Card Exchange

Once a month, a friend of mine hosts a card exchange at her home.  Each lady brings a card that she has designed along with materials for the other ladies to make her card, and then we each make the cards that the other ladies have designed.  It is a lot of fun as we stamp, create, and visit!  Each month, a theme is chosen, and this month it was "May Flowers".

There were 5 ladies who gathered together to swap cards.  I actually brought two cards to swap since mine were small, and simple to make.

This card was designed by the hostess of this monthly event, and I loved how lovely this card turned out using double-sided patterned paper.

Our hostess also blessed us with this lovely little treat bag filled with a package of flower seeds!

This card looks like it would be quite complicated to make, but it really wasn't.  We used patterned black and white paper, and sponged red ink onto the flowers, and then covered it with glitter.  A beautiful card, and so easy and fun to make.

I designed this pocket card, and included my teacup holder as well for the ladies to make.

It was a lot of fun to make this 3-dimensional card, so pretty and full of spring flowers!

Back at home... some dirt for our garden had gotten delivered.

It is always an exciting time of year when it comes time to till and prepare the soil for planting!  I am continuing to enlarge my garden planting area.  We have a large 72 x 72' fenced enclosure for our garden, but I am only using a quarter of that size to actually plant vegetables.  We are also planting some fruit trees in the garden, raspberries, strawberries, a small wildflower garden, and a herb garden, I have to be careful because before you know it, my garden space will be full!

The chickens have been barred from the garden.  It has been their playground for the last few months.  They were sitting on my doorstep letting me know how unhappy they were with this turn of events.

A cluck-ooo protest was ensuing.

That is until Roger let them know the porch is HIS domain... and the chickens took their protest elsewhere.

I'm glad I couldn't understand the words Rudy had to say about my decision to bar them from the garden!

My husband and I took a little break, and went for a drive up into the mountains.  It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, and windy... but clouds always make the scene more delightful, in my opinion.

From our high vantage point, you could see for miles and miles.

So lovely to see all the beautiful shades of green!  The wildflowers here are just getting started. In a month or so... there will be lots of pink, white and purples mixed in with the green.

As we were just enjoying the landscape, a dirt bike came roaring past us, and we watched him as he made his way to the very top of that knoll above.  The trail literally goes straight up, and I was worried he wouldn't make it, but my husband assured me that he could tell by how the driver was shifting gears that he was quite experienced in getting the clutch just right, and he was sure that he would make it. And he did, we heard him as he safely reached the top, and then it wasn't long, and he came back down the hill, flying by us in a trail of dust!

Because of the protest of the chickens from being kept out of the garden, I decided to make a truce with them.  I moved the compost pile from the garden to next to their coop.

Rudy still had a few choice words for me.  I kept my stick handy, just in case things got out of hand.  But... soon after he figured out there was lots of nice little compost to munch on... he settled down.

And these are my baby chicks that came to live with us on March 3... oh how they've grown!

They are now leaving the safety of the coop and venturing outside.

They stay very close together as they explore.

They are still learning to fly, and get scared very easily, but day by day they are getting more brave, and exploring farther from the coop.

They love the bushes and trees next to the coop.

So fun to watch them as they explore!

I'll leave you with a picture of this cocky handsome fellow.  :)

Have a blessed Monday!