Monday, May 31, 2010

Lillies Of The Field


Today, is Memorial Day, and it seemed appropriate to show flowers. These pictures are of all the Day Lillie's blooming in my garden, today. The white one above is one that has never bloomed before. I got all these Lillie's from a former neighbor whose mother had over a thousand varieties.
I am, largely, a pastel person but I am enjoying all the different hues of these flowers. When I got these plants they were dried and had some tags on them but no other description. So when they started to bloom all the colors were a surprise. The plants have doubled this year and I have so many more blooms.

I love this peachy one, and the blooms are large and soft to the touch. As you can see I have a lot of additional buds that will soon be ready to burst open. It's sad that the blooms only last one day.


Isn't this one really unusual , the picture is slightly not a vibrant as the blooms themselves are in person.



Doesn't this one remind you of the skin of a peach or nectarine. It is definitely very dramatic.





This garden fairy is sitting on the rock border of the garden. She is sitting there still thinking about the new room. I have been having to rethink some of the plans that I had for the new family/craft room as the bid for it came in way OVER my budget. I'm having to cut some of the things so that I can fit my expectations to my budget!! As of today they are suppose to start work tomorrow.
Luckily, I worked 3 days last week at the clinic. Because of a family emergency I will be able to pick up an additional 5 days of work and that translates into $$$$. Hopefully that will help to bump up my budget just a tad.
I was able to finally get over to my space at the craft mall to see if I have sold any thing. It wasn't much but at least I have a start. They had a big sidewalk sale last weekend so that brought a lot of traffic into the store. I will get busy soon and get some additional merchandise to place there.
The last two weeks, since I last posted, have been a whirlwind. This month is a big birthday month in our family, including my birthday. So it has been filled with some parties. It is also the month that I need to renew my nursing license so I had a lot of reading to do to get my required 20 hours of continuing education required to renew. Also I rented a "pod" type storage unit to place at the back to store all the stuff that I had stored in the garage. All of this and working, too. We worked really hard to remove it all. Luckily I had a strong handyman to help me with the heavy stuff. We filled two large trash containers with trash. I am going to have to whittle down some of the things when we go to return it as the storage area will be slightly small than before. That will be hard !






Saturday, May 15, 2010

What 's New???



In my previous post I was telling you about going to my favorite craft/ antique mall. That is where we bought my cute little piano. While I was there I talked to the management about being put on a waiting list for a booth. Wednesday, May 5th was the day of my retirement. It was also the day that they called and told me that they had a booth available. PANIC!!!!! There is a saying when God closes one door, he opens another!!

I just wasn't prepared for the door to swing open so soon. I wanted to start making these cute baby shoes to sell but I didn't have any made yet. I did, however, have a bunch of pillows that were previously made. So, I had to scamble big time to get some shoes made. I went to the mall the next morning to sign up for the booth and set my move in date for the 15th. So now you all know why I've been MIA.



Today, I gathered up all the inventory I had and went off to set up my booth. It is the smallest booth they have, as I didn't want to take to large a risk when I didn't know if people would buy what I had made. Money will be tighter now with no regular paycheck except my social security and some supplement from my retirement. I'm not much of a daredevil when it comes to money.










I wanted a decorated booth since I think that attracts more people. Since I had baby shoes as part of my inventory I decided on a baby type theme. The little doll cradle I bought at a garage sale last year when I was visiting my friend Nancy in Mobile. I spray painted it an ivory and covered the bottom with a pale blue and white polka dot. The wicker table came out of my garage storage and if you look carefully you will see the springs from Jennifer's baby bed.

We added some tulle, hydrangeas and a paper moon. I wanted to put as much inventory in to the booth as I could and it took some finessing to try to get it all in. My Mom and Jen helped me to tag everything . Here's hoping it takes off. I am including some pictures of my baby shoes. The shoes don't take long to make but quilting all the fabric for them has been very labor intensive.


The shoes are very soft and I really enjoyed picking out the coordinating fabrics and ribbons. I'm not sure how many shoes I'll get done, I guess it will depend on how quickly or if they sell. At least I won't have to sit at the sewing machine all day now. I really was under the gun to produce some in such a short period of time.



I think these are my favorite pair that I made. I love the little frogs! They are such happy little fellows!






Miss Kitty and polka dots!










Mary Englebreit fabric and polka dots, too!

So now you all know what we've been up to here. I'm so glad to have the craziness behind me now for a while. Tonight I'm going to put my feet up and relax. And probably go to bed early as I was up until 3:00 this morning. I'll try to keep you all posted on how it is going but for today, a big ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!






Sunday, May 2, 2010

Happy Mother's Day Early!

Yesterday, my Mom, my daughter Jennifer, and I went to get a pedicure, out to lunch and then to one of my favorite shops. It is a craft/antique store. I saw this child's piano and fell in love.
My daughter bought it for me for Mother's Day. I am so thrilled. I am so excited to put it in my new room when it gets built. I'm having such a hard time waiting for the day that we can get started on it.

I'm still looking through books and magazines to find things I'd like to incorporate into it. I'm teetering back and forth whether to put a French door or windows on the one wall that doesn't have a door. It would be on the side of the rose garden. I guess it will be determined somewhat by the price of the doors and /or windows and the amount of labor cost for each. Also, I am thinking about putting a false fireplace on another wall. I've been squirreling as much money as I can but there is, unfortunately, a maximum amount I can afford. I'm just anxious to get my "stuff" spread out and organized so I can start on some of the projects I want to do.

Wednesday is my last day of work! I've been waiting for this day and it is FINALLY just a couple of days away. WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!