Spring Flowers

I love the whole picture, meaning the whole tree or the whole yard or the whole Earth, but when taking photos, I love being really close and getting a little bit of that whole picture. I don't know if you understand what I mean, but I love the close-up pictures. Those that show the veins in the leaves or petals.

And even though this isn't a picture of flower...it's of a brand new leaf. And so beautiful! As an artist I really enjoy seeing the beauty that God put on this earth for all of us. We are so blessed!

I had to throw in this shot of the sky. It was so beautiful and so I just had to take a picture of the sky...and a tree.

I love that this picture has the green grass in the background. With the spring rains, we have neon green grass with wonderful, brilliant, bright flower colors.

Watercolor painting

This is the latest picture I painted. The photo of the painting doesn't really do the picture justice...and the little purple dot in the upper right hand corner makes it look a little sloppy. I need to find some "white-out" and get rid of that purple dot. I was opening the tube of paint when it exploded out and got paint on the picture. One thing about watercolors is that you can't really remove color. So, I'll get that fixed someday but for right now it's there and it's okay.

I painted this picture two or three weeks ago. In this painting I was using masking...which is something very rubbery that you paint onto the picture in the places you'd like to keep white and then you can paint without worrying about painting it that spot. And when everything is dry, you can rub off the masking and do something it the white spots. I used masking to make all the white dots in the purple background and also for the beads in the fairy's hair. After taking the masking off, I painted the beads, which are hard to see in this photo...but they are there.

Pics from Cincinnati

Here are some random photos from our trip to Cincinnati. Above is a picture of some spring flowers.

In our hotel room we had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room area, kitchen and dinner room. I think before a hotel room, it was an apartment complex. This place had a lot of room.

Here we are in Newport, Kentucky on our way to walk across the Ohio River. The sun is just beginning to set in the distance. What a wonderful day!

Here we are on the bridge above the Ohio River, looking into Cincinnati as the sun sets in the distance. Beautiful!

I love the flags flying over the water!

Another picture of the river, bridge, sunset and Cincinnati!

This waterway has ferries that are used to transport people if they do not want to drive on the bridges.

Mitchell's Fish Market is where we had dinner. SM had Yellow Fin from Kona, HI and I had Atlantic Salmon...both flown in fresh that morning and both very yummy!

Trip to Cincinnati

At the beginning of this week we had an opportunity to go to Cincinnati. Before we left I spoke to a lady in my ward and she said that we needed to visit the bridges of Cincinnati...and here I am. In the background you can see one of the bridges and I'm standing on the Purple People Bridge, a pedestrian bridge from Cincinnati to Newport, Kentucky.

And here's the name plate showing the name of the bridge. The bridge really is purple...kind of a lilac colored bridge.

Further down the bridge you can see SM walking on the right side. We actually walked across the bridge and ate dinner in Kentucky and then crossed a different bridge back into Ohio to return to our hotel.

Here's a man made out of maps holding the world on his shoulders. We found these statues on a main square in downtown Cincinnati. It was fun to walk around and look at everything.

This is Grater's Ice Cream. It is a very well-known ice cream made in Cincinnati and it is delicious. One of the cool facts about the ice cream is that in the mixing process, they do not stir it so that air gets into the ice cream. The ice cream stays dense and rich and creamy. As we were eating our ice cream we did get a few comments from other people saying that Grater's was a really good ice cream.

As we were walking toward the bridges we found ourselves surrounded by people wearing red clothing. And soon the stadium made an appearance. There was a Cincinnati Red's Baseball game that night. In fact, we weren't able to walk on a certain sidewalk because there were fireworks set up for later that evening.

Here's the main statue of the plaza in downtown Cincinnati.

SM walked over to this homemade "statement" of a bird in the cage. I think he read the plaque on the cage...something about freeing birds.

This was a water fountain and statue together. It was outside the downtown library. The statue is of books and water. This library was several stories tall and right across the street from our hotel, in fact, I could see into the top floor of the library from my hotel room.

A picture and note

I got this sweet picture and note from my nephew. I am so grateful for the time he put into this picture and the message on the back. The picture is of the St. George temple, where his parents were married.

The note on the back says "Happy Valentines" but of course I'm translating!

My plants are growing

Here is an update on the tomatoes and peppers. They are growing so well and getting so big. I can't wait until I can put them in the pots.

A bit of Spring

The flowers from this Spring are so beautiful. I fell in love with Spring while living in Virginia and now I anticipate the flowers in each new area I live...and now I have found some in my own yard.

Lovely daffodils and bushes/trees with flowers. I miss the variety and number of flowers from Virginia but I love those I've found here.

If we actually owned this house instead of just renting, I'd put in more flower gardens and pull up some grass for a real garden, but since I can't do that, I'll be planting in pots and enjoying my neighbors' flowers.

So I hope you all have a bit of Spring to enjoy for yourselves!!

Taking care of the lawns

Well, these photos are out of order, and I apologize for that. I can't seem to move them to put them in the correct order. And since here they are...let me explain what you are seeing. SM and I live in a neighborhood that everyone has large lawns and spend a good amount of time outside working in their yards. And so as the Spring rains came and then the Spring sun came, our lawn grew longer and longer. And soon we knew the boundaries of our property since the grass was much longer on our side than on any other side.

So, SM got on Craig's list and found us a lawn mower. We picked it up, ran got some oil, gas can and a few other things and then SM got to mow the lawn for the first time. I know that doesn't seem like anything special but we've been in apartments for most of our marriage and never had to take care of the grass.

So, the above two photos show the front and back grass and after they've been mowed by SM. And below are photos of SM mowing the grass.

Here is SM as he works hard at mowing the lawn. I'm very lucky to have a great husband who will mow the lawn even though he really doesn't like doing it. And a couple days later he went through the grass, spraying poison to kill the dandilions, thistles and alfalfa. Hopefully we have some grass left after the bad plants die.

Pictures from the reception

Here are two of my nieces...the youngest was not sure that she wanted me to hold her. She's at the point where she prefers only mom or dad.

Of course, the bridal party always seems to miss out on dinner since they are taking pictures before the reception and then hosting the reception. My sweet brother and his wife made sure I had half of a sandwich...though they did have to drag me away from the reception. We found a nice soft piece of carpet to eat our lunch on and to take a break.

My brother accidentally fell into my sister's cake...just kidding. But he did pose for a picture or two of what a fall into the cake might look like.

Here's one of my nephews. He had me take probably close to 15 pictures of him and the dinosaur. I won't be keeping all the photos but he was so enthusiastic every time I took his picture with the dinosaur AND I'm pretty sure he had that dinosaur with him the whole night.

This is my favorite picture of the whole night. Here's my brother and his son. Look at that handsome pair of guys.

This is my oldest niece on my side of the family. She is a sweet girl and looks a bit like my mom.

And another niece...for a while we only had girls in the family but now we have three boys.

And here's that niece again...but this time she's sitting in her daddy's lap and so she is very happy!

Look at that cute smile! What a blessing to have nieces and nephews! I get lots of love when I go home to visit.

Reception photos...set up

Thursday afternoon after the wedding luncheon, all my brothers and their wives, my parents, my husband, a cousin and a few friends started setting up for the reception. My sisters colors were lime green, a dark blue and dark brown.

We are a bit silly...and here's my youngest brother to show it. Even though it was a lot of work and nearly killed my mom with all the stress of gathering everything together...it turned out beautifully.

We had the kiddos there at the church as we set up. We were very blessed to have a friend come and watch the kids. But of course they missed their parents and the little ones still needed a little time with their moms or dads. The above picture is my gorgeous SIL and her darling little boy.

I had my cousin stop decorating long enough to pose with the fake flowers. Isn't she just cute? You can't tell that she has a baby less than six months old. (I think she may be four months old...I just can't remember).

And here's another SIL. She also stopped a moment to pose for a picture. I think a telling point of this picture is the bandaid on her pinkie finger. It shows that she works a lot with her hands. She is another hard worker and makes many beautiful things...especially the three kids that she calls her own.