It's Bloomin' Tuesday!

Welcome!
The last couple years I've started to get into Coleus. Of course, I love the burgundy color and they are great for pots.
Seems like every year they have some new color combinations and different patterns.

I'm loving this bright green!

This is a new one I found this year. I can't wait to see what's different this summer.
To join the fun just add your name and Permalink to Mr Linky. Don't forget to add a link to this post so everyone can enjoy this "winter" garden tour!

What's Cooking?

Jerzie and I are cooking up some 'warm and fuzzy' food and a surprise for Mommy and Daddy. (We can't tell the surprise because Mommy and Daddy read the blog to see what we are doing on Jerzie day).We call comfort food 'warm and fuzzy' food. Click 'warm and fuzzy' under labels on my side bar to see what is comfort food for us.
Today we are making boiled dinner and eclair cake.

Jerzie likes the filling for the cake!
These are both family favorites.What is comfort food for your family? Maybe we should have a "Warm and Fuzzy Day" when we all share a comfort food recipe. What do you think? We will show you what our surprise is tomorrow!

I'm listening to Jerzie read to her doggie and she just counted to seven with no help. When we ask her to do it she pretends she can't!

Snowy Sunday

It would be impossible to take an outdoor picture without snow here in western New York! Since our ice storm on Wednesday we have had almost constant snow. My last customer left about 6 Thursday night and this is what I found Friday morning!
It was snowing an inch an hour for at least 15 hours! This is the ramp stairway on the side of the house leading to the beauty shop in back.
I shoveled out the car but had to shovel again after I cleaned the car of.
Even with all the work, it is impossible not to notice the beauty of it all.

Standing in the end of my driveway.

These large, old maples are in front of my house.

They are art all by themselves.

For more Snowy Sunday posts grab your cross country skis and take a short trip to visit Chris and Laurie!

Food for Thought

Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.-

Henry Van Dyke

Show and Tell

The Christmas decorations are all packed away but I leave my snowmen up until spring (or I get sick of winter, which ever comes first!) Today I'm showing you some of the snowmen pictrures I've painted over the years.This one had the Santa in for Christmas.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge and see the details.

For more Show and Tell posts go over to Kelli's House.

Stop...Look...Listen!

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston and the seats average $100.This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Click here to see one of my favorite Christmas presents and here to see a darling video of Jerzie and Daddy playing air hockey.

Icy Images

Our schools are closed today because of ice. I had to go out and salt in case any customers decided to try to make it so of course I took the camera. Can you guess what any of these icy images are?1.
2.
3.

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8.
Leave a comment and let me know how many you guessed right!

1. See the red lines in this pic? That's the back window of my PT Cruiser.

2. This one is real difficult. It is a galvanized bucket on it's side in my garden. You can also see the ground behind it.

3. This is the wooden railing on the steps leading to my beauty shop at the back of the house.

4. The roof of my shed with moss growing between the spaces in the shingles.

5. A stone walkway. The green you can see is creeping thyme growing between the rocks.

6. This is a crevice in a rock in my garden.

7. As some of you know I live on a brick street. I took this pic at 10:15 this am. It is starting to break a little because it is raining and warming up. I'm sure you could have ice skated on it earlier.

8. A close up of the bricks.

Return of Bloomin' Tuesday...

.... and I have something incredible to show you! I was sorry I decided to take a break after I discovered this wonderful new hydrangea at my grocery store. They were selling them as indoor Christmas plants but had to mark some down for lack of water. I went to transplant it and it was in a 4 inch pot! The root was about 4 inches longer than the pot. Okay, I know, enough talk!

This is a "Shooting Star (Hydrangea macrophylla-Lace Cap). Shooting Star is by far the longest lasting of all Lace Cap varieties that is best in zones 7-9.


It will tolerate 20 to 90 degrees but prefers 55-75 degrees with morning sun and afternoon shade.

When I first brought it home it was almost pure white with a soft blue center. Now most of the plant is a beautiful blue hue.

Even the stars are having babies now!

Some even twins!

I will have to keep this as an indoor and deck plant, I'm afraid. I've told you how bad I am at indoor plants but I do LOVE this hydrangea! I didn't completely check this out but the label says you can get them at http://www.hanabayflowers.com/. I know some of you are coveting my beautiful hydrangea and others went to the link even before they finished reading this!
Welcome back to Bloomin' Tuesday!
I join the fun put your name and permalink on Mr Linky and add a link on your post to this post. Now sit back and enjoy a warm, sunny garden tour!

New Years Morning

Jerzie spent New Years Eve with me after we all had dinner together. In the morning I let her watch TV while I drank coffee and read the paper. Some of you know that she has loved monkeys ever since she went to the zoo. She's laying on her bed watching Curious George.Before she laid down she was playing with her blocks on her bed. Don't you wish you could just lay down and relax with a mess in bed with you? As you can tell it sure didn't bother Jerzie!
Look who's on her new jammies from Santa!

I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing to start the new year!

Snowy Sunday

Winter thyme.
Snowy shakes.
'Cold' seat!

North 'pole'.

For more Snowy Sunday posts or to join the fun go visit Chris and Laurie.

Show and Tell

I had seen a couple wreaths in blogland that were made with vintage bulbs. I especially liked the look of one that had greenery in between the bulbs plus it wouldn't take as many bulbs. I didn't have a wreath the right size to try but I did have a swag.I decided that it would be the perfect time to try it because my tree was still decorated and I could just use the extra bulbs. I just grabbed a cool temp glue gun and the bulbs. I'd lay a couple on each side and if I liked it I'd glue it in place.

I put some of every color that I had because I love color. Most of the one of a kind ones I put in the middle.

I started with larger bulbs and worked my way down to the smallest. If a piece of greenery was too long I just cut it off.

All together it probably took about an hour and I'm very pleased with the finished project. Too bad it's time to take it down but I'll probably forget about it and be totally surprised when I find it next year!

For more Show and Tell go over to Kelli's House.