OWOH Prize from Slave to Beads

Today I'd like to share with you my second prize that I won during the One World One Heart blogger event.  It's from Tania at Slave to Beads.  It's gorgeous, isn't it?  I can't imagine all the time and patience it took to thread all these beads, but it was worth it as it is a beautiful piece of art jewelry. It also came with a cute little soft page to store the necklace safely.

Tania has a wonderful Etsy shop that can be found here.  I think my favorite piece is the "Copper Iris Vintage Style Beaded Necklace".  She also has some really cute felted purses. 

Tania also has a couple of shops at 1000 Markets.  I've never heard of this site, so will have to check it out.

Thanks again Tania!  It's beautiful!

Our Kitty Jasmine

It dawned on me a little while back that I have never really talked about our cat Jasmine that much.  She is a huge part of our life, especially since we don't have children of our own.  She is incredibly spoiled and just the sweetest kitty ever.  I'm not sure I'd get another cat after her, as I don't think I could ever get that lucky with such a wonderful cat again.  But we'll see when the time comes.

Jasmine was originally supposed to be my sister's cat.  A friend of the family had a cat that had a litter, and of course they needed homes.  We had recently lost my step-father to a tragic accident, so having kittens at home helped to ease the pain we were feeling.  Jasmine is a long-haired tiger.  We also took in a long haired black cat, we named Midnight (who was supposed to be mine) and a shorter haired calico, we named Moonbeam.  All three kittens were staying with my mom until they got a little older.  My sister and I both had our own apartments, but I could not have pets where I was, but was planning to move soon to a place that would allow pets.

Even though the kittens were siblings, Jasmine never seemed to like living with two other cats.  After they were fixed, it didn't get any better, so my sister took Jasmine to live with her, but she had just acquired a puppy and Jasmine was not a happy cat. 

My mother had fallen in love with midnight while keeping him for me and wouldn't allow me to take him home to my new apartment, so I took Jasmine off my sister's hands, since she was not adjusting to life with a dog in the home.  Cloe was a big dog, very friendly and playful...not something Jasmine found endearing.

One night with Jasmine, and I could see her whole attitude change.  She was finally relaxed, eating regularly and seemed to be content to be in a one pet household.  I had decided then and there that my sister was not getting Jasmine back. :)  She'll be 15 in August.

When I met my husband in 2000, he said that he knew I was a good person by how my cat acted.  Little did I know what a traitor she'd become.


Here she is in one of her favorite places, Gary's lap.  And she has him wrapped around her little paw, like you wouldn't believe.  He is such a big ole softy and loves all sorts of animals.  He grew up on a dairy farm and loved all the cows and barn cats they had over the years.  He could probably tell you all their names, describe their personalities and what they were known for doing.

Jasmine is always getting into the weirdest places.

And sleeping in the oddest places.  I mean what cat doesn't?

It doesn't even matter if it's a hard surface she's laying on as long as it's in the sun.

Last week, Jasmine was not feeling well.  She had a tummy ache and was not herself.  It was the most stressful 6 hours of my life with her.  She has never been sick and I was so worried I couldn't even sleep that night.  Luckily she was feeling better by bedtime and was back to normal the next morning.  I think she may have had a little too much yogurt and it just upset her stomach.  She loves yogurt and begs me to let her lick the bowl when I'm done, but I think she may have had too much on that occasion.  I don't normally feed her people food, as I know it's not good for her, but she is so pitiful begging for yogurt...it's the funniest thing.  I don't even know how she even knew she liked yogurt the first time, as she had never had it before, that I know of.  I just started eating it regularly about a year and a half ago myself.  She must have smelled it in the air and thought it would be something good to eat.  She does the same thing when we have shrimp for dinner.  I've been lucky as she is not a chewer and doesn't bother the houseplants, so that is the only thing I could think of that it could be.

 

So there is our spoiled rotten cat, Jasmine. I'm sorry it took so long to introduce you all to her.  I can't help but smile when I look at her.  Any stresses I may have had during the day just melt away.  I hope that you too have a special pet in your life that brings you joy. 

Snow and Icicles

I couldn't help but take a picture of these icicles that had formed on one end of our house.  This is the east side of the house, so the snow would start melting in the morning and then freeze later in the day as the sun moved around the house.  We just put a new metal roof on and it's very well insulated, so we don't normally get icicles anymore.  So these were almost a treat to see.

We've had temperatures in the mid 30s for the past few days, so the snow on the roof has been melting and sliding off little by little.  This is what the same icicles looked like 24 hours later.  The snow slid off within an hour after taking this photo and then Gary went around the whole house, pulling off more snow, so as to reduce the amount of loud crashes we hear as the snow slides off. The sound doesn't bother us too much, as we get used to it, but it scares the crap out of the cat...LOL.  Speaking of the cat.  I think I will do a post dedicated to Jasmine in a few days.

OWOH Prize from Diann's ART Spot

I just have to share one of the prizes I won on this year's One World One Heart blog event.  I won 4 prizes this year!  As I receive them, I will post them here along with links to their blogs.

In case you missed it, you can check out all the participates (over 1000) at Lisa's blog, A Whimsical Bohemian.  I still have not gotten to them all, but I plan to visit every single one over the next few months.  Lisa will have an alphabetical list of participants on the blog for six months.

I "met" many talented people that have inspired me to continue with my website designing studies so I can start a new chapter in my life of creating digitally as well as traditionally.

This altered journal and matching tag was given to me by Diann from Diann's ART Spot.  Thank you, Diann!  I will probably use the journal to record creative ideas I have for my blog and website. 

Diann has a wonderful blog with lots of beautiful paper creations and altered ART.  One of my favorite pieces she's done recently is this one titled "For the Birds".  There is also a beautiful Daisy ATC, she made for a little girl that suffers with a little known disease called EB.  You can read more about Daisy's story here.  Please visit Diann's blog and see all her beautiful creations, many of which seem to be nature inspired.

Chobani Yogurt Giveaway

I just found out about a Chobani Yogurt Giveaway at Jessica's Blog.  She talks about living in the kitchen, gym and the mall...LOL.  You can enter by leaving a comment on her blog here.

I just love Chobani Greek Yogurt.  Since I've been eating it, I can't even eat anything else because it tastes fake to me.  Chobani yogurt is all natural and made in the Southern Tier of NY State, so I'm supporting local business by buying it.  Show your support, by checking out Chobani's website and entering at Jessica's blog for a chance to win your very own Chobani yogurt. You have until Sunday night to enter.

Birds & Blooms Extra March 2010

We have a new project published in this month's issue of Birds and Blooms Extra, an Eco-Friendly Birdhouse.  Since I haven't seen the article on their website yet, I've put it on our website here.  It's a cute little house that can be hung or attached to a post and will attract all kinds of birds depending on how and where you mount it.

The roof of the birdhouse can be planted with drought tolerant plants that will keep the birdhouse cool in the hot summer months.  Shallow rooted annuals can be used or perennials. Hens and Chicks would work well.  If you pick up a copy of the magazine, you can see it planted with succulents.  I hope to get Gary to make some more of these this summer and will post pictures of the ones that I plant.

Little Known Seed Starting Tips

Now is the time when many people across the country are either thinking about what plants they are going to start from seed or just starting plants from seed.  In general, you will need to start seeds about 4-6 weeks before your last frost date.  There are some exceptions, so just check the seed packets for all the information for the plant you are growing.  If you don't know your average last frost date, check out the National Climate Data Center's website here.

I was a lousy seed starter when I first started gardening.  I tried Wintersowing and that gave me the confidence to keep trying more traditional methods.  Here are some tips I wish I knew before I got started.  Some you may have heard before, and some you may not have. 

1.  Add some compost to your seed starting mix.  It adds disease fighting abilities to the soil and nutrients once the seeds sprout.  It also retains moisture without water logging the plants.  I generally add 1 part compost to 2 parts seed starting mix.  There are also some soil recipes on our main website here.

2. Hardy perennial seeds tend to sprout more reliably when they have had 4-6 weeks of cold first.  This is usually taken care of with store bought seeds.  But if you collect seeds from your own garden, they should be put in the fridge for 4-6 weeks, or use the wintersowing method.

3.  Pre-moisten your seed starting mix before filling the cells.  This will help prevent excessive settling, air pockets and will help keep the seeds at their proper seed starting depth.

4.  To help prevent damping-off, try these tips. Spray surface with diluted chamomile tea or compost tea.  Don't water too much and water from the bottom.

5.  Transplant earlier, rather than later.  Transplant seedlings when they start growing their first set of true leaves.  When transplanting, use a container that is one size larger than the seed cells you started in, no larger.  This will encourage a stronger root system and help to prevent transplant shock.

To read more about saving your own seeds, check out my article here.  Also, if you'd like to make your own seed packets, I have lots of free templates here.

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Flowers for Valentine's Day

Gary and I don't usually celebrate Valentine's Day.  Everyday is Valentine's Day married to him anyway, so I don't need someone to tell me a specific day that I need to show my love for someone.

It's ridiculous how much more flowers, candy and cards cost just because it's Valentine's Day.  Restaurants are packed to the hilt and it's just a big pain in the butt...LOL.  I'd much rather get flowers on a random day of the year (which Gary does quite often) than on one specific day.  It's much more of a surprise and much more appreciated in my opinion.

Despite the fact that we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, Gary usually gives me a little something, and this year he gave me a garden junk flower for the yard.  I just love it.  

The flower itself is a coulter disc off a molboard plow, from his parents farm.  The center of the flower is an old fluted jello mold that was attached with J-B Weld, also from his mom.  The stem is an old metal bar that may have been part of a fence at one time.  Not sure if this was found under our house, or if it came from the farm as well.  Since he had to bolt the flower to the stem and the disc already had holes, he added bolts all the way around to act as the seeds of the flower.

I already have an idea where this will go.  We will be fencing in a vegetable garden area to one side of the greenhouse and I was thinking this will look super cute bolted to one of the fencing panels so it sticks up above the fence.  We'll see how that goes when the time comes.  It's awfully heavy, so not sure if that will work.

One thing I really love about garden junk is the history of the pieces involved.  This is way better than some store bought piece of resin crap, and will last forever.  I figure I can even change up the paint colors from year to year if I want to.

So what is your favorite piece of garden junk?

OWOH Winner!

Congratulations to Melanie at Whimsical Creations! 

She is the winner of my One World Heart Giveaway.  Melanie has until Wednesday, 2/17, midnight to get in touch with me with her address or I will be forced to pick another winner.

I have posted the random number generator screen shot to the left because I think it's too funny that Melanie lives in the same state I do.  I mean what are the odds it would pick a winner in the same state?!?  She is in Buffalo, NY and I am just north of Syracuse.  I think it's about a four hour drive.

I have had a lot of fun during this year's giveaway.  I was not able to visit every blog before the deadline, but I will be making a point to visit everyone over the next few months.  I hope you do the same as well, as there are a boat load of talented and creative people on the list.  And do stop by Melanie's blog as well.  It is very cute and her Etsy Shop has a lot of great polymer clay creations that are just adorable.

If you were unable to participate this year, keep an eye on Lisa'a blog, A Whimsical Bohemian for details on next year's event.  She usually posts information about OWOH in November or December, so mark it on your calendar.  If you'd like to see a list of this year's participants, click here.  She has also put them all in alphabetical order in case you are looking for someone specific.

OWOH Giveaway winding down!

Don't forget, you have until 10:00pm EST Sunday night (2/14) to enter and win a $50 prize pack from yours truly.  You must enter your comment on the official post, which is found here.  I will close comments to this post to avoid any confusion.

As of right now, I only need 4 more comments to reach 200.  Last year I had 228 comments, so I'd really like to exceed that amount if possible.  Come on people, that is only 32 more comments.

Thanks to all who have entered so far.  I am still visiting as many blogs as I can on the list and will continue to visit everyone on the list even if I don't get to them until after the contest ends.  I've had a load of fun and found some really interesting blogs and Etsy shops in the process.

Update - Comments are now closed for the OWOH Post.

Wishing for Spring

Our winter has been an easy one as far as our winter's go.  Typically, Syracuse, NY receives, on average, about 116 inches of snow a year.  We are just north of Syracuse and just on the edge of the "Snow Belt", which can get anywhere from 20-100 inches more a year, depending on if you are in the eye of a lake effect snow band.

Lake effect snow occurs when cold air moves over warmer open water, picks up moisture and releases it in the form of snow and it's pretty unpredictable.  In fact, the majority of our snowfall is in the form of lake effect, although I don't know the exact statistics on that.  My guess is over 70 percent is lake effect.  We are right on schedule to have a normal snowfall for the year, which has been unusual the last few years; we are usually much over the average.

That being said, it's still been extremely cold, but with a little more sunshine that usual.  This area is actually cloudier than Seattle, Washington, although they always seem to get a bad wrap on how cloudy and rainy they are.

With all this cold, I have been longing for spring, so decided to look through a few pictures to see just how long I need to wait for spring flowers.  Last year I had some winter aconites poking their heads up on March 22nd.

There were crocuses by April 9th and Tete-a-Tete daffodils too.

Two months seems like a long time to wait, but maybe we'll be lucky and have a normal spring with blooms starting to emerge in about 6 weeks.

Don't forget to enter the One World One Heart Giveaway, if you haven't already.

A Little Bit About Us

With all the new visitors I have received over the past few weeks and months, I thought it might be a good idea to do an about me post, so here goes.

Everyone calls me Dottie and you may know me as Adina from gardening and craft forums across the net (Adina was the alter ego I created when I first went online in '99).  I met my soul mate online in 2000 and we married a year later.  We reside in Central New York in a small rural community north of Syracuse.

We live on the Oneida River, so we have a lot of wildlife that comes into the yard, our favorite being the three pairs of mallard ducks that stay the summer and all their brood.  You can view pictures wildlife that has been in our yard on our website here.

Though we have no children, our hands are full with our spoiled kitty named Jasmine.  She will be 15 in August of this year.

In 2005, I decided to start a website to document our gardening and craft projects.  I didn't care for the blog format at that time for what I wanted to do, so www.gardensandcrafts.com was born.

In my free time I like to garden and make crafts, of course.  I enjoy turning trash into treasure and re-purposing objects for something other than their original intention.  Hypertufa, Stained Glass and Mosaics take up most of my time these days, but I also like to read and I love to work on the blog and website, which has led to my new endeavor; training to become a certified web designer.  I'll be starting a new blog called Basic Web Design Tips that will follow along with my course.  I hope it will help enforce what I've learned and help others who are just starting out as well.

The blog and website led to being featured in Birds & Blooms, Birds & Blooms Extra, and Gardening and Deck Design (A Woman's Day Publication) over the past year and a half.  You can find links to those projects on the sidebar.  I'd like to do more for Birds & Blooms in the future and for any other publication that might ask, but with school, I think I need to focus on that for this year.

In 2008, I opened an Etsy Shop to sell off the excess items that we've been making.  Gary likes to make birdhouses, feeders and other wood creations, and I like to make just about anything else.  I try to keep the shop garden related, but it's hard when you have as many interests as we do.  When weather allows, I focus on hypertufa and leaf castings, and when weather is poor I make more mosaics and other things.  We just finished a greenhouse last fall, and that will allow me more time working on projects outdoors even in bad weather.

We love going to flea markets, thrift stores, antique shops and garden shows in the Spring.  You just never know what you might find.

I don't want to be long winded, so I'll end this for now.  It's been nice meeting so many new people during this One World One Heart event.  Don't forget, if you are an active blogger yourself, you can enter to win a $50 prize pack from yours truly.  You have until February 14th to enter.  I'll be hosting another blog giveaway this spring for all US residents, whether you own a blog or not.

Picture of the Day

I was outside on Sunday taking a few pictures for Etsy and I actually noticed the sun, of all things.  It has been so cold and cloudy lately and the sun made it seem not so bad even though it was only 20 degrees. 

These pussy willows must have opened early during that warm spell from a couple of weeks ago.

Tray - Work in progress

While I was working on some new garden spheres, I would have adhesive left over; I mix thin set mortar fresh for each project.  Since I didn't want to waste it, I decided to start a new project with the leftovers.  I usually have more than one project going at a time anyway, but at this time, I just had four garden spheres going.

I didn't know what to do, but I new I needed to get rid of some dishes that I've been saving for mosaics.  I didn't feel I had enough of any one thing or any one style to make a complete project, but I decided to just wing it.  Sometimes my best projects are just "thrown" together without much thought.

I started out by putting small blue tiles around the tray and dividing it into four sections.  As soon as I saw that finished, I thought it would be perfect for a set of four butterfly dishes I'd been saving.  So anytime I had adhesive left over from some other project I would use up the left over for this. 

My mom came over a week ago and really loved it, so I plan on finishing it and giving it to her for her birthday, which is the 9th.