Ode to my trees....

Oh, trees, ye have served me well.....
You cast some shade from the hot sun.....
And made my world a more beautiful place....
I will miss you.....

This tree. a Silver Maple, got a drastic pruning yesterday. It is pressing up against the roof of the shed and so the tree man said we should try this first. The pruning will take some of the weight off the trunk and hopefully it will spring up and away from the shed roof. That hasn't happened so far.....

I had this Maple tree taken down yesterday............

I didn't want to, but it was leaning towards the house and I was afraid that at some point, it may fall onto the house. When the main trunk fell, it split in two pieces lengthwise, and it was rotted out inside for about 6 feet on the base. That verified the fact that it should have been removed and made me feel somewhat better.
In order to get the truck into the backyard, they had to remove some of the fence, so now we need to replace that, as it was rotted out, too. And the truck left some pretty nasty marks in the lawn. Oh, does it ever end? LOL

I should take some pics of the bare yard, but it's dark out now, so maybe next post.....

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Continuing the journey...

The Arch in St. Louis, MO......

DBF's niece's home in Kansas.....

Our little trooper, Dusty. He loved travelling and didn't complain one bit. He was always eager to jump back into the car!

This is Sissy....she is smiling....she and Dusty had a wonderful time playing.

Some of the great food that came from the smoker.....

More food........

More food..........it was all so delicious!

DBF's brother's home.........also in Kansas........

This is what they use to mow their lawns.......It cuts a 6 foot path! The machine is very big!

This is a smaller tractor used for heavy work around the farm.

He uses this to plow the vegetable garden.....

This attaches to the plow and it smooths out the ground after the plowing.

We found this little baby kitten at the house next door. It was lost and hungry and was only about 4 weeks old. The brother ended up keeping the little one. His two other cats started taking care of it right away. Happy ending!

These are for grain storage.




This was our hotel that we stayed in in Indiana. The Drury Inn. I highly recommend it, especially if you are traveling with a dog. They allow dogs and were very happy to have Dusty staying there. They made a fuss over him every time they saw us.

The Drury Inns are in the South and Midwest and are an excellent value. Free breakfast and dinner and free drinks in the afternoon and evening. Free Internet and free phone calls, too.

This is a restaurant, called O'Charley's, that we could see from our hotel. We ate dinner in the outdoor dining room one evening. It was very nice and the food was great.

Another view from our hotel room.....

Dusty in our room.....
My pictures got a little mixed up, but it doesn't matter. We had a great time, we were on the road about 12 days and drove about 3400 miles. I was so in awe of the midwest....how flat the land is, and how much land there is that is farmed. The people are all so friendly and down to earth. We were welcomed everywhere we went. It was fun and I am hoping that we can do it again.

Now, I have a lot of stuff to do here at home. Tomorrow, we are having a tree taken down in the back yard. It is leaning towards the house and needs to be taken care of. Another one back there is getting a drastic pruning. It is also way too big and is pressing against the edge of the shed roof. Not good....

I have been shopping for a new sofa and chair. I have one picked out, now I just have to go order it.

I have a list of stuff to do, now that the weather is warming up. Although, today it was 40 degrees, windy and raining off and on, but it will be better towards the end of the week. I've gotten some gardening cleanup done this past week. It's still too early for annuals, but we can put in perennials and move stuff around, get the weeds out and edge the beds. Lots to do!

'Til next time, love ya, Jean

Home again.....

We started our road trip on the day after Easter, April 5. We first went to PA, my homeplace. We stayed there for a day and then went on to Kentucky. The scenery on the way was just beautiful. The Eastern Redbuds were in bloom and all we could see for miles and miles was the purple beauty of these trees. The picture does no justice to these beautiful trees that grow along the highways.

After we left Kentucky, we headed to Indiana to visit DBF"s sister and niece. This is how the land looks--so flat!

The signs for St. Louis......

I am going to end this post and continue on a new one. My pics are out of order and I don't know how to move them.

Some hostess gifts.....

I will be going on a road trip for a couple of weeks, right after Easter. We will be traveling to 5 different places and staying with relatives along the way. So, if you remember this photo/scrapbook album that I made a while back, I made some more to give as hostess gifts. The new ones do not have the flowers on them, as I didn't think they would travel well. So, they here are...... I used some different fabrics.....

This one is for a man.....

So, I finished them up today and they are all ready to go. I still have some more last minute packing to do, but that will be done AFTER Easter is over.

The grass suddenly turned green yesterday, once the sun came out, after 3 terrible days of heavy rain. In fact, the state is still in a state of emergency. Most basements are flooded, some have as much as 5 ft of water! Rivers are at their highest levels ever recorded, flooding is at an a time high! I do not have a basement, so I don't have that problem. I feel really bad for those who do! The weekend is supposed to be 80 degrees, so maybe it will dry out a little!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and that you are able to be with your loved ones!

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Spring is in the air.....

I have been busy.......
This is my latest project.....

It is a little girl's dress..... size 6..... mid-calf length..... 100% cotton..... flirty little flounce sleeves..... sweetheart neckline..... lining and slip are poly/cotton..... three large yellow buttons.....
A full length view......

It is fully lined and has a built-in slip with a tulle ruffle and a layer of tulle between the slip and the dress skirt.

The back has a large bow and sash that goes around the lower part of the bodice. It has a zipper closure.

Full length view of the back.....

This photo shows the tulle ruffle.....

Here you can see the layer of tulle between the slip and the dress skirt..... The slip makes it a whirly twirly dress that any little princess would just love to wear..... perfect for church or any special occasion.....

This was a fun project to work on! It took many hours of work with Viki and much hand sewing, but I like the results. This little dress is for sale and I will be putting it in my etsy shop. If anyone is interested, it can be found here. I have the child's body measurements for the size 6, if you need them, please let me know.

I did have 3 wonderful days of gardening this past week and then 3 days of rain, but the weather is warming up again and I hope to be able to get in my garden again soon. Have a wonderful weekend.

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Anticipation....

I can't wait to see these again .........

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Sweet Memories....

Speaking of aprons..... were we? Oh, we weren't? OK,
The story of this one goes like this....
I made this apron for my daughter....We owned the Sweet Boutique candy store together. Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, it forced us to go out of business and we closed the store at the end of January. We were in business for 6 years and had a good time with it. It was a lot of hard work and could be very stressful at times, but we both loved it. So, it was a very hard decision to say, OK, we have to let it go. Fortunately, we were not in debt to anyone, and closed the business before that happened. So, as a memento to my daughter, I made the apron on my new machine...Viki.... from the curtains that we had at Sweet Boutique.
I used one panel for the skirt and then I used the fabric from another for the waistband, ties, and pocket.

I embroideried the waistband.....

Full length view:


And the pocket.....

It came out really cute, and she loved it!

And I had the fun of fashioning, recycling, and gifting!

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean