My Garden


So about now you are thinking to yourself, are those all vodka bottles?  And the answer is yes they are.  No, I did not drink that much vodka, and it took quite a while (more than a year) to acquire them all.  I love cobalt blue glass and put out a call for friends to save their Skye Vodka bottles for me.  Sometimes there would be bags of them left on my porch and as you might imagine I became concerned for my reputation. Good grief.  I filled up one of the back barns (see photo above) with previously mentioned bottles and then feared that if I died prematurely, once again my reputation would be sullied.

So this spring, when we put in this fence and removed a thick growth of junk bushes and an old chain link fence I decided to make raised beds.  I remembered all my blue bottles and voila!

Remember I live downtown with about a quarter of an acre that I call home.  My house is over 100 years old too.  I am feeling so vital and strong this year and decided that digging in the dirt would be a great way to stay on this road to health.  Look at the size of those mater plants!  I have banana trees too.

There is a little herb garden right outside the back porch for easy access.

Up and down the fence row I am anticipating sunflowers and zinnias. Maybe in about two weeks there will have flowers.

I am starting to reap the rewards of the garden itself.  The squash and zucchini were suffering from blossom end rot,but I have dosed them with Epsom salts for calcium and finally they are healthy and happy.

I started my tomatoes very early and here are the first ones off the vine!

I love my garden.

 

A Tunic Tutorial

Most people would prepare a bit more for an upcoming guest spot, but I have gotten crazy busy!  Anyway, go to SewMamaSew’s blog for my guest tutorial on making a tunic and tips that will help!  I love this blog and find it useful, fun and essential.  Check it out and thanks for including me.

The tunics that you see in the blog are made with Butterick 4856.  I loved the slit neck and the contrasting yoke. I have also used New Look 6803 and Butterick 5392.

I have just gotten a job at one amazing fabric store, Textile Fabrics,  in Nashville.  It is an independent store and a real gem to have less than a mile from my front door.  I work there three days a week and fear I will never bring home a dime. Hmm.

And the Winners Are…

Wow, what a whirlwind of comments! And I am thrilled to have been a part of Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway!  Now, I hope that lots of you will come back often and see what tips and tricks I have and what other things I will be giving away!  Make is easy and click the orange RSS button to the right so you will be notified whenever there is a new blog entry.

Okay, okay I know you want to know who the winners are. So without further ado here are the lucky seamstresses.

Winner Number One receives $35.00 worth of Hot Potatoes stamps that they can choose from my web store.  Melissa from achildofthewildblueyonder.blogspot.com gets this prize.

Winner Number Two receives a velvet scarf kit.  Ohh, what a fun treat. Number 239 is Rachel Nicole.

Winner Number Three gets my book and so Lynne Cooper come on down!  Oh and I sure do recognize Lynne’s name as one of my good customers!

Please oh please leave a comment and tell me what other give aways you would like to see from me.  And what sort of sewing or craft projects are you looking for.  I would love to hear from you!

Today May 23rd is Giveaway Day from Sew Mama Sew

Check out this really fun idea!!  Sew Mama Sew is a wonderful site chock full of sewing tips, products and ideas.  I have always enjoyed this site, but as I am committing to blogging more and more every day, I am also learning how helpful she is to other bloggers and their success.  There is a huge May give away day and you can go to this link and find all the good bloggers participating and giving away amazing cool stuff all sewing related.  There are three different list to go through so be thorough and win something! Read the rest of this entry »

Playsuits for baby boys

Look at my great nephews!  This is Noah and David, identical twin boys that are seven months old.   My niece Sarah and her husband Josh had them in Boston seven months ago.  Lucky for them to have my sister and Josh’s parents close by.  The parents have siblings that offer support too.  Good thing as these parents are tired, real tired.  But I cannot imagine how they would be without family to help hold it all together.  Read the rest of this entry »

Easter Finery

My mom.  Isn’t she so pretty?

In my never ending quest to perfect the tunic I made this yummy yellow tunic and pants for my mom to wear on Easter.  Check out those orange shoes!  How cosmopolitan! She lovingly refers to this ensemble as her Indira Gandhi outfit.  It suits her so.  She has always had a keen sense of fashion, Read the rest of this entry »

The love purrs in.

My neighbors across the street are the folks that saved my sweet (or not so sweet) Auggie from the jaws of the two strays that were responsible for his demise.  Read the rest of this entry »

Good bye old friend

I cannot bear the pain inside right now as I cry over the premature ending of my wonderful and wicked cat.   Auggie showed up eleven years ago on August 1, one year to the day that my other cat had disappeared.  Read the rest of this entry »

You can’t say I don’t try.

You have no idea about the love I have for this household luxury.  This is a WarmSpun electric blanket that my husband bought for me last fall.  I love it, and I mean I REALLY LOVE IT!  I read about dangers associated with electric blankets and threw caution to the wind. Read the rest of this entry »

My Baby


Ok, Ann Wilson is not really my baby, but I pretend that she is.  Ann Wilson is 1 1/2 and she lives across the street.  I have never had much interest in babies.  I tend to gravitate to dogs, and cats.  But then along came this little dear and she stole my heart.  Read the rest of this entry »