Digital Dreams and Backyard Dreams

Hi my friends, it's been so long since I blogged, and it feels really weird.
It's not that I have nothing to blog about, I do, lots, but I have been busy doing it and rarely have time to visit blogs lately.

First let me start off by sharing my latest creative endevour , here she is

I have created her in Photoshop using a Wacom Tablet. She is my finished project from Tam's Digital Dreams workshop, which is now available as a self study. I actually think I prefer and do better with the digital art than the actual mixed media collages. After all, I was a digital artist before I found the world of mixed media.

Head on over to Tam's Ning network to find out about a huge giveaway she is having right now, to celebrate 5,000 members. She is giving away lot's of her mixed media classes and more, you have one week left to enter.

 I have just started another workshop drawing digitally, which you can check out at Shwe's Sweet Pieces and Sweet People.
Now I am learning to use even more tools in Photoshop and am just loving it :)

What else have I been up to in the last two months?

Well, a lot of construction has been going on around outside the house. We have been here a year now, and we decided to just get all the outside work done so we can enjoy the back yard.

 My hubby built a cute shed , and a pergola, and we have had the patio done in stones and the driveway too. As you can see, everything is wide open right now, so we are having a fence built for privacy. I can't wait to be fenced in. I worry too much about Cooper , plus I want to create my own little sanctuary :)

I didn't realize the door was open when I was snapping photos, but you get the idea :)

One side of the roof is glass panels and inside there is a potting bench so we can grow some plants from seed this year, which I am very interested in.

There is a pond going in this hole here, we are just waiting for the fence to be done which should be completed this week. I have started a butterfly garden beside the patio, and I hope to show you that soon. There are a couple of photos on my photography blog of my two new butterfly bushes if you are interested. The link is at the top of my side bar.

DH is also building a gazebo, something I have always dreamed of having, but the two weeks vacation he took has been just unbearably hot and humid to do any kind of outside work. We are hoping for some nice fresh summer days to get out and do some more work.

It has been one of the hottest summers I have known, and I think a lot of you that I know have been in the same situation with the heat. I don't mind hot and sunny but when you mix that humidity with it, YUK. I have barely spent any time outside in the last week.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer, I will be back soon,
Lynn

Winding down the summer garden

Summer is winding down here in S.Ontario, Canada, and it can be the most beautiful time of year. Pretty soon we will have Indian summer and all the leaves will change to beautiful shades of red and orange, but I have some of those shades already in my planters at my front door.

Each pot has two of these Kale's in there and they will last all winter. When the other plants fizzle out I will add some ornamental cabbage in there too, I have never tried these before so we will see how it goes.
I put these pots together a month ago because my summer flowers were just spent, and now I am ready for Fall :) Why didn't I think of doing this last year and before that?

Most of my plants are drying out or drying up and dying off right now, but my husbands pot of jalapeno's on the deck are still growing strong and producing lots of very hot peppers... ouch.
First time we tried them in a pot too and they did better this year than in the ground where they would have had too much rain anyway.

I found these little mushroom, toadstool type things growing under a bush in the damp ground this morning and they are so pretty. I can imagine little fairies playing there :)

Purple cone flowers or Echinacea are drying up now, but they are just as beautiful at this stage in my eyes, maybe even more so.
This one still has a bit of life in it....

Beautiful pink hydrangeas are drying up now too. I usually cut them around now and let them dry, then they change to a faded purplish shade. I just painted a black pot to white and they will be going in it this year.
Just look at the size of the Limelight Hydrangeas, they reach the top of the fence. They come later than my other hydrangeas and are still fresh, but slowly changing colors.

They start off a beautiful yellow color, then some pinkish hues appear as in the photo below, then they go pink and white, really beautiful, and very easy to grow.
Can you see the Cameleon growing below them? What beautiful shades they are right now, and they grow like weeds here.
I am very happy to see a second blooming on my rose bush, four beautiful pinks arrived this week and they have the most amazing scent.

I can't believe summer is winding down, but in a way I am happy because with these hot flashes I am going through it will be a blessing to have some cooler weather. Won't stop the heat from inside me but at least you can go outside and feel a little better, I get so tired of being inside with the air conditioning on.
I also can't believe I havn't posted in a week. I have no creations to show you because what I am working on are for gifts so I can't show, and I had such a busy week last week that I didn't get a whole lot done. I hope you all had a great week, and I hope to visit you soon :)

Lynn