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!!!!!!!!!!!!

More flowers as they bloom in my yard!
Cone Flowers......so pretty, Hollyhock, my first year with these, wild rose bush yellow, and my two colors of Rose of Sharon bushes, light pink and deep pink. There is something magnificent about the world of nature......this is my little snibbit to enjoy! :0)

Now to share a bit of what is blooming, and not quite ready to bloom in my garden areas!

Something about all this color has to make you smile right?

A lady shared some hollyhock seeds with me last year, and this is what is coming of those. I look forward to next year when they are established well. :0)

My cone flowers are not ready to bloom YET! But they are so pretty when they do!

I so enjoy the garden areas and what nature brings for us to enjoy!!!!

These are some of the very scary but beautiful skies we had as crazy storms passed through lately. The trees and house tops, had a layer of dark clouds and then above that more clouds like a ceiling of color as the sun went down!

Also, Martino's (where I work) had an article in the Milwaukee Journal this past week, by a writer who stopped in and wrote this wonderfully article. We had no idea who she was, but am so glad she was pleased and the article was great! You can click on the image and read the article. I mounted it to a piece of foam core so customers can pick it up and see it if they had missed it in the paper. I added some font and some pictures of items mentioned in the article too!