Simple Things

5/24/2012 10:08 AM - Nikon D700 | Manual | 50mm | ISO 1600 | f/2.8 | 1/60 sec 

Link up at Simple As That. (See all of my Simple Things posts right here.)

Happy Anniversary!

Today Noah and I have been married for 5 years! Time really flies when you're having fun...and buying a house...and having a baby. No wonder it went so fast! 

Photo by Liz Banfield

I'll be sharing more of our wedding photos next week!

Eye Candy

No life-changing DIY today. Just an adaptation of a previous project, and a couple free printables...

We made a quick trip to Ikea the other day and picked up, among other things, a few frames for some artwork I've been wanting to put up.

Do you remember these silhouette ornaments I made for Christmas? When I made those I printed out a larger copy to use as a template to make a classic framed silhouette. I simply laid my printed copy on a piece of black construction paper and held it in place while carefully cutting around the silhouette; then I mounted it on a piece of scrapbook paper that I cut to fit my frame. Much easier than I expected...just make sure you use sharp scissors! (For more instructions on how to make a silhouette, check out the tutorial I followed here.)

I also printed this Minnesota silhouette from Q.A.Design. (She has prints of all 50 states and a number of different countries available as a free download here.) I actually preferred the yellow and navy blue combination of the Iowa print, to the red, white, and blue Minnesota print, so I just downloaded them both and dumped the preferred colors into the Minnesota design using Photoshop. Much easier than packing my bags and moving to Iowa...

Same deal with this lovely design from Blog Milk. The original print was done in black and white (download it here), but since I was planning to put it in Abe's room I added a bit of color to the numbers before printing it off. I trimmed the print to fit an 8x10 frame but I probably should have resized it too. The frame crops off a tiny bit at the top and bottom.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, when making prints to hang on my walls, I either use Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper or Epson Matte Premium Presetation Paper. The velvet paper is extra heavy and has a nice finish that looks and feels like letterpress. The presentation paper is a coated cardstock that really helps the colors pop, especially when printing line art and graphics.

Does anyone else cover their walls with free artwork? Use everyday tumblers as "wine" glasses? Live in Minnesota? We've gotten 3 inches of rain since last night! How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Instagram for Android

Finally! So I've been wanting to try Instagram for awhile now but since I had no desire to go out and buy an iPhone I was sort of out of luck. But just the other day while checking out an Instagram photo one of my friends had posted to Twitter, I noticed an Android link at the top! I immediately downloaded it to my phone.

You can follow me @michelledupuis on Instagram. Don't have an iPhone or Android? See my complete album on Facebook. I'll occassionally post favorites to my Twitter and Tumblr accounts too!

Shade Garden

Every winter I save a few cuttings from my annuals to make my trips to the greenhouse a little less expensive in the spring. They sit in little jars on the windowsill above the kitchen sink and make me long for spring...especially by the end of the winter when the tiny clippings have turned into trailing vines! 

Cutting from a Wandering Jew Plant

This cutting was from one of the plants that did well in our front window box last summer. I always have a hard time finding plants for that box since it's almost completely shaded. There aren't many flowers that do well in the shade, so I tend to buy plants with pretty foliage instead. 

Chameleon Plant, Nonstop Yellow Begonia, and Charmed Wine Oxalis

This year I filled our window box with begonias, a Buttercup Ranunculus, 'Charmed Wine' oxalis, a Chameleon Plant, a fuchsia, some pale yellow petunias, dusty miller, and the Wandering Jew I'd saved from last summer.

Shade Garden

I'm hoping my little garden still looks this good at the end of the summer (please ignore the mud splattered widows), but I'll have to wait a few weeks to see if these plants survive in the shade.

Do you have any favorite shade plants? Know of any good plants to grow from cuttings? (I've also had luck with coleus, impatiens, fuchsias, and mint.) Any other tips for growing a garden without spending a lot of green?

Simple Things

This weekend, one of my favorite bloggers posted a link to a photography link-up she was participating in called Simple Things Sunday. The link party is "all about celebrating the simple moments and simple joys that make you smile each week." Hmm...do I really need an excuse for posting pictures of my sweet little guy? Probably not, but now I have one. 

5/16/2012 10:53 AM - Nikon D700 | Manual | 50mm | ISO 200 | f/4 | 1/160 sec 

Visit Simple As That to see more entries in the Simple Things series, or to add one of your own!

Local Attractions: MN Landscape Arboretum

We've gone to the auxiliary plant sale at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Mother's Day weekend for the last few years now. This year was no exception...only this time the weather was gorgeous (it's always been cold or rainy in the past), so we spent the rest of the day exploring the Arboretum's gardens.

We picked up some nice plants at the plant sale. I came home with a new peony and a gorgeous clematis, and Noah picked out a few little hostas for our front garden. We now have 10 different types of hosta in that garden!

Noah's mom brought our two nephews, who kept Abe happily entertained even while we were looking at plants. The boys had a ton of fun just running around being boys...no girls to slow them down! 

After stopping by the car to drop off our newly purchased plants, we took a stroll through the Arboretum's tulip gardens and experienced some major tulip envy.

Tulips are my favorite flower so you'd think my yard would be full of them. I've planted tons of tulip bulbs, but I think the squirrels must have dug them up because I only had three tulips bloom this year! 

They're also never this pretty. It's easy for me to get lost at the Arboretum since I want to take pictures of everything, so when I finally tore myself away from the tulips, I found that everyone else had moved on. I didn't know where they went so I started wandering around, and came across the azaleas which were in bloom.

Maybe I need an orange azalea in my front yard...

After admiring the azaleas for awhile, I called Noah and made plans to meet up at the Japanese maple near the entrance to the sensory garden.

Noah's mom took a picture of us in front of this maple tree a few weeks before we got married almost five years ago. It's one of my favorite pictures of the two of us. Last year we got a shot with Abe in front of the tree, so we decided to make it a tradition and posed for a quick family photo. 

Then we found another gorgeous tulip garden. What I wouldn't do for a garden like that! And this one is in front of the restrooms! I'm not even sure those toilets have plumbing... Tulip. Envy.

Since the boys were getting tired, we decided to take a short walk through the Woodland Wildflower Garden. It's a paved trail that's nicely shaded and at certain times of the year you can spot Minnesota's state flower: the pink and white Showy Lady's Slipper.

They weren't blooming this time around (I think they bloom around the end of June/beginning of July), but there were a bunch of these yellow lady's slippers.

This trail is great for kids because it has all these fun little trails and bridges that cross a tiny stream. It feels like a real hike...without the trouble of really hiking. 

Which brings me to other kid-friendly activities at the arboretum. Abe was pretty happy just running along trails (little did he know what he was missing), but on weekends, the Arboretum offers a bunch of different programs for kids at the Learning Center. There's also the "Under the Oak" nature play area just outside the Learning Center, built beneath the oldest tree at the Arboretum! And if you walk (or drive) along Three Mile Drive, make sure to stop at the Maze Garden. Not quite as large or confusing as a corn maze, but just as much fun!

The Arboretum is a nice place to visit any time of year, but I especially love going when the apple trees (usually mid-May), tulips (late April/early May), roses (June-September), and peonies (late May/early June) are in bloom. (Click here to find out what's currently in bloom.) I remember going to the Arboretum in the winter as a kid for their pancake breakfast, but did you know you can also go shoe-shoeing and cross-country skiing when there's snow?!

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum offers the following attractions and amenities (click on the links for more information):

           

For more information about the plants and upcoming events at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, go to www.arboretum.umn.edu.