Taking a Break

Today I shipped my last orders and now I am taking time to clean my neglected house and pack for Disney World.  As mentioned, I will not be able to start taking orders again until May 18.  I realize that this is probably pretty inconvenient for many since there are still First Communions, Confirmations and Mother's Day to boot, but with my two "bummer" beads, I, realistically, can't get my shop open any sooner.

Eric's father, who is the biggest Disney fan, is taking all his grandchildren to the "the most happy and wonderful place on earth" according to him.  I have never been, so we are all looking forward to it.  Liam, most of all, wants to ride the train he keeps hearing about at Disney World.  I am looking forward to time away with my family, no matter where we are!

Here are some pics of our yard in full bloom a couple of weeks ago. I was too busy to get them up when my yard was blooming, so here they are!

When we moved into our home in October, we had no idea what kind of trees were in our yard. Now that we see some blossoms on them in the spring, we are getting some answers. This is a type of Japanese Cherry Tree, but I don't think it's the kind that produces cherries :(  It brought so much pride and joy to our neglected backyard for the two weeks that it bloomed. 

Here was another nice surprise. It's a dogwood tree!  It's a little sickly, so we're doing our best to save this poor little tree.

Another surprise- a lilac bush! What a joy to discover this in our yard.  Again, in need of TLC, but still smells heavenly!

This one is a mystery. I'm hoping someone can help me out with identifying this and remedying the situation this poor tree is in (SEE BELOW)

That blossom was growing on the branch of this fallen down tree. It's the one that is sticking straight up in the middle of the photo.  I want to get rid of the fallen down tree, but I want to save the healthy branch and hopefully start a new tree from it.  Is this even possible? Your advice please!

Oh, and this is totally off topic, but, not really.   Today I thought of a great idea for a T-Shirt that I would like to own. It would say in big letters, "TREE HUGGER" then it would have a picture of a person hugging the foot of the cross.  If you have a talent for drawing, feel free to steal this idea--just give me a copy so I can make a t-shirt :)