This & That from Colorado

Life has been very busy the past month and a few things have fallen by the way such as going to the gym, blogging, getting enough sleep...What do you give up doing when you're crunched for time?
We just got back from attending our son's graduation in Colorado. If you ever go to Fort Collins, one of my favorite shops is the Perennial Gardener in Old Town.

It's actually two stores, with one side full of gardening decor and the other side general home decor. Here's our happy graduate. He's got the Colorado mountain man look going.

 

It was unseasonably cold during most of our visit, but we did manage a quick side trip to the Grand Stupa near Red Feather Lake just north of Fort Collins. Who would guess you'd find a Buddhist temple in Colorado?

As you can tell it was a little misty so we didn't linger, but A.J. will be working in Fort Collins so hopefully we'll be able to do more hiking in the next time we visit.

In the Garden

Scaveola and Argyranthemum "Primrose"

 Finally, a week of nice, dry weather! We made a quick trip to Michigan to bring our son home from college so I missed spending time working in the yard last weekend, but am trying to catch up this week. The garden centers are full of temptations and I've been anxious to start digging and trying out some of the planting combinations I've seen in various garden magazines. Here are some of my favorite flowering plants:

Calibrachoa "Superbells Red"

 

 

 

Pentas "Butterfly Deep Pink"

 

 

 

 

I aim for plants that will do well throughout our hot, dry summer. Our deck faces east and I love to have my coffee outside in the morning sitting among the plants and my little concrete critters.

Spinning my Wheels

I assembled a few projects over the weekend so I could spend Monday sewing. Working for a church, Easter week tends to be very busy so we get Easter Monday off from work. Well, after busily stitching all the stems and leaves on my project, I decided I really didn't like the way they looked. I was very frustrated with myself because I had talked myself into using this wool and I should have known better. I have the same theory about shopping for clothes---if I try something on and have to talk myself into buying it, no matter how great a deal it is chances are when I get it home I'll regret the purchase.

Too thready!

I hoped that closely stitching the wool would minimize the threadiness and give the leaves and stems a cool, primitive look, but to me they just looked messy and I was afraid the fraying would continue, so now I'll have to pull out all those little stitches and begin again! The phrase "anything worth doing is worth doing right" kept running through my head. Lesson learned? Hopefully! I still got to spend a day stitching and planning projects and that was fun and rejuvenating. I was fortunate enough to win Kathy Schmitz's recent giveaway and received a premier copy of Primitive Quilts and Projects.

Thanks so much Kathy! What a great magazine! I often browse through quilting magazines and buy one from time to time because it will have a wool project or great story about a quilt shop I'd like to visit. I'm so glad there is now a magazine that includes projects for those of us who love to do wool applique!

Happy Easter!

We have an historic shopping district in Kansas City called the Country Club Plaza. It was built in the 1920's and features Spanish architecture and lots of fountains. The Plaza is particularly known for its spectacular lighting display over the holiday season, but Easter time is also special as they display several huge bunny statues throughout the district. What a fun Easter tradition.

Peter and Sue Bunny

Wishing you a blessed Easter and a wonderful week ahead.

Weekend Work

Just in time for Easter, I finished a little hanging pillow from The Sampler Girl. Coffee stained and finished with a strip of coordinating plaid wool and antique buttons.

I also finished up my projects for this month's Simply Primitives.The spring pillow tuck is from a design by The Stitcherhood trimmed it with a soft cotton braid. Pillow itself isn't actually purple as it looks here due to the lighting, but more of a heather color.

I made two versions of this Blackbird design pillow. One went to Wendy for our recent swap, but I liked the design so much I made another for this month's Simply Primitives. I don't use a lot of blues in my work, but had some overdyed blue wool that really went well with the other colors used here. Over the years I've really become very particular about coordinating colors in my projects.  Often, as was the case here, I'll cut out the pieces and assemble them only to realize that I don't have exactly the right shade for the project which leads to a raid of my stash to find just the right color that suits me. Still learning, though!

Friday Finds

I have been anxiously awaiting Greenwood's spring antique show "On the Veranda". Friday was gloomy and rainy and not very spring-like outside, but inside Greenwood Antique Mall it was a different story!

This isn't a big show, but the vendors outdo themselves with beautiful garden pieces and creative displays. Ginger's booth was full of her wonderful primitives and folded paper creations and concrete and terrariums made by Ron.

Fancy Folds by Ginger

Two of Ron's Terrariums

After visiting the show I headed upstairs to check out the rest of the mall as well as the dealers at Greenwood Mercantile and visited my favorite shop, Old Glory and Friends.

Porch Decor at Greenwood Antique Mall

I found some old wooden clothespins to use for storing my lace trim and an old flour sack. I have a weakness for concrete in the garden and claimed this charming urn as soon as I saw it in Ginger's booth.

This photo doesn't do it justice. It's not a huge urn, so I think I'll use it as a centerpiece on my table on the deck. I see it planted with trailing asparagus ferns and maybe a colorful dahlia.

So Me So You Swap Goodies!

Tammy from A Primitive Place organized a fun swap called "This is So Me, This is So You". Our assignment was to get to know our swap partner through their blog and then send them something that we believed reflected who they are as well as something that revealed a little bit about ourselves. I was paired with the very talented Wendy at Ravenwood Whimzies and quickly realized, we really liked a lot of the same things. Wednesday evening I arrived home to find a box waiting for me and inside were all these beautiful goodies--gardening doll, stitchery picture, wood box with waxed stars, homespun dishcloth, notebook & pen, candles and a sweet note from Wendy!

Wendy made this sweet gardening doll with me in mind. The little kitty is painted to look like our Foxy, right down to the green eyes. The stitching on the apron is just beautiful and look at her flower pot with the cross. Just perfect!

Wendy said this stitchery picture is "so her", but it also depicts some of my favorite things so I'll find a special spot for that.

I also received this wonderful antiqued wood box filled with waxed star bowl fillers. Isn't that a great shade of green?

Everything came so beautifully wrapped, including this homespun dish towel---one of Foxy's favorite things to reorganize. I can't thank Wendy enough for being my swap partner. I've enjoyed getting to know her through her blog and her thoughtfulness was really a blessing.