Under the weather, flowers, painting

 

Good morning Folks ~ Hope you all are doing well. Thank you for bday wishes.  I had a lovely bday celebration, in spite of missing my DH, had a good cry late in the day, letting off stress/pressure before bed.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a stuffed right sinus and a sore throat.  This morning I sound like a bullfrog. I emailed my brother-in-law to let him know how I was feeling and that I didn’t feel like moving stuff out and away from bedroom’s west wall so that we could do the paneling.  That’s what we were planning for this weekend, plus doing my taxes.

This is an unplanned rest from ‘doing’. I’ve been a little stressed about my job situation, even though I believe God is working all things out. Somewhat stressed about pressure cleaning and painting although I have had fun so far. I’m just trying to get it all done ‘now’ if you know what I mean, before summer heat and humidity settle in. I just need to ‘stop’ and ‘rest’ so here I am.

Sunday I went to a Home Show with friends.  It was ‘free’, it was also for the ‘wealthy’. I did get a short ‘chair massage’, which felt good, then had a try out with a TENS unit, and that was ok.  I remember that from when we went through therapy after our car accident. It would be nice to have one of those, but not for $149.  YIKES! I got a ‘free’ pkt of coreopsis flower seeds from the city.  It is our state wildflower if I’m not mistaken. The show was interesting, but the people were there to sell their wares and they tried and were pleasant. 

It was nice to get back home to my little place.  Before the Home Show I had gone to HD for yet another paint sample for the cottage.  I had taken my little container of 3 mixed samples together, and the computer read the paint to make the new sample.  It’s a hair ‘off’, but not enough to worry about. I’ll go with it. I also got some bday plants from friends while there. A small Meyer Lemon tree, and a small Key Lime (Mexican) tree, coleus, and stonecrop too. Yesterday morning I repotted the two little trees, didn’t feel like doing anymore.

The great thing about coleus is that cuttings root real easy in water, so I plan to take cuttings from all of these, and that will also make them bush out more.

This is the Stonecrop ~ a succulent ground cover that spreads easily.  I love the color and it has little yellow flowers.  The white NG impatiens my friends gave me a few weeks back.  I still need to repot them.

I believe this is ‘Angel Face’.  Love the color and the scent.

The next photos are of the same ‘Granada’ bud just a different angle.

‘Meyer Lemon’ flowers.  Did you know that a Meyer Lemon is a cross between a lemon and Mandarin oranges. You can read about them here.

‘Confederate Jasmine’ is a bloom I wait for every spring.  I love the scent of these frilly little blooms. I have had these a little over a year now and they are doing great.

Arbor posts painted. More to do here. Will share later.

This is the wonderful bday cake from my friends Nanci & John.  They came into the shop carrying this with candles lit and singing ‘Happy Birthday’.  The cake is Tres Leches with a strawberry and a peach filling, decorated with fresh fruit on top.  It was delicious. Aren’t those star candle cute?

Well, I think that is it from Plum Cottage. I’m going to eat some breakfast then go get horizontal again.  I did not sleep all that well last night even though I took Nyquil.  This too shall pass.

Enjoy each day.

FlowerLady

***

Don't let your mind bully your body into believing

it must carry the burden of its worries.

Terri Guillemets

***

Casting all your care upon him;

for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:7  KJV

***

(I came home from work one day when DH was ill, and he said right away,

“The verse for the day is ~ Cast all your cares on Him.”

Even in sickness he was encouraging me in my faith.)

Birthday Eve, Caravan, flowers

 

Good evening Folks ~ We are having such gorgeous spring weather down here in s.e. FL. While we do have green and colorful flowers all year long, we also have a LOT of spring blooming trees.  Yellows, purples, pinks, just beautiful!

I want to say thank you again to all of you for your kind, encouraging and uplifting support.  It is priceless to me and I appreciate all of your comments and emails.  I have been feeling at peace the past couple of days, and that’s a good thing.

I’ve still been playing with paint colors and mixed up three of my samples together and think I’ve finally got a color I really like for myself.

Today my friend Ramona gave me a 3/4 full can of an aqua color paint.  She thought of this can of paint in her stash from watching the video on my blog a couple of posts back. Well, this is what I did with a bit of it this afternoon.

Here are these two walls after pressure washing. I still need to do some scraping on the wall with the peeling paint.  It is the wall that faces south, so really has taken a beating with the sun blasting on it.  You can see my paint sample colors.

This is part of the cochina patio stones that I pressure washed. You can see how bad it all looked by the cement patio stones in the foreground. I can only do so much of this at a time.  I worked for two hours pressure washing and was worn out, so quit for the day. This patio can be worked on more too, but I had had it.

We found these patio stones in a heap on the next street east of us a few years back. We loaded them into the van, brought them home, and started putting the puzzle together. I was thinking today how I miss the sweet surprise ‘free’ gifts that my DH used to bring home from his jaunts out. Curbside shopping is fun, and I still look, but haven’t found anything lately.

The afternoon of the 17th I got a sweet bday pkg from a follower who lives in Washington state.

Pale, green/blue and brown eggs that she had blown out herself.  Nice for Easter and Spring.  I put some of them in this old basket with a couple of hearts I had in it.  This is now in my bedroom in my craft area.

The book above on the left is a journal and it says Life’s little reminders on the cover, and has different sweet reminders on the pages inside.

The book on the right is by Sarah Young. I already have her book Jesus Calling that I got a couple of months after my dear husband left this planet.  It is a blessing in my life, something to re-read and be continually blessed and encouraged by.  This new book ‘Jesus Today’ is about hoping in Jesus. It came at just the right time for me now, just as the other one did.

Below is a zip lock baggie filled with mint from the fields near their home.

Thank you dear Lily for thinking of me.

Below is a blurry picture I took of two pieces of candied ginger I had just taken out of the bag.  What a wonderful treat to see the one in the shape of a heart!  Another gift for me at this time.

Today two of my friends, Ramona and Jude, took me to a Vietnamese restaurant.  Jude had told me about this restaurant and how delicious the beef rice noodle soup, ‘Pho’ was.  Well, she was not exaggerating!  I couldn’t get over how tasty it was, different herbs and spices I couldn’t put my finger on. Now I want to try making this at home as I love to cook. I brought almost half of my meal home with me. We had Edamame as an appetizer, and then they brought out batter fried oreo cookies with whipped cream and drizzled chocolate for dessert with a candle in the middle for me to blow out, while the two ladies sang Happy Birthday to me. Sweet! Dessert was really good and different!

Judy had brought me a spring of Queen’s Wreath blooms,  purple and looking sort of like wisteria, otherwise known as Sandpaper vine as the leaves feel like sandpaper. I have this vine that has just started to take off and I hope to get flowers soon.

Thank you Jude & Ramona for a lovely lunch.

 

Birthday greetings.

This sweet mug is from another dear friend, Doreen. I’ve never seen these with little covers to keep your drink hot. 

I hope you all have a lovely 1st day of spring tomorrow.

I will be celebrating my 66th bday.

Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

Here are some blooms taken yesterday.

Blanket flower, self sows, a real treat all year.

Hydrangea tree.

Spiderwort

A succulent.

Unknown rose

‘Paul McCartney’ rose. This rose smells heavenly.

Happy Spring

 

Good morning Folks ~ I hope most of you are really starting to see and enjoy spring.

I’ve been playing with my paint samples the last couple of days. I mixed Purple Mauve and Peruvian Violet together and like the combo.

Here’s what I’ve done with the caravan so far. The color down the sides of door are the combo color, which looks lighter in the picture. The door is ‘Plum Swirl’. Trim is the ‘Exotic Orchid’. There will be some aqua or turquoise coming into the scene too.  My friend Ramona told me, after she watched the video in my last post, that she had almost a whole gallon of this paint if I wanted it I could have it. I was thrilled at this bit of news. More color to play with.

I am planning to pressure wash and paint the house, living each day trusting in Jesus, thanking Him for my many blessings. So, if you don’t hear from me in awhile, I’ll be working outside and inside my little cottage. My dear B-I-L Todd, who has helped me with things in the past, is coming on the 28th, God willing, and we will be putting up the faux beadboard paneling in the bedroom. All of our plans, no matter what they may be, are God willing.

This morning after editing photos for this post, I got into my email and there was one from my boss. Inspections happened and the paperwork was signed, so closing is the 1st of May. He has asked if he can rent the shop for another month to sell things out of there, should hear back today.  Bless his heart. Pray for he and Nanci and John as they sell items and empty out their shops.  Pray for Cathy too, the lady who does all kinds of pottery, and painting restoration work out of the back of the shop. Pray for me too.

The tears filled my eyes and spilled over as I read the email. I have been working there 17 years this past month. It was the best job I ever had. I don’t know what is going to happen now. God does though, and I want to keep my mind and heart focused on Him.

I really enjoy creating with my hands, I enjoy being at home. I would love it if someone wanted to buy my creations wholesale so that I can just ‘create’ and not worry about the rest of the stuff. DH and I did a lot of different things to make a living.  It’s what we wanted to do, not just have jobs. Picture framing, antique restoration, art, buying and selling antiques at a flea market then in our own shop, handy man/couple, and my shop-sitting. We had up and down times, we survived, we had fun, we learned, we loved. I thank God for it all.

My life has really changed in the past two years and three months, this is just one more change.

What hasn’t changed is my love of flowers.

Here are some of the orchids in bloom right now. I’m done buying for now that is for sure. Any new plants will be from cuttings and seeds.

This orchid is from my friends Nanci & John.

The next few pictures are all unknowns, but beauties.

These grow wild and are a real joy to have in my cottage gardens.

They are a Vanda, ‘Miss Joachim’. You can see more in the top right hand corner of the picture.  These are probably 10 ft. into the air.

***

When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters

one represents danger

and the other represents opportunity.

John F. Kennedy, address, 12 April 1959

***

There are few things that we can count on in this unpredictable life

but we can count on storms to come.

We can also count on God’s continual and unfailing strength for those storms.

When the hard times come and when bad things happen,

we do not have to wonder where God is.

Instead we can hold on to the promise

that is found in Jeremiah 16:19,

“Lord, you are my strength,

and my protection.

You are a safe place for me to run in times of trouble”

Mary Southerland

***

Music I’ve been listening to this morning.

Relaxing and meditative instrumental piano music.

 

“This is the day which the LORD hath made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Psa_118:24

Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

***

Latest heart, which has been a work in progress, (I’ve several more, there are two more behind this one.) I’m almost done with this one. I’ve got several creations to take photos of and get listed in my Etsy shop, now’s the time to stop procrastinating.

 

 

Oh dear ~ paint colors :-)

 

Good morning folks ~ I hope you all have a lovely weekend. It’s supposed to be a gorgeous one for us.

I found the photos from when we first painted the buildings our plum color, and I think I may have to rethink these colors again. Good thing I found these pics.  We had this paint specially made up.  It looks a different color depending on the time of day. It can appear to be purple, brown or gray.  See how the pine trees behind the little building in the first picture go with the paint color, that’s exactly what we wanted.

I put the sample ‘Peruvian Violet’ next to each photo so that you can see it with the old paint job right after we did it. Which was done in 2004. It has really faded out since then.

South living room wall.

East Scullery wall both pics below, different times of day.

This is the workshop as seen from the main garden.

The first picture below is with Purple Mauve on the top and Gypsy Magic on the bottom. Then we have the Peruvian Violet in the right hand photo.  I need to paint some of both colors on the caravan walls to see what I think when looking out the scullery window.

This is what I what I see looking out the scullery window, zoomed in.

Purple Mauve - right, Peruvian Violet - middle, and Gypsy Magic - left. You can also see a little of the PV painted on the top right piece just under the orange flashing. I think the PM and the GM are just a little too rosey for what I really want.

I decided to see how colors would look on the front/west side of caravan, and I got happy while painting. It’s nice having these little paint samples.

I just wanted to see how the colors would work together and I’m excited about this project. I won’t be painting the Exotic Orchid, here on trim of windows and door, on the house.  That would be too much I think!  Of course, I better not say I won’t either.

Here is a video that has inspired me. I’ve enjoyed watching a LOT of these Central Texas Gardener videos. We grow quite a few of the same things.

Watching the video I found out that she is also a Pisces.

***

Lucinda Hutson's Life is a Fiesta Garden |Central Texas Gardener

Well, that’s it for this week here at Plum Cottage.

I hope your Spring week is colorful and happy, or at least that you are seeing some bits of color and green which will make you happy.

Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

P.S. Choosing paint colors is hard.

Hopefully I’m done thinking about this. At least I’ve not bought the paint yet. I’ll go out and look at the caravan again later this afternoon, early evening.