What are these plants called?

Lilly of the Valley?

I have no idea...

What is this one?

Very dainty but what the heck is it?

Fake toad, is this plant Hens and Chickens? LOL I do not know....

Geoff said "they're all weeds...pull 'em up"

I have a lot of these all over in different areas of my yard. They are the one plant that never dies during the spring and summer.

Crappy picture but I think you get the idea....anyone know what this little dainty is?

I've taken some pictures of plants that are coming up in my back yard and have no idea what they are called. Does anyone know?

I'm amazed at the brilliance of God in my Garden. That even at the touch of my feebleness and ineptness that God can still coax tulips up, let them know that everything will still be alright, even though they were planted in my little flower garden. I can just hear them all talking now "do you think it's safe to show our heads"? "All clear" one says...."She took the rake back inside, yet we will miss Joe, he gave his life so we could have a clean area to come up in"...yeah, I raked a tulip and broke it clean off the stem. It was the first one up. I didn't see them last year. I wasn't sure I would get any this year either. I'm not a gardener. I've always wanted to try though and when I accidently broke that little blossom off even before it had a chance to open and show all of it's glory I thought, isn't that like life? Sometimes we as human beings tend to prejudge someone before we even get a chance to see their true beauty and by the time we're done we've broken their spirit. How unfortunate that we will never get a chance to see them standing tall, in all their true beauty, because of biting words or even sometimes a hateful look (or a misplaced rake).

I have some pictures to show all that visit, of the little babies coming up in the potting soil, seeds that I planted 2 weeks ago that have come all the way from Kent, England from a dear friend named Polly. She is a walking gardening book; after looking at her garden, her green house, her plants, her yard, her home, she to me is a master gardener, and she is mentoring me, helping me to build a cottage garden.

What you are looking at above are called Nasturium Mix after 2 weeks germination.

These above in the picture are called Veronica and I believe these will be blue with spikes. Polly told me I would have to thin them out and I will try and save everyone of those sweet little Veronicas :)

Now unfortunately I think I've made a dreadful mistake with these dear ones as they've grown rather fast and gotten spindly, because I failed at keeping them warm enough. These are called cosmos and I think they are going to be red if they make it. I have this one especially on my prayer list.

Isn't this cool! It's quite chunky looking and this is going to be a butternut squash! Isn't he handsome! I'm going to transplant him this week while I'm laid off in a bigger pot and once the threat of snails are gone I'm going to put him somewhere safe where he can grow as long and as big as he wants to. Hopefully we'll find some family members on that vine LOL

Polly has written as you can see by her drawing that this particular plant is good for bees and this plant is going to have blue balls on it, I looked this one up and the color is going to be very very vivid! I can't wait to see these! This one I think, is called (Polly I need your help on this) Echnops.

These little guys right above are called "Evening primrose" and according to instructions from Polly these are Bi Annuals. The Verbena's are up as well but they are so small yet the camera couldn't capture them and the last picture is of the White Cosmos that Polly sent. Everything else has still not come up but I think they are just being fashionably late. I've kept everything watered finger moist and not wet as Polly cautioned that they would rot if kept too wet. I'm so excited to see the rest pop up, but like the tulips they are all probably deciding when it's safe and that I don't have a rake in my hand.

white cosmos

I am having so much fun planning, and waiting and watching! Oh and I have to share a picture of the book that Polly so thoughtfully sent to me, which actually has some lovely examples of what I want my garden to look like. But I will share the book the next time I blog. My new project for this cottage garden is going to be handmade fencing to go around my flowers. Until next time, Take Care!

My Cottage Garden

My friend Polly and I have been penpals for quite some time now. She lives in Kent, England and so it's a little difficult to catch her awake because of the time differences. I mentioned a while ago that I'd like to have a cottage garden but since I'm not a gardener didn't know even where to begin. So Polly, without expecting anything in return has been mentoring me in the masterful art of cottage gardening. She sent me homemade packets of her own seeds some perrenials some annuals, with drawings, printed pictures, and directions in sowing, how to sow, when to sow, what kind of soil to plant in, how to organize and how to set in groupings.

Being laid off has been a financial challenge but as Polly has told me cottage gardens were began by the very poor, using materials for building fences and arbors made from what they found out in the woods, their children barefoot, depending almost solely what they could grow. I've seen wonderful pictures of Polly's gardens and I see that I have a lot to do.

She also, to my complete surprise sent me a gardening book that she has a copy of by the name of "Penelope Hobhouse, Flower Gardens" and in there are wonderful examples of cottage gardens, gorgeous pictures and gardening "how to's."

A week or two ago I planted all the seeds she sent me and I've just yesterday began to see the little guys peeking up through the soil. I know it's late in the season for starting seeds but I don't have a green house and no room in the house for them so I had to wait until it got a bit warmer as they have to be kept out on my back porch. So far I've spent 15 dollars on the project; 5 each for the covered plant trays and 5 for the potting soil. I'm going to use miracle grow at the next watering which I already have so no expense there. Today I will take pictures of the first garden and that is sprouting tulips, glads and lilies. Today I'm going to prepare the next section of garden and try to talk my husband into removing a fence he has up to keep our dogs off the grass.

Today is going to be a blessed day, beautiful sun, warm weather and a light breeze. Time to prepare more garden area.

As with any new day comes new life, new moments and for me something to laugh about. But I'm always looking for something that's going to make me laugh. My life has not been easy; but it's the one I chose and hopefully I'm a better person for it. Laughing got me through some bad days; and helps me sail through the good ones.

Inspiration is sitting in my loft studio of the second floor of my house looking at this huge horse chestnut tree that is right in front of the window, watching a couple of black, grey and white birds building their nest in a hole just big enough for them to get in and out of. (English writers would call that a "drag on sentence", sorry)

I see something building their home in that hole every year and wonder "what is so good about that spot?" Well it's high enough to keep away from their enemies. If they built too low it would be the end, probably, of their little family. And they want to protect their babies from predators.

That's what I tried to do with my girls. I tried to protect them from predators, from bad influences, tried to keep them safe, give them a clean home to live in and clean clothes to wear and food to eat. They got everything that I thought they needed. I gave them much of my time, as we lived in the country many summer days were spent hiking, biking and well, shopping when they were little, just so I could be around people my age as at the time I was a stay at home mom. But I think I failed my kids in so many ways. I didn't teach them things that I wish I could've taught them. I wish I woulda talked to them more. I wish I woulda hugged them more. I wish I woulda gave them more affirmation and told them how special they were much more than I did. I think I expected too much perfection out of them as their little minds just couldn't grasp the thought of it. That makes me sad, and mad at myself. But the only thing I can do is tell them NOW how much I love them, hug them more often, and let them know how proud I am of them. Those girls are so special to me and I love them dearly.

You can find this suncatcher mobile at my butterflyheavens shoppe

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23542475

Just Some Silly Thoughts

Sometimes I feel like this. But it's from laughing.

The tooth fairy has to be a girl. Guys can't be the tooth fairy, it just doesn't sound right. How did Santa get to be a boy? The men in my life never liked to hand out presents in the past or in the present, they really don't like to shop, and every time they give something away something in their head says "cha-ching" more money out the window. Humph. And what's the deal with "Father Time" Geoff is very laid back and doesn't run on a schedule when he's home. However I do have to say in his defense that he has never been late for work, not one day in his life. And I think it's because he can't wait to get outta here LMBO!. It should be Mother Nature and Mother Time. Instead of Santa Clause maybe it should be Shanta Clause....the Easter Bunny has to be a girl because I can't see Geoff carrying a basket. And look at poor old Mother Hubbard and the @#$! that left her with all those little babies to live in what has to be the most wretched place...... I want to believe the Sales Fairy is a girl just because there is shop visiting involved in it but our Andy needs to keep his Sales Bat a boy. His sales bat probably has a pipe hanging out its' mouth. And it's probably got "Henderson" stamped on the bottom of it in size 1 font.

TRYING MY HAND AT RECYCLING

Seriously, I know what your thinking...why does LaShelle have a pile of rocks pictured here? Well I work for a company that is always looking for better, less expensive ways to remanufacture our components. One way was to upgrade to a bigger, better "vibe" machine that polishes components after the wash cycle getting them ready for further processing. Well when we went to the upgrade we needed to dispense of the old media for a different type of media. We call these "stones". I'm not sure about what they are made of to tell the truth but a light bulb went off in my head the day they asked me to empty the machine out and get rid of them. "May I have them?" just came pouring out of my mouth and I'm not much of a pack rat but for some reason I thought, hey I think those would be cool if I could use those in mosaic foot stones for a neat path in my yard. I'll just make those into big round mosaic foot stones and maybe I can color/paint them somehow and well, my mind just wandered. So someone I work with took them to my car and we loaded them up after work. The majority of them are still in my trunk about 170 pounds of them.

The next day I asked our skilled trades guys what it would take to drill a hold in each one (now I'm thinking "hey I'm going to bead with them") and they told me they could but it would take a ceramic drill and they might have time to do a couple or so a day. Well I hate to impose on people so I dropped the idea of putting holes in them and came home thinking "oh great now i have a bunch of rocks in my trunk and am I really going to make them into stepping stones"? I have a terrible time finishing anything major so I put the whole thing to rest and just have been carrying a trunk full of rocks in my car; until yesterday!

I began looking at my little pile of rocks on the table in my studio and the wheels began turning in my head. Now grey can be pretty but I wanted color. I went to a nearby craft store and found some paint but not knowing what I have as far as material in this "rock" I wasn't sure which kind of paint to get so I purchased a bottle of the prettiest pearlesque paint I could find. Purple is one of my favorite colors so I couldn't go wrong. "I'll use it on something" I thought.

So I took one triangle stone and began painting. It dried very fast and I used my nail and tried to scrape it away but it was very set and hard to scrape off so I put a second coat on it. After it all dried I wire wrapped it with 22 gauge silver wire to make a pendant out of it and crocheted a multi color ribbon for the necklace. This is the final outcome and I really wanted to share it with anyone that had an interest in seeing it.

I have a few more

to do. :)

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Easter Means...

So I'm sitting here getting a new treasury ready, another one for the team and it appeared:I couldn't of planned this better. I don't think I did. These are all of the team member listings I've collected so far for the treasury and I wasn't thinking about making this design until I sat back and then got goose bumps all over, and I thought, wow, there Jesus goes again, reminding me what's really important :)

Here and now I proclaim that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior.

If you want real joy and peace in your life accept Him as well if you already haven't.

You'll never be the same.

10 Things That Make Me Happy

1. The color purple makes me happy. Although I don't own one piece of purple clothing. What's up with that?

2. Big fluffy snowflakes.

3. A colorful sunset over Lake Michigan.

4. My grandsons; all three of them and listening to them laugh.

5. Listening to the waves at the beach.

6. Birds that are singing.

7. Giving something to someone when they are in need.

8. Celebrating a success with a friend.

9. The Big "O".

10. Sales are good but someone telling you that your latest creation is awesome (and you know they are not just saying that) is very rewarding.

We're in Etsy's Gift Guide

This is so exciting for us because our honey is featured in the Etsy Gift Guides right now under the sub heading of "Slow Food"!!!!

I've met a seller on Etsy who turns honey dippers and we are going to team up and link each of our listings to the other!

Here is a link to her shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7036742

And here is the link to the page of the gift guide where our honey is!

http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/slow-food/136?&page=2

My Little Peanut Chick Magnet

I spent some much needed time with my daughter and grandson yesterday. Landon is such a joy! I often wonder what the world will have in store for him but one thing I know...

chick's dig him!

Etsy West Michigan Sexy Artisians

Oh do I love a good treasury! And I love the people on my team. Etsy West Michigan are a group of great men and women, some of which I've gotten to meet personally and you won't find a better bunch of people! These are just some of the findings I chose for the Sexy West Michigan Treasury I got up at 4am this morning to grab LOL I'm a complete addict. One day one of our treasuries will be on the Front Page at Etsy but then I wonder, "do I really want that"? Some of the "toiled over" and "labored over" items that I've seen on there are so simple and our team and their creations are definately not simple. These artisians take their time choosing just the right piece, just the right fabric and make it a labor of love. Yet we don't find many of those kinds of pieces on the front page. I don't and probably will never understand it. Instead we find eye brow raising items that may have taken 3 minutes to sew, usually by hand, add a button and a string and you have something front page worthy. So honestly I guess I don't want anything of mine on the front page because then I'll know someone thought it was simple.