Love Daisies, Love Tin Cans.

Daisies and Rue.  Stinky Rue.  Really stinky, but I like the leaves and the little flower buds.  Plus, it grows really well in sand. :)

Old salt shaker + tin can + rocks from your lane = cool "artsy" vase.

  Top your photo off with "posterize" in photoshop for a little more pizzazz!

I had these photos and this post ready to go earlier in the week but Blogger wasn't cooperating...then "life" didn't cooperate.  My husband is in the hospital now post surgery from a sudden infection in his foot.  He is doing well thanks to many prayers said as he was quite a sick man on Wednesday.  I'm having a little down time with my youngest kids tonight and thought I would see if I could finally get this posted.

 Our little girl turned 6 on Wednesday when he got sick so she is very patiently waiting to celebrate her birthday.  I guess we'll open presents in the hospital as he'll be there for a few more days.

....praying for good health for all of you too!

Tea on Tuesday::Texture Tuesday::Tuesday with the "Kims"

Well, it's Tea on Tuesday and I am enjoying a little sand tea today :)
I'm sure you'd love some too!

The gals were out playing before the next bout of rain hit.  The mosquitoes weren't even biting.  The challenge for Kim's Texture Tuesday this week was to have people or a person in the photo.  This looked like a good opportunity.

This is one of my favorite cast aluminum pots that is supposed to be sitting on the front porch. Nothing stays where it should.  You don't even want to see the granite pot that got run over two days ago.

...a little garnish for her tea....

We have this fun playhouse in our backyard and it sits on sand.  You can imagine the sand that is tracked into the laundry room.  Usually, but not always it is all knocked off by the time they get past the kitchen.  After this kind of play they usually stop for a foot and hand bath in the laundry room sink.

Today's photos were processed with Nelly Nero's Ginger Sky action followed by a layer of Kim Klassen's "Empty Page" on multiply and her "Mudding" texture on soft light.

I think I have some pictures of the playhouse from about 4 years ago when it was clean.  I may have to dig for them and post them sometime.

Be sure to visit the other Tea and Texture participants!

Mosaic Monday

From the tank garden:

The boots above were a thrift store find...fun!  At first I was planning on planting in them, but then decided to just leave them as a prop.  I am going to give the red and yellow paint on the pop crate a coat of finish to try and preserve the colors for a bit longer.  So the plan goes anyway....

This Schwinn bike was a blue color that for some reason didn't appeal to me at all.  I grabbed a can of old primer and sprayed it and now I love it sitting just outside the fence of my garden.

 This is some yarrow that is in full bloom now.

And, these are some neat Hull plates that I used as "mulch" in one of the tanks.  The cups from the set are my favorite coffee mugs right now.

I'm linking up again with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

I hope you all have a great week!

Simply Bungalow, Simply Fun

A few random shots from Simply Bungalow...

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Simply Bungalow is a warm and welcoming shop in Lincoln that sells farmhouse style vintage and antique items along with a few repurposed and altered pieces.  They have some neat jewelry, hand poured candles, and hand made soaps.  I have been honored to have some of my pieces sold there.

Now they have a room opened upstairs that can be used for small parties and classes.  You can keep up with the activities and their hours here on Facebook or on their blog here.

Thanks Heidi, Pam, and Cindy for the hospitality yesterday!

Mosaic Monday

This pair of overalls was **free** at one of the garage sales I went to this weekend.  They were the only "man" item in a closet full of vintage women's clothes.  Some, vintage AWESOME, some vintage not so awesome.  Yes, they were all free.  I did take a few of them.  I'm pretty sure that these were the woman's overalls, not her deceased husbands.

There are patches on patches on patches...all neatly hand stitched.  I suppose I'll just hang these in my storage room down stairs for now.   I was told the grand daughter's took all of the vintage jewelry.  I think they missed the best treasure.  Maybe I'm romanticizing  these, but they are my treasure now to romanticize all I want.  I walked this home peering deeply into her very dusty and musty life and saw what she had or more importantly what she didn't have. She just recently entered into a nursing home.  The daughter in law offered information and you can't help but overhear family chatter as you walk the house. I feel oddly humbled to have these now.

More mosaics to be found here at Mary's Little Red House.

Tank Garden Update

This is a Siberian Iris that I planted last year and it survived the winter in the tank...woohoo!  I took the picture last week and now it is done blooming.  I still like the greenery though.  There are liatris and a few moss roses planted in the boiler right in front of it.  I put liatris everywhere so I'm really hoping the ones in the containers will survive the winter.

Here's my lovely statue at sunset.  The plants that I was hoping were poppies---weren't---they were weeds :( so this tank only has a few flowers and seeds in it.  I'm hoping to pick up some annuals yet as they start discounting them.

This is a lace vine that has will have white flowers and is a perennial.  I have it vining up on a foot board of an iron bed turned sideways.  The headboard is the one on my wall in the sewing room that you can see here in this post.

A barrel of herbs.

I brought these posts home from the shed that I posted about yesterday that we demolished.  I loved the yellow/green moss on them and just thought they would look neat.  I'll add plants around them and something to hang from them as time goes on.

Two more half posts from the same shed.  (I'll add to these too.)

Another post.... I hung a bird feeder from it that I made many years ago.  The feed sits in the tray that has a mesh bottom.  (Not too proud of my workmanship on this one...I think it could fall apart in a strong wind or a sneeze)

I'm not sure if this is called moss or not but cool, huh?

I filled this tub with some of the moss from the roof of the demolished shed.  I have no idea how long it will last, but we'll see!

I bought a box of cactus wood (so the box said it was called)  from a garage sale this morning for $1.  I thought it was really neat and now one more pot is filled!  It won't even wilt in the heat.  The pot came from my mother in law years ago when she redid some of her yard.  It's heavy!


























Well, it's coming along and I'm trying to get the weeds down around the perimeter so I can take a big picture of the whole space.  That's a challenge!!  I'll have more pictures soon.

Hope your weekend is going well.  I hit an awesome garage sale yesterday!  I hope to take some pictures, but some of the finds are in my booth already.

Deconstruction

My husband had showed me a shed they were going to take down on the farm for a new hoop hut for the cattle.
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"Would you like any of it?"

"Well, of course."

I thought the construction crew was going to beat me to it with the wedding, rain, and other life "happenings". But, they were delayed too....so my son and I went up on Wednesday.  They were coming on Thursday.




Well, the wood wasn't the best old barn wood I've seen and we busted up and split a lot of it...oh well.  Small pieces are fine too :)  I have three tubs of mossy shingle pieces.  It would have been nearly impossible to get them apart in whole shingles as they were obviously rotted and thin.  But, even little pieces look neat!

The moss was awesome!

Because we had a saw that could....we cut out a chunk of the roof too.   I'm not sure how well it will stay intact after moving it but we'll see.  And, of course I have no idea what I'll do with it.  I may just try to take some shingles out of it in bigger pieces since I can take more time with it than when we were on sight.

Well, this barn was vintage and it certainly inspired me so I'm linking this up with Debra for Vintage Inspiration Friday...check out the other participants!

(please let me know if the slide show doesn't work for you....)
**edited** Apparently, the embedded slideshow won't always work in Internet Explored but can be viewed without a problem with Firefox or Chrome.  I don't think I can do anything about it.

Tea on Tuesday::Texture Tuesday::Tuesday with the "Kims"

Yay!  I'm back on track with the Tuesday link ups!

Tea today is actually tea from last night :)  I joined up with the traveling tea cup round robin that Judy at Apronstrings and Other Ties That Bind organized. When we got home from our wedding weekend, the teacup package had arrived in my mailbox.  I was sipping Mount of Olives "Treasures" tea from the box while out in my tank garden last night.  Even though it was really hot yesterday I was able to get quite a bit of weeding done in the tanks.  And, yes, I drank the tea hot because at that point the sun was almost down and not nearly as hot out.

This is a really interesting metal side table I picked up at a garage sale a couple of years ago.  It's chipped up enamel over metal in the shape of some kind of leaf.  Just the thing to hold  a tea cup or beverage of choice while relaxing in the garden.  Just don't wear your best clothes when you sit in the chippy chair next to it.  :)

Kimmy is hosting the tea party if you'd like to see what others are up to or join in yourself!




















Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge this week was words...add any word/words/or photo of words and of course use one of her textures.  Well, I was sitting in the tank garden so why not a picture and thoughts from there?

This pot of chamomile sits on a broken chair.  Daisy's make me happy and they grow and bloom freely for me. I'm pretty sure the daisies I'm referring to are actually a version of mum because they aren't shasta daisies but they look like them.  Chamomile are just like little baby daisies and these self sowed themselves in a pot from last year.

Self Sow = Happiness in my book.

I used Kim's texture February Magic Edges on the photo above.  To see all the other entries for Texture Tuesday click here.

Happy Tuesday!

She's Hitched!

Wow, the past weeks have been a tad full around here. :)  

My oldest daughter is officially married!!  The day was just so very, very wonderful!!

Would you believe I really have only a handful of photos????  I can't wait to get the photographer's back.  I was so busy with so many things there just wasn't time to stop and take pictures.

I took a few at the reception hall after we decorated on Thursday.  I wish I had a photo of the outside because it was at my brother and sister in laws vineyard and tree farm...and it was so beautiful out there.  

My daughter couldn't have been happier with how it all turned out.  The stumps turned out so nice.  The flowers on them came from someone on Craig's list from their wedding and we reworked them.  Now, they will be dismantled, reworked, and used for a third wedding at my niece's in July.  How's that for going green?!

Half of the centerpieces were just flowers and half of them had an "O" for their last name.  We bought the "O"s at Hobby Lobby and painted them black.  I nestled them down in foam with the flowers and added some twigs from our trees outside.  We sprinkled glitter on all of them after they were set up.

Lauren and I cut and edged table runners out of burlap, then with my silhouette cutter, made a stencil of their monogram and painted two on each table runner.  I will say that it was an ambitious project, but we were so happy with them in the end.  Now, the burlap from the runners can be used in any number of projects!

It looked so pretty after the ice and water were in the glasses, the candles lit, and the lights dimmed!!

Do you remember the book hearts from this post?

Each chair had a book heart tied to it. The curves and movement of the hearts added a simple gracefulness to the atmosphere.

The favor boxes had Baker's Chocolates nestled in shredded book pages.

We hung two grapevine wreaths (remember this is at a vineyard/tree farm) as overlapping wedding rings above where Lauren and Kyle sat at the head table.  (far right on the picture) You can't see in this photo how they overlapped, but they did and we really liked the simplicity of it.

As the photographer was taking a picture of our kids, I quickly took this.  Other than this, I have absolutely no pictures of the little gals in their dresses, my son, or a decent one of everyone actually posed.

I did get a couple fun ones of Lauren when she got a little silly.

After we get the photographer's pictures I'll share more!!

I kept burying my nose in the bouquets!!    So you definitely could say that I didn't take pictures because I was enjoying the moment and taking time to smell the flowers!! (and steam dresses, feed kids, haul boxes, etc...LOL!)

The Mass was beautiful and I have to admit I was pretty emotional a number of times.

...Just so very, very grateful for His blessings, for her happiness and for this new member of our family.