A visit to the garden center...

Good morning! I hope that your week gets off to a good start. 

If you read this blog, particularly in the spring and summer, you know that I love to garden. 

So, last week we took a trip over to our favorite local garden center,

Chris' Greenhouse and Garden Center,

found here.

We actually went to replace a few dead Juniper that grow

on our front hill,

but of course we also had to look at this season's

coming selections.

Ferns...

Geraniums in all colors.

Red...

...pink...

...white...

...always my favorite 

for a pot on our front porch...

Annuals everywhere,

started from seedlings,

nurtured and loved 

in the hothouse...

until we buy them...

Even though it is still too cold to plant annuals,

these purple beauties...

...will be paired with our usual whites

in our deck's black window boxes outside

our screened porch...

I can already see this vision of 

loveliness in my mind's eye.

Are you having visions of your summer garden

yet?

Sweet Peas and some great stuff...

Good morning all! I hope that you're having a great weekend. Ours has been pretty cold, but its supposed to start warming up tomorrow, and then be nice for the rest of the week. About time!

Mr. Perch and I are making some decor changes in our humble abode, so I have been searching for some inspiration, and one day last week we found our way to Sweet Peas, a little nearby antique store that I've written about before. I thought you might enjoy a few photos that I took while there.

The entrance to the main building...

Inside one of the out-buildings.

The more buildings, 

the better!...

The front porch of the main building...

...the side...

...and a glimpse of the inside of it...

Well, we did come home with something

shown in one of the photos above.

All I will say at this point is that it has

become a large project for me,

so no mixed media art for Sue

in the foreseeable future!

What else is new. 

The Plum Tree Saga

Hello dear friends. 

A few days ago I was admiring the beauty of the blossoms on our plum tree and, knowing that they would soon be gone, I decided to have some fun with iPhone photo apps on one of the photos. Below is the result.

Here is the unedited photograph.

I loved the way the blossoms played against the

beautiful North Carolina sky. 

I framed it using VintaFrame...

For this one I used an app called DistressedFX.

I have had it for awhile, 

but since it is better used

on landscape photography,

I hadn't had a reason to use it.

Not only does it distress your photos with many 

different options,

but it also puts birds in the background

(and you know how much I love birds).

Can you see the birds flying "behind" the tree?

I then framed it with one of the options from 

the VintaFrame app...

For the version below,

I also used DistressedFX, 

but chose a different treatment,

and a different "flock" of birds.

It is a little hit and miss, because you can't 

put the birds where you want them

(unless you know something that I don't!).

I then used Snapseed for the frame. 

I've talked about some of these apps before.

Have you tried these or any others?

I'd love to know!

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Have a wonderful weekend.

Welcome Spring!

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her lovely head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

'Winter is dead'.

Good morning, and Happy Spring! 

Though the season is here, the weather is not. We did have one nice day on Tuesday where it actually got to 80 degrees out, so of course I took advantage of that by spending six hours planting some daylilies that I had ordered, along with some other plants that I had purchased locally. Most of my time out there, though, was spent cleaning out dead pine needles and leaves from the garden beds. Yesterday it was much cooler, but I did manage about four hours. And my aching muscles can attest to the workout!

**************************************

I did manage to shoot some pretties of the daffodils, though.

Hopefully spring is coming your way!

A Sweet Day

Good morning! I'm sorry I haven't been around lately, but last week I was blessed with a visit from my son and his family (they live in Florida), and getting ready for that left me little time for blogging. 

For Christmas, one of the things that I sent them were some cute clothes for our sweet grand children to wear for a nice photo shoot. Imagine how great it was for me when they decided to bring the photo shoot here! Needless to say, out came "real camera" and away we went, being thrilled that Mr. Weather cooperated by giving us one nice warm day. Avery will be one later this month, and Jason will be three in May.

Naturally, I couldn't resist a little photo play! Here you go.

Wishing you all your own sweet day!

A Little Girl and Her Kitten

I was thinking of you today,

and hope that you are having a great weekend.

The coming week promises us warmer days,

so I thought I would share this "springish" image with you.

I have scanned this from my original,

so feel free to use as you like.