Seed Packets and Leo's Sampler

Well, you all know how in love I am with my Four O'Clock plants.  I decided to packet some seeds for Christmas gifts and did a google search for "Printable Seed Packets".  Wow, there are some wonderful free templates out there!  I decided to use these:

I had a great time with my pink colored pencil.  How often do I get to just sit and color?  These templates are from Busy Mommy Media.

I've finally started on the baby sampler for Leo.  I'm doing Dawson's Sampler from Cherished Stitches.  Here my first progress pic:

 

Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Happy stitching!

Sherri

Four O'Clocks and Scissors Fobs

Out of the desolate flower bed from my last post these Four O'Clocks have exploded!  It was cloudy today, but I couldn't resist taking a photo just to show how large they've gotten since the heat wave broke.

I did get a great photo of some open blooms yesterday evening. I love the bright pink with the strokes of white in the center.  I wasn't familiar with Four O'Clocks until we bought this house and I saw these pink flowers that open up in the evening and close in the morning.  I started calling them Evening Glories.   A bit of internet research told me the real name.  It seems like an old-fashioned name to me but these seem like old-fashioned plants, so it fits.

I've been working on adding fobs to some of my new scissors.  You know EVERY pair has to has a fob!  The mint and white polka dots came from the quilt show.  I have these cool buttons that always looked like breath mints to me.  They were perfect for a fob with white beads and a needle threader on the end.  A friend of mine at Stitch Away gave me the pink ribbon scissors.  An EGA project this year was a crystal pink ribbon bracelet, but I decided it would make a great fob for these scissors.

Stitch Away starts tomorrow.  I'm going to be teaching my button nametag lanyard so I'll take the mint scissors as an example of other things that can be made with this stringing technique.  I also plan to work on some Christmas ornaments and enjoy hanging out with my friends.

Happy Stitching!

A Bit of Before and After

Okay, I know that in "before and after" photos, the after is supposed to look better than the before.  I call to your attention a case of the exact opposite!

Before:

Not very fancy, but at least it was green.  I took this picture in May just because the neighbor's cat, Blaze, was posing so prettily.

After:

The Texas heat, the drought, and multiple construction crews have taken their toll.  But . . . the after picture is also a before picture since we're planning all new landscaping.  It's a wonder that the birds are still hanging around.

>^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<   >^..^<

The next before and after is completely my own fault.  I can blame the Texas heat, but the truth is, I put the Hens and Chicks around the side of the house to stay out of the way of construction, then promptly forgot about them.  They do need a bit of water now and then!

Before:

My mother started these Hens and Chicks for me from hers.  I've moved them and replanted them several times and have been proud that they've done so well. 

After:

I panicked when I remembered the poor babies and rushed around the house to see if any were still alive!  This was all I could salvage.  I hope these chicks root again; I would hate to lose them all.  I am so ashamed!

Spring Happens!

An amazing thing about tax season is that it starts in winter and spring just kind of happens before you  know it.  I usually stay "seasonally challened" until May, when I finally notice that spring is here and summer is around the corner! 

I really stayed confused this year when in March my Christmas cactus bloomed and my one poisettia plant was looking better than when I got it at Christmas time.

The poinsettia wa given to me by a woman who adopted some of my baby finches.  I have never kept a poinsettia looking good this long!  It's in a nice sunny place in the living room.  I think I'll move it outside now that it's warm so it won't feel like Christmas in the house :)

The poor little Christmas cactus was started by my mother from a leaf of a huge plant my Grandma grew.  I remember it on her porch when I was growing up.  Anyway, the one little leaf just grew and grew and did fairly well for a number of years. Then it took a turn and by last summer it was almost dead!  I don't know if it was the move or my lack of proper care, but I repotted what I could salvage in a self watering pot made for violets.  Now it's thriving again and bloomed in November and March!

It feels good to be back on my blog. Everyone take care!
Sherri

Spring!!

Yesterday I saw my "first robin of spring".  
 

While I was on the porch trying to take his picture, I noticed a bit of color in the garden.  Where did this come from?

One thing about moving; it's always fun to watch the yard and gardens in the spring time to see what comes up.  Of course, one must always accept the weeds with the flowers!

I'm getting deeper into tax season and too busy to blog much.  Hope you all are doing well and seeing signs of spring in your own yard.  Later!

How about a stroll through the "park"?

One of our favorite things about the new house is the back yard. It's fenced all around and is so quiet. It's like having our own private park.

To the right side and across the back is a fabulous iron fence with bushes and vines growing all over and around.

I guess we should take this sign down since we don't have a dog, but I kind of like it. It might keep people out of the yard; except the fact that the gate doesn't close all the way. That's probably a dead give away that the coast is clear!

I was pleased to discover that some of the vines are trumpet vines with orange flowers. The orange ones are my favorite! But trumpet vines lose their leaves in the winter, so I guess we'll have to look at the neighbor's pool part of the year.

The center of the yard has a tiered planting bed with a really fun eclectic path winding through it. Wind around and around and end up . . .

. . .at a bridge to nowhere. How cute is that? We need to set a park bench out here.

Here are some samples of the flowers blooming in this raised bed. I wish I could take credit for them, but they were already here. You can tell the landscaping needs a bit of work, but at least we have some blooms to look at!




On the other side of the yard is a wooden fence that has a fairly bare planting bed all along it. I'm hoping to fill it with irises and dailies and daisies and whatever! It does have some pretty crepe myrtle already.

And look at this cool old birdhouse hanging along the fence. I don't have any idea how old it is but it looks like it's been used. I think I'll clean it out before spring and see what happens.

One of the fence boards is twisted a bit and you can look through to the cemetery on the other side of the fence. At first I was creeped out at being next to a cemetery (probably because I'm watching too much Dark Shadows!) but now I don't mind at all. At least we don't have to worry about noise from the neighbors :)

Of course the tour wouldn't be complete without a visit to the hot tub! We probably wouldn't have put in a hot tub on our own, but since it's here, we decided to make the best of it. Great for relaxing at the end of the day with a glass of wine.

Cheers!

Friends are the flowers in the garden of life.

I've been enjoying combining my Stitch 'n Bitch groups from North Carolina and South Carolina and watching them become friends with each other, too. Yesterday some of us from each group met halfway for lunch, stitching, and shopping. We had a fabulous waiter who agreed to take the camera so I could be in the 2nd picture. This will be the last time we're together like this before I move :(

I arrived home to find the first Pardon Me Daylily of the season and was motivated to make a collage of all the blooms in my garden today. Enjoy!