Sand casting is dry ...

Please excuse my toes ... I'm a TERRIBLE photographer!

I'll let it dry a few days and then brush it good around the edges and in the veins and seal it with Thompson's and it's done!  I love it!  I can't wait to try some other things.





A terrific Saturday morning ...

What a GREAT morning!  I was up and out early this morning for a sand casting bird bath class through my local junior college.  It was held at a private residence about 10 miles from me in a small town.  The instructor's yard was incredible!  I wish I had remembered my camera!  She had a fire going in the back yard for us and she had us all set up to start right in. 

Here's my rhubarb leaf bird bath ... tomorrow I can take the plastic off (I peeled it back for a picture) and Monday I can turn it over and let the leaf dry up.  In a week's time, I can fill it with water for the birdies.  I am toooooooooooo excited!!!

I've never posted the pictures of the finished greenhouse.  It's finished except the wire shelving across the front windows ... but I'm not in a hurry til late winter anyway.  We're having COLD nights here in northern Illinois so a few herbs have made their way inside and they seem to love it with new growth everywhere.  It will be interesting to see how long they last through the fall.

If you look closely, you can see the stained glass window hubby surprised me with.  I LOVE it!  It will be fun in the spring to till up all around the greenhouse and put in my new flowerbeds.  But for now, it's fall and I'm about ready to pack in the gardens and get ready to tuck up for the cold snowy months ahead.

No special plans for the day ... a nice, quiet autumn day watching my bird bath dry ...



Many thanks ...

A special thank you to those of you who have e-mailed me.  Your sweet e-mails have touched my heart.  They truly have.  Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  It's so comforting to know that I have friends who know and understand.



Maybe it's time ...

I explain why I've been so quiet.  Life can sure throw you a curve ball when you least expect it.  And forces you to stop and re-evaluate ... everything.

We lost our unborn granddaughter, Coraline Bella, at 22 weeks gestation on August 26.  My heart is shattered. 

With the tears came lots and lots of stitching.  Hours spent quietly in my favorite chair pulling stitch after stitch.  It's been good therapy for me.  Big update to the website coming Monday night.  Lots of new goodies -- little framed samplers, pillows, pinkeeps, and what not ... and lots more to finish up this weekend ...

Hope to see you Monday night!!

Looks like he's having fun ...

Week-end fun in Okinawa ...

Sums it up perfectly ...

The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see ...
and knows what the mind cannot understand.

~ Robert Vallett

Out my bedroom window ...

Hubby snapped this picture from our upstairs bedroom window ... he wanted to get a picture of the sunflowers along the back of the garden ... see them back there peeking over the top of the greenhouse?  The tallest ones are about 11' tall now ...

A good chunk of today was spent in the heat and humidity under the Easy Up canopy painting rough side cedar for the trim ... I was soooooooooooo sure it would be barn red ... it's what I had envisioned from very early on in this little endeavor ... well, it's not going be barn red ... it's now Autumn Gray which is really a gray/green/sage-y color that you can see here:  http://www.ppgpittsburghpaints.com/menards/Documents/pdf/exterior.pdf

I LOVE it!!!!  The sign on the front will be a barn red color ... still working on the name ... hubby likes Aunt Polly's Greenhouse ... I love Grandma Tinkerbell's Greenhouse which is what my lil Piper calls it.

Second coat of paint tomorrow ...