Meko the Beautiful and Friendly Maine Coon Cat

Meet Meko, my friend Janet's lovely Maine Coon cat companion. Meko is incredibly soft and friendly. She likes to be picked up a certain way and will cuddle until something exciting (like a bird at the window) catches her eye. She purred the very first time I pet her (in my mind, purring is the official cat stamp of approval and always warms my heart).

Meko was more interested in checking out the camera than in getting her photo taken but I hope you enjoy these photos and can see what a beautiful kitty she is. Of course, I love the look of every Maine Coon cat I've ever seen but I thought Meko was especially pretty.

This is camera-flash-avoiding Meko. I don't blame her. Even though I had turned the flash off by this point she had learned to look away. This isn't technically a good shot but I thought I'd include it anyway because it's kind of arty with the shadows. Meko might be the softest cat I ever pet so it was certainly a pleasure to meet her. Janet takes fantastic care of Meko, who is clearly healthy and happy in their home.

Raindrops on Roses, Azalea, Camellia, Butterfly Bush and a mystery flower

Raindrops on a wild rose: Photo by Phyllis Wheeler

Happy floral Friday, dear reader! Earlier this week my husband and I enjoyed a rainy walk in the U.S. National Arboretum's Asian Garden. There's something especially beautiful about flowers with raindrops on them. 

Raindrops on red azalea blooms: Photo by Phyllis Wheeler

It's always a pleasant surprise to see azaleas blooming in the fall. On a break between rainshowers there were even some bees enjoying the flowers.

Mystery plant with spiky flower: Photo by Phyllis Wheeler

I have no idea what kind of plant/flower is pictured above (if you do, please share!) but it was neat looking.

Raindrops on a white camellia bloom: Photo by Phyllis Wheeler

This camellia almost looks like a peony so it brings thoughts of spring to mind, even on a chilly autumn day.

Vibrant butterfly bush bloom: Photo by Ben Wheeler

My husband took this beautiful and unusually colored butterfly bush flower cluster photo. We didn't see any butterflies but usually these bushes attract plenty of them.

That's all for today's floral photo tour. Hope you enjoyed it. Which was your favorite photo? I wish you a happy weekend and pray that God will bless you!

Janet's Super Organized Craft & Hobby Room

Overview of Janet's super organized craft room

My friend Janet has the most organized craft room I've ever seen. Not only is it super organized but it's a lovely place to hang out too. She was kind enough to let me crash it with my camera today and I hope you'll enjoy the tour. Above is an overview shot of the room with Janet the good sport, bead genius and organizing guru. She literally has a place for everything and she does six different kinds of crafts and her husband also does some of his hobby activities in her room too. Janet's crafting interests include beading, scrap booking, card making, sewing, crocheting and floral arrangement. She packs everything needed for all six craft categories into her lovely craft room (can you tell that I was impressed?).

This pretty shelf of large beads in glass jars looked even nicer in person. You can't see it in the overview photo (above) but it's on your left when you walk into her craft room.

These bookcases store some of her amazing finished beaded projects, her craft books and decorations. You can see the edge of her sewing table on the lower left hand side of the photo above. It's a handy table that has leaves that fold up from both sides of the center (and you can fold up one side, both, or neither, as Janet has it now so it takes up less space when she's not using it).

The white cabinet stores Janet's sewing supplies (material, patterns, thread etc.) and she keeps her sewing machine tucked away in the room's closet between uses).

This amazing piece of furniture is an "original scrap box" that Janet got a fantastic deal on (if I could find one at that price I'd love to have one myself). It's open in the photo but if she's having guests over it closes up to look like a regular armoire, freeing up enough space for a guest bed. Janet has her beading supplies on the right side as well as on both of the outer door edges. Yes, those are all beads! She wrote more about it here. In the main left compartments she has her floral arrangement, scrap booking, card making, felting and paint supplies. In the skinny left compartments she has a host of tools (glue gun, heat gun, rhinestone setter etc.). On the fold out table she has her current project (a beaded necklace), light and notebook and further back behind the table is a lazy susan with her pliers, pens and other small tools she likes to keep handy. Below the table is a handy compartment where she keeps over sized things like her portable craft bag (she teaches beading classes at Bead Soup). Above the fold out table she has her crafting magazines, more beading material and tools and her "bling" (pretty crystals and super shiny beading materials).

Janet keeps her finished beaded ornaments in this handily divided ornament box and the box is nestled near her sewing machine in the closet. That finishes our tour of Janet's super organized craft room! I took some close up pictures of her lovely bead work so look for another post featuring her finished crafts in the near future. If you'd like to learn more about Janet here are some handy resources for you:

• Janet's blog
• Janet's crafty Facebook page
• Janet's Etsy shop

Hearty thanks to Janet for opening her home to me and sharing her fabulous organization skills with us all. May God bless Janet and may He bless you too, dear reader!

Note/Disclaimer: I was not asked to write this post, and I received no incentive or reward for writing this post, all the opinions are mine and Janet and I are friends and fellow military spouses. I just wanted to share her craft room organization because I thought it was fantastic.

PS Here are the whole links for my email folks (who have mentioned that the emails don't always include embedded links):

• http://baubledazzledo.blogspot.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bauble-Dazzle-Do-Handmade-items-by-Janet-LeRoux/164480833582721  
• http://www.etsy.com/shop/BaubleDazzleDo
• http://baubledazzledo.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-think-i-have-supply-hoarding-problem.html
• http://bead-soup.com/

Orchid Jubilee at the U.S. National Arboretum

Ben (my beloved husband) and I attended the National Arboretum's 65th annual Orchid Jubilee today. The orchid display building smelled amazingly wonderful with the scent of so many orchids. If you live near Washington DC the event runs through Monday, October 8, 2012.

 Some exhibitors really got into the 65th anniversary theme.

All of the flowers were beautiful in their own way. The judges certainly had a difficult task. Here are some of the blue ribbon winning orchids.

 These boldly colored orchid blooms had photographers clamoring to get photos.

 But I thought these delicately colored orchid blooms were just as lovely, in their own way.

And some of the orchid displays seemed like they came right out of a fairy tale. This was certainly a treat for the senses.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! May the God of all creation bless you today and always!

PS: If you enjoyed this post you'll likely enjoy the following posts too:

• Orchid extravaganza: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/02/orchid-extravaganza.html
• Floral art photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/floral-fair-photos-art-and-arrangements.html 
• National Arboretum flower and insect photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
• National Botanical Garden photographs: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/05/national-garden-photographs.html 
• Cherry blossom and Washington DC monument photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/03/washington-dc-cherry-blossoms-and.html

Flowers From Our Garden: Floral Friday Photos

Our surviving yellow chrysanthemums are at peak bloom in our mid Atlantic/Maryland garden this week. I love their happy yellow flower faces. Their peak bloom also signals the end of my deadheading activities for the year. Now I'll let our flowers set seed so we can harvest them for next year and the birds can enjoy them this fall and winter.

The marigolds have gone wild and taken over the front part of our front yard flower bed but the moths seem happy about it. I think next year we'll put in half as many marigolds... or maybe even half of that so we can add a bit more variety but they were a quick and inexpensive solution to our back hoed yard emergency situation earlier this year.

 We still have yellow, pink and red roses blooming.

This cute rabbit and I surprised each other. I felt honored when it decided to sit and watch me instead of hopping away.

I thought this dahlia bud was striking. I'm glad to see that we should get another nice flower out of the plant before it's time to dig it up and store it for winter (we're on the cusp of zones 6 and 7).

This was one of my resurrection plant projects. It looked near death when I bought it for a dollar but it's doing fine now. God sure did make some hardy plants.

That's all for this week's floral Friday photos. I hope you enjoyed them and wish you a safe and happy holiday weekend. May God bless you!

A Challenge, My Thoughts in Pink Products & The Road To Recovery: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

During the month of October, I challenge us all to do something concrete to help the fight against breast cancer. If you know someone currently fighting breast cancer, I further challenge you to do something specific to help her or him. A lot of us are wearing pink to show our support, and that's great, but I think that volunteering and connecting one on one with people would be even more meaningful.  You could volunteer through an established charity, or, if you know someone personally fighting breast cancer, you could help them by doing chores, making meals for or providing transportation and going with a friend to treatment. Sometimes, just having a friend come and visit and really listen (without judgment of any kind) can be the best gift you can give a person with breast cancer.

I have mixed feelings about all the pink products on the market. I'm all for raising awareness and personally love pink. I give kudos to the companies whose pink products donate 100% of the profits from their pink products to breast cancer awareness. That's fantastic! But the companies who charge outrageous prices for their pink products and then only donate a tiny percentage of the profits seem like they're more about capitalizing on the disease than really helping people. I like to check and see what percentage is actually being donated before I make a purchase. In many cases, the cause might be better served if the money were directly donated to a responsible charity.

As I mentioned above, actually providing one on one assistance or support might be the most meaningful thing you can do (and it's needed all year - not just in October). If you have even just one four hour block of time free a month, the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery program might be a great way for you to provide such assistance. They match volunteers with cancer patients in need of transportation to their treatments. Visit here or call 1-800-227-2345 to find out more. You can also check with your local church, volunteer referral organization or hospital to see if there's a way you can help.

Source: http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/road-to-recovery

Maned Wolf Photos (Including a Fight!): Wild Wednesday

The maned wolves at the National Zoo are interesting creatures. They kind of look like long legged foxes and their habitat, well, it reeks. You can smell the maned wolves even when they aren't out. They're pretty animals though, and usually, at least based on our previous visits, they get along well.

 On our last visit, however, the male (on the left) kept attacking the female (on the right). At first it was over some food the keepers placed in their habitat (in two locations so there should have been enough for both) but then the male kept stalking and attacking the female a few more times in different parts of the habitat.

She successfully fended him off and they eventually ate from the two separate locations (peacefully).

May God bless you!