Father's Day Gifts

Why haven't I blogged in a while?  LIFE.  Yep, we all know how it just seems to keep us busy whether we'd rather be blogging or not.  So, since there's no way to ever catch up, I'll just move on.  But here's a pretty photo of the spring blossoms on my apple tree to prove I have been taking photos, even if I haven't shared them here.

Father's Day, and Dad's birthdays are the hardest ever gifts to come up with, at least for me.  So I am usually in need of some way to give them the only thing I can think of - food!
So, I did these Father's Day gifts for my Dad and my father-in-law two years ago, but haven't ever posted them yet.  So in case someone out there ever reads this and needs ideas for Father's Day, do what I did, go to Kristine Mckay's website here, for this awesome idea.  She has cute printables for these, and other gifts.  Here's how mine turned out.

I got my soda bottles and holder at Target.  I don't remember the brand, but they had roosters on the lids.

Cute huh?  Wish I could take credit for them.  But Kristine is awesome, so check out all of her ideas and the segment from Studio 5.  I totally would have made the fishing one if I had baby food jars.

Now I had better get searching because I only have a week to find the next perfect Father's Day gift idea to copy from someone.

Rock Path in Bloom

Thank heaven's all of the spring rain has finally let up a bit.  It did wonders for my flowers (and weeds too unfortunately), and it's hard to imagine needing sprinklers again.
My front yard flowers are in full bloom, or nearing, so I thought I'd share some of the recent beauty.  It even looks better now that my Mom has been staying with us for about a week and weeded!

So from this previous post FALL PROJECTS from a while back I showed the new pathway that I put in leading up to my front door.  Here's a photo of what it looked like just after it was finished.

And here it is now.  Not from the same angle though because the irises are so big it wouldn't show any of the rest of it.

Most of this I just transplanted from other areas, some I brought with me from my former yard, and some I got from family and neighbors.  I have many varieties of sedums, some lamium and some creeping thyme that has filled in nicely between  the stepping stones.  Last year I filled in empty spaces with annuals while I waited for them to fill in, but this year they are looking gorgeous and make a patchwork quilt of color on the ground.

I had daffodils that came up in the spring, and hope to add more bulbs this fall.

Another friendly insect to pose for me on one of the sedums, which I love because you just break off a chunk and throw it in the ground and it grows!  That's how I got the area so filled in cheaply.  Hardly needs water also.

We also have a very interesting cross-pollination side-effect that has happened in the front yard.  Our house had white iris:

My Mom and Dad brought me some purple iris:

So the formerly white ones in between the two now produce these irises - which I LOVE!

And even though the petals are about to fall off of this Peony I have to share it.  They are the same color as the ones my Grandmother had planted in the house I grew up in, so the scent always brings back childhood memories.

And since my Mom brought Chloe out front and watch while she weeded, we also get to enjoy this photo of a very happy Beagle!