Bucks County, PA... why I love it!

I've decided to share the treasure that is Bucks County, PA in a series of posts.
I'm beginning this series close to home; with the walking/biking path that begins across the street from my development.  It's a great path, with lots of things to see and do along the way.  I think from start to finish it's approx. 8 miles, so it's a nice bit of exercise.

Along the way...

Back up....before we got to this photo, Logan fell off his scoot and scraped his elbow.  We weren't too far from home, so we went back for a band-aid.  Neighbor Jeff was in his garage and fixed Logan up with a piece of gauze and duct tape.  He also wrapped the other elbow just in case. Thank goodness duct tape doesn't really stick to skin.

Sometimes our first stop is along this bridge.  We look for turtles.

When Sam is with us we have to fish.  This is the first opportunity to throw a line in the water.

Finally we get to the play set.  Great slides for shocking; the boys can build up quite a charge, ZAP!!! 

Dairy Queen is a yummy landmark that we go by.  Once we cross a street, the path continues behind houses.  Here are our rides.  We are a Trek family.

One day the boys were throwing in their lines and we spotted this SNAKE

And they continued to fish!!! Not me, I was all about staying as far away as I could from that snake!

Finally we are looping back home, it's always an adventure.
8 miles of adventure = two tired boys.

They only snuggle, without fighting, when they are dog tired.

Enjoy,
Tracey

Fun In My Neighborhood

I cannot think of a better way to spend the dog days of summer than with great neighbors and their children, around a table, making art.  Lucky me because that's what's been happening; check out what we've been up to so far this summer...

Tie-Dye T-Shirts



Tie-Dye was a big hit, even with the parents!  All you need is a box of Tulip One-Step Tie-dye and white t-shirts.  The great thing about this kit, it included 2 sets of dye packets, so we were able to make more shirts with our cousins over the Fourth of July weekend.  The kit was $19.99 (minus 40%; I always make sure to bring a coupon when I go to Michael's Craft Store!)

Designer Logan

Happy Results

Magic Tree Houses

My two boys would love an actual tree house but we don't have any trees!  I guess that's why I fell in love with Tiny Tree Houses, another great idea found in Disney's Family Fun Magazine.  I have made 2D and 3D versions of this idea several times with my elementary art students, renaming them "Magic Tree Houses" after Mary Pope Osbourne's book series Magic Tree House - a perfect text to art connection. 

Here is a 2D version made by one of fifth grade students a few years ago. I love the people climbing the steps and the tissue paper flowers!

Here is a 3D version that was made today by 4.5 year old Caitlyn.

Great job Caitlyn!

Caitlyn's House

A terra-cotta pot with a piece of floral foam pressed into the center made a great base.  Sticks were gathered from the woods; the best ones to use are the thickness of your index finger, straight and letter "Y" shaped.  Simply sink the sticks into the foam to create an interesting visual arrangement. 

There are many different things you can use to create the house.

We used recycled cardboard items- soap boxes, ribbon circles and paper towel centers along with craft items- Popsicle sticks, ribbon and sequins.

Logan's Castle

Rachael's Zen Paradise

Hot glue works best to instantly bond, it was used to secure the house to the sticks (try to nestle the house on a letter "Y" stick for support) and to attach the Popsicle stick steps.  Tacky glue was used for all of the other craft items that make the tree houses so magical! 

The best part of this project, it's endless.  One can always add things like tissue paper flowers on the branches, another house or two (depending on stick space) and people!  Great use for some of those lego mini-figures, army men and plastic insects/animals.

You decide, is it a decoration or a toy?

Enjoy,

Tracey

To Gnome or not to Gnome

Landscaping... is not my forte.

Maintaining our landscaping drives me crazy.  Don't get me wrong, I feel a sense of pride just after we weed and re-mulch each summer, but I also feel quite embarrassed when it's neglected- which is most of the spring/early summer.  Maintaining the landscaping feels like another dreaded thing on the never ending "to do list". 

But it's not like we can ignore it; we see it every time we pull into our driveway.  It's not like the neighbors can't see it- Hello! We are in a townhouse community- we've got NEIGHBORS! (Worse, we really like our neighbors, so when we slack on the landscaping, we slack on our good neighbor duties- oh the pressure! LOL!)

I should have taken a before photo, but I was too ashamed of the way it looked.  Really, it was bad.  Here is my excuse for what is happening in our front area: The problem is, we inherited every main plant when we bought the house.  Making it look nice every summer is like trying to fix someone else's mistake, and it's difficult.

Before the gnome invasion

Everything was already planted, except for the butterfly bush.  The butterfly bush was my idea.  It replaced a very dead and unattractive pine tree.  I wanted to plant something that would hide all of the meters that are at the right of the door, so we needed height.  Sam warned me about the butterfly bush and he was right.  It gets huge and needs to be constantly trimmed, otherwise it ends up blocking our front door. And worse, when the flowers bloom, the bees love it.  We've learned to coexist.

Azaleas.  Not impressed with these, there are actually two side by side.  They bloom in the spring, have beautiful white and pink flowers, but only for a week.  Then, all we see all summer long is green. 

Elephant Eared Hostas  (I guess that's what they are called).  They are HUGE! and take over.  I thin them out every fall, but didn't this year, and I can tell.  They are kind of cool, but they have short lived white flowers which means that most of the summer they are a wall of green too.  Oh and by the end of August, most of the leaves look burnt from the sun (that's probably our fault for not keeping up with the watering, but once they declare a drought, we don't water.)

Clematis.  It used to be beautiful and full of flowers.  My neighbor, Jaime, has told me several times how much she loves my clematis so I never had the heart to get rid of it.  It used to flower all summer.  By the end of August we'd hack it down to the ground and it would re-grow and bloom again in October. You just can't justify getting rid of a plant that does that. Well, this year, it's only produced a few flowers here and there, and now it's mostly green.  If I can't get it to be "pretty in purple" flowers by August, it's a goner come fall! 

Today was the much needed weed and mulch day.  I was the weeder and Sam the mulcher.  I love black mulch- makes everything so graphic, just like the thick black lines of Pop Art- one of my favorite genres. 

The Gnome connection...



A few weeks ago we rented Gnomeo and Juliette.  I loved it, which was odd considering the main characters are garden gnomes.  (Spoiler Alert!) But who doesn't love a happy ending twist to Shakesphere?  As a teenager my mom had gnomes in our front lawn.  Yes lawn.  No landscaping in Yorkville, NY.  I don't think people there even know what mulch is- okay maybe they do now, but I am sure that they didn't in the 80's and 90's. LOL!

My dad would complain every time he mowed the lawn about having to move all of my mother's "ceramics".  Such a misconception now that I have a degree in Ceramic Arts.  Remember "ceramics" in the 80's.  When women would go paint bisqued forms in some one's basement, items like... turkey platters and Christmas trees and garden gnomes?  Ummm... that's NOT Ceramics!!!  I digress, back to my mom's gnomes in the lawn, they mortified me.  I recall allowing a boy to step on one to break it.

Little girl's dress is solar powered, glows blue once charged

Another sign that I am getting old...

I guess I have come full circle, the first sign was when I accepted a garden flag from my oldest sister Kelly.  At first I was like- "No way!" and then I found myself buying seasonal flags for it.  And now, I have garden gnomes?!  I actually just purchased the gnomes, intentionally!  Went to three stores for them, was really disappointed that the first two stores didn't have any.  I never would have thought that I'd have seasonal flags and garden gnomes.  Pigs must be flying!  Or, parenthood does really strange things to you.

How cute are they!  One for Jamsion and one for Logan

Well, my desire for little garden gnomes was inspired by the movie Gnomeo and Juliette, but also my desire to achieve some much needed color to our front area.  Driving home with my garden gnomes (and other garden ornaments as pictured- they are solar powered, can't wait to see them charged up) it dawned on me that I could also pick up some annuals to plant around... but after all of the work we did out there today, I am not in any hurry to dig. So for now, I am happy with a weed-free, black mulched garden inhabited by gnomes,  I hope my neighbors enjoy the view.

 Solar powered cat

Birds!!!

Enjoy your summer and all it blooms,
Tracey