Roses, inside & out

Good morning Folks ~ I hope you all had a lovely Easter and where you are having spring I hope you are enjoying it too, and for those at the start of fall in your area, enjoy it also.

We had rain off and on all day yesterday, rain and T-storms around Mon & Tues also.  I did manage to get a load of laundry washed and hung out to dry on Monday and I was thankful for that.

Tuesday I did errands, bank, groceries and picked up my spring/summer bedspread, which I just love.  I love the fall/winter one too, but it is nice to be able to switch out with the seasons now.  It gives me something to look forward to. Here are the two spreads, spring on top of fall. You can see the reverse sides of both too. I am happy with these two purchases, 100% cotton, very well made. Two shams came with spread also.

My bedroom is a work in progress, and I will be working in here as the new spread has inspired me to do so.

Below are some of my roses, some are my new ones bought earlier this year from Rose Petals Nursery. I love them and am eagerly awaiting the other babies to bud and bloom too. It’s exciting.

This is International Herald Tribune

Below is Winecup.

Miss Atwood

Below my old time favorite, have had this for many, many years now.

Louis Philippe or the Florida Cracker Rose.

That's it for now from Plum Cottage. 

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

Happy Easter

I want to wish all of you a Happy Easter. 

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady 

(I couldn't pick just one song. Be blessed and uplifted.)

Spring at Plum Cottage

 

Hi Folks ~ We've had some chilly weather for two days now, around 60 at night, feeling like it's in the high 50's. Good sleeping weather. Really nice during the day. Breezy, some clouds. Lots of birdsong, dragonflies, butterflies, cats eating my butterfly weed, so will be soon adding to the butterfly population.

I painted the wood siding on the caravan in two sessions, two different days. I’ve still some aqua to add on the inner frame work around little stained glass windows, on either side of the door. I need to reglaze the windows first.

Now, here’s a question for you. Paint the two hearts on either side of door below, aqua or white? These two hearts were my first ‘curbside’ find in March 2013, after my DH left this planet. I was thrilled because they were ‘hearts’.

Now for some pictures from the gardens.

Below are George Tabor azaleas.

This below is a Tillandsia, or air plant. 

Hibiscus

Frangipani which I bought last year. Very pretty. My others from cuttings from a friend many, many years ago, are pink.

I don’t remember what this little sweetie is. I almost lost it, but this little sprig hung in there and surprised me with blooms.

Louis Philippe or ‘Florida Cracker Rose’. 9 buds in this picture.

Climbing ‘Maman Cochet’ fading but still pretty and smells wonderful.

Sunday was my 67th bday. My dear BIL & SIL, Todd & Sue, took me out to lunch after we all went to my church together. We went to a great little Greek restaurant called Chris’s Taverna.

Todd had the meat salad on the left, Sue the gyro in the middle, and the Greek salad on the right was part of my meal. I had a gyro the last time we went there and it was delicious!

I also had Mousaka. I took half of my salad and half of the Mousaka home. I also had a glass of their red house wine, which was very nice.

Sue, unbeknownst to me, had told the waitress it was my birthday, so at the end of our meal, several waitresses came out with a dessert with a lit candle, singing ‘Happy Birthday’. This was delicious with orange in the custard. Phyllo crust. Yummy! I took a couple of bites, then took the rest home.

Last night my dear friends Nanci & John took me to a wonderful Thai restaurant. I had Snapper with red curry sauce over brown rice. John had a vegetable red curry over white rice, Nanci had Pad Thai.  We all got a little salad with this wonderful carrot/ginger dressing to start us off, and I had a margarita. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.

Lots of bday wishes while at church, it was a good bday.

With bday $ I bought a new bedspread set, for spring/summer. Below shows the fall/winter one on the left, which is on the bed now and I love it, but I wanted a cooler look for our hot, humid weather. I ordered the new one this morning and it should be ready to be picked up at my local Walmart, Tuesday. I love the colors in both and the mixture of flowers. Suits my eclectic cottage style. My DH would have liked both of these two.

So, I guess that’s it for now from s.e. FL.

I hope you are all having a great week so far.

Count your blessings, be kind, be forgiving, be encouraging.

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

Getting rid of clutter inspiration

Hi Folks ~ Here we are moving into spring and what better time to think about ‘decluttering’ our lives.

I've been wanting to get rid of clutter in my life for quite some time now, especially since losing my dear husband. Stuff just isn't important. Living a peaceful life is. We were working on getting rid of stuff before he went to his heavenly home, and now that I’ve started to really come out of the widow’s fog, I’ve really wanted to continue what we started.

I saw this book online, “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui” by Karen Kingston.

Part of this books' title caught my eye, "Free Yourself from Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Clutter Forever".

This sounded like my kind of book.

I sent for the book and eagerly looked forward to reading it.

When I own a book, I like to underline thoughts that speak to me. While I'm not a follower of feng shui it is interesting and the following is my first underlining in this book. "Feng shui is the art of balancing and harmonizing the flow of natural energies in our surroundings to create beneficial effects in our lives."

Clutter does not make me feel balanced and in harmony. Just the opposite. I feel flustered when someone wants to come over, or drops in unannounced. I race around like a chicken with its' head cut off trying to make the place presentable, or if someone drops in unannounced, I make apologies for the way it looks.

This book really has lots of gems, or food for thought about clutter in our lives.

Here are some quotes:

"Clearing your clutter can completely transform your entire existence."

"Clutter drags your energy down and the longer you keep it, the more it will affect you.  When you get rid of everything that has no real meaning or significance for you, you feel lighter in body, mind, and spirit."

"Clearing the clutter allows the fresh winds of inspiration to enter your home and your life."

"When you let things go,  you either never need them again, or if you do, similar or better things will somehow turn up in your life at the right time."

"Clutter clearing in all its forms helps to restore clarity and simplicity."

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I would recommend this book to anyone who needs encouragement and inspiration in the process of decluttering.  The quotes posted here are just a few of the gems in this book.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.”

Have a wonderful weekend ~FlowerLady

 

I did it!

Hi Folks ~ I hope you all had nice days this past weekend. We are having lovely weather here in s.e. FL.

Well, as most of you know, I am NOT a computer geek.  That was part of my husband’s personality, a part of him I miss when something comes up with my computer and scares me. Last year I lost Window’s Live Writer as they did away with it.  I then heard about Open Live Writer, but was ‘afraid’ to download it and get started using it.  Finally after having to deal with posting with blogger again, I decided this morning on a whim to go to the website, download and see if I could set it up, and I did. YIPPEE! 

DH had told me about WLW several years ago and I loved it.  It is so nice to work off line, then upload your post. I’ve been having troubles with posting via blogger, too much space between photos, and other glitches that have made posting a chore instead of a joy.

For any of you who might want to try this program, here is the link.

Open Live Writer.

Thank you all for your kind comments as to the house painting project. I heard a saying last night watching a movie on you-tube. “Many hands make light the work.” That was oh so true with all those who came to help on the 5th. It is a burden off my shoulders and I am very thankful for the love and caring shown by my church family.

Walking around my little ‘Plum Cottage’, seeing it’s wonderful color just makes me smile.  The color came about as a mixture of several purple hued samples bought at HD, which I didn’t really like for house color, and what you see now is the result of my color mixing.  I painted a couple of coats of it onto a painting stick and took that to HD, handed it to the guy, he put the painted end under his little computerized paint  color reader, got a 5 gal. bucket of paint, put it under the  color dispensers, clicked a button and after they were all put in, it was mixed up and voila there was my beautiful color just waiting to be painted with.

I’ve started painting different accent pieces a beautiful aqua color, given to me by my dear friend Ramona.  The color didn’t work for the project she had in mind, so she asked me if I wanted it and of course, I said yes.  The color is great with the plum color.

These two aluminum pieces below, we found curbside, who knows how long ago. They are parts of old screen doors and were in my ‘inherited’ stash of ‘stuff’ to work with.

Saturday I started paint a Victorian wire bench that we bought many, many years ago at a local flea market, for $10. It is made of galvanized wire, very sturdy. Today I plan/hope to finish the bench. Not exactly sure where this will go just yet, but here it is in it’s being painted stage.(I ‘need’ to pressure wash my gates!)

Front

Back

I am really happy with this Open Live Writer program. It is just like using the old WLW. I am happy I got brave and downloaded it. That is a major accomplishment for me.

It is my ‘birthday week’ as DH called it and he would call me ‘birthday girl’ too. My 67th bday is the first day of spring.  DH and I met 50 years ago on that day. He is celebrating his 4th spring in heaven where all is beauteous and joyful. Better than we can even imagine, and it’s only going to get better.

Happy Spring to all of you!

Love, hugs & prayers ~ FlowerLady

Plum Cottage Paint Party

Good afternoon Friends ~ I've finally finished editing photos from Saturday. I am so thankful for the loving hearts and helping hands of some of my church family.

Gutter cleaning and sanding happened first. 
Click on photos for a large view.

 

Painting away.

Love the photo below of the little one (3 1/2 years young) helping with her pregnant Mommy.

Photo collage below by Ann G. She took photos of artsy scenes that she liked.

One Happy FlowerLady ~ I was painting around the water pipes for our outdoor shower. :-) 

That's it for now. Thank you all for your kind comments. I feel truly blessed. 

Photo below taken by our pastor, David.