It is No Longer Fun to Read MOST Blogs

I just visited a blog and started to read a post. There were ads all around the perimeter.  As  I started to read this was the screen:

EVEN THE POST WAS COVERED BY AN AD!   I sent a comment stating that the number of ads was outrageous!  Of course the comments were monitored, so mine will be promptly deleted.  Just as I shall promptly delete that blog from my list of favorites.

No wonder blogs are fading away.  I can count on one hand the number of blogs without ads.  I have zero interest in blogs with advertising.  Since they all seem to be adding advertising, I guess my days of visiting blogs is very limited.

That's too bad as I used to really enjoy them.

Rain Lilies, Lavender & Beginning a New Path

 Earlier this week my lavender began to bloom.

I left the metal orb behind it out all winter and these red lilies decided to come right up through one section.

 I like when things happen by chance and turn out better than if I had planned it.


I was gone for two days and when I came home yesterday, I was thrilled to see that one rain lily (zephyranthes) bloomed.  As the common name implies, it popped out right after a heavy rain. 

These lilies are very special because they came through the mail from my good blog friend,   Patti in Missouri.   Patti has been growing these since her husband's grandmother gave them to her in the 1970's. Three generations of Missouri women have grown these flowers and now they have bloomed in my Michigan garden. Patti, thanks again. I love them!

Today is my last day off work. I am planning to drag DH out in just a few minutes to help me install the 400 pounds of pavers for the new path. Three days ago I dug up plants and moved all the pavers to the approximate position for the path.

From my bedroom window you can see where I have put the pavers for the path.

He will have to dig down about 3 inches and level the pavers.  He is much better at that than I am.   Once he is done with that I get to have all the fun or designing & planting the area.  I just move plants from other gardens.  I hear him getting dressed, so I had better get out there. I can't let him have all the fun! :)

10:30 a.m Update:

The path is done. DH did another fine job making square pavers form a curve. It looks like a big backwards question mark.

As you can see, the sun is casting all kinds of shadows, so please forgive the poor pic.  I left a few things in the center until I decide just what I want to plant here.  I did plant one big item...an Alberta Spruce tree right at the center curve.  I will update this once I take a pic of it.

While he was hard at work laying the path, I was working just as hard trimming this huge spirea bush. I think I removed about half of the shrub.

3:30 p.m. update:

Here is the pic with the Alberta Spruce:

Who knows where I will end up going from here...I am waiting for inspiration.

Gifts from Blog Friends

A few weeks ago I was surprised to find a package in my mailbox from Dianne. I opened it to find these items:

I had been talking about slipcovers for my living room sofa for awhile and Dianne sent me a pattern she had purchased and never used.  Even though I just purchased slip covers, I would still like to make another set.  She also sent a floral applique pattern that I hope to use later this year.

Dianne is one of my first blog readers, so she knows me well. She thought of my love of setting tables with vintage dishes and also sent a magazine/book called, "Flower Arrangements and Table Settings" that she found in York, PA and thought of me.  It appears to be from the 50's/60's.  I was touched that she thought of me and took the time and expense to mail these items.

I own a similar set of milk glass dishes.  I did not realize the grape-shaped serving piece I have came in a set of four as shown here.

 I own these dishes in yellow. 

I find it fun to see how ladies from a half century ago set their tables with the same dishes I use today.

Thanks again, Dianne. I really enjoyed reading this.

Today  I was totally surprised  to receive this package from  Patti in Missouri.

She sent me some of her husband's grandmother's rain lilies!  His grandmother! Patti received them in the 70's. Three generations of Missouri women have grown these flowers and now they have found their way to my  Michigan garden.  I was born in Missouri, so I am thrilled to have flowers from my birth state!

I cannot tell you all how honored I am to receive these.  I just hope they will survive the next few months, so I can plant them early this spring.  Patti, you can be sure that I will treasure these bulbs. I remember seeing them bloom on your blog and they are beautiful.

 I wish Dianne and Patti  lived closer to me.  I would love to invite them both to a garden  luncheon when the rain lilies were in bloom.

Blogger Friends are the Best

What a surprise to find these seeds in my mailbox when I got home from work  today.

They were sent from my long-time blogger friend, Dianne, at Dianne Rambling On.  She has been reading my blog since its inception (7 yrs. ago? I have lost track) and is always there for a well thought out comment.  You can tell by Dianne's comments that she really reads every sentence of a post.  Nothing gets by her...she notices every detail!  I love that about Dianne.

 Dianne must be a treasure to her real-life friends.  People in my real life are not nearly as nice to me as Dianne is, and I have never met her!  She was at Longwood Gardens in PA and she thought of me  and bought these seeds.   Thank you, Dianne. I am so touched by this gift.

I have never had "mounding" nasturtiums.  I am planning to plant these in a container because I can't grow any seeds in the ground.  I will probably have multiple containers.   Tune in later this summer to see if I do justice to this kind gesture from Dianne.  I really hope I don't kill them!!  I am a pretty poor seed grower, but I will try extra hard to turn these seeds into  magnificent container plantings.

Thanks again, Dianne. You are certainly a treasure to this blogger!

Hodgepodge Week

I have not been doing many post worthy activities this week, so I will just touch upon a few miscellaneous endeavors.

I half baked some red velvet cookies.

I guess these are actually fully baked, just not completed. They are supposed to be sandwich cookies. Since I made them around the same time I made the cupcakes, I decided to freeze them at this stage. At some point I still intend to make the marshmallow/cream cheese frosting that goes between two cookies.  You will probably see these again in a week or two.

Recently I won a contest on Heather's blog, Books and Quilts.  It was a publisher's give-a-way for two books from the Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo. 
I am excited to find an author who centers her novels around the lives of women with a passion to create and
am expecting some light entertainment—along the same lines of the culinary mystery novels I love to read. I understand it's a very contemporary story with a heroine who blogs, sells on  Etsy, etc.  It should be a good read. Thanks again, Heather!

I've spent a few hours of fun and frustration creating these wonky house blocks.

It took four tries before I finally decided on these bright colors.

Oh, Boy, judging by this sight, it's not looking like a good year for my lilies and hostas.

I need to get some deer repellent spray soon. This is what I use to repel the big brutal beasts:

It has worked very good for me. But-- and it's a big but-- you MUST spray it on every few days.  I have learned to love the task. I keep it in a big sprayer and lug it around every couple of days when my hostas and lilies are bursting from the ground.  If it rains, I do it as immediately as I can once the rain stops.  It lasts quite a long time because you mix it with water. If the malicious creatures hang around all summer, then I have to continue to spray the hostas all season. I don't bother with the daylilies because I have a lot of them and it would take forever. So if the deer desire daylilies for dinner, they can have them.

Crocosmia 'Chopsticks' is going to Bloom!

While watering after work today, I spotted this flower embryo inside the strap-like leaves of this crocosmia (kro-KOS-mee-uh) that Wandering Chopsticks sent me last September.

This is the post I made when I received them.
I went around to the other areas where I planted them to see if there were any more signs of bloom.

Jackpot!

This one is even closer to being an orange flower.

I am so excited that these corms that came to me all the way from California are going to bloom in my Michigan garden this year!

I have also been keeping a close eye on some hollyhocks that Jean sent me last year. She sent me some seeds and I had three plants that came up last fall.
Hollyhocks are bienniel, meaning that they come up one year and bloom the second year. I was hoping that I planted them early enough last year that they would bloom this year, but I am not seeing any signs of a flower. I think I will have to wait until next year.

I am sure they will be worth the wait because I have seen Jean's and they are gorgeous!

Was it the Sauerkraut?

I think Suzy is right about the luck that will be bestowed upon those eating kraut at the new year. Two lucky things happened to me yesterday.



I won a beautiful rooster bowl from Laurie at Bargain Hunting with Laurie. As you all know I am a chicken/rooster collector from way back so I was thrilled to win her giveaway. Click this sentence to see the rooster bowl. I just recently discovered Laurie's blog. We share a table setting/ dish collecting hobby. So a big thank you to Laurie and her husband, who was the one who drew my name. Laurie has a fun style of writing and sharing the bargains she has discovered. If you are out surfing, please pay her a visit. I think you will enjoy her blog.


Some of you have been to my tablescaping blog where I indulge in my passion for setting tables. There has been just a tiny little following for that blog. Lately I have had the urge to set tables so I have been putting a lot more time into posting there.

Yesterday I went to check its stats and holy cow, I had 3,080 visitors yesterday and already today 1,573! Whoaa, where are they all coming from!? I started to read some comments and people were congratulating me for being a "Blog of Note". I vaguely remembered seeing that phrase someplace. Finally I remembered where--at the Blogger dashboard. They had selected my lowly little blog as a blog of the day! I have no idea how they are selected (probably just a random thing), but I must admit I was pretty thrilled to see Tablescaping as the first selection for the day.

So go eat some sauerkraut. I am running out to buy lottery tickets before my kraut luck runs out!

Crocosmia 'Chopsticks'

Yesterday I received this delightful package of Crocosmia bulbs from Wandering Chopsticks, who has a very popular food blog of the same name. The bulbs originally came from her mother's Oregon garden. Just look at this picture of them growing at her Mom's home. Simply Stunning!

Since I am a total crocosmia novice, I have been researching a little this morning . Judging from the picture, these may be "Lucifer", but since I am not sure, mine will be called "Chopsticks".

Because Chopsticks is from sunny California, I assumed these were tropical bulbs and would not survive my harsh winter temperatures. What a surprise when she emailed that her mom leaves hers in the ground all winter in Oregon. After a short time researching, I find that many Michiganders do the same. That makes me even happier. This weekend I will spend a bit of time finding just the right place to plant them.

Thank you again, Wandering Chopsticks. The little card you sent with them could not be more perfect for a gardener. I read that these are a favorite among florists, so I am sure they will be fun to work with in bouquets. I will be eagerly awaiting next year's bloom.

This week, DH came home from the grocery store with one of my listed items--cornstarch.

I was surprised and delighted by the new Argo container.

It is such an improvement over the old box. The new mouth is large enough to stick a small measuring cup in and should be much less messy than the cardboard box.

Sometimes the smallest things make me so happy!

Thank you, Jean & Breck's Order 7/1/2008

Ms. Greenthumb, Jean, grows the most beautiful foxgloves. I commented as such on one of her posts and she generously offered to send me some of her seed, which I gladly accepted.

The seeds arrived yesterday. Let me tell you those poor seeds must have had a bumpy journey from New York to Michigan! Just look at the envelope. The postal service put it inside one of their apology envelopes and it continued on its way to northern Michigan.


Luckily Jean had double enveloped the seeds and the envelope inside was just fine. Jean was more than generous, sending many thousands of seeds. Thank you, Jean. I have already scattered the seeds through three different gardens in hopes of finding one that they find hospitable. Maybe with Jean's "magic" seeds I will finally be able to grow a foxglove.



Thanks to the skillful sleuthing of Dianne, who promptly found a 'buy $50, get $25 free' coupon from Breck's, I ordered all of the items in the previous post, plus this Oriental poppy collection. Since I am (hopefully) getting rid of all my invasive ones, I will have room for these nicer varieties. I am posting all of the below info for my own records. I have found the quickest way to find out what I planted a previous year is to search my blog.

2 Lauren's Lilac - Introduced in 2000, this poppy exhibits a beautiful soft shade of mauve lilac.
2 Royal Wedding - Large, silky shimmering white petals surround black centers making a bold statement.
2 Queen Alexander Poppy - The most beautiful of all pink poppies with extra-bright salmon-pink single blooms held aloft by wiry, pubescent stems.
2 Prince of Orange Poppy - Huge blooms the color of tangerines surrounded by light green foliage. Wonderful satiny texture and long-lasting garden flair.
2 Brilliant Poppy - Wildfire red blooms with prominent black markings that will make you sigh with admiration.

Plus 2 Turkenlouis Poppy Free! - Spectacular fully double flowers are brightly colored with velvety fringed and frilly petals of scarlet red.
#1 field grown plants.

Nanette's Rooster

A few weeks ago I wandered into a new blog. The author posted a pic of a very cute table runner with a rooster block. It was much cuter than the rather elementary chicken block I made last spring. Most of you know that I have an affinity for roosters.

I left a comment for Nanette at Displaced Yoooper asking her where she found the pattern. Without hesitation she emailed me back and offered to send me the pattern! I was amazed at her generosity. She had no idea of who I was. It was my first visit to her blog.

True to her word, I received the pattern a few days later.

Today I finally had time to work on the block. I made my share of errors, and did a lot of ripping out and restarting. There were no labels on the pattern telling me what parts were body, tail, background, etc. It can be tough to figure that out with a black and white pattern that's printed in reverse of the finished block (as all foundation piecing is).

Anyway I finally finished one block. It finished a lot smaller than I thought it would be (I am sure the directions probably told me it would be only 6", but I didn't really read the directions).

I decided to turn it into the center of a star symbolizing the sun...you know, rooster waking up as the sun rises...
My original thought was to turn the rooster into a window valance for a set of new summer window coverings. That was when I thought the rooster was taller. But still I pinned it up to the window to see what it would look like.


It seems like a lot work to add fabric to the sides, the top and the bottom and make it all work....I do like that it matches the rooster above the window.

Maybe I will just add batting and backing and let it drape over the kitchen china cabinet.

It goes pretty well with the chickens and flowers that are already on top of the cabinet.

Another thought I have is to make it the front of a Farmer's Market tote bag. Wouldn't that be cute? It would also be very useful when we go the Farmer's market on Saturday during the summer months. Since I have never made a tote bag, I am not sure just how to do it. Perhaps I can take a pattern I already have and rework it somehow....

Anyway it was fun to make. Nanette, thank you again for sending it to me. I am always amazed at how friendly people are in blogville.

It's the Occasional Comment Like This One that Makes it all Worthwhile

from Anonymous:
Zoey,

I have long wanted to leave a comment for you. I just want you to know what an absolute inspiration you are to me. As both a gardener and a novice quilter, I am encouraged and constantly inspired by your talent in both areas. Your quilting and your love of design and home-making are an on-going source of inspiration to me! You savor and utilize every moment of every day! (After teaching for over 30 years, I will retire in three months. I am so looking forward to doing exactly what I want to do each and every day.)

You are a wonderfully talented lady who makes living life a wonderful journey. Kudos to you, my friend!!

Someone who has enjoyed your blog for over a year....

Anonymous, thank you so much. I cannot express how good I felt after reading this. Congratulations on your upcoming retirement!

Last night I completed border #3 and I've finally made one that I like. I have used that green fabric in a couple of the centers so I think it ties it all together without taking away from the stars.

Now I will just roll it up and set it aside to await it's turn for quilting.

Maybe I will try to machine quilt this one. Then again, maybe not. I don't even know how to machine quilt and I like this one too much to mess it up. I am still awaiting the quilting package for my new machine. It's been a month now and still nothing. Evidently it’s on back order because they are out of walking feet.

Just as I was posting this I got a comment from Jodi at Organized Chaos saying that she considered me as one of the bloggers she "loves reading because of their positive-ness!:)" Oh, my goodness. I feel even more special. Thank you, Jodi!

I Was Having a Good Today

When this box was brought to my desk at work, my day became even better!

This box contains my winning loot from Jean's recent give-a-way. I can't believe it arrived so quickly. It was all I could do not to open it right then.

But I waited until I got home. I was barely in the door before I cut the box open...





to reveal all of these snowman goodies!

Snowman plaques, a snowman pin, a candle, a lovely little box, ornaments, (I adore the dough one in my hand that Jean and her daughter Laurie made this year!). There is even a wonderfully-smelling 'Country Spice' sachet which is full of aroma beads. I love the smell. Jean, I am wondering if once these beads release all of their fragrance, I could use them for the snowman's buttons/eyes if I make some next year?

I hung it in my china cabinet display in the living room.

Now whenever I walk by I can get a gentle whiff of 'Country Spice'.

Jean, thank you so much. I just love it all!

Thank You, Dianne

for sending me some of the seeds from your flowers.

Look how she cleverly made seed packets from Longwood Gardens literature! Dianne is lucky enough to live very near the gardens and goes there often.

She sent me some purple and green zinnias, some autumn-colored sunflowers and some dinner plate hibiscus.

I will try my best to give them the attention they need to grow big and beautiful. Thank you, Dianne.