Our Front Porch

I just have to share a couple of pictures of our front porch flower box planters and hanging baskets! 

I am so proud of myself, they really turned out beautiful this year!

The hanging planters are petunias that were on clearance at Lowes home improvement for just $1!! Yes and only one plant per hanging pot! Look how they grew!

In the rail box planters, I planted inpatients, vinca vines, and morning glory seeds. Oh! And some other flower plant seeds ... I see some tall plants in there from the flower seeds but no flowers yet. Don't remember what flower seeds I had planted?

No morning glory flowers as of yet... But look at those green leaves of the morning glory plants lining the rail boxes! So pretty and full!

They drink a full pitcher of water daily too!

I am so excited with how beautiful our porch looks this year, I am jumping for joy! :) 

I'm spending time with Charlotte this morning! 

She had a nice breakfast and is all set for the day. I think I shall be working on some stitching myself. :)

I have joined a RR with friends. We are doing A Friendship Sampler by Carriage House Samplings. So much fun!

We each stitch a heart with our name and pass it on to the next person. I cannot wait to receive mine back in the end. I just love hearts!

So I shall be stitching on my heart today on the next persons sampler! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you a blessed day,

Louise xx

Planting and Spring things!

The weather has been beautiful in our area of NC. I wanted a new look for our front porch. I took a trip to our local habitat for humanity and found some nice baskets priced from $1-$2 each. What a bargain! I was on a mission and had some great ideas in mind! 

I then headed over to Lowes home improvement to look for some new flowers and plants to decorate our porch. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a clearance section with plants clearanced at just a dollar each!

I bought pretty petunias, inpatients, and some other plants with yellow flowers. Yes, they were looking pretty sad and wilted, but I thought with a little extra love, and for that price, they were worth taking a chance on getting them! I also stopped at dollar general and purchased packets of different kinds of seeds to plant. 

I then came home and lined each basket with pieces of black plastic trash bags That I had cut up, and added potting soil in each one. 

I really wanted to use baskets on my porch verses using pots. I wanted a country look and feel. Pots can be pretty pricy when you want to have a lot of them too! 

I was having such a wonderful time planting all my new finds. I did have to leave the front porch a couple of times for Momma wren though! She is back for her third year in a row with five eggs just waiting to be hatched! She doesn't like me in her way when she flies by and wants to go to her nest! Once she goes in and is sitting on those eggs, she is content . I did snap a picture of the eggs once again for this year when she wasn't around. :) also, this is the basket she makes her nest in every year. It's on our porch hanging up with purple flowers in it :)

As most of you know I do love taking pictures a lot. I take pride in my photos, and think some of them come out quite well. It has been brought to my attention recently that some of my photos have been used without my permission. I suppose that's a chance I take by putting them out there on the net. I think I may have to watermark the ones I feel mean the most to me to prevent this from happening again. I don't mind it so much if someone asks to use a photo first, but for me to see my photo somewhere and not give me credit as the photographer, well, that's just wrong. It is taking what is not yours!

Back to my flowers.... I have been so excited with all my baskets filled with plants, flowers, and seeds, and even more excited to see some of my seeds are starting to sprout! Yippie!!! :)

I have so much more to do... Next up, I

Will be planting sunflower seeds out back. I'm not so sure about this red clay dirt we have here for planting in the ground though. We shall see what happens!

Here are pictures of my baskets and our porch, I'm so pleased for sure!

I love our home. It truly is a wonderful place to live, so filled with love!

Also some other pictures I snapped :)

While visiting the habitat for humanity restore, I also came across something really special. It makes me feel sad when I find things like this, but also happy because I am the one who found it, and rescued this item. This is an old piece of linen that is 24" square. Someone lovingly hand embroidered this piece of fabric with white work and a bit of red work. Great time, work, and I am sure love went into making this piece. Perhaps it was a table scarf? The piece is torn here and there, but it still doesn't detract from its beauty. I always try my best to rescue these pieces. I often wonder about the person who did the stitch work, what she may have been thinking while she was working on each piece I find. Did she ever think her items would be discarded to good will? Most needleworkers I know do not get rid of their work unless of course it is a gift. Often things are discarded when the needleworker passes away, their home is cleared out, and their work is not as meaningful to generations that came after them. I often think about my work and hope that my pieces will be treasured when I am long gone. I will continue to keep my eye out for pieces discarded, for they will always have a place in my home and heart!

On and ending note... I am still working on our anniversary sampler, little bits at a time. I did stitch a bit more, a flower and stem... Not much, but have been so busy with enjoying the beautiful weather, the lake, and time with family, church, and friends. 

Blessings to you!

Louise xx

A Beautiful Day !

Woke up to an absolutely beautiful day where I live. The sun is shining, a slight breeze, all the windows are open and I feel great!
I have two recent finishes to show all of you. Remember that baby sampler I posted that I was helping a friend out with..well, it is finished! YAY!~ It was a lot more stitching than I had expected it to be, but it came out so pretty, I just have to share:

The Mom had stitched the Monkey square separately, and I made a tooth fairy pillow out of it for her baby:

I put a big "pocket" on the back so the tooth fairy can leave some coins for a very special little girl :)
Now, onto something else I had finished stitching. I have a very dear and wonderful friend that has always been like a Mom to me. She was always Grandma to my children also. I have been wanting to stitch her something special for some time now. She will be turning 87 years old this year and knew I wanted to give her a stitched piece for her birthday. Here is what I stitched for my dear friend: "A Friend Indeed" an old freebie from Blue Ribbon Designs:

I had a "helper" while I stitched...here is my daughter's bird "Andy"!

and...his side-kick "Misty"!

By the way..if you would like to listen to Andy's whistles, he has his own Facebook page, yes he does!
 Click Here :Andy The Bird

My Son sent me a picture he took while on leave. It's our neighbors dog "Sparky" What a beautiful dog!

The picture looks like a postcard! Oh!, look at the closeup...
What a GORGEOUS FACE! I just LOVE him to pieces...yes I do! :)

I have been up to more crocheting...made another frilly scarf :)

Saint Patrick's Day is upon us..Although a wonderful day to celebrate, its also the day my husbands Father Patrick passed away , 20 years ago today. Our bird "Sunny" also passed away on this day years ago. I still make the traditional meal of corned beef, and I make the most wonderful Irish soda bread! I cannot stop eating it...(which is not such a good thing)! This recipe bakes up a wonderful bread that is so moist inside, I make this recipe every year now!

If you would like this recipe, head on over to my recipe blog! Click HERE!
My pansies have survived the winter months in their special planters...they are blooming now, prettier than ever!

I ordered some new stash in the mail, a new chart, and DMC threads. Sometimes I am able to get a floss fairy to help me out with DMC floss. The craft store for me is over a half hour away, and with the price of gas, I just don't go often :( It always seems that when I am in the middle of a project, that is when I run out, or need a certain color, and of course it is always the color I do not have! Love getting new stash in the mail!

This chart is called "Amish Alphabet" the designer is From The Heart. Pretty design!
I will show you a quiet place I go to sometimes..there is plenty of woods behind my house..sometimes I go for walks through the woods, sometimes I even sit down and take time to pray. It is so peaceful and serene out back, I know how blessed I am..

Sometimes I find little things as I roam around...

I wish you all a very Blessed Saint Patrick's Day!

Special day and a Vintage find!

I had the most wonderful day today!
I met with a girlfriend today. She surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and cute little daisy solar flower. Sweet housewarming gifts! :)
We decided to head on over to Bono's for lunch. If you live in Florida, you will know this is one of the best Barbeque restaurants to dine in. It is my favorite!
We laughed about old times and really enjoyed ourselves.



Our next stop was the Avonlea Antique Mall .
I absolutely could spend hours, upon many hours browsing all the wonderful Items and amazing trinkets in this store!
I have never seen so many vintage items jam packed into one place. It is an antique treasure trove.

A while back while visiting Florida I had spotted something that I really wanted to purchase, but at the time, I didn't. You know how that goes!
Well, I couldn't stop thinking about this item..and now that we have moved back to Florida, I decided to see if that item was still in the same spot I left it.
Surely enough, it was!

The vintage item I had fell in love with was an antique, 1920's cast iron Corn Bread Mold! It is so neat looking, I just had to get it!
Here it is:




As you can see by the imprint on the back, it is an authentic "Wagner Ware" Mold.
It is very heavy in weight, and well seasoned. It just needs some TLC with some cleaning up and it will be ready to use!
So excited about this find! :)
I have researched this item on the internet and very happy to say that I purchased it for half the price that it is worth. What a deal! ;)


Yes, this was a good day indeed :)
It is so wonderful to be living back in the state of Florida,
Have I told you how much I love it here?!
:)

Raggedystitches,
Louise

Hydrangeas

My neighbors hydrangeas are in full bloom now. While visiting with Peter Rabbit today I decided to take my camera outside and snap some photos. The flowers are the prettiest shades of Blue!


I have been inspired with all the pretty flowers blooming. I am going to make some new pillowcases for my bedroom with pretty roses on them. I picked up a new white metalasse coverlet for our bedroom and think it will lighten up the room for the summertime.
I will post pictures of the finished pillowcases when I am done sewing them up!
Raggedystitches,

p.s. also a picture of the property that is between us and our neighbors..it is so park-like! :)