Blue Scarf

Ta-daaaaa!! The picture uploading thingy is working! Or, rather, I should say, we finally unplugged everything out of exasperation, plugged it all back in, and NOW the picture thingy works. Technology is just the cheekiest thing around, isn't it?!

Anyway, here's a scarf in progress from a month ago. It's done now, and quite delicate-looking. It's already been gifted.

And you thought I've been doing nothing while sitting on my duff for the past six months. Humph! Well, while not having much proof otherwise for you, I have been productive. Here's a small taste of what's been happening here.

This cupcake pattern came from Julie through Little Cotton Rabbits. (See link under my favorites.) When I saw these, I fell in love! Julie kindly printed a pattern shortly after I stumbled upon her blog site, and I was one of the proud first owners. Since then, I've been busily making these yummies:
Here it is, packed for the receiver:This is also compliments of Julie's blog site. I stitched it to a T-shirt:nd, once again, another pair of felted slippers (pattern compliments of Fiber Trends). I can't make them fast enough! Little beggars are out there. -- Big beggars, too! More to follow, no doubt!
If my computer will one day cooperate with me, I do have more to show you. Computer is just being obstinate and not wanting to upload in any timely fashion.

Sewing Project

I've been whining about my church clothes for some time. Shopping with two small children has not been a whole lot of fun, nor has it often been successful. When I have found something, I don't usually try it on in the store; I just buy it and bring it home to try it on, and then invariably return it, discouraged again. Recently, however, I netted a gain of two dresses! One, though, had only spaghetti strap "sleeves". It would never do as such, but I immediately saw the potential in it if I found something to go over it. So the shopping continued, resulting in nothing. Finally, I decided to resort to an old necessity: sewing. This meant I STILL had to shop for a pattern and material. Finally, after visiting four different stores, I found some beautiful material as well as a rather chic pattern by Simplicity. (I haven't sewn anything for myself in years, and Simplicity has changed a LOT. So I had some surprises on the way, namely in sizing, and was very happily impressed with the pattern I used.) I have fabric left over, so plan to use it to make Daughter a corresponding dress. Here are shots of the finished product, which I am way too proud of. :)


By the way, I'm not sure which pleases me more with these photos: the amazing shots I got with my camera, or the outfit itself. Am I vain, or what?!

Garden Inspiration

A few days ago, Husband brought home a number of books for me from the library. Since I have several project areas going, and much to learn, perusing the books has been a wonderful education, as well as very inspiring. The following pictures are all ideas I found in these books that I think will work well in our projects. (I wish I could tell you this is MY garden.)

One of the projects I'll be working on over the next few years involves the bank area. It is steeply sloped, and I'm thinking the most attractive, as well as erosion-controlled idea for this would be to terrace the slope. Likely this will involve approximately 3 terraces, with a set of steps as well. The steps that are currently in place are scary, to say the least. They look like a metal fire escape that you see on the sides of old brick buildings in downtown areas. -- Very steep and rickety-looking. Add to this the fact that they are set at an angle, and it's scarier still. Every time I go down them, I hold my breath. They are anything BUT safe, and there is certainly no visual appeal. So, steps will be my first job to tackle.


I am hoping to harvest most of the rocks from our property, thus the "few years". I cannot harvest them till late fall, due to my recent rampage with poison ivy. -- No repeats, please! So, once the leaves have fallen, I'll be out in the woods with my wheelbarrow, combing for rocks. I want to terrace dry stacked to save a little more money.

The other areas of inspiration I found involve the garden. I was struck (again) with the idea of training vines up posts. This picture shows vegetables and fruits being trained up posts. I like the thought of putting this at one end of a small fenced-in garden on a gravel bed, with a hammock or swing beneath it.And I really liked this design for a fence around a small garden. Again, it would be fairly economical, and would help with animal control, which I suspect will be a problem here in the woods. (We can hear coyotes at night on occasion, and have seen one go through our yard at dusk, although our neighbor's donkey has greatly helped with that. But we have numerous cats around, and have also seen oppossums and raccoons and rabbits. And have I mentioned squirrels?)

What's Growing

My garden and plants are keeping me peeking at them. :) Here are a few images of what's happening around here:

The Clematis is in full bloom, reaching to the gutters of our house! (I bought it mail-order last spring.) Last year, I don't recall it blooming this early, so I am quite suprised. I wonder how long it will last. Plans for the future include more of these guys. I absolutely love them!The hydrangea I bought from mail-order last spring is now sitting in a pot and thriving near the front porch, loaded with buds. Can't wait to see it! I wonder what color it will be this year???The garden is bursting forth from all the seeds I planted. Contrary to how it looks, most of those little green things are there intentionally; not weeds. Ha! The poppy peony and dahlia bulbs are all about 2 inches out of the ground. Seedlings of cosmos, hollyhock, bachelor's buttons, daisy, lavender, ageratum, violet and maybe some others are all popping up in a thick blanket. The tall bushy thing is a form of hollyhock, and very unusual. -- The flowers appear hidden under the massive leaves. It's not what I'd expected, but right now I'll leave it alone.My seeds that I started indoors are all thriving except for the sunflowers. -- The squirrels cleaned out the starter pots in one fail swoop. They left me with all of four plants. Rascals! They would have had a lot more this fall if they'd let the few go that I planted. Otherwise, I have 3 cucumbers, 4 yellow squash, and 18 tomatoe plants of 3 different varieties, all transplanted to larger pots. Now I need a garden to house them in. Hopefully we'll get to that this weekend.I've also planted some herbs and flowers in a pot. So far the basil and cilantro are shooting skyward; only a few flower seedlings have emerged.I also planted some flower seeds into peat pots. So far the lavender and daisies are doing great. The delphinium and bells of Ireland are not appearing yet. ??? I am thrilled with the lavender, though. That stuff is expensive when it's in the stores already grown! I didn't think it would grow that well for me, but so far I'm succeeding. Yeah!!! (The large seedlings are the sunflowers; the smaller ones are the lavender and daisy.)

Graduation

For privacy's sake, I don't like to share pictures of people's faces on this blog; however, I wanted to share how the graduation photo shoot went that I did. Since all you can see of this guy's face is one eyeball, I decided it was safe to share. :) It also happens to be one of my favorite shots for artistry's sake. Shooting for the graduation was a lot of fun, although nerve-racking in the church sanctuary. The ceiling is so pitched that any flash you bounce up to it is lost in the space. Even shooting the flash directly at the person is of no use hardly. So that part was frustrating. However, the shots I got outside prior to the event turned out great, as did the ones during the reception. And, seeing the photo CD from previous years made me feel pretty good. -- Everyone has a difficult time getting photos in the church sanctuary.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project, and look forward to learning more and improving my skills.

The Bank

Since Sunday, I've been busy working down the bank of our front yard. Probably logged close to 20 hours, but who's counting since I'm doing it for myself? Here is what it looked like right after the trees were pulled out by our kind neighbors:
And now, after hauling out the household trash left by previous owners, and rearranging the rocks I could move on my own and attempting the beginnings of hardscaping by moving earth by hand, this is how it's looking. (The full greens of spring help a lot, I know!)This was the trash I've hauled out. Lots of cinderblocks, as well as a wheelborrow full of household trash like broken dishes/jars, plant pots, oil pan, aluminum tray, garden "art", plastic toys, plastic bags, etc.I had no idea what I was going to do with this space when I started clearing it. The "clean slate" was overwhelming. But while raking out the leaves and pulling out gobs of poison ivy vines (I'm covered with it now.) and grape vines and honeysuckle vines and innumerable other vines, several little natural flowerbed areas started to appear. So with the glut of rocks lying around everywhere, I started to edge them, and came up with this:

That white-ish post is the base of a birdbath, also unearthed in the bank. I'll be finding a bowl to put on it, and hope to make the birds happy.

I now have three flowerbed areas, and have planted some of my own plants in with the woodland flowers. Some I garnered from my local park's spring sale, some I bought through catalogues and local nurseries. This morning I strew out a few seeds as well.

Future plans include a different way to reach the bottom than the precarious leaning metal stairs that are currently there. I also hope to get a couple loads of topsoil to drop down various places in the bank where there seems no hope for anything else. A flat-ish area is begging for a picnic table, so I plan to grade it so it's perfectly flat, and then lay stone or brick in it. Also I hope to cover the pathways with mulch. The bank itself needs planting with something, but I haven't decided what yet.

The whole thing can seem rather daunting, yet it has been such a welcome place to work. While the open yard can already feel hot (at the end of April???!!!), the cool of the woods is wonderful here. The mental and physical exertion that this provides has proven to give some wonderful sleep at night, too, let me tell you!

And the kids? -- They are in hog heaven down here!! Be it catching caterpillars and worms (LOADS of them), digging in the dirt, or just sitting on a rock, they are the happiest cats in town. Nothing could please me more, which helps in my drive to continue with this project.

Mystery Tree Continued

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of a mystery tree in our front yard. Now that tree has fruit -- be it actual edible fruit -- or nuts. I've gotten on a botanical blog site and asked for help in identifying it. Prior to showing this picture, the thing that sounds closest are peach or almond, or a cultivar/cross between the two. Want to put in your guess? When I find out for sure what it is, I'll let you know.

Seed Planting

Since I am going for English Cottage Garden look, I filled in all the empty spaces of my garden planting (from yesterday) with seeds, and LOTS of them.
Cosmos
Hollyhocks
Lavender
Batchelor's Buttons
Shasta Daisies
Violets
Candytuft
Ageratum
and at least one other one that I've forgotten

A few mornings ago, Daughter and I planted 50 peat pots with two seeds each of various other seeds -- vegetables and flowers. So if the seeds don't grow in my garden, I have another alternative growing in my kitchen.

Aside from 1): weed killer drifting on the wind from my husband's attempts to kill weeds along the rock edging, decidedly burning large portions of several of my perennials and 2): an incessant problem of over-spilling eves every time it rains no matter how frequently husband cleans the gutters, thus necessitating that nothing be planted along the foot and a half right next to the house unless I want it trampled to shreds . . . (Whew!) the garden on the right of the house is done . . . for now. There always IS more that COULD be done.Now I'll sit and nibble my nails and frequently pace the front porch as I eagerly anticipate the emergence of hundreds of green shoots.

And poor Dear Husband will have multiple tours of the garden for each green shoot that appears.

By the way, some exciting discoveries: the kiwi vine that I thought died in last summer's drought is loaded with leaves (although portions of the vine are truly dead) and several buds. Could we actually be growing kiwis? How can I make sure we get to eat them (and not the birds or coons)?Also, my clematis has gone wild and is already running along the top of my wall under the eaves. And the weigela is blooming!

A new and happy discovery is a second snowball bush. Dear Husband gave the first one a massive "haircut" quite some time ago, lopping off all the gorgeous blooms and leaving me stammering in horror. Then last spring's frost hit and totally finished it off. So this spring, after realizing there was no hope, I cut it off at the base. Would you believe some suckers are attempting to revive the old plant?! But then the second bush bloomed and totally surprised me! This, after I bought two more bare root ones. -- A happy mistake.
A sad fact: my mis-placed lilac is loaded with beautiful green leaves, but no flowers or signs of flowers. The leaves will soon be scorching and curling in summer's heat. I didn't get it moved soon enough this spring; will have to wait till fall, I suppose.

Plantings

Wow, I even surprised myself today.

Yesterday I borrowed my neighbor's nifty tool that I can't even describe to you, and fairly quickly cleared out and enlarged most of one of my flowerbeds. Talk about a HUGE pile of weeds and grass! Oh, my!

Then, today, after it warmed up and we had lunch, the kids and I went back outside till I started teaching piano lessons, and then went back outside again after supper. I finished the weeding (as much as I'm going to do for a few days, anyway), and quickly planted:
4 dahlia bulbs
1 peony bulb
3 echinacea
5 salvia/sage
1 butterfly bush
2 other thistle things that I currently can't remember the names of
and probably some more that I'm forgetting as well.

Tonight I have a good blister in the palm of my left hand because I don't like wearing gloves.

I'm looking forward to seeing my labor's rewards in the morning, because it was dark outside by the time I came in tonight.

I am desperate to get stuff in the ground, as I know I'm late for some of it (like the bulbs). But then we were close to a frost (maybe it did?) earlier this week, and I had everything draped in bed sheets and plastic painter's dropcloths. (Those dropcloths come in handy, I tell you. -- See photography blog.)

Tomorrow I'm going to plant the one lone ecchinacea that didn't make it in earlier today, and then sow a bunch of flower seeds. Aside from sprucing up the bed and finishing the weeding and finishing the edging with a barrier, that bed is ready for blooming time. FEELS GOOD!

Discovering Flowers

When I was a little girl, my dad was big into photography. Aside from taking pictures of my sister and myself, the things I remember him photographing most were flowers. At the time (and even up until today), I never understood the fascination with taking pictures of flowers. I mean, picture books of flowers are a dime a dozen, and, it's not like every dogwood flower has its own name (like people do). We had slides, negatives, and prints floating all around, each with an individual flower. Roses, tulips, apple blossoms, even four-leaf clovers. Each one's composition was impeccable, with the background blurred into oblivion to capture the crispness of the flower's details.

Well, my dad had an SLR camera.

Now I understand.

We went to a park today, and as is everything else around here right now, spring flowering trees were at peak. We were wandering down a trail, and I spotted a brilliant yellow shrub. (Anyone know what this is??) I raised my brand-new SLR to check it out, and suddenly yelled out in absolute wonder. I could not believe what I was seeing! Individual planes of depth lept out through the viewfinder, bringing some flowers into focus, and blurring others. And the crispness of detail was mouth-dropping. I was in wonder and awe.
I spent the next hour or so stalking down flowering trees, holding down their branches with one hand while I snapped pictures with the other hand.

Not that taking pictures of flowers is the only thing I'll be doing from here on out, but this has really opened my world up as far as photography goes. I stand in amazement.

Portrait Shoot

I finally succeeded with my backdrop! This one is all grey, as you can see. I wish it had been larger, but it worked nonetheless. Here was the set-up:
Mr. Comedian* slid into my viewfinder between the graduates. I figured he wouldn't mind too much being on my blog. :)

*Not his real name, in case you wondered.

(Post script: I have recieved the pictures and they have been delivered to most of the graduates. So far, I have heard only positive comments, so I am very happy. It was stressful doing this shoot, to say the least, but when the end results are satisfied customers, I will deal with the stress. Ha!)

New Toy

Of course I had to show you a picture of it. :)

Nikon D60

It's mine!

I am too exhausted to tell you anymore right now.

And there's too much happening between now and Sunday or Monday or Tuesday for me to tell you before then.

So you'll just have to WAIT.

:)

DIY Photography Backdrop

I'm getting prepared for my first paid photography shoot, happening this Sunday. I needed a backdrop, but didn't have a spare $200+ sitting around, so went to Lowe's and bought a painter's dropcloth. And bought dye. . . . And went back to town and bought more dye. . . . And went back to town and bought more dye. . . . And more dye. . . . Over the past few days I've dyed and bleached and re-dyed and dyed again and dyed some more. -- And run to town a lot. Ha! (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest.) And tonight I have a backdrop! Woohoo!!! While I'm not sure this is the one I'll be using for the project on Sunday, it was a great learning experience, and I will have it as a spare.

And now, (drumroll, please) here it is:
Since Husband was at work and the kids were in bed and I was too impatient to wait for some willing subjects to wake up in the morning, I nabbed son's teddy bears, and got some still life shots. Here's one:

Leave me a comment, tell me what you think. Thanks!

Slow Progress

Since the last post, I have been hanging' out at the hospital with Husband, who was diagnosed with pneumonia to both sides of his lungs. Was it the tree he cut down with the hand saw that did it???

Also, since my last post, our neighbors totally bowled us over with their kindness. -- As we headed off to the ER, they snuck back to our yard with a few more people, and, armed with chainsaws, tore the bank's underbrush and rotten trees to shreds in just a few hours! When I came home briefly to pick up clothes and other necessities for a hospital stay, I was too preoccupied to notice it till I was headed back down the driveway, and then I just sat in my car and bawled. Had it been left to me to finish alone, it would have taken me weeks, and then it wouldn't have happened because I would have been overcome by all the encroaching growth. So, this was simply amazing to see! I spent the time at the hospital wondering if I'd been dreaming about what I saw. :)

Today I spent a lot of time outside with the kids while Husband slept inside, recuperating.

This morning we planted:
2 bareroot raspberry bushes
3 bareroot blueberry bushes

We potted to larger pots (till there's time to dig a permanent garden spot):
3 hydrangeas
1 butterfly bush
3 ecchinacea
1 monarda

This afternoon I worked on clearing leaves and GOBS of garbage from the bank. So far there is quite the growing pile of cinder blocks, garbage bags, dishes, an old metal garden frog, and various other non-descript items. The happy thing I'm "discovering" is lots of boulders. -- I knew they were there, but now I can really see them. And suddenly, I have a new garden-in-the-making: a rock garden!!! I am so excited! The sky is the limit for what I could do here! But for this spring, I'm just going to work at clearing it out, and then planting annual seeds. I have a plethora of seed packs, some old and some new. I don't know if they'll all make it, but I figure this will be a good place to experiment. So, I shall let you know how it comes along.

What Is It?

This is the happiest item we unearthed yesterday, in all our thrashing of underbrush. Minus a few blossoms that got knocked off, it looks pretty good, but the question remains: What is it?

The thin tree bears delicate flowers of light pink color, with a dark pink cluster of stamens (??? -- Forgive me! I don't remember my floral anatomy from college A&P) in the center. Leaves are bright green, with one point at the tip, from what I can tell, as they are barely opening up.

Thanks for any help with identification!

Worn Out

Husband and I spent most of the day working along the bank of our front yard. The yard abruptly ends at the top of a fairly steep bank where nothing has succeeded to grow save scrubby undergrowth -- largely wicked honeysuckle vines and some even more wicked thorn bushes that have grown from the ground up to the heights of the trees. Many of the trees at the edge of the lawn are dead, with parts hanging over the lawn, making it precarious for Husband to mow.

So today we started into a huge project: removing all of this undergrowth. Armed with two small handsaws, Husband and I actually chopped out a lot. Pulling it out was probably the hardest part, as the vines acted like super-glue, keeping the trees in place.

Daughter kept busy running between the edge of the lawn and the trash cans, as Husband and I also unearthed a dump from the previous owners. Why do people do that?

At the end of our day, I can look out our front windows and actually see past the edge of our lawn, which is a very nice start toward ridding the claustrophobic feel that we've had until now. I think tonight we will all sleep harder than we normally do!

Planting

This morning I went to my local nursery and took Mr. Jim's advice and bought Loropetalum and Abelia and Camellia. (Seven plants total.)

This afternoon, I planted:
2 Loropetalum
4 Abelia
1 Camellia
And transplanted to pots (for now):
2 Echinops Ritro
1 Echinacea
1 Hydrangea

And tonight I am sore and tired! Nothing like digging in clay!!!

I still have to plant:
3 Nandina
4 potted plants from above
4 other hydrangea
3 blueberry bareroot bushes (I'm nervous about the bareroot part!)
2 raspberry bareroot bushes
1 butterfly bush
3 rudbekia
1 monarda
and a ton of seeds, which I'm not at all worried about.

Also need to MAKE a bed for many of the above, weed out another bed and finish building it, and dig out an old gravel drive where I'll plant the berry bushes. In other words, more aches and pains! But, oh, you'll not hear me complaining come summertime, when I'll be rewarded with all kinds of beauty. :)

Empanadas and Tomato Cilantro Salad

I do not like to cook. Period. But a couple days ago I stumbled upon a recipe I'd torn out of a magazine ages ago. It was for Empanadas. A salad was pictured with the empanadas, but I didn't have the recipe for that. So I did what I thought would taste good, and wow! -- Lunch was a hit!

Here is how to make the empanadas:

1 pound refrigerator pizza dough (Next time I'll make my own)
1 can refried beans
1 package cheddar cheese
Salsa sauce

Cut pizza dough into six equal portions. With rolling pin, roll out each portion. Spoon refried beans onto one half-side of dough. Spread on 1 1/2 tablespoon salsa. Sprinkle on 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese. Fold empty side over filled side; pinch edges of dough closed. Lay on baking stone. Rub oil over empanada. Bake @ 350 for 12-15 minutes, or till slightly browned. Serve with more salsa or sour cream.

For the salad, I cut up 4 tomatoes (from on the vine), snipped a good bit of cilantro into it, added some thin slices of red onion, and drizzled the salad with fresh lime juice and olive oil. Talk about sinking your senses into summer! -- This was it!

I think we'll have empanadas and Tomato Cilantro salad every week from here on out. :)

Signs of Life

We are having the wettest spring! As opposed to last summer when there were huge fissures around our yard from the severe drought, we are now getting rain, rain, and more rain. When I walk in the lawn, squishy sounds greet my ears, and water pours into the holes of my crocs as my feet sink into the swampy turf. (If you could call our lawn 'turf'. -- It's more like 'healthy weeds' than anything!)

Today was no exception with the rain. And thunder and lightening kept the kids close to our sides much of the day. The gutters overflowed into my flowerbeds, drowning the poor plants that managed to survive last year's drought.

But after the rain ended, the sun burst out from behind a cloud and rewarded us with all the signs of spring.

Hollyhocks in my garden are taking off! Can't wait to see their blooms!

Vinca is already showing pretty blooms. And that was one of the things I was thinking of pulling out. Oh, dear! I'm very tender-hearted toward a plant that will do well with me. So, maybe she'll stay.

My Confederate Jasmine is also thriving, although reddish in color. ??? I saw its brothers and sisters at the nursery I bought it from, and some were green; some were red. Mr. Jim told me that it did seem odd, but it still was healthy. Maybe a different variety???

Forsythia just glows under the evening sun. Yesterday I noticed tiny hints of yellow; today it is open.


The greenest thing in the woods is still the moss. If I could turn my yard into a blanket of moss, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love it! Now, though, I am enjoying it in the woods (not from the edge of my yard). -- Our dear neighbors (I really mean 'dear'!) are blazing a trail through the woods from their house to the top of the hill, with another trailhead entrance at the edge of our lawn. It has since made me feel like a participant in our woods instead of a by-stander. -- I can enter the woods without tripping over vines and being torn to shreds by briars. It is lovely!

Of course Dear Children felt the need to be a part of Spring by playing in the mud puddles!

Nursery and Mail-Order Plants

I recently put in an order through Spring Hill Nursery for some more plants. (I ordered from them last year, and was pleased with the results, so decided to try it again.) Soon after ordering, three hydrangeas (one red and two purple), a butterfly bush, 3 rudbekia, and 1 monarda arrived in the mail looking small but healthy. Now, about a week later, they have leafed out an incredible amount, and are literally lunging in growth by the day! I am so pleased!

Hands down, hydrangeas are my 'most favoritest' flower! I hope to own one of each (of which I'm learning there are hundreds, at least) someday. :) I just love their colors: not shockingly vivid, although some are close to that, but . . . I don't know, just softly pleasant to view. . . . Love 'em!

I also saw Jim at my local nursery. What a help he was!!! I spent at least an hour with him, discussing the pros and cons of plants appropriate for my problem-spot garden, and soaking up all the garden knowledge I could. I came home with a few plants, plus wrote down all the ones he recommended. I'll be sitting down with my graph paper and figuring out where I'll fit all these beauties in. Can't wait to have something good to show you!

But first, I've gotta start hacking at my clay. Groan!! I need to move not only my hydrangea from the front around to the back of my house, but also the lilac that is now quite big. Oh, my achin' back, here we come!

Spring is Coming!

I don't think much could thrill my soul more than the little bits of green that I see poking out of tree and shrub, and pushing aside the dark earth. Equally exciting is the weather being warm enough to enjoy a close-up look, and tearing out the weeds that have filled in a lot of that dark earth.

I spent the morning at a local nursery getting some much-needed help. I am too embarrassed to show you how bad my flowerbed currently looks. Maybe I'll get brave and show the "before" pictures once I have an "after" picture to go along with it, so you know how much it improved.

Too late I realized that I shouldn't try to make my foundation bed a perennial garden. Currently I have overgrown lavender and rosemary in it, as well as a hydrangea that gets cooked in summer's heat; echinacea, clematis, and hollyhocks that look good but are poorly placed; and struggling echinops ritro.

So, it is time to move some stuff, and then cover up that ugly cinderblock foundation with some shrubs. The nursery man told me to draw out my bed's dimensions, adding in what's currently there, and take some pictures. He'll help me from there. -- Thanks!!! -- I need all the help I can get!

So, till there's something good to show you, think of me pulling weeds, killing ant mounds, and moving plants around in preparation for planting shrubs. Can't wait to see the improvement. -- Anything has to be better than how it currently is!

Curtains

Today I made curtains for Daughter's room. I am so pleased with the results! Every time I go in her room, I feel completely restful and calm, yet energized. -- I absolutely love green and white together! Maybe because green is a sign of life, which I am so ready to receive in the form of Springtime. Anyway, here they are:


Not sure if I'm going to leave the tie-backs just like this, or if I'll come up with something else. For now, I still like it.

(Have I ever mentioned how I HATE, HATE, HATE hanging curtain rods? Seventeen EXTRA holes later, and the rods are up. Strange, I always thought the framing studs ran vertically; the ONLY stud I found ran horizontally about 4 1/2 inches above my window frame, thus determining the curtain's length. Good thing I was satisfied with this height!)