Thursday, June 11, 2015

What is blooming in our garden now?


Good morning! We are leaving for Birdsong today for about two weeks, so here are the photos that I promised of some of what is blooming in our yard.

My beloved daylilies,
thriving after I moved them all 
last year.
They were too close to the trees
in the woods and did not do well at all.








                                                                    Stargazer Lily ...


Beautiful hydrangeas blooming behind the back porch...




...and near the woods...



I hope you enjoyed the visit!
I will be back soon.
Have a great couple of weeks.


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Some views of our gardens...

Hello dear friends!  We are busy getting ready to go up to Birdsong, so since yesterday I have been taking some photos of some of our garden areas as I have a feeling that a lot of the stuff will bloom out while we are gone. Please note, I have not edited any of these photos, so what you see is what you get!!

Wild roadside daylilies from New England
 growing to the right of
our porch steps.
Welcome to our porch!


A shabby chic chippy window box.
Not by design.
We never have time to paint it.
Oops...



Path leading to the back deck from
the driveway.
Last year I ripped out the purple perennial
verbena (too invasive for a small area)
and put in some daylilies.
It is really lovely now.
The hosta, fern and fountain
garden is to the left, seen here
only in the forefront...


A view of most of the yard,
with the garden shed towards the left in rear.
On the right in middle of photo is the large iris
and daylily garden that we expanded in the fall
seen in this post.
The fruit of our labor has been realized,
and when it is not so shady I will provide 
more photos when there is more blooming...


Another view of the same part of the yard...


In the front of this photo is the daylily and iris garden
that we expanded in the spring of 2014,
before we did the rear portion seen behind it.
The iris have already bloomed and I have cut them back,
and the daylilies are all getting ready to pop!
In the birdbath is planted mint, 
which I hate in the actual garden since it is so invasive...


Another view of this garden,
with shed in the back...


A section of the hydrangeas planted along
the screened porch in back
(more of that area in my next post)...


I hope you have a wonderful evening!



Thursday, June 4, 2015

Fabric and Lace Collage: Memory is a Child Walking Along a Seashore

Hello to all.

Recently I told you about an Etsy shop that sells some gorgeous images, and you can see that post here.  I finally used one of the images that I had purchased in a piece of artwork and was hoping that you would like to see some photos of it.

The beautiful image of the children playing on
the beach was my inspiration...


The photo had been tinted with just the smallest 
hint of pale blue,
so I used some blue silk dupioni to frame
part of it... 


...along with some lovely vintage lace and
a shell fossil purchased in Florida...


...some buttons and rick rack
on the old doily at the bottom,
since the rick rack reminded me of waves...


...and of course, a beautiful quote,
accented with a vintage lace applique
to which an old rhinestone button has been added...


This piece hangs from a length of jute
that makes me think of fishnets.

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This piece is now listed in my Etsy shop.
Wishing you a peaceful and creative day!


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

To Dorothy from Lillian: A Story (Part Two)

Did Dorothy live in Louisville, KY, 
or is this only where the church was?


Did she spend the summer of 1927 at the
Crab Orchard Springs Hotel
in Crab Orchard, KY,
where she received this letter?


Dorothy was a model in a style show at the Elks Auxiliary
February 9th.
Was this the following year?...


How did the little boy in the toy plane relate to these gals?
It is surely an adorable photo...


The fold-out caption in the photo below on the left
states: "And those button pictures --why,
Martha Gunterman and everyone else 
were wearing them".
Have you ever seen those photo buttons in antique stores?
Did photographers come around and take the photos
for them?...


Some more local goings-on,
and at last,
another letter mailed to Miss Dorothy Reck 
in Louisville, KY.
Her name has appeared 
quite often in this scrapbook...


And on the next-to-last page,
far right on top,
there is a newspaper photo of pretty Miss Reck!...


So what was the relationship of Lillian to Dorothy,
and why did Lillian give the book to her?
Here is a glimpse of the letter that was sent from Lillian to Dot
at the hotel in Crab Orchard Kentucky...



They were cousins!


And who was the "mixed media artist"?


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

As promised, this was the favorite of my antique finds
from Florida.
I started looking at this book in the shop,
and couldn't bear leaving it there and never finding out
 more about Lillian and Dorothy.

After reading all of the pages,
(a lot more than I could show in these posts)
along with the few letters,
I still don't know much about them,
and didn't see any photos of Lillian.
I didn't want to show you all of the letters,
as it seemed that they should remain private.
I hope that you enjoyed looking at some of this sweet book, though.

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

Dear Lillian and Dorothy:
My name is Sue.
It was nice getting to know you.
How did your lives end up? 
Did you remain close to each other throughout your lives?
I'd like to think that you did.


Tuesday, June 2, 2015

To Dorothy from Lillian: A Story (Part One)

Once upon a time,
in the 1920's,
a young gal kept track of the local
happenings that related to her life.
Her name was Lillian.



Upon the graduation of Dorothy,
Lillian gave the scrapbook to her...


Lillian kept track of sorority members,
theater parties,
bunco parties,
and birthdays...


...requests for submissions
to their school newspaper...



...not to mention Freshman stunts to
advertise school plays...


...and what appear to be other local happenings...


Who was Lillian, 
and who was Dorothy?


They weren't much different than the young
gals of today,
admiring the good looking athletes...


Photos of friends were lovingly clipped
from newspapers and pasted into the
scrapbook...


...along with well wishes,
class schedules,
and letters to Dorothy...


Who was Lillian?
Who was Dorothy,
and what did she look like?

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To be continued!