Michelle Legler

Doing My Part......

to help the economy :-)  I've been making a few purchases of art here and there.

I bought this awesome apron from Stephanie. (She makes tablecloths too! and other beautiful art!)  I specifically wanted this apron because it is water proof and when I'm cutting tile on my tile saw, I get really wet. I tried it out already Steph and it worked perfect!!! It's sooooo Beautiful too!!!! How do I look? :-)

Ha! Nope, I'm not showing my face in this one! I just got out of the shower and I do not want to Scare you! ha~ha~ha~ha :-) Thank You Steph!! I'm LOVING it!!!!

I also did some shopping at Miss Vanessa's Place where I bought these lovely postcards. I'm not going to use them as postcards though, I'm actually looking for some small black oval frames for them, so that I can hang them on the wall. I'll share that later.

I then bought this wonderful/fabulous print from the Art and Ghosts site. This gal does some very LOVELY work!!! I'm so hooked! Check her out!

Remember my trip to Texas??? Well, I did a little shopping there as well. I always try to buy a little local art when I venture to new places.

I bought this lovely flower pocket at a gallery outside of Fredricksburg

I bought this large Milagros in San Antonio

I took a trip to Bisbee, AZ this weekend (more about that later) and I bought this very cool bee

I'm thinking of putting him under a cloche (yep,  I'm addicted to them), but I'll have to find a large one as this bee is pretty big.

That's about it for my shopping excursions....so far :-)

I'm a little late with this post today, as I was busy building a structure for my crazy grapevine. This grapevine has been out of control for some time now and I decided that I was tired of looking at it and saying "I need to do something with that". So, here is my structure

  

It doesn't look so great yet, but once the grapevine has a chance to fill out again (I really hacked it) and grow over the top of the structure, it will be wonderful :-)

This structure will also help my grapes to grow better, as they will be off the ground and I'll be able to control the caterpillars easier. Here's a picture of my pitiful grapes now.

I also wanted to mention that I've been given "blog" awards by Molly and Vickie who are very sweet and lovely and talented ladies. Please pay them a visit :-)

 It's too hard for me to pass the blog award to anyone in particular. Let's just say that you die~hards that show up here all of the time, and who I would truly miss if you didn't, get my vote for the best peeps ever!!! How about that award??!!! :-)

Okay, I think that I will be able to show off my Fabulous Fairy House in the next post! Wowsa!!! It has been a lot of work, but I'm sooooooooo glad I made it (well, still making it) and I'm sure the Garden Fairies will be too!! :-)

See you in a few days!!! :-)

Hugs!

Michelle

Some of my Favorite Mosaic Projects are....

the ones where I get to preserve family memories. My dear friend, Diane, gave me some of her grandmother's china that she had broken and asked me to add some to an existing mirror she had and then she wanted me to create a mosaic box for her out of the remaining pieces.

Here is what I made for her with a sack of broken china

 

The mirror is edged with simple white edge pieces from the china. I didn't want to add too much color to the mirror, as Diane displays this mirror on a shelf with lots of other creamy white pieces. BTW, her home is Fabulous!!!!

I used the rest of the china and a little of my own on this cigar box. Diane LOVES boxes!!

For interest, I added the porcelain pink rose, some beads and vintage jewelry. That little 3 pearl piece on the front of the box (see above) is an old vintage earring that I snapped the back off of.

 

I also decoupaged the inside of the box with some decorative paper and some old book pages

So, like I said, some of my favorite mosaic projects are those where I get to preserve family memories. Grandma's china can now be looked at and cherished everyday. If it were still in plate form, it would probably be tucked inside some cabinet or china hutch.

Do you have some broken china from a dear relative that you just can't part with??? Make a project out of it or send it to me and I'll make something for you. This way, the fond memories of our loved ones are always in sight :-)

Okay, this is completely off the subject, but have you seen these cloches or bell jars or whatever you call them at Michaels???

I think they have 3 different sizes and they are on clearance. I like them so much that I'm going to go buy some more. They make the cutest cupcake cover. Just another dimension to add to your displays. At first I put it onto a plate (see above) but I think I like it better without the plate

 

What do you think??

I've made a few purchases lately on Etsy and in Blogland and I'll share those with you in my next post. What can I say??!! This girl is trying to HELP the economy!!! :-)

Hugs!

Michelle

p.s. The Garden Fairy House is turning out FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So Exciting!!!!

An Adventure of the Grandest Kind

Grand Canyon Kind that is!!!

 

I have lived in Arizona for 14 years and this is my first trip to see the Grand Canyon and it's only about 4 hours from my house. I'm so glad I finally made it here!!!! Of course, I've seen a zillion pictures of it, but they do not do it justice as the real deal. I thought the same thing about the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't really interested in seeing it, as I had seen a ton of pictures of it. However! When I first laid eyes upon it, I'm sure anyone in close proximity, heard me gasp with delight.

What a BEAUTY she is!!! This Grand Canyon. It's a reminder to appreciate the simple things in life. Like Nature and all it has to offer.  It's also a reminder that we MUST take care of this precious land we live on and not take it for granted.

 

I can't imagine living a life without views like this

or this

or this

or this

Mother Nature is Glorious isn't she!!! :-)

We made a weekend out of our adventure. We meaning, Me, the Hubby and Daughters #3 & #4.

We actually camped out. We haven't done that in forever....well, the hubby does it all the time with his buddies, but we girls haven't camped out for a long while. Here is the luxury suite that the girls and I stayed in...

We lovingly refer to it as the Tin Can :-)

The hubby slept in here...

as he snores VERY Loudly! Plus, the Tin Can was already tight quarters for the 3 of us and the hubby really doesn't mind sleeping in a tent. He actually had a really nice cot in there with a mattress, so not roughing it too much.

I think breakfast cooked outdoors is the BEST! (I'm usually a cereal girl in the morning)

Oh, I forgot to mention that the pugs came with us too. They really are not into roughing it....especially Trixie...

The weather was so WONDERFUL!! We camped in the Pines and Aspens..

with wonderful wild flowers growing every where...

This stump looks like the perfect place for a woodland creature or fairy to hang out...

With skies like this...

and a few sprinkles of this..

It was a positively FABULOUS weekend!!!! 

Grand Canyon checked off my list of places I must see. Yellowstone National Park is next. I lived in Wyoming for 30 years and never visited AND we have a cabin that is only about 3 1/2 hours away. I know!!! Brother!!!!!

Thanks for letting me share with you!!!! I hope your weekend was Fabulous as well!!!!!!

Hugs!

Michelle

p.s. Thank you sooooo much to everyone for all of the helpful Kitty advice!!!!!! :-) You guys Rock!

Hello Kitty at the Crazy Farm

That's the name I've given her.....Kitty. I know, kind of unoriginal, but it just happened that way.

You see, she's really not my cat. She lives behind my bushes in the front yard. I had seen her running through my front and back yard since last winter and had assumed that she belonged to one my neighbors that let their cats out to roam the neighborhood (I don't like that, btw) and poo in everyone else's yard. (one of my neighbors doesn't own any animals and her backyard is a nightmare with cat poo!) Anyway, about a month ago, on one of our very hot 114 degree days, I noticed Kitty laying behind my bushes. When I started to shoo her away, she stood up and noticed how THIN she was. That's when I realized that she didn't have an owner and my heart was just broken seeing her condition. She didn't even want to run away. I hurried inside to get water and dog food (that's all I had...except for fish food) and when I brought it outside and stepped back a bit, she went right to the food and ate and ate and ate. Matter of fact, I brought her out another bowl and she ate it all too.

I called the Humane Society about her and they are totally overwhelmed right now. They said they are receiving 200 cats and dogs a DAY. It seems that with all of the home foreclosures going on right now, people are abandoning their animals like crazy. So Sad. They said that if they came and got her, she would probably be put down. I said NEVER MIND. I can't have that. So, I bought cat food. I've never owned a cat in my whole life. I don't even know how to interact with cats. Kitty has warmed up to me though. She comes to me when I feed her and rubs herself along my legs and tells me such sweet meow~meow stories. So, now I am the owner of a cat that lives behind my bushes.  Did I mention that I'm allergic to cats??? :-) 

Isn't she cute?? She's looking pretty healthy now! ( I could use any advice at all on cats from you cat owners :-)

Speaking of animals......this is Bruiser. Bruiser belongs to one of my neighbors and I was taking care of him while they were on vacation. You can't tell from this picture, but I had his "condo" halfway inside the house and halfway out as I was trying to coax him into it, in order to get him back inside the laundry room. There's even a little snack towards the back of the "condo".

Well, I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but there are BIG growls coming from such a little guy. Bruiser, you see, is not very nice! He will even try to bite you! It took me about 30 minutes of trickery before I actually captured him. WHEW!! Ummmmm, could someone please call Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer?? I think Bruiser needs some help.

Does this ever happen to you??????

You go to download your pics from your camera and you find that your kids have been up to some trickery of their own!!! :-) They do this to me often. Tooooo Funny!!!!!!

I hope you all have a FABULOUS weekend!!!! I'm going on an Adventure!!!! I'll share the details when I return.

Hugs!!!!

Michelle

Monsoons and this and that

It's Monsoon storm time here in Arizona right now, which means that we desert dwellers, who rarely see rain, are running outside to capture even the slightest hint of precipitation falling from the skies. I kid you not! Matter of fact, while in the check-out lane at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, one of the baggers said it's raining outside. Well, you would have thought he said money was falling from the sky, as customers started grabbing their groceries, baggers were actually asking to assist the customers to their cars with their groceries and the clerks were asking the managers if they could take turns to run outside to witness this miracle of.........................SPRINKLES!!!! Nope, no real rain. Just the kind of rain that dirties up your car with little droplets. It was over in a matter of a couple of minutes. But still, we who live here, know that it is a signal of more  to come and we welcome it!!!!

On the 4th of July, the hubby and I decided to take our little boat onto Tempe Town Lake. We would fish a little and then watch the fireworks show above the bridge later on. It was really hot out! Maybe 108 degrees?? You can see ASU stadium from the lake.

There are all kinds of new building going on around this lake. You see, it used to be a dry riverbed in the middle of town used for Monsoon water runoffs and then a few years ago, the mayor of Tempe, came up with idea of putting water in it and now it has become quite the attraction. Lots of high rises and fancy condos are being built and they are very EXPENSIVE!!!

What a boost for this area and added beauty too!

So, we fished for awhile this day and then a couple of hours before the fireworks were to start, this started rolling in...

See that Grey matter to the left?? Monsoon Storm coming fast. We started heading to the dock, which was only 10 minutes away (if that) and by the time we got there, the wind and dust was blowing very hard and then lightning! Yep, time to leave. No need to be near water when lightning is near. So, no fireworks show for us, but it was an exciting day anyway.

For a week now, we've been blessed with so much rain. More rain came down in one storm this last week, than all of our storms combined of last year! And more are coming. There has been flooding and some scary moments, but it has just been BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! Oh, and it smells wonderful!! The rains bring out little creatures that we don't normally see. We found this little guy in the wrong place.

Yep, that's the pool. Once he found his way in, he couldn't get out. So, I reached in and pulled him out.

This is a Spade-foot frog. They live underground most of the time and only come up when it rains, where they then look for a mate, eat as many bugs as they can and then go back underground until the next time.

  

I put him near the pond and he happily jumped in, however, I don't think he was too happy with the Mosquito eating fish, as I think they were nibbling at him. Hopefully he'll find a hole to be happy in away from the pool.

In the studio, I'm busy working on the new home for the Garden Fairies. This is no easy job, as they are quite the demanding ones! They are asking for all kinds of fancy~shmancy decor. Hopefully, I will have it done soon, as the large doses of rain are creating quite the cramped quarters for the birds and fairies together. Goodness! So, on that note, I'd best get into that studio and get to work! :-)

Hugs!

Michelle

Magical Give~Away

In my Mad Hatter Post, I said that I would draw a name for a magical prize. 

This is a very special magical prize. It is so special, it comes in it's own special box.

Inside this special box, lies the KEY to the Secret Door in the Enchanted Garden. Only those who BELIEVE in the Magic and Fairies and all things Enchanted can be a Keeper of such a Magical Key.

So, close your eyes and twirl around 3 times and trust in the Magic of all things Enchanted.......

The Keeper of the Key is Contance of Rochambeau! You must be a BELIEVER Constance!!!

Oh Butterfly

A butterfly's sole life purpose is to recreate to maintain life~

The Butterfly counts not months, but moments, and has time enough~ 

by Rabindranath Tagore

The Butterfly ~  the miracle ~ the end ~ the beginning ~

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,

To bring you luck, happiness and riches

Today, tomorrow and beyond.

IRISH BLESSING

  

Delight in the beauty of the butterfly........

Have a good one!

Michelle

p.s. just a reminder that my Mad Hatter characters will be added to my etsy this week :-) (Hard to let go of these!)