Square Pansies

Good evening Friends and welcome. Been a busy day with an early start to shop at Costco for some metal shelving. We've had some ratty old wooden bookcase type shelving that came from various garage sales, and DH decided we should get some metal shelving units that we had seen at Costco. We had bought a couple of these a few months ago to organize some of the garage items that all of us have. So this afternoon has been putting shelves together, moving items off the old ratty shelves so that the unit could be pulled away, the new nice clean shelves put in place, and the storage items replaced. And trying to keep like items together on a shelf - even though they won't stay that way long!

Here's a card finished last night.

The flower squares were salvaged from old greeting cards that I've been sifting through in the cleanup project. Simply cut these out, shaded with copics to make fairly pale flowers a bit more colorful. Lined the edges with a black spica pen. Created the punch out mats with plain ole white Canson #90 paper, using DI colors of Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord. Then spritzed the sponged paper with some gold Tattered Angel spray, let that dry, and punched with a square punch that fit with the pansy square shape. The card should have been a bit wider & this would have looked better. White card stock is WorldWin textured paper, partial embossing on top and bottom with the favorite C/B dots folder, leaving a center space for the squares. Used the Scor-buddy to do the embossed lines shown. Easy-Peasy.

Smile sentiment is from Memento dies found at Hobby Lobby, done with a black snippet.

As promised, took some snapshots of the front porch swing I sometimes mention and the opposite end of the porch where we have the requisite rocking chairs so beloved by us Southerners.

- the opposite end of the porch, and yes we do sit in the chairs to rock & watch the world go by.
Seeing these pictures made me realize how much this porch needs a good clean, but that will have to wait for cooler weather.  The geranium by the front door is over 4 years old. It lives in the garage in winter, where it is forgotten for weeks at a time All I do is clip it back drastically when we take it off the porch. Never expect it to survive, but it has.  The angel wing begonia at the far end has managed to last 3 years so far.

- on the back porch - which is a small part of the back deck which is enclosed by screening - there is a pretty white hibiscus that is 2 years old, a gift from our neighbor. Has had some wonderful big blossoms this summer, and still has some buds to bloom. The lovely Easter lily was from Sweetie for Mother's Day last year. When it blooms, the fragrance is blissful. We kept these 2 plants the past winter, again trimmed back aggressively. Not sure we'll try this year, as the dirt is full of ants. Anybody know how to eliminate the ants before storing for the winter? Don't want to infest the garage with them, as they will migrate into the house. We've tried putting some ant traps on top of the dirt, but the ants seem to love it. When watering, you can see the little critters just scrambling up the branches from the dirt.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures; now you can picture where we could sit, drink some good ole cold ice tea, and just swing away! Thanks for your visit, and come again when you can set a spell! Happy Weekend. Hugs & Blessings.