My truly favorite time of year......

So beautiful..........God's colorful creations.....

Come, take a stroll with me.....


Blue & white Salvia and Daisies.....
Goldflame Spirea with Lamb's Ears, and Blue Bedder Salvia.....

Siberian Iris.....

Hostas.....

Bearded Iris..... (These rhizomes are at least 35 years old!)

Lupines.....

View across my side yard.....

Sarah Bernhardt Peony.....

Iris.....

Old standby.....Daisies, I love these.....

The roses are just starting to bloom.....

I grew this one from a cutting about 4 years ago...

Another Peony..... (These smell incredible!)

A white Peony that turns pink as the flower ages.....

A pretty combination.....

Lambs Ears.....

Lots more Salvia.....

More Siberian Iris.....

I have been busy in my garden every day. I have been edging all the beds, getting the weeds out and mulching the beds. We are having a new fence installed, so I had to remove about 50 pots of flowers. This took a lot of time and work. And they were supposed to put it in three weeks ago, so I have been impatiently waiting for this to be finished. When I had the large silver maple trimmed, and the other large maple removed, it changed the yard from shade to sun, so now I have lots of shade plants to squeeze in somewhere. I'm still trying to figure out just where that will be.

To me, that's a lot of the fun of gardening, the changes that constantly take place. I've found that a garden is never done, but constantly evolving. And that is a beautiful thing!

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

My Booty Bag.....

Well, Another project completed........
I made this little bag from a pair of little girls jeans, probably about a size 4 or 5. This is the front......

The back.....

I put my cell phone in the pocket....cute!

I made the strap from the legs that I cut off.....

I put a piece of cardboard inside the bottom so that it would stand up straight.....

And used hot pink thread to match what was already there.....

I had to sew the front pockets shut, they were too droopy and didn't look right.

I will make a bigger one from some women's jeans, when I get a chance. I saw these with the flowers and the pink stitching and I just couldn't resist!

I hope you are not getting sick of all my crafting, I did get to go to Brimfield Antique Fair and I have lots of pictures to show.

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Cleaning out....Finishing up.....

I made this pillow from a kit that I found in one of my sewing baskets. I must have had it for about 25 years or so. It was from a department store called Zayre's, and it's been gone for at least that many years. So, it's vintage. The kit came with the material, lace, thread and needle. Oh, why didn't I buy more? It was such a bargain, although I guess it's all relative. The kit was 99 cents!

And it looks so cute on my new Love Seat! Appropriately named---I Love my new Love Seat! I am also getting a chair to match, but it is on back order and they say it will be here by the end of the month. (fingers crossed)---

Because I was in the mood--and found some candlewicking thread in that basket, and I had some unbleached muslin, I decided to make another pillow. This one is larger, with a self ruffle and measures about 15" across. I love how it came out. But now I have too many pillows and I have decided to sell this one. If you are interested, send me an email (my address can be found in my profile) and it will be yours. First one to contact me gets it. Candlewicking pillow

15" across

Poly Fiberfil inside

All new materials -- except vintage 100% cotton thread
$ 25.00 plus shipping

This is a closeup of the details.....

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope your day is filled with love and sunshine!

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

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.