Blooming

Man I'm pretty creative in my titles now...anyway that is basically what this post is about...all the things blooming around our place. Our tulips finally made a show. They were planted over 10 years ago and most have kept their color and some have reverted to originals...love them all.

 Reds with yellow centers.

This is one that has reverted back to original. It is white with lilac edging around each petal and lilac center. It also has a lovely smell.

These are about the opposite in color to the red ones...Yellow with red centers. 

Another one that reverted and they are a lilac color. I really love these. Not sure what color they were on their first bloom. It's been too many years.

The view of our house. We have a lot of work ahead. Our porch needs cleaning and pressure washed. The house needs pressure washed and then resealed. All our yard furniture need repainting and then I need to rework the flower bed under the tree we cut. It has some pink naked lady lilies and spider lilies but it is so dry and hot in that area that nothing else grows much and those only show leaves in spring and bloom in September so most of the time it is bare. I plan to dig all the bulbs up and replant elsewhere and then plant ivy there. I want it to grow up the tall stump we left. I plan to make a roof for the top of the stump and add a door for my gnome garden. I think the ivy will look terrific in that area. 

This area is closer to the house. The chairs and benches need painting. We also will cut back the ivy from the old wringer washers and clean the 2 small goldfish ponds. We still have one fish left but need to replenish them this year. Always seems to be a lot of work. 

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And as always...

2 in 2 days

I think I'm on a roll....2 blog postings in 2 days...nope just bored. Finished gluing the mosaic pieces to the second deer head. Letting it dry and then will grout but this is what it looks like so far.

This one has mirror pieces forming a star at the top and a cross on the nose. The surrounding pieces are cobalt blue and black beads.
When finished, we will hang both over our mantle.

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We got our hen house and Sonny set it up in our back yard.

He hung a light in the laying box and we closed it off for the baby chicks. We got 7 baby Dominique pullets (females).

This is what they will look like when grown.

We found out that in our state of Arkansas you have to buy a minimum of 6 chicks..probably due to people buying Easter chicks this time of year..anyway, the farm and ranch store had a sale if you buy 6 you get an extra so we have 7. 

Many many years ago when we lived in Louisiana, we had this breed of chickens. It is an old vintage type and really hardy and a good layer. We have not seen any in a long long time for sale. We didn't get a rooster as we just want the eggs.  

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I forgot an important event that happened to Sonny a couple of Sundays ago. He became a deacon.

Two of our sons and 3 of the daughter-in-laws and 5 of the grandkids came. Sonny's youngest sister also came and spent the night.

Sonny is now teaching Bible study almost every Wednesday night. The regular guy had more cancer to show up on his brain and lungs and has had radiation to his brain for 10 days. It makes him forgetful so Sonny has taken over the duty until he feels good enough to return. We miss him.

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And as always...

New Projects and Yard

Sonny liked the mosaic deer head so much that I'm now working on the second one. This one will be done in cobalt blue with mirror pieces for the cross and a star. I am about finished gluing the glass and then it will have to dry for several days before grouting. 

In the meantime, we have finished putting down black plastic in the walking rows of the iris bed and we covered that over with oak bark mulch.

We have bud already. 

Our tulips we planted over 10 years ago have had a good bloom this year. It is amazing since we had such a mild winter.

Our redbuds have been outstanding this year as well.

My wild thrillium I transplanted years ago have been blooming. I found out they are an endangered wild flower so I'm glad I saved it when we cleared the back yard.

We bought a chicken coop last week at Atwoods. They had them marked down. Funny thing is when we got home, we realized they had given us the more expensive one for the one that was on sale..Our local farm and ranch store has baby chicks for sale so we hope to get up there this afternoon or tomorrow and get 6 pullets. We are putting the coop in our back yard which is fenced off.

This is what it looks like but ours is painted grey with a red door. We got it cheaper than what Sonny could have built it for. 

I'm making another attempt at putting together the star quilt top I started years ago. I had to rip it out some to redo as had sewn by machine and should have sewn by hand. But at least I'm starting it again. 

I have fallen in love with Tim Holtz sizzix dies of the small houses. I found the basic house at Hobby Lobby a week ago and used my 40% off coupon and bought it. Hobby Lobby also had their scrapbooking papers on sale so bought some card stock and some wood patterned papers. I used Modge Podge and glued the paper to the stiffer card stock and finally cut my first houses. I can get 2 cuts from one of the large pages so will be able to get 2 houses from each one. Glue them together is a pain. But think I will like them once they are done. 

I'm now in love with his city landscape dies.

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And as always...

A few craft finishes

I finally finished the grouting on the mosaic deer head.

I'm so pleased how it turned out. Now I have another one to do and Sonny will hang them above our mantle. I was notified by my nephew to do one of his heads so guess that will be another project whenever I get it.

Then I finally got around to getting photos of the last 2 rugs and coasters I hooked.

These are autumn themed chair pads. 

This is a small candle mat that is double sided. Flowers on oneside.

and "Live Simply" on other with embroidered wreath in center. 

These are a set of flower coasters.

I completely line them on back with recycled wool.

Then these are a set of wool applique coasters with hearts formed into a flower design on one side.

And embroidered wreath on the other side.

I have put them all in my etsy store along with the last bunny rugs I've made.

PrimitiveSpiceCrafts

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And as always....

Summer in March

Seems our March has had some summer temps already...up into the 80F...But am so enjoying it. The tulips have finally begun to bloom as are the redbud trees. Dogwoods haven't started yet. Most of our fruit trees except for the European plums have bloomed out and set some fruit. We lost a little of the blooms during those few cold mornings but looks like we won't really hurt. 
I met my sister and brother in law for my birthday. We met in Hot Springs and ate at Hibachi's grill. I love Asian food especially seafood. 

So enjoy her company. Then Sonny was ordained as a deacon in our church. All our kids except the youngest son came (he was off-shore at work) and most of our grandkids came. 

Sonny has really made a large step in his Christian walk this past year. I'm so proud of him. 
Sonny's youngest sister came as well. 

They are standing next to my new tulip magnolia tree that Jason and Jackie got me for my birthday. You can see the stone plums in the back are almost finished blooming and the pink blooms to the right of Sonny is one of our peach trees still in bloom.
Our tulips have begun to bloom.

Our redbud rees are in full bloom as well.

The wild thrilliums are in bloom.

And the tiger lilies have sprung up.

We are looking at the baby hawks hatching soon.

Hope to get some photos of them this year. The nest keeps expanding each year and is getting huge. 

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On crafty note. I finished a couple of hooked chair pads a set of 4 flower coasters and a set of 2 heart coasters. No photos taken yet. I also finished grouting the mosaic deer head and just have to clean it up. I also decoupaged the deacon certificate Sonny got. Photos will come on all these later. 

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as always.....

March 11

Today is one of my daughter-in-love's birthday. Tomorrow is mine. We have tried to celebrate together but she is always too busy. She does "junk shows" and redoes old furniture and things into works of arts and it always seems she is busy with one of the junk fairs during this time of year. 
So I'm showing some photos I've taken lately.

Our spirea bushes have been so lovely but now are rather ratty looking. This photo was taken over a week ago. Many of our fruit trees have been in bloom and now of course we are due some cold cold weather...WINTER IS BACK!!!

I got this shot of one of the pear blooms. I'm really hoping the weather man is wrong as most of the time they miss the forecast so

I can hope and pray anyway.

Our ponds and water iris area. The ivy has really taken over. We have it planted everywhere the grass won't grow. Thinking of trying to grow it on the tree stump we had cut since I plan to turn that area in to the new gnome home garden.

We did finally get all the limbs and logs removed and seems the hawks are ok as well.

Sonny has been fishing lately. These are from 2 different days. He mainly likes to crappie fish. They taste so good fresh from the lake but up in the summer they aren't as good. Spring fish are the best. Summers he will go catfishing. But catfish last longer in the freezer. Crappie only last a couple of months. They are a very lean fish with very little fat. 

Our 2 little yard dogs. Since our house dog died, we have opted to not have any in the house anymore. I miss one though. But these love to be loved on and are such good little dogs. The smaller one is Fred and he got beaten up the other day by a much much larger dog. I was missing him and had Sonny go see if he was locked up in the shop. Well Sonny saved him just in time. 

And as always...