Lavender

Lidy at http://littlefrenchgardenhouse.blogspot.com/ did a post yesterday about lavender with a beautiful picture of a lavender field that must be in France. She gave a description of how to harvest it that is most informative. If you grow this pretty plant you may want to click over there and check it out.

My youngest son is getting married this August and she has given me a cute idea for the out-of-town guest baskets that I hope to put together. My lavender should be in bloom and ready for harvest the end of June. I am the most uncrafty person, but I can tie a pretty bow, so I will dry the lavender and tie it in bundles with some French wire ribbon that coordinates with the wedding colors of pink & brown to throw in the baskets to sweeten air in the hotel rooms of our guests.

Oh my, I just skipped over to Lidy's site to grab the URL for this post and read her new post. She has a little web shop that I hadn't take the time to look at before but will be going back to when I leave this post. I like peas in a pod & lily-of-the-valley and was excited to see the new jewelry that she just received from France. Such talented artists to be found here in blog land. I'm off to Lidy's, won't you join me?

Inspiring Donna

Donna wrote on her blog at http://thedecoratedhouse.blogspot.com/ , in her beautiful post about Mt. Dora, that she now takes more pictures because of her blog. That is how I feel too. Blogging has become a much needed creative outlet for me since I have retired. I love being able to be a keeper at home, and now, between household duties, popping in to the blog makes me know there are other's out there doing the same thing which fulfills that sense of belonging that I was missing now that I no longer have my little shop. I see other creative people sharing their passions, projects & pictures and it encourages me to work harder to create pretty inspirational things to share myself. I open a drawer and find it a mess and I think, take a picture of the before and after for the blog. Well I usually don't get around to actually going and getting my camera, but occasionally I do get around to really cleaning out the drawer ;)

Check out Donna's blog if you haven't already. She is amazing. The transformation that she has done on her adorable house is truly inspirational. I wrote her, when I first discover her, to tell her that, because of her, I now like my wooden kitchen cupboards. The canopy over her sink is like nothing I've ever seen before and would love to do in my kitchen.

More Planting Finished

I hope everyone had a good Memorial weekend. We spent time with friends and putzing around the yard. This week I need to get busy inside, the dust has a way of creeping in even when there is no one home.

At least I don't have to worry about the get-away laundry since John hit the valet button on the key thingy and everything is still locked in the trunk of the car. We can't figure out how to switch it back, to be able to open the trunk, since the key thingy hasn't worked in months and of course the dealership was closed over the holiday weekend. So, today's projects are getting the trunk opened, returning some Harley things & starting the house cleaning.

Bunnies for Toni ;)

Toni is great at spotting bunnie's around my house. She is also a gifted crafter. If you like bunnies like I do, or even just appreciate seeing good works of art, click on over to her blog at http://rabbithillcreations.blogspot.com and take a look at the rabbit rug that she created. Be sure to comeback her for a visit though.

Thank you to everyone that has been leaving comments, I really enjoy hearing from all of you and then visiting your amazing blogs. Please, if you come by, leave even a quick comment, I try to respond and enjoy meeting all of you.

Lilac's

Here's an outdoor picture of these blooming beauties.

Lilac Perfume

The lilac perfume in my office is intoxicating. The three dwarf lilac tree's right out side my window are in full bloom and the smell is delicious. Spring glorious, spring! Thank you Lord for the beautiful seasons here in Michigan.

OK, apparently blogger will let me load two but not three pictures. Here's a couple more, the window box on the right needed 2 more plants. The other one is a close up to one of the front porch pots that look a little skimpy now but will fill out fast and when I get my other smaller pots out and my wreath up will look better.

Finally got my planting started. The flowers that I got at Flower Day are beautiful and huge, filling my huge pots on the front porch and my 2 window boxes. There weren't quite as many as I had anticipated so I had to get more to fill the backyard containers. John also pointed out, while I was saying that the cost per plant was around a dollar, that that was not the case. I never was all that great at math. Still the cost for planting this year is coming in much less than last year so I'm satisfied with that.

Blogger is being a pain and not letting me post multiple photo's so I'll add a few more in separate posts. It must be blogger, not me, right?

I've been tagged!

This is the first time I've been tagged so I'm not sure exactly what to do but here goes. The very talented Toni at http.//rabbithillcreations.blogspot.com tagged me to post 7 random things about me.

1. I have read the Holy Bible all the way through more than once.

2. My greatest blessings are my 3 grown children that all love the Lord.
Two of them are married and have lovely families, the third is getting married this August.
They have all finished college and are gainfully employed.

3. Morning is my favorite time of day, I get up very early, sometimes too early like today it's 2am here.

4. I am Grama to 4 precious little ones and Nana to 4 more. They are all seven and under. 4 live with in a couple of hours of us and the other 4 live way to far away, but we are praying that they move closer soon.

5. Friends are important to me from the gang I went to elementary school with, to the many mentors that have helped me, the new friends that I've made here in Detroit, to my fab 4 that are the most creative bunch of women that I am honored to have in my life, I love them all.

6. My husband is of southern Italian ancestry and I am of English. If you've ever read Cheryl Mendelson's "Home Comforts" you will understand the striking contrast. My adorable Italian neighbors sweep their driveways nearly every day, I on the other hand, prefer ironing ;)

7. My pet peeve is a lack of set meal times. This becomes especially bothersome for me while traveling when everyone is hungry at different times. OK, I just read about that in "Home Comforts" while looking for Mendelson's little blurb about the differences between her Italian & English Grandmother's, but I so agree with what she has to say.

Well, I didn't mean for this post to be all bragging about my wonderful family and friend's, believe me, we have our problems just like every body, but by the grace of God we have love, His greatest gift of all.

Thanks Toni for tagging me, this has been a fun thing to do while not sleeping like I should be. Since I really don't know that many people in blog land I will just say that any body that reads this and wants to post 7 random things about themselves consider yourself tagged.

Yesterday we went down to the Eastern Market in Detroit for pre-Flower Day. We sort of expected to see more unusual variaties of flowers but found that not to be the case. The flowers that they did have were very well priced so I picked up these 5 pots full of pink geraniums and a tray of trailing needlepoint ivy. My plan is to tear the pots apart and use the individual plants to fill my containers out front, 2 window boxes and my 5 urns in the back. There seems to be about 6 individual geraniums in each of the pots which brings the cost of each plant down to less than $1 which is a really good deal. There are also Lobelia and other small green plants that hopefully will fill in the rest of the space in my containers.

Last night I prepared the soil in the urns and pots so today I'll start ripping and planting, we'll see how it goes.

I have been reading other blogs this morning and enjoying them so much and wishing I knew how to list them on the side of my blog like so many others do. In the future I will take notes on my favorites so that I can visit them often. It is so fun to find ladies with so much in common. One blog showed her garage sale finds that included a couple of my favorite plates that she purchased for a song, another shared her cute little cleaning caddy with all of her supplies arranged in a most inspirational way, several share my joy of bunny collecting, and a few MacKenzie-Childs collectors. As of yet I haven't run across any one that loves the work of Paul deLongpre but I'm hoping they are out there.

The above picture on the left is part of my deLongpre collection. The photo on the right is a picture of the plates that I have that are like the ones that my unknown blogger, hopefully, friend found while garage ?saleing?.

Later today I'm going back to Target to pick up the darling bunny weathervain that I saw the other day and thought was interesting, but when I saw how creatively another one of my, hopefully, blogger friends used it, I've decided it must come home with me.

Well, I'm on a roll here today since I found my camera and got the house put back together after the decorating and vacation. Here's another picture of the office that for some reason didn't show up on the other office post. Also, a picture of a section of the kitchen with it's new blue & white checked wallpaper.

I'm still washing sheets and working on the closets upstairs, but inbetween loads and bed changing I keep adding posts. Kyle and Carrie are coming tonight to go to the Red Wing's game tomorrow so I better finish up, take a shower and get to the grocery store soon.