I Actually Got To Sew Today!

After spending three hours painting a huge piece of furniture in Gail's new shop, Alissa and I came home. Alissa worked too, pricing new merchadise with the pricing gun. She wanted to watch "Bolt" (an adorable movie) and I got to sew! I was sooooo happy. First I made Alissa a cute little dress out of some shirred fabric I got from JoAnns a couple of weeks ago. She wanted a dress that "went to the ground" with no sleeves. Well, this little dress wasn't long enough so I added several inches of bleached muslin and sewed cute coordinating ribbon I already had over the seam. I attached ribbon so that it could be tied over each shoulder or behind her neck - either way. She hasn't taken it off since I tried it on her this afternoon. (Note dingbat Zoe "dancing" just as I snapped the picture).
Then I was determined to work on my living room valance and got that put together. Yes, there are tools in the window sill; I was very anxious to get a picture to post. I haven't made anything in weeks!


I still have a small table sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor ready to be antiqued and it will be finished. And I have to make my new plate rail, paint the coffee table and the antique milking stool. Then I just have to rearrange the nick nacks and I'll be finished. Of course, it might be Halloween by then....

Weather Forecast

See what happens here in central NC - we go from spring to summer overnight. I love spring but suffer terribly in the summer. I haven't even gotten my annuals purchased and planted yet!!!

Blogging Without Obligation

My sister stumbled upon this and I really like what she says here, so am sharing it. I will add a note that I always hate it when I see a blog start with..."I'm sorry, I've been so busy....". I think everybody is busy, and I'm ALWAYS busy with stuff too. And speaking of busy, I didn't get the litter picked up yesterday for Earth Day but am doing it today for sure!! (I'm ashamed of myself...and embarassed)

Anyway, I'm sharing here...
****



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After coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone’s blog starting with “I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile.” I decided it is time to rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it. I am thinking that no one should utter those words again . . .and with that thought I give you Blogging Without Obligation.

If you feel the same way feel free to grab the logo, make a logo or whatever you would like to do! Xo, Tiffini Elektra


I release all the logos, thoughts and words mentioned here about this concept into the public domain. Take the idea and run with it. . .or walk away. It is all good.

* Because you shouldn’t have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.

* Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.

* Because its okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.

* Because sometimes less is more.
Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.

* Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.

* Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be “bloggable”.

* Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won’t be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time. .

Earth Day!

Earth Day is Wednesday and I'm going to pick up trash along my road. I should do it every week but just haven't.

Diane posted some great information on ways to help the earth and they are all so easy. A lot of the things she mentioned, I do as well. I've decided I prefer my bath towels to dry on the clothes rack instead of the dryer - it makes them a little rough and much more absorbent. I keep my house pretty chilly all winter but have to run the a/c pretty low to survive the summers. Overall though, I don't use a lot of electricity as I've always been conscientous about not wasting it, or water for that matter.

If you want to see what's going on in your area to celebrate Earth Day, go here, and take a few minutes to do something to help this planet we all share. It'll make you feel really good. :)

Going In Too Many Directions

Time is sure flying by these days with me helping Gail get her new shop ready. Boy is it going to be something!!! The furniture/fixtures have arrived from France and some of the merchandise is in. There is still a lot to do and we are spending six days a week there, working very hard. Gail has given me permission to post pictures after she's open. All I'll say for now is that the Garden Market will be one of those places you love to discover and share it with everybody you know. I just can't wait till it's open.

I haven't had time to do much else with my living room makeover as I'm trying to get my front and back yards under control. You know how it goes...one day you look at a shrub or plant and think "I need to transplant that" and the next day you say "I should have moved that before it grew so big". Well, I'm running all over the place trying to get weeds cut and killed, mowing under control, digging huge hostas that I should have dug a couple of weeks ago before they turned into monster hostas, and trying to keep up with my hens and the eggs they are producing. Somehow, I'm managing to get it all done, just not able to sew or do any of my other crafty things.

I did make a trip to Jo Anns last week and bought my fabrics for the living room valance, pillows and the hutch "redo".

The cream colored burlap (2.99/yd) is for the valance. The polka dots will be new accent pillows, and the soft print will be the panels for my hutch.


I did manage to spray paint my curtain rod black tonight to match the curtain clip rings. I can't wait to get it all done - what a difference paint makes!

I don't like letting so many days go by w/o posting and will try to have something good to show you tomorrow.

ttfn...

I've Been Given an Award!

Oh my gosh - Lynn of Lynn's Lovelies has given me the Kreativ Blogger award! I am truly shocked, but very pleased. Thank you so much, Lynn, for giving me this award. I will strive to do it justice :) Now to share it with some others. I'm going to dig deep into my gazillion saved sites and pick some that you folks might not be aware of, but you probably already know everybody since you've been blogging far longer than me.

Cat from http://www.baumcat.blogspot.com/
Laura from The Cat in the Clover
Michelle from Mish Mash
Joan from Crow Productions

Gee - I have soooo many favorite blogs that I barely can visit them all in a week!

Thanks again Lynn for thinking I'm special enough to receive this award!

About Half Done

Well, I'm very pleased with what I've gotten done on my living room makeover so far. I still have my art work to hang on the walls but want to change it for a lighter look. And I've got several other dust catchers I need to figure out where to put. All I've had to buy so far is paint; everything else was already in the house somewhere :)

The ceiling is vaulted throughout the house and in my den I made the tall wall kind of like an art gallery, and I love the way it looks. I think I'm going to do the same thing in my living room. I have a lot of samplers, which took many hours to make and I love them but don't want to line them in a row over the windows again. What do you think of a narrow shelf up high on the tall wall with them all leaning against the wall? I think it would present them in a more "urban" kind of way. And I'm thinking of painting that narrow shelf black since the curtain rod and a couple of other things will be black.

For curtains, I think I have a great idea. After painting the rod black, I'm going to buy some of those little round curtain clip thingys and just have a valance which I'm going to make out of cream colored burlap from JoAnns. It's dirt cheap and I already have white lining fabric. I think it will add texture but give a clean look. Oh, and I'm going to hang the rod high enough so that the valance just meets the top edge of the windows to give the appearance of taller windows.

I still have to give my coffee table a re-do and am working on the table that used to be in the corner. Smudge decided it was a cool place to sit. He's so funny.
This is my favorite corner in the entire room. Why I didn't think of doing this a long time ago is beyond me.

This is the tall wall that I want to make into a gallery with the narrow black shelf at the top of. The clock will stay where it is but I just put the print and sconce there to get them off the kitchen table (my kitchen is a wreck).
Another thing I want to do is lighten the hutch w/o painting it. I'm going to cover some foam core board with a tone on tone fabric and stick them on the middle of the doors and the back of the shelves. This will really make a big difference, I think.

On an entirely different note, I saw the first hummingbird yesterday! Other than honeysuckle, I don't know what they have to eat yet so guess I should put out the feeder for a while.

I hope you are having a nice day :)

Painting In My Sleep!

I sure didn't mean to let so many days go by before posting. I wanted to leave the Prevent Animal Cruelty up for a while because it was so important, but I really meant to post over the weekend.

I've been painting like crazy at Gail's new shop and it has overflowed into my house. If it doesn't move, it's getting painted!

One of my goals while out of work is to give my living room a make over and I finally got started. Since my sewing machine is in the shop, it forced me to get going on something else. My living room is nice enough but it turned out a little too colonial with a touch of formal. And anybody who knows me, knows there isn't a formal bone in my body. I had painted it a nice gold color and stenciled around the crown molding. I intented it to look like vines from the woods and it really looked very country. Don't get me wrong, I love country and have several nice primitive antiques that I wouldn't part with for anything. My prized blanket chest from the 1800's:

Gail is using mostly off white in her new shop and I guess it rubbed off on me. I love color but have been inspired to make my living room monochromatic. I've painted the walls a warm tan and will be painting my floor a very pale tan. (I ripped up the carpet last year in preparation for laying laminate which ain't gonna happen now.)

I've spray painted a cheap brass fixture with an off white and the same for a dark mahogany candlestick lamp. All the trim in my house is bright white but I went over all the woodwork too and it's so clean now. You can only wash it with bleach so many times...

Anyway, here are a few "before" pictures. I won't be able to post the "after" pictures till day after tomorrow. I've got to finish the floor and let it dry before moving all the furniture back in. My ex-husband built the beautiful hutch; he was quite talented with woodworking.

I had already started taking things off the walls when I snapped this one. Note the lovely blue towel on the chair to keep the cats from scratching (it doesn't work).


Oh, and the baby doves are about 3/4 grown now and will be full size in another couple of weeks. Sarah and Alex are still having to feed them some but they are eating on their own for the most part. I'll take some more pictures of them soon. I've got to get their aviary built real soon!

I'm tired and going to take a shower and relax a little. Tomorrow I'll be painting the last room in Gail's new shop and then the really fun stuff can begin - decorating! She opens in two weeks and there is SO much left to do.

ttfn

Go Orange!

I was visiting some of my favorite blogs last night and became aware that April is Prevention to Animal Cruelty Month. So many of us have pets that we love. And so many animals suffer daily in silence in more ways than you can imagine. Because I've been involved with animal rights since the 70's, I've learned more horrible things than I should about the dark side of humans.

Dog breeding and dog fighting are big around here and you can find people selling pit bull puppies almost every Saturday in the WalMart parking lot. It makes me sick to my stomach. I want to take these innocent pups home with me but it wouldn't do much good to end the problem.

Any time an opportunity arises, I will try to teach people that animals have feelings too. Dogs especially need to live in the house with their families, not left in a pen or tied to a tree. There is a little dog that has lived chained to a tree her entire eight years of life that I would see daily on my commute to work. I buy a bale of wheat straw to put in her donated dog house every fall and have given her people dog food. I've met the woman and son who are both very nice, but they are ignorant. I've talked to the boy, who is about 10 years old now, and have told him that Boss is lonesome and needs to be played with. I've often thought of asking if I could have Boss, but they would just replace her with another dog.

I have fostered over 40 dogs in the eight years I've lived here - it's the reason I moved to the country. It has been hard but rewarding. Here are some pictures of a few that have passed through my house - many with very sad stories but most have happy endings.
Tucker - one of the saddest:

Wednesday with her new mom:

Jade meeting his new family (Jade is on the right)

Part of a litter of five found on the road; my daughter, Laura, kept one of them:




I am happy I've been able to help a few animals, but don't think I'm an angel. I lose my patience and yell and cuss b/c of the animals and all the work and damage they cause. I've taken a few breaks from fostering and have just entered another one today, but I know I will always help in some way. They need people to defend them because they can't defend themselves from us.

And here is a picture of the love of my life - Princess. I fell in love with her the very instant I saw her at the adoptathon - so scared of life and the world. She was 5 1/2 months old and is now almost 11. She is the pefect example of what love and training can do and is the perfect dog to take out in public. I get compliments from strangers on how well behaved she is. She is always by my side (here accompanied by Topaz and Zoe).
I adore her.

Frustrations & Misc Picture

Well, I had hoped to have pictures of a beautiful wall hanging I'm working on from Diane Knott's delicious book she so kindly gave me but...I didn't get very far :( I jumped right into the project knowing that I surely had enough fabrics to make it but I was wrong. After a great and exciting start, I don't have very many blues in my stash. I'm definitely a green person and have lots of greens, but not enough blues. So off to JoAnne's yesterday and couldn't find the right stuff so the project has been put aside for a few days.

The good thing about this is that I've completely quilted one of the quilts for the Appalachian Project today. All I have left to do is the binding and it will be finished. Then I'll complete the smaller one and get them in the mail.

For lack of anything else to show you, I'm giving you a peek at my favorite room of my home - the den.

I'll be helping my friend, Gail, getting her new place ready for her grand opening in May. She's in such a panic right now but I know everything will get done in time - it always does.

Baby Doves Almost Grown

Look at these babies - I can't believe how fast they've grown in less than three weeks! They are still totally dependent on their parents for food but now roost on the branches during the day. They don't coo yet but make the sweetest little noise to let Sarah and Alex know they're hungry. It sounds like other baby birds your hear in nests - not a chirp, more like a sqeek. One of the babies is kind of a muddy color, while the other is mostly white with some of the tan on her (?)

Today is my first day to stay home in a week and I'm grateful for that. I plan to be at my sewing machine most of the day even though it's a gorgeous day outside. It's too wet from all the rain yesterday anyway, so I'm a happy camper. I hope to have some pictures of what I accomplish for you in my next post (that's my goal anyway) :>)

I hope you all have a great day!

A Piece of Artwork and Baby Doves

Hey everybody,

It is a gorgeous day here and I should be outside working in the yard but am still lingering over my coffee after the road trip. Once I go outside, I won't come back in and I wanted to share something with you.

While at my daughter's, I took another picture of the piece of artwork I made for her a few years ago. I got the idea from a Somerset magazine article but mine is quite different. The art in the article was made from paper but I changed mine to fabric. I made seven different pieces for friends and to sell and still don't have one of my own. Every time I see this one, which is the first and favorite one, I can't believe I made it. I had it professionally framed, which was the expensive part. They are so much fun to make. The gray feather is from an African Gray parrot. The gold feather at the bottom is from one of my chickens. The leaves are some of the gazillion I tend to collect.

Each one of these pieces I've made have no resemblance to the other except for the overall idea. I made one for a friend whose last name is Beach. Hers had shells she had kept from when she was in high school, which made it very sentimental to her. I used a sand dollar for the centerpiece of hers.

I have got to make one of these for myself one day!
...and look how much the babies have grown! They are going to be beautiful!!! I know, they're nest is very messy - guess I need to replace it.

Back from D. C.

Hey Everybody,

I got back from my visit a few hours ago. I've already mowed the front yard and gotten a few things done around the house but wanted to upload some pictures from my visit.

Little Ginny is precious and has two very doting parents! I've never seen a new daddy so in love before. Neither of those two can keep their hands of their new baby and are always petting her or something. It's so sweet :) Here's the happy little family - Aaron, Erin and Ginny.
And Nana (me) holding the baby burrito
It was a quick but very nice visit. Erin and I went out for a little while yesterday and I bought Ginny the cutest little Winnie the Pooh romper for summer with a matching sun hat and socks! I didn't take a picture of them but I'm sure when summer gets here, Erin will be sure to send me one of Ginny wearing the outfit. It was so cute.

I stopped at Hancock's Fabrics before leaving this morning and got fabrics to start Ginny's special baby quilt. I can't wait to get started on it but this week is shaping up to be another busy one. I'll post more about that later. For now, I need to unpack and then look at all my fabrics and new Quilting Arts magazine that came while I was away.
TTFN!

Meeting Baby Ginny

I'm headed to the D.C. area to meet my new granddaughter, Virginia Kathleen (Ginny). I hope you all have a nice weekend!

Baby Dove Update

Well, I did it - I pulled my back for the first time in my life. I've been laying on a heating pad for half the day. It all caught up with me at the food show yesterday. It's my own fault for not stretching before doing all the lifting and pulling I've been doing the last several days.

The food show was quite interesting and I sure did learn a lot. The free food was great - they had everything you can think of there. This was for people in the restaurant business to see the latest and greatest prepared foods. Did you know that those delicious soups you get in a lot of restaurants are pre-made and come in huge frozen bags and the restaurant just throws them in a kettle to thaw out? Same for the red skin mashed potatoes! I often wondered how the soups came out tasting exactly the same way every time. Now I know.

I hope to work on some sewing projects tomorrow - nothing strenuous. In the mean time, here is a picture of the baby doves at 10 and 9 days old. I can't believe how fast they are growing!!!

I'm About Sick of Construction Projects

Ugh - what a day. I had to go to Lowes to return a few things and stood in line for about 15 minutes. Then headed to the garden area to buy 12 landscape timbers. I didn't look at the price; they used to be a couple of dollars. Well, my bill came to $70+ after I got 3 plants so went back inside to stand in line again to "return" the landscape timbers. They were almost $4/each! I could get some pressure treated 2 x 4 for $2.49 each, so that's what I did. Customer Service is so poor at my Lowes. Once again I had to load all the stuff myself.

One nice thing did happen while I was inside though. I recognized one of the men who installed my laminate in the den a couple of years ago. I stopped him and struck up a conversation. He didn't remember me and I had to keep telling him that I had a house full of dogs and other things to try to jar his memory. Then I embarassed him to death (on purpose - hee hee) by telling him that I couldn't believe he didn't remember me after I had actually flirted with him and his brother. Now bear in mind, they were both considerably younger than me and both married - I was just teasing them when they were finished with the job. Then he remembered me. We started talking about dogs and he said he got a little Maltese and had to show me a picture of it. Then we started talking about spaying and neutering and rescue and I told him where he could get his pooch neutered pronto for the lowest price.

I told him I was getting ready to attempt to install the same laminate in my living room and wish I could just pay him to do it, but everybody tells me I can do it myself. He told me I could do it too but gave me his phone number and told me to call him and he would be happy to get me started. Wasn't that sweet?!? Once somebody gets me started, I know I can do it myself and save a bunch of $$.

It was well after noon by the time I got started on the new chicken run. Digging the post holes was the easy part. Because I tend to jerry-rig a lot of things, it makes it very difficult to take things apart. I had laced together several pieces of deer net with fine wire. There was wire all over the place. I wanted to reuse the deer net and wire so painstakingly took it all apart. I know that took over two hours. Finally I was able to attach deer net to the new posts. It will have to do for now. At some point I have to put a lattice roof on it but not any time soon. I had to get something over the top of the run so I can let the hens out tomorrow before I go to work at the greenhouses. The posts are 8 feet tall, so I'll be able to walk in there when it's truly finished. Here are some very embarassing "before" pictures: The tarps were new last summer; they don't last long at all!
Wendy, one of my outdoor kitties, stayed with me all day and supervised.
I didn't get any work done close to the barn. That's a separate piece of wire for the top, and I have to secure it better. Plus I can now take out those blocks and poles holding it up. I told you I jerry rig stuff like crazy

I know you can't really tell in these pictures that this is the improved run, but if you could see it, you would see a huge difference. It's slightly larger and the deer net is attached to the wood posts now, instead of sagging down old curtain rods.
Anyway - that's how I spent my day. Once again I'm tired...and grouchy. I'm headed for bed. I'm sick of construction at the moment.

Still Building

Hi everybody,

Before I forget, I wanted to let you know the bunny on my new bench didn't come from Lowes. I bought it the week I went with Gail to pick up some concrete products for her new shop. I think the mold is a common one, so keep your eyes peeled for it in your favorite garden shops.

Thank you all for the encouraging comments about the arbor. I'm glad it's up and am pleased with the structure it's given the front yard - just what I needed. Building it really boosted my self confidence to make some larger things.

Since I have a busy week working at the greenhouse and going to a food show (oh boy), today is the only day I can work on another construction project - a chicken run. My poor chickens have a make-shift run made from rebar, old curtain rods and whatever else I could find to hold up some chicken wire. It's sagging and looks awful so it's off to Lowes to buy some landscape timbers and more lumber to make a proper run. It won't be hard, but I have to dig a bunch of holes to sink the timbers in. At least the ground is very moist and easy to dig in right now. In a couple of weeks it will be hard as bricks. I'll post pics of before and after when it's finished.

In the mean time, please feast your eyes on this gorgeous unidentified plant somebody gave me years ago. It's an indoor plant and I think in the iris family. It only gives a few blooms each spring and they last two days. That's it! The petals are already curling back when I got the pictures and it was wilted the next day. If anybody knows what this is, I'd sure love to know!!

Have a great day everybody!

Much Better!

Just a quick post; I'm pooped after working in the greenhouse all day.

My arbor just wasn't right. I have a million gardening books and do you think I looked at one of them before building my arbor? No. I just started sawing and screwing together. I knew it didn't look right so as soon as I got home this evening, I let the dogs out and went right to work making changes. I am much happier with it now and can't wait to paint and decorate it. I still have the side trellis part to make but that won't take long at all. And I haven't spaced and bolted the top pieces yet either; that will wait till tomorrow....or the next day.

I probably won't be able to move tomorrow after taking down about 200 fern plants, weeding and sorting and then hanging them back up again. There was a lot of reaching as far as I could involved! I'm headed for bed - nighty night everybody!

Gardening and Baby Dove Update

It's that time of year where all of a sudden, I'm overwhelmed with yard and garden work. The peonies have started to come up and a lot of other perennials too. Weeds are everywhere and I've got a million things to cut down, spray, mulch and repair.

I desperately need structural things in my front yard. I've wanted an arbor for a long time but the ones I like are too pricey for me to buy. I knew I could make one but I get frustrated because none of my projects turn out perfect the way I want them. Well, I got some birthday money from my mother and had a Lowes gift card from my daughter and her hubby leftover from Christmas, so I headed to Lowes today and went shopping.

They have all their spring stuff in and as soon as I saw this little bench, I knew I was getting it - and a matching flower pot too. It's made of resin but looks just like concrete.
I bought some lumber to make a small arbor and got this far today. I still have decorative scroll brackets to put on the sides and then reinforce it. I really prefer the arched arbors but was impatient. It will look better once it's covered with yellow jasimine.
I checked in on the baby doves this evening and their eyes are open already! They seem to be doing quite well. They're so ugly they're cute. I'm giving the parents plenty of food and water every day, as instructed by my friends who gave them to me.

I'm starting a part time job tomorrow at Gail's garden center. I'm really looking forward to it even though I'll probably spend all my pay there. Oh well, easy come, easy go! Have a good weekend!

Aaaaaccckkkk!!!

Look what the UPS man just brought from my sister (who says she isn't talented)!!!




She calls it "A Touch of Pink" for the pink Saturday postings, but I'm not waiting.
She told me that she sent me a book of some sort, but I couldn't stop yelling long enough to open it. Plus it was wrapped is such pretty paper that I hated to tear it open. Look at the details in this!!! Oh my gosh!!! She needs to submit her stuff to Somerset, don't you think?? I'll take another picture of it full length so you can see it entirely. For now I have it on a side table where I can see it all the time and it looks nice there. I might end up hanging it on a wall. It's beautiful; the pictures don't do it justice.
Now here's what she said she sent me - I've picked up this book every time I've seen it but wouldn't let myself buy it. And she made the sweetest card. As hard as I try, I just can't make pretty cards like this. It even has a cool stamp on the back of it.



The book was meticulously wrapped in this pretty paper and tied with rafia. It even has a slight scent of lavender; I'm not sure if it's the paper or if it's the scarf but it smells so nice! I'm saving the paper; I can do something with it for sure.

I give nice gifts but am a sloppy wrapper; I was laughing the whole time I was looking at it; she was on the phone with me and must have thought I'd lost my mind.

This really has been the best birthday I've had in years!! Happy day!