For All You Cottage Style Magazine Addicts~~~

Here is a new magazine that I adore.. FLEA MARKET STYLE ...You can go and check out their delightful blog....I am waiting for the Fall edition, but am not sure when it will hit the news stands...it may say on their blog...I need to read it more thoroughly!
I have put on several pages of the the Summer Edition for you to enjoy and get a sense of the magazine....they, sadly, do not offer subscriptions, yet. :-(

I have two favorite magazines...Flea Market Style and Romantic Country...both are new and fresh with their ideas....

When I picked this up I was just thrilled with the contents...it is a bit more pricey at $9.95 per copy, but look what we pay for the Stampington Magazine collections....I found this magazine to be very satisfying to an old soul that loves and gets excited about vintage and antique items and ways to incorporate them into our home....and, of course ways to repurpose them.....
Enjoy!






Off to get the van serviced from the last leg of our 9,000 mile winter journey....It is an hours drive and while down in that area it means a trip to Michaels as well...Woo Hoo!
Be Happy!
Jil

~I Just Can't Throw Away Flowers!~

Are you like me and just hate to toss a once beautiful bouquet because someone you love gave it to you? I do and so I try to save what I can for a later project by drying and some to put in a small vase to enjoy a bit longer.
These are from my Mothers Day bouquet from my NY daughter.....when they were fresh and new and oh so beautiful, you can see them a couple posts below....I wished I could have saved that lovely evergreen filler with the little pink rosebud looking flowers, but they do not allow you to save them....they quickly fall apart. I love them and wish I knew what they are! I am going to call the florist and ask....if I will just remember! lol!
I took the little roses and tied the ribbon from the bouquet around them to dry and I will use them in a little wreath later for my computer room....I used to work with drieds....I grew many of them when we lived in Washington state. It was a passion of mine...statice, yarrow, roses, straw flowers and the list marches on. We also went on gathering trips and brought back basket fulls of Queens Anne's Lace and Baby's Breath, which grew wild there.
So, by arranging your roses so they don't touch too much, putting a rubber band around them, not too tightly, hang them upside down and leave them to do their magic....you won't be disappointed. You can dry them in a silica, too, in the microwave, but unless I want them in a hurry I just hang them...I love the look of flowers drying, hanging from various pegs around the house.
The few daisies that were still good, I put in a little vase....there is something magical about daisies...they just look so sweet growing in their clumps in my gardens and then I adore them with roses and lilacs....
So, I hope you saved some of your Mothers Day flowers to enjoy for the months to come....and...
Below is a pretty Vanity Bottle I added to New Things at our website....go take a peek! It is just the prettiest bottle with touches of Blue...I am so pleased with how it turned out.



I hope all you sweet peeps are having a lovely afternoon....I am, with a glass of wonderful sweet tea with a touch lemon beside me!
Jil

SOUTHERN BELLE RIBBON EMBROIDERY PILLOW

I just listed this Southern Belle pillow with my ribbon and other embroidery, at The Ruffled Rose....
Below is another pretty pillow that has just been listed on the new website, too. to visit, just click on the My Website Button to your right.


I have so many pretty things I am working on....not just with sewing, but with painting, too. Just keep checking back to see what is new!

Hope you are enjoying the afternoon,
Sweet Spring Hugs To All....
Jil

Rain, rain, rain and then more rain.....this is what it has been doing up in my little corner of the world....Port Huron, Michigan. We have not had, knock wood, the terrible storms that Okalahoma and Tennessee have been experiencing, just a steady rain. How terrifying those storms are! I know because I was born in Iowa and raised in Omaha, NE. and I well remember the force of the spring and summer storms. Those storms are how I wound up out in the deserts of Arizona. No, I was not blown there, my sweet Mom could no longer take them. My Dad traveled and she was left with my sister and me to weather those storms. She never showed it, but they nearly undid her! We had a finished basement the opened out onto the patio and back yard.....I can't tell you all the nights of mad dashes with our pillows for the downstairs! When she knew storms could occur she made up our comfy couches that were also day beds, just in case.

Not only has it rained and rained, but it is cold, too. So, inside projects are what we have been doing.....I had just finished the top of the end table, in the picture, and just took my brush and swiped it on the table.....then I had to get it done. hehe You see it here getting a second coat on the pedestal and the legs. It looks 100% better white and I am sorry I did not do it long ago. The only thing is, now I have to do those four dining room chairs....mercy, 100+ spindles. :-( I know my DH will be helping me as he always does even tho he has a not so great project going in the basement.....evidently I knocked two drain pipes coming from the second story, loose when I mowed the lawn. That basement wall let a little stream of water in. Our basement does not leak, but with all this rain and my carelessness well.... I made a lot of work for hubby. He had to move, with the crowbar, a huge workbench made with all 2 x 4's. He estimated it weighs about 1500 pounds! The only way to even get it to move was with his big crowbar and now he is sanding the whole wall in preparation to seal it. That one wall is the only wall in the basement not sealed and this is the first time in the eight years of being here it has leaked. Oh, I am so sorry.....but, that wall did need to be sealed.

Wishing you all some sunshine.....
Jil