Decide the Fate of the Pink Flamingo

The time is nigh... the entries have been lovingly (I presume) created and expectations are high to win the coveted prize:

The glow-in-the-dark Flamingo 

(blingee, sparkly background lights not included)

The voting is simple. Click on the thumbnail of each/any entry to revisit the fabulous fantasy yards. Select your favorite. You have one vote. Submitting an entry is not a requirement to vote! Fans of field reporters: support you favorite artists. Field Reports: go beg your friends, family and co-workers. (Begging works, I swear. I know I have used it many times)

I will leave the voting up for two days. Good luck to everyone.

Click on the star to vote

CONGRATULATIONS Eventer79. It was a thrilling campaign.

Fantasy Yard - Number 9 - Mayhem

OK Everybody, I believe that we have our last entry. Craig of Ellis Hollow pulls no punches and plays the sympathy card. Will it work?

"Thanks for extending the entry deadline. Were it not for a back injury last week that has me at wit's end, I wouldn't have been able to find the time to enter, either.

I'll admit that in my weakened state, I succumbed to the lure of Blingee to decorate my front yard gardens. But then Blingee is the very definition of tacky."

Tacky, this is true, but what is it with the Indian chick?

So what do you think, can Craig win the prize by pulling the bling card? 50 points

Tune in tomorrow....

image added for voting purposes

Fantasy Yard - Number 8 - Brrr, It is cold in Canada

We are coming down the short rows for the fantastical yard art giveaway. Voting starts tomorrow.

ChrisJ of At My Soiree submits:

"Flamingos get a little crazy in the cold and snow and want the comfort of a heated seahorse birdbath. Unfortunately these homeowners don't heat theirs, so have to take the bowl inside so it doesn't crack in the cold.

Manatee is smart and watches from beside the warm chimney. The gnome looks on."

The manatee approves of the proper care of the seahorse birdbath and she feels the flamingo is on her own.

"The other attachment is a pic I found online  - some folks have too much time on their hands!"

Priscilla would like to apologize to the public for the poor costume choice of her designer. Everyone knows Snow White did not socialize with the likes of gnomes but she is quite fond of her new hairdo.

Good move, ChrisJ leave them with a lasting impression: 50 points

Fantasy Yard - Number 7 - Flamingo Paradiase

Donna from GardenWalkGardenTalk submits a full Broadway production with a talented chorus line:

Why have plants when you can have ornament. Welcome to Pink Paradise, where gnomes stand sentry and light the way to sheer pinkness. Why have a white picket fence when you can have a bright pink flamingo fence? The flamingo arbor is a one of a kind, and such a nice addition to any purple and pink path.

And why plant flowers when you can have these beauties all year round. And of course the gold horses, as they are a perennial favorite to show wealth and opulence. The only live planting in the front yard is two pick crabapples, of course. But the owner has opted to swap these out for maintenance free plastic replicas. They are being fabricated to specification.

Credit: What's Up Design, LLC

Ah Donna, you have picked up my weakness for the gold and shiny and our delight in purple houses. 

Fantasy Yard art submission bonus: 50 points


One more day to get in your submission for the glowy flamingo:

Cute baby flamingo fix:

Fantasy Yard - Number 6 - Belgian Power ... Ho

This year we have all enjoyed the artistic displays of our more nomadic neighbors. We have visited camping parks, dubious mobile home communities ,traveling homes and tiny trailers.

As a tribute to our wandering  (or potentially wandering) collectors, Belgian Mom submits her entry in the Fantasy Yard Art flamingo giveaway:

Giant Belgian statues (all in harness) attached to my trailer (not actually my trailer but he's it's fantasy) as though they were taking us away to some far far better place... Every day they will greet me as I pull into the driveway as if to say "Is today the day?".

Such a tranquil place with the lovely lush grass and the clear blue skies...A seahorse birdbath rests below a lovely shade tree calling out to any who wish bathe in its cool waters.

Oh, and wait, don't forget the gnomes. They are busy at work tending to the carrot garden. Carrots aren't cheap you know, and Belgians do love their carrots.

The Belgian team has their work cut out for them. I hear the Hippocamp is a terrible task master with a napoleon complex known for shouting orders from his majestic seahorse birdbath throne of power.

50 points fantasy submission

 You know if you take a hippocamp out of the water, they really don't look like much:

Fantasy Yard - Number 5 - Working The Holiday Bonus

We have a few new readers and the nuances of The Yard Art Game can confuse them. Yesterday, I had a guest ask:

1. If I was still blogging (pfft obviously, not a person of refined taste)
2. to explain the scoring again (don't worry your pretty little head over the scoring, the list is always on the right)

But the game does include fun bonuses, one being the holiday bonus. With the holiday bonus, one point is assigned for each decorative item one month past the holiday in question. So if you still have your Christmas stuff up on January 26, be looking for a field reporter in your front yard.

Diane comments and submits:

would represent ALL holidays.

the hats are a nice touch

Obviously a lazy homeowner (or an efficient one) who took care of one year's of holiday decoration all in one fell swoop. For working the holiday bonus (and the fantasy yard art bonus for the Flamingo Grand Prize): 50 points

St. Sanchez wishes that everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday. (don't ask)

Fantasy Yard Art Number Four - Margaritaville on Prince Edwards Island

Not to hurry along anyone's creative flow but the Fantasy Yard Art giveaway voter smack-down is on Monday, November 29th. I'll leave the voting up for a few days to give everyone a chance to vote. You DO NOT have to have a submission to vote. Just choose who will get the grand prize, the glow in the dark flamingo. (oooh...ahhh)

Marguerite from Canoe Corner submits:

I thought this fantasy yard art project would be kinda fun but I have to say I've learned a little bit about myself in the last two hours. It started out simply enough with a nice drawing of a pretty house in bright shiny colours and some trees (I love trees) and then I added a reflecting pool and fountain (with dolphins!). Some pretty red flowers were added to make the pool less austere. I added a barn star to the house since everyone in PEI has one of those (civic pride). and then I added some statuary because frankly every reflecting pool needs a statue or two. and finally, the piece de resistance, a place of pride for the new glowy flamingo. Except mine doesn't glow, so I added coloured lights to make him a little fancier. But then the flamingo seemed lonely so I added a palm tree and some parrots.

and then the gnomes showed up. I don't know how they got there but they took the joint over. They brought a turtle and a rabbit. Stepping stones became necessary to cart the beer from the house and a table was set up with inflatable palm tree beer cooler. Somebody texted the donkey, and that darn dutch couple couldn't keep their hands off each other.

I guess the moral of the story is don't invite gnomes because they're bound to get out of control and I have a weakness for yard art that could spread like an infectious disease if I'm not careful.

Marguerite , thank you for bringing us on your journey of self discovery. It is OK, we are all here for you and understand your lust for the yard art. : 50 points

Hey, I am missing a gnome, apparently he headed up to Canoe Corner for your tropical party. Dang gnome traitor.


I am going to pre-apologize for my sense of humor...but you know I cannot resist stuff on a stick

The Taxidermist - Hell On Wheels

THIS is Why We Love The South. It is not yard art but by gum it's car art and that is good enough for me. Check out Diane's post "Gotta Love The South..."

Diane delicately comments and submits for our entertainment:

"You will sh*t when I post the pics of this truck I saw today-i almost died"

This is it folks... my moment of speechlessness

"wait till you see the rest... holy redneck batman"

If you ever see this man in your neighborhood, run... also bring in the cat

How dedicated do you have to be to stuff a toad, a drunk Jack Daniels drinking toad.

Oh look, he is a patriot. Why am I not surprised. Also, those gators are pretty nasty in Georgia.

What kind of masochists stuffs a cute baby duck!

What a saddle and he hasn't stuffed the entire horse?

Oh look I found a little something for his hair:

I had to up the ante, you know I can't help myself.

Fantasy Yard - Number Three - It's a U-Nee-Corn

Eventer79 has an advantage and yet it will not help her this time. She knows that, like everyone else with the emotional depth of 13 year old girl, I have a weakness for unicorns. Yes, I know... please don't make me repeat this: unicorns and seahorse bird baths. But the Fantasy Yard Art Giveaway prize winner will be selected by you.  Voting starts the weekend after Thanksgiving.

eventer79 comments and submits:

"Gnomes, always jealous of the unicorn's splendor, have long laid in wait to bring the magical creatures down. Today though, Manatee faces down these dastardly foes of beauty and purity in a final showdown of epic proportions.

(I didn't have time to make a fantasy yard, so I just included a picture of my house)"

Those dastardly gnomes! Golden Manatee will make sure the sparkly unicorn is not harmed.

(yes, yes... she knows I like sparkly things, too)

For the valiant Golden Manatee battling with the forces of evil mounted upon a purple unicorn who may be wearing hounds tooth plaid. (Nice try eventer79 but my weaknesses will not necessarily avail you the coveted prize.) 50 points for entering the giveaway.

Shun the nonbeliever...shuuuuun


(a classic but always makes me laugh)

Gnome and More - The Forging of a New Reporter

GardenWalkGardenTalk supported my entry into the world of Blotanical. Blotanical is a blogger community of like minded bloggers writing and reading about beautiful landscaping, inspiring gardening, breath-taking photography and tips and tools of the trade. So you can imagine how I would fit into this group so well. Fearing the worse, like the Great Comedy Blogger Rejection Letter of 2009, I nervously begged entry. I was accepted, y'all. Not sure they get us yet, but I've been welcomed and we have a new (albeit wordy) field reporter.

GardenWalkGardenTalk comments and submits:

"I went by a home on the shuttle bus tour this summer. I did a lot of walking that day, so I was NOT going to walk to the other side of the park to shoot the Visitor's Center and Great Lakes Garden. Not being able to get a shot going 35 mph in the shuttle, crammed like a sardine between boisterous tourists, I returned in my Jeep to stop and admire. Not sure what word to use and stay within the bounds of good manners, so we will stay with admire. I did admire the excess. I did admire the wild use of ornament, I did admire the abandon of color. Sort of."  (staying within the bounds of good manners, is not required or necessarily encouraged in the game)

"All over this yard were vignettes of garden objects. They were sited in the lawn so that mowing must have been quite a chore. You can see at least five of these vignettes it looks like they are all close together, but they are not." (I love garden vignettes, I would have said: a bunch of yard art)

"When a garden is already a cacophony of color, an abundance of sight and scent and a bounty of fauna and flora, then what is one thinking that creates a sea of ornament? Ornaments so dissociative from themselves and their surroundings." (They are thinking - hey, this looks great!)

"One thing this type of garden does, is it makes you look. It even made me come back. This house was for sale, and I bet the owner was in there rubbing his hands together in anticipation, thinking my visit was to take a photo and run home and show my friends the new house I found." (A self taught field reporter!)

 Score

• Gold horse (I have a weakness for sparkles or golden stuff): 1 point
• Ladder functioning as plant hanger (unusual but I suspect functional): 0 points
• 2 turtles: 2 points
• Flowers in a little red wagon: 1 point
• Peacock with a pitiful tail: 1 point
• 2 mushrooms: 2 points
• Tiny squirrel: 1 points
• Frog: 1 point
• 2 egrets: 2 points
• Wishing well: 1 points
• Rooster (or maybe woody wood pecker): 1 point
• Golden Girl: 1 point
• Jaunty Gnome: 4 points
• Papa's Garden ( is papa also the yard artist?): 1 point
• 4 wire flowers (because the natural ones just weren't quite good enough):4 points
• 2 additional peacocks: 2 points
• Butterflies: 1 point
• Rusting wheelbarrow planter: 1 point

Subtotal: 27 points

Creativity Bonus

A pretty good presentation, not outstanding but I really like the golden horse: 2 points

Total: 29 points

What I would do with a Golden Horse:

I really think it would brighten up the living room

Fantasy Yard - Number Two - Under The Sea

Presented for your pleasure our second entry in the Fantasy Yard Art Competition for the Wondrous Glowing Flamingo prize.

FreakSmack comments and submits:

 It's my fish tak yard. Complete with fake fish, sunken ship, skull, spongebob and Patrick, sunken ship, sea horse, oyster with pearl, ship steering wheel, diver, anchor attached to the sun (hey this is fantasy), sexy mermaid, golden manatee, and kit kat bilboard because who doesn't love kit kats? Of course you know this is just fantasy because you know I would never live in a castle this small.

 Sponge Bob and Patrick are pleading with you...please pick them and save them from the enormous skull. FreakSmack will do it, he will (because I think the diver is already dead).

For the Aquarium Fantasy Yard: 50 points for playing.

Besides who doesn't love a Kit Kat Bar:

Purple Power

You can see how this progressed. One Sunday morning the homeowner watched a home/garden improvement show (well that's when I watch HGTV). The designers on these shows LOVE color. In a whirlwind frenzy of creative energy, a can of purple spray paint was purchased. The rest is history.

eventer79 submits:

The supposition is that the can of paint ran out before the frenzied artist got to the wheel

Birdhouse but more importantly, that is a purple zebra striped planter!

Pretty much how my trellis looked, all structure and no plant, sigh.

Score (list provided by eventer79, my comments are in red)

• butterfly banner (with purple flowers, naturally) (I would expect no less): 1 point
• celtic cross in urn (um, can't do it) 0 points
• solitary white wagon wheel (yeah, what's with the white also it has magical balancing powers): 1 point
• dangly ring wind chime: 1 point
• purple texas star that matches....: 1 point
• 3 purple chairs (yes, I know they are functional) (but oh so noteworthy): 0 points
• purple wire cat and: 1 points
• two purple pots: 0 points (but purply)
• purple birdhouse on (1 point)
• purple table(functional) 0 points
• 3 more wind-chimes: 3 points
• 2 copper gazing globes (tiny): 2 points
• leafy birdbath: 1 points

Subtotal: 12 points

Creativity Bonus

Although not a collection that is particularly noteworthy, the purple theme is eye catching and I do love that zebra planter: 2 points

Total: 14 points

Oh well, that explains it:

random funny pictures

Happy Birdhouse Thursdays at Cheep Rooms

Fantasy Yard - Number One and She's A Little Chilly

Our first Fantasy submission. Tufa Girl is a master gardener so I suspect she could not have a fantasy without spectacular landscaping. Very nice.

Tufa Girl comments:

"Sylvia was glad that Bob had finally retired from the Merchant Marines.  However, she was having trouble getting used to the mermaid statue Bob's crew men sent to him.  It was just a bit too life-like and not really the look Sylvia had in mind for the rose garden." 

Sylvia, I understand your discomfort so I fixed it for you

There that should do it. Minerva was a little chilly anyway... after all it is November.

Mermaid with life like nips, and a mega-fountain in a amazing floral Victorian garden (I think): 50 points for playing.

Mr Glowy - the prize you all covet:

taken in the dark

um, not my garden because it was raining... OK I wussed but look at him!

Or I Shall Taunt You Some More

Just a reminder of our Fantasy Yard Art Game in which you can win this very lovely prize:

And you will notice it comes in a VERY FANCY BOX. The glowing flamingo also automatically lights up at dusk! Ok, confession time: Mr. Glowy needs D batteries and I didn't have any in the house. So pooh.

But still I will taunt you with this:

Proof of said glowy-ness. Do you feel the flamingo desire?

Now for the good news for you (maybe not so much for me). I am extending the contest until after Thanksgiving because some parties who are very interesting in playing have a very busy holiday season. That means voting will take place Monday, November 28.

Tomorrow: our first entry and photographic proof from my very own yard of Mr. Glowy's awesomeness!

Children of the Corn - The Star-crossed Lovers

eventer79 comments and submits:

"This one was taken in April, so I don't know why the harvest scarecrow. But the disembodied doll head atop the pasty straw stuffed clown outfit with no hands? Just. Freaking. Creepy. Look how it's watching the camera with its blank eyes..."

Theirs was not a match that could flourish in the lush corn fields.  Lou Lou Bell's love for Marcel could not change the scarecrow she was born to be. Hers was a future of tending the corn, scattering of the crows and coercing small blonde children to kill people with scythes. It was a good life, a tradition she could not leave. But Marcel has a dream, a dream to be a world famous Mime. He is leaving the life of corn.

My cherie, would vous like for moi to be performing of "Ze Man Caught in Ze Box" one last time?

Shut-up, Marcel and you're not French

Score

• 2 scarecrows having a lovers spat:  2 points + 2 points dressed (I pose the question: can it be a scarecrow if it is not dressed?
• Rickety wagon going nowhere fast: 1 point

Subtotal: 5 points

Creativity Bonus

For the semi-creepy girl doll and her ultra-creepy white faced doll paramour on a buggy ride: 4 points

Total: 9 points

Globe Garden

I have a weakness for fairies and unicorns. Yes, I know, I am a grown woman and I have the artistic maturity of a 13 year old girl. I hold on to the fanciful and mysterious. I want to believe there is a secret door into an enchanted world.

I found these lovely photos on Flickr from a yard artist name darkgardener. Darkgardener discovered a secret. Fairies raise garden globes or as we fondly call them "hillbilly balls".

Esmeralda tends her garden with care. She is especially proud of her prize winning purple variety.

"This year I WILL WIN at the fairy county fair."

On the other hand, Tinkerbell has ball envy.

darkgardener

 

The King Pin

While I remain in incarceration in Oregon, Tufa Girl has been gathering evidence of a new life form growing and spreading in Texas. I believe it comes from outer space but I could be wrong. Obviously they are trying to communicate with us. This cannot be good:

Immediate eradication is required from what I perceive as a menace. Tufa's documentary captured with great risk to her life and sanity:



My theory:

A virus growing in ever increasing rates, reproducing by pin division. Once the optimal number of 350 million is reached we will be forced by an alien master mind to give up all our favorite pastimes and become.....

Bowlers.

A shudder for my sanity.

Thanks Tufa Girl for the warning. Because it is impossible to count all the pins and understand what the heck is going on: 50 points.

We are not alone.

Traveling

I'm in Oregon this week to help my Dad pack and move. It's not that I am a ever so helpful person but I am a Daddy's girl and I have a special talent. I can throw stuff away, sort it, give to good will, decide what should be sold and move on. My stepmother is a saver. I am here to referee. Fun times!

Not crazy about flying so I traveled by Storm the X-Horse. She can pretty much control the weather so we made good time.

Similar to her x-men counter part but without the boobs:

Storm

Just A Suggestion For You Highly Motivated Types

Tufa Girl of The Adventures of Tufa Girl suggests the following media for our Fantasy Yard Art Game.

"A new approach to yard art?  Just stitch in your favorite objects."

Let's see:

• 2 birdbaths resplendent with overly large red birds wearing diamond studded necklaces
• A moat (which is much cooler than a koi pond)
• A mermaid with a pillow
• An anchor
• A squid fish

All in all, a great fantasy yard!

It's just a suggestion, be creative!  You never know how you will win the hearts of your fellow yard art aficionados.  ( Oh and I get one vote, too!)

You want it: