Almost Finished

Here is the table runner I've been working on sporadically. I wanted to get it finished today but didn't get to my sewing machine. I did make myself a yummy yellow cake with chocolate frosting though - my favorite. It'll be gone in a couple of days! It's been a relaxing day...very nice!

Note all the cat hair - Smudge has been laying on this (up on the ironing board)!!



I hope the week is going well for all of you.

Seven Years Ago Tonight...

...I planted this tree to commemorate the birth of my first grandchild. I wasn't ready to become a grandmother yet. I've never been a "kid" kind of woman. But I sure do have fun with this little girl - my Rosebud.


How she and her tree have both grown!!





Happy birthday, Alissa Rose!!!

What A Week!

Hey everybody,
This has been another roller coaster week. I didn't mention it earlier, but Gail had a heart attack 2 1/2 weeks ago! It scared all of us; she's only in her 40's and very trim. It was all very sudden and threw all of us into a tizzy.

The good news is that she will be fine; she just needs to take it easy and do only as much as her body will allow. She came into the store a couple of times this week and is starting to look like herself. So...I've been trying to take care of as many things as I could for her.

In addition to all of this, I've been dealing with insurance issues (don't you just l-o-v-e dealing with insurance stuff?) and job hunting. Job hunting - talk about the emotional roller coaster. You talk to a recruiter and get your hopes up...then nothing. I have nothing but sympathy for all of you that are in the same boat, or knows someone who is. It's really tough now with all the competition and the companies can be extremely selective. Enough of this crap; it's too stressful!

I got to have this weekend all to myself. I was ready to pull my hair out after the last two weeks and didn't want to go anywhere or have any obligations - just have some peace and quiet for 48 hours. And I got it. I worked outside all weekend doing more fall clean up. There are still several areas in the yard that have blooming plants, but for the most part, the plants are tired. I cut back bushes, ivy, perennials, and more bushes. The wax myrtle out in the field are so tall I have to get up on an 8 foot ladder to reach the tops with the loppers. Now I have a couple of beds ready to plant some pretty mums in. And I can't wait to get some pumpkins and gourds. Oh, and I got the barn cleaned out too.

This bed beside my driveway was crawling with hummingbird vine. I hated to pull it all up but it had just about smothered my beautifuly muhley grass, which is getting ready to bloom. Next year, I'll keep the vines under control better.

My little deciduous holly tree is beautiful right now. The birds will feast on the berries in late winter.
And how those black eyed susan vines grew - all volunteers!
My miscanthus and other ornamental grasses are in full bloom now. This isn't the best picture, but this plant is huge - and perfectly rounded!

Remember when my big, round flower bed was ruined by the deer and I planted a few more coneflowers and covered them with deer net? Well, the bed is overgrown with annual salvia volunteers (which I love) and behind them all is my tomato plant that grew back. If you look closely, you can see one lonely tomato beginning to ripen. Out of four tomato plants, this will be the only tomato I've been able to harvest. I'll have to make myself a tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo and salt and pepper when this baby is ready! The last of the summer :(



I left the gate to the little pasture open and Tinkerbell and her friend, Little Mama, decided to come out and see what I was doing. They are so used to me giving them some sort of treat that if I have anything in my hand, they think it's food for them!! They are such funny birds :)


Well, I'm going to cook myself a yummy dinner and then take care of some dreaded insurance business. Then I want to finish my little autumn table runner I showed you a peek of a while back. It's turning out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

I hope you all had a nice weekend, whatever you did. :)

Autumn at The Garden Market

Gail's shop looks especially good right now. I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

















We got some mums in; we'll be getting lots more next week.



I hope you all are having a good weekend!

EightYearsAgo

We need to remember for so many reasons...

ViewFromFrontPorch

Help - I can't enter a title for my post without it translating into arabic when I hit the space bar! How do I get rid of this? And when I logged on this morning, my time stamp was in the wrong time zone. Wonder if I have a virus of some sort?

Anyway, here's what I wanted to post - a picture of the view from my front porch yesterday morning. The weather is beautiful right now! And yes, I mow all that field beyond the bushes by myself on my "monster (lawn) tractor".
Here are Alex and Sarah - Sarah is on the nest and Alex is grooming her.
Here is Cocoa, who is in a smaller cage. I've moved him inside to try to tame him.

Nothing on the job front to report at all; I'm very disappointed and starting to sweat.

Have a good day, whatever you do with it.

Fall Clean Up

I hope everybody is having a nice Labor Day weekend. I had to work after all yesterday so haven't gotten very much done, but I got to stay home today.

I worked out in the yard most of the day. I wanted to paint, but the yard called me so out I went. I did some hard pruning of some shrubs I allowed to get too tall. It looks much tidier now. I also got the front yard mowed.
I don't know what's wrong with my cherry tree; it's dropped most of its leaves. I hope it doesn't die.

I moved my American flag to a post on the far side of the driveway. Water had collected behind the holder and rotted a piece of my porch post off :( The post the flag is on now was intended to hold a large decorative birdfeeder, but I haven't re-built a new roof for it yet. It's only been in the garage waiting for nine years... I need to paint this post white.
I wanted to make one or two wood sunflowers but didn't get to it. I did put out the wood pumpkins that Alissa and I made last year.
I planted a variety of sweet potato vine next to them. These plants grow as fast as kudzoo and will look nice in a couple of weeks. They are annuals and will be ruined with the first frost but Gail was throwing them away since it's the end of the season and I wanted to see if the deer will eat them. If the deer leave them alone, I'll be planting them all over next spring!

My arbor is looking great with three different vines growing up it. I planted jasimine but have some volunteer black eyed susan vine, as well as some hummingbird vine.

And remember the new bed I put in earlier this year? Well look at it now...

The weekend is over for me. I'm expecting calls from a couple of agencies this week about some temp jobs, so keep your fingers crossed for me. In the mean time, I'm thankful for being able to work at Gail's store.

I hope you all have a nice day tomorrow - stay safe!

Happy Weekend

Yipee - it's Friday and I have this weekend off! I still work at Gail's shop on Monday but it feels great to have the weekend off.

There are so many projects I want to work on outside now that it's a little cooler. I finally bought supplies to build a cage for Coco - the young dove. I read that unless you have mated pairs, they can't be housed together, so it will be a large cage and not an aviary after all.

And I'm in the autumn mood so much that I want to make some wood cut out sunflowers to go with the pumpkins I made last fall. Plus, all I've been thinking about this week is painting some little pumpkin scenes. So many things to do...I get so energized after the heat of summer starts leaving.

You remember how I've been trying to keep the weeds at bay in my front yard? Well, I've neglected the back yard, which is much smaller. The wild morning glories have covered the fence and some plants. Here is my beauty berry bush, which is so heavy with berries that it's weighted down to the ground.

Being covered with morning glory doesn't help...

Here's a picture of my "hummbrella". My patio umbrella was broken in a storm last summer so I removed the fabric and wired the broken spines together so that my hummingbird (cypress) vine could cover it. This is several vines; I didn't pull the seedlings as they came up and just let them run rampant. They've covered the entire bed and fence. If you plant just one, it's more tame looking but will still get quite large.



I hope you all enjoy a nice weekend and get to do something fun! I'm off to clean my friend's house and then home to start having some fun of my own.

Sneak Peek of My WIP

I'm in the mood for fall....

The End of an Era

Whether you liked Ted Kennedy and his politics or not, his passing marks the end of an era in America. The Kennedy's have played a huge role in America's history. To stand up and fight for what you belive in, and do it for most of your life, says a lot about a person.

I try very hard to "walk the talk" when it comes to my beliefs. It takes a lot of energy and many times I just don't have it. Ted Kennedy, as did his brothers, spent his adult life working for what he believed would make life better for many Americans.

Yes there are other Kennedy's, but it's just not the same as "The Kennedy's" - John, Bobby and Ted.

Flora, Fauna and Merriweather

I can't believe this week is gone already. It's been eventful - I met with that customer I mentiond several weeks ago and I'm doing some contract work for her, which is very intersting. It just might lead to something bigger but at least I can augment my unemployment and make it last a little longer.

Here are a couple of pics of my three youngest hens - Flora, Fauna and Merriweather. I mean you know we have to name things after the Disney princess'!!

Here theyare as babies on my desk while I'm typing:


Here they are last summer eating yogurt:


It's Friday and that means I've gotta run to clean my friend's house. Have a great day, whatever you do with it.

A Delicious Recipe!

While browsing around in blog land last night, I visited some that I've bookmarked but haven't really looked at. Well, I came across this post about zuchinni and onion lasagne and it made my mouth water. I hadn't planned to leave the house today at all but ended up doing just that, so I went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for the dish which was created by Meg at NutMeg Designs.

Folks, you've got to try this delicious dish. It is so good!

Of course the zuchinni in the store isn't nearly as large as the one she used so I sliced up two smaller ones and only made half the recipe. I had a French bread baguette along with it and it was so good. I have just enough left for tomorrow :)

And I started a new and small project for myself, which is what made me leave the house today. I tried so hard to find fabric from my stash that would work but failed. I usually end up buying pinks and greens and didn't have what I wanted for an autumn table runner. I should have it finished by tomorrow night and will show you. It took me all afternoon to decide what pattern to use for it. That's always the hard part for me.
ttfn...

Agenda Modified

Well, so much for THAT agenda! I didn't make it to the quilt shop....again. Maybe this weekend I can try.

I did have time to stop by JoAnns for a quick visit and bought two nice magazines to look over this evening. I love me some magazines!

I did meet with the staffing recruiter and that went very well. I wasn't expecting to go through all the testing stuff and was there most of the afternoon, so didn't make the movie either.

After I was finished with the testing, I was dizzy from concentrating so hard on all the questions. Plus all I had eaten was a bowl of cereal earlier in the morning. I left the staffing agency and headed straight for food. It was late enough that Outback Steakhouse was open so that's where I went. I got a salad, baked potato and some chicken, which I eat sometimes although I try not to eat any meat. When the waiter came by to take my order, I was almost sick to my stomach from being so hungry. The meal was delicious and I left as soon as I finished eating; it was getting late. Between thinking so hard and letting my blood sugar fluctuate so much, I was wiped out.

I did make one tiny detour....I had to drive right by a HomeGoods store and I still have my gift card my daughter, Erin, gave me for Christmas. Well, I hit the jackpot. They had just put out all kinds of pretty fall and Halloween stuff. There were lots of things I wanted but just chose these two to bring home with me. I especially love the little wreath, which I'm using as a candle ring at the moment.






On another note, some spammer left a comment on my "Thoughts" post but I've deleted it. My DS addressed it in a comment on my previous post in case you are wondering what she meant.

Well folks, it's early but I'm ready to hit the sack with my new magazines. Tomorrow I'll be doing my usual cleaning job and then have the weekend off - yippee!! I'll probably end up mowing and working outside, as there is much left to be weeded and trimmed - a never ending job. But I do have a specific project in mind that I just might try to tackle.

Agenda for the Day

Well, I've decided to turn today into a restful one. Sincy my appointment is in Raleigh, I'm going to visit a quilt shop I've never been to before. After that, I'll meet with the staffing agency and then probably get something to eat somewhere. Then I'm going to treat myself to a movie and see Julie and Julia. I love Meryl Streep and anything she's in is good.

I shouldn't have whined last night; that's not usually the way I am. I was overly tired.

Hopefully I'll have some pics of the quilt shop to share with you :)

I hope you all have a good day, whatever you do with it.