Original Aceo paintings

At the drawing board and loving it. When we create it makes me feel weight free...until I stand up! Gardening with all it's wonders and helping others has kept me busy before.

The titled of this illustration is Gentleman's Agreement. It's a small 3.5 inch by 2.5 inch painting.  Such a darling size. This boy made an agreement that he would search high and low for the largest flower. He succeeded. You think of all of the men and women who searched the globe and brought plants and seeds back to their countries and today we are enjoying them in our own gardens. Thank you all!

We have had a lovely summer with lots of rain. The plants and garden loved it. Love this new cool fall weather though! Yes!

Downton Abbey Silver Holiday Decorating Tabletop

Simple decorating ideas are my kind

of decorating. I have these silver plated cups

that I call my Downton Abbey Cups..

They are just vintage silver cups

but I am sure they have lots of stories to tell.

(They will look more like Downton Abbey

on white linen!)

Place each cup in a circle like a wreath

and fill each with boxwood cuttings.

If you are a gardener that is the same

as saying each are filled with cheer.

If only boxwood rooted quickly

like say, mint!  

Old silver has such character!

The combination of brown, silver and gray

with some shimmer and some dull areas

has such appeal to me.

These almost blend into the tabletop.

Beautifully burnished is the best description for the cups.

Happiness is a table full of family and friends

good food helps too,

so I guess I should be looking for new dishes to make

the usual dishes are comforting but it's always good to

have a few surprises each year.

I stumbled upon a cookbook by 
Sam Choy

at a Goodwill store and it was $1.30 

Now I have the recipe for Payapa Dressing!

The list of secret ingredients is in my kitchen.

All photographs are my own from Instagram.

Connecting up with:
   Between Naps on the Porch
Coastal Charm
Common Ground

Pastel Napkins

The softest colors of summer on the table.

I've always wanted to add a soft teal

to our home somewhere

and here it is in the form

of candy teal cotton napkins
that I made myself 

Sweet and light.

My oldest son went to the
emergency room Friday and
just got out of the hospital yesterday.
I'm glad he is back home and
feeling better after surgery! 

Linking up with French Country Cottage.

Table Nosegays and Roses

I love flowers.

Flowers on dishes.

Both ways

on plate designs and

live garden flowers on plates.

Summer is here

and it's a beautiful way

to celebrate it.

Do you remember looking at the window

waiting for it to come?

I had an idea to put an assortment of nosegay

flowers, petals and fronds at each plate.

A little afternoon tea entertainment.

The weather has been fabulous.

Hope you are enjoying Summer!!!

Connecting with: Tuesday Garden Party 
and Between Naps on the Porch

 

Sweet Farmhouse Country Whites

I can knit, but I am not great at it and the tension is all over the chart. So, it was a sweet deal to bring this vintage sweater home for five dollars. It's made of wool, mohair and acrylic. It is so soft and lightweight and great for a cool summer evening like tonight. Isn't this white kitten precious? More softness and beauty. White flowers make even dirty barns look beautiful...or at least I think so.
Connecting up with White Wednesday,   Katherine's Corner,  Common Ground,  and French Country Cottage

Beautiful Breakfasts

This breakfast was like eating dessert. So early in the morning I felt guilty. Truth be told it is thick creamy-vanilla, greek yogurt with fresh strawberries and honey drizzled on top. Delicious. I made this the last two mornings and it is heavenly and only cost about 75 cents. It's very easy on the eyes if you are not a morning person. Gone are the days where we raced around the kitchen counter and grabbed a banana or just a cup of coffee and dashed out the door. I always seemed to spill the coffee somewhere on myself. Before I even got to work. Trying to consume food when the stress meter is bouncing off of the top of the meter every time we look at the clock is not good. Drinking coffee in stop and go traffic is not good. I am still in a rush in the 'moronings (my word for frantic mornings) but I just eat breakfast later after the rush, but still before lunch!

Pink Cottage Flowers and Pink Paint!

I want to paint something pink. This small bouquet is a nice mix of pink, mauve and carmine flowers. (The perfect color for an English Garden.) It all started when I decided I want to paint something (a piece of furniture) pink. I brought home four paint chips from Lowe's and they all look super against white. Hard choices. Not really but they are all pretty and wouldn't it look sweet with 4 chairs all different tints of pink? Or mix them all together and make a new paint color? More hard choices.

Can you believe it's in the 60's again during the day but down to 23 last night? We're all down on our hands and knees looking for the little signs of awakening shoots and swelling buds outside. Inside for now it's summer with fresh cottage flowers. The nurseries are starting to swell with a few varieties of shrubs and berries.Some nurseries even opened a week earlier because of the weather. That is the nurseries who close after Christmas and then reopen March first.

Back to the bouquet a moment; did you see they only added one rose to it? A very sweet pink one!! We are having a little pink storm inside.

Linking to:

House in Roses

Ivy and Elephants

Chartreuse Flowers

We fill the gas tank. We fill the grocery cart. And today I got these fresh flowers to fill my eyes with. Aren't the colors hot? I have always liked chartreuse. This one ornamental mum is heavenly. Paired with hot pink and a deeper rose color like the carmine carnations...over the top beautiful. Soon peonies will be blooming the same deep rose color and hot pink roses will climb the trellis. Hostas the same chartreuse color will fill the beds. Before then we might get some colder weather. Oh well, that will delight the delphiniums!

French Frocks and Ruffle Clothes

Smitten by french linen ruffles! I can see myself running through the fields and working in the garden. Sit down to dinner in these french robes. Have you ever been to this fab Un Coeur en Provence French blog? Everything is a treat for the eyes, home and "la nature". One of her adverstisers is Artisan Couturier Be sure to visit.

Farmhouse Country Comforts

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Making some mulled apple cider. The colors are like sugared maple syrup. Stirring up delicious beverages and food is comforting. Sipping or eating afterwards is comforting, like firewood. They always say it warms you twice...when you chop it and when you burn it. I can say that about food. Do you get that warm, fuzzy feeling when you cook? I don't mean turning into an animal either. I mean a content feeling. Okay. There should be a third comforting...when I work it off by exercising. I just haven't got there yet...

Pink Roses - White Picket Fence

Two nights of 18 degrees and I'm dreaming of spring. Isn't this photograph a dream? A dream to have and keep. Not many would mix this acid green with soft pink but it looks great with the blues and white. This repetitive planting makes the garden formal even though the picket fence is country. This is my kind of garden. Another favorite is formal lines but with lots of floppy flowers and shrubs.

I can only give photo credit to pinterest and I would love to know where this garden is and to see the rest of the planting combinations.

Romantic White Shabby Kitchen

A gorgeous hydrangea project I am working on.
Thank you Karen at Graphics Fairy!




I've noticed since trying to go mostly all white in our home
that the soft colors that got lost before are now shining.
I love pink and soft brown and beige. And plants! I love plants.




Such a heavenly combination even if the beige is from eggs just gathered.





Another favorite is soft green and pink with white.







Even the green herbs look so juicy against white and the gray tin!
We all spend a lot of time here because it is so bright.

This is the only westie who can get up on the counter.
A figurine that my daughter got for me at a thrift shop
because it looks exactly like our westie. I am linking up with
Show off your cottage Monday.
This is just one little piece of mine.
Now to make a fritata or quiche? Or sponge cake?

White Farm Chairs and Feed Sack Cotton

I purchased these secondhand chairs for a few dollars to paint and add around the dining table for holidays when we have need of more chairs. Especially cute chairs! I painted the textured cotton in stripes to look like feedsacks. I will post diy (do it yourself) so you can have the look as well! I am pleased how the chairs look. I do want to distress them, but when I see a lot of distressed wood around me I'm thinking the all white non marked chairs look great! See last picture of before and after! Happy White Wednesday. I am linking to Faded Charm for her fabulous White Wednesday fun. A first to also be linking to Farmhouse Friday.

Another fun creative group I found and am linking up here too is, Creative Things Thursday

I hope it's not too shocking that I have went to a larger picture format. It's so delightful to see large photographs on many other blogs so I'm giving it a go. It does appear somehow the left hand of each photograph is missing? Oh, where did you go?

My Home Page

Westie Dog Knits

Sir Salty earlier this summer taking a snooze and just bathed. His coat is on the 'longish side which makes him look like a beach boy. I have a little surprise for him coming up.




I got this cute as can be pattern from Kristin Nicholas who designs the brightest things for all of us to enjoy! If you've not been over to her blog now is the time to skip over and have a visit on her sheep farm. Maybe you want to knit this too? You might even beat me at finishing it. My mom says my knitting is like skewering sheisk-ka-bobs, too tight, but I will keep practicing. Practice makes perfect is my Mom's saying.

Florida Bungalow Front Porch

A very cute country porch in Florida. I like it because it reminds me of our yellow house at home, but I don't have anything red on the porch nor ceiling fans. At least not yet. When you see a white picket fence and some country charm you want to know who lives there. This place has character. It's someone I want to meet. There are large shade trees on this road so the dappled shade is a perfect retreat from the hot sunshine with sweetened ice tea.

Girls and Their Horses Painting

We girls have an ongoing love affair with horses. It starts when you are little and continues on from there. We also love cowgirl boots. Pink when we're little and then our choice of colors change. I will have to just be happy to paint them for now. In Florida (where this post comes from) they graze alongside the orange groves and are just as beautiful as the horses in Maryland. I've not seen them running and playing yet, but then when it's 97 everyday maybe that time is after dark when it cools down...just a little.

I get a pang when I see all of the tropicals plants so lush here. Why is it we want what we can't have? When we lived in Hawaii I wanted roses and peonies and tulips and daffodils.....even though the gardenias were storming my senses with perfume.

But horses are the same everywhere. They want to be taken care of and loved and they will love you in return.

This painting is for sale on ebay. It's titled, Horse Hugs. What do you think these girls named their horse? They call her "Hugs." Kids come up with some very nice names.

Sedums For Everyone

Sedums are grown for their foliage and are getting more popular grown in pots. They look like succulents, but are very winter hardy, first to come up in spring and die down last in the fall. No green thumb needed.

Gather up a few different varieties and plant them together in a large pot or for the center of your outdoor table that gets full sun. They are super in sunny windowboxes. This year I am going to put a few cannas in the very center, for height, with the sedums. You could use ornamental grasses with them with wonderful results as well. Or a small topiary shrub. One thing about gardening everyone creates their gardens a bit differently and that is exciting.

My cannas I started earlier are starting to finally get going and stretch upwards. We've had so many cool rainy days the last two weeks that has almost put them back to sleep. Yesterday afternoon it got up to 80 and today is to be hot so they will shake a leg and get moving now. I think they give the garden a tropical exotic touch.

Singing Chicks Original Folk Art

Songs that come from the heart are the sweetest and cannot be held back. Do you recognize a song when you hear it? All the little wonders of nature singing to us and when you live in the hustle and bustle of the city you often miss these little sweet songs.

My new painting is full of color! Like a song with the notes going all over the scales.

More about my current paintings here.

Westie Dog Blog Editorial/Writer

I've always wanted to tell the world that I love where we live in the country. Tonight my parents are busy so I'm going to tell you about my life. We've had lots of snow which I love to romp in. The picture above is me standing down by our creek in my show dog style last night at sunset. Actually I'm listening intently for birds and squirrels and other animal whispering. You must stand very, very still...even if your parents ARE calling you.

I love this wooded section that looks bare in the winter. I can stand tall and erect just like a tree. There isn't much that I can't do if you ask me. I am actually listening again to hear the trees talking. Normally the deer camp out here and eat all of the leaves. The deer like the music the creek makes and with the leaves clapping their hands and the birds chirping...the bullfrogs bass notes... it's like a full orchestra. I like all the music makers.

Sometimes I can sound like a harmonica when my human brother plays his fife and stays on one note too long. I try to correct his timing and his notes by jumping on him until he stops. Then I know he has learned his lesson from me and I walk away.

I have always wanted to be a garden editor because I see alot here in the gardens and also in my parents catalogs and magazines. It smells so good to walk into a greenhouse. I love that earth smell. All the letters form wonderful words in my head when I am in there, but I never have the laptop handy to record them.

Just this for now because I need to babysit the cats who seem to finally wake up after 20 hours of sleep at night.

Westie Dog's Valentine Day & Pink Roses

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you dine in or dine out? Roses? Chocolates? Dinner? This little westie family is celebrating it together. That is how traditions are made.

For the colors of this painting I went with pink and green. Classic color combinations. A person can't go wrong with these two colors. They can be soft and romantic or bold and bright depending on how deep or dark you choose the colors to be.