Flowers!

See the bee?

Another one. I love bumblebees.


These are the daylilies planted in the same garden.

The lilies are almost done blooming and the liatris is just starting to bloom. I'm hoping the lilies have more blooms next year. Some of the plants didn't bloom at all this year, but I wasn't surprised as we just transplanted them from John's Mom's yard last summer. I'm also hoping the grasses grow taller next year. We divided them all this spring, so they aren't at their full potential yet either. I'm still super happy with this garden.

When we get plants from other people, we stick them on the edge of the woods until we can figure out what to do with them.

Close up of the ones above.

Those are from John's Mom too. They are a beautiful dark pink in real life. They look sort of orange on my computer screen though. We're moving them along with some taller orange ones to near my new maple tree/poppy garden this fall.

Have a great weekend!

This is more my style

From this:


To this!



The artwork is from Sometimes I Swirl on Etsy.

The camera batteries died again.

But I finally remembered to charge them today!

I bought this little frame at the thrift store last week. I saw the size I wanted, and it was only 50 cents. I didn't even bother looking at it really. Now I realize it's sort of pretty. I feel like I should just keep it. Well, I'm keeping the print. Maybe I'll reuse it someday. The bigger mat board is sort of peachy-pink in real life or I'd probably just leave it as is and paint the frame.


I'm working on the dining room! Three years of waiting, waiting, waiting. And now it's TIME!

Imagine my surprise when I ripped the first piece of paneling down and saw this. The dang walls were ready to be painted -- 45 years ago. But now there are a million nail holes where the trim and paneling was. Plus there's a big hole where the old intercom was. So, I'm still having the walls professionally patched. Hopefully next week! I'm going Wednesday to get painting supplies.



Check out this coneflower ready to bloom! I can't wait. There are tons of them like this. They are almost as tall as me. I'd say they are close to my eye level.


Here's another view. You can see the other ones around it that aren't quite ready yet either.


My hydrangeas are so pretty this year! They have grown so much since we put them in. They were pretty sad last year. I have more time to take care of them this year, and it is paying off.


They just started blooming. They have many more buds on them.


It's mulberry time! I've made 2 pies and a batch of muffins. I'm hoping to pick enough tomorrow to get one more pie.


I was hoping to get a picture of both of my planter boxes, but every time I'm outside the garage doors are open and the car is usually in the way. So here's a picture of one of them. They both look great this year.

So that's what is new with me. The window guy said it would be about three weeks for the windows to come in. That will be Friday. So, I'm hoping they will actually be here next week!

US 40 yard sale

This morning, I hit the US 40 yard sale. The entire thing is over 800 miles, but I stuck close to home. I ran out of time, energy, and money in about 15 miles or so.

The first place I stopped, there was an angry lady who just wanted to get rid of everything. She said whatever I wanted was a quarter each. Everything had been rained on, and she didn't want to take it home. I found her amusing. I got 3 milk glass pieces, gave her my 75 cents and went on my way.

There were many places that I stopped but didn't buy anything. I went through 3 small towns. I parked my car and walked up one side of the street and then back down the other. I talked to an old guy who had just purchased a really, really cool log cabin that had to have been 200 years old. He was going to renovate it. He let me walk through it. I bought a couple things off him. I should have bought more. But I was almost out of money.

Here's my loot!

Two tone green planter - 25 cents
Ironstone platter - 4 dollars (well spent because I'd just seen one for 8 dollars and considered buying it)
Ball jar - 2 dollars. I'll be using it to make a kitchen soap dispenser
Blue and orange crocheted scrubbers - 1.50 each. Expensive but I'm not buying netting and cutting it into inch wide strips.
Two ironstone plates- 1.75 for both of them! The guy wanted 1.50 each. I reached in my pocket and said all I had was 1.75 in change. He agreed! What a deal.
Three milk glass pieces - 25 cents each
Vintage metal strainer- 1 dollar. I can finally replace the one we have that has a HUGE hole in the bottom and doesn't really work anymore.
Two white.....bracelets? (sort of poking out behind the plate) 25 cents for both. Going to crochet around them and make them into towel holders. One for Mom and one for me.

And lastly.....HUGE piece of vintage cloth- 5 dollars. I'll be making it into a table runner when we get the dining room done. That will take about half of it. Not sure what I'll do with the other half.


It still had a label on it! I wish it had the original price tag.

Nap/rest time is over! Off to play outside.

What is it?

Don't tell me they are canvas drop cloths. I can read the labels.

Yard/Garden 2010

Well, I didn't take pictures from the same angles, but who knows if I will ever have time to do that. Our yard is coming along! The part we mow is about 3 acres. Someday, I plan to have it half covered in gardens. Wouldn't that be something?

Spring 2009. Newly planted hostas and ornamental grasses.


May 2010. The hostas have grown so much! Ornamental grasses with newly planted coneflowers (one's blooming already!), daylilies, and liatris.

Another view. Our ornamental plum has grown so much!


Sadly, this is the best pic I have of it from when we planted it. September 2007.

In August 2007, Mom dug up all of her hostas and brought them to me. What a sweet Mom I have! She also stayed 2 days and helped plant them all.

August 2007

May 2010

Don't look too closely! I need to weed! This is just to the right of the center path.


Just to the left of the center path.

My planter boxes also look better this year than they ever have. I'll get a pic in a few weeks when they fill in a little more. I also want to get a picture of the coneflowers and daylilies blooming. I am so proud of that area. The grasses were from Mom (free), the coneflowers grew from seed ($10), the dayliles are from John's Mom (free) and the liatris are from Mom (free). It's a little sparse this year as I had to divide everything out to make it fit the area I wanted to cover. I have high hopes for it though in about 2 more years.

As much as I wish we could snap our fingers and have the inside of the house remodeled, I am glad we've spent so much time and effort outside. Walls may need painted, but plants grow! Getting them in and growing so that they can mature is more important to me that anything else.

We're planning to do one more "new" garden this fall by moving some more free daylilies. I'm also hoping Mom will come over and we can move and divide some hostas for that garden. I just yesterday dug up 60 compacted, non-blooming daffodils and need to get them planted back out with room to grow. We already saved 100 or so that were so compacted and sad that we weren't even sure if they were daffodils. They bloomed this spring for the first time!

More pics of the yard and gardens to come as things bloom (assuming there isn't a freakish hail storm that destroys everything for the year like last year).

Three years ago today

Three years ago today, we signed the paperwork to buy this house. I showed John the above picture a minute ago, and he said it didn't even register in his mind at first that it was a picture of Mary.


About a week later, we were back to stay. Mary and I drove up by ourselves while John stayed behind to finish up with the movers.

And now Mary's done with preschool! She'll be starting pre-k in 2.5 months.


This picture was the last day of school. They were both looking at themselves in the window. Silly girls. I love this picture. They both look so pleased at what they see.

I cannot put into words the emotions of the last three years. I can't even wrap my mind around it. Tears come to my eyes. Moving, the house in Evansville still being for sale when we moved and the mess that ended up being, trying for months to get pregnant with Ellie, having a crappy pregnancy with so much back pain that I couldn't move most of the time, then having a newborn, good times and bad times in our marriage, crazy, crazy stuff. But now, the Evansville thing is behind us, Ellie's growing into a little kid who is so much fun, and Mary's matured so much recently that I hardly recognize her as my Mary. Being four is a very good age for her. The girls can play together sometimes, and John and I get to have actual conversations! We went on a trip over the weekend, and it couldn't have gone better. We actually like taking road trips with the kids. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking the five hour drive from Evansville to Richmond with just Mary. It was miserable. She hated the car. I'd never driven that far before with just her. We had to stop a million times I am sure. I don't even remember.

I am so happy right now. I am so super in love with John and the girls. I love living here on this beautiful piece of property. We are raising our kids in the exact environment we wanted for them. Mary's going to be attending a wonderful school in the fall. I know that things won't always be this perfect, but I am trying to enjoy every minute of it while it lasts.