Envy of the Neighbors

We had a little chilly stretch (which I secretly liked)....but today it felt summery again.  The lawn is mowed (thanks to the condo lawn service)....the patio and driveway are swept and the birds are singing.  

I have what Paul calls the nerdiest tool ever...a Hoover Spin Sweeper.  You push it like a lawn mower and the big brushes suck up all the tree droppings, sand, and grit....and there's a lot of tree droppings this time of year.  It's a miracle worker....and although I feel like the senior citizen that I am when I'm using it...I love every minute.  I even cleaned up the street a little this morning because I wanted to keep going. And I'm certain I was the envy of all my neighbors.  

It has gone through various home repairs over the 15 + years I've owned it....and I hope it's good for at least another 10.

I settled in to clean the table in my studio this afternoon....and played with painted papers instead.  It was much more fun and I think the end result is summery and festive.

This photo reveals more the true me than all the tightly cropped shots I generally put out there.  The blog called is joyful puttering....not joyful cleaning.  There's always tomorrow.

I started by glueing the stems onto a scrap piece of card stock.

I layered loosely cut flower petals from my gel printed paper supply....

...and added  the flower centers with a white paint pen.  

I've had several people reach out to me with their frustrations with Blogspot and the new changes.  I'm just glad I'm not the only one.  But I'm going quit belly aching (for the most part) and press forward.  Enough bloggers seem to be voicing the same frustrations on the help message board....so I'll keep tuning into that and maybe my questions/issues will be resolved.  Each day I start the post in the new version....and end up back in the old one to finish.