Blues, Greens, and African Violets

My white African Violet is in full bloom and it looks pretty with some of my green depression glass and some of my blue and white glass. It was a rainy day today so I didn't paint on the dresser, hopefully tomorrow will be better painting weather. We definately needed the rain. Have you ever noticed how pretty your plants look when it rains. I took some pictures this afternoon of the banana trees with large rain drops laying on the leaves. I think that is o pretty when that happens. I also found another little critter in my banana tree next to the porch swing. He was having a snack when I took his picture. He was so pretty and green. He was loving the wet weather too! I enjoyed church this morning. The sermon was from Daniel Chapter 3. This is a favorite chapter in the bible for me. I love the faith those three Hebrew children had. I also love their names. They have a nice ring to them! Even the King had a cool name. It's such an inspiration to know that someone has that strong of faith in God.

My kitchen is getting new countertops this week! He may start Weds. on that project. I will take before and after photos to share with everyone. Hope you have a great week!

Working and Completing Projects

Green Dresser...almost completed!

Booth Space

Toile Lamp

New Plant holder

I worked on my dresser today and it is looking really pretty. I like the vintage green that I chose for the paint color. I need to paint the mirror and I will almost will be finished with another project. I am going to have to be very careful when I paint the mirror, so I will probably do that part tomorrow. It's a little more tedious than the other part. I also worked in my antique space today and completely re-arranged everything. I took the toile lamp that I completed today and put it in the space and I liked the way it turned out. It was a brass lamp that I painted Heirloom White. My mom and I went to the Antique Show yesterday and I was greatly disappointed. There were only about 10 vendors present and it was not worth the 3 hour drive. We made the best of the trip and went downtown and shopped a few of the shops and then we had a really nice lunch at a new cafe in Navasota.

We headed to the Woodlands to shop at a few places and then we headed back home. I bought a cute bicycle plant holder for my porch. It was on sale at TJ Max and I put a bird's nest fern in the front and I haven't decided what to put in the back yet. I'll have to try a few plants and see which one looks the best. I hope you had a Super Saturday and as soon as I get green dresser finished I will show you pictures!

My Special Angel

My Special Angel is blooming beautifully and I took some pictures of it today. This is one of my favorite begonias. Mom and I are going on a road trip tomorrow. We are going to an Antique Show in Navasota. So I hope to have some new pictures of our trip in the next couple of days. I didn't work on any projects today because it rained and I don't like to paint when it's raining. I went shopping for my sinks today and I found one for my laundry room but I am still looking for one for the bathroom. When I came back home I baked strawberry cupcakes and cream cheese cookies. I got the recipe from one of the blogs last night and decided to try both. They turned out really good. My husband and my son are going bay fishing this weekend so I packed some for the goodies for them to take on their fishing trip. Have a great weekend and I'll let you know how the Antique Show turns out!

Mom and Daughter Day Out

Mom and I went to Jasper today to shop and eat. We didn't buy much today but we had fun looking. She bought some roses that were on sale and I picked up a few things for my craft projects. I was also shopping for new sinks for the bathroom, laundry room, and kitchen. I didn't really find what I was looking for. So more shopping. I bought more bird seed for my bird feeder. Those Red Birds are eating me out of house and home! I also bought green paint today for my dresser project. I am going to work on it tonight because we are having a little cooler weather today, so I need to take advantage of it! God Bless You and Have a great afternoon.

A Day of Cooking and Cleaning!

Mr. Squirrel under the bird feeder.

Baby birds kicked out of the nest.

My lunch for the day.

We have lots of patio tomatoes and they are so good!

Some of the cleaning products that I use and love.

Some of the bath products I love!

Today I decided to stay at home and clean. I cooked a light dinner since I was cleaning and moving furniture around. I decided to cook a pot of purple-hull peas that we had in the freezer. I also fixed cucumber, tomato, and onion salad. I added black sesame seeds to this salad this time. My daughter told me that she had that dish at a luncheon and the person had added those and it added a good flavor. I always like a little purple onion with my peas and I love homemade hot sauce with it too! And of course, my meal would not be complete without my diet Dr. Pepper! I have been washing all of my quilts today. I thought I would share with you what I use to wash these quilts. I used to own a fabric store as I mentioned in an earlier post and I bought a product called "Quilt Soap". This is great for vintage quilts or just your everyday quilts. It only takes 1 tablespoon of the soap and it cleans and removes the stains from the quilts. If your quilt is really old and needs special handling they recommend putting it in the bathtub and lightly swishing it around several washings until the rinse water is clear. This is a gentle way of handling those beautiful antique quilts. I have tried this method on some of my old quilts and it works great. It's a little gross how much dirt and grime ooze out of the old quilts but it's amazing at how wonderful they look in the end. My favorite detergent these days are new TIDE detergents. I was using the one in the purple bottle at first but I decided to try the Baking Soda with White Lilac scent and I like it even better. And the best part is they all have the dryer sheets to match the smell of your detergent. I also use another product called Oxi-Clean in a liquid form. One of my students that plays softball for me told me about it. She had gotten grass stains and red dirt stains on her workout clothes and I told her you are not going to be able to get those stains out of my workout clothes. She said, "Oh yes, I will, I use Oxi-Clean and gets all the stains out of my clothes and it makes my tennis shoes extra white". I couldn't believe how well this product worked for me. I use it to whiten everything and to get out stains. As I was cleaning in one of the bedrooms I kept hearing this loud shrieking noise outside my bedroom doors. I finally went to see what all the disturbance was about. Well the first thing I saw was "Mr. Squirrel" under the bird feeder with about 10 Cardinals pitching a hissy fit! Yeah, he knew he had been caught when I came to the door. Then to my right there were 4 baby birds that were screaming as well. I guess momma bird kicked them out today and they were not at all happy! I think these are chimney swifts from our fireplace chimney and I'm not sure if these little fellows are going to make it or not. They just seem too little to be on their own.
The man who is going to do my cabinet countertops called today with his bid and we are going to get started very soon! I am so excited about this project. When the countertops are finished I am going to get new hardware and have the cabinets refinished and the kitchen painted.

And after a long day of working in and around the house I took a nice hot bath with some of my favorite bath salts!The charm around the jar came from my shopping trip last week to a small town nearby. I thought they were cute on the apothecary jars in my bath. Dresses them up a little! My favorite bath salts are found at Central Market in Austin. They have the neatest section in their store where they sell facial and spa products. You scoop up however much you want and put it in one of their containers.

Planting a Succulent Garden

Several weeks ago I purchased a neat little wooden box at a garden shop in Houston. It was on sale at good price and it was perfect for planting a cactus or succulent garden. It had the holes already drilled in the bottom for drainage. I started with a layer of charcoal on the bottom, added cactus potting soil I bought at Lowe's and then when I finished planting the plants I added pea gravel. I also added some large rocks and a cute little green turtle to put the finishing touches on it. Several years ago I planted a similar garden in a broken ornate clay pot. This year one of the plants bloomed these long shoots with pink flowers. I also bought a clay pot with a garden that was already planted to add to my other collection. If you haven't planted any of these plants it's really fun and they are very low maintenance.

I filled my large bird bath with potting soil and added plants. This bird bath is deep and the birds prefer the other two shallow smaller bird baths that I have in my yard. The mosquito's love the deeper bird bath, so I decided to fill it up with plants so I don't have to worry about the mosquito's. I think when the plants start growing and fill out the bird bath it will look good. I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday and God Bless you !

Limelight Blooms!

My favorite orchid is in bloom....Limelight. I love the color of this orchid. It's a lime green on the outer bloom and fuchsia pink in the center of the bloom. I watered everything this morning with "BR 61" fertilizer. This is a good fertilizer for all plants and I mix it in my 2 gallon sprayer and add a tablespoon of dish soap to the mix and spray the plants with this. I spray it on the foliage of the plants and around the roots. My orchids love it but it is great for all plants. The soap helps the fertilizer stick to the plant and it doesn't hurt the plant. I think I am going back today to get a few more of those roses that are on sale. Have a Marvelous Monday!

Super Sunday

I think today was probably the hottest day so far here in Deep East Texas. I went to church and had lunch with my husband. I went to Lowe's again today because they have the "Knock Out Roses" on sale for 75% off so I went to buy 4 for my pool area. That is such a good buy because the original cost is 24.95 so that makes them around 6.00 a piece. I may have to go back for more tomorrow, that is such a good price. They also had all cacti on sale for 50% off and got a small round clay pot that had 3 planted in it. I love it when I run across such good deals on plants! I came home and re-arranged my furniture on the back porch and did a few other things around the house. We are getting tons of cucumbers, squash, and tomatos from the garden. I hope everyone has a great week. I may have to make a trip antiquing somewhere. I'm thinking about going to Gladewater but I haven't decided yet. I'm also looking at going to Washington, La. but I can't decide which one is going to be my choice. I've heard both are really good places to visit for antiques. Have a good week.

Purple Fountain Grass & Zebra Grass

Up early today to go to dreaded Bus Re certification School....not fun! I drive a bus for my athletes and I have to get re certified every 3 years, so today was the day for that. I don't like spending my Saturday in school but I had no choice. I stopped by Lowe's on the way home and bought a few plants and a couple of pots to plant them in. I bought the new chocolate color clay pots that they have this summer. I bought purple fountain grass and zebra grass and they also had a sale on 6 pack annuals, so I bought a few of those too! I also looked at paint samples of mint green for my dresser but didn't make a decision yet. I still don't know which green would be best. Considering how hot is here my plants look fairly good. So I took a few pictures of my yard and some of my birdhouses. I love bird houses and I have several around the yard. One of them is a "Hoe House" from the Round Top Antique Show that I went to in the Spring. They took an old grubbing hoe and made it. Several years ago my husband made a planter for me out of a hollow log and it's posted here too. I have a few window boxes on my greenhouse/potting shed and they look really pretty so I took a picture of those too.Yesterday my mom and I visited my sister, Lisa and her grandson Kahner. We had a great time eating and shopping. We ate at our favorite place...Papasita's. Kahner is the cutest thing ever. He is so smart and all boy! I took a couple of pictures of him and as you will see he got really tired and fell asleep a few minutes after we finished shopping. I hope you have good weekend.

A Few New Linens and a Tea Set

Went to a small East Texas town yesterday with a friend. She likes to shop at a few really cute shops there and this was my first visit to these neat places. They had a neat garden shop, gift shop, and a quilt shop. We left there and went to a new place to eat called the Bistro and it was quite good. Then we headed back to Jasper and shopped at one of my favorite shops , Milam Street Gallery.I bought a Cambridge candlestick, another tea set, and some English linens. I'm not sure what I am doing today but I'm really wanting to get out and about! Mr. Red Bird visited this morning and was glad I had some feed for him. Have a Fabulous Friday.