How green it is in my little world on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

 Hello all - I'm writing this on Saturday... sitting out on my sunroom porch... it raining cats and dogs... I love sitting out here and watching in come down without getting wet... and everything is getting so green!!   I've been working in the yard whenever the temperatures allowed. I know it is  meteorologically speaking still Spring but it sure has felt like Summer... several days close to 90... and plenty of thunderstorms... I will say I haven't had to water much at all.

So when I was last here it was Mother's Day and my younger son dedicated his whole day to helping me in the yard... and boy what a BIG help he was!!   We planted about 11 flats of annuals.... zinnas , petunias, marigolds, coleus., cleome... a couple of one gallon  perennials...  I counted some stuff... 80 zinnas, 50 marigolds, 42 petunias, 24 geraniums.... it was a a LOT of stuff... but boy does it make me happy happy happy!!!

Then last Sunday I was at it again and got my dahlias in the new raised bed... 175 dahlia tubers to be exact!!!  

I know I know ... it doesn't look like anything now, but just wait...  I'm loving our new patio set and the hanging ferns...

And here's an update on the pyramid of petunias... looking good!

 

Compare and contrast to just 2 weeks ago...

I looked at the pictures of them marigold bed and they're not doing as well. It has bounced back and forth a lot between hot and then wet... I think I'll add some seeds to it and hope that fills in well. Of course I want everything to be in full bloom RIGHT NOW... which is ridiculous cause we got a lot of  Summer still to come.

Since I couldn't plant any more today I popped into the garden center just before it rained and picked up a couple more plants... cause you can NEVER have too many flowers/fabric/floss/charts/yarn... you get the picture... LOL

Got some new to me varieties of perennials... just need for the daffodils to die back a bit more so I can clean out the beds and make room for them.

This is one of 2 pots by my garage and its looking good...

Cannas and calibrachoa petunias and some salvia that is already getting swallowed up... the cannas already have blooms starting...and I love the burgundy color of the leaves... 

And I stumbled upon these petunias... I've never seen a petunia that was yellow and green before... 

The tag says Danziger Ray Pistachio Cream and here is a link to them.  I've never heard of this plant company before but they have some interesting looking stuff.  I want a really pretty ceramic pot for these and all of mine are already full so maybe I do some shopping tomorrow as it is suppose to be rainy then too. 

And from all the petunias outside  lets segue into petunias in the house... my living room wall...

This quit is an oldie but goodie... a Phillip Jacobs print I Stacked n Whacked ... and I got a new tier tray...

I got this on Amazon you can see it here... I like the whitewashed finished, the scalloped edge and it has a nice amount of height between the tiers.  I picked up that cute little turquoise chair at Michaels ... a nice way to display a small... and I love the turquoise theme I've got going here. 

As for another display in my living room I've got a green vibe going on ... and I've got other green stuff to share too... 

You know yellow is my favorite color but green ... all shades of green ... are a very close second and in getting my knickknacks and seasonal cross stitch pieces out I find I've done a lot of stitching  with green...

Here's one of my more recent finishes... Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick... it was a freebie you can see  here...

I've had this frame for a while... I think it came from Micheals... the roof and the bird and the clips were black and I painted them with a couple of shades of green... I stitched a single bird from the piece for the 2nd clip spot...

And at the other end more birds stitched on green and in green...

The bird with the spool of thread is Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms and the little pin pillow is Birdhouse Alphabet by Little House Needleworks... my foray into doing over one on 28ct...like the look, not a fan of the actual stitching part. 

Below another freebie this time from Hello from Liz Matthews ... you can see it here... I used some variegated Sulky for this ...

An oldie but goodie from The Drawn Thread that I can't recall of the name of... oh wail I just found it when I was searching for something else... it's called For the Birds...

And some little pin pillows which are snippets from the border of the A Saviour's Praise by Shakespeare's Peddler.... you the whole thing here ...

And yes I do have A LOT OF bird knickknacks... I LOVE birds... I'm sitting here typing and watching them a my feeders right now... there was a pair of cardinals just a minute ago... 

Oh I mentioned how green things are in my little world at the beginning of this tome... and here's the stitching to prove it...

First I finished the Blackbird Design  A Tribute piece I started on the Saturday before Mother's Day ...

I'm very happy with how this turned out... I may have this one professionally framed... I'm thinking a small gold frame would be very pretty...

And then I did this small...

This is Hello Spring from Sub Rosa...you can see it here... its a PDF download... I want to finish this as a little pillow.

And I found this WIP and it totally fits my green vibe...

That green is really intense IRL... like deep pea green... this is The Queen's Garden by The Scarlett House which you can see here and the queen has her head...  

I'm thinking of putting some of the Spring decor away and getting out more summer-y stuff for a couple of displays ... and I think I'm going to get out the patriotic stuff by mid June... gotta get some stitching done for it. 

I'm trying to keep myself busy... the yard work is great for my mental health and right now I'm enthused about cross stitching...and I've even gone down in the basement and sewed a couple of blocks for that Bonnie & Camille quilt on my design wall.   I find the world right now is making me crazy... and on a personal level I'm dealing with dental issues again... ugh....double ugh...triple ugh... the tooth that I thought about getting the root canal re-done is going to be pulled on Tuesday. I did some research and the probability of successfully re-doing that 30 year old dental work is not high ... and  I'd end up having it pulled anyway... after spending several thousand dollars for the procedure... so I'm skipping that  part and moving on to an extraction and prep for an implant. I'm doing the IV sedation again... my regular dentist recommended it because my mouth is very small ( I know I know you'd never think that if you heard me blather on in real life, just like I do here, but it is)... my mouth is hard to work in ... so I'll just spend the bucks with the oral surgeon... if you are so inclined a little prayer at 8:00 am on Tuesday would be appreciated... I'm a bit anxious but it went well last time, and I'd really like to have a day when my mouth doesn't hurt...that hasn't happened in a couple of months and I'm tired of popping ibuprofen like they are M & Ms... 

So gonna keep busy this week with stitching and maybe some sewing...don't think the weather is going to be conducive to more planting... forecast is for stormy weather...

I hope things are well in your world... I'm so glad I do have my garden and my crafty stuff to keep me occupied..I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... and spending some time seeing what everyone else is up to... 

Happy Mother's Day on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Sending best wishes out to all of the Mothers today... I hope you are appreciated and pampered ... you soooo deserve it!   

I'm spending my day doing the things I love to do... stitching  a little, sewing a little and because the weather is cooperating gardening A LOT!!  Last week was pretty gray and rainy and chilly ... it kept me from planting but ti didn't stop me from shopping... pics of some of the stuff I collected at the 6 or was it 7 ...maybe 8 different garden stores I visited ...and I got a small start on the pyramid of petunias... it really needs a coat of paint too...

Lots of coleus... love all the different colors and leaf shapes...and in the background you can see our new outdoor dining set... it took Nick & I several hours to put it together but it is very nice and I know we are going to enjoy it...

And small dahlias and marigolds and cleome and salvia and cannas...

Can you tell I am a bit concerned that all the good stuff will be going quickly?  I also got some hollyhocks in gallon pots and some other perennial too... 

Plan for today is to get the window boxes done... my younger son will help me as I need to get up on a ladder to reach 3 of the 5 ...he hands the plants up to me so I don't have to constantly go up and down the ladder... and then I have 2 large pots to plant up and a couple of small ones and my raised planter ...  if I'm not too tired I'd like to get zinnias that I edge the beds with planted as it has rained a ton the last 2 days and the ground is nice and soft.  But that is probably overdoing it... Rome wasn't built in a day but I'd love to whip my yard into shape in less than 24 hours...LOL... I still have tons of daffodils that need to be cleaned out but they haven't died back enough.... and I'm thinking I'll wait till the end of the month to plant all the new dahlia tubers I bought... and since they haven't all arrived yet that is a real good strategy...

Weather here should be fine... I don't see a single low temperature below the mid 40 for 10 days out... I think we are past any chance of frost... yeah!!

On the stitching front I have a finish... Spring from Prairie Schooler Seasons #50...  

I think I have a tag shaped frame that might work for this...

And I've continued my Mother's Day tradition of starting a new cross stitch piece guilt free... I've done this for several years... I have two charts calling my name ... I painted and dyed linen for them Friday night and I LOVE both pieces... the first one is The Green Pear Band Sampler.... I sprung for the silks for this one...

I painted the linen with a combination of Golden Yellow, Pearl Gray and Tan... loving the splotchy mottled look...

and my second selection is a rather obscure chart by Blackbird Designs called A Tribute...

it is in the book entitled Women of Grace & Charm: A Quilting Tribute to the Women Who Served in WWII... I painted & dyed the linen with Apple Green... I think that monochromatic look is perfect for this piece...

Not sure which one I'm going to stitch on.... and I probably won't get a lot done as the plants are calling my name...

My sewing mojo has returned a bit... had a conversation with a friend last week about blocks that were  made in an exchange and how we hadn't done anything with them. In my case it was a Log Cabin swap done with Bonnie and Camille fabrics from back in 2017... I planned on waiting to put them together anticipating someone coming up with a dynamite setting ... but I never saw one that caught my eye, so I'm going with this layout... 

I'm sewing 4 of the individual swap blocks together with sashing and cute little fussy cut birds as cornerstones... then I'm sashing the GINORMOUS block again, with more cornerstones... and I think I'll add a piano key border out of all of the leftover 2.5" strips I have ...

... and I have enough blocks leftover to do another smaller quilt... don't know if I'll get to that right away... 

Dinner will definitely be carryout from somewhere... I don't have the patience to deal with crowds at a restaurant today... 

Next week is looking fabulous weather wise... temperatures in the 70's and 80's and no rain... although after planting all those flowers I'll be wanting a bit of rain... got another shot of cortisone in my knee and it seems to be helping... still have dental issues... going to have to have another tooth pulled... same story as before... 30 year old dental work that has somehow reached the end of its effectiveness... this one was root canaled and crowned so it ain't coming out easy... I'm doing the IV sedation again and the oral surgeon will prep this and another hole in my mouth for implants... and then there are 2 other implants that I can move ahead on too... glad I got all my house projects done as I hadn't planned on the dental expenses and if I had known I probably wouldn't have spent the money on them... but there's no changing the past and I'm glad I did  them....that raised bed is going to be so much fun to play in... and I need fun to take my mind off the dental issues... ibuprofen is my very close buddy these days. 

I'm so glad that Spring has sprung... I need it for my mental  and physical health... the world is too crazy to deal with some days... actually lots of days... but like fabric stores and cross stitch shops and Mexican restaurants I've never been unhappy playing in the dirt... cheaper than therapy and I have something to show for it...LOL

Hope you are having a marvelous Mother's Day and that the week ahead is wonderful!!!  I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts ... probably won't get time to check things out till later tonight when I'm kicked back in my stitching chair  snuggled up to my heating pad and chasing a couple of ibuprofen with some bubbly water... gosh I live such a fast paced life style....ROFL...not at all!!

Oh here is a planter my younger son got me as a Mother's Day gift... and I added the orange-y petunias... Proven Winners Dreamsicle is the color....

a self portrait in flowers!!!  I LOVE IT!!!

happy stitching-

carol fun