Monthly Archives: July 2016

More Botanic Garden Photos & Gracie Too!

6 Replies

A happy Monday to you all!  Today is feeling like July again, hot and humid… and it’s still morning.  It will be a scorcher later!

Gracie was a little sad this morning since she was the first to lose her new outfit.  Talyssa graciously let her try on her “Garden Surprises” set.  I think she looks cute in it too.  I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so I said they look equally beautiful and sweet.  Who do you like better in this ensemble?

garden surprises 086

garden surprises 835

garden surprises 092

garden surprises 775

This ensemble is still available on my website.  Here is the direct link to the sales page.

Here are some more photos from our visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Saturday.  My post from yesterday can be found here.  Today I have photos from the first gardens we went to as well as some entrance shots.  Enjoy!

After walking through the initial building where you’ll find a gift shop, information counter, and cafe, you will walk across this bridge to get to the gardens.

walkway bridge 894

You can see the cafe’s terrace from this bridge.

cafe 895

The Crescent is the first garden you see after crossing the bridge.  It is made up of curved terraced flower beds .  Over the years I’ve seen many wedding photos being taken here.

first garden 901

Next, we turned left and visited the Heritage Garden.  It is made up of more curved flower beds as well as circular ponds which are full of water lilies.

water lilies 902

Next, we visited the Rose Garden.  On the way there we walked down walkways with  huge hydrangea gardens.  I have serious hydrangea envy right now.  Aren’t they beautiful!

hydrangeas 909

snowball hydrangea 917

pink hydrangea 890

rose garden 919

The roses are planted to the left and right of the massive lawn with a shady trellis behind the fountain.

rose garden 920

The shade felt very welcome when we got to the trellis.  Baskets of pink geraniums hang from the walls.

rose garden trellis 940

Such a pretty fern growing through the trellis.

rose garden fern 931

I think these are the tiniest roses I’ve ever seen!

roses tiny 953

rose pink 926

rose 923

My favorite roses are the variegated varieties.

That’s all for today.  I best get some sewing accomplished!  I hope you all have a great Monday.  Thanks for visiting!

“Garden Delights” & “Nature’s Surprises”

7 Replies

I hope you all are having a great summer weekend.  We are enjoying beautiful summer weather here in northern Illinois.  The humidity is low, the sun is shining, and for July the temperatures are staying on the cooler side.

Yesterday, I got my promised Mother’s Day visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  We usually go either at the beginning of the growing season or towards the end in late August, so this time was a little different.

botanic gardens entrance 892

Today I’ll show you the photos from our first stop at the gardens. Please excuse the quality of my photos; it was a very sunny day.  The Butterflies and Blooms exhibit was moved this year, so we actually noticed it and decided to check it out.

blooms butterflies 857

This exhibit is a large screened in enclosure with butterflies flying all around.  Flowers that  butterflies particularly love are planted everywhere.

blooms butterflies 883

The butterflies will land on you too.  I was told that they seem to love white the best.  I was wearing a darker colored top, so they left me alone, but landed on my daughter’s shoulder.

blooms butterflies shoulder 882

These little feeding stations are set up throughout the exhibit.  I think these two are dining on banana.

blooms butterflies 869

blooms butterflies 873blooms butterflies 879blooms butterflies 871blooms butterflies 881blooms butterflies 880

The chrysalises are purchased and hung on wooden dowels until the butterflies emerge.  Here is one that is almost ready to fly free.

butterfly chrysalis 884

This visit to the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Gardens was perfectly timed (not planned though) to show you Talyssa and Gracie’s new ensembles.  I don’t usually make two at the same time for Kaye’s MSDs, but the fabrics are from the same collection and begged to be made into coordinating sets, so I did just that.  I hope you like them.  By the way, both sets are the same size so can fit both the 17″ and 18″ MSD bodies.

nature's delights garden surprises 692

nature's delights 784

garden surprises 066 2

nature's delights 814

garden surprises 834

As you can see, Talyssa found her own butterflies in the garden.

garden surprises 775

garden surprises 835

And Gracie, found a little house wren that she befriended.

nature's delights 787

nature's delights 804

nature's delights garden surprises 670

Gracie’s “Nature’s Delights” and Talyssa’s “Garden Surprises” ensembles will be available tonight (July 10, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.  Check the “Shop What’s New” page at that time for more details.

“Heavenly Hydrangeas”

2 Replies

I love hydrangeas!  I cannot grow them, but I love them all the same.  I see hydrangeas blooming in neighbors’ yards seemingly without any extra care or attention, and they are so BEAUTIFUL!  They don’t even want to grow for me, much less bloom.  I did have one hydrangea??? grow for me, but the blooms were so tiny and not at all hydrangea-like, so I question whether it was a hydrangea or not.  And, the fact that it actually grew leads me to believe that it was mistakenly marked as a hydrangea and NOT a hydrangea at all.  Oh, well. . . maybe one of these days I’ll get lucky.  I surely won’t give up!

My daughter brought home a couple of cut hydrangea blossoms for me the other day.  The blue color reminded me of a dress that Sugar has been wearing for a couple of weeks now.  I couldn’t decide on the embroidery to get it finished, so it waited for me to be inspired.

heavenly hydrangeas 632

Aren’t the blossoms gorgeous?  And don’t they match Sugar’s dress perfectly!  They were just the inspiration I needed.  Sugar is one happy little Pukipuki.

heavenly hydrangeas 647

heavenly hydrangeas 634

Clusters of colonial knots worked perfectly to give the feel of a hydrangea bloom.  Since I love both pink and blue hydrangea blooms equally, I decided to use both of these colors along with white in my embroidery.

heavenly hydrangeas 622

heavenly hydrangeas 0624

heavenly hydrangeas 619

“Heavenly Hydrangeas” will be available tonight (July 7, 2016) at 7:00pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.  You can find more information on this set at that time under the “Shop What’s New” tab.

Bye for now!