Tag Archives: Shannon

New Hair

Haircut
New HaircutI just realized that I completely forgot to mention that Shannon cut my hair on Sunday. Ever couple years I get in the mood for some kind of drastic change and my hair is usually the first target. I’m loving it.

My long hair just got shoved into a ponytail day after day but now with short hair I have the worse bedhead ever, which is just fine! I am enjoying taming the beast in the morning. A little bit of “me time” before throwing myself back into the frenzy of my days.

I still want to dye it black and maybe put some orange extensions into it (which Shannon can also do!) but we have to get out to buy products to do that. I am enjoying this personal mini-makeover. It can be hard to carve out time for yourself when you are a mother.

Shannon’s Garden

Shannon's Garden - Damian

This past Sunday was a beautiful day, so we packed up the kids and spent the afternoon at Shannon’s home, or more specifically, in her yard. Shannon has torn up almost all her grass, except for a couple shaded areas in the front yard (perfect for a picnic with friends) and in it’s place built the loveliest eclectic garden that completely compliments her personality. She has a lovely eye for design and seamlessly mixed perennial flowers and herbs with annuals as well as fruits and vegetables. It reminds me of something I would find around an English cottage. At the moment her garden is an explosion of summer color, I love it.

I feel that Shannon’s garden deserves a large portion of the credit for the creation of Graceful Symmetry as most of my flower macros come from it; especially the poppies.

Shannon's Garden - Hot Pink Poppy Shannon's Garden - Poppy
Shannon's Garden - Stamen & Pistil Shannon's Garden - Red Poppy

The whole bed in her side yard is full of every warm shade and shape of poppy imaginable in bloom right now. Sunday was the perfect day for me to poke around with my camera, the sun/cloud mix was just right to photograph them, no digital tweaking needed. Beyond the poppies there are many other flowers in her front and back yard too, given the lighting, I could not resist filling my camera with their beauty.

Shannon's Garden - Feverfew Shannon's Garden - Lupine Shannon's Garden - Tiger Lily Shannon's Garden - Bachelor's Button Shannon's Garden - Lavender
Shannon's Garden - Pineapple Mint Shannon's Garden - Daisy Shannon's Garden - Unknown Shannon's Garden - Unknown Shannon's Garden - Unknown

Here we have feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium,) silky lupin (Lupinus sericeus), tiger lily , Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus), lavender, some kind of mint (pineapple mint I think?) and some kind of daisy I think. The last three are unknowns to me and I forgot to get a picture of their leaves for identification. Should you recognize any of them though, please let me know. I am especially in love with the little orange flower, the plant had deep red leaves and was only about 6 inches inches tall. Love!

Armed with a shovel and some borrowed pots Shannon let me bring some of the inspiration home. I dug up some feverfew, thyme, brown-eyed susans and daisies. I think I am going to have to dig up more lawn, no problem there. Recently Shannon also gave me some raspberry plants recently. She has a whole patch of them as well as strawberries yet eats neither. Damian took all the red red fruit off her hands while we were there though (Mommy helped him too…)

Shannon's Garden - Mason Bee? Shannon's Garden - Cauliflower

These are my two favorite photos from the day, a mason bee on her thyme and one of her developing cauliflower heads. Mason bees are my very favorite pollinators. Contrary to popular belief, mason bees do not bore into the wood of your home but rather take advantage of preexisting cracks and holes to build their nests. They are both solitary and quite docile so you don’t need to worry about swarms of angry mason bees descending upon your picnic either and they are more efficient pollinators then honey bees too. I know people love the honey bee but our native bee species need love too, if not more so, (did you know some varieties of bumblebees are actually endangered?)

I am getting off-topic here (can you tell I love native bees?) but that is okay since I am out of pictures to share. I really need to take some photos of Shannon’s garden from more then 6 inches away from her flowers but I hope they offered you a little bit of inspiration and if nothing else, made you smile. I think I have every color of the rainbow covered in this post so you’re favorite has got to be here, if not head on over to Graceful Symmetry it’ll be there. I’m even working on a black & white category.

Just an Update

u-pick
I watched Rachelle, my friend Shannon’s 8-year-old daughter today. It wasn’t nearly as traumatic and I was worried it would be. Of course it helped my neighbor’s 10-year-old daughter was home and they played all day between my and her yard.

Did you know that the mother who controls the juice boxes controls the world? Mwahahahaha! The power of snacks!

Can’t believe I just said that… Anyhow, I’ll be watching her again tomorrow and then she started school on Thursday. Even though she basically took care of herself all day, I feel exhausted! Damian really wanted to roll with the big kids but he isn’t quite there yet. So there was lots of chasing around and a couple “but-why-can’t-I!” tantrums involved. Draining! At least he gives me my workout. I think it is impossible for me to be out of shape with my personal trainer toddler.

Speaking of my spawn, this pregnancy has been treating me well so far. Last week’s checkup with marvelously well, I’m right on all my numbers, as are Ivy’s. Her heartbeat is 145 for those who previously asked. The only problem thus far is that my sciatica is starting to rear it’s evil little head again, which happened at this same time when I was carrying Damian. I recognized it early this time though and have been working on keeping it from becoming debilitating again. So far so good! Also something is really aggravating my sinuses this week, probably the wildfires up north. It burns when I breath and the insides of my ears itch like hell! Bleh. It isn’t as bad this evening though.

This past week I have been strongly considering buying a crib. Damian never used one because we bed-share (and now he has a toddler bed.) When he was younger either I napped with him during the day or laid him on a floormat. Since it was just me and him I never felt it was a safety issue. However Ivy will need a safe place to nap during the day, away from her inquisitive and playful brother. Luckily Shannon gifted us with a crib which is in excellent condition (she bed-shared with Rachelle too so it is only slightly used.) We had to buy the mattress, but I would have replaced one anyhow. Yay for wonderful friends and saving some coin!

As for the picture at the top of this post, it felt weird posting without one so I give you gratuitous butt shots and bean stealing from this past weekend’s trip to AC Farms in Otis Orchards. You can never have enough green beans.