EASTER Celebration - Shields Date Garden

 If you're looking for the perfect place to wander a beautiful garden while you reflect on your blessings during Easter, then the Shields Date Garden is the perfect place to stroll down gorgeous garden paths while viewing statues meant to celebrate the life of Christ. It's not a difficult hike, and there are places where you can sit and reflect.

Plus, there is a wonderful cafe where you can grab something to eat and drink. And there's even a gift shop, so you can bring home some delicious dates with you. 

Adult Jesus Statue

Child version of Jesus

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Jesus died for all the children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children of the world

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Jesus loves the little children of the world

Songwriters: Georg Frick Root, Woolston

For non-commercial use only.

Data from:Musixmatch

Lazurus

Male Date Plant

A beautiful Salad at the Shields Cafe

Nativity Scene

See the ladder going up the tree? People actually climb these to bring us Dates

The Child Jesus in the Temple

The Woman at the Well

Tulip Festival near Portland, Oregon

 LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO THIS WEEKEND?

Then you might want to check out this Tulip Festival  near Portland, Oregon. It's a beautiful way to spend a day but plan a few hours.

Because there are Wine Tours and Beer Breaker Tours. Here's the information about those events:

Red Wine Tour Dates- Select April 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, or 30 as the date below at 4pm

Bale Breaker Beer Tour- Select April 14, 21, or 28 as the date below at 5pm

48 hours notice required and ages 21+ only. 

Tickets must be purchased on-line - no sales at the field.

You can watch artisans create wooden shoes. They carve them out of chunks of wood, as you watch. 

You can also purchase hand-crafted creations, like custom-made gauntlets that are hand-crafted from leather: NomadLeather@hotmail.com with creations by Leather Designer: Damon.

Or, if you prefer, how about a witch broom, or a kitchen sweeper?

Plus, I found some wonderful hand-made, sustainable, fingerless gloves made from old sweaters that were just beautiful.

You can purchase food and drinks, on-site. Plus, there are activities for the kids, like a giant slide and rubber duck races. 

But, if you're looking for quiet beauty and, you simply prefer a quiet walk through the fields, that's always an option. Plus, there are benches placed around the site, so if you get a little tired, you can always pause and sit for a spell. And, it is the perfect opportunity to take a photo or two.

We bought a cup of coffee and sat quietly for a few minutes to take in all the beauty surrounding us.

These blooms are called "First Love" and perhaps they can encourage us to find that one true love or maybe renew an old one. 

But, you'll want to hurry because the festival ends on May 7th. 

Here is a short little clip, if you want to check it out: Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival outside of Woodburn, Oregon.

If you do visit, please comment in the section below and let me know what you thought of your adventure. 

Fairy Garden - 3D Printing a Fairy and Creating a Homemade Garden

I've been working on making a Fairy Garden out in my yard. I made a couple little houses and set them outside. One was made from a broken plant pot.

 But I wanted a larger Fairy than I could find  in the store so I asked my son to 3D print me one and he did. 

This is what the Fairy looked like when it came off the printer.

I separated the parts then put them together.

I primed her with a spray paint then started to paint her. 

I kept painting...

And kept painting, until...this is how she came out

But I'm still thinking of a few more details I can add to make her more magical.

Let me know if you have a fairy garden too. I'd love to get some more ideas for mine. 

Homemade Clay Craft - Penguin Project to do with Kids

I wanted to make some little penguins  so I bought some clay and started modeling the little guys.

Here's how to do it.

First buy some clay at your local craft or hobby shop.

Make sure you get the clay you can bake and not the remoldable clay - which doesn't harden and can always be squished back into a pile of clay.

Then make a pear shaped object out of your clay.

After you've made the pear shaped object, cut out some wings and stick them on the sides.

After you have the wings, you need eyes, feet and a beak.

Stick the beak, feet and eyes on to the pear shaped figure. Rub them into the figure at the connections. Then bake the little guy - per  directions on the clay package.

When he is finished baking, add a little paint or you can use markers.

Before you bake him, you can smooth him a bit. I accidently made indentations in his  body with my fingernails.

I think this little guy is cute but I want to practice a bit so I can make a little penguin pond in my garden ;D I think kids  walking past my little "pond" will think it's fun. 

Fairy Gardens

I've always wanted a Fairy Garden...so I decided to make one 

Or two...

Here's how I did it:

First I grabbed a broken ceramic pot that my dog knocked off the porch when she ran past it. And I began painting it using a gold acrylic paint. When I was done painting, I started gluing...

I glued some moss and little garden-like embellishments all over the pot. Next I  painted the chipped-off piece yellow. Then I took an old  button and sewed a bead on the  button and glued it to the chipped piece because I thought this would make a perfect doorknob. I glued the "door" back onto the pot using a strong epoxy glue.

Then I used my handy-dandy hot glue gun to make a wreath to hang over the door.

I hung the welcome wreath over the door but I still wasn't finished. 

I also painted some windows on the sides and glued more moss onto the "house". 

I thought it turned out really cute but I'm not finished yet.

I also made a birdcage fairy house to hang on a post.

Now all I have to do is find a nice spot in the garden for these tiny homes. 

DIY Victory Garden

Victory Gardens were a common sight during World War I and World War II. They were started to help supplement rations and keep up morale. 

And, gardening can be more than useful. It can be fun.  Plus, you can have your kids help you create this garden and even start it inside the house using old plastic pop bottles, as makeshift greenhouses.

Homemade Greenhouses

Seeing herbs, vegetables and fruits, you've planted from cuttings and seeds, sprout and bloom is thrilling to watch.

Victory Gardens were also called Food Gardens or War Gardens. And since this historical pandemic is a World Wide War against the Coronavirus or Covid-19,  I think it can’t hurt to have some extra food in our own yards. 

Most of us who live in a big city, have already experienced some shortages at local grocery stores,  such as flour, sugar, yeast, and  toilet paper. So, although we  might not be able to do much to stop the toilet paper shortages, we can try to limit some of our own food shortages—at least during the spring, summer and fall by being a little proactive and starting our own small Victory Gardens and by preparing our own jellies, jams, and preserves.

So, I thought I’d share some tricks, tips and ideas I’ve been using to create my own personal Victory Garden. I live in a big city, on a small city lot, but I've found ways to grow-up rather than to grow-across a wide area. And, if you live in an apartment, you can grow plants in pots and out on balconies, or in shared spaces. Some cities even have community gardens, where you can share a plot of land to garden on.

I’m hoping these ideas might help other people build their own Victory Gardens.

Here is a small list of recommendations:

•  Don't waste food.
• When you have food that starts to spoil, such as potatoes, onions, beets, etc. think about whether or not you can take a cutting from the vegetable and plant it out in your garden. 
• You can use old wood to make stakes, trellises and tomato cages to grow your plants up toward the sky.
  

This is the top of a  potato I cut off, while I was preparing a pot of potatoes for dinner. I simply stuck some bamboo skewers in the cutting and placed it in a cup of water. The raw edge of the potato barely touched the water (using a type of hydroponic gardening) or gardening without having the plant in soil. Usually people amend the water (or enrich it with nutrient mineral solutions), when they hydroponically garden. But, I simply placed my potato cutting in a little water inside a coffee mug. Then I watched it grow.

Some people have simply planted rotting potatoes and had a lot of success that way.

I'm hoping you'll try this because it's one way to help stretch your food budget and keep your food supply within reach.

And, if you try your hand at a Victory Garden, please let me know. I'd love to hear how you do.

I’m also planning to share some of my successes and failures growing my own sour dough starters. Sour Dough starters can help you always have access to bread, even if the store is out of yeast or bags of bread. :D

STOP Motion with Laika at The Portland Art Museum

Stop Motion is a type of animation and no one does it better than Laika with their award winning shows like Coraline:

With the creepy Other Mother who is a giant spider with  needle hands and horrible intentions.

But there are other awe...some shows Laika  has created, like the Box Trolls

And Paranorman

Kubo and the Two Strings

But if you want to see it for yourself,  visit The Portland Art Museum before the Laika  exhibit leaves in May and you miss the chance  to see how they animate life 

with beautiful bugs

To Fantastic Gardens

And don't  miss  the spectacular  settings they create

There's just so much to see,  you won't want to miss a thing because believe me,  it's out of this world.

At least we thought so....