WIP - ANOTHER CRAZY QUILT SQUARE

Welcome to another of my WIP posts.  I am chronicling my Crazy Quilt squares.  This is a project that I work on now and again.  Winter is a good time because there is something so comforting about stitching on a cold winter  night...  the fire crackling in the fireplace, a cup of hot chocolate beside me, keeping my fingers warm and limber!

 But oh the mess!! I've spoken of it before. Thread...thread e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!

 And needles... scary, sharp needles.  They fall on my lap, in my chair, on the floor. I have to use a lot of different needles because the threads and stitches and beads are all different.

Piecing the pieces is the hardest to me.  I enjoy the stitching, and thread buying is pretty fun.  Sometimes I dye my own threads (you can see a hand dyed thread above, it's variegated.  I like the way it moves in and out of soft colors.

 But the most fun to me is adding the beads and buttons. I have a good collection of vintage buttons.  If I don't have just the right ones, I go shopping.  I get giddy. Bead and button shopping is about as fun as it gets around here!

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoyed this block.  I think I might drag all the stuff out and work on my newest block today.

I'm participating in Knick of Time Tuesday, pop over and have a look at vintage inspired posts.

METAMORPHOSIS MONDAY AND MOSAIC MONDAY

Christmas is over.  We've always had a hard time moving on and taking down the tree.  So many memories associated with it, and it officially ends the Christmas season.

But we came up with an idea....

We took this beautifully decorated tree and removed all the pretty ornaments.  

Then we gathered some supplies and we made some preparations.

We strung some popcorn and cranberries....

We toasted some bagels and sliced bread, then coated them in peanut butter and birdseed....

Then we took the tree outside and we re-decorated it.

But this time for our feathered friends.

I think it's so pretty!

 It also has orange slices and apple slices (be sure to rub the apple slices with the oranges to keep them from turning brown.

We toasted the bread and bagels first.

We love sitting inside and looking out at the festive tree in the yard, hoping for some company of the flying variety!

About 15 minutes after we got the tree done a big wind came up and turned it over and everything went flying off... sigh .  We had to do it all over again.  Now we have the base weighted with some heavy rocks.  

It won't last through rain, so we're hoping it will be dry at least for a few days, but we're very happy about the way it turned out.  

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a great Monday!

NEW YEARS EVE WALK IN THE WOODS

Hello friends!  When I looked out my window this morning there was a light fog and I was compelled to take a little New Years Eve walk in the woods. 

 The area where the fog gathers used to be a solid, deep and beautiful forest.  It was a sad day when I saw the trees falling one by one. The only positive thing that came out of it was that it scared the deer so badly that they stayed away from my garden for two years. But alas! It didn't last forever and the last two years they've returned and dined on my tulips and impatience and hosta! 

Nature is slowly reclaiming the once totally naked ground. It's not very pretty, as a matter of fact it's full of brambles and undergrowth so thick you can't walk through it - well, the deer don't seem to have a problem.

But from my vantage point, there is a kind of beauty in the fog.

I saw a lot of moss covered limbs.

 I think they're so beautiful.

This brings back sweet memories of sweet youngsters whose imaginations knew no bounds...a few boards left from a once beloved tree house. Oh the fun that was had among the branches.  It was a Jaws boat, it was a Star Wars ship, it was a Ghostbusters hideout.   

Beautiful Lichen and Moss abounds in the woods. 

And look at what is peeking through the leaves in the garden!!!  Hyacinths are already thinking of Spring, and so am I!

Happy New Years! I hope you have a safe celebration.  I pray 2012 will be a good year for one and all.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, PART II

How ya doin?  I"m enjoying these final days off from work.  I've been busy looking at pictures of my garden and making my plans.  I always do this, but very few times have I ever actually done the plans.  I  have good intentions, it just seems days move into weeks, into months...you can see where this is going!

 Okay, so now for the bad.  Here it is...A large spot in this bed that has NEVER been good.  I planted lillies here once but they petered out, I tried Phlox, but they became too spindly, I tried daisy's last year and only got two blooms, and they spent their life laying on the ground.  I had daylillies here, but they were poor performers. I'm sure it's the amount of  shade, but honestly, it seems like it gets as much as anywhere else.  I just can't figure out why nothing grows well here.

The other bad is that I need to do some companion planting so that there is more interest in the garden when these fabulous white lillies (shown in the photo below) are in bloom.  I seem to ALWAYS be forgetting to duplicate throughout the garden.  There are wonderful Lollipop Lillies in the left garden that  bloom at the same time.    I moved two bulbs to the area on the right TODAY (it was almost 60 degrees today!). I would like to find more of the white lillies and plant them in two other places on the right.

Another bad is that big empty pot on the left and urn in the garden on the right.  I am a terrible procrastinator!  But 2011 was the worst.  In my defense, my husband had knee replacement surgery in April and then I hurt my knee in May (I had it fixed in October). I just couldn't give the garden the TLC it needed and deserved!  I certainly hope I get the pots planted in early Spring this year!  And I need to make a pledge (I'll make it to you!!) to WATER, WATER, WATER!!!  I live in Georgia.  It's HOT.  It's DRY.  I believe a lot of my problems might be solved with a regular watering routine.  So here....I PROMISE, TO DO MY DUTY TO MY GARDEN IN THE YEAR 2012.  I PROMISE TO WATER IT FAITHFULLY, EVEN IF I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT.  I PROMISE TO DEADHEAD.  I PROMISE TO FERTILIZE. I PROMISE TO ENRICH THE SOIL( I ACTUALLY ALWAYS DO THIS - YEAH ME!), I PROMISE TO PHOTOGRAPH IT EVERY DAY (I HAVE VERY FEW PICTURES FOR LAST YEAR!).

Okay, you heard it here, now keep me in line!

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The good, the bad and the ugly of my 2011 garden

My garden and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love it and it hates the neglect I visit on it.

I thought I would revisit the garden at the end of this year and think about what was good, what was bad, and what was really ugly, in hopes of having a better garden in 2012.

Let us start with the good. To see the good,  it helps to have tunnel vision, blocking out all the bad :)

I didn't do much for early spring, but I had a few pretty pots.  I used to plant a lot of tulips, but the deer love them and I got tired of feeding them!

Here is the good with the bad...pretty pots (Good), weeds, dirt (Bad)

Here is an area that is always beautiful.  The coreopsis is a non stop bloomer from early July until late September, even into Ocotber.  The purple balloon flower looks really pretty and comes into bloom at the same time.  I wish it bloomed longer, but sometimes I  buy an annual version  that is just coming in to bloom as the perennial one is on its last hurrah. I just keep it in it's nursery pot and plop it in the area.

The urn adds to the handsomeness of this area, I think. I was particulary happy with the caladium (though it did lose a lot of it's color with all the shade), and the Creeping Jenny.  I should have trimmed the Jenny more  to keep it full. It still looks good here, but later in the year it got very straggly.

.

Mid summer I added this little blue Juniper and the white Caladiums with the pink veins.  I LOVE them.  These plants look so pretty with the marigolds and the light pink impatience.I also added the little shrub.  It adds a nice textural difference. Our summer was hot and dry and the Juniper, Caladium and that purple plant in the background never even noticed!

 The bold pink double impatience adds a great pop of color that enhances the caladium.  

I had some pretty summer pots.  This one looked great all year.  The Pentas bloomed non stop and didn't suffer at all from the heat.

An arborvitae, begonia and two house plants that looked wonderful all year.

Well, that's it for the good.  Tomorrow I'll bring the bad.  I've enjoyed seeing the garden and am hoping these posts will help me to see what worked and what didn't.  I hope you enjoyed a little summer during the  dark winter days! Please come back tomorrow for Part II!

I'm also linking to Gypsy Mama for a fun post about "missed entries", drop by and enter your favorite unread post.

Christmas Memories

Christmas Eve started off with a beautiful sky, full of pillowy clouds.  I got these pictures on our way to breakfast, a family tradition that remains one of our favorites.  We gather our children (and sometimes their friends) and head to a local restaurant for breakfast.  For some reason, this simple outing is one that we all hold dear. For two weeks prior, my husband and daughter "auditioned" breakfasts until they found The One.

After breakfast we usually visit a few favorite shops.  I can always count on a few stocking stuffers, this year I found  Darth Maul and Boba Fet,  figurines which were sure to delight. 

Dinner was a late affair, at least for us - son and son-in-law didn't get off work until 8:00.  But I thought the table was especially pretty this year.

First up is a little cup of fruit - grapefruit and orange sections. Followed by spaghetti and french bread.

Christmas morning breakfast saw a change in table decor.

The Cook.

It was such a lovely day.  And after all the excitement, it was so nice to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.  

I hope you had a lovely Christmas.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

All ready!

My buffet is holding all the things I'll need for my table tomorrow.

I did a "test" table today, and all is well.

  I love this beautiful deer I picked up at Stein Mart

this week.  He is perfect for my Christmas Eve dinner.

I set a fancy table, but the meal will be my children's

favorite...spaghetti, nothing fancy there! I gave up

trying to fix anything fancy.  No

sense going to all that trouble if no one is happy but

me!

This year's theme is Gold

I'm using pretty gold leaves and sparkly Christmas balls from Michael's. 

I bought my dishes from Macy's many years ago.  I think they are so pretty, My best friend gave me the salad plates for Christmas one year.  She gave me 4.  They are beautiful and I wanted to buy 4 more, but they never sold these particular ones again.  This year my sweet son found two on Ebay and bought them for my birthday.  Finally this year I will be able to serve on 6 of them!  Each plate has a pretty instrument. I think this one is a violin, or maybe a guitar.

This one is cymbals and a drum and trumpet.

This is the dinner plate.  

The chargers are an early Christmas present from my daughter.  These were found at Stein Mart.  I think they are lovely!

My dear Mother's silver, Rose Point by Wallace.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas.  I would like to

leave you with a little humorous Christmas story from my

past...

My darling, sweet Aunt Nell was a Country Girl, and she

kept the superstitious Country Ways all her life

(sadly,she died last year).  She was my favorite Aunt,

but boy did she scare easy.  She believed in ghosts, and

aliens and all kinds of supernatural things.  So here is

how it went down:

Rrrrring,Rrrrring.

Dad: "Hello"

Auntie:  Bubba, did you hear the news?

Dad: "No, but Merry Christmas, Nell, it's Christmas Eve"

Auntie:  Oh, Lord save us!

Dad: "WHAT'S WRONG!!! NELLIE MAE, WHAT'S WRONG????

Auntie:  "It's all over the news!! There's an

unidentified flying object approaching Atlanta.  It came

from the North."

Dad:..........????.... :)  "Nell!!....THAT'S SANTA!!!"

Auntie:  "Oh!........sheepishly..."Never mind".

So here's to a lovely Christmas shared by you and your loved ones, and may the Space Aliens pass us by  as we celebrate the birth of our Lord!