This site is about my life as a farmgirl, wife, mother and grandmother. We have a beautiful granddaughter and the cutest grandson. We own two farms in Craig County Virginia, leasing one and raising beef cattle on the other.
How to make a ladybug for your garden
I love finding new things to add to my flower gardens. This year I found the cutest new addition on Pinterest and decided to make one for myself and my buddies, Jackie and Margaret! I also saw these in a friends flowerbed but hers were smaller and a entire family of them crossing the flowerbed. Hope you like these!
First, you need an ordinary bowling ball. Jackie found four of them for me at the local Goodwill stores for a couple bucks. I took them home and hubby cut them in half for me. He said this was no easy chore because he wasn’t sure he was cutting them exactly in half.
Bowling balls cut in half
Next, clean the bowling balls making sure that all dust and residue are gone before the first coat of paint is put on. I used a spray enamel for the interior and exterior. Let the first coat of paint dry completely. I let it dry overnight. A mistake I made with the first venture was not painting the bottom. I sprayed the bottom of each half with black enamel (two coats, dry completely between coats) and then spray the red, orange, yellow, whatever color you want.
First coat of red paint.
After the third coat of red had dried, I turned the crafting over to my granddaughter to paint their faces and bodies. She’s pretty good and has a flair for the dramatic. I was afraid she would get a little carried away and decided she needed a template to go by. After all her hard work we decided they would look better with a whimsical flair.
Victoria helping Nana with the artwork. We started with serious ladybug faces.We sat them out in the sun to dry and that’s when we decided we needed to make some changes.
This is the point where we decided they needed a touch of whimsy! After all her hard work, Nana decided to paint over their faces and add some legs. The legs were designed by hubby and his workshop. They consisted of some dowel rods about three inches long and tiny little boots made from scrap lumber. Once put together, I painted their sneakers white or black with contrasting laces. What do you think of the end result??
Big eyes & eyelashes.Cute red tennis shoes.
Crafting is so much fun and I promise more projects in the very near future!! Thanks Victoria for helping Nana!!
I am a wife, mother, and grandmother that lives on a farm in Craig County, Virginia and I am retired. I love to cook, read, quilt, craft, garden, hunt and take long walks in the woods. I have one gorgeous teen granddaughter, a wonderful little grandson and two beautiful and caring children, boy & girl.
I've been married to my farmer husband for 46 years and he's the "love of my life"!!
I love doing things the "old" way such as canning, making maple syrup & cider, handcrafts and baking. I've taught myself to crochet, embroider, and quilt with help from my paternal grandmother. I could read until the cows come home.
We live off the products we raise and hunt for the most part. We run 75 head of cattle on our farm, 30 chickens, three rabbits and one dog. I help my husband with the cattle, feeding the livestock, hauling in firewood, fence repair, and general maintenance on the farm.
I was a stay-at-home mom to my children and then went to work when they finished high school. I was a cook at a School for At-Risk Teens and part-time substitute teacher. Then I started work at our local Farm Bureau and stayed there for 17 years. I worked at Virginia Tech for almost five years and decided to take early retirement in July of 2015. NOW, I'm a full-time farmwife and loving every minute of it!
I love to read fiction and the Bible. I'm currently hooked on quilting novels and Annie's Attic mysteries.
I started this blog in 2011 and have met so many interesting bloggers and have kept up with my friends through my blog.
I love to hunt with my bow and rifle and with a camera. We hunt to fill the freezer and cellar but would never kill anything for the fun of it.
I have friends and family all over the United States. Some of my ancestry last names are Bradley, Dickson, Hylton, and Rose.
I've lost both of my parents to brain cancer and miss them very much. I have one sister and four living brothers. I was raised in Paint Bank VA and moved to New Castle VA when I married. I went to school in Waiteville, WV, Gap Mills, WV and New Castle Va with a short semester of college at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke VA.
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3 thoughts on “How to make a ladybug for your garden”
This is the blog for our little farm in Skagit county. Here we have Shetland sheep and Nigerian Dwarf goats. In addition we have donkeys, cattle, pigs, chickens, geese, and peafowl. The blog describes the weekly activities here.
countrygirl-lifeonthefarm 
Too cute!!! How did he cut them in half?
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With a band saw in his garage. They’re made of wood and some kind of polyfil.
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I just love my ladybug! She greets me every time I go out the backdoor!
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