Can anything ~

Is there anything lovelier than an early spring morning.

Birds are singing, the sun is shinning, it's a beautiful day to work in the garden. Absolute bliss.

I finished this needlepoint pillow cover quite a long time ago but never got around to making it into a pillow. Finally the urge struck. It is an odd size so I also had to make the insert. I ran into a problem trying to decide how to finish off the edges and then remembered this fabric from my old kitchen drapes I detached the ruffle and somehow I think it works. 

All finished, it adds a nice touch of color to this chair and the room.

The newest crop of seeds for summer flowers.

 I seeded out lots of interesting new cosmos and zinnias, plus more exotic plants...African Foxgloves. Craspedia, "drumstick flowers", Ammi visnaga, and others that I am excited about. Most of them have already germinated so I am off to a good start. I hope to plant these out in the garden next month.

And to end this post a little vignette from the front garden. some self-seeding pretty little flowers haphazardly growing together along with blue and white lobelia. Planting accidents can sometime make the nicest combinations.

 

Thank you for visiting. Enjoy your day and stay well

Adrienne 

I know that I have mentioned and shared with you before my love of dried flowers. So when the living room needed a little lift for spring I installed a dried floral arrangement inspired by a wonderful Instagram account I follow, kittengraysonflowers. 

I used magnolia leaves, baby breath, hydrangeas, boxwood, roses and heavenly bamboo florets. I formed the side cascade by wiring the flowers onto a heavier piece of wire that a gently curved. I love this technique and will probably use it again.

I just finished reading the most charming and quite informative book, Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making A Home. Although the concept is about french homes it really translates into things anyone can do to make their home more welcoming and livable.

One of the ideas that immediately caught my attention, having things in your entry hall that define you as a person, your interests and hobbies. That way you are not only introducing visitors to your home but also too you as a person.

Thus, I decided to put together a basket  of gardening items to set on the bench in my entry. I can't think of anything else that typifies me so well. I was trying to portray coming in from the garden and setting down my tools and gardening hat. Of course my actual tools aren't as tidy, and my gardening hat has seen better days, but you get the idea. It was fun to do, and I think it really says that a gardener lives here. 

I will end this post with a bouquet I made of flowers currently blooming in the garden...antique tea rose Duchess du Brabant, Santa Barbara daisy, buds from a lemon tree and nasturtiums.

Although I haven't been posting very often here you can also follow me on Instagram under Rose Arbors, Hope to see you there sometime.

Take care and stay healthy.

Adrienne

A revisit ~

The month of January has completely escaped me, so much has happened it has been hard to keep up. Besides world shaking events, and minor in comparison, I have had to replace both my water heater and my stove. Finding available appliances right now in these pandemic times has become quite difficult. The water heater was easy but the stove requires certain dimensions to fit in the space. So, for the next month or so I will be trying to get by without an oven, harder than it sounds.

But before January is completely over I wanted to share with you a revisit to some of my favorite pictures from last years posts. 

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 After all of the Christmas decorations have been put away, everything always looks bare but this little vignette in the kitchen helped to perk things up.

The winter mantle. I did something similiar this year but a little better, I hope to share it with you in an up-coming post.

A bouquet of red roses for Valentine's Day.

A bountiful basket of spring blooms.

Climbing Pinkie by the pond in its first flush of bloom.

The rear deck on a summer eve at dusk.

And

ending with my favorite picture of the year, early morning in the bedroom.

I hope this year is a better one than the last. I look forward to conquering the pandemic and

the new leadership in our country that will somehow be able to return us back into what we should be, the "united" states of America. We have seen too many years of hate and division.

Thank you for visiting

Adrienne