ANTS AND PLANTS!

I mentioned this on my facebook page but I would like to share it with y'all!!  SOOOOOO a few years ago I noticed that our jasmine trees had ants allllll over them.  As I looked closer I saw scale.  Since they were outside I decided to just let it go until the fall when they come inside.  When I checked it again the ants AND the scale were GONE!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I just thought that it was just some weird event:)   THIS year my favorite myrtle topiary had scale so I took it outside and found some ants, really easy to do this year, and put them onto the plant.   In about a week they had cleaned that plant as well!  Even the stickyness was gone!!! I don't think that  ANTS COULD REALLY MOVE A RUBBER TREE PLANT   but they sure can clean up the scale:)  I have a new respect for those little critters:)

It has been really hot and humid so I haven't finished painting the porch, I have been sitting on it though, not as long as I would like because I feel like I am sitting in a sauna!! When it gets a little less humid I will get back to the porch.  We still need to paint the doors and the shelves.

I hope y'all are keeping cool and drinking LOTS of water!! I like to put lemon in mine and it is so refreshing that I don't want anything else.  I DO have my sweet tea at least once a day though!!

OK I am outta here!!  And don't forget to thank a Service Member for his or her service to our great country!!

Oh yeah, here is a little bit of trivia~~~~~ The heat in Afghanistan at this time of the year is about 130 degrees with high humidity!  I try to remind myself of that when I think I can't stand the heat anymore! 

Have a GREAT week!!!!!!!!

About that porch......

Good Morning!!

Whoever said "Time Flies" knew what they were talking about!

 Somehow I have lost about 2 weeks.  So here is what has been going on!   My husband and I ACTUALLY TOOK A VACATION!!!  We hardly ever go away for very long.  We both hate to leave our babies, which are the two dogs y'all see in my pictures all the time:).  BUT we have a wonderful friend who started a pet sitting business a few years ago and she is great so we decided to give her a call and see if she had any openings, she did,  so we toke off!  

Since we settled on Maine for our little get away, I thought I would brave the heat and see the beautiful North East!   It WAS SOOOOO beautiful.  We left on a Wed. and stayed in Saratoga Springs NY, which was a really cute town, then on to a small town in Maine called Auburn.  I loved that little town although it was a little depressed as the mills have all closed, soooo sad.  

This is Auburn!

These are the views from our hotel room, we walked along a little path that went by this river an took tons of pictures!

I loved the water!! it looked so pure!!!!

The next day was  my favorite of all!!  Driving through Maine was the most fun and the scenery was great!  AND GET THIS!!! :D  ALLLLL of the houses were different and most were OLD!!!  I did notice that most of the porches were~~~ you guessed it ~~ BLUE!!!!   They were well maintained and loved!  We took the back roads along the coast and I couldn't believe all the antique stores!  My "antique store radar" was going off every 2 or 3 SECONDS!  We didn't go into even one because our little car that only seats 2 was full already!  But we have decided to go back and take the TRUCK:)

Our destination was way up on the boarder with Canada and it was really cool and beautiful!

It was cloudy when we got there

The wind was blowing designs in the water!!

These are views from the deck of the little cottage we stayed in! 

We didn't want to ever leave:) 

The only thing I found a little strange was that there were no sounds 

AT ALL  during the night.   I missed the frogs croaking and the lightin bugs that are so much a part of our Southern Summers!

We saw beautiful Acadia National Park and spent some time with good friends.  

Our trip came to an end and we headed out to West Point NY and then home to VA!

 As we all know it is great fun to take a vacation, but it is GREAT to get back home:)

As you might have guessed by now,  the porch is still not completely finished! SOOOO back to work soon, probably not today though, its my day to work in the gift shop at the wonderful

Mary Washington House, George Washington's mother's home.

I have gone on tooo long about our trip but I just had to share:)

I hope you have a great day, and if you get the chance, go out and see our beautiful country, it is all out there waiting for your visit!!

A little update!!

I usually like to blog on Mondays but I decided to pass this along today! :)
I wanted to alter something that I said earlier about aging a wall.  I mentioned staining it first, then dry brushing.   You would NOT have to stain first, unless you wanted the aged look sooner, just dry brushing over the bare wood would be fine.  Just let nature do the rest!  It might take a little while, not sure how long!

I am having problems getting the pictures side by side, I will have to work on that, I have lots of wasted
space:)

These are examples of dry brushing.

These are some pictures of the almost finished porch.  I still need to do the doors and the inside of the cabinets.  Still deciding on the color, but I am thinking a light mustardy color.  I like Benjamin Moore's
HC 40 or HC41.  That decision will be made on Mon!  Hope the paint store it open since it is the 4th.

 Charlie loves the porch:)

My Favorite rocking chair:)

I liked the shadows here.

A FEW EXTRA PICTURES!!!

Charlie and Rowdy !  We all stayed on the porch most of the day!



Right after I took this picture Rowdy stole my peanut butter bagel!!
She had trouble getting the peanut butter off the roof of her mouth!!
It was sort of funny watching her, but not to healthy for her!




I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
PLEASE REMEMBER OUR TROOPS!


So long until next time!