Dishtowel Swap

Last week I embroidered a floursack dishtowel. When the embroidery was complete, I trimmed up the bottom with red ric-rac and one of my favorite 1930's prints. Then I pressed it and folded it nicely.....

I wrapped it up in a box and tied it with a big red bow. I put a tag on the ribbon and signed it from me. I had hopes that whoever opened it would smile with delight...more tomorrow...

Lilacs and Tulips

This week my lilacs are in full bloom. I always cut some and bring them inside to enjoy. Cut lilacs don't last very long so I cut some every other day while they are in bloom. I love the way that they look in my vintage vases. This arrangment is in my family room and is the big one! I cut just a branch for the other rooms and put them in smaller vases, so that I can smell lilacs through my home.

I have 5 lilac bushes in my backyard and I have a direct view of them outside of my studio window.My bedroom is above my studio so I also have a lovely view of them from there.

I like to sleep with my window open at night and in the spring and summer, the scent of lilacs and then roses are what I imagine that heaven must smell like. I impatiently await every spring for the lilacs to bloom. Thats always the start of gardening season for me.

A couple of weeks ago I snapped some pictures of a few of my tulips right after it rained and was overcast. Thats when I love to photograph my garden. The colors are so vibrant and I love to see the water droplets on the flowers.

The plant skirting my white tulips looks fabulous after it rains. It's called Lady's Mantle and gets a bright yellow green flower a little later which is beatiful and fresh looking. I love this perrenial even when it's not in bloom because the foilage always looks great.

These giant pink tulips are my favorite....we have about 500 of these throughout the garden.

I'm enjoying Spring weather here and getting out in my garden when I can. It's getting time to plant everything. I'll show you more later.....

Vintage Monday - the Garden

Because it's finally gardening season in my neck of the woods, I thought I would show you two of the vintage books that I have on my shelf for todays Vintage Monday.


These two are gardening books for children. The books really speak to me because I love...love...love everything about gardening and especially the old fashioned flowers!!! I grew up learning to garden. My Dad had very large beautiful gardens that my brother and sisters helped take care of. I have more details about those days in my description of my "Cottage Garden" quilt, you can read about it there-( just click on the button to the right that says Cottage Garden)


My grandparents and all of my relatives including everyone I knew as a girl tended gardens.



This is the first one that I bought. The copyright is 1941. It's an old school book and I really love how gardening was part of schooling back then. This would have been a book that my parents learned from, my Dad was born in '38 and my Mom in '40.





I love the title, "The Garden and It's Friends".

The illustrations of course are what I love the most about these books. Look at the darling seed packets and old fashioned single hollyhocks. I have alot of these in my garden.

I like how this picture shows how every seed is different and what some of them look like.

Because It's a childrens gardening book, they only show children in the garden! It actually reads as a story about two children named Roger and Ann who wanted to grow thier own garden.

So thier father gave them each a small corner of his garden and gave them money for seeds.

It then proceeds to tell how deep and far apart to plant each variety of seed they have chosen.

It teaches about the care one should take after planting the seeds. Father and Mother both help and give advice every step of the way.

It answers all of the questions that a child might have about gardens and how to care for them.

It shows pictures of Roger and Ann in thier gardens, explaining how fun it is to grow one, but explaining all of the work involved. Believe it or not, I have not shown you all of the pictures,(even though it might seem like it!)

The inside front and back covers show what each of them planted in thier gardens and where.

Here's the back cover photo. I think this book would be beatiful framed but it would be a shame not to be able to read it. The story is very endearing.

The next one is dated 1962. This is one that I would have learned from growing up as I was born in '63. However, I don't remember having a gardening book, I had "hands on" experience.

I so love the colors in this book along with all of the illustrations. That's why I bought the book, it has so many beautiful drawings of alot of the old fashioned flowers that Mr. Honey and I grow in our garden. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.

Do these books make you want to get out and grow your own garden? I wish that I could spend more time in mine this year, but too many deadlines for me. I'm going to try to enjoy it as much as I can though and I will take pictures of things as they come into bloom and show you.

I have already taken some of my tulips and lilacs, I'll show them to you this week. But for now ,it's time for me to go out on the back patio and applique some more paper dolls!