Heather's Garden

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hopefully everyone has opened their Christmas present by now, so I can share the calendar with you.

Cover:

 

January:

 

February:

 

March:

 

April:

 

May (taken in Layanee's garden):

 

June:

 

July:

 

August:

 

September:

 

October:

 

November:

 

December:

 

FAQs

Did you take all these photos?

Yes.

What kind of camera do you use?

Canon Powershot SD400 Digital ELPH (about 3.5 years old).

Do you Photoshop your photos?

No.  I used Picasa to punch up 1 or 2 of them using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, but to be honest, I don't even remember which photos -- July for sure and I think maybe February, but I don't remember. 

Do you crop?

Not usually.  The dragonfly is cropped, as is the frog, and maybe the spider, but I think that's it.

How did you make the cover?

Picasa again.  It's really simple to create a collage and then insert text.  I can't express how easy it is to use.

These are all from your garden?

Yup, except for the frog which was in Layanee's pond.

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I hope you all enjoyed seeing this year's calendar, I sure had a lot of fun putting it together.  I'm going to enter 3 of the images in a photography competition.  Please let me know which you think I should use.  I'm pretty sure I know which 3 are my favorites, but if there's a groundswell of support for one that I haven't considered, I could enter 4!

Merry Christmas!

IS IT ANY LESS JOYFUL BECAUSE IT'S CHEAPER?

Some years the Christmas card list is short, oh who am I kidding?  Some years I haven't sent any at all.  This was one of those years where I bought a package of 20 cards, wrote up my list, made out all the cards, and then figured out that I had left off 3 very important people.  Guess who's going to buy a cheap box of cards tomorrow?  Ugh!

Tonight I spent a few hours writing out the cards and wrapping the calendars that I'm giving out.  We started out the evening watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (because who doesn't feel better about their holiday plans after watching that movie?) and I just kept wrapping and wrapping.  After the movie younger step-son (who is now living with us when he's not at college, which is a joy) started playing Halo.  So this year Christmas presents and WARTHOG! will be inextricably linked in my mind.

2008 finds us still celebrating Christmas, but in a much more conservative manner than last year.  The economic downturn hasn't directly impacted us, but having 2 kids in college at the same time has.  I've said several times to VPH this fall, "Thank goodness we have no money or we would have lost a bunch of it."  Long story short, last year we spent almost $70 on a living tree, a bunch more on a rosemary tree and a lovely poinsettia from the good nursery, and I forced bulbs all over the house.  This year we have a $15 fake tree and 2 poinsettias that were a total of $6.66 and that is it.  There isn't another plant in the house (other than one really old houseplant that we inherited from my mother-in-law years ago).

The view from the couch after I finished wrapping:

There are several items of note above:

1. The $15 Christmas tree...better than you thought, isn't it?

2. Younger step-son's feet...anyone surprised he's over 6 feet tall?

3. The Wii Fit in the gaming section of the entertainment center...one of these days I will get around to trying it.

4. Halo on the TV...you know you're jealous!

The calendars will be in tomorrow's outgoing mail so I should be able to share the final photos with you on Christmas day.  Until then, best wishes for sanity in this, the most stressful time of the year!

WERE THEY WORTHY?

Strangely, I haven't started forcing any bulbs this year.  In fact, I haven't even purchased any bulbs to force.  I'll have to see if there are any at Van Wilgen's when I go to buy our poinsettia tomorrow.  We're half way through decorating the house for Christmas.  I'll post soon about that and how our decorations, purchasing, and entertaining will be quite modest this year. 

But after much debate I have decided that it would be a shame to kill the calendar idea just because we have two kids in college and the economy has tanked.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for the lucky recipients of this year's Heather's Garden calendar, so I won't show you the cover and 12 month photos yet, but here's a collage of the 2008 photo finalists complete with the graphics used on the real cover (though not to size):

 

I will, of course, share the final product with you in due course. 

I have to confess that going to Florida for 10 days in November made us miss the prime garden clean-up weather and the snowy, blistery 15-27 degrees of the past 48 hours is making me think my chair cushions may stay out there all winter.  Anyone else hopelessly behind in clearing their leaves this year?