Blooming and growing, Mindful Moments 9

Hello friends, here I am with my 9th Mindful Moments post. If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here. Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

This week has been very much a blooming growing week; in my garden, all around me and especially my dear dino babies, more about them later.

I had my fantastic delivery of annuals from my local nursery. 

I bought a few veg plants too including Gardener's delight tomatoes and some dwarf beans. I have also been planting out some of the seed I grew.

My spring pots had finished and it was time to empty them out, wash them and get my summer bedding plants in.

Here is one pot finished..so much colour to add to my garden.

I can't wait to see them bloom and grow. They will bring such joy.

I also have digitalis in flower in my front garden, one of my faves. When they have seeded I will sprinkle some out the back again as all my old plants were dug up when we had our landscaping work in January. I'm sure they will reseed.

In the park there are so many gorgeous blossoms now. New ones seem to appear almost daily.

The coots on the lake at Beddington have hatched their sweet chicks.

 The ducklings swim by to say hello and are growing really big.

The Canada geese goslings who were mere fluff balls a few weeks ago are being proudly shown off by their Mum and Dad.

And as for my sweet dinos...oh my they are doing so well.7 of the babies have survived and even the tiny runt who I thought had died is doing OK. I saw them this morning and just look how big they are!

In the center above and below is the darling tiny runt, he is being well looked after by his family.

It is such a joy to see them growing up.

So my Mindful Moments project for today are some ATCs I made using a rather apt Paperartsy stamp set from yonks ago, a reminder that even rather psychedelic caterpillars will one day grow into beautiful butterflies!

Here is one in close up;

 I would like to enter my ATCs into the following challenges;

Through the craft room door 2/2 anything goes

Not just cards 3/3 anything goes

Cute card Tuesdays 2/3 critters

Fab n funkie 3/3 anything but a card
Creative artiste 1/3 anything goes
Lil patch of crafting friends 1/3 anything goes

Pixie's snippets playground #378 I used snippets of paper for paper piecing my flowers

If you missed my post yesterday I have a little giveaway running on my blog which is open to everyone worldwide. Take a peep here; it runs until 6 June and is gift to yourself or to a friend for one randomly selected commentator.

I found these inspiring words to use today;

“Every bird, every tree, every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.”

Marty Rubin

These times WILL pass.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you have taken the time to leave me, they are so appreciated. Have a lovely weekend, take time to look around you at Mother Nature who is totally unaware of any Lockdown or Pandemic!

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x

Summer bedding colour

I  am back as promised to share my summer bedding photos. I bought the plants at the weekend and spent Sunday potting them up. It's always hard work but I know that I will get a whole season of delight so it is well worth it.

I bought 2 trays worth including dahlia, begonia, geraniums. It was a hot day so I worked in the shade of the sun brolly after my Hb and I had enjoyed an al fresco lunch in the garden. It reached 28c!

I have dahlia, geraniums, begonia

 nemesia, 2 tomato plants (gardeners delight variety of course) and lots more.

I also have a few fuchsia that have successfully overwintered so I used those too.

I managed to pot up 2 hanging baskets, 3 big pots and 2 small ones.

 A couple of close ups. I will get so much inspiration from these glorious colours. I gave everything a really good drink of water once they were in.

My card is not a floral one but a Father's Day card as 16th June is fast approaching. It is up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton High Street, SM5 2EP where my cards for all occasions are sold.

The image is a sweet vintage old Nicecrane one, sadly no longer trading. I stamped the sentiment and the scrabble pieces are also a download. The dies are by Cheery Lynn.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges.

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes 

Crafty catz 3/3 anything goes

Love to craft 2/3 anything goes

Lil patch of crafting friends 2/3 anything goes

Cardz for guys 1/3 Father's day

Everybody art 1/3 vintage

Through the craft room door 1/3 anything goes

Unicorn challenge For the men/boys

Crafty card makers 1/3 masculine

Crafting by designs 1/3 anything goes

I went to RHS Wisley gardens with my dear crafting/blogging friend Brenda Brown on Monday and the colours there too were amazing. I will share some photos soon. We have finally had some welcome rain now, my poor garden was parched. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Colour in the garden

I finally found the time this week to plant up the gorgeous bedding plants I bought from our local nursery. 

I filled my trolley with fuchsia, geraniums and lots of annuals as well as 2 little gardener's delight tomato plants (my favourite variety)

It was time to wash out my pots 

 and work out my colour and plant groups.

 I also have a hanging basket which I put my gorgeous trailing begonia into.

It is always hard work getting these done, but they will give me colour and delight right through to the first frosts. I have such a tiny garden that pots are the only way to get lots of colour in my garden.

Here they are potted up

and my gorgeous begonia swinging in the sunshine.

I get so much inpsiration for my crafting too just by being outside in my tiny garden, delighted by the flowers which surround me.

My card today is a new one taken down to sell in Dotty's Teahouse using an old Crafty Individual's stamps which I love. I stamped it onto book pages and coloured it using distress markers. The sentiment is an old LOTV stamp.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Stamping sensations 3/3 close to nature

Crafty Calendar 2/3 things with wings

Penny Black and more 3/3 anything goes

Happy little stampers anything goes with dies

Fashionable stamping Floral

Simon says stamp  Monday inspired by a song as I sat in my garden studio my favourite summer song "Summer Breeze" by the Isely Brothers came on, this was my inspiration for my card!

As you like it 1/3 flora or fauna and why...a hard choice but for this card I have actually managed to have both but for me the little bird (fauna) is more important as I could hear a bird singing from my garden studio as I made this card!

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments you still take the time to leave me. I really appreciate them.  Enjoy a lovely bank holiday weekend ahead. I had a lovely lunch date today with my dear blogging friend Brenda Brown at Wisley RHS gardens...the weather held up and we stayed dry. The flowers we saw were awesome. I will share some photos soon. We have had some incredible thunderstorms over the past few days but at  least my lawn is looking lush.

I am back on Monday with my weekly Visible Image DT inspiration.

I also need to inform you of the new Privacy Policy for Jane's Journal which has been set up in my side bar and reads;

"Jane's Journal does not and never will share your personal information with any 3rd parties.

If you subscribe to my blog by email, you may unsubscribe at any time. Emails are managed by Feedburner and your email address will only ever be used to notify you of a new blog post. Blogger and Feedburner are both managed by Google which has it's own privacy polices which you can read here; 

Occasionally I will have 3rd party affiliate links to companies whose products I use. These companies will have their own privacy policies over which I have no control.

My privacy policy may be updated at any time"

Bye for now,

Jane x

Blooming marvellous in the garden

Thanks for visiting me on Tuesday and your kind comments about my GD card for Ladybugs Craft Ink. I gave you a couple of photos at the end of the post showing two of my pots in the garden and I thought I would show you a few more as it really is that time of the year where the garden is just singing.

I have some really gorgeous purple petunia

My tomatoes are fruiting,

                                          my heart sings when I see these little fellows growing.

I have planted sweet corn again, this one is in a pot and the ears have appeared already.

I have mange tout growing with my runner beans

 and even in a hanging basket with a geranium

and I even spied a new rose blossom on my patio rose

I had a tidy up out in my tiny garden after work yesterday afternoon and of course my little helper was never far away

 My sweet Billy rolling over and over and getting very dusty

 but loving the sunshine.

The weather yesterday afternoon was much better than forecast which was a real bonus to come home to after work. It's the weekend again, hooray. We have a quiet one planned catching up on lots of things at home and I hope to pot on my tomatoes to their final pots and pot up one last pot of flowers to have down near my studio. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and find time to enjoy some time outside whether in your own gardens or out and about. 

My card today is inspired by my garden and uses one of Ignacio's wonderful roses printed images.This one is from the Henderson's blooms set available here

I decided to use some burlap to give it a real vintage garden feel. My granddad used to have sacks which he stored things gardening things in and even the smell of it transports me back to early childhood in my granddad's garden.

Here are a couple of close ups 

I added a vintage flower charm too. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Emerald Faeries friends

Rhedd and Rosie anything goes

Crafting at the weekend anything goes

Crafting from the heart anything goes

Simon Says Wednesday anything goes

We do doobadoo ribbon

Crafty Catz anything goes

Simon Says Monday I ought to use this more I really think I ought to use burlap more I think it gives such a vintage feel.

Chocolate coffee and cards summer days

My card is for sale here in my Etsy shop

The heavens have just opened here, I hope the garden is enjoying its watering, it will save me one job today ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x