DIY Video Woodburning Project - Woodburn a colorful Sunflower, monogram, and favorite Bible verse on Wood

It sure has been quite some time since my last YouTube video! I finally was able to edit this particular project I completed last year as a Christmas gift for a friend of mine. She loves sunflowers (see the pattern I made for you to woodburn! http://bernadettesgarden.blogspot.com/p/woodburned-sunflower-with-monogram.html) so I decided to go have a sunflower as the focal point. I want to personalize it a bit more so I included the first initial of her last name. She is a good Christian friend so I thought she would appreciate the Bible verse, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).

Daffodil Blooming Time Lapse Video with Bushnell Camera

I did a fun little video of my family's early blooming daffodils. In an average year they would have bloomed in early to mid-April, in time for decorating the table for my parents' anniversary. This year they didn't fully bloom until April 29. I started the Bushnell Camera on April 2nd, and had it take photos every 15 minutes during the daylight hours - a whole month of photos into a minute video. Hope you enjoy! Make sure to visit my YouTube channel for more gardening and crafting videos.

Hundreds and Thousands Tomato - Collecting Tomato Seed

Photo taken from http://www.dobies.co.uk

I've heard so many good things about the Hundreds and Thousands tomato that I had to grow it myself. Last year I searched all over (eg. catalogs, online) for a place that sells this tomato. Sadly, I found that it just isn't available here in the U.S. It is mainly a British tomato phenomenon, but I still wanted to get my hands on the seed somehow and see for myself see what all the rave was about. A nice lady from Canada sent me a few leftover seeds she had purchased from overseas. Even though it was late by the time I received the seed I decided to plant them right away. They came up quickly and grew fast. I transplanted them into hanging baskets (that's what I heard they do over in Britain with this particular tomato). They did produce a good amount of fruit even though

Mary Garden - Honoring the Blessed Mother with Flowers

 

Since I was born my parents have placed statues of Mary all around the property and house. Around the time I was born my parents bought life-size statues of Our Lady of Fatima and the three shepherd children and placed the set in front of our house facing a large lake. We also have a statue of Mary at the entrance of our long driveway, a statue of Mary in our apple orchard, and I have my own Mary garden located in a little clearing in the woods. I have always been drawn to honoring Mary in this way -- through flowers and plants and gardens. Mary gardens are certainly not a new thing; I've read that they began during the Middle Ages using flowers named by Christian botanists after Mary's life and virtues. This way of honoring Mary using specially named flowers intrigued me.

Pinteresting Tuesday: My Flowers for 2013

Profile of a Plant: Hippeastrum or Amaryllis

 

• Common Name(s): Amaryllis is actually the common name even though it is the generic name for another plant that looks similar, but is a hardier specimen from South Africa.
• Scientific Name: Hippeastrum (hip-ee-AS-trum) from the Amaryllidaceae family. Hippeastrum is Greek for knights star. The common name, Amaryllis, is taken from the Greek word amarysso, which means "to sparkle," but there is no concrete story behind the name of this plant. Still, I do enjoy the shepherdess story that is circulating across the Internet. In Greek mythology, Amaryllis was the name of a shepherdess who shed her own blood to prove her true love, and in so doing inspired the naming of this bright red flower.

Guess the Photo Revealed

 

 The cropped photo from last week is actually an Amaryllis bud, just beginning to open! Want to learn more about Amaryllis plants? I'll be posting a plant profile tomorrow so take note of that and stop by sometime tomorrow. Have a great weekend everybody!

FREE Original Flower Silhouettes and how to make your own

I wanted to make a silhouette of a lily to use for this blog as a post header for one of my regular features. I would like to share with you how simple it was for me to do.

I used Corel Photo-Paint x5 for this, but I've used quite a few other photo editors and the procedure is pretty much the same.

1. Choose a photo with a plant or flower (or whatever may be the subject) that is easy to distinguish the edges.