Garden Post

Well, I took these pics last week of my little kitchen garden thats right outside my door and everything has grown so much already but I would love advice by any of you garderners out there....

Here's my tomotaoes and peppers, 6 of each....

Then I have some basil in a pot that I need to add some mint and parsely to and I have a little pot of lavendar that I got from Monticello when we visited....I want to add more lavendar to my hillside by the pool as soo as I get it weeded (YUCK).

I aslo bought one of those topsy turvey hanging plant holders for my strawberries (havent seen any berries yet) and they say I can take it down and hang it in the garage near a window in the winter and keep it damp and it will come back next year....please any advice here would be soooo appreciated ...

Then we gte to my first window box of come and cut again lettuce....we eat a TON of salads and spend almost $40 per moneth just on lettuce. I think I may have planted them too close though....I used a whole packet for this one window box....again any advice ? I have 2 more planters to plant si we can stagger the yield.

This is actually WAY fuller already and is getting pretty high so I hope I didnt screw up here.

The above picture was a grassy area bu the pool that I finally am dloing something with....my inlaws have given me a few hostas and I have more flagstone to add and maybe a few flowers for some color.

This is our lower yard where my family jokes that I have never actually been all the way to the bottom of the steps. To the left of the little deck we have a TON of blackberry plants and even some raspberry plants but they are hard to get to....but I dearly love homemade jellies, jams, granitas on hot summer days and even syrups and the hubs loves rsapberry tea.....any advice here ? They seem to have taken over that back hillside but someone suggested transplanting them along the porperty line and along our fence ??????

We are having 3 tons of gravel delivered tomorrow to fill in our old extra parking spce that now holds our wood for our woodburner (bikes are going in garage sale) and we just got a bid to reseal the driveway ($1600....YIKES....we might have to do it ourselves)

Here is a picture of our pool, which I have yet to be able to have time to get in and do anything but clean it !!!! GRRRR Now to the right of the pool is a small hillside with a flagstone retaining wall that is starting to come down (of course) and is over-run with weeds and yucky plants that are too heavy....so I want to take it all down and fill the hillside with lavendar becaue it makes a nice ground cover, wont be too taxing on the hill and put too much pressure on the rock wall (once I rebuild it) and it will smell heavenly. Of course that means transplanting a rhodedendron, a holly bush and the rest is just ugly, stinky box wood....I wish the family who lived here before us had taken a little better care on the upkeep of all the landscaping because it ALL needs redone...and can you believe we had terrace lights all over the hillside and electrical outlets for the pool and lights etc and they CUT them all....I guess we will go with solar lights.

The last picture is of the patio which is our fvorite place in the summer but I have got to get it "primmed" up for sure. I am painting the floor soon....thinking either a brick red or a colonial blue ???? Suggestions are always welcome.

Well thats it for now and no I have NOT forgotten about my promise of a giveaway...I will have it up soon I promise...I also have some great before and after projects to show you all. What would you think of something easy like a gift certificate giveaway or is that too lame ???? Give me some suggestions for what you guys would like to win.

OK gals, I am off to watch tv with the hubs and try to get cooled off !!!

Grace to you,
Margie

New Wools For Sale

Hello all my prim pals...just a quick post to let you all know that I just listed approximately 20 new wool bundles this morning...Check them out on my WOOL FOR SALE PAGE to the right....Let me know if you need something special and I will see what I can do. I think this will be the shortest post EVER by me, but I gotta scoot...its too hot today to do anything else...more later on including the details on my new giveaway !!!

Grace to you,
Margie

Can you believe its June ?

Wow...time sure is flying around my house lately. How on earth is it the middle of June already ? If I didnt know better I would say someone is messing with time, but that cant be true, can it ? Nah, it must just be me and as usual I am always behind in evrything I do.

I did want to share a picture of one of the special order ruglets I got from last month....Seems those Liberty Ruglets were a big hit (I officially sent the last one off today and I can firmly say, I am really tired of hooking them). I did love doing this one though since the customer requested it be done in a different color... She asked me to make it match her Redware dishes....I was a bit nervous because, although I have seen Redware, I dont own any myself, so I was worried I would get the color just right. Thankfully she was wonderful about describing it and I sent her off some color swatches for approval before I started hooking it. She said I got the color just right (to my relief) so now I know I can do more Redware pieces in the future. Anyhoo...here's a picture of the finished product...

Now I need to get busy finishing my new work room/studio/shop...The hubs got it completely cleared out...of course now the garage is bursting at the seams ! Thank goodness our semi-annual neighborhood yard sale is in July...and the hubs says everything that doesnt sell will be on the curb the following trash day (I will probably call AM-VETS though since I dont want anything to go to waste). Why on earth do I still have a brand new snow board I won 5-6 years ago from the Subway promotion ???? Not a soul in my house snow boards and it has never even been removed from the case it came in ...still in the shrink wrap ? It was supposed to be worth $350 but I have no idea what I can sell it for at a yard sale...any ideas ? Why would I not have sold it before this ???? Why do we have 2 bikes that have no tires ? Did I think we would buy new tires ? Seriously, I know we chucked alot of stuff when we left Colorado and headed back to Pa, but just now I cant think of why we KEPT this stuff and tossed things like my old shutters ? GRRRRRRR

Oh well, I am getting rid of EVERYTHING now to make some room. I am having such a hard time working on anything because it takes forever to move everything around, plus its hot up in my bedroom (the attic) and who feels like working in the heat...especially when we have a pool ? Of course I have only been in the pool once, because once I get it all cleaned  I have been too tired to actually get in the water !!! I will not get in the water is there is a speck of dirt or a single bug in the pool...yep, I am nuts...I literally lay on my raft with a book in one hand and the netted paddle in the other so I can nab any bug that wants to share the same space as me. So between the pool and my new little garden I have been kept pretty busy. I will post some pictures of my little kitchen garden thats right out my door later on. I am sooo proud of myself cuz I have a black thumb and this whole gardening thing is kinda cool (especially since last year I had a bumper crop of tomatoes with just 3 plants....doubled my plants this year and added 6 peppers, lettuce, strawberries and of course my herbs...I am having fun with it but it does take some work, which has taken me away from my work room and my actual work...over-dyeing wool.

I have had some time to dye though and will have some new bundles up soon (Gloria, I am almost done with your order my dear...just working on the last few bundles). I have some great golds, some great berries, turqoise, teals and peacock blues and some lovely lemons, melons and some awesome background colors in various browns. Well all that wool dyeing made me think it might be fun to do a little mid summer wool giveaway, so check back early next week for all the details...I am thinking of something fun and easy !!!

Well, I thought I would throw in a couple of pictures from our trip to Virginia so here they are ....


Battle re-enactments with little display areas where folks told us all about different areas of interest...this one had to do with military rations.

And here's some from Mitchie Tavern, an old tavern in Charlottsville that had an old grist mill and several other little building to tour...all nestled in the woods just down the road from Monticello.

And my favorite thing of all was visiting Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. It was a fabulous tour and so interesting. The hubs and I just love historical stuff so it was a delight !

Now thats a nice garden...I did buy a pot of lavendar to plant in my garden....Can you believe I actually have a portion of something that was actually originally planted by Thomas Jefferson ? They sell a bunch of different heirloom cuttings and these were wonderful.

Here's a picture of the hubs in a little town we stopped in on the way home....Virgina was absolutely beautiful and I could definately see us relocating there if our son stays there and the other stays in North Carolina...Charlottsville is exactly halfway right now !!! But thats years away...

Gosh the hubs is so darn handsome. He has put on a few pounds over the years and has a lot less hair but he still looks hot to me !!! SOmeday I will have to dig up some pictures from when we were dating back in the 80's...Yes, I had big hair and he had hair like El DeBarge...anybody remember him ???? He had a curly perm that he would get cut into some kind of like bi-level, short mullet of sorts. Ooooooh and he wore those skin tight Levi's and jazz shoes and of ocurse he wore Pierre Cardin, so he smelled amazing too. Haha, we were so young. The years have been much kinder to the hubs than they have been to me, so no pictures of me from this trip....I have gained like almost 15 pounds since last summer, GRRRRR

OK, well I am going to hit the hay now. Since I have been falling asleep every afternoon I have been trying to force myself to get some sleep at night like a normal person (NO its NOT working, but I am not really normal, haha).

Until next time,
Grace to you,
Margie

June Update for PHM

Just a reminder that today is the June update over at Primitive Handmades Mercantile and the ladies have done it again...I got a sneak peak and what they have to offer this month is breathtaking. Of course I got the theme wrong for the month, but I still think my items turned out pretty good. Here are 2 of the hooked pieces I submitted for sale....

These were both designed and hooked by me... Please click on the tab to thr right and hop over and see all the primtastic items these gals have made !!!

I have been busy busy busy and promise to post more leter and fill you all in on whats been happening in my neck of the woods. !

Until next time,

Grace to you,

Margie

Awesome Mail Day !!!

Well gals I am back from Virginia and have lots to tell you all about our trip, but I will get to that tomorrow. First I want to say a great big thank you to Marie over at Primitives by Olde Lady Morgan. I has sent her a box of wool blends that I couldnt use in hooking and she had asked me what I wanted in return....I had said I would love one of her dammit dolls for a friend who has been ill and maybe a pinkeep or some bowl fillers...Did you catch the OR in there ??? Well if you know Marie , then you know she doesnt "do" anything in a small way....Look at all the wonderful goodies she sent me ....

Can you believe she sent me 2 of the dammit dolls...one for my friend and one for me to keep (too sweet) and of course she sent 2 different pinkkeeps too...I just LOVE both of them...and she even filled them with vintage sharps and pins !!!

And look at these awesome grungy star bowl fillers....they are huge and look so great in my wooden bowl I just got from my friend Gloria...remember the pics from her awhile back ? Aren't these stars just to die for ????

Oh and I forgot to take pics of the 3 Folk/Prim magazines she sent me too...I am resisting the urge to just throw responsibility to the wind and just curl up for the next several hours and pour over these lovelies...cant wait to see Marie's items in here too !!!! But, I MUST get all my orders filled first, before I have any more fun !!! So I want to say a BIG, BIG thank you to Old Lady Morgan for another wonderful swap...she is a great friend and has spoiled me many times over. I will definatley be sending her out another box of goodies...I hardly think my box of fabric was equal to all the loevly things she made just for me. If you ever get a chance to swap with her, you will be happy you did but in the mean time, you should RUN over to her blog, www.primitivesbyoldladymorgan.blogspot.com and check out all the wonderful things she has for sale !!!

Before I go  did want to show you all a picture of a great find I got while I was in Virginia....I got this giant cheese box...

I put it nest to my 4 gallon crock to show how large it is...I absolutely love it. I have never seen a cheese box that was this big and guess what ? I got it for just $9.50...can you believe it ? I saw one in the very next shop for 3 times that much. I dont really like the color...anyone know how I can know if its original ? I would hate to ruin its value, but I really dont like the color at all...I could probably get by with just adding a little stain to tone it down but I would like to re-paint it....What do you gals think I should do ? I have lessened the value of many an item over the years and always hate it when I find that out, although if its an item I plan on keeping, then I dont care as much because I want it to match my home. Oh and did I mention that its filled with pine cones ? I really didnt want those but the lady said I had to take them too...GRRRR...

Well, I am off to finish my last few orders, finish packaging up my items for the Bee Happy swap, finish the new hooked items I made for the Primitive Handmades Mercantile update (June 15th) and then I am hitting the dye pots. I will tell you my hands are ready to fall off....I bound 6 rugs in the last 3 days and I have holes on all my fingers...yep...I have jabbed the same places so many times I think I have permanent holes, haha.

Until next time,
Grace to you,
Margie