Pretty Things In The Garden

I started out taking photos of my roses since they are all pretty much in bloom now. Then I got distracted by other things in the garden! So I’ll post the roses another day.

Here’s what caught my eye today in my garden.

A Knockout Rose growing through the spaces in my potting bench.



My fork chandelier (from my friend Linda) glowing in the afternoon sunlight.





The mosaic pavers I use. I didn’t make them.


I did make those mosaic cement  edgers above.


A sweet bunny peeking out.


A teacup birdfeeder I made last year. Look in my tutorials category if you want to make one too.



Roses growing through some ironwork in the front yard.



My little pot of sunshine.


I've really been overwhelmed by all the new readers here - I keep asking myself why? LOL!  I do want to let you know that I am very thankful for each of you that take the time to stop by and visit. I hope you all have wonderful weekends!


P.S. Monday is the May Book Giveaway 

Lace, Toile, Creamy Whites & A Touch of Silver!

Thank you so much for all your kind comments about my little corner bed makeover! I’m still working outside but we had a bit of a rainy afternoon on Tuesday so I came inside and changed out the vignette on the dresser in my dining room (should have cleaned the house instead but just didn’t feel like it).


It’s a change for me. I’m usually into color – red, apple green, black, yellow – but I wanted to try something new.



I put this together from things I had in the house. I really, really love it!


I made a ruffle for my decoupaged candles with two coffee filters. I cut the ends off to make them shorter and stuffed them into the candle holder at the same time as the candle.



This apothecary jar has some dried Hydrangeas I saved from cleaning up the yard this week. I usually leave them on the bushes for some winter interest and then snip them off in the spring.



These are just scrapbook papers I rolled up and tied with something pretty.



I made this lace flower from that lace I got at Goodwill a few weeks back. The brooch is also from Goodwill.



I’m using one of the plate stands that I got at Goodwill. It's perfect for a holding a platter.


The cups and butter pats are from Goodwill too.  I guess my house would be pretty empty if I didn’t have a Goodwill! Maybe I should have titled this post “Decorating with Goodwill Finds”!


I draped one of my toile table runners on top of the chest. The candles need some extra height. So as you can see I lifted them up by putting a small plate on top of an upside down cup.





Well, it’s back outside for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

What’s Been Keeping Me Busy!

So...it started out with me just wanting to pull out some wild onions and trim back the Confederate Jasmine on the fence. Then I found some kind of Jumanji vine growing into/onto everything! Had to pull that out.


There were also several small volunteer trees besides the crazy thick vine. I have to say I hadn’t been in this corner to really weed or anything in a year or so. Lesson learned – keep up with garden maintenance!



I dug up this old partially dead Hydrangea. Which I never liked very much anyway and I LOVE Hydrangeas. I have lots and lots of them. But this one was super fussy. I always had to cover it when we had a frost and I never had to do that for any of my others. So good riddance!

It took me two days to dig up that thing!




I planted another Endless Hydrangea to take it’s place. If you’re not familiar with that variety – they bloom on old AND new wood so you get blooms all season long!

Now it's 5 days later...in the spring the Azaleas are in bloom with some Daffodils (they’re already done).



Then in the summer there will be beautiful blue Hydrangea blooms along the back fence with the tall Pee Gee Hydrangea next to them (behind the lavender Azalea).

Here’s a close up of the little grouping under the mirror.


This is one of obelisks I got at Goodwill (thank you to those who suggested WD40 – that did the trick in separating them). I painted it blue. The bottom is broken on that pot but it’s still useful in the garden. It has a Hosta planted in it.

My husband said “WHAT is that thing?” LOL! That’s a cherub holding a urn. It’s been laying under the Confederate Jasmine for about 8 years! I uncovered it when I was cutting back the Jasmine. I placed it here for the time being but I think a  gazing ball would be nice instead (I see a trip to Hobby Lobby in my future)!

Do you use mirrors in your garden? I have several of them here and there. I had a larger, full length, frameless one here before but people always used to scare themselves seeing their reflections LOL! I guess since it was unexpected it startled them. So I thought I’d hang a smaller one that you could really see. I think it’ll look really pretty once the Hydrangeas bloom.

I’m not done here. I still have to replace some rock in between the pavers,  I want to add a few more flowers in the front and I have to edge and mulch .

But I’ve been working on this area so hard the past week that I just couldn’t wait to show you!


So that’s some of what’s been keeping me busy. I also continued painting my picket fence and planted a bunch of veggies but that’s for another post! What's been keeping you busy?

Favorite Things

Hi everyone! I’m joining Laurie @ Bargain Hunting & Chatting With Laurie for Favorite Things Saturday. Be sure to stop by there to see all the other people participating.

One of my favorite things is plates. My other favorite thing is stuff that has words, so these plates combine two favorites. I have them hanging off the side of my china cabinet.



They all say Ironstone Staffordshire England on the back.  I'm always looking for these but they're not easy to find. If I do find them, it's always the same ones I already have. So it's been a few years since I was able to add to this collection.


Here’s a close up of my favorite. I’ve always thought that The Cottage of Content would be a great name for a house!


Isn’t that the truth!


Thanks so much for stopping by to see one of my favorite things! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Thrifty Thursday

Hi everyone! I wanted to show you a couple of little things I got at the thriftstore last week.

Those little cherub prints above were 45 cents each and I thought they’d be perfect for a narrow space I have between my linen closet and the Blue Toile Room.

So I painted the frames white and I think they look perfect in that narrow spot!

Now I need to find a few more to fill up that wall!


They also had a couple of iron plate holders. I got these two.

I chose one with a fleur and the other is sort of plain but really big and can hold a platter. You know I love plates and am always looking for things to hold and display them.

I also got these garden ornaments. Do you see that there’s one stuck inside the other. I haven’t been able to pull it out yet! I’ll paint them before I put them in the garden – as soon as I can separate them LOL.


I thought about buying this mosaic set…but didn’t. I would have bought just the bench but they were selling it as a set and wouldn’t let me! Darn! So cute right?

I’m linking to Tales From Bloggeritaville for Thrifty Thursday, so be sure to stop by there to see everyone’s thriftstore finds.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!