Farmhouse Porch

Spring is so brilliant and so special, especially after a long, gray winter.

It's always a pleasure to get back outside and ready the porch for the summer season.

So now that it's done, I thought I'd share with you.

I got out the old washtubs again, and this year, I used the bottom shelf, which now looks less awkward than sitting empty.  

In the washtubs are some nice full geraniums.  Someone had asked if I planted the flowers in the washtub.  They are not.  This is a couple of potted geraniums sitting up on a brick so the pots sit high enough to see the flowers.

I keep a cute little enamelware dishpan on the table with water in it for JuneBug.  I think the birdies might eventually find it and don't know what I'll do then, especially since JuneBug is such a good hunter girl.  :(

I just love the old Spirit of  '76 flag flyin' in the wind.
I usually fly two flags, one on the front and side railing each.  
So one of the flags is always 1776.

Come sit, down, let's rock and chat a spell!

How have you been?

I've missed you!

When You Really Need Cushions

What do you do when you're too cheap to pay the big money for cushions for your wicker chairs?

Well, if you're me, you improvise.

 Throw rug is a homemade rag rug I got for $1 at a garage sale, 

a favorite that is a treat to pull out to use for the summer.

What I did is bought four pillow shams for my wicker that match my porch decor at Pottery Barn outlet for $7 each.  Then I got some old pillows out of the attic.

The shams are a blue gingham with red trim!  PERFECT!  I found them in the kid's section late this winter.  I had this use in mind when I found them. 

This crochet rag rug is a favorite, bought it filthy dirty at a garage sale for $1 and have had it for years, 

I save it just for the porch in summer. 

WAY cheaper than buying ready-made lawn-furniture cushions that I never can find in the colors I need for our Old Centennial Farmhouse front porch.

Sometimes, they're thrown on the chairs in this direction, sometimes the opposite, but one thing for sure, they're comfortable and home-y and they fit the need I have for very little money.

I can wash them whenever I need to and the bonus is that 

June-Bug loves them, she's always curled up in a cushion for her nap.

Meow!  JuneBug says HOWDY!

XOXO

Let's Talk Strawberries

I bought this decal in a package as well as a red geranium, originally 10 cents, now $2.50, adding a little color to a lingering-a-little-too-long winter.  I love how it looks on my depression glass.  It sits on a little clock shelf in my kitchen.   ;)

***

Can we talk strawberries?  We have to plant a new patch and I would love to hear your tips, tricks and the type or variety you like.  Although we didn't have any last year, there's still plenty in the freezer!  Yum!

A Fiery Sunset

Lately, our sunsets have been unusually brilliant: colors so breathtaking that you think heaven has opened up just to show you a little taste of what it will be like.

Like each of us, every sunset is unique.  

And some stand out more than others. 

But see the orange right around that sun?  The really bright stuff?  

I wanted to see more of that.

So I changed my lenses, and lookie here what I got!  

I took these on May 22 as the sun set so brilliantly it could not be ignored. 




This shot and the one below were taken aiming straight into the sun with the telephoto lens on.  The orange just makes my heart go pitty-pat.  

Where I live it's rare for me not to notice the sun setting.


When I am not at home, and I can't see the sunset, I am somewhat disoriented.


I shoot so many sunsets, that if my kids or husband notice a nice one and I'm not out there with my camera yet, they come and get me.  That's just one of the nice little gifts my family gives to me year-round: photo opportunities.  




Wide open spaces are where I belong.  Can't stand to feel confined!


And...this song sums up our part of the country and what I love about our country just fine!  

Before the Dixie Chicks cut their noses off to spite their faces with a lot of us in flyover country, this was also song I could sing along heartily to...


Do you like wide open spaces?

Can you see the sunset from where you live? 

So Fair...

Oh, what is so fair as a day in June?


Not much, that I can think of!


This month has, so far, been cooler than normal.  Yet, still the color bursts forth from everywhere that I look;  from the bluest of skies, and the puffy white clouds, to the green carpet of grass below my feet. 


There are peonies, clematis, and there are garden seeds bursting from the good ground, strawberries and raspberries forming tiny berries, all the beginnings of a wonderful process that gives us food from a little patch of dirt we tend to and can care for, healing our minds and spirits as we do, rewarding diligence while it feeds our bodies.


What is so fair?


Not much.


Enjoy some photos I snapped with my iPhone while I was on the mower today.

As the sheets flapped in the breeze on the clothesline nearby, I had the pleasure of taking passes past scenes like this one, no one can beat me when it comes to getting on the mower in the spring time.  What a joy!

Peonies never cease to amaze, although they come out and show themselves each June, still have the delicate beauty that is fleeting, and the scent to make me swoon--we must enjoy because we know it doesn't last long.

A bud or two naturally must come in with me to be placed into a small vintage pop bottle...to have time to open and impress us again with ruffled layers of bright pink.

June is new, fresh life with a softness that comes to reward us for making it through yet another winter, June is a blush on a bride, and a breeze to the graduate, blowing them to new adventures and a new life...a pleasure to behold for just thirty days in the year.

It's Almost Time!

The PEONIES are coming!

The Peonies are coming!

The PeOnies are coming!

Soon, I will ask them to pose for some new pics for you. 

Think they'll come through for me? 


A little info on cutting them to enjoy inside the house.


Taken from:  Reader's Digest 1001 Tips & Tricks For Your Garden

"For displaying peonies indoors, select buds that are just opening.  The striking blooms will unfold in a few days.  And cut the stems with only a few leaves.  The plants need to foliage to produce food for the following year."  

A few more peony tips:

1.  If you need to move peonies, transplant in EARLY FALL.

2.  They like to stay put so choose location carefully.  A sunny to partially shaded spot protected from wind.

3.  Plant in autumn when the little red buds on the crown are visible.

4.  Use a green screen for support so that the plant will not snap in the wind.

5.  Support peonies (ours are all either cozied up in front of a shed or in front of a picket fence. they do not stand well alone. 

6.  You can add additional support by giving them a string fence, setting this up early before the buds break.

Magic in the Ordinary: Weeds

And...just a few moments later...the light took on a magic glow, making it worth waiting for.  

I saw this through the lens...

Beauty, is indeed, where you find it.

And part of the beauty is in the process of finding.

'Tis the Season!

This has to be my favorite time of year:  the red, white and blue holidays are coming up.  

The time between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July is prime season for red, white, and blue.  I so love to get into the spirit!


Not only outside, but inside, too!


((My category on Pinterest called "Red, White & Blue.))

Sure would love to have you here on the porch, rocking and visiting, sipping on some lemonade!

Is It Monday Again? Cheery-O!

Good Monday morning to you!!

Swanky swigs are the name, cheeriness is their game!

I have these cheery little juice glasses in my kitchen windowsill to greet me each morning.  They shine their brightest on a sunny day, but even on a dull one like I was greeted with this morning, they still make me smile!


When I was a kid, we didn't have juice glasses, but grandpa did.  They always intrigued me, because I liked small things like I think most kids do.  


These little dears called out to me at a tiny little antique shop in a little cottage in Alabama one day, because they are primary colors and they look right at home in my red gingham kitchen!  


Hope your Monday is bright and that you have something to greet you each day that is cheery-o!

Wearing Fun...

Sometimes, a new wardrobe isn't in the books. 

(In the checkbook, that is.)

But...it can be updated by adding some fun new bits of this and that to what you already have.

A gorgeous beaded cuff bracelet, works with many colors and my favorite--blue jeans!

Saturday morning, my son had an hour and a half basketball clinic somewhere too far from home to drive back...so I found my nearest Kohl's...do you have a Kohl's, too?  I hope so, because every girl needs Kohl's!


Well, I had to go in, after all, they sent me a 30% off coupon!  


Well, I headed straight to the accessories department, and spent a whole hour browsing.  What fun it was.  A lot of their cute stuff was on sale, plus I used the 30% coupon and wowie kazowie!  Can you say BARGAINS!?

I have a couple versions of this shirt, worn for at least four years, and I still love them, of course, gingham is always tops in my book!  The contrast and trim on the cuffs and collar are lovely to me, as well as the velvet ribbon and red thread buttonholes!

I brought home some versatile pieces to work with some spring clothes I already had.


I'm no fashion plate, but I know fun when I see it!

Added some new sunglasses...

Bangle bracelets?  I don't like 'em, but a cuff bracelet or two....fun!

A little bit of retail therapy doesn't hurt a country girl every now and then!  


(Neither does perusing "pinterest" to see what other girls put together that I can imitate for outfits ... here's my board called "Fashion I Can Actually Wear!"...)


'Tis MONDAY again...have a great one!

Little Bitty...Bits of Beauty

I don't recall where I found this tiny little bitty blue bottle...one my favorite colors of blue there is.


It may have come from under one of the old barns we've torn down on this place, I don't know--I've had it seems like forever!  


But what I do know is that it's the perfect size for tiny spring blooms:  violets, grape hyacinths, and of course, Lilly of the Valley...


And the nice thing about it is that it fits on my narrow windowsill--just a couple inches tall.

Sometimes when I look at my spring blossoms, I get so giddy, I want to bring bitty bits of beauty inside with me for a little while, to wonder at.  

Do they affect you that way, too?

And this little scene really makes me smile each time I glance up at it, in my kitchen window.


Happy Monday, friends!