A VERY PRODUCTIVE WEEKEND!!

I checked the 10-day weather forecast and decided it was safe to go ahead and plant all of my annuals this weekend. No night freeze here in Michigan. . . yeah!!!

I purchased potting soil, flowers, a few new clay pots I needed, scrubbed out all the old pots with a water/bleach solution and planted away. I also fertilized all the pine trees with Miracle-grow evergreen tree stakes, all the trees with tree stakes and fertilized the perennials. AND I'M DONE!! Too tired to take pictures though. Will show you soon!! I'm off to La-La land now. . . ZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Blessings. . . until next time,

WISTERIA LANE?????

No, Not Desperate Housewives on Wisteria Lane . . . my Wisteria

It's FULL of buds. . . just waiting day by day for it to burst. I'll share the moment with you all when it happens :)

Blessings. . . until next time,

My Walk Around the Yard: part two


Our front courtyard area. The wisteria is about to explode. I'll show you when it does.

Ornamental miniature Cherry Tree. . . just about finished blossoming. It's now leafing out.

Magnolia Tree

Phlox bursting forth with color. . .

Lilac tree ready to blossom too!

and the Lilac bush.

Lamb's Ear

Azaleas in full color. . .

And finally, my little bench waiting for its basket of annuals to be placed on top. A wee bit early for annuals here. I normally plant after Mother's Day, when chance of frost/freeze is over. So, about a week and 1/2 until I plant those annuals. I can't wait to start digging in that dirt :)

Blessings. . . until next time,

SPRING IN MICHIGAN

SPRING

Oh yes, it's been a looonnnggg time coming, but it's here. SPRING in Michigan and I'm loving it!! I took a walk around my yard this afternoon and snapped a few photos.

Spring, it comes every year. I like to think of it as God's promise that our bad times (winter) will surely end!

Flowers blooming;

Trees budding;

and we repeat :)

See all of my hostas and lily of the valleys coming to life, reaching for the sun?

I'll share more pictures. . . next time.

Blessings. . . until next time,

Meet the Family!!!!!

My mom took this picture for us. . .right after my hubby and I got back from Grand Cayman before mom and dad left to go back north. You can always tell when my mom takes a picture ;) some one's head always gets chopped off (like my hubby's head!! ) Oh well, I like this family photo anyways! Top of heads or not. From left to right. . . me :), hubby, our youngest (14 next week aaauuuggghhh) and our oldest, 20.

Things have sure greened up here in Michigan since this photo two weeks ago. Thankfully Spring has sprung!! My perennials are popping, trees budding and grass is . . . oh. . . so. . . green!!

Blessings. . . until next time,

Well, There May Be HOPE of SPRING SPRINGING!!

Remember wwaaayyyyy back in the fall when I planted, gee I can't even remember now how many spring bulbs? Here's the link to my Fall post. Well, I was outside today, checking out "things" and what do my eyes behold? Sprouting Hyacinths coming up from the earth!! Oh Sweet Joy!! Could it actually be? Is Spring finally coming to Michigan? I sure hope so. *Yes, that's a little icy/snow pile at the top right of the photo.

If you click on the picture above it should enlarge and you will see even more sprouting flowers! I know those of you who live in a warmer climate must think we crazy northern people are pathetic. But then, when you have a dang nabit pile (following picture) STILL at the end of your driveway it can seem like forever till Spring!

Oh, yes, I did hear we are in for a little fresh snow fall on Friday. Makes a person want to pull their hair out!!!! Oh well, at least the dirty snow will be covered with a fresh white blanket. . . I'm trying here folks, I'm trying :)

Well, on the brighter side, I should be able to post within a day or so some of my embroidery machine projects. I'm having so much fun. So, I guess that's the good thing about the lingering winter. . . I can stay in my basement workroom and don't think about being outside in the beautiful weather. Yeah, there we go.

Blessings. . . until next time,

New Face-Lift for our Front Entry & Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I'm so excited. I finally found the "perfect" shrubs/urns to grace the sides of our entry door to welcome guests! They are not real, but man they sure look it! They came complete all potted in the lovely urns and ready to go. I've been looking for really, really tall topiary shrubs because we have a really, really tall entry porch. So many people make the mistake of putting little tiny shrubs out in front of their tall houses and I just think it doesn't look right. I've also seen huge urns with tiny little shrubs planted in them. Just doesn't look right to me either. I believe things should be balanced. Oh yes, and if you look to the right of our sidewalk you'll see our snow. . . still. . . hanging. . . around. . . on. . . the. . . ground!!! Dang nab it!!


Our old urns were just not working for us any more. They will be moved to the back of the house and placed on our patio this Spring/Summer/Fall. I loved them, yes, very much. . . however, so did the birds. Birds, birds and more birds. They swarmed my front door all Spring long removing pieces of the topiary arrangement for their nesting. You see, it was perfect for them. Grapevine balls surrounded with silk ivy. They loved to disassemble my arrangement every year for their nests! Not to mention that they could scare the tar out of you if you walked up to the door, or heaven forbid, open the front door from the inside. I was always afraid that they would fly into my house! So, I'm creating, in my mind at this point, something different to try with the topiary arrangement on the back porch. I'll let you know if I finally revamp this project as I am thinking. Oh, not to worry, I will have the remains all around my yard from my old urn topiary arrangement. . . the birds have the most beautiful silk ivy woven into ALL of their nests. . . and have for several years now!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY friends!!

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

And if you're the St. Patrick's Day partying kind, please be responsible and don't drink and drive. Please have someone take you home, or be the designated driver (don't drink) and take your friends home. And. . . have FUN!!

Irish Blessings. . . until next time,

Fine Tuning, Finishing up. . . and Finding the Time

Hello dear friends. I have been very negligent as of late with my posting. I try to post at least every other day. But, I've been Spring cleaning; fine tuning things like my dressers, closets, kitchen and bathroom drawers and cupboards, reorganizing my pantry, finishing up projects and just finding the time to do it all. Boy, does it feel good to accomplish these things!!

Last weekend my husband and I made a truck-full delivery/donation to the local charity resale shop. Things I've had since moving in this house (almost 7 years ago) - - that I had been holding onto "in case" I might use it - - WENT. And how cleansing that feeling is to purge it all! Not to mention how clean my basement storage area is now.

I've been working like a busy bee to get, as I call it, "My Last Frontier" cleaned and organized in my home. That would be my basement storage area, my work room and my sewing area. I can actually walk in the room now and even function properly to do my projects. I can't wait to begin again - - I have so many projects I want to tackle!!

Next, my hubs finally put up the border I purchased for our laundry room a few years ago (yes, I do believe it's been a few years now). It was one of those things that we just put off. I do a lot of home projects myself, but he has always done the wallpapering and wallpaper borders for me. And for that I am thankful!

Anyways, here's my "finished" laundry room. I purchased the lamp and the clock at different garage sales last summer and painted them to match. I think these items add a cozy touch to the laundry room. I do spend, oh. . . so. . . much time in this room, that it may as well be cozy. By the way, if anyone is looking for a new washing machine in the near future I would so highly recommend a new front loader. It's my favorite appliance in almost 27 years of marriage. It's a Kenmore and it's magic.

I'll be back within a day or so to show you some of my other completed projects. And let you in on a few more that I'm planning for the near future.

Blessings. . . until next time,

Part 2 - Spring/Easter Decor

Here is Part 2 of my Spring/Easter Decor. I decorated "some" in our basement too. I'll show that next time. I added a little vignette of Spring/Easter items to the sofa table in our Great Room. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. I'll probably leave this up until we actually have *Spring* here in Michigan. . . which probably won't be until the end of April here in our state!

*The little chocolate bunny is really ceramic. If it was real it wouldn't last too long around here with three women in the house! It's the ONLY safe kind to for us to have :)

I absolutely adore the little bunnies on the floor hugging *sigh* they are just too adorable! Looking at these items, I do believe most of them came from my fav. T.J. Maxx too!

Enjoy!!

Blessings. . . until next time,

Part 1 - Spring/Easter Decor

Here's the first part of my Spring/Easter decorating. This is what you see when you walk in from my front door. Click on to enlarge the picture. I just purchased the little grass covered bunny this year. . . at my fav. . . T.J. Maxx!! I placed a few little speckled eggs in his basket and plan on leaving him there all Spring. After Easter I'll replace the eggs with flowers. It'll work. Actually, I'm thinking about leaving up most of my Easter decor after Easter. Spring decor it will then become :) - after a few adjustments, of course.

The two little rabbits perched on the shelf I have had for quite a while. . . at a different home, when I was into blues. Not so much am I into blues anymore. Done that, been there. But, my little rabbits stayed. On the shelf beneath the bunnies is a pot of flowers and beneath that a little bird house I've had for a while. I have a "May" basket hanging on the handle of the French doors - which leads into the Den. I think I'll leave the basket up all year-round. I like how it looks there.

Next time, I'll show you what I have displayed in the Great Room.

Blessings. . . until next time,

A Little St. Patty's Day Decorating

Hello dear friends. Yes, I know, I've been missing for a few days. I'm sorry, but I have not been feeling real well and then there was the. . . so much to do, so little time to do it!!

Anyways, it's very hard to think of decorating for Spring/Easter when we are in the middle of another Michigan winter snow storm. . . and yes we are, even. . . as. . . I. . . type this - it's snowing! But I did think about it this past weekend. I decorated for Spring/Easter! I thought it would give my family something to look forward to, you know, some HOPE of Spring. Easter is SO early this year, March 23rd! I'm sure we'll be wearing our finest spring clothing to church on Easter Sunday underneath our winter coats.

So, while I was digging out all of my Spring/Easter decor. . . I stumbled upon my one little lonely St. Patrick's Day decor item. Poor little fairy. . . only 6 days prior to Easter is its Big Day. So, I've decided to give it a place of prominence on my mantle. All alone, holding her little shamrock garland.

. . . tomorrow, I'll start showing some of my Spring/Easter decor. But today. . . today, is for my little lonely St. Patrick's Day Fairy. Isn't she just too adorable?

Blessings. . . until next time,

SPRING!!!!!

Oh Spring, Where Art Thou???!!!!

Ok, to all my southern blogger friends. . . it's about this time in the north that we are all starting to get tired of the winter, snow, slush, cold. Unfortunately, we have about another 2 months of this stuff. Heck, I remember a few years ago when we had a snow storm on April 22nd!!


I think I'm going to run out and purchase some blooming tulips, daffodils, or hyathincs for the home to give us. . . H O P E!!

Blessings. . . until next time,

Thursday. . . Dishing Out Some Dirt

Well, it may not look like much right now. . . but just you wait and see!! Come Spring, I'm hoping to have the most beautiful display of hyacinths you have ever seen!! Sunday, after church, I had planned to plant my fall bulbs. . . but our plans changed and it didn't work out for me to plant that day. So I planted them yesterday instead.

Hyacinths are one of the most beautiful and fragrant spring bulbs (my opinion). I planted 80 bulbs in white and a variety of purple. Costco has pretty good prices on these if you are interested. I purchased some (Daffodils and Crocus) from Costco last year for the back yard and they came up beautifully this past Spring.

After the cold, dreary gray of winter, and dumping of snow, we'll all be looking forward to our spring flowers peeking out their little heads. I know, I know, who's thinking spring? We're still into Fall! But hey, one must plan ahead sometimes. . . things don't "just happen" sometimes we have to make "them happen!"

Blessings. . . until next time,