I Finally Bought a Scarf I Really Like!

I am totally happy with my latest scarf purchase! It is very lightweight and there are no tying skills involved. You just toss each end over your shoulder and let it hang the way it falls.

I am getting ready to go to my sister-in-law's for Christmas dinner.  She asked me to make a fresh cranberry salad, which turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself).  I know because last night I had my Mom & Dad and sister over for Christmas eve dinner and I made a smaller bowl for us so I could make sure it was edible. :)  I have never made this one before, so I googled to find a recipe using fresh oranges (the entire orange all ground up), fresh apples, cranberries and canned pineapple.  I found a couple of recipes, combined and changed items to suit the family likes/dislikes until I had something I felt would work for everyone. I whipped it up at 5:00 a.m. yesterday.  It's super easy to make. I think everyone but me has made a similar recipe before.  Jim and I both loved it, so  this will now be on my holiday recipe list.

I am not a very good girl all year, so Santa does not bring me much. :) 

But this year he did bring me these shoes that have strands of yarn sewn throughout:

 I just love them and can't wait to wear them.  I have a few orange jackets (yes, I am one of those people who like orange) that should go nicely with these.

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday festivities as much we are!



I Just Finished Christmas Shopping -- for Myself!

Here is what I ordered:

I received a gift of money this week and decided to spend it (plus more).  I think this order will arrive just in time for Christmas.  Can't wait to see if I like everything as much as I hope I will.

Dwarf Golden Threadbranch Cypress and Ajuga Make a Nice Combo as does PINK briefcase & Grey Jacket

I am very happy with the two Dwarf Golden Threadbranch Cypress that I planted in 2011 in front  the two Ninebark Diabolo shrubs that flank my front porch.  I am trying to fill in all of the soil  between the two Golden cypress with  Ajuga. Here is one side on June 1st.

I like it.  I think by next spring the entire area will be filled in. 

I could not find a Ninebark shrub yesterday.  I hope the local places get more shrubs soon.

 Between the rain, DH cleaned up the drooping pine branches on the huge back yard trees.

I don't know what I would do without my garden helper. I've said this a million times, but I can never say it enough---he's a keeper!  I did buy those six yellow privet shrubs you see in the front of the two trees.

I needed some yellow on this end of the rockwall garden to coordinate with all the yellow I have on the opposite end.

It's been raining here for days.  I am not complaining because I like the rain

and it will knock the pollen from these pine trees, so we can sit on the deck without being covered in yellow dust.


I was recently gifted with this gorgeous pink leather ladies' briefcase:

  The color is a bit off in the above picture.

It is really a pink/purple color.  I think it will go nicely with a grey jacket like this one:

 I cannot even wait to carry it to work!  Thanks Aunt Mary!!

Garden is Slowly Coming Alive

My two azeala bushes are blooming:

 Here is a closeup of one flower:

 They are so lovely, but in my garden the bush does not get very large.  I envy all of you gardeners who post gorgeous pics of  your HUGE  azeala bushes while I am left to enjoy my puny little specimens!

I cut back my butterfly bush last weekend.  I know a lot of people in my zone (5) wonder what to do with butterfly bushes.  I cut mine down in May.  They grow fast and will reach the top of my deck railing by August.

It has been a while since I have shown you my Colwater Creek purchases (I am too embarrassed to show you everything I buy :) )

A few weeks ago I purchased this top:

Don't you just love the crocheted detail?   I wore this last weekend  and I really liked how it looked paired with  jeans and a denim jacket. It washed nicely, too. I used the delicate cycle and hung it to dry. 

I also bought a pair of Naturalizer wedge sandals that I have not worn yet.

I think they will be great with my white summer jackets. I hope they are comfortable.

 

I am hoping for a nice day today. It's already 53 degrees and its only 5:30 a.m. Hoping to see mid 70's today.

Denim & Diamonds

Today I wore the big bold diamond-like flower necklace that I showed you in my last post.  I wore it with black pants, black top and a white denim jacket. 

 I bought this jacket at the same time I bought the necklace, hoping they would work together.  The combo looked just the way I imagined it would and I loved it!  I think the Bling-bling from the necklace added just the touch I needed to elevate a jean jacket to wear-to-work status.

I even got a few compliments.  After work I went to get my hair done and two hair stylists commented on how much they liked it, which made me feel good. 

I also wore a CC belt with silver accents that I bought a few years ago.  I needed some silver on the belt to go with the silver snap buttons on the jean jacket.

I am planning to wear this exact combo again this weekend.  It is always nice when my purchases turn out to be exactly what I had planned in my mind when I hit the order button!

That is not the only good luck I had today.  I had 15 min. to spare between leaving work and my hair appointment.  Last week I bought two new lamp shades for my living room.  When I got them home, they were a tad too short.  I have been trying to find lamp shades for months and there is just NOTHING in my small town.  So I decided to keep the too-short shades and just add some trim to the bottom. 

The only place I have to buy trim in my town is JoAnne's Fabric store. I ran right to the back of the store to see if they  had any trim in the close-out section.  They had only one---it was exactly what I wanted!!  No kidding............look at this..................

I could not have had a better match if I hand dyed it!  It was $6/yard less than the same fringe in other colors.  I really should forget about this post and go buy a lottery ticket!  My luck just does not get better than it was today.

Bling-bling

Last week I received a few pieces of jewelry that I ordered from *C*oldwater *C*reek during their closeout sale.  You all know I stalk the CC site daily and pounce when I see a great sale event!

   I left the price tag on this necklace, aptly named 'Brilliant Blossoms', to show you what a great bargain it was. I would never pay  $100 for costume jewelry .  Fortunately it was at the outlet price + 60% off  and I found a coupon code for $30 off a $100 order. .................   .................   ...................... .........................................................drum roll please.................................................................

This big ol' hunk of bling was mine for just $17.55.

This is more the true color:

I also bought  a few other bold pieces:

Love this one!

 

 

 

Not sure about this set-- the pic on their site showed a totally different color - I thought I was ordering the aqua color below.

 Every now and then I get something that is not as I expected. I never return anything.  I am sure I have something in my closet that will coordinate with the more green color.

I also bought some cute gloves (for next year) & a couple of belts:

 

 This morning I added these  Easter chair backs to my dining room .

Today we are expecting rain and snow.  It's a good day to stay inside and finish up the Easter decorating. 

Life is good in my little corner of the world this weekend. :) I hope it is in your corner, too



My January so Far...

I hope you all have been having a good January.  I have not been doing much of anything worthy of a blog post. 

One day last week I spent two hours mending bathmats and a few towels for the hotel.

Can you believe the terry products arrive brand new looking like this?

We are not purchasing discount quality linens. In fact our brand mandates a certain thread count, which is a very nice terry towel.  Unfortunately the company that has our worldwide multi-million dollar contract does not appear to be deserving of it.  I hope the ultra BigWig decision makers of our franchise find a new supplier soon! 

Since the new year began, I have been in the mood to sew a little something.  Last week I found this Halloween pattern at a site called Artisania.  She drafted the pattern herself and generously shares it with all of us for free. This is my somewhat flawed rendition:

I think she is kinda cute, don't you?  I have no idea what I will use her for, but I am getting quite a few Halloween blocks. I may make dining room chair backs with each chair having a different block.  I will do that right after I finish the 4 or 5 quilts that are next in line to be worked on.

 

 

We have no snow on the ground. It's another strange winter in northern Michigan. We had some snow, but it all melted during last week's rain.  I took this pic on Saturday when it was 55 degrees here.

I am hoping we get some snow soon as my garden needs a good snow cover. Without snow, I am likely to lose quite a few perennials. Did you notice the turkeys way in back in the above picture? Here's a close up:

They come around every afternoon about 3:30 p.m.   These days I am never home to see them at that time unless it's a weekend.

Last week  a little package appeared on my desk at work from my favorite clothing retailer.  Inside I found these items:

The middle sweater has an interesting metal detail all around its center.   I would never pay full price ($99), but it was quite reasonable at the sale price.

I ordered two sets of the little Christmas clothespins. They have holiday words like "believe" and "joy" across their tops.  They will be cute to attach Christmas cards to a piece of wire or rope.

I do love a good closeout sale!

 

I hope your January has been wonderful.

I've Had a Materialistic Girl Week -- and I Deserve it!

I have been working 50-hr weeks for the past month.  I am not complaining--I am super busy and time goes by fast.  But I have no time during the week to do anything other than work.

So when I checked my email at 5:00 a.m. on Cyber Monday, I could not resist the 50% off + free shipping from my favorite clothing site and I clicked it just to see what was available (even though I just told you all that I was not going to buy any more clothing).  Sometimes I lie :)

Can you believe I found quite a  few items that I felt  would work great in my current wardrobe? I know you are probably shocked,but I did indeed find all of these items:
Lots of layering pieces and one necklace. 

I also decided early in the week  to get my nails done as DH wanted to give that to me for an early birthday gift.  It's been two years since I removed my acrylic nails and I am getting tired of short ugly stumps....so I decided to have them put back on.

Here they are against my current machine-quilting project--kind of a two for one pic :).

It's a pain to go every 2 weeks to have them done, but I really feel so much better with longer nails. 

The quilt is one I pieced a few years ago and was going to hand quilt.  I started to hand quilt it two months ago, but never returned to it.  I finally decided to just use the machine for some simple straight line quilting.  I don't seem to have the ambition to spend months hand quilting any more.  I guess it's better just to get them done on the machine so I can use them. I hope to get it finished this weekend.

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already.  I do have to work a bit on Saturday, but after that I intend to go home and stay for the rest of the weekend.  Maybe I can find a place to hang that wreath I made on Thanksgiving day.

Autumn Mojo--the Cold-Weather Spark has Ignited

I am really getting into the early fall weather we have been having. It has been in the 40's at night, which is perfect weather for sleeping under one of my quilts. Since I have no clothesline, I hung the quilt over a few chairs on the deck before putting it on my bed.  I like a fresh air smell the first time I pull one of these fall-weather warmers up to my chin. This blue Jacob's Ladder quilt is the perfect weight for late summer/early autumn snuggling.

In a few weeks, I will replace it with something warmer.

I have more energy in early fall, and last night I cooked a from-scratch meal--almost unheard of on a working weeknight in my kitchen.

I made a crustless chicken pot pie (chicken stew) in a white sauce. It was delish and I can't wait to eat it again tonight.  A buttery biscuit underneath would be perfect, but DH wanted rice, so I made rice instead. I have no recipe as I just threw things together.  I know, I hate when people don't give me a recipe! Sorry.

For the past month, I have been adding to my cold-weather working wardrobe.  This is my latest purchase--a red  wool flocked jacket.

I think I already own the black lace tee underneath--or something very similar.

 

One of this week's goals is to bring up a bin or two of my winter jackets and haul my lightweight summer jackets to the basement.

 

I have a few new bloomers to show you.  My Sedum Autumn Joy flanking the driveway is now at my favorite stage--this light  pink color.

 

 

 

 

 

I moved some difficult-to-place colchium bulbs to this front yard garden and they are now blooming through the ajuga and under the Sedum Autumn Joy:

 I think I have finally found a spot where I can appreciate their dainty blooms.  I can look outside my living room window and see this garden. 

 

I also like these 'Fireworks' grass seed heads in my garage urns..

 

 

Last, but certainly not least, I still have Patti's rain lilies blooming in September!

Patti, is that normal?

Word Verification Problems

Anybody else having problems leaving comments on blogs using word verification?

It keeps telling me it's wrong, even when it's correct.  It's been happening for about a week.   I am now done trying!

Being unable to leave comments, freed up a little shopping time for me. :)

I need  (OK, I want) a few warm casual weekend items. Those two fleece jackets should be cozy autumn additions!

Huge Dahlia Work Containers

The planters I did at work turned out to be nothing like what I imagined.  I could not find any cannas to buy, so I brought in some of my own cannas and dahlias and calla lilies (already finished).  I had to take an educated guess (lots of time spent searching my blog for planters with the plants I wanted). I thought I planted the bold Tropicannas with dark striped leaves and purple Rembrandt dahlias.

Instead I got yellow daisy-like dahlias and green-leaved cannas...and boy, did I get them! Whoa, these plants must be on steroids!

I wanted the canna to dominate, but it is almost hidden by the dahlias.  It does have a nice flower when you get up close:

  The pink petunia is 'Bubblegum'.

Do you love the 'Fireworks' fountain grass?  I do!  Actually you cannot tell the difference between it and the regular purple fountain grass as most of the foliage is hidden.  I just love the soft hanging tails.

I bought some of the same grass for my own planters and they have barely grown. I hate when what I plant at work, looks better than the same stuff I plant at home. :(

The Persian shield is also dwarfed by the dahlias. It is so small that I could have eliminated it--ditto for the purple coleus next to it.

The Ipomea (sweet potato vine) is on the side and you cannot even see it from the front. I don't mind that. I kind of like it not taking over the entire front of the container. I have to keep cutting it back or it would be halfway out in the driveway.

Here is what this container looked like when freshly planted in May (you can only see the annuals as the plants I brought from home have not yet come up):

and I was worried that this planter was not full enough! :)

Yesterday I was looking through my wardrobe pics. I fill huge totes with off-season clothing and then I forget what I have.  I found some pics of this grey/orange outfit that I would like to wear again:

Unfortunately I cannot find the clothing!  I think I will be searching the basement totes this weekend.