peonies and my little helper

I love our backyard in the Spring.  It's when our two peony plants bloom amongst all of the weeds that sneakily sprout up in the flower beds.  They are so beautiful you hardly notice the miserable, little weeds.  Note I said hardly.  The process of pulling weeds is never-ending.

The blooms are huge, and stunning.

Multiple blooms and buds dominate the spectacular plant.

Here are a few random peony fun facts, ya know, for fun:  

The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing.  Asclepius became jealous of his pupil; Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower.

Mischievous nymphs were said to hid in the petals of the peony, giving it the meaning of shame or bashfulness in the language of flowers.

While the peony takes several years to re-establish itself when moved, it blooms annually for decades once it has done so. 

Peonies tend to attract ants to the flower buds.  This is due to the nectar that forms on the outside of the flower buds, and is not required for the plants' own pollination or other growth.

Peonies range in color from white to yellow to coral to pink to red to maroon.

(I'd love a yellow one!)

Even Ellie enjoys lounging peony-side.

Callan loves to be outside.

Those lovely little scratches on his face are from the other day when he decided to leap into a flower bed, head first, full of lava rock.

He always has something in hand.
He's a very busy little boy.

He watches us work in the yard, and imitates us.

Now if he could just really pull some of those weeds, that'd be super-fantastic.

Such a boy.

Head to toe.

yarn wreath no. 2 + felt flower "how-to"

When I picked up the materials that I needed to make this yarn wreath, I also picked up a smaller wreath and enough yarn and felt to make a second.  Yes, that's how much I love them.  Plus, I wanted to make one that has a bit more color for spring/summer time.  This wreath was less expensive - which I like.  The 14" wreath cost me $3.47, the yarn was $3.69, and the felt was $1.50.  A total of $8.66 for this one.

A friend of mine commented on how much she loved these yarn wreaths and wanted to know how to make the felt flowers.  Instead of just telling her how to make them, I thought I'd "show" her (and anyone else who might be interested), right here on the blog.  I did just "wing it" when making these - there's probably another way to make them, but this is what worked for me.  Here's what you'll need:

glue gun, scissors, felt circles

For the felt circles, I cut a bunch of each of these sizes: 1 1/4", 1 3/4", and 2 1/4".  (All eyeballed - none of them are perfect.)  For my flowers (the bigger ones), I used 3 of the smallest size, 2-3 of the medium, and anywhere from 2-4 of the largest, depending on the size I wanted the finished flower to be.  You'll figure out how many work for you as you go along. 

I start out by cutting each of the felt circles that I'll be using in half.  I run a line of glue along the cut edge and then wrap it around itself.  Like so:

one small "petal" starts the flower

Adding the rest of the smallest circle halves, I get to this point:

Now, for the mid-sized and largest circle halves, I have to trim a bit off otherwise the petals are too deep and they tend to look a bit "over-grown", looking silly against the smaller "petals".

trim about this much

mid sized "petals" glued on

largest "petals" added - finished flower

So that's how the felt flowers are made, at least according to me.  If you know of or come up with different (easier) method, let me know.  Happy flower making!