Living Spaces in the Flower Gardens.

Hello!  Did you do anything creative this weekend?

I did a few things but mostly spent a lot of time catching up on housework...the plant sales and kept me so busy that my house was in desperate need of some drastic attention.  It feels great to have a good part of the house done but I still have a few areas I hope to finish this week.

It is so hard to be inside when the weather is perfect.  The sun shone all weekend and it was a perfect temperature of warm out.  I took a few pictures because it is incredible how a couple weeks can transform the gardens.

 

I have a few different types of allium, but these are my favorite.

The flowers are about 4 inches in diameter each.

I did spend some time to clean up the basement porch.

The winter woodpile by the door was finally used up as it has been such a cold spring.

I love how adding a few plants on the porch seems to extend the garden in.

I painted the long bench and the wooden bucket some cheerful colors.

I was going to separate this hosta I dug up from one of the gardens but ended up planting it into the bucket for now.

Perennials are my usual choice for plants, but this dainty purple plant was a gift to each of the ladies at our mother-daughter banquet so I potted it up and set it on the window sill...

as long as the curious cat doesn't knock it off.

It always seems that by the time I have caught up with the house and gardens,

a group has formed of new plants I want to put in.

(My husband and kids started the winter woodpile back where I had plants stocked for the sale just as soon as I got them moved back to the field again.  His work never ends).

I collect hostas; this one is called Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

There are hundreds of hosta varieties and they have great names and beautiful colorings and textures.

I try to limit myself to just a handful of new varieties each year.  As they grow, I separate them and plant them into three different gardens and then I can dig one up and every year or so to have the extras to sell at my plant sale.

(This lets me feel like my collection pays for itself...eventually.

I enjoy collecting something that stays outside and becomes beautiful without my having to dust it or vacuum around it; and the fact that it grows and can be shared makes it even better).

This year I chose Queen of the Seas, Popcorn, Northern Exposure, Miss Suzie, Ripple Effect,

and Ulysses S. Grant.
See what I mean?  They have fun names, don't you think?

Of course, simple blooms like that of the Cornflower are sweet to see.

The Bridal Veil Spirea is in full bloom right now.  The scent of it takes me back to my grandmother's when I was a child.

This is what the gardens look like most of the time in the spring.

I found some dwarf wisteria shoots in the place where I had moved it from and dug them up to see how they would do.

Unfortunately, my walkways are seldom tidy.

Chickens and ducks seem to like the gardens as much as I do,

no matter how much I try to shoo them out.  I kept them penned up until the plant sales were done

and it just seems hard to keep them penned all season with all the thousands of bugs to catch and the green grass to nibble on,
so I try to work with it.

It's hard to believe how much has grown since my earlier post on this flower bed >HERE<.

My plans now are to extend the garden below, clear the center of it, and make an area for our picnic table so we can spend time eating outside this summer.

I would love for my husband to build a support system over it for the wisteria to grow on,
but that may have to wait until the wood is done and the hay fields are mowed and the barns are cleaned out...

Still, it is fun to imagine what I want this place to become.

Until next time, I'll try to finish up the bee picture I mentioned in the last post.
It might be a struggle to stay focused with the blooms calling to me outside,
but I'll get to it!

(Viburnum Doublefile)


Thank you for stopping by.

Sharing at these great blog parties:
Kellyskornerblog.com 
Betweennapsontheporch.net
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www.savvysouthernstyle
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Raisinghomemakers.com
 Notjustahousewife.net
Missmustardseed.com 

Art Lesson: Drawing a Tractor.

This post is a bit later than I wanted to get it on here because,

well,...

I'm going to be honest:

I kept pushing off getting this sketch done.

I wanted to do a sketch/painting on a piece for my husband's birthday,

and he's a tractor sort of guy.

Farmall's are his favorite,

but he actually has a John Deere right now,

so what was I to do?

Here is how to do a simple sketch of a Farmall.

After I had done that sketch, I decided to try this picture that I have of my husband with our son.

With this sketch, I just began by taking visual measurements and adjusting as I went along.

The Farmall was easier for a beginnier tractor, I thought, and I was glad I started with that one.

This was a sketch that pushed me outside my comfort zone, 

and I think a big part of the reason is that I do not know tractors...

their structure: how they are made, where their parts are,

their "skeletal shape," in a sense.

I know my husband (who does mechanic work) knows the parts and shapes of the features,

so I felt like every detail had to be more precise,

like copying the alphabet of a language that uses different lettering...

each line and curve must be very specific.

I am still finishing this piece;

I hope to watercolor it tomorrow and share the result when it is finished.

Because I still feel unsure of tractor art, 

I plan to take a picture of it when I am done outlining it with the pen,

and try painting a copy for practice first.

Stretching my brain to draw something I was uncomfortable with was great brain exercise,

and I am sure I could use more of that!

Have you had to do any forced pieces of art lately that made you paint outside your comfort zone?

Thanks for stopping by!

Art Lesson: The Face of a Cow.

Even before I married a farmer and we bought our farm,

I have always loved farm animal housewares.

Having cows just made me like them especially more.

I don't like the bull up in the barn, but this metal one can stay.

 There is something quaint about old farm scenes:
such peaceful living, although I'm sure it was much harder work in that day.

I love taking pictures of the cows.

They have such sweet faces.

I made up a page on how to sketch a cow's head.

I'll make another one up for the rest of the body sometime soon;

the head was enough of a lesson on it's own.

Feel free to print this page up and use it as you'd like,

just not for resale.

(To print this teaching sketch page, click on the image, right click, and then click on "copy".

Open up Microsoft Word and right click on the screen, and then click "paste".

 The image should paste onto the page.

You can then click "print" to use them for yourself or home-school groups, etc, just not for resale.)

If you have difficulties, questions, or suggestions, please let me know.)

I have been working on some demanding projects in the past few weeks,

and I hope to share them soon....

and be back more often.

I really do hope so!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing at:
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Savvysouthernstyle.net 

Bystephanielynn.com

betweennapsontheporch

Modvintagelife

Christmas Home Tour: Home-made Christmas

Hello!

It is the time of year that many bloggers are sharing home-tours of their festive houses for Christmas,

so I thought I would join in.

Welcome to our home.

To say that I love our 1850 stone farm house is to say that I actually never dreamed I would live in something like it.  The story of how we came to own it is a host of answered prayers.
I need to write it down sometime, especially for the kids.

Of course, having all these animals wandering about is just icing on the cake:
such sweet feathered friends

(well, maybe not so much in the summer when they scratch the mulch from my flower beds).

 The quaintness and quirks of old houses seem to go hand-in-hand.

The thick outside walls and the fireplaces (which were built inside the home to help make the house warmer) uses up more inside space, making this living room smaller.

Of course, this also makes those wonderful deep window sills.

 This room has become a variety of things:
living room, wall cupboard full of school/art supplies,
music room,
and there is a little table on the other side of the piano for my daughter to do her schoolwork.






Isn't it funny that when young, we have ideas of how we will do things.

I remember thinking that someday I would have beautiful store-bought Christmas decorations,
leaving behind the colorful home-made creations we'd made to cover our tree as kids.


Then I grew up and found that I prefer the home-made ornaments over those that are either too fancy or too plastic.

This year, my 11 year old daughter helped me make the snowflake garland out of heavy paper, glue, and glitter: we'll wrap them carefully when Christmas passes and see if they can be used again in coming years.

The red horse bookends were picked up at a charity store: their gold color had chipped paint,
exposing the plaster they are made of.

(I mixed up some red paint with plaster-of-Paris to cover the slight gauges and painted them a cheerful red.)

  For the Christmas season, they put on some old greenery I had from a broken candle garland.

I painted the slate for the craft sale this year and hung it here when it didn't sell.
It is painted from an old image I found in one of my vintage books.

(I will post the image in a few days for others to use: it is too pretty not to share).

The white trees on the mantel are made of cereal boxes.

 

They were cut and pasted, painted with several coats of a thick mixture of white paint and plaster-of-Paris,

allowed dry for about a week, and then painted with glue and doused with glitter.

They were last year's craft.

The green pine trees in the old silver sugar and creamer are artificial moss covered cardboard cones.

I didn't want to part with the sugar and creamer, so they were salvaged for these trees.

The grapevine star was decorated with a rusty canning jar lid,

rimmed with red paint.

The stars are made from toilet paper roll cardboard.

I sliced them, painted them red, crinkled them into star shapes,

painted glue on them, and then covered them with clear glitter.

(I hope to post how to fold these star shapes easily in the coming days.)

We got our tree from my sister who planted about 100 of them a few years back.

I left it unpruned, opting for the natural, wild look

(If I admit that it just slipped my mind until I saw these pictures,

does that count as wanting the natural look?)

The kids helped me decorate the tree with our 'colorful' variety of ornaments.

There is an assortment of canning jar lid ornaments.

Because we can so much of our food, it is hard to just throw away all those little discs when I pop them off the jars.  Some of them usually end up getting made into something.

(I hope to share a post in the coming days of my canning jar lid ornaments...

for any of you out there who are as much of a pack-rat.

I am sure many of the same ideas could be used for regular jar lids).

(The striped table in the center of the room was one I found for free by the side of the road and painted up.  The rocking chair was my husband's grandfather's chair.)

The snowman painted cupboard door was another craft sale unsold item that my daughter claimed.

It sits on the window by her school table.

The old frontier house was created by my husband's grandfather.

These silver trees are made from something recycled.  Can you guess?

 I have a visual step by step I hope to post sometime soon for these as well. 

The snowman was made from a styrofoam ball covered with newspaper papier mache'

and then painted.

These music-box carolers are in the window near my daughter's school area.

I got them somewhere and the head was broken off of the child.

I crafted a new head as well as the baby in the mother's arm from some clay a few years back

so that they would better fit our family size.

 They were a gift to my daughter who likes musical decorations.

(Don't look too closely: it was my first attempt at crafting with that clay and it is a bit rough.  She liked it, so we keep it).

 This little dresser was one a friend gave to me to refinish.

The sled is from a yardsale and I filled it with some greenery.
The older lady I bought it from said her son had made it for her.
I love that it was home-made.

Let's go in the room that gets the most use.

In our kitchen, I used real evergreens pieces.
It's funny because the lady who used to own our farm just sent a Christmas card today.
She mentioned that they used to cut a tree from the farm every year for their Christmas tree,
but that they were probably too big now to use for that.

Yes, they are about 20 feet tall now,
but I trim some of the branches for use in here, so they still make it inside to spread their cheer.

By the time Christmas gets here,
they may need to be replaced or their cheer may be shedding needles,
but I have found it is just as easy to clean up the mess and throw it outside
than to store it all in the attic.

I have to admit also that I am usually so busy trying to get things done for Christmas,

I don't dust all these high places before I put up the boughs.

It will get done after Christmas because the dried boughs will make it happen.

The kitchen windows are so sunny in this house.

I love the kitchen.

I sewed the curtains from an old torn table cloth that was my grandmother's.

Isn't the color of old cobalt blue pottery stunning?

 I made the trees by the blue pitcher below as well.

Perhaps I will get that tutorial on here before this season is passed.

The red cereal cupboard is topped with old pieces from several relatives.

I change the plant piece in the old bottle

as well as the picture in the glass canning jar lid depending on the season.

I found this sweet candy cane image from the Graphics fairy,

printed it on tan paper, cut it into the circle shape,
and then crinkled and finished it by tea-staining it.

The top part of this cupboard was one my aunt found

 and gave me.  My husband found recycled cupboard doors that fit and attached them for me,

and then I painted it.

The bottom half was purchased at a yard sale.

(The top surface was badly chipped veneer,
so we pulled it up

and I painted a slate look on it with some slight images of birds and vines.)

Off of the other side of the kitchen is the office.

Two of the pictures on the wall are silhouettes of our children painted on the glass of old frames purchased at a yard sale.

I put just a few things in the bathroom to make it festive:
a gift from my father.






The house was a gift from my daughter when she was nine.
Her hard earned dollars were used to buy it,
and I think it is sweet next to a vintage tree.


(The dragon verse on the chalkboard hopefully will be changed before Christmas.
It was put on there for my son...one of his favorite subjects right now.
I hear him reading it every time he goes in there, so I hate to change it yet.)




The window in the office looks back on what used to be the back porch,
but it is now enclosed and our real "living" room.

(This small white tree was rescued from the charity store and put into a pot with some plaster-of-Paris to give it a new base.
I consider it my tree: I decorate it with some simple ornaments we made that have more of a the vintage look that I like.)

The back porch is big and sunny;
 It is my favorite room.

This table is where I teach school
and is most often graced with books and crafts.

We do clear it off and have holiday meals out here;
the table gets turned long-ways to fit more people.

 

The view is so peaceful.
 




I remember everyday for a month or more coming out here when we first moved in and pinching myself to see if it was real.





I don't decorate much out here except this corner
and the table when it is set for Christmas dinner.

My sewing machine sits in front if this window looking into the office.


I wanted snowflakes to hang here.
The plastic snowflakes looked too...
well, plastic,
so I made these from the cardboard in paper towel rolls.
I sliced and then curled them like quilling;
glued and painted;
then painted glue and dipped them in clear glitter.







Thank you for stopping by.

This was a long post:
I'm hoping it showed that even the simplest things can be turned into cozy creations for the home,
or at least personalized decorations...

all to suit your own style.

I love the things we have made and the home God has allowed us to live in.
The challenge of using little to create it has been rewarding...
and fun.

If you don't come by again,
I hope you have a joyous, Merry Christmas!





Sharing this tour at these blog parties:
Jenniferrizzo.com: Show-us-your-holiday-home-linky-party
Thehappyhousie.com
Abowlfulloflemons.net
Thenester.com: Welcome-to-the-2013-christmas-tour-of-homes
Thegraphicsfairy.com
Wearethatfamily.com
Betweennapsontheporch.net
Theprairiehomestead.com
Savvysouthernstyle.net
Homestoriesatoz.com
Nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
Missmustardseed.com
kellyskornerblog
Craftberrybush.com
Bystephanielynn.com
DIYshowoff.com
(http://wp.me/p3Su5W-3dv)