Watching them play...

How did you spend your Memorial Day? We spent ours at our sons house and had a
wonderful time just being with him and our daughter-in-law and our grands. I took over
300 photos!! Yes...that many so you know I really edited them down to share these
few with you. The best of the best...I think anyways! lol

Precious Ainsley having fun playing in the water. Isn't she just too adorable!!
I just love her swimsuit and hat!

Big sister Annika having fun as well. Their other grandma brought over a small white enamel washtub
that her husband used to take baths in when he was little and did they ever have fun with that!!
You would have thought it was a huge pool!! 

I had to throw this photo in...I made these for lunch and they were a hit. So easy.
Cream puffs and strawberry kabobs drizzled in chocolate.

We grilled corn for part of our evening meal and it was so yummy.
Ainsley sure is enjoying hers.

She is my sweetie girl...looks just like her daddy! Look at those sweet little hands and toes. 

Annika sure has an interesting way to eat corn! I think she was trying to get off every last kernel.

Enjoying her strawberries and cream puffs! She is so funny! She ate it like corn on the cob instead
of taking each one off . She had chocolate everywhere and if you notice, she even added more
chocolate to hers.  She was even licking her arm. *giggle* I thought I added that photo, but
obviously not. :)

After lunch inside our DIL was washing some drawings off the window {the kids used
window markers and have a lot of fun} and little Ms. Ainsley decided that she wanted
to help. Notice the chocolate covered face and a partially eaten strawberry
in her hand?? hee hee

Working for her supper??? *smile* 

Our youngest son Nathan enjoying the day with the kiddos.

Little patriotic Ainsley...all in all it was a fabulous day...

UNTIL...

off we went to the ER again!  Hubby this time.  He had shown me a little
pimple like thing on his hand on Friday and said he hoped it didn't turn into
a boil like some men at work had been getting...well guess what?? His hand
swelled up huge and after we all ate our dinner/supper  he mentioned that
the pain was shooting up to his elbow during the day which I did not know
 I knew this was not good so we made a hospital run! Now what is it with
holidays and us this year?? I had my  appendix out over Easter and now
 this on Memorial Day? ugh.

Long story short, he has a dilly of an infection and had to stay in the hospital
for a few hours while they pumped him full of antibiotics through an IV. Now
he is on TWO very potent antibiotics here at home as well. They said they
gave him the top of the line meds at the hospital.  I wanted him to stay home
from work yesterday,but not my hubby. He is not one to miss work for any
 reason whatsoever so off he went. Please keep him in your prayers that this
will heal quickly and he won't have anymore problems with it.

so...what did you do on Memorial Day??? 

Old fashioned roses photo shoot

My old fashioned roses are really putting on a show for me this year.
They are blooming their little hearts out. Their fragrance is intoxicating
and their beauty is unsurpassed so I decided to do a mini photo shoot.
{don't let that word  *mini* throw you. lol. I take a lot of photos to edit out
a lot and save the few that I love}

Alas , before I got to the photo shoot they had started withering and dying ,but I love them
so much that they are even beautiful to me at this stage. 

I saved a gazillion of these rose petal leaves last year and dried them. They looked so gorgeous
 in an aqua blue mason jar , but a few days later they turned the most ugly brown color.  I even
 kept them in a dark place so I don't know what happened, but I don't think I will be drying these
 anymore. They were gorgeous at first though!

Stunning against all white don't you think?

Look at the layers and layers on these lucious roses. Sure wish I knew their name.
 There was a bush already planted here when we arrived 30 years ago.
I have since dug up little starts and planted them along the east side of the house and
they are doing wonderful!! This is one thing that I can seem to grow well!! :)

This is what they started out looking like although the lighting was not
good at all the day I took this photo, but they are still pretty.

This verse popped into my head last night and I thought why not add it to a photo. Love the way
it looks. LDH blog inspired me. :) She has a post of all kinds of floral photos that she added
scripture verses too and they are stunning!!! I am so thankful today that HE loves us with an
everlasting love!

Happy Memorial weekend to each one of you. Let's remember the reason for the holiday.
So many people have sacrificed so much that we might have our freedom.

God bless America!!

I love Paris!

Okay...no I have never been to Paris, but I know in my heart that I would love it
and I do love it sight unseen!

I haven't had much time {or energy} lately to redo any decor , but I did get the frame
above hung up. I added two vintage french postcards and a new Paris matted photo
along with my vintage french clips and I love how it turned out.

{this photo looks a little wonky, but the frame really IS hanging straight}

A favorite postcard

Aren't these clips wonderful?? I just love them!

I did a treatment on my fake brick wall and also love how it turned out. This wall started out red and
 black brick years ago...you know those sheets of wallboard that you can purchase? Yep this is
one of them.  I painted it cream several years ago and had stenciled ivy on it, but was sick and tired
of the ivy so a couple weeks ago I redid the paint job.

I just kind of made it up as I went along. I did not want to purchase any more paint because we
have partial unused paint cans up the wazoo!! Anyhow...I even used two different sheens.
I think one was eggshell and the other satin. One was a more white and the other a cream. 

First I took a sponge and dabbed on the cream and it was too cream...same with the white
so I just dabbled them together and swirled and twirled and blended and love the result!!
I think it looks like it now has depth which was sadly lacking before. I think I would like
this whole wall done in that , but it isn't going to happen. lol.

I also wanted to show you a FABULOUS chippy, shabby gray and white stand that I
picked up a few weeks ago while visiting my daughter. I just love the PATINA on this!!

I will use it for staging photos etc. so it just had to come home with me.

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

Family life with the grands

We have a busy family life these days and I haven't shared for awhile so wanted to do that.
Our beautiful little ballerina Keira had her first recital and we were not able to attend. I was so
bummed! :( Hubby got a different job a few weeks ago with different hours and it just didn't
work out. I can't wait until we get to see the video of her performance. She is so tiny and
dainty and such a beautiful little ballerina.

A very proud daddy ...as he should be!
{our oldest son Jason}
Keira's mommy and daddy gave her roses after her performance. So sweet!!

Getting ready to perform I assume? Isn't she just so cute!!

 {All the photos above were taken by my son or his wife}

Five year old granddaughter Annika graduated from preschool last Thursday evening.
I didn't even know they had preschool graduations. I can't believe she
will be in kindergarten this fall! Where in the world has the time gone??

Contemplating her future maybe?? lol

Little sister Ainsley after the graduation. Both of these little girls are so busy!!
I do remember my kids being busy little beavers, but I could keep up better then! lol

Always on the move...

Annika was standing up front smiling and waving at all of us. The lighting was not
good at all for my camera and this is one of the decent shots I did get.

Always the spunky gal!  She twirls and whirls and just can't stand still most of the time! ha!

Hope you enjoyed playing catch up with me today along with three of our grandchildren.
We adore all seven of them and are so fortunate to be part of their everyday lives.
Some not as much as we would like since they live hours away, but thank God
for phones, internet and transportation!!

1...2...3...planting outside the box

I am sure you have heard of thinking outside the box...I decided to plant outside the box.

Using containers that are not necessarily for planting such as this swinging pockets container.

I haven't a clue what it's original purpose was , but I picked it up a few months ago
on clearance at Hobby Lobby for only $3.00. Some of the screws were missing and I
knew we could fix it so I brought it home with me.

{sometimes hubby tells me that I have a few missing also , but we won't go there lol.}

It just sat around in my studio doing nothing

{because I don't have one square inch left to set anything except on the floor!}

until I had an *ah ha* moment this week while planting flowers. 

I do love how it turned out. I lined the swinging pockets with plastic, but
that will be totally hidden when the flowers get larger.

I say to you " how cute is this" .
Almost wishing I had some more. 

I went to the greenhouse again today to spend some Mothers Day money from my daughter and this
 is what I brought home with me. Several ivy geraniums, asparagus fern, trailing vinca, impatiens
 and another fern.  Can't have too many flowers or ferns. I love this time of year...time for rebirth,
planting and just being  happy digging in the dirt.