I have enjoyed filling the house with roses from my brother's rose garden. This second round of blooms have been more abundant than the first a few months ago. I have discovered that cutting them just as they come out of the bud stage (when the petals are still a bit tight) works well for me, as there are less bugs hiding inside the rose, and they bloom very nicely indoors with proper care. .jpg)
Though I used to prefer them for their impressive size and fragrance, I now leave the fully blown roses on the bush for the bees!
Picking Flowers for a Posy
Art Print
Haigh-Wood,...
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Sometimes I end up with roses that have too-short stems. I found my mother's glass reamer worked very well for these poor buds! And when they bloom they fill it out very charmingly.
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Today was grocery shopping day. To make the trip to town a little more interesting, my Mother and I went to a "fun" store to look at pretty things for the home, a nice little break from the mega-grocery store experience.
In the Homegoods store (TJMaxx) we saw several beautiful things, and some in particular caught my eye. Various goblets from Italy with golden rims and beautiful colored glass (wouldn't it be fun to set them out at Christmas dinner?); charming lamp-shaded nightlights with fringe and a cameo in pink or very pale green; Terry towels with machine embroidered flowers on the lower edges, and of course lots of interesting boxes (such as a box of greeting cards that looked like a book) and a miniature pink toile wing chair for a little girls' room.
Roses in a Dish, 1882
Giclee Print
Fantin-Latour,...
We seem to be too busy to embroider our linens- let me rephrase that- we are too busy! But it is nice to know that these types of things are available, although they cannot represent the value of having family-made items.
The Guiding Hand
Art Print
I'm sure those who are fortunate enough to own an embroidery machine must enjoy the pleasure of making these items for their home more beautiful.
Arranging Daffodils
Thomsen, Carl
It was very inspiring to look and see what is out there. I do hope that there is a trend for more of these beautiful items for the home. Though the budget will not allow for any new pretties right now, I feel very rich just having access to a real rose garden to adorn the house with fresh flowers!
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This is how I made the scrappy rag rug featured over at Homeliving  | Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People By Sharon Linnea / Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. "On March 1, 1893, Princess Kaulani, the seventeen-year-old crown princess of Hawaii, stepped onto the pier at New York City. She was greeted by a crowd of reporters and onlookers who knew that, in many ways, she stood at a crossroads in history. Fully aware of the significance of her visit, she prayed that she could help persuade the American government to return her beautiful islands to the Hawaiian people." |
You share your dreams of becoming a world-famous pianist with your cousin. They reply, "Yes, but you don't realize how much hard work it is to practice the piano that much. And you would have to travel all the time and that would too expensive"
You are finally enjoying your retirement, picking up your favorite hobby, and telling a friend how happy you are. They in turn say something like "well, not everyone gets to stay home. The rest of us have to work."
Obviously, those would be equally wrong things to say, which would require another article on rude and mocking responses.
Or perhaps your enthusiasm was taken the wrong way. Perhaps when you were smiling at your green kitchen, your neighbor thought you were proposing that all kitchens everywhere should be apple green, or that by wearing sandals to the grocery store you were advocating sandal wearing as the only right way to dress.
My Little Book About God, Board Book 
She illustrated several books written by her sister, Esther Wilkin, who wrote "Baby Dear." Mrs. Wilkin even had dolls produced that were taken from her illustrations. "Baby Dear" was a popular book, and Mrs. Wilkin had her grown daughter, Deborah, pose for the mother, and Deborah's little son was the baby in the story. It is such a delight to know that the illustrations that I enjoyed in this particular book, where the mother is taking such loving care of her precious baby, and the big sister is doing her best to imitate her mother by caring for her doll, is actually a family affair! To be illustrating her own daughter and grandson must have given Mrs. Wilkin great joy.
I'm so glad my husband found a deluxe "solar dryer" for me at the hardware store: a retractable clothesline that screws into the house wall. When I need it, I pull it out and hook it to the post, and there are five lines on it. .jpg)
My son said he couldn't find me in all the dresses I was hanging up on the line!
Here is an idea for a clothespin holder: I had made a cloth purse from a quilt shop pattern, and am re-using it as a place to keep my extra clothespins as well as sunglasses.
Recently I heard some ladies talking of the "old days" of doing laundry, when they hung their laundry out on the line every Monday morning. The ladies talked of how the laundry was organized on the line; one did not want one's underwear and socks exposed to the neighbors! So those items went closer to your house, and the towels and sheets were on the public side!
There is a lot to learn about laundry, there is even an art to putting laundry up on the clothesline. I recommend Cheryl Mendelson's book, Home Comforts, or her book called Laundry, for an interesting read about the ways to do laundry. Mrs. Mendelson even has illustrations of how to pin laundry on the line for the most effective drying.
Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House
By Cheryl Mendelson / Simon & Schuster Trade Sales
