gardens | Cindy Rice Designs

Another week has come and gone… quickly. We had some beautiful days this week; one of them even got into the 60s. My daughter and I visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Wednesday. Not too much was growing yet. We saw lots of Snowdrops, a lone crocus, and a few iris reticulata.

Can’t wait to see what 26,000 tulips looks like. You can see they are barely starting to emerge from winter hibernation.

One of my favorite gardens is the English Walled Garden. It has cozy spots to sit, sounds of trickling water (not yet though) and lots and lots of flowers sooner than later. Today, you can see the architectural elements of this garden. Oh, we found snowdrops and 3 tiny iris reticulate here too.

I find the Japanese Garden inspiring, peaceful and beautiful. It is on a manmade 2-island plot which is connected with 2 different bridges. Cherry blossoms as well as lilac rhododendron will soon be in bloom in this garden.

On Thursday I walked around our yard to see what I could see. The crocuses are fully in bloom. The magnolia buds look to be plumping up.

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Dolly news! I bought a new Ann Estelle to dress one of my new outfits in. The other outfit is being worn by my Ann Estelle model. One 10″ AE (I have Sophie) is enough for me, so my doll will accompany this ensemble. These are for my brother-in-law’s wife’s good friend. Her and her husband generously put us up this past summer for a family reunion. I was so touched by her hospitality; she didn’t even know us and was very welcoming. I think these will be decorating the bedrooms of her little granddaughters.

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I am still working on a set of hat knitting patterns (one written pattern–4 hats) for 4″ Amelia Thimble and Pukipuki. I want to test them out first. It’s been so long since I started writing the pattern; I want to make sure that it all makes sense.

I wish you all a beautiful weekend. I’m afraid this next photo sums up ours, weatherwise. Not quite a big snowfall (I hope), though flurries with lots of wind is forecast.

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Thank you for stopping by, my friends! ❤

Happy Friday to everyone! The calendar says spring has arrived even if the weather is not acting accordingly.

My husband and I strolled though the Chicago Botanic Gardens this past week. There’s not too much growing, but a lot of work was being done on the gardens. The snowdrops are blooming on many hillsides, and I saw some tiny purple scilla here and there.

All around was peace and promises of what is to come. These botanic gardens have always fed my soul, and even at this time of year was no exception.

Two weekends ago we attended the orchid show at the gardens. The greenhouses were adorned with orchids! There was beauty everywhere, however, when I saw these giant parasols hanging from the ceiling my heart skipped a beat. The colors of these giant beauties against the blue sky… simply amazing.

I completed three more dresses for my Operation Christmas Child 2018 shoeboxes this week. I now have a total of eight! I made these three dresses in tandem, so the steps were batched. I think they got more quickly, but it seemed like more “work” as I tended to get tired of doing one thing three times, or six times as in the case of armholes or straps.

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The middle dress is made with blue oxford cloth and a yellow gingham pocket. The dress on the right has teeny tiny salmon colored stars printed on ivory with the bottom fabric in reverse.

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