Garden Junk Arrangements

I really enjoy turning junk into flower arrangements on my deck.

 I have had the rusty milk can for years, but this is the first year for the rusty old tool box.


In another area of the deck I have planted and old indoor light with 'Vampire' Calibrachoa, Creeping Jenny and white biden. Do you remember these floor lights that almost everyone had in at least one corner of their living room? I think they make wonderful planters.

The bottom of the container is planted with dahlia (yellow I think). From this side you can't see the real star of this arrangement.

 Let me walk to the back side to show you....

Wow! Loving this vibrant red 'Vampire' Calibrachoa!  I must remember it for future years. It should soon spill over the top and down all sides. I am looking forward to seeing this planting  mature.

This delphinium should open soon.

 This is a very bright peony!

I am now going to douse myself with bug spray and battle the mosquitoes as I attempt to weed these perennial gardens. Wish me luck!

Red Alert Calla Lilly in a Container

I am really enjoying this new purchase of 'Red Alert' Calla Lilies in the urns beside my garage. (You can see some dahlia foliage and some handsome striped leaves of a new pink canna lily planted behind)

 'Red Alert' remains short - no more than 24" high. One bulb produces multiple flowers in a nice red/orange color that looks great with this 'Henna' coleus.

 I am especially fond of the white-speckled leaves some of which echo the red floral color.

 

I am also happy to see that my Korean dwarf lilac shrub 'Miss Kim' is full of blooms this year.

 'Miss Kim' blooms appear just has my old-fashioned lilac bushes fade.

 

This shrub should get about 4 feet tall and wide.

 

Despite very little attention, June has been a great month in my perennial gardens.  I am looking forward to a good season in 2015!

 

Spring Garden is Shaping Up

I spent a few hours on Saturday doing some heavy-duty weeding in the perennial gardens.  Last week we had three nights of frost, so it's only the beginning of garden weather in lower northeast Michigan.

I am very happy with the garden so far this season.  I have never had so many iris ready to bloom! 

The deer have not eaten anything (yet), so I have dozens of Asiatic lilies that should bloom in early July (if our luck holds and the deer don't discover this diner before then).

I stood in my bedroom window and just took these photos:  This one is toward the road....

  The hostas are all looking good, too.  Can you see the circle of them way down the path?

I turned slightly to the right to show you the woodland side of the path.

A few degrees more toward the right shows the view toward the backyard rockwall garden.  I have three arbors and you have seen all three with these views.

I need to put a plant  inside the aqua milk can. I will find something soon.

Many years ago (like 20), I dug up a few lilac shoots from my childhood home.  They have never done much of anything.  Every five years or so, I moved them in hopes that someday I would be able to cut some lilacs for an indoor bouquet.................I had almost given up hope...until this year...I was thrilled to see a ton of flowers on the bushes....this is my second indoor bouquet of lilacs.......

I have really been enjoying this flower holder that I purchased a few months ago....I have used it for daffodils..

 

Easter eggs

 

Mixed spring flowers..........

fake  calla lilies.............

The possibilities are endless!  If you ever see one for sale, grab it!

A New Purple Rug

On a whim, I ordered this purple rug from Wayfair last week.

I tend  to do things like this in the wee hours of the morning (before leaving for work) and  then regret  the money I spent because the product is not what it appeared to be on my computer screen.

I bought the rug in the hope that it would be a spring update for  my quarter-century old floral love seat and sofa in my living room.

I am  thrilled to report that I LOVE this big 6 ft x 9 ft rug!

This room is rarely used, so the  25 year old furniture still looks new.  I think the rug does work to make the room look more up to date.

I also ordered  that flower vase holder from Wayfair.  I stuck some artificial pink calla lilies in it.

I  like it.

I am still working on the rest of the room, but , so far, I am thrilled with my purchase!

Winter 2015 Update

We have had miserably cold temps the past few weeks. One day last week it was -22 actual with a -30+ wind chill. Brrrrrrrrrr... 

I have been enjoying this centerpiece that I made from a supermarket bouquet that J brought home two weeks ago.

This rusty centerpiece is actually a candleholder that I bought from Wayfair a few months ago.  I just put in some votive vases filled with water and cut the flower stems down.

I was thinking positive thoughts during the cold spell and ordered flowers for my summer garden. :)  I can't wait to get these beauties:


Little Blue Wonder Sea Holly - it's a miniature...I think I ordered 5 of these. 

Dahlias:

I ordered 3 of these White Feather Hosta just because they are so unique.

For the past two days, it's been a Stay-at-Home-Work-on-Quilts weekend.

On Saturday my goal was to make a bench-back pillow out of three bird blocks that I made a few years ago.  I am happy to report that I accomplished that goal. Here is the pillow:

Today I am crawling around on the floor getting this cardinal star quilt "sandwiched" so I can begin to quilt it. 

I am getting way to old to be doing this!

I  hope you are all surviving the winter in whatever state you are in!

Happy New Year Blog Friends

I am enjoying this flower bouquet during our coldest week yet this winter (below zero) and over 6 inches of snow the past few days. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....

(I bought the vases from Wayfair.com - Christmas gift to myself. :)  I think I will get a ton of use from it with my garden flowers this summer).

My yard is a beautiful winter wonderland right now.

Hope you are all enjoying 2015!

White Christmas Tree (My First Non Green Tree)

Thanksgiving is long gone...  My dinner went well...we ate turkey for 5 days and loved it! 

Now it's on to Christmas.

After Christmas last year I bought a white prelit tree to use with all of these felt pink/white ornaments that I made over two decades ago. 

I put the tree up a week ago and have been adding to it ever since.  I keep remembering more pink items that I have, so I go down to the basement and rummage around until I find what I remembered.

I really like the polka dot burlap that I also bought during the 50% off sales last year.

The only new ornaments I bought this year are some white owls.  You have to look closely to see them on the white tree.

Can you see all the little white and pink mice I stuck in the branches?  I love those guys.

 

 My Mom crocheted all of the white hearts and white hats (again hard to see on the white tree). I am amazed that they have stayed so white after all these years.

Those white lace hearts and pink flowers are from my wedding in 1989.

 

The tree is topped with an old world Santa -- in pink, of course. :)

 

 

I  used some extra ornaments to decorate some gifts under the tree.

I think I am finished tweaking, since I have filled nearly every branch tip available.  I am beginning to really like this tree!

 

I decided not to do my big 9.5 ft. tree that I usually do in the family room. It's just too much work to climb up/down the ladder to decorate it and then to take it all down. This little 6.5 ft. tree will be a snap to take down after Christmas.  Perhaps I will do the big one again next year.   

 

Is your holiday decorating done?

My New Table Arrived Today & I LOVE It!

About 11am the Fed X truck arrived in my driveway with the table I ordered last week.
All we had to do was take it out of the box and plop it down --no assembly required... gotta love that!

I am so happy that it did indeed match the bench I bought last spring.

  Last week I re-designed the floral arrangement on top of my metal lantern.  I wanted to use the antlers from my son's first buck (today is opening day of deer season) and some white owls I recently purchased. 

I think I like the lantern sitting all alone on this table.

When the new table arrived, we were right in the middle of hauling end tables, etc. from the living room  down to the basement to make room for a second table  in our dining room for the  Thanksgiving dinner that we are hosting. We store an old oval table ( I have had it since 1974--40 YEARS!  How can that be???) in the basement for large holiday dinners. If we set it end-to-end with our dining room table we can comfortably seat 14.

 I decorated the china cabinets with items from my Thanksgiving décor boxes, but did not finish the tables.  I need to come up with something down the center of both tables to tie them together.   Not an easy task when the tables are so different!

It's a bit of a mess right now.

Nonetheless, I am fortunate to have enough space in my little ranch home to fit 14 people in one area for Thanksgiving dinner.  I am planning to come up with something to go down the length of both tables to tie them together....will post a pic later to show you what I decided on.

In the meantime I sat among the clutter to plan my menu...

I grabbed a stack of "interesting Thanksgiving recipes" that I have printed in the past month and began to sort through them to decide what I wanted to make and to compose a grocery list (if you know me, you know that I DO NOT wait until the last minute to plan anything!).

I will get the list prepared and J will do the shopping. Together I hope we can pull off a successful Thanksgiving celebration for our families!

Do You Order Online?

I just got an email that this little table has shipped

and should arrive on my doorstep Friday. I do LOVE the convenience of online ordering! I rarely go in a real store anymore.

 

The table matches this bench I bought last spring.

I keep the bench by the garage door and store shoes in the baskets & drawers.

 I plan to store magazines in the new one.

I have invited 14 people for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be the first time I have had J's entire family for Thanksgiving.  I am looking forward to it.  This weekend I want to finish the pilgrim man/woman set I started last winter.  This is as far I am on with the woman. ..

I need to add a border around her. I have not even started on the man.  I am hoping that having all these people over, will motivate me to get it done!

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.