Angels, Angels, Everywhere

I just received two dozen beautiful angels hand made from Cora. They're made of vintage hankies and have quilted, white wings. Half of them are made with wonderful printed hankies and the other half are made with hand embroidered and crocheted hankies. I can't tell you how lovely they are! I originally bought them to give away as gifts, but I think they're so pretty that I don't know if I can part with them. So I think they may end up on my Christmas tree.

If you want to add some hankie angles to your life, please visit Cora's eBay site. Or just drop by her blog, Hidden Riches From Secret Places. I'm sure she'd love to meet you!

Creatures big and small

Since I've moved to Texas, I've been lucky enough to have much more wildlife visit my back yard. I didn't get pictures of the raccoon and the little grey fox that visit me at night, but here are some other guests that come by.This pretty butterfly actually fought with a hummingbird to get the privilege of a yummy sip of nectar. I've never seen a hummingbird and butterfly "duke" it out before.

I don't mind sharing the bird food with this little guy. He's such a hoot to watch. The only problem is when one of my dogs notice him, there's no peace from either of them. She doesn't stop barking at him, and he sits high up in the treat chattering back at her.

This beautiful creature is an orb spider. This one isn't so big, but the very first one of her species that I saw was as long as my hand! It gave me the heebee jeebies at first because not only is it a big spider, but the web is really sticky. It's not "dangerous" to humans but it can leave a painful, baseball sized welt if it gets you. Thankfully I'm not speaking from experience; just what I've read.

My son left his shoes out on the back porch and found a little visitor inspecting a possible new home. Glad we informed him in time that shoes probably wouldn't work for him.

We have these cute little anole lizards all over the place. Sometimes they're bright green and display a pinkish/red throat pouch. I love having them around.

This is a Greater Roadrunner and runs through our yard on an almost daily basis. I didn't think he'd come back after we put up our perimeter fence, but he just jump/flies over it with no problem. The dogs don't bother him at all and he'll come to the bird bath in the afternoons for a nice cool drink.

I almost forgot to show you our very first INSIDE visitor. This guy was about 1 1/2" long and I found him on my office wall! It was about a week after we moved in to our brand new house. They told us we might find an occasional scorpion in the house, but I sure wasn't expecting it that soon! I know we should have just let him outside, but my hubby got him with tongs and flushed him! Since then, we've found a teeny one on the master bedroom floor (I never ever step on anything that looks like lint on the floor because it might be a scorpion or spider) and a bigger one in the garage crawling above the door the leads to the house. Who wants to move to Texas with me?

Pretty Ladies to Embroider!

Wooo Hooo! I just received a beautiful give-away that I won from Dani. They are printed with a lovely crinoline lady on each one surrounded by flowers and flowing ribbons. And I get to embroider them!

I love the way she wrapped them up in natural colored paper all tied up with string. Then she tucked in a really cute card in it. So sweet!

And here are the pretty pillowcases to be embroidered. I get to do that and it will be great to choose the colors. The package came with instructions, too, so it should be very do-able. I'm going to be using pinks, blues and minty green. I can't wait to get started!

Dani has a couple of great blogs. Drop in to visit her at Eagle's Wings and/or Glad Tidings, Primitives and Folkart.

Wildseed Farms - Part 2 Butterflies!!!

While we were at Wildseed Farms, we decided to visit the Butterfly House they have on the property. We were a little hesitant because there was a $5.00 per person entry fee and we weren't sure if we were willing to pay that just to look at a couple of butterflies. But since it was a huge amount of money, we did it. And I'm so glad we did!

As we walked through a tiny little house-like structure, we emerged into the most beautiful butterfly garden I have ever seen. It was truly magical! There were lush plants and flowers lining a wandering path through a patio enclosed with a fine mesh. And flying all around us were hundreds of fluttering, beautiful butterflies!! It was one of the most magical experience.

They were all butterflies native to Texas, and they were all around us. They didn't care or bother about us. My daughter put out her hand, and one landed on it just like that!

Butterflies flew through the air, lighted on flowers, crawled along the ground, and hid under petals. They were everywhere!
You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them and see so much more detail.
I tried taking pictures of the butterflies as they flew around us. But they always got lost in the foliage behind them.

If you click on the picture above, you'll see just a sampling of the great numbers of butterflies. These are visible because they're flying (or sunning themselves) against the solid background of the sky. Please be sure to click on it and see the bigger picture. I was so disappointed that the pictures didn't come out better. I cannot express the joy and wonder these little creatures inspired in me. It was so worth the entrance fee.

All I could think about as I walked among the butterflies is how amazing an artist God is. So much wonder in such a tiny creature!
While we were there, a lovely care-taker took the time to show us all the stages of a butterfly's life, from egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to adult. She walked us through the whole garden showing us amazing facts and talking about the flowers butterflies love. As we exited, she handed us a sheet with all the flowers we can grow to attract butterflies to our garden. My husband, daughter and I walked away so inspired and excited to start our own butterfly garden.

Wildseed Farm - Part 1

A couple of days ago my hubby, daughter and I took a drive to a wonderful old town: Fredericksburg, TX. It's about 1 1/2 hrs North of San Antonio. We went for the sole purpose of buying wild flower seeds for our back yard. Our yard is a little big for us and it's pretty much all weeds. We'd heard that we can just throw out some wild flower seeds in October and have a field of flowers in spring. We thought it was some kind of feed store or tiny little nursery. Boy, were we wrong!There is a barn like building full of beautiful accessories for your home, your garden and even boutique-like clothing.
The grounds are full of beautiful Texas landscaping from desert to lush, almost tropical settings.
This is my daughter standing next to a huge hibiscus flower. The plants were full of these gorgeous flowers. The size of the flower is unbelievable! They weren't kidding when they said everything in Texas is bigger!

Walking around to the back are rows upon rows of beautiful wildflowers. Butterflies were fluttering in and around the flowers.
The variety and color of these beautiful flowers is amazing. Each row is marked with the kind of flower it is along with its needs and habits.

Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them and see all the details up close.When we went back in the store, we knew exactly were to go...the seed section. The walls were lined with all the flowers we'd seen and more. There are little packets of specific varieties, or different kinds of blends.
We got a large package of Texas wildflowers, a smaller package specifically for hummingbirds and butterflies, and ten packages of different sunflowers. We also purchased a jar of the yummiest honey and pecan sauce. It is so deliciously yummy! On the way home, we stopped by a fruit stand and bought the juiciest and sweetest peaches ever.

Wildseed Farms ships all over and have different blends of each region of the United States. You can click here to go to their site.

I'll be posting the real treat we found at Wildseed Farms in a couple of days. It was the most magical experience!

White Chenille and Pink Roses

I try to use old with new whenever I get a chance. And it's so easy to do when you have a white vintage chenille bedspread. An almost all white bedding ensemble is so refreshingly cool when it's so hot outside like it is here in San Antonio.
The bedspread and the chenille pillow shams were found separately, but because they're both white with pink touches, you really can't tell that they don't match exactly until you look very closely.
The sheets are white with little pink roses. They're 100% cotton which makes them cool in the summer, warm in the winter and easy as cake to care for. Never any pilling, either. I found them at Ross at a great price and had to snap them up!

Behind the pillow shams, I used vintage pillowcases hand crocheted with the yummiest pink roses. The pictures do not do them justice. The fabric is bright white and the roses are the sweetest pinks. I also carried the crocheted rose theme to the night stand to tie it all in together.
I'm not sure why the pictures came out so dark and dull. It's so white and bright in person and it just makes you want to jump in bed and lay in the patch of sunlight like a cat (especially when the A/C is on and you can enjoy the best of both worlds).

Because this is a vintage bedspread, it's a double or full size which doesn't fit today's modern queen size bed. I just put a white battenburg lace dust ruffle under the mattress. It's not perfect, but it gives it that cottage layered look.
The throw pillows were made by a friend on eBay. She used vintage embroidery and fabrics in all of them mixed in with newer fabrics. She's no longer selling and is devoting all her time to being a wife and mommy.
Caring for chenille is so easy, too. I just pop it in the washing machine on a light cycle and toss it in the dryer on a med-low setting. It always comes out soft, fluffy and smelling wonderful!

Yippee!! I WON the Flea Market Floosie Emergency Kit!

I was working in the garden early today while it was still relatively cool. After a few hours of working, my daughter comes running out with a package. I was so excited because I knew exactly what it was. It's the Flea Market Floosie Emergency Kit that I won from Jan at Daylily Lane.
The box was all hand decorated with the prettiest Hibiscus Flowers. They are so pretty that my daughter started cutting out for her to keep. I tried to get a good picture of them, but couldn't for some reason (must be the camera).



Everything was wrapped inside pretty paper and sealed with a little label the said, "Congratulations" on it. When I removed the paper, out pops Jan's kit. She's so thoughtful. It's full of tons of goodies!

The Flea Market Floosie kit is full of everything you can possibly need when you're out antiquing, junking or flea marketing. The cutest pink mesh bag is printed with a big pink hibiscus flower on it (you can see it peeking out from behind the flip-flops on the left) was stuffed full of on-the-go necessities: A pink sport bottle complete with non-slip grip and a ez-freeze gel tube that will keep my water nice and cold all day; a tub of handi-wipes; pink hand sanitizer; pink coin purse; band-aids; mini note pad with a pink pen; pink personal fan complete with batteries; two bags of yummy roasted almonds (there's only one now and I don't think the other one will make it to the weekend - I love nuts!); and pink Stride gum. In addition, for after-shopping care, there is a pedicure kit and a fluffy pink scrubby to wash with. I love that everything is color co-ordinated in PINK!
I couldn't believe how wonderful and useful this little kit is. I always think about taking these kind of things with me when I go junking, but I always forget! Now I have everything I need organized in this wonderful kit. All I have to do is hang it over my wheely basket handles and I'm ready to go. THANK YOU so much, Jan, I love it!

Jan has a wonderful blog full of all kinds of fun posts and pictures of her beautiful flowers. She and her sister make the best gift baskets for her church. And she even has an Etsy store. Pop on over to her blog and drop her a note. I'm sure she'd love to meet you!