My Vegetable Garden and Kitty Outdoor Play Area Tour

Hey ya'll!  I know I've been bad and I have not shared any pictures of my flower garden this year.  I have just been so busy renovating a large flower garden, and creating a vegetable garden (with the help of my husband who does all the construction and back breaking labour) that I haven't had time to take flower pictures.  I still do not have flower pictures to share, but I do have a couple of videos of our new vegetable garden.  It's still not done (and at the rate we're going it won't be finished until fall), but I wanted to give you a little preview of our progress so far.  The top picture is what the garden looks like now, then I have "in progress" pictures below the videos.

Even though we started working on our garden as soon as the weather was warm enough, because so much construction was involved to build the beds and pathways, the plants were a little late getting into the ground.  So if it looks like my plants should be bigger by now, or producing more veggies by now, that is the reason why.  We also had a woodchuck get into our garden before it was completely fenced in and he ate most of my salad greens and broccoli.  

Anyway here are a couple of videos.  The first one is ten minutes and gives a complete garden tour where I share all the veggies I planted.  The second video is a short three minute video of our cat Jackson venturing outside for the first time in four years.  When we designed the vegetable garden, we wanted it to also be a little safe, enclosed, outside playground for our kitty.  We have lots of feral cats, coyotes, fox, and predatory birds in our backyard, so we do not let our sweet, beloved kitty outside.  With the new garden, now he can enjoy being outdoors and stay safe at the same time.

Finally, here are a few pictures I took of the vegetable garden in progress.  The picture below was taken from inside the house looking out.  This was before the fence went up.  You can see the vegetable garden through the sunroom windows.  I wasn't sure how I would like that, but now that's it done I love it.  It's as if the vegetable garden is part of the sunroom now.  

View from the balcony in the sunroom.

This picture gives a view of the outside of the sunroom.

And here is a view of the garden extending from the south porch if I were looking west standing in front of the garden off of the sunroom.

Here I am standing in the far west side looking east.  This is the garden off the porch, in the distance is the garden off the sunroom.  The gravel path separating the two garden still have to to be paved to prevent weeds.

These two pictures face south and shows my garden shed in the lower garden along with my perennial flower gardens.

I hope you enjoyed my videos.  I'll be back with another one when it's completely finished and hopefully some flower pictures too!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Ageless Style - Summer Love

The Ageless Style Link Up-  The first Monday of every month a group of over forty fashion bloggers pick a monthly theme and show different ways of styling it. 

This month's Ageless Style Theme is "Summer Love" and was chosen by Daenel.    She told us that she did not have instructions for us and to just have fun with the theme.  Everyone on the team was pretty happy to hear this!  For me it was a relief because ever since the Coronovirus and subsequent lockdowns, I haven't been buying any new clothes (well, I did buy two new pair of sneakers) nor have I been going anywhere to need any new clothes.  But after all the months of staying home, and then weeks of horrific violence in America, hubby and I were ready to get out and have some fun and try to put it all out of minds even if for only a little while.  We decided to have one of our "Sunday Fun Days" and after our church service, we grabbed some subs, and headed to a local state park for a picnic lunch and nature trail walk.

We enjoyed looking at this beautiful lake view while we ate our lunch.

Now I had to dress for both a casual church service plus a short hike so I wore an athletic skort, a metallic pink tee, comfy silver sandals, and I carried a cross body to hold my phone and sun glasses.

Summer Love for me is all about getting out and enjoying the outdoors.  I spend most of my summer days in my own "Garden of Eden", my backyard, but when I'm not there you will most likely find me hiking somewhere with my husband.  We are huge nature lovers and love to hike.  

The trail we took this day was a short but sweet one.  The "Beaver Meadow Trail" is an easy one mile trail in Lake Wissota Wisconsin State Park.  It is a loop through a forest with views of a pond and a little creek.  It was so peaceful and so refreshing to be in the quiet of the woods during such tumultuous times.  We enjoyed it so very much and our spirits were lifted.

We never saw any beavers, just a couple of ducks, but that's ok because I see lots of beavers just down the road from my house.

The ferns were loving all the wet, cool weather we had been experiencing.

I saw a few wildflowers too, like this wild geranium.

And now, be sure and check out the other ladies of Ageless Style to see how they interpreted the theme "Summer Love"

Amy ~ Amy's Creative Pursuits Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest

Bettye ~ Fashion Schlub Blog, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

Daenel ~ Living outside the stacks Blog, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter

Debbie ~ Fashion Fairy Dust Bloglovin, Blog, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter

Jennie ~ A Pocketful of Polka Dots Blog, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Bloglovin

Jodie ~ Jodie's Touch of Style Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter

Julia ~ When the Girls Rule Blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram

Kellyann ~ This Blonde's Shopping Bag Blog, Instagram, Bloglovin, Twitter

Shelly ~ The Queen in Between Blog, Instagram, Bloglovin, Pinterest, Facebook

Shugunna ~ Nzuri N* Simplicity Blog, Pinterest, Instagram

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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A Masculine Card For Father's Day

Happy belated Father's Day everyone!  I hope everyone had a great Father's Day, we certainly did.  We were childless but we had a nice time together as a couple and of course the kids called to wish their Father a Happy Father's Day.

I decided to wait to show the card I made for my husband till after Father's Day because I never know who is snooping on my blog and I don't want him to see it beforehand.  I think it's such a generic masculine card it could be used for any event for a guy and not just Father's Day.

The stamp set is an old retired set from Stampin' Up! called "Thoughts of Father".  I just love this set.  They just don't make stamps like they use to and I'm very grateful I still own a lot of these old sets.  

Because the image is so intricate I used pencils to color it in.  I used designer paper for the background and then matted the main image base onto a dark blue paper.   I chose all the colors and papers to keep the card as masculine as possible.  

The inside of the card is stamped with a Father's Day message, but this card could easily be turned into a birthday card with a different message stamped inside.

And now for some Father's Day pictures.  We first went to church.  Yes, our church is open.  Some people seemed surprised by that when I posted these pictures to Facebook.  Our church reopened at 40% capacity about four weeks ago.  Our democrat governor illegally extended our lockdown so the republican legislature took him to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the judges ruled the lockdown illegal because the governor did not consult with the state legislature.  Our church then reopened two weeks later following CDC guidelines.  It is wonderful being back with the church body again and experiencing corporate worship.  I will never take going to church for granted again!

After church we took advantage of all the "freebies" the local restaurants had to offer for Father's Day.  First we went to Arby's where all father's got a free sandwich of their choice.  The dining room of the Arby's was still closed so we had to use the drive thru.  At first we were bummed, but it ended up being a a good thing because we found a sweet local park we didn't know about.  I googled local parks on my phone and found a park only about a mile from the Arby's where we could eat our lunch. It was such a cute park with a little bridge and creek.  There was a nice trail to that we hope to hike in the fall.

After our picnic lunch we went to Culvers for a free Father's Day ice cream.  Their dining room was open, (at a smaller capacity) so we took advantage of it.  It was the first time we sat down inside a restaurant since this nightmare began.  It's still weird with half the tables and chairs gone, the workers wearing masks, and all the "stand here" signs, cones, and tape, but it's better than the dining room being closed.

 

So there you have it, how we celebrated another holiday in our Covid world.  How was your Father's Day?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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