One Wild and Precious Life

This weekend, my brother is riding his bike 57 miles to celebrate his 57th birthday.  He's also using his ride as a fundraiser for Living Water International, which works to provide clean water.

I am so proud of him.

Each morning, I go out to water our garden.  This fellow greeted me today. 

He brings to mind the Mary Oliver poem, 'The Summer Day', which ends "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"

I'm sending the poem to my brother.  I love what is is doing with his precious life.

Garden Observed

Saturday morning these little mushrooms appeared.

Delicate, silver-gray on thin stems.

They disappeared only hours later.

It makes me wonder what happens in the garden when I'm not there?

How many times have hummingbirds visited?

When does the toad come out from

under the hosta leaves?

Are the goldfinches

feeding on the salvia seeds right now?

This place at this time.

It is fleeting.

This morning in the garden . . .

delicate pink hydrangea

another view of the (growing) fairy garden

old urn with ajuga

castor bean

A Fairy Garden

Would you like to see my new garden?

A miniature garden in an old wheelbarrow.

A boxwood tree, bonsai begonias, little sedums and ajuga, a tiny fuchsia . . .

and a gazing ball in a miniature pot and a bench for the fairies to sit on.

Thrifty Thursday

Here's a few of the goodies from last week's thrifting:

Cute Coke glasses -- juice-sized, for those who like to begin their day with toast and Coke. And four funky daisy mugs + sugar and creamer. These must be from the 70s? when gold and avocado were the 'in' colors. For some reason, I could not overlook their cheerfulness.

Here are my favorite finds of the day. Vintage fruit crate labels, all framed up. And at a fantastic price. (More colorful than shown here. Hard to capture.)

I heart 'Chickie'. That one may end up in my kitchen. But first I'm offering all three to Z, for his new apartment. He thinks he'll like 'Buckingham' but he might want all three -- certainly has more empty wall space than I do.

Oh, and see the vintage tablecloth above? It's next on the Flea Market Bag worktable, perhaps.

Thank you, Salvation Army!

Another Flea Market Bag

I'm just so excited about this bag! It's made from pillow ticking (from an old feather pillow), an old embroidered doily, and some polka dot fabric -- love me some polka dots, especially white on red.

The ticking fabric had limitations -- size: slightly too small for the pattern; condition: a couple of stains. So I made the bag slightly smaller than the first flea market bag I did and used the exterior pocket and a little button heart to cover the stains.

I also had to use some canvas for the interior of the top placket and had to piece the handles just a bit to get the right length. (So pleased about the change of stripe-direction piecing on the handles.) And I lined the handles with the red/white dots.

Love!

Thrifty Thursday, er Friday + Wristlets!

Just popping in to show a couple of fun finds from last week.

A pair of '70s pillowcases and some vintage patterns. Thinking of sewing up some library totes from the pillowcases. . . .

And I'm sewing wristlets -- these from some fabric scraps that I 'won' from sewmamasew blog. I'm trying out the side zipper idea -- I think I like it a lot.

And -- big thrifting news -- the Salvation Army thrift store closer to me seems to be undergoing a transformation. Usually this particular store is a mess, with chipped china and stained linens and total chaos in the book section. Only occasionally do I find anything I want.

I popped in there yesterday, hoping to find maybe some more pillowcases, at least, or tablecloths for sewing projects. And, oh my! Shopping-cart-fuls of goods were being unloaded onto the newly organized shelves. After circling the aisles again and again as the carts were emptied, I emerged (was it an hour or two later?) with many many goodies, most destined for resale on Ebay or at the Inn Shop. I'll show some of my finds next week.

Enjoy the weekend. Spring seems right around the corner here, perhaps as soon as the 8" of snow (remaining from our recent 16") melts. The light is just beautiful.