The farm, late July

summer is in full swing here in minnesota.
here are some beauty shots of the farm.
enjoy!



the dala house was built by my parents' former students, they bought it from the shop class and had it installed in the yard and wired for electricity. i joke that i might move out there. it's got toys for the kiddos and an assortment of wild animals living underneath it.

garden basket i made up with my fave pink and green flowers/plants. i love those colors together!


the labyrinth v. 3.0! it certainly has come a long way!

the 'secret' garden. ringed by rosa rugosa which are in different stages of bloom. it smells heavenly in there.

my g'mas white bear from her old townhouse. guarding the roses.



my little pond! the lily is fake (for now) and there are hundreds of tadpoles and like 3-4 resident frogs in there. there are also some pretty wild diving bugs and other small creatures. i feed them lettuce from the garden, i can't wait for them to all start growing legs!


kale in the veggie garden. some bug is eating them. boo!


my basil was off to a rocky start but it looks GREAT now. mint and parsley are in the background.

watermelon is growing like crazy! yesterday it was barely reaching the rocks. today.....it's heading for the fence!




bees fighting for a flower. i wish you could hear them, it's like hundreds of tiny kazoos.

the order is out tha door!

watched the michael jackson tribute today and finished up the bibelot order. i'm so happy with how everything turned out!






GARDEN PHOTOS! here's a few quick photos of the veggie garden. tomorrow, the 'secret garden' and the labyrinth!







right outside the door of the studio we have these gorgeous orange/pink daylillies. and there's about 6 million tadpoles swarming around in the little pond in the secret garden. i've been feeding them lettuce from the garden, and i swear they double in size each day.

i love to watch the progress of both of these living things-the bursting of the pods into flowers and the growing of these little living commas into hopping frogs....i'm still not allowed to bring the taddies into the studio but i keep asking. it'd save me a lot of time!

not gone..

just..you know....being my normal busy self.

i am working my little fingers to the nubbins to get this bibelot order out the door. also trying to spend a little time every day sweating, be it in the garden or on a bike. i need to treat my body better than i have in the past few years, even though i'm down like 20 lbs from my absolute heaviest, i NEED to shed some fluff. if only it were as easy as repairing an overstuffed stuffed animal...find a seam, cut the threads, remove some stuffing, and re-sew. the problem is that the stuffed animals don't stuff their faces each chance they get. much like i have been doing lately. boo!

the garden is coming along VERY nicely, and the tadpoles in the small pond are growing very nicely. my parents have two garden tours coming up, so they have been working THEIR fingers to the nubbins getting ready for that. they have a small army of former students who come out to toil in the fields as well, but man can my parents work! they are up super early and go to bed super late. i guess retirement isn't so relaxing after all!

PS that lil' guy up there was a gift to my cousin's son. I realized that though he's my facebook photo, not everyone is on FB and hadn't seen him! If you are on Facebook, become a fan of Duckie Uglings for lots of news and updates, 'kay?