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 !

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!

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!!!

Update and Garage Sale Purchase

Just a little over two weeks until D day or should I say R day! I have a big calendar that I am crossing the days off. Lots of things going on. Trying to get my health needs taken care of before I lose all my benefits at work. Have dental appointment today to get my new crown. Looking into supplements for Medicare. Just little details. Not very exciting.

I talked to my carpenter and he can't start on my garage conversion until the beginning of June and though I find it frustrating, it gives me additional time to work out the space planning. Last week end while heading through a nearby neighborhood I saw this armoire. I had an appointment I had to go to so I didn't get a chance to stop to investigate it. So the next day Jen and I went back and luckily it was still there. The best part was that they were asking half the original price as it didn't sell the previous day. It is a computer armoire but I am also thinking, with the extra table that I could sew there, also.

It is very heavy wood and I told the man that I didn't have anyway to get it home. Luckily he had a truck and was willing to deliver it. So for now it sits in my garage waiting for a complete redo. I am going to paint it and antique it down.

The desk folds up and has a little clip that holds it up when the doors are closed. I like all the little cubbies for paper, etc. I think it will be very serviceable for my needs. I am thinking of wallpapering the inside. Maybe with old music pages. That would be a lot easier than cutting pieces of wallpaper but a pretty floral or something colorful would be good, too. What do you think?

There is metal panels in the doors so I will see how they look painted and distressed but I also am thinking of putting anaglypta wallpaper in there to give the look of an old pie safe with tin. What is your opinion? what do you think would look better?

This coming week end I'm going to have a garage sale at my sister's house on Saturday. They just sold their house and the neighborhood is having their semi annual garage sale so we are hoping to have a lot of traffic through there. I'll take every advantage to make some money and get rid of some more of my junk, oh, should I say gently used objects!!

Rose Colored Glasses, Too!

Here's an additional view of the yard from the back gate. I'm really enjoying each and every rose.
Every plant and every bloom. I wanted to share it with all of you. Hope you enjoy as much as I am.

Looking at the world through "Rose" colored glasses!

Spring, has surely come to Texas and definitely to our home. My garden is a live with beauty.
The roses are a live with blooms, buds and greenery. The Hollyhock and Day lily's are green and thriving. After our long, long dry summer we have been blessed with an abundant amount of rain so that the plants that survived our extended freeze are growing like a house afire!

I am a pink rose lover and all the roses I have planted in this side of the yard are all shades of pink. I have Belinda's Dream, First Prize, Cecil Brunner and I just planted a Perfume Delight this Spring

I have large pots on each side of the patio that I have planted small white daisies, shades of pink petunias and another plant that is lavender, don't know it's name but I liked it when I saw it.

My climbing rose in the picture just above is called Social climber and it literally must have about 100 blooms on it. I get a lot of sun on this side of my house and the roses have really thrived in this area. Also the Hollyhocks are sun lovers so they, too, have pushed skyward.

Things have been very busy here. Trying to get refinancing done, which closed today. Still working and getting some health issues settled. being so busy has been a good thing as it has made these last few weeks fly by. May 5th is looking closer and closer.

I haven't heard from my carpenter yet but I've been going through my old magazines looking for ideas to incorporate into the room. I'm definitely going shabby chic but still haven't settled on a definite color. I keep coming back to my pink roses and pale blue but nothing is definite yet. I'm getting anxious to get started...it is hard to be patient.

Finally, decision made!

Well, it was hard to decide but it finally came together just like a lot of you said. I took my family to look at the townhouse I was thinking about and they all liked it but I still wasn't sure. So, I went to talk to the mortgage man and had him work up the new house and a refinance for my present home.
I was astounded at the fact that with the refinance I could reduce my house payment by $200.00
a month. That is a lot when you will have a somewhat limited income. I will continue to work but only for fill in at the clinic. Plus I would get an ample refund from my current escrow. It was just too good to pass up. This will make the garage conversion a reality.

This week I was off Thursday instead of Monday and I went out and worked in the garage to pull out a lot of the Rubbermaid containers I have stored there. Saturday we had a garage sale.
Unfortunately about 6:30 am we had a thunderstorm....that put a little bit of a damper on the sale. Luckily it only last about an hour and then cleared off. It was still cool and windy but the sale went on regardless. I had already put the ad in the newspaper so I didn't want to waste my money. We did just OK . I made about $50.00 which isn't too much but I got rid of some stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to go through and weed out stuff to take to Goodwill.

I talked to my carpenter last week ,also, and it will be about 4-5 weeks before he can get over here so I have a little time to work out my plan. I went to Home Depot to get some flowers today and strolled through the window and door aisle and got a couple of magazine with ideas for additions and storage organization. Really saw some good ideas. My sister and her husband are moving in a few weeks and they will have an extra sofa I can have and I some other pieces of furniture in storage so it is starting to come together. Still have a lot of planning and sorting to do but I will try to chronicle it all for you. So if I'm not posting for awhile you'll know I'm up to my eyeballs.

May 5 is the date I've set for my retirement, it seems way too far away but all this planning for the room will help keep my mind busy so it doesn't drag too much. So stay tuned!!!