Hot days of Summer and a Sneak Peek!

 We were given this great vintage bike from our friend whom we bought our house from.  It was his when he was a kid in the 1950’s and I’ve been filling the basket with flowers ever since we moved in! George has since passed away so it’s become very sentimental each year when we bring the bike out. We have also had quite a few folks take photos of  the bike and inevitably ask if it’s for sale – but we’ll always keep and cherish it.

 I’d rather find something old to recycle than buy new, such as the vintage tea pots and bowls I use for the flowers on our veranda.  We found the suitcases up in the attic of our 100+ year old farm house and they make a perfect little table!

 Sadly, we had to cut down a once beautiful old maple tree in our front yard as it had died and rotted.  So I’ve made it beautiful once more by filling in the stump with bright Million Bells.

 We rescued this gorgeous old rocker from the trash at the end of a flea market! The crate was rescued from our hen house and this year I’ve filled full of happy little pansies.

 Hubby and I LOVE the antique wood stoves and believe it or not, a neighbour had planned on tossing this one away in the dump! HOLD THE HORSES! We’ll take it! So now it lives here and gets ‘decorated’ each season.  We have another old stove in our backyard that we’ve converted to a charcoal BBQ. 

 My handy husband built this woodshed off of our garage and yesterday we added the boxes to grow peas.  We’ll put up some trellis for them too.  Hubby planted lettuce in the hanging basket.  Our garden is also full of veg and it’s keeping me busy trying to stay on top of all the weeding.  Can’t wait to start picking fresh veggies for our dinner!

   Our furry kids, Rosey and Cooper, need to stay cool in this hot weather so we’ve been taking them to the river (just down the road) every day for a swim.  Today I’ll be joining them (but I’ll leave the stick-fetching to the hounds…).

 Since I had the camera out to take photos of our yard this morning, hubby decided to take a photo of me too.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately.  Today I’m going to start working on my swaps for the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Salt Lake City, July 18-21.  I am soooooooo excited!  Apparently there are 5800 demonstrators going and this year that includes our demonstrators from the UK and Germany too! How cool is that?  It’s also Stampin’ Up!’s 25th Anniversary so I know they have a LOT of surprises and fun in store for us.  While I’m there, I’ll be sharing all the Stampin’ Up! announcements as well as lots of photos here on my blog so you won’t want to miss out on that!  I’ll be attending convention with seven members of my ‘Serene Stampers’ team and I know
we’re going to have a blast – I really can’t begin to tell you how
excited I am!!!!!  I am counting down the days, hours and minutes!

Speaking of my “Serene Stampers” group, each month I send them a team newsletter which always includes a colour challenge.  In June the colours were:

Here’s the card I made, using these awesome summery colours:

Can you spot the SNEAK PEEK items from the upcoming “Seasonal Celebrations” Holiday Catalogue?  It’s the new Chevron Border Punch and new Stampin’ Glitter in Black! *insert squeal of delight here!*

If you’d like to participate in this colour challenge, make a card or other paper-crafted
project and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the
internet.  Then come back here and use the link tool at the bottom of
this post to share your photo. 

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