End of the Season

Last night it was really cold here. The kind of cold that indicates winter is right around the corner. I haven't made it out to the flower garden, but I expect that the frost took the rest of the zinnias.

Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers. They are extremely hardy. They can tolerate too much rain or lack of it. This year we had a lot of rain and not a lot of heat. They are a wonderful cut flower and can last more than a week once cut. Best of all they have a really long season. We actually had so many that we sold them this year and donated the money to a charity.

So as I am mourning the end of the zinnia season, I'm sharing with you a picture of zinnia from my garden and the ring that was inspired by it. Until next year zinnias. Enjoy!

A Lot of Green (Beads and Garden)

I am surrounded by green. Green beads and green garden. I thought I'd share a little of that green with all of you. 

I finished these sweet little earrings awhile ago, I just haven't gotten a chance to take a lot of photos and prepare them for my Etsy shop. (Boy this sounds a lot like my last post.) The small cabochon in the center is an amazonite. I surrounded it with three different colors of green seed beads. It reminded me of all those great green colors you see at the beginning of summer.

And here's one of my garden's. This is the one I call my "house garden". Just because it is closest to the house. In this garden, we have tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, basil, cabbage, and a lot of beans. I love it right now because it is a sea of green. Everything is full and flowering and hopefully we will soon be picking. Well, technically we have been picking lettuce, but nothing else yet.

On My Beading Mat

I thought I would share what I've got on my beading mat this weekend. I've started a new cuff with a southwest theme. The center is a turquoise stone. I've embellished the cuff with pearls, raku beads, pillow beads, seed beads, and more turquoise beads. I've finished beading the cuff and just need to attach it to the base and finish the backing.

I wasn't sure how much I would get done because the garden required a lot of attention. But it was a very productive weekend. The weather was perfect for gardening (not too hot with a nice breeze). The garden looks a lot better and I've got a cuff almost done. 

The First Pick

It was a good weekend. Beautiful weather and we picked the first strawberries out of our strawberry patch. We planted the patch three years ago. The first year, we had no strawberries. Last year we picked a enough to eat right from the patch plus some to make triple berry jam (strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry). The patch looks great this year. The plants have doubled in size from last year and we've got lots of green strawberries on the plants. 

As I took these pictures I was imaging a little beaded strawberry. I will add it to my notebook of ideas. I'm working on a project right now so it will have to wait. 

Oh, the reason for two (very similar) photos, both of my daughters wanted to have a photo of the strawberries they picked and they wanted me to post both pictures. So I did,

Moulin Rouge Sunflower Pin

Over the past few weeks, my family has been working hard to get our gardens prepared and planted. Although we grow a lot of different things, my favorites are the flowers. Sunflowers and zinnias are always planted. A few years ago, I stumbled upon these Moulin Rouge sunflowers. I thought that they would be a nice addition to the sunflower garden. We were all so excited when they finally bloomed. 

From far away these sunflowers look black. The contrast between the dark flowers and the bright yellow sunflowers was very dramatic. When you get up close, you can see that they are really a dark crimson. They have a velvet look to them. And as you can see below the bees really love them.

Last weekend, my daughter helped me plant the first round of sunflowers (about 1,500 seeds). Of course, we planted more Moulin Rouge and we will now wait very impatiently for them to grow and bloom. 

In the meantime, I posted my bead embroidered Moulin Rouge Sunflower pin to my Etsy store. Check out the listing to see more pictures of the pin.