Change of plans, new look, flowers

Good Sunday evening Friends,

I hope you all had a nice weekend. It is still very warm here and humid, so that it feels like it is mid-high 90’s.  Does not feel like fall at all. We have had ‘hints’ but it’s not here yet.  I’ve read your blogs, seen your photos and am a tad envious I have to admit.

Thank you all for your kind, encouraging comments about my last post and the idea I had for the west living room wall.  I’ve been thinking about it, and today came up with a plan I really like better and it did not involve extra work from my Brother-In-Law, with moving electrical wiring.  I am so happy with this that I can’t quit smiling.  I look forward to waking up tomorrow, like it’s Christmas morning, just to see the new look. I still have some tweaking to do, want to change out the bookcase on the right side, the wall needs painting too. All in good time.

Here’s the way it looked.

Here’s the new look.

Three different angles below.  I’m going to raise the whole arrangement about 3 inches or so. Plus I’m wondering if the baskets should go on the bottom and the little paintings on the top.  What do you all think? The paintings are lighter, baskets heavier in look. I’ll take close-ups of the paintings too during daylight hours.

Mark’s grandfather made the basket on the left and the one on the right, he also did the pine needle and raffia frames around the paintings that Mark’s grandmother painted.  The pine needles and the little pinecones were gathered here on this property. This was their home before us.  They wanted Mark to have this home, and eventually we did get it, by buying it from the estate.  The pine needle basket in the middle we found at the local flea market many years ago.  The mirror we also bought at the flea market, it’s from the 1920’s.

I think Mark would like this arrangement. It adds light, sparkle and showcases Mama and Papa’s artwork.

I moved the large painting that had been on this wall into the bedroom and once I have that all redone, I’ll show it in new location.  I like it in there. I also took off the large frame that had been on it.

Now, here are some flowers in bloom right now.

4 o’clock

Blanket flower

Trailing Lantana

Fringe Flower

Mexican Petunia

Rosebud

Old Blush, I think.

Gazing ball from DH a few birthdays ago.

That’s it from Plum Cottage.

Have a great week,

counting your blessings

and saying

I love you to your loved ones.

FlowerLady

Plum Cottage happenings

 

Good morning Friends ~ It is Saturday, I hope you all have a great weekend.

I had a light bulb moment yesterday. Cut a hole in the living room’s west wall, where the painting is below.  (I am tired of the painting for now.) I wanted to open this tiny space a bit more and cutting the hole in the wall would allow me to look out the bedroom window on the west wall in there. Well, in theory anyway, when you are standing or walking by this wall in the living room.

View out into part of the main garden.

Then, I thought of this old stained glass window that needs some work, re-glazing, out in the workshop. It would work.  I think I would leave the two center spaces open with no glass, just the center piece of wood being there, so that there would be more air-flow between the liv. room and bedroom.

Then I did a double check and the electric wire for the outlet runs right down that space. Dang. I’ll have to run this by my B-I-L the next time he comes here.

Yesterday I was given two huge 12’long by about 6’ wide fully lined curtains made of this material. My plan is curtains for the bedroom, for the summer months, and a bed skirt as our antique bed, (curbside shopped in Spain). is high and this will be just great as I can cut it the right length I need. I may make pillow shams too and maybe a spread.  I’ve certainly enough of this lovely material to work with.

My B-I-L will be coming down in a month or so and we’ll put up sheets of the ‘cheaper’ beadboard paneling on the west wall of the bedroom.  I am so looking forward to that.

This is the paneling on the east wall, backside of bathroom wall. It’s around $19 a sheet.  I can’t afford the real beadboard paneling, but this will work for FlowerLady. I love the look.

I’ve got to move a dresser, my storage units on wheels, and a big metal shelf unit (shown below), away from the wall so that we can work there.

Well, that’s it from Plum Cottage. I’ve got work to do inside moving these things in the next few weeks.

Outside the weather is much nicer and I was able to work in and around main garden for an hour before I left for work yesterday.  Really NICE.

Be well and enjoy each day.

Time to close this ~ FlowerLady

A new day

Good morning Friends ~ Here it is Tuesday morning, partly cloudy, cooler, but still humid.  The sun is to come out later, and sometime late this afternoon a possible T-storm.  I’ve got a load of laundry going and will hang it out to dry as soon as it’s done.  Hopefully it will dry before the predicted rain.  There’s a slight breeze and it really feels so much better outside than it has. I think I’ll go out to work in and around my main garden a bit as it is in much need of TLC.

With the heat and humidity being so awful still, I’ve been indoors mostly except to do some errands, then I hibernate. I am so thankful for my new a.c., it is working just fine. Living in a small home, has it’s bennies, easy to cool and heat. DH reinsulated the attic a few years back, one of his last major project here and it has made a huge difference in the coziness of our place and in keeping the elec. bill down, and with new windows done a few years before attic work, it’s quieter too.  I am so thankful for all of the work he did around here.  He saved us LOTS of money through the years because he could do so much. He was a man of many talents and very artistic too.

Monday while I was out doing errands, I decided to try the Michael’s south of us.  I’ve been to JoAnn’s but not Michael’s. It was an enjoyable outing. I wanted to get some felt, and some beads too and to just look around.  It was amazing and if I had had money to blow, I would have bought more.  There was one candle that really made me ‘swoon’, it was Ashland Spice Market. It was wonderful. I looked for a box of the votives, which they had every other scent of, but not that one, so I did not buy.

I bought 3 sheets of 5 different colors of felt, strings of fresh water pearls and a string of abalone bits. I want to use these with the little crocheted, flower covered purses that I am making. The square bits below are the abalone, the others are the fresh water pearls.

Below is my work surface. Yesterday after I went to the Post Office, and stopped at the S.A. thrift store, I hibernated indoors, crocheting two more purse backgrounds while watching things on you tube.

My view this morning.

I’ve had this statue for years and years, she’s made of concrete, has been broken twice, one by raccoons knocking her over from a 3’ high space, and once from a tree limb falling on her.  DH repaired her. She has a nice crusty patina on her these days.

I always called her the ‘weeping lady’ statue, little did I know the tears that would be shed by ‘FlowerLady’ in the future.

I found a piece about tears recently and will post the link.

The Health Benefits of Tears.

Yesterday afternoon I made a pizza crust dough in my bread machine and then made an Italian sausage pizza. I ate 1/4, the rest is in the freezer.  Today I want to make stuffed green peppers. I also want to make chicken pot pies, but not today.  Want to get things in the freezer so that when I don’t feel like cooking I can dip into the freezer, pick something out and heat.

That’s it for now.

Count your blessings.

Hugs ~ FlowerLady

October is here, but not fall weather

Good morning Folks ~ When you think of October, you think of pumpkins, chilly weather, the smell of smoke in the air, falling leaves, etc. Well, that’s not something that happens down here in s.e. FL.  We have ‘hints’ of fall coming, but it isn’t here yet. We don’t really have falling leaves, smell of smoke in the air, or too many pumpkins either, except in the grocery store or at vegetable markets.  In time, we will have cooler temps and maybe get to use the heat when/if it turns cold.  Last year I did not use the heater at all.

We are coming into the glorious time of year for gardening down here though and I am looking forward to it.  I’ve got several projects I want to work on this fall/winter season and hope to finish them before next summer’s heat and humidity come again.  Right now, it is still very warm and humid, but fall is coming, we just don’t know when.

The bee guy came out, and they don’t remove the bees to another location, the ‘eradicate’ them. FL does not have a shortage of bees, we have an over abundance and the local bees have mated with the aggressive African bees and so they do away with bee colonies that aren’t taken care of by bee keepers.  This company has 5 trucks and they take care of between 100-200 colonies of unwanted bees a week, from properties, homes, businesses.  I felt bad for the bees, but I also don’t want to be afraid, or swarmed by bees when I weedwack or mow. Now I won’t be and I can get back to this area and take care of things.

My old little Mazda wagon is gone.  The tree trimming guy asked about it and I said I was going to call up one of those ‘we buy junk car’ places, but hadn’t done it yet.  He asked me how much I wanted for it and I told him, and I came down a little more after talking about it, and he ended up giving me back my check for the tree trimming job he had done.  So I did my first barter.

Now I have an empty space to stack up iron, to be taken to the scrap yard. The guys can just back up their trailer and load it up. Well, I won’t be moving really heavy stuff to this location, just the smaller things I can handle. This is what my DH wanted me to do, if he left this planet, and I am working on it, slowly but surely.  Grieving, missing him and being alone, really takes a toll but, I’m getting used to it all, by taking things one day at a time, one step at a time, trusting in God all along the way. I do have times of tears, but also have moments of joy.  I am excited about projects I want to do, inside and out and will do them as I can.

Gardens are doing well, roses are blooming along with other things, weeds.  I love this time of year coming up.  Gardening is a joy instead of a miserable chore.

Below are some roses in bloom now.

La Marne is one of my favorite simple roses.

This is ‘Maman Cochet’ climber.  She smells wonderful.

This is an unknown rose I bought this past spring. An old fashioned rose.

Another shawl.

That’s it from Plum Cottage. 

Enjoy your weekend,

count your blessings.

FlowerLady