Category Archives: Nature

Another Rainy Day and Week

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, to you all! Yes, the rain has started up again. And, it’s forecast through the weekend, maybe even longer. It’s all good; I am ready! Boy, this has been such a wet and cool spring! Yesterday was dreary, but no rain, so I was able to get some outdoor photos of our yard. I am so glad I took the time outside with my camera yesterday; it was probably my only chance!

This weekend the many crabapple trees on our property came into bloom. We have white and pink trees. The pink are a challenge to photograph on a darker day, but you can get an idea anyway. While taking these photos of our crabapple trees I was immersed in their scent which reminded me of my childhood as we always seemed to have crabapples trees growing in our yard.

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I took the photo below of our apple tree. It has very few blossoms on it, so I guess that means not too many apples this fall.

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Miss Feral Kitty is waiting patiently for me to finish with my photography, so I can go around front and feed her her breakfast. Notice the flick of her tail, so cute.

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This is last year’s nest that a mommy and daddy robin used to raise three babies.

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Okay, another mystery . . . anyone know what this shrub is called? These flowers are incredibly tiny, maybe 1/4″ or so. I cannot smell any scent from the flowers.

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Another shot to give you an idea at how forget-me-nots spread every year. Origninally, I had planted one packet. This is only one tiny area of them. Luckily, they are easy to pull.

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The latest news from my sewing room is that I did get Patience’s dress remade yesterday, and it is now perfect. Yay! I’ve been dyeing pieces of Lycra knit that will be used for tights, socks, and panties while writing this blog post, so now I’ll have four pieces of different pinky shades to choose from. It seems I use shades of pink or white more than any other color.

Bye for now! Wishing you all a great day!

Busy!

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Oh, my goodness, what a packed full weekend! When there is too much to write about, I don’t, sorry. I should have been posting all weekend . . . so very sorry to neglect you all.

I hope all of you moms that celebrate Mother’s Day had a wonderful day filled with happy times and maybe a little pampering. I started a load of laundry yesterday morning and the clothes magically got put away. My husband and daughter gifted me with a new Kindle and a bunch of red orange tulips. I’ve been wanting a Kindle for reading library books; I think I’ll really like it and use it all the time (that is when I’m not sewing, knitting, embroidering, or crocheting, etc.) LOL!

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I always get asked what I want to do on Mother’s Day. Every year my answer is something leisurely. Do you know what I said this year? Yard work! Yep, that’s how we spent a good portion of the day. Our messy garden beds were starting to weigh me down and now most of them are nice and clean. And, it was really nice spending time working hard with my daughter at my side. While my daughter and I worked around the front of the house, my husband was busy at the back and spent the entire day outside. I don’t know how he does that!

Afterwards, my daughter made me a late lunch complete with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream! That ice cream was well deserved, don’t you think?

This morning my hamstrings are quite sore and I have a bright red sunburned stripe where my back waistband didn’t quite meet the bottom of my t-shirt. Oops! Thank goodness for aloe gel.

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Here’s one of my three rose bushes. We had to scrape away millions of tiny seedlings growing around the rosebushes. (I don’t think I got them all either.) One of the rosebushes had so many tiny forget-me-nots growing around it; it looks like it has died. I saw a few green branches, so hopefully it will catch up to the other two.

back yard bed 426 Even though I tried, I couldn’t get all of the grass pulled out that is growing through the phlox. If anyone has a helpful tip for this, please, please, let me know.

I have more outdoor photos to show you tomorrow.

Today I need to remake Patience’s dress. 😦 The bodice is too long for the sweater and just looks odd. I hate redoing things, but it has to be done. Better get to work . . .

I hope everyone’s week is starting off nicely. Bye for now!

“My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” and Away with the Blues

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I am happy to say that my mood is no longer “blue” and the sun is shining for the second morning in a row. Thank you for all of the uplifting and helpful comments the last couple of days. It’s been fun hearing from you.

I picked a bouquet yesterday with creeping Charlie (yes, it’s a weed and my husband didn’t think it was funny), phlox, and forget-me-nots.

creeping charlie phlox forget-me-not

The title of Lucy’s ensemble was quite easy to come up with. Outside of the obvious, it’s blue, and everywhere I look outside I see shades of blue/blue violet blossoms.

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Here is Lucy! She is all ready to stroll around the SUNNY garden paths and collect some flowers to make mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day.

This ensemble ended up having more hand made pieces than what I normally make for an outfit; it was quite labor intensive. As I was working on this outfit for the Little Darlings, I felt it needed a hat, and then I felt the sweet little crocheted slippers would be perfect… so I went with it, and just kept on creating. Do you like it?

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The hand knit and embroidered mohair/silk lace weight sweater really is “light as a feather” and so soft. The motifs that I embroidered on the sweater coordinate with the dress print.

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Lucy’s crocheted hat is made with three colors of cotton and two different weights. I wanted it to have the feel of a straw hat, so included a camel color. It is delicately embellished with cotton lace, silk ribbon, blue blossoms, and seed beads. I fussed with the bow to get it to lay “just right”. Everything is carefully hand sewn to this hat with Fray Check added to the ribbon edges. I love how this photo shows off Lucy’s cute profile.

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Lucy’s flower cutting basket is crocheted with hemp. Her flowers can lay in the basket or she can hold them. They are secured with a clear band and silk ribbon.

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I love these girls in ballet styled slippers. Their legs are so graceful. I made these soles out of a matching tan to pick up the natural colors in the hat and basket.

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Gina’s drop waist styled dress is simple and perfect for a garden stroll.

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Lucy had to have matching panties… a hand dyed and tied silk ribbon to match her dress!

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Lucy’s “My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” will be available tonight (May 3, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com , link is on the “Shop What’s New” page (at 7pm).