Let Summer Begin!

I hope your Memorial Day Weekend was a good one . . . let summer begin!  I hope you also took a moment to reflect on the sacrifices our service personnel have made to insure our freedoms . . . can't thank them enough!

I enjoyed the Garden Gala in Jonesborough, TN on Saturday . . . great gardening inspirations!!!  Here are a few pictures of my favorite spots on the tour:

This yard is my favorite for garden inspirations . . . so many cute ideas! 

These are all from the same yard!  How cute are the chairs on the side of the shed!?  Love the dry creek bed . . . the garden art . . . the cold frames and greenhouse made from old windows . . . the strawberries planted in the whiskey barrel . . . the twig vine with little white lights along the top of the front porch . . . the chicken coop . . .
I could have stayed here all day!


Oh, but there was more to see . . .

                          Look at those ferns ! ! !

 

These are the gardens of Curtis Buchanan (and family) Curtis is a chair maker.  Beautiful gardens . . . beautiful chairs!  His chairs are in the permanent collection of the Tennessee State Museum, the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, the Tennessee State Governor’s Mansion and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  Check out his website:
http://www.curtisbuchananchairmaker.com/home.html


On with the tour . . .

Not a clue as to what kind of bird this is . . . beautiful . . . succulents growing on the roof of the cage.

Cute idea to put electrical insulators on an iron fence!

Love the "birds on a wire" above the entrance to the pool.

Time for tea . . . or punch . . . and cookies.

Jan greets us at the tea in her "garden hat".  She's a hoot!

Refreshed and ready to move on . . .

a lovely cottage garden by a lovely Scottish lady.  She says that her sister attended the Chelsea Flower Show in England and that they no longer call a plant "invasive" . . . they are now referred to as "promiscuous" . . .  love it!

     The fairy garden.






Lovely gardens everywhere on this property!

On to Dick's garden railway: 

 

And then my camera's battery died!

We visited a few others and then ended the tour at the Ardinna Woods Arboretum & Butterfly Garden . . . a labor of love.  I purchased a pussy willow plant from the Arboretum and returned home chomping at the bit to dig up the entire yard for new gardens . . .

~*

New Design...FINALLY!

Finally . . . I finished my latest design.  I decided it needed a companion piece so I stitched part of it again for the pincushion.  It's called "My Garden" and will be available Monday.  The pieces were stitched on R&R's Americana Blend 36 ct. fabric.  I will warn you . . . there are some over one stitches in the piece and it would be very difficult to do without a good magnifier.  The fabric does come in all counts though so you can pick what count is comfortable for you.  The main piece, a door hanger, is set into one of those wooden plaques that I picked up at Hobby Lobby and painted . . . it was a bit plain, so I glued some buttons on it and used some chenille to outline the piece. If you choose a different count fabric, it will not fit in this plaque.  You could easily frame it and attach a doorknob hanger or make it a flat fabric backed piece to hang.   Be creative!  Send me pictures of your finished piece and I'll share them.

 This design is actually one of the first designs I drew.  I never did anything with it until I bought this fabric . . . just loved the color and I think it was perfect for this piece.

April was a busy month!  It was the Hubs birthday (4/7), my birthday (4/18) and our 27th anniversary (4/19).  My birthday and our anniversary were spent in York, PA at the TCA Train Show . . . would not have been my choice for a celebration venue . . . but, what can I say.  It was a buying trip for the Hubs for his train shop at the Tri-Cities Flea Market.  We also went on to Connecticut to visit our daughter . . . that's always fun!

We've also had some house guests . . . that was fun as well!  A friend of mine came down from PA for a few days.   We did a lot of sightseeing during the day and a lot of sitting on the front porch drinking wine and gabbing to all hours each night.  It took me a few days to recuperate!  Great fun!!!

Finally spring has arrived . . . was this the longest winter ever?!  I've been busy weeding gardens, planting gardens, mulching, pruning bushes, fertilizing the lawn . . . I'm a one woman landscaping company!

 My little fig tree I planted last summer has finally gotten some leaves.  I was really worried since the deer chomped the leaves off in the fall . . . that's why it's caged in at the moment.


I've also fenced in the vegetable garden to keep the critters out.  I ran out of fencing and had to kind of make do on the center section.  I wanted to be able to remove each section for harvesting.

The owl stands guard with the help of the pink flamingos.  What can I say . . . every garden needs some pink flamingos! 

The neighborhood cat was digging in my pots of seeds brought from PA and bought seeds . . .  good use of the leftover fencing.

Can't wait until the hydrangea's bloom . . . they're looking healthy and ready for a good show!


HAPPY GARDENING ! ! !

                ~*