I Found an Advantage to a Flooded Garden

Pine needles float!

 Which makes it much easier to rake them out.

 On the other side, the Lamb's Ear I planted last  year does not like water. I hope it survives the flooding. So far it looks OK.

It was very windy while I was outside trying to tidy up the unflooded areas. Hopefully, that wind will dry this out more quickly.  Under this water there is only a few inches of soil. The rest is rock. That is why it takes so long for the water to leave. . . the ground just does not absorb it.

I saw one of my Tango lilies coming up under the water.

I do hope the water leaves before the bulbs  rot!

I did a new leopard/hot pink table today. I have not  yet posted it on my tablescape blog, so you, my loyal readers,  are the first to see it..I mixed the leopard dishes with pink polka dots!

My centerpiece was inspired by this piece of "garbage" from the Big Kahuna. 


He and his wife were throwing it away. Then they thought of me.  They know I love their garbage. So the Big K brought it to work Friday and asked me if I wanted it. Really? Are you kidding? YES, I want it! It has great patina...tiny bit of rust...very heavy. WHO would throw this treasure away?  I probably should be embarrassed  that they think of me when they paw through their garbage.

But when their junk turns into this centerpiece.............

What is embarrassing about that?  I envision using this great piece often. I really love it!

The Snow is Gone--Now Look What I Have!

I just can't seem to win this year!

Yes, it's been raining for two days and the weather report calls for at least another day of rain. I guess it will be a while before I can begin my garden clean up.

I hope where ever you are, you are having better weather.

I am linking to Cottage Flora Thursday (even though I haven't much flora today). Go to Fishtail Cottage to check out some actual flowers.

Whoooooo Hoooooooooo---I Finally Have Something for Jean's Blooming Tuesday!

Admittedly, it's not much.  But after visiting all of the blogs at  Jean's Blooming Tuesday, I was slightly depressed.  One of them was  already eating salad from her own garden! Here I am still waiting for the last snowbank to melt.  That would depress the best of us.

It's been  in the 40's and raining here all day.

At 5pm the rain finally stopped and I decided to run out to the deck to see if a little clump of daffodils that I noticed yesterday had bloomed.  Hmmmmmmmmmm.....here they are:

 I think this qualifies as my first bloom!  Pathetic, I know. But it's a bloom!

I decided to walk off the deck and check out the ligularia planter I showed last week. Remember, I was hoping it had survived the winter....Whooo Hooo!!! It's alive!!

At the edge of my planting bench, I noticed chives beginning to grow.

I am so glad I decided to walk outside.  Winter is finally ending in northern Michigan!

Leopard Tablescape is Finished

Remember those leopard dishes I told you about a few days ago? While I just finished the tablescape using them. Here are a couple of teaser pics  in sepia tone:

 If you want to see it in color, just click here to go to my blog, Tablescaping.

I had tons of fun doing this table. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Happy Easter Everyone

I am not going to be home for Easter this year. Since I don't have an Easter table to show you, I thought I'd show the one from last year (those who don't ready my tablescaping blog probably have not seen it).

I used Whoppers on my tablescape.

The soft pink of the candy worked well with the table.

I've incorporated a lot of my hobbies in this table, like the wooden bunny I painted purple to match the quilted table runners that I made. I also painted one chocolate brown because it reminds me of all those milk chocolate rabbits I used to get for Easter.
There are lots of real eggs on this table that I colored and decoupaged. These little boy bunnies hold eggs with quilt patterns. A blue jean bunny wearing a pink bandanna skirt sits atop the back chair.
I made the chair back toppers in the log cabin quilt block design with pink bunnies in the middle.


I've had these bunny napkin rings for quite some time. I am always happy to see them again because they are just so darn cute!
The centerpiece is my big hurricane candle holder filled with Easter grass and a small egg tree.

I miss having a decorated Easter table this year!

I hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend.

ARRRRGGGGG.....

Enough said about that.


On to more fun stuff like these Easter ideas that I found on the net:
A simple yet adorable pear salad (or garnish) and some cute biscuits. 
I think they both came from Woman's Day magazine.

My favorite pear bunny is this one.

I love pears in cottage cheese (note the cottage tail--too cute!)

I am not cooking for Easter this year, but I will save these ideas for next year.

Snowy, Windy, Cold Sunday/Coldwater Creek Disappointment

I am spending a bit of the afternoon making a wine label for a tablescape I will be doing soon.

On Friday I was contacted by a dealer of Mikasa dinnerware. The guy said he had been to my tablescaping blog and liked my zebra table.  He said he would like to send me a service for four of this dinnerware and in return he would like me to do a table and post a review.  Cool! (You can tell I was a teenager in the 70's).

If you have been following me for long, you know my weakness one of my weaknesses is dishes. I have had to stop buying because I already own well over 2 dozen patterns and I have no more space. I love animal print dishes. The fact of having no more space passed through my mind for exactly 30 seconds before I hit reply and said that I would be thrilled to set a table with these dishes! I know, I am weak...I can always pack away a set I rarely use.  I have no square sets of dinnerware and I have no leopard print dishes.   I need these dishes!

So in anticipation of setting a new table, I made my own wine label to go with the theme. There is no such wine...but I think the name goes with the dishes.

This guy said he will be posting my tablescape on his facebook page and has 7000 followers or whatever they are called on facebook, who may be stopping by to see the table.

So I am feeling pressured to put my best efforts forward on this table.  I hope I don't crumble under pressure!   I have not posted a new table in quite a few weeks, so this is just the challenge I need to get back to tablescapes.

I was so disappointed in the Coldwater Creek order I received Friday.  They have raised their prices and lowered the quality.  See this:

 I thought it would be great for summer.
Now that I have it, I don't think I can even wear this--perhaps I could use it as a rag--no, it's too thin for that.

It is supposed to be "crinkled", but honestly, it looks like a wrinkled old rag.  I am so disappointed CC!  My husband is happy that I am displeased because he is hoping I will stop ordering from this company.  I have never returned anything and I won't return this (too much hassle and expense). Maybe I can wear it at home out on the deck when  nobody will see me.

Housework Cramps My Style

My mother has always been an energetic home cleaner. Even with four kids just over a year apart, she always had the cleanest house on the block.  I can never remember a time that our childhood home was not clean.  Lucky for her three daughters, Mom passed that gene on.  We have all enjoyed keeping pretty clean homes and we all work full-time. 

Now my mother is in her 70's and very active in her volunteer activities--when I say very active, I am not exaggerating -- she works VFW bingoes on many Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, spends almost every Wednesday afternoon at the local Tendercare home playing games with the residents, sometimes she and my dad spend 10-hr days cooking for VFW fund-raising events, she is a three times past president of the VFW ladies auxiliary and is the soon-to-be president of the Cooties auxiliary--another veteran's group with a very strange name (my dad is the commander of that group, second year in a row -- they both have endless energy).  Two weeks ago they traveled four hours south to a military convention. Next Wednesday they will travel even further to a VFW home in upper MI to entertain the older veterans living there. They have a carload of gifts donated by our local VFW to give the residents as they play bingo. The residents really look forward to this visit.  My Mom & Dad never challenge them when they yell "bingo!", even though they cheat like crazy to win the little gifts.  They are just happy to bring a smile to the face of an old veteran who has little else to look forward to.

I have only highlighted a few of their recent activities--suffice it to say they are not spending their golden years in a Lazy Boy recliner.  If they have any spare time, they like to go on weekend trips with us.

Last Saturday I called my mother to see if they wanted to go on our trip with Roamy. She was home that day, but my Dad was working a gun show at the VFW.  She said she had to scrub floors, do laundry, etc. because she was so far behind.  "Housework is cramping my style!" she declared. 

Isn't that the truth? I am far from my 70's, but I wholeheartedly agree. As I get older, my ambition for housework is waning. Today I am stuck home doing housework. It's cold and raining so there won't be any garden work like I had planned. I would much rather be on a weekend getaway.  Life is just too short to forgo fun to clean a house. My new motto is "Enjoy life while you can--you never know when your time is up!"

From now on my housework will just have to wait because I am my mother's daughter and housework is beginning to cramp my style, too!

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!

Let's See What Survived the Winter

I left this table and chairs out all winter.  By doing so, I was hoping all the layers of paint would peel off to reveal the original red color.

I don't think it worked. You can see all the different colors this set has been, but the remaining white paint is still quite securely stuck on.  I will try to give it a power wash, but that did not work last year, so I am not hopeful.

I don't remember what I stuck under this driftwood. Must be some perennial that goes into my birdhouse planter since it's square.

I was thrilled to see that the Elijah Blue Fescue grass survived. It must start out green and then turn blue?

Here is the color it should be.

This pathetic looking plastic container has overwintered next to the outside basement wall. I can't tell yet if it survived.

I sure hope so because buried beneath this mess is one of my favorite summer perennials -- Ligularia--the rocket.  It's the tall yellow flowers below.

It's such fun to see my old friends again! 

My First Walk Through the Garden Paths in 2011

It's nearly 60 degrees today so when I  came home from work I took a walk through all my garden paths.  OMG, I have way too much work to do!

I am going to follow with a bunch of pictures with no commentary. They will serve to remind me of how far I have come when I look back in July.   I feel pretty certain that almost all of you will be very happy that you do not need to clean up this spring mess!

 After I walked through all these gardens, I was happy that over the weekend we had put the glider on the deck. I just sat here and contemplated all the work I had to do. 
In the old days, I never called it work.  Now that I do, I think it is time to reduce my garden space!

Oh, darn! I was setting this up to post tomorrow morning,but I put the wrong date. So now I have two posts for today.

Please check out the other gardens at Fishtail Cottage Flora Thursday.