All American road trip & a sneak peek

We are leaving on an All-American road trip! It's NYC or bust! Nine days traveling in the family minivan, sleeping in a different hotel in a different city each night. We are the parents of a teen-aged son and a pre-teen son as you can see from the itinerary...

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Baseball Hall of Fame

Niagara Falls

NYC - specifically to go to Yankee Stadium in its final year

and stops to visit a few friends in between.

I'm sure that we will create a lifetime of memories! (As long as we get to see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Central Park, I'm happy!)

Before we leave, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at a glimpse of things to come on August 1st on TDIPT. I will answer emails in the order received after we return on August 3rd.

I forgot to take a photo of the third item, so there will be a surprise...

"To plan ahead is wise, to worry ahead is foolish." -Anonymous

And so I am off to go pack and try not to worry about what I will forget to pack or forget to do before we leave...

Blessings, Patti

Garden update

The past few weeks the garden has been growing like crazy! Raspberry season arrived right on time on the 4th of July. Not as productive as the strawberries, but enough for each of us to enjoy some.

The sugar snap peas should produce more than ever...

even the flowers are pretty...
I just love to add them to salads.

The pumpkins are starting well...It's hard to get the perspective, but these leaves are huge! First I was searching for flower buds:

Once they opened they were hard to miss! They are as huge as the leaves!

Don't you just love the curlique tendrils? (Must be the winding vine lover in me :-) )

Next I started searching for baby pumpkins and found one today!

How does your garden grow?

"A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live." - Bertrand Russell

Blessings, Patti

The end of an era...

and the start of something new...

I have worked for the same company for 18 years now and have been in the same office for 16 years. This week we moved to a temporary location so that our offices could be gutted and completely redone. We have been in the same space for 82 years and infrastructure definitely needed to be updated.

I have become emotionally attached to some of my furniture and was fortunate to be able to bring it home.

I think that both pieces look like they belong in our sitting room. I'm happy to have a place to put some of my salt-glazed pottery.

This was my view of the changing seasons for the past 16 years:

The move was quite a project. I think we are almost settled in now and ready to jump in on Monday.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Blessings, Patti

Garden Walk

Our church recently had a garden walk and tea and our garden was one of the featured gardens. Our backyard was only planted two weeks prior... after two years of mess following building an addition onto our house. So our home was accurately described as a new garden :). Pour a glass of lemonade and join us on our garden walk...

Come on in...

Our city sized yard... Clematis on our new trellis...
The landscape architect's rendering. Along with my gardening journal... Jenn Tavoletti of Rabbit Hill Primitives http://www.rabbithillprimitives.com/
made my garden journal and this sweet bird nest in a fabric covered box...
A quiet corner with a green marble birdbath of faux water lillies and a bowl of hydrangeas picked from the front yard. Help yourself to a cookie...they're my specialty :)
Come sit on the swing for a bit... I just barely finished this pillow in time! The design is by Primitive Gatherings

http://www.primitivegatherings.us/shop/
If you stay late enough, we can have a fire and roast some marshmallows.
Do you see the joyful buddha peeking beneath the tree? My great uncle, the carver Kava Kava, created him in 1976. I was blessed to inherit him when my great uncle and aunt passed some years back. We have a fountain now, which we love, but it doesn't mask all the sounds of the city. My boys made the butterfly house for me for Mother's Day a few years back. The fruit and vegetable garden has really taken off since this picture, but that's another story for another day. My prolific strawberry patch is on the left. The evergreen tree on the right was a just a foot tall stick when we planted it a few months after our oldest son's birth.

"Come in the evening, or come in the morning; Come when you're look'd for, or come without warning. Kisses and welcome you'll find before you, And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!" -Thomas Osborne Davis

Thanks for taking so much time to visit me today. I promise my next post won't be soooo long.

Blessings, Patti

& Liberty, too

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. The weather was wonderful and the evenings were filled with more fireflies than I have ever seen. They covered the grass and the flowers and landed on you when standing quietly. Obviously they were celebrating Independence Day with their own fireworks. Unfortunately the evenings were also filled with an abundance of mosquitos.

I forgot to show you the treasures that I just picked up at an estate sale - so perfect for the season:

All three items for $12!

It was a productive weekend for crafting and I was able to finish a few projects:
The stars are made of vintage tickings and reproduction cotton prints.

The freedom pinkeep pillow is a Stacy Nash Primitives design.

Finally, this penny rug mat is my interpretation of a Lyn Hosford Need'l Love design. It hasn't been backed yet and I need to create my fabric tag that I attach to all my penny rugs. I usually write out on vintage ticking: my name, the place where I was when I created it, the year, and something special that was happening while I stitched it or a favorite bible verse. Then I whip stitch it to the backing.

I hope that your holiday was relaxing and productive.

"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8

Blessings, Patti

Freedom & Peace

Wishing you a Fourth of July full of family, friends, fun, and... parades!
I always start a new patriotic project on the Fourth of July. I like to work on it while waiting for the parade to begin and darkness to fall for the fireworks. Hopefully I will have a finished project to share at the end of the weekend!
Take a moment to remember those serving (and those that have served) our country.

"God Bless America. Land that I love..."

Blessings, Patti