess GracieI wish I had a time lapse of this journal page. It went through many different stages and colors before arriving at the finished product. This definitely made the background rich and with great depth.

The words were an afterthought…but they fit just perfectly to me. When I rip pages out of my journals to reduce bulk, I often look for phrases that speak to me. I cut them out and save them for a future project. I never pick the words beforehand….always after I have set the paintbrush down.

Whenever I go outside to photograph my art for the blog I have an assistant who likes to tag along.

She really isn’t much help. In fact, she is usually a distraction as I must keep one eye on her so she doesn’t get into trouble.

It usually works out best when she finds a nice sunny spot to get her daily dose of vitamin D.

Oh, the life of a spoiled cat.

 

flower doodles

I’m not excited about the colors I used on this page but I’m having a lot of fun with the doodles.  I think it’s something I’m going to play with more.

Speaking of flowers…

I’m in need to some identification of a “flower” or maybe a weed that has planted itself amongst my spirea bush.weed1

It’s quite large. The leaves are about 6 inches long and the bud it about 1.5 inches in diameter. It seemingly grew up overnight. I’m sure it didn’t and that it was working its way up while I was sick for a week.

weed2The goofy thing is tall as well. I’ve been leaving it now just to see what comes of it but would love to know if anyone could tell me ahead of time. Patience is not one of my virtues.

 

 

tea lightI’m enjoying a quiet, overcast, drizzly morning with a cup of coffee. Mr. G is out the door to work and the kidlets are still sleeping. How long do you think I can keep calling them kidlets when the oldest is my height? I say, FOREVER!!

Since it is so gloomy I decided to light my tea cup candle while I read and sip my coffee.

rainy day GracieKnitting group is on the docket for today as well as a little back to school shopping. School supplies have been purchased and are packed  in the backpacks. Big J is in denial while Little J is excited to go back in just over a month.

Gracie is attempting to will away the rain with her mind so that we can go sit outside. Good luck kitty. Maybe we can  enjoy a little time later but that concrete has to dry to make it comfy for furry paws.

What are you doing today?

Want to join the T Tuesday fun? Just click the button on my sidebar and it will take you to Elizabeth’s blog.

enlightenment choose your pathI’m feeling better each day!! Still can’t sleep laying down but at least we have a recliner. I’m trying to be an optimist here.

I felt good enough yesterday  to finish a journal page I started well over a week ago. I’ve been really into splatters and scribbles lately. This page was no exception. I found the image in a drawer. Not sure where she came from but the colors fit perfectly.

Today’s page I was trying really hard not to use scribbles and splatters but in the end…a little bit of white splatters had to be added. I just couldn’t help myself.  I did restrain and set the black ink back down…baby steps.

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