Jack Pot! Ding, ding, ding, ding

Last week I won a mystery giveaway hosted by Deanna from Timless Things. We were both thrilled to find out that we only live a few miles away from each other, so we agreed to meet at Starbucks. We set up a date and time for Wednesday March 25th (One day before my birthday). I had never done anything like that! My daughter, Erica, immediately announced that she was coming with me.

Deanna arrived with this huge, heavy box. I was so excited and ready to open it right on the spot, but she suggested I wait till I get home because it was going to be messy. Hmmmm, I wondered what that meant.

The three of us hit it off immediately. She is the nicest, sweetest lady! I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to meet her. She has the BEST sense of humor and is so easy to talk to. As a matter of fact we talked for hours.

Well, anyone who knows me at all, knows that I truly enjoy beautifully gift-wrapped presents. This is me graciously accepting Deanna's wonderful gift.

The box is covered in pink roses. My favorite!!

The first thing at the top of the box is a wonderful apron. I really love it because it's a full apron. I get quite messy when I cook, so this will come in very handy.

The next layer was two lovely books. One is great home remedies & house hold advice, and the other is a wonderful Christmas Journal type book. Very, very cool!

The gifts just kept coming and coming. The next layer had these beautiful Easter eggs that looked like they were coated with sugar. I tried to get good pictures, but my flash would just reflect them as white. In this layer, there was a box of pink peeps!! YUMO! And they're so cute, too. I can't remember that last time I had peeps. What a treat!

The layers just kept going and going, so I thought it would be better to just put everything out on the kitchen table. Just look at all the goodies!

My hubby and I share a cup of tea most nights, so this beautiful pink floral cup will be put to nightly use. I had just been telling DH that I wanted a special cup just for our tea nights.

Check out how cute this lable is. It has laser cut outs on it and sweet little scrolls. I love them!

Deanna included that beautiful mug because she also gave me three yummy kinds of hot chocolate. One is caramel, one is white cocoa, and one is PINK! Notice the adorable little sugar bowl. It's German and just as pretty as can be. I have different kinds of sugar for our teas and for guests, so this will come in very handy.

There was so much tucked in pink Easter grass. Notice the two gold pins. Love the leave and the pink rhinestones on the little round one.

We had SO much fun at the coffee house. We got just the littlest bit silly. Deanna started clicking away and we just laughed harder.

Erica, my little firefighter daughter and me

Erica and Deanna sitting pretty like proper ladies.

Why do we look so surprised? We don't know either. Erica was directing and we were following. And people were looking...They were probably wishing they could have as much fun as we were. I can only say that I received the best give away ever. My title is Jack Pot because I came away with a wonderful new friend. I am truly so blessed to have met her.

Thanks Deanna! We had a lot of fun, didn't we?!!

Pop on over to her blog, Timeless Things. She has wonderful posts and finds the coolest, prettiest things!! (Even the curser on her page is adorable. It's a tiny black high heeled shoe!!)

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Check out the GREAT giveaway from Maison Douce!

Isabel, of Maison Douce is having a WONDERFUL triple-chance giveaway! Hop over to her site by clicking here and read all about her. She's a beautiful person and I promise you will truly enjoy her story.

She's giving away beautiful items from:

Portugal (check out those wooden buttons)

England (LOVE the roses!)

Morocco (romantic and mysterious!)

The giveaway ends soon, so be sure to hurry!!!
Blessings
Patricia :o)

Roses from Lisa!!

Last Friday, I came home from shopping and my DH says to me, "What did you buy?" "Groceries," I answer. "No, I mean what did you buy through the mail? There's a big box on the counter."

Big box? I didn't remember buying anything. But who cares!! A big box just for me is always a good thing.

I know I should have taken a picture of the box, and suspensefully let you take a peak inside, but I couldn't help myself. I just tore into it and found....

This gorgeous pillow made with a beautiful barkcloth fabric covered in yummy roses and flowers.
Just look at the wonderful nubby texture of this gorgeous fabric. The pillow is so well made and has dingle-balls along the edges and the most beautiful paisley print on the back!
So where did this delicious, fluffy feather down, hand made pillow come from? It came from a beautiful and talented lady in Oregon. Lisa, at A Thing for Roses had a giveaway and I was lucky enough to win it!!! Yes, lucky lucky me!! I can't tell you how thrilled I was to open this box.

Please pop over to Lisa's blog and check out her wonderful collection of everything Roses!! I promise you will thoroughly enjoy her blog and will probably bookmark it.

Thank you to Lisa for honoring me with this gorgeous pillow!

Patricia :o)

PS: I forgot to mention the pretty little note she included. She is just a sweetheart!

Wildflowers

Last July, I posted about visiting Wild Seed Farm in Fredericksberg, TX. (Click here if you want to go back and see it) We got a little carried away while we were there and bought enough wildflower seeds to blanket our neighborhood. We thought all you had to do was throw the seeds down and they would grow. Yeah, we really thought that!!

Anyway, after reading the directions, we decided to do a much smaller area and see what happens. We put a ring of rocks around some trees, threw down some dirt - because we mostly have rocks in the backyard), the sowed the seeds according to the directions. It wasn't hard, but it was more prep work than we thought.


The seeds we planted were labeled Hummingbird and butterfly garden. They started sprouting almost right away. I was worried that they would freeze in winter and spring, but they've made it just fine. I think...

But all we got was a bunch of white flowers and a few purple flowers that stand up on tall, very thin stems. We have lots of butterflies and hummingbirds come through the yard, but they don't stop here.

Mostly they visit the plants around the pond. Which is fine with me as that's were you'll find me most of the time.

I didn't know that bees and butterflies would be attracted to calla lilies. Which in turn attract anoles. They are all so fun to watch.

This is Nala. How did she get in this post? She's always following me around, but she's getting old and lays down on the cool flag stones whenever she gets a chance and watches me to make sure I don't do anything fun that she'll miss out on.

Newly planted snap dragons. They're sooo pretty and always brighten up any garden or flower arrangement.

I love pansies because they're always smiling. I thought these would be spent by now as I've had them for a long time. But they're Johnny pop ups so they're always preforming. Love that!

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Mystery Bird

One of the joys of my slowly developing garden are all the sweet little birds that come to visit. We get Cardinals, Lesser Yellow finches, American gold finch, wrens, woodpeckers, doves, etc. But there's one little guy we can't find in our bird book. He, (or maybe she) has all the markings of an American goldfinch except that his body is pure white! See him in the middle of the photo hiding behind the sock?



He's very shy, so it's hard to get a good picture of him. At first we though it was some kind of gold finch with a mutated gene that made his grayish feathers white. But then we saw TWO! Can they both be mutated?



He has a dusting of yellow on his head, black wing tips and then everything else is white. Snow white.

This is the best picture we got of him. My daughter got it through her bedroom window on the second floor. But it's not as clear as it could be because it's through the glass. Does anyone out there have any idea what this little guy is? Or, any idea where I can find out?

Blessings,

Patricia :o)