Happy Memorial Day Wishes and Gardening endeavors

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!!  Hope your day was filled with happy picnics, family reunions, parades, decorating graves of those dear to us, and remembering those who have fallen in service to our precious and beloved country.  May their sacrifices never be in vain and may we always remember that our freedoms were all bought with a price and precious blood has been shed to keep us free in this country.

Our day was a quiet one, we received some very much needed rain!  Several good hours of it and got at least 3 maybe 4 inches !!  The ponds in this area are all but dry and we so need this wonderful rain to replenish them and the earth.  Makes us so thankful for every drop that falls from the heavens for sure.

We have really been working in our yard and flower beds for the last few weeks.  Darling husband, especially, has put in some long hours filling low spots up by the house and redressing with bark mulch.  It all just takes time and effort, but it is so worth it at the end of the day.  We so enjoy sitting on our porch and enjoying the fruits of our labors.   We call our little 3-acre tract "The Promised Land".  It is the property that we have always dreamed of owning with lots of trees and the Lord led us to it at just the right time in our lives. 

Yesterday we picked out some knockout roses for the new bed he has been working on.  This particular spot has been hard to grow grass in for the past two summers and finally we just decided to give up on grass and make it into a landscaped bed!  We found enough limestone rocks on our property to line the area, so it looks pretty natural I think.

We plan to put in some knockout roses and also bought some crape myrtles to put in here.  the pots that are sitting there are a shrub call "Abelia" .  I loved the colors in the foliage and hope they will do well.  We have never grown these before.  This is right by our driveway going out to the street.

This is the view looking back at the house from the drive.  We will soon have the carpet roses under the pear tree blooming.  They are the red ones with the yellow centers.  So pretty.

A closer view of the front porch, we enjoy sitting out here in the mornings and evenings to watch the sunsets.  I got my baskets of vining geraniums planted in the hanging pots but it will take a while for them to grow out.  Overlook the ugly gutter pipes, we, "someday" hope to get them buried under the sidewalk.  Wish we had thought of that before the sidewalk was put in ;).  Darling husband made tabletops for the two sewing machine frames flanking the door.  Then he cut out holes in them for the pots with the Kimberly Queen ferns to sit right inside the circle.  They will grow huge by summer's end.

The view from the porch.  See the birdcage stand used to hold a hanging pot?  Hopefully, my million bell petunias will do well there.

This is at the end of the house.  This bed had to be all filled in with dirt because it had settled so much during the past two dry summers.  It is looking pretty good.  The peony plants are just starting to bloom.  We have a new arbor ready to put together and replace this one.  It is starting to just fall apart.  I may have to sacrifice the rose bushes though to get it in,   and wouldn't you know this is the best they have ever looked!! The new arbor is made of vinyl and should do much better.  It is very similar in shape to this one.

Another view of the side flower bed.

This is a back bed along the side of our yard.  It is a little wild and I have been trying to gt it under control.  Hope to get all the weeds out and then put down Preen and new brown mulch.  This is the place I often get a case of Poison Ivy!!! Ugh.

This is an old treadle sewing machine carcass that I decided to plant in...It will fill in and look beautiful.  When the planter part falls apart, I will still have the stand to use in a different way.

I also have a "flower" bed planted now with a few green onions, but I plan to plant zinnias in it this week.  And the planted wheelbarrow is new this year.  Just something different.  Notice the hanging bar of soap to deter the deer.  They are a real menace for sure!

This pic is across the back of our property, really the side, but our house is place catawhompus to the road.  We added this berm a few years back when we had to have a lot of earth removed from the walk-out end of our house to get it to drain properly.  So, this is how we used all the dirt.  We have forsythia, lilacs, viburnums, salvia, and cone flowers along here.  It has all been trial and error along the way.

Looking past the walk-out end of our home.  We put in drainage tubes out to the road and filled it all in with rock and plantings to look like a dry creek bed.....Oh So Much Work!!   but turned out lovely and has done the trick with the drainage problems.

Thanks for wading through all these pictures.  I just love this time of year and am sooooo hoping that we have a different kind of summer this year with regular rains and not those long weeks of 100+ temps.  It is so nice to finally see things starting to bloom.  Seems like Spring has taken so long to get here this year, but it IS here now!!   

Now that the weather is getting better, I have lots of refinishing things to work on in the garage.  Have also been working on new cushion covers for the wicker furniture on the screened in porch.  I will show you when I get it all done!!  

Singing His Praises,

Linda

Its Beginning to look a lot like ??????

Ahhhhhhhhhh, the lilacs of Spring..............such a beautiful sight.  Aren't they just lovely?  I don't think we have had a prettier crop at this location ever.  They come from an old bush that we transplanted from my husband's parents home.  They had gotten their start from the farm of my MIL's parents, so these lilacs have a long history.  My husband says he can still remember driving down the long lane to his grandparents house and smelling the lilac bushes lining the drive.  What a precious memory.  This is the third year or so since we moved the bush and thus far it had not bloomed, so we were a bit discouraged.  

So, we have lilacs and gorgeous ones!!  They smell heavenly.  The old pitcher was also from my MIL's home, so it seemed a fitting vessel for the bouquet.

There is only one little problem.  I cut these, all of them, before the last snow storm which was a week ago!!   My husband had mowed the grass the night before the expected snow and we agreed that maybe it would be better to pick the bush clean and at least enjoy them in the house then to loose them all in the frigid temps.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO  frustrating is this SPRING!!  When will it ever arrive???

I also bought flowers the day before to plant in the pots on the porch and deck.  They are patiently waiting in the garage to be put into the soil.  Maybe today it MIGHT be safe to plant them......I am leery, but I think they may not hold that much longer, so I may start today timidly.  They said the sun would be shining today, but so far I don't see it.  Now this is a big deal for me as I am one of those people who runs on..................

SOLAR BATTERIES!!!!!!

I'm starting to feel desperate people!

So, if you can't have Spring and warm sunny weather, what do you do?............

You start preparing for......................... CHRISTMAS!!!...........yes, that's right, it will be here before we know it!!

,

You put on your Nat King Cole album  and sing along, slightly changing the words in honor of Cinco de Mayo and belt out " Nachos roasting on an Open Fire".............

At the very least, I thought I would do something constructive since I can't plant flowers or paint anything in the garage.........

I bleached out some bottle brush trees  to decorate for the Christmas season.  I hope to offer some in cloche -type containers for sale in the fall.  Most of them turned out pretty well, a few stubbornly stayed the weird green color, so I guess they will get dyed green again, although I think I can come up with a much prettier shade of green.

So, that is what I have been up to.  I hope wherever you are, the sun is shining and it is Spring.  I know Spring eventually will get here, but it sure seems to be stubborn this year.  If it means, however, that we might have a more bearable summer with cooler temps and more rain, than it will be worth it in every way!!  We are getting some very much needed moisture and that is a VERY GOOD THING, so I am thankful!!  However, my theory is that if the sun is not shining..............

IT NEEDS TO BE RAINING OR SNOWING!!!

Singing His Praises in the snow and the rain and evermore,

Linda

Powder Room changes!!

It was time to make some changes in the powder room bath after living here 8 yrs.  This bath was not functioning the best because of a mistake in the design.  I had always been frustrated that the person who drew up the plans and also we, did not realize there was a problem before the house was framed in.  The bath called for a regular door, but after everything was finished,......oops, the door did not clear the toilet to store along the wall......so that meant you had to go all the way in, shut the door back to get to the toilet.  Just awkward and I did not like the way it looked from the hall.  As it happened, we did have several pocket doors installed in our house and it turned out there was one too many ordered.  We could not return it as it had already been painted, so we stored it away in the basement these past years.

My man decided in January that he was ready to tackle tearing out the wall and installing a pocket door inside, so I was more than ready to say yes!!

So began the process.......

When I painted the bath, I did it in a rag roll sponge type of finish with a light yellow base and then different glaces of blush, sage green, umber, etc, were sponged over in areas and corners to give it a Tuscan feel.  I really did like it, but since the walls were coming out and new wallboard was going up, I decided a change was in order.  This time I thought gray!  I wanted something that would look good with the antique oak dresser/vanity we had retrofitted to put in there.  I purchased this piece at a garage sale and it was the perfect size.  The drawers were altered to accommodate the plumbing...  The mirror that came with it was pretty ornate, but worked just fine in the design. 

The room is about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.

.....

This pic is of the hallway leading to the bath.  It is long and we made it extra wide.  Now, I know what you are thinking.... what is that striping?  Well, soon after we had moved in.....I thought I might try rag-rolled strips in an off-white glaze over the sage green in the hall.  Well, I only made it half way done the hall on one side before I wasn't sure I liked it and then the discussion came up about eventually putting in a pocket door on the bathroom inside of a swinging door.  Well, that cinched it, I wasn't going to proceed with the stripes.....They are a LOT OF WORK and I wasn't sure I like it that well. This pic shows my cut in before re-rolling it in the green.

So, I have lived with a half striped hallway on one side for several years.  Surprisingly, not many people ask why the stripes suddenly stop, I guess they are just being polite.....Oh well, I digress....

So, the whole side of the hallway got another coat of the same green.  I love this green.  It goes with everything!!  "Dried Grass" from Walmart.  I think it is now called August Dried Grass.  It is a real good neutral color and looks really nice with the oak trim we have, which I might add looks like it is here to stay in the hall at least.  I am working on the man about some other areas of the house.....Shhhhh!  I really love white trim so much better.....

Okay, ready for the reveal??

I had this wall grille that I decided would look good over the toilet and it fit just perfectly.  The wreath is one I  made for my Mom and it came back to my house to live when we emptied her house.  I got the basket from Walmart!

I love how it looks in the mirror.  New hand towels in gold from Target.  Love the ribs on them.

I hung two of my favorite pictures with verses over and under the shelf I had have had for years.  Have to be a little careful hanging things on these two opposite walls as there are pocket doors in both of them now.  The other pocket door leads into another bathtub area that is part of the guestroom bath, Kind of a Jack and Jill set up.

This old lithograph is one of my very favorite things.  It is water stained and has some tears, but I don't care.....Isn't it just gorgeous?  I got it many years ago at the White Cloud flea market.  It had rained at the fair and that is when it got wet.  The vendor was anxious to get rid of it I think.  I knew I could live with the water stain...

A new rug that was perfect from Kohls with my 30% off on top of the sale price!!

A closeup of an assemblage that was Beth's class at Karla's Birdsong last year!!  Yes, I finally got it done!!  It takes me sooooo long to think about things and where I want them to be.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out though!! and it was so much FUN!!  I will miss getting to attend this year's event in June, hopefully I will get to go again in coming years if possible.  

Do I look better in this picture??  No toothache and a little more sleep will do wonders for a woman!! 

Thanks for your patience.  I hope I didn't bore you with all the pictures!!.

By the way, the color I chose for the walls is BM AC-34 Cape Hatteras Sand.  I had it mixed in Walmart's Best Glidden Primer in one.  It is good paint.  The color is something between gray and beige, but on the wall it just looks gray to me with a very small hint of a blue,  which is why it is so complimented by the gold colors in the accessories I think.

I got a new light fixture for the vanity, a 4 light instead of a 2 light.  It was just too dim in there for me!!  I didn't feel too guilty as the one that was there, I had gotten off the clearance rack at K-Mart for $7.00, it had paid its rent. That, and the ceiling fan light fixture having 2 bulbs makes it so much brighter, and brighter ALWAYS makes me happy!!

Thanks for visiting!!

I'm singing His Praises!!!

Linda

A "little" bit of Spring!!

I'm dreaming of Spring already..... but in miniature!!  It is my turn to lead the project for our local miniature club this month.  This project has been a little bit of a challenge for sure.  See the little dome scene with the bird?.......yeah, that's my project!!  Pretty cute, don't ya think?  I have had this project in my mind for quite some time but had to figure out a way to do it.

I have two prototypes for the class.

One of the domes has a little white bird and one has a bluebird.  They are both made on a little metal platter and set under a dome.  The dome is about 1 1/8th inches tall and is the cut off end of a glass test tube.  Oh my, this was the hard part!!  I had several of these tubes that had held vintage beads.  My wonderful man offered to try to cut them.  Well, I think he got six or seven out of the bunch I had, so then I ordered new test tubes.  These were a whole different ball game to cut and we ruined many of the fifteen I had.  The last seven I took to a glass shop and they managed to get six done.  I sure need to discover the secret of how to cut a glass tube!

Anyway after all the glass cutting, came the making of many, many tiny Sculpey eggs and the little birds.  I am talking tiny folks!!  

Since they were so Springy, I decided to stage vignette with them with some of my miniature pieces.  Hubby took some pics of a not-very-great-looking me, playing with these tiny things.

Pardon that "tired" look in my eyes, I spent the night dealing with a toothache!!.  Saw the dentist this a.m. and got antibiotics, hopefully that will be the end of it, otherwise, a root canalllllllll!!!!!!!!!! 

The Spring Hutch was made in a Lisa Engler class several years ago.  Some of the items were provided in the class and some things are mine.  The little table is a Karen Markland piece,  I LOVE anything Karen Markland does!!.  The Easter basket is my creation as is the little vintage flower seed box.

This little box is one of my favorite things.  It was a club project of mine as well.  We all take turns and usually do one project a year.

It feels good to be creating again.  It has been a rough couple of years.  My job as medical transcriptionist was so very stressful for such pitiful pay, I finally gave it up even though I was doing very well at it.  I love the field but just could not tolerate the feeling of continually being on call and never knowing how long each day I would be working.  

So then, I got my real estate license to work with my husband.  I love "all things HOME" and help with staging homes for sale and have had good results.  We do open houses together and work on marketing ideas.  It is fun to do it together.  He has been doing real estate for 11 years now after retiring from his job with AT&T.

My mother passed away in June and I was able to be with her the whole week before, which was such a blessing.  So then, it was a long summer, cleaning, sorting, and repairing the house to get it on the market.  It just last week was sold and closed.  

 Life just sometimes comes in waves and we just have to take a breather and get our bearings again, at least I do, so that is what explains my absence from blogging for quite a while.  It feels good to touch base with you all again and hear from you!!  I read my blogs everyday, you all bring me so much happiness and inspiration.

So, hope you enjoyed my "little" glimpse of Spring.  It is snowing here again today!!  This is round two of some whopper storms, although this last go round has not been as bad where we are.  Kansas City got walloped!!  But, since we have been in a drought situation here for the last two years, the snow is such a BLESSING!! and we are so thankful for it!!

Thanks for listening sweet friends!!

Till next time, I am singing His praises.

Linda

Valentine traditions

You have my heart!!

Well, I almost did not get this accomplished this year, but did manage to get them made.  For some reason Valentine's Day seems to sneak up on me every year.

Many many years ago, when our children were young, I was thinking one day about what could I make to give to each of our close neighbors and friends to let them know we were thinking of them on Valentine's Day and wanted them to know they were loved and special to us.  I decided I would make some sugar cookies for each person and put their names on it.  Now it seems to me that Valentine's Day and chocolate are synonymous, so I wanted to come up with a way to combine the two items.  I had some chocolate chips, so I decided to melt them in the microwave and try spreading the wonderfully goodness on the cookie instead of a layer of frosting.  Then I made regular buttercream frosting to decorate the edges with a lacy scroll and write the names of each special person on the cookie.  

They were an instant hit and I pretty much have made them ever since on VDay.... only once a year.  Our neighbors grew to expect them and it has really been a fun tradition in our family.  

The recipe for the cookies is from the Betty Crocker Cookbook and they are called Aunt Mary's Cookies or Deluxe Sugar Cookies, but you could use any favorite sugar cookie recipe.  This particular one makes a very delicate cookie and calls for powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.  It is a favorite for us.

You bake the cookies and cool them on a rack.  Then,  I put about 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips in a bowl and melted them in the microwave for a little over a minute.  Stir until the chips are dissolved.  You have to watch it closely and do not want to heat them for too long or the chocolate will become grainy.

Then, spread the chocolate on each cooled cookie.  I usually let them set over night to completely cool, but you can put them in the fridge or freezer to set up faster.

Then mix up your favorite butter cream frosting and put in a pastry bag with a star or shell tip.  Just go around each cookie kind of moving in and off the edge of the cookie.  I usually start at the center and move down the side and then go back to the center and do the other side.  Usually, I hold each cookie in my hand, but a turntable might make it easier.

I'm not really sure what happened this time, but my chocolate looks a little speckled.  Oh well, it should taste just the same. ha.

I usually do all the scroll edges and then go back in and write the names of my family and friends last.  It helps to calculate just how many of these you want to send out before you make your cookies by making a list of recipients.  This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.  My cookie cutter is about 3 inches across.  So, sometimes I have to double up on the recipe.  You can make them ahead and have them in the freezer ahead of time and then all you have to do is pull them out and decorate them.  (Usually, I am NOT that organized, but it has happened that way a few times.....)

I like to put them on a paper plate with a red napkin underneath, usually left over from Christmas.  Then you can put the plate in a ziplock gallon-sized bag for delivery.  For our children who live out of town, I store them in the freezer until we see them and they do just fine.

You could leave one in the mailbox for your postman, or take some to your favorite hairdresser or doctor.  I have made them for our church staff also and put them in the break room.  And I always try to take them to our close neighbors and any elderly widows we know.

It is just a fun way to say " I appreciate and love you" in a personal way.

And,........... THEY ARE YUMMY!!! The chocolate with the frosting and the cookie, oh MY, a perfect combination with a cup of coffee!!!

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my little cookie valentines.

So, will YOU

???????

Have  a wonderful Valentine's Day my friends!!  All diets are off until tomorrow!!! ( or until you finish that box of chocolates your handsome husband gave you!!

I got red roses too......love that man......we will most likely go out for dinner and a movie tomorrow as we have some sweet granddaughters to support at a basketball game tonite!!



Singing His Praises,

Linda

Back to blue and green, my first love.

Hi friends, I hope you are all having a great month!! I have been spending a lot of time taking down all the Christmas and then trying to reorganize and accessorize as I go.  It is a slow but enjoyable process and one that I am relishing these days.  It is very cold in Kansas right now and I don't have much desire to leave the house anyway.

For Christmas, I had a lot of my red and white transferware out to go along with everything.  What I have the most of is blue and white, and usually have most of it in the diningroom, but it is OVERFLOWING, I decided to use it in the kitchen too with my green.  I just love blue and green together, don't you?  Seems like green is really making a comeback also.  GREEN is my favorite color and is kind of an anchor color in my home.  It really serves as a great neutral in decorating and you can change it up with the addition of so many other color combinations.  And, I find it so peaceful.....

I am enjoying a new plate rack to the right of the stove that I got from Nell Hill's this last fall on a fun shopping trip to Atchison.  What a treat that store is!!

Someday I have beadboard wallpaper to put in the back of the the glass door cabinets.  I just need to make the time to get it done.  I keep realizing that is the key, is just deciding to go ahead and do it and cross it off my list, one of the things I hope to do better this year.

See the Moon and Stars green candy dish in the background..... it was my mother's and now it is mine to love.  We always had a batch of hard candy in it at Christmas, a special childhood memory.  We lost my mom this last summer, it still seems hard to believe.  I find myself thinking that  I need to call her just about every week.  

This area is totally different than it has been during the eight years we have lived here.  I did have a country possum belly hutch here, but is seemed to really crowd the space.   The fake mantel came from some very dear and precious friends of ours who found it in an old house they purchased and did not want it.  I gladly took it off there hands...;))) and have enjoyed it since the late 70's.  I added the shutter doors over the opening.  The empty frame above I have had forever also.  I think it is part of an old game table.  I just washed it with the off white paint.

Oh, and I have some cool fabric to make new window toppers, also on the list!!

This is how this area looked for Christmas:

What is missing in this picture is a wreath around the Santa head.  I never got that accomplished, oh well, there is always next year, right?  

I found the cache pot at a garage sale this fall and already had the pedestal, I think they look lovely together. For Christmas, I had paperwhites in it and it looked so pretty.

This little bookcase sits on a larger cabinet and is always fun to decorate for any holiday.  I had a few of my smaller Santas in it along with the dishes.


Now, it looks like this:

That is my blue and green story for the kitchen.

Next up, I am totally going through my art studio that has been absolutely neglected for the last two years!!  Hoping to be spending a lot more time in there creating in the coming months, but oh my it is really a process...but I'm getting there......

Thanks for visiting special friends!!  It feels good to have a little change of scene and things freshened up doesn't it?



Till next time,

I'll be singing His Praises,
Blessings, Linda

Linking to Jennifer's fabulously creative Friday