red beans and rice

I finally perfected red beans and rice.  Thanks to May's grocery polish sausage this is SO good!  I have been working on this recipe for at least 25 years.  

riki

 3 months 3.6 lbs.

 Peeing his belly band.  

gel pen mandala

 There is so many great artist's online they inspire me everyday.  Joe Mangrum does those great sand mandala's and Batikwalla does such beautiful batik painting.  I'm saving for one of her pieces of art.

The art supplies junky group totally enjoyed this haul.  Me TOO!  :)

he likes his new bed.

new bed

 I finally got the puppy off my lap long enough to make this bed for him out of my mother's beach towel.  I used an overstuffed silk pillow to pad it.  Hopefully that will make it more comfortable, and my little baby will be sleeping on silk!  The towel was almost worn out and I wanted to save it, somehow.  When I caught my husband using it last year I knew I needed to take it out of circulation.  I'm sure Riki will appreciate his new bed.  I know Mom would approve.  She has been gone nineteen years now and the towel is older than that.  I bought it for her birthday the year I moved to Florida.  She wasn't happy about the move and the towel did not make up for it.  Ha.  I was back in three short years and was there for her in the end.

Day late shot of the honey moon.  Darn.  I was so tired friday night that I totally forgot to take pictures.  This puppy is wearing me out.  In a good way though.  

hampers

 I LOVE baskets!  I once counted the baskets I had in my little house in Mississippi.  Over one hundred.  That was then,  this is now and my collection is growing again.  I found this beauty at World Market!

 I bought the small one on the right and realized it was too small for a hamper but it matched my craft room baskets!

 So I bought this size for the hamper and just had to pick up another small for the craft room.  I think I got a good price on these at Old World Pottery.

I bought this bamboo basket right after the storm.  Now that I look at it, I could have used it as a hamper.   So, I probably haven't replaced all one hundred baskets that got ruined in the flood but I am really happy with the new ones!  Thanks to everyone who bought my stuff at the garage sale!

clematis and california poppies

 I can't remember if I blogged this color work I did for the house.  So far I really like the colors.  My husband has a very demanding job so he paints when he has time.  It seems like an overwhelming task to me but he doesn't stress over stuff like that.  If I could I would help!  He finished the hall last week.  I really like the perfect taupe with the new carpet color.

 Finally took some pictures of my beautiful yard.  It has rained so much that everything is overgrown and lush.

 These are giant hostas!  Love the blue color.

 I haven't added any seeds to the 40 foot bed this year.  I've never seen the poppies so thick!  I'm surprised, because I understood California was a dry state so I assumed the poppies would prefer it dry.  The morning glories are mixed in.  I need to get some twine to help them climb the fence.  My cousin taught me that trick.

Now it needs to stop raining.  We have had about 6 inches in the last few days.  The sun needs to come out and warm the pool up!  

mandala

Gel pen mandala for June 2014.  I made a mistake last night, so cut the circle out and glued it to a new page with a couple more rows added.  These are fun!

Riki

Named him Riki because he "is" my reiki!