This is our outing to Cedarburg today! WHAT FUN! TONS of Halloweenie goodies, and of course, veggies, flowers, foods, scarves, clothing, jewelry, everything imaginable for the vendors to sell!

These metal pumpkins were my favorites.....but very pricey! I had to just take a picture!!!! Do you see the word EEK behind there......ever so cool! That taller pumpkin was about 3 feet high! Just terrific, all metal work, and painted ....LOVED IT!

Look at the fun GOODIES, from gourds and veggies to fun other stuff as far as the eye could see!

Cathy, Mom and Julie by huge REAL carved pumpkins! FUN!

This is CHALK ARTWORK on a sidewalk! Beautiful huh?

Me and Mom by the pumpkins!


Loved going with the girls to this, it was packed with people, though the weather was damp and cool......it did not rain on us! THANK YOU GOD!

A super fun day seeing all the wonderful bits and bobbles.....one could buy a WEALTH OF FUN ARTSY THINGS if one was wealthy! :0)

We took a llllllllllllllllong walk with Rufio today, down by the lake and through the parkway. We saw a swan, it is always in the same spot, so Earl thinks it is fake! Hehehe, the picture is not clear enough to determine!!!!

Rufio was not that interested in the waterfall!

Hurrrrrrmph! :)

He likes seeing the other people and doggies more......go figure!

Rufio posing on a rock!

Would you believe we have leaves changing already? I was sort of sad to see that already, but sort of happy to see the colors too! Just a bit surprised I guess!!!!!

Beautiful nature we saw as we walked!

Is it just me?? Where we find BEAUTY, we also find the BEAST?

Well, today we had beautiful monarch butterflies winging around, like magic.

AND our usual beast being by the lake.......THE SPIDERS!

Like something out of a Halloween movie right? The spiders we have are BIG and have color and mouths and I am pretty sure they have relatives with names! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! So when we see the Beauty, we are able to tolerate the Beast.......NEVER IN the house of course! :0) I usually even spider hunt outside....because I do not want that dropping onto my head when I leave the door. ACK!!!!

I decided to make stands for the concrete leaf bird baths, by taking coffee cans and spray painting them the color of my wood chips! I buried the cans into the ground to different heights and put the leaf baths on them! Here is how the finished little garden area looks! Look closely and you can see the cans underneath.

Beautiful NATURAL LEAF BIRD Baths

No matter what I do, these pictures are not staying in the order I want them too! So, you will have to imagine them in the right order!

This a project Earl and I started and it took basically 2 weekends.

Here is a link, with instructions that are better than mine.

http://www.squidoo.com/garden-crafts-birdbath

First you pick out some fantastic BIG leaves! Mine are from a sunflower, a hollyhock and one unsure...I got it in our parkway! LOVE IT, it is my favorite!
Then you build a sandpile (for the curve) and lay the leaf face down onto a piece of plastic covering the sandpile.



You can see HOW BIG the leaves are in comparison to my hand!

Then you press Vinyl Patch Concrete onto the leaves! Wear gloves, so your hands do not dry out. Cover the concrete with plastic and let dry for minimum of 2 days! Turn over and rub off the leaves! This is putsy and time consuming, and running some water over it helps get it off!

ViOLa, you will see the pattern of the leaf veins, it is amazing!!!!!!!

Once they dry, you can add color with paints! My favorite ended up being with Lumiere's paint, and I also used acrylic! Then I sealed them with 2 coats of polyurethane. I need to make the stands yet, I would like to see mine off the ground. But they can go anywhere in your garden and hold a little pool of water for birds and butterflies! :0)
Even plain, unpainted they are beautiful!

This is my favorite leaf! WOW!

All painted and sealed and PRETTY!

Hollyhock leaf

Parkway Leaf

Sunflower Leaf

Originally we had a chain link fence between the house and the shed! Then, when our obnoxious neighbors behavior forced us to put up another fence that stretches the length of our home front to back, Earl and I took down the chain link fence and turned the little area that was grass, into another little garden area! We also used the chain link pieces to close off the house to the new wooden fence and that makes sure that Rufio stays in the back yard. We put in the red scalloped concrete edging, the wood chips and plants and I found this sweet cherub on discount......could not resist!!!!!

It makes the patio look bigger and I always like pretties in the yard! :) I put some clematis against the fence and some ground cover that will flower blue and some other flowering plants too! I sure hope they all survive! They were all on sale from Stein's. A good price, sometimes mean they do not make it......too close to the end of the season, but fingers are crossed! I love the new area! Ahhhhhhhhh!

Our weather has been so hot and humid. The other week, we had a swarm of dragonflies going nuts around here! Just tons! Today, as we worked outside, it was finally comfortable enough to get outside for a bit, the dragonflies were flying around us like crazy! They are stunningly beautiful really! I have never seen them this close.....but today, they landed on my Rose of Sharon bushes and I was able to get some pictures! There are 3 on one shot , you can click on the pictures to see them bigger! The wings are just amazing aren't they, and look at the little fuzzies on their undside! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!