cheekwood botanical gardens

after living here for thirteen years, we finally made it to cheekwood botanical gardens.  gorgeous!  why did i wait so long?  laziness, truly.  and now just two short months later, i'm finally blogging the experience.  that's not so bad, right?  what's two months after thirteen years?  perspective. 

anyway.  this was a fabulous outing made even better by sharing it with friends who enjoy flowers and the great outdoors as much as we do.  we went in mid-april.  i'd highly recommend going in early to mid-april.  the tulips were at their peak and stunning.  i've never ever seen so many in one place.

i will let the pictures do the talking now, except to say that i wish i had gone way back when g was a little guy.  he would have been so mesmerized by the outdoor miniature train scene.  if you live in the area and have a thomas the tank engine obsessed little one, be sure to take them to cheekwood!  then also, i do not understand the sphinx at the end.  hmmm.  it must be a victorian thing?

one photo and twenty words

this is the epitome of summer vacation.  no words required.
(or work, or shoes, or getting dressed, or motivation, or . . . )


 linking up with abi at creating paper dreams.

jbs mercantile: june reveal

our june jbs mercantile kits are up in shop!  there are a couple floral prints in the papercrafting kit that i am just dying over.  i'm glad i was able to work a substantial piece of the smaller print one onto this layout.  now i need to find something to scrap with the larger print one!

these photos were from our spring break trip to florida.  g is already counting the days till our summer trip!

isn't that trim gorgeous?!  i managed to use the stencil on this one and added in a few of jenni's gold sequins.

most of my layout came from the june papercrafting kit .

i pulled in the flair and trim from the artisan add-on.

the pair of eyes peeking out came from the antiquarian add-on.

and the polaroid frame came from the historian add-on.

i haven't gotten my hands on the new "crafted kit" yet, but i'm dying to!  my coffee table needs these drink coasters this summer!

roadside attractions: spring 2013

yesterday, when i was blogging the wildflower photos, i wanted to link up with these from last year that were photographed at the same high school.  i couldn't find them anywhere on my blog and finally came to the conclusion that i had never blogged them.  i did photograph them in may, after all, and i seem to not really blog much in may.  so, here they are!  a year later, but still just as beautiful.

these flowers turn into the giant pompoms from yesterday's post.

if you look closely, this is a selfie.

"edelweiss" side view.

"edelweiss" top view.

"lamb's ear" that i am told was planted near outhouses (for obvious purposes) back in the day.

the "wall of honor" where the cheerleaders paint the names of all our graduates who serve.

 

"Little Darwin"

roadside attractions: spring's siren song

i know some of you have been worried that i've become lost to the world on the island of lotus-eaters, and that wouldn't be far from the truth.  in may, it finally warmed up and my southern world burst into color.  i just needed to be outside soaking up the sun. all. the. time.  except, i still had a month of work filled with state testing, prom, school projects, final exams, and graduation.  whew!  and on top of that, the bookworm bit pretty bad.  plus, i was doing this thing where i'd wake up at 4:00 a.m., not fall back asleep till 5:30, only to have the alarm go off at 6:00.  that made me pretty sleepy by 8:00 at night when i might consider blogging.  oh, and both laptops were on the blink.  basically, i just wasn't into the blogging scene in may.

oh, but i was taking pictures.  now i have an overwhelming backlog of things i want to share.  this afternoon, i tried to come up with an organized plan for getting caught up, but that made me want to go back into hibernation. i've decided to just get the posts thrown up here willy nilly over the next week and then get back into my somewhat normal blogging routine.  maybe i should warn you to put on your seatbelts?

these photos are the result of all the rubber-necking at all the wildflowers i do while driving between schools each morning and afternoon.  i finally packed my camera and took a joyride one saturday afternoon when i had a couple spare hours to fill.  the first half of these (down to the oversized dandilions) were taken at my afternoon high school, and then the second half were around the corner, closer to g's elementary school.  it's a spot i've been eyeing for some time and i was rewarded with not one, but THREE new wildflower sightings to add to my collection.

this is one of the new (to me) ones.  really, it takes my breath away.  so gorgeous.

another new one.  could the lighting have been any more perfect?

i was also delighted to see these sweet things.  i found them last year on a ridge at the high school and thought i had missed their blooming season.  they remind me of edelweiss from the sound of music.

this is the new one that caught my eye and made me stop for a closer look.  there's an opened version of it below.

apparently, this is where all the cool bugs come to find a hot chick.

opened.

bug voyeur.