Another picture from the Digital Nuts Challenge. This reminded me so much of the Pike's Place Market in Seattle. They had so many different types of food and also lots of different kinds of fish for sale. My husband and I always liked to visit the market, especially when we had friends in from out of town. You could find all kinds of things there, from food to furniture, trinkets to trash. . . something for everyone.

I'm off in a few minutes for Bunko. I'm subbing tonight for someone else, which means I don't have to pay. YEAH!!

Like a lot of people, I really like spring. I love it that winter is finally coming to an end, but even more, I love all the new growth and color that spring brings. The picture above is of one of the two pots I have out front of my house. It may get down to freezing tonight, so I may have to replace the sweet potato plants. They do NOT like really cold weather.

Below are other other pictures from around my yard. First row: Daffodils I added to the back yard this year, potted flowers, and miniture yellow rose bushes surrounded by purple homestead verbena  Second row: Grape Hyacinth and those pinkish little clumps of flowers are called Thrift. The second picture on that row is of more Grape Hyacints (I added a bunch of those this year) and string sedum. I'm trying to get all my flower beds started with this "green mulch" rather than regular mulch, because it keeps "moving" every time we have a big rain . . . and that's happened often enough that it's a big hassle to have to keep redistributing after each rain. Then that last little pink flwer on the second row is one of only three pink tulips that came back this year. I planted 24 of them . . . before I realized that they would probably not come back.

 Third row: My very first rose for 2008. I like roses a lot . . . I have 7 rose bushes. . . 4 red and 3 yellow ones. The next picture is of the daffodils that are out front of my house, and finally more grape hyacinths. And that's not even counting any of the lilies, peonies, gallardias, coreopsis or cosmos that haven't started blooming yet.

You can see a larger version of any of these thumbnails by clicking on them.

Would you believe I made it in Excel?  I know there are software packages designed especially to do that very thing, but I like using Excel. I guess that's because I used Excel for years before I retired and I just "feel" more at home using Excel. So when my sister wanted me to share my "templates" for her to make some of her own cards on card stock I thought I'd better make them a little bit more user friendly . . . you see, she isn't all that comfortable using Excel. So I completely revamped my templates so that she wouldn't have to rotate any of the pictures she wanted to drop in them. They're so much better that I believe I'll start using the new templates myself.

Above is one of the cards I created today. It's from a photo that I "manipulated" for the Digital Nuts group. I kind of liked it so I turned it into a card.

My very first flower bouquet from my yard this year. Isn't Spring wonderful!!! I can't wait for the the rest of the garden to burst forth in bloom.

This is my latest effort for the Digital Nuts Challenge. I really liked what I came up with . . . I just had to share it with you all.   Below is what the original looked like.

I liked it much better with the black dress rather than a black bra and black skirt. I thought she looked not quite so "cheap" in a dress that covered her mid-drift. I know . . . it's a generational thing.

This is a part of the grounds at the Retirement Center my mother lives at, except mom can't see this from her window. This is part of what they call the South Forty. There are several cottages and they are a block and a half from the main building. As I was driving home from doing mom's chores yesterday, I just had to stop and take a picture of the pretty purple pasture. The name of the little purple flowers is hen-bit. I think it's actually considered a weed, but I think it's kind of pretty.

Well, I guess it's official now. Spring is indeed coming. My very first daffodil of the season was trying to make its entrance today. Didn't quite make it completely, but it'll finish the job tomorrow I bet. It's a double daff and it's been my experience that they're a lot heavier than regular daffodils and mine last year sort of sagged a lot because of their weight. If I'd known that when I bought them I would have bought all regulars. But hey, they're beautiful too.

Oh, and by the way, today was Alice's birthday. I think it was a good one.

This was another one of my attempts on the Weekly Nutcracker Challenges. I'm having a lot of fun doing these, but it's kind of intimidating when you see all the other people's submissions . . . some of them are sooooooo talented. Below is what the original photo looked like.

This is what I wasted a day and a half on the last couple of days. . . putting together a jig saw puzzle. I finally finished it last night around 10:30. Part of me wants to quit once the "fun" parts are finished, but another part of me just can't leave it alone until it's done. The sky and the water in this one were the hardest (obviously) because there is so much of it and most of the sky looks just like all the rest of the sky, and the water looks like all the rest of the water. But there is a sense of accomplishment when I stick with it and get all those pesky pieces in their proper places.  Now it's time to tear it up and put it all back in the box, and get on with more urgent needs . . like vacuuming and dusting the house.

In Oklahoma, no matter the season, and on almost every day of the year, WIND is a given. And one of the great things about wind is that it really makes a wind sock a fun thing to have and watch. Here's my current wind sock in action.