Too Beautiful to Behold (almost)

I've always wanted an excuse to buy yards and yards of beautiful silk ribbon! And I decided to splurge and buy some to use on my altered books.

I shopped on Etsy of course and found this gorgeous ribbon at Victorian Gypsy Girl . Her prices are very reasonable (she has a sale going NOW) and she was wonderful to get my order off right away and give a little extra too! The other thing that helped me decide to buy from her was this,

These skeins are made by the ladies of Fair Trade who use new sari remnants. They cut and tear the remnants into long thin strips and then sew or tie them end to end to make a long ribbon. Then it is folded and twisted into a skein.

Okay....are you ready?

I made the photo a little smaller so that you're not blinded by so much beauty!

Now...do you want to see ALL of it?

I've wrapped it around a tie holder that I got at the thrift store.

The colors are so vibrant! I grabbed 2 books that I've made to see which colors would compliment them. 

The Autumn book....

and the Pretty Lady book. This art (the pretty lady) is by the talented artist Vanessa at Fanciful Twist. She has been a special blog friend for years. I got the card from her and glued it on the cover of my book. Her Etsy shop is HERE.

I wrapped some ribbon to form a little flower and sewed a button in the center.

Enjoy your day and gaze at something beautiful whenever you can! 🌹

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE .

Feathers Flying!!! Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

I saw a tiny bird in our front lawn (pics at the end of this post) and grabbed the camera. Of course by the time I got out front, it had flown to the back. So through the house, and out the back door I went just in time to see a 'bird fight'!!!

Five or six Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers were flying in and out of the trees out back, going up and down the tree trunks...faster than I could aim my camera. 

AND THEN....two of them came crashing down onto the golf cart path....

feathers flying!!!

 

What I captured on their way down!

 I think this one stayed 'down' awhile!

 I've never seen anything like it. But it seems that 2 males were not part of this happy family and one was determined to be dominate.

It was loud and crazy!

So what happened to the tiny bird I was looking for? I saw him the next day. 

It's a Palm Warbler and they have been regulars this week!

Have you seen anything out of the ordinary this week? 

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

Wednesday Wee Ones "Don't be SKEEEERED!"

Well, maybe you won't be skeeered...

but maybe SHE should be!

After all...I see a little white shoe under the table. Where is the dollie that wore THAT shoe?

I love a few sweet decorations...but nothing scary! 

And speaking of 'wee ones'. I made a tiny little Halloween book. It's only 3 inches by 4 inches! And it was SUCH fun to work on. I sewed it together on the sewing machine. 

Here are some of the pages with tiny pockets, envelopes and tags.

I hope your day is happy without being scary!

Just a few of my sweet dollies...

 Grace in her crocheted costume!

 Opal in a bubble dress I made for her! 

And a little Raggedy doll I made!

JoAnn and I are both sharing Wednesday Wee Ones today! Visit her HERE! If you want to join us today or tomorrow...just let me know and I'll add a link to this post!
Visit Homespun Hannah's HERE to see the sweet dress she made her doll for football season! 

Have FUN!!! 🎃

And don't forget to PLAY!

Halpata Tastanaki Preserve "Hike #35"

We call it HTP for short and it's a glorious hike! 

 It's wide open for the most part so it's best on a cloudy cool day. (and we had ONE last week! lol) 

The trails weren't grown up too much but there were stickers or sand burs to watch out for.

It was a surprise to see how many wildflowers were in bloom. And even a persimmon tree loaded with fruit. Pucker up! heehee!

I 'trailed' behind this famous photographer

 who took this amazing photo!

Aren't the greens and reds soft...it almost looks like Spring!

Our potted chrysanthemums are still beautiful too. 

What's blooming at your house?

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE .

Blue Run Park "Hike #34"

We had beautiful weather this past week and managed to get TWO hikes in...FINALLY!

One day we hiked the Blue Run Park trail in Dunnellon and were very relieved to see that Hurricane Irma had not done any damage to the area around the Withlacoochee River.

Can you believe how beautiful the water was? It was extremely fast moving that day too.

 Here comes someone enjoying the day in their boat.

I better hurry and get photos of the 'white bird' across the way.

This was a mystery when we saw it. We knew it wasn't a White Ibis but it didn't really look like a Great White Egret either. And it wasn't!!!

Meet the Little Blue Heron eating along the bank of the river.

A Little Blue you say? 

A juvenile!!! Anni has helped me so much with learning to identify many of the birds we have here in Florida. She told me to look at the bill for a certain ID on this little guy.

Now normally the Little Blue Heron would look like this

 well he was having a bad hair day here! haha! But you get the idea...he would be BLUE!

Imagine our surprise to see a snow white Little Blue!

Enjoy your weekend! Get outside whenever you can! You never know WHAT you'll see!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

The Beauty of Florida Swamps

Many of you have not seen the beauty of Florida swamps....but let me assure you, they are breathtaking! When the sun is out, shining through the Cypress trees it is magical!

 Don't you love these Cypress knees?

 

You may think of swamps as having brackish water but most are alive and well and teeming with 'wildlife' and beautiful plants. 

The swamps we walk past at Blue Run Trail in Dunnellon have a lot of duckweed growing on them. That's what the green is on the surface of the water....thousands of tiny plants called duckweed. Of course there are other water plants too. I did some research on Florida swamps and think this would be considered a Floodplain Swamp.

We finally got out for hike #34 even though it was 90 degrees! It really was a gorgeous day!

The Red-Bellied Cooter is one of the slow moving animals that lives in the swamp.

Thanks hubby for this amazing photo!

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE .

The Tersa Sphinx Moth

I can never tell if something like this is a moth or a butterfly.

When we saw it in our flowers, we thought it was a couple of dried leaves. The wings looked 'papery'!

It was perfectly still and let me take photos from every angle.

Doesn't it look like an 'alien' in some of these?

 Have you ever seen one like this?

 And when I was at the Farmer's Market, I looked across the street and saw a bird perched on a tree out in a field.

I identified it when I got home by looking at the photos.

It's a Kestrel. I haven't seen one in a few months so it was a nice sighting.

Do you have something fun planned for the weekend? We hope....hope to get out on a trail and take a hike! It's still hot but we are SO anxious to get outside again! 

Thanks Lea for the ID! I did a search and found a link HERE that tells more about it. How neat! We can always count on our blog buddies to help us when we are in doubt!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

The 'White Elephant'!

I had such fun at the White Elephant Sale and bought a bunch of junk good stuff! 

And only things I really needed! lol

 I mean....have you ever seen a lighthouse cookie cutter? And everyone knows I lived in Texas long enough to consider myself a Texan...so how about the cowboy hat and boot? I bought the hammer for my hubby! haha!

 I don't listen to country music all the time but I love a little Johnny Cash, George Strait and Alan Jackson when I'm in the mood! ( may be a Texas thang?)

 This necklace was only $1 and I didn't even realize until I got home...it's a locket! 

 

A White Elephant Sale is a type of garage sale or community sale of 'used items'. Ours is held inside and close enough that I can walk to it. Lots of fun to mix and mingle with friends and neighbors and find some bargains too. I spent less than $20 on all my 'loot' and even got some Fiskar stamps, paper and pencils for my altered book projects.

We had beautiful skies over the weekend. How was your weather?

Did you have a fun weekend too?

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE .