Shopping for Antiques in our Barn

Last weekend Rick and I went to a nearby town for a garden tour. After purchasing tickets we were able to walk through eight different gardens, some in town, some in the country. Each garden was unique and we got so many good ideas. No surprise that fairy gardens are huge trend. We saw some amazing miniature gardens!

Fairy garden in a wheelbarrow.

Look at this cute house and a pool!

The owner made the clothesline and hung little sheets.

Another cute house, this one from a gourd.

Another thing we loved about the gardens we toured was all the antiques and fun accessories scattered around. We have a few things in our gardens, but we decided they needed more. So I had my pack rat husband go through the barn in search of items we could use. Now, I don't go into the barn very often. I love it, but don't like to be inside it. I know, weird!

Anyway, it's filled with "stuff ". And here are a few of the things Rick found that we could use. 

I love galvinized metal. He found this big tub.

This box could hold a fairy garden.

Cool rusty farm implement.

Nice a assortment of insulators.

 It will be fun finding places for these things.

We finally put up our birdhouse gourds. Need to plant more.

 What do you like as garden ornaments? I'd love to see! 

Have a great week. We have a very busy one coming up, then getting ready for the 4th!

June Garden

June has got to be my most favorite month of the year. All of our hard work in the gardens pays off as the flowers put on their display and the vegetables beds show promise of fresh food to come.

 This year has been a bit of a challenge because of the lack of rain. The weatherman is saying this is the driest spring since 1988. Well, we know all about that! Our old shallow well dried up that year and we had to have a new one drilled. We now have enough water to keep things going, but I still feel a little leery of overdoing it. 

View of the long border.

Queen Elizabeth rose.

Closeup of the south border.

Zepherine Drouhin (spelling?)

I  love all these different varieties of sage.

Garden ornament bought at Stream Cliff Herb Farm.

Belinda's Dream rose, fennel

The vegetable garden pictures were actually taken about 2 weeks ago and are much further along. We will be harvesting beans, squash, and peppers soon.

Love the fresh salads every day.

The central bed is just for pretty:)

My husband loves pickled peppers.

These squash plants are about double this size now.

And the tomatoes have color on them. Ripe by the 4th? I hope!

 The garden brings me so much pleasure and I especially like to share it with people. I hope you enjoyed seeing it!

A B C D.. Embroidered Quilt

The gardens have been keeping me pretty busy these days, but I have finally finished a project I've been working on for quite awhile. You might remember the embroidered patches I showed a few posts back. I got a couple of good ideas as to what to do with them from my readers. But I decided to put them all together in a little wall quilt. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

My husband doesn't like that I left off the X. But I wanted to have each row even, so I did it:)

Sorry the pictures are so bad. I just couldn't seem to take a good one of this. It might help to actually hang it up, but I need to put a sleeve on the back. Then I'll try again.

I'll be back soon with pictures of the gardens. So many things are blooming and the vegetable garden is looking very lush. Have a great week!

Anniversary Get Away

Last week my husband and I went away for a few days to celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. We went to southern Indiana and stayed at the Clifty Falls State Park Inn. We had a great time hiking, shopping and eating some good food.

We saw lots of turkeys on the park roads.

One of several falls in the park.

View of Ohio River from our room.

We took a very, very  long hike. Thought we were going to die!

 Part of the reason we chose this destination was because of an herb farm that is nearby. I had read about and wanted to check it out. And I just have to say OMG! It was amazing! It was in the middle of nowhere, along the banks of a creek, with a beautiful brick farm house and out buildings.

The display gardens were beautiful and full of inspiring ideas to take home.

And it was neat and weeded. We have been to many herb farms and gardens that advertise "display gardens", only to find weedy, messy beds and hoses to trip over. I've gotten to where I don't expect much, but this place really lived up to their web site descriptions.  There was a tea room, several shops and farm animals to pet. I can't wait to go back. I bought a couple of garden ornaments, but need to take some pictures. I'll be back soon.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

A Proud Mom

I have to take a moment to write about our oldest son, Justin. After many years of study, he successfully completed the coursework, and defense of his doctoral dissertation. Here he is - Dr. Justin Marquis, PHD (philosophy).

 We were able to attend his defense. What an experience! Rick and I kept looking at each other and wondering "this is our son?!" Andrew and Eric were with us and we all celebrated by going out to eat at one of Justin's favorite restaurants in Chicago. What a wonderful day! Congratulations, Justin!

Some Things I'm Working On...

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! We had a relaxing time with the kids (minus Justin, we'll see him tomorrow). A cookout, strolling around the yard and playing with Tad.

Besides gardening I have been trying to finish up a few projects on my very long list of things to make. Well, this quilt is not finished but it is sewn and waiting to be quilted.

It is from the Moda Bake Shop site. As soon as I saw it I wanted to make it. So fresh and bright, and I love the prairie point border.

It's hard to believe that for as long as I have been making quilts, I have never made prairie points. How could that be?! I love them.

I just made this little cross stitch into a pillow. It is from a Helen Philipps book. She has so many cute designs. I know I will be stitching up more of them in the future.

Now, here is a peak of some little embroidery pieces I'm working on. Does anyone remember the Alene's TV craft show? Years ago I ordered a couple of iron-on transfer books from them.  I always knew I would stitch up these alphabet flowers some day. I just didn't know what to do with them. And I still don't! But I'm working them up anyway and hoping something will come to me. Any ideas?

The gardens are right on the edge of exploding into bloom. I just spent a couple of days weeding and getting the beds ready for the show. I'll leave you with a few views around the yard.

Almost ready!

A volunteer foxglove in the raspberries.

An oriental poppy.

Japanese iris with  metal hummingbird art.

 

Just for fun!