Friday, June 20, 2014

Lupins + garden supply store

Browsing the internet the other day looking to purchase some lupins I came across a new garden supply store named Garden Harvest Supply. They had exactly what I wanted and so I put the lupins in my cart.  Then came the time to figure out what kind of shipping I preferred, so I clicked on the "contact us" to see where they were located and they ended up being only 30 miles from me in Berne, Indiana.  I was so happy to keep my purchase in the state! I ordered them on Tuesday and received them on Thursday.  I was impressed with the packaging and the nice size of the plants.  They came in a box marked "live plants" and how they were packaged was fantastic.  They were supposed to be in three inch pots.  They were securely in the box inside this plastic packaging.  The part that is extended out opens up and the plants can be easily removed.  They definitely are the nicest plants I have ever gotten through the mail. 

There is such a large expanse of garage that I put tall plants and items back there.  Here they are planted in the back.  There is a tiny plant that made it through the winter, that I started from seed between them.  I don't know if I have enough time in my life for it to grow to flower.  That's why I bought these. 

The other is planted between the hollyhock, which I did grow from seed two years ago and the trellis.  The clematis that I planted last year is growing but lost it's flowers.  Maybe I didn't give it enough water so I will have to watch that. 

I really love these poppies and their 3 different colors.  Don't pay attention to the little bit of weeds in the picture, they are being taken care of and you can also see a sunflower seedling. 

Last night while planting the lupins I took out a stump from last years large sunflower.  It was like taking out a small tree stump! I had to wrestle it and then it was odd shaped and kept dropping the dirt on the garage floor.  It was quite difficult.  I was glad to throw it in the trash. 


Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tony Gwynn

My husband and I love baseball.  In 2007 we went to see two great players get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. One was Cal Ripkin Jr. and the other was Tony Gwynn. Tony Gwynn sadly passed away this week from cancer.  He was a really cool person and was also too young to leave.  He had so much more to give.

Here we are waiting for the ceremony to begin.  It was a very warm day. 

The Jumbotron was as good a seat as we could find.  Tony accepting his plaque.
I believe it was one of the largest crowds that the Hall of Fame had ever had.   

We enjoyed his speech immensely.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tony Gwynn could handle a bat like few other major leaguers, whether it was driving the ball through the "5.5 hole" between third base and shortstop or hitting a home run off the facade in Yankee Stadium in the World Series.
He was a craftsman at the plate, whose sweet left-handed swing made him one of baseball's greatest hitters.
Gwynn loved San Diego.
San Diego loved "Mr. Padre" right back.
Gwynn, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest athletes in San Diego's history, died Monday of oral cancer , a disease he attributed to years of chewing tobacco. He was 54.
"Our city is a little darker today without him but immeasurably better because of him," Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a statement.
In a rarity in pro sports, Gwynn played his whole career with the Padres, choosing to stay in the city where he was a two-sport star in college, rather than leaving for bigger paychecks elsewhere. His terrific hand-eye coordination made him one of the game's greatest pure hitters. He had 3,141 hits — 18th on the all-time list — a career .338 average and won eight batting titles to tie Honus Wagner's NL record.
He struck out only 434 times in 9,288 career at-bats. He played in San Diego's only two World Series — batting a combined .371 — and was a 15-time All-Star. He had a memorable home run in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series off fellow San Diegan David Wells, and scored the winning run in the 1994 All-Star Game despite a bum knee.
Gwynn never hit below .309 in a full season. He spread out his batting titles from 1984, when he batted .351, to 1997, when he hit .372.
Gwynn was hitting .394 when a players' strike ended the 1994 season, denying him a shot at becoming the first player to hit .400 since San Diego native Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.
Gwynn befriended Williams and the two loved to talk about hitting. Gwynn steadied Williams when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the 1999 All-Star Game at Boston's Fenway Park.
Fellow Hall of Famer Greg Maddux tweeted, "Tony Gwynn was the best pure hitter I ever faced! Condolences to his family."
Gwynn was known for his hearty laugh and warm personality. Every day at 4 p.m., Gwynn sat in the Padres' dugout and talked baseball or anything else with the media.
Tim Flannery, who was teammates with Gwynn on the Padres' 1984 World Series team and later was on San Diego's coaching staff, said he'll "remember the cackle to his laugh. He was always laughing, always talking, always happy."
"The baseball world is going to miss one of the greats, and the world itself is going to miss one of the great men of mankind," said Flannery, the San Francisco Giants' third base coach. "He cared so much for other people. He had a work ethic unlike anybody else, and had a childlike demeanor of playing the game just because he loved it so much."
Gwynn had been on a medical leave since late March from his job as baseball coach at San Diego State, his alma mater. He died at a hospital in suburban Poway, agent John Boggs said.
"He was in a tough battle and the thing I can critique is he's definitely in a better place," Boggs said. "He suffered a lot. He battled. That's probably the best way I can describe his fight against this illness he had, and he was courageous until the end."
Gwynn's wife, Alicia, and other family members were at his side when he died, Boggs said.
Gwynn's son, Tony Jr., was with the Philadelphia Phillies, who later placed him on the bereavement list.
"Today I lost my Dad, my best friend and my mentor," Gwynn Jr. tweeted. "I'm gonna miss u so much pops. I'm gonna do everything in my power to continue to ... Make u proud!"
Gwynn had two operations for cancer in his right cheek between August 2010 and February 2012. The second surgery was complicated, with surgeons removing a facial nerve because it was intertwined with a tumor inside his right cheek. They grafted a nerve from Gwynn's neck to help him eventually regain facial movement.
Gwynn had been in and out of the hospital and had spent time in a rehab facility, Boggs said.
"For more than 30 years, Tony Gwynn was a source of universal goodwill in the national pastime, and he will be deeply missed by the many people he touched," Commissioner Bud Selig said.
Fans paid their respects by visiting the statue of Gwynn on a grassy knoll just beyond the outfield at Petco Park.
Gwynn was last with his San Diego State team on March 25 before beginning a leave of absence. His Aztecs rallied around a Gwynn bobblehead doll they would set near the bat rack during games, winning the Mountain West Conference tournament and advancing to the NCAA regionals.
Last week, SDSU announced it was extending Gwynn's contract one season. The Aztecs play at Tony Gwynn Stadium, which was built in the mid-1990s with a $4 million donation by then-Padres owner John Moores.
Gwynn was born in Los Angeles on May 9, 1960, and attended high school in Long Beach.
He was a two-sport star at San Diego State in the late 1970s and early 1980s, playing point guard for the basketball team — he still holds the game, season and career record for assists — and in the outfield on the baseball team.
Gwynn always wanted to play in the NBA, until realizing during his final year at San Diego State that baseball would be the ticket to the pros.
He was drafted by both the Padres (third round) and San Diego Clippers (10th round) on the same day in 1981.
After spending parts of just two seasons in the minor leagues, he made his big league debut on July 19, 1982. Gwynn had two hits that night. After Gwynn hit a double, all-time hits leader Pete Rose, who been trailing the play, said to him: "Hey, kid, what are you trying to do, catch me in one night?"
In a career full of highlights, Gwynn had his 3,000th hit on Aug. 9, 1999, a first-inning single to right field at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
Gwynn retired after the 2001 season and became a volunteer assistant coach at SDSU in 2002. He took over as head coach after that season.
He and Cal Ripken Jr. — who spent his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles — were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
"I had no idea that all the things in my career were going to happen," Gwynn said shortly before being inducted. "I sure didn't see it. I just know the good Lord blessed me with ability, blessed me with good eyesight and a good pair of hands, and then I worked at the rest."
Gwynn also is survived by a daughter, Anisha.
Boggs said services were pending.
Rest in Peace Tony.  You will truly be missed. 

Happy Tuesday- You are my sunshine

Last Sunday was Fathers Day and I want to share a few items with you that I got for Tom.  I picked this magnet up at Pewabic Pottery when I was there in June.  Tom is fascinated by this old train station that is very visible from the interstate in Detroit.  It is the Michigan Central Station. He reads the Detroit Free Press online and listens to WJR especially in the morning so he is all on top of the information about it.  They even announce in the weather the temp. in Fort Wayne, IN....we are sure it is for us :-D. So he was pretty tickled with this magnet.

Here is the card I made him.  I love that sun.


This I also picked up at Pewabic.  They were a new item since I had last been there.  It was a must have. He received quite a few other items like 4 martini glasses for his bar and clothes, nifty measuring cups for his bar, a Lions license plate and a Red Wings flag.  So he was treated pretty well. He's a great  Dad and deserved it all.
Like I mentioned, I like suns and I picked this up at a 3rd world shop in Indianapolis.  It was made in Portugal.

Just a close up of the sun on Toms card.  I should have embossed it also.  The texture would have really shown up then.

These are some earrings I picked up for myself at Pewabic.  I enjoyed the different shades of green.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Monday, June 16, 2014

Billy Joel Poster

This weekend I finished designing this poster for a contest that was being held.  In 1987 Billy did a tour in Russia called "A Matter of Trust" The Bridge to Russia, and they are releasing a documentary about it and a whole package of music and other items.  So CreativeAllies was holding a contest to design a poster for this.  Because I am such a Billy Joel fan I decided to give it a try.  I took a graphic designs class in 2008 and learned to use Adobe Illustrator and was rusty of course. So I broke out my books, signed up for a year of Creative Cloud Adobe Illustrator, one doesn't need to buy the program anymore...it's on the cloud and you don't have to come up with $200.00 to purchase the program, you pay by the month and also when there is an upgrade it's right there, I thought that was a grand idea. 

I enjoy his song Leningrad and decided to research the reasoning about why it was written. If I understand it right he met this man in Russia who it sounded had a rough life and one of his great pleasures was to be a clown and make children laugh.  The music sounds so Russian and slow and heavy.  So when this contest was announced I decided to use the image of the music for this song as the background.  

I used a layer of smoke and made it transparent so that the music would not blare out and to give it some movement.  I made the text in 3-D.  And used the pen tool to draw a path around the picture of the present Billy and his microphone and piano and filled it in with black.  

So when I saved this, I had to flatten it (something I had to read up on) because of the transparency layer.  I didn't totally understand why but I did it.

I am very happy with my design, it is how I pictured it and I think "not bad, the last time I used Illustrator was more than two years ago".  I worked my way through it.  I saved this to the correct format that was needed for the web "EPS".

The only thing I didn't think about was that I needed to unlink the picture I used for Billy Joel.  When I uploaded it onto CreativeAllies site that picture came with it.  I have since unlinked it from my file but I can't do anything about on their site.  Oh Well, it's a learning process.  I am the only poster that has a picture attached to it., I guess it will stand out.

I do not expect to win by all means.  There are others out there that are just fabulous!  But I had fun doing it.  I love using Illustrator, it is such a great program. 

So please check it out and look at all the great entries, you will be able to spot mine really easily.  ;-)