Saturday, 4.29.17 Butler's Pantry to Tea Bar

Well almost everyone who knows me, knows I am allergic to coffee.  That's right no coffee for me!  I do love to smell coffee but to drink it, it just isn't pretty and I'm going to leave it at that LOL!!  I have been thinking about taking our Butler's Pantry that is between the kitchen and the dining room and turning it into a tea bar.  John doesn't drink coffee either, we are definitely tea drinkers.  Well here is what the Butler's Pantry looked like before I worked my magic:

Now after working my magic, here is the new McDermitt Tea Bar open for business:

I have a pottery piece from Seagrove, NC that I cherish and have in my tea bar also.  I had it in the Butler's Pantry too.  I just love the imprinted flowers and ferns and the colors of the glazes.  Blue and Green are my favorite colors!!

I also took a Printer's Drawer like this:

I then took some of my very large stash of Young Living Essential Oils and did this:

After I worked all this magic before 7:30  in the a.m. (Thought I could sleep late but couldn't) I made myself a wonderful cup of Raspberry Vanilla loose tea and then went outside to see my roses.  This is what greeted me:

What a beautiful way to start my morning and the weekend!  Mother Nature and God are truly amazing!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Antique Carpenter's Wood Planes

As most of you know my Dad died 12/6/17.  My Dad started working before he was 16 years old.  He had 2 older brothers who were builders and he followed in their footsteps.  After high school he started out as a mason working for himself and then gradually started building houses.  He had a collection of antique wood planes.  When he died I told my Mom they should stay in the family because they were handed down from other generations to my Dad.  I told my Mom that if no one else in the family wanted them, I would love to have them as a remembrance to my Dad.  She told me I could have them, so I brought them home to NC with me.  I was just looking at Country Home 2016 magazine and this is what I saw:

The wall is loaded with antique planes.  Photo via Country Home 2016.

Below is my Dad's collection of antique wood planes handed down through his family and now they reside on my bookshelf wall my Dad built for me.  He didn't use any of these planes to make the bookshelf wall but it was all made by hand by him.  I think I am going to take some of the books off the shelf and put the planes there so you can see them better.  Kind of a tribute to Dad!  That man sure did love to work with his hands and wood!!  Love you Dad!!

This isn't a wood plane but it was my Dad's last wooden fold out ruler he owned.  I remember as a little girl holding that ruler so he could get an accurate reading.  I also got my fingers pinched in between the hinges more than once LOL!!

Just think by opening a magazine, seeing a photo how many memories come flooding back to you!  Life is truly amazing!!

Sunday, 04.23.17

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I had a wonderful Saturday and a relaxing Sunday!  Just a warning this is going to be a long post!  I took tons of photos yesterday.  We started out our Saturday going to breakfast with Ken and Megan.  Then the 4 of us headed up to Cabarrus County to an herb festival!  I could have spend every last dime I had on plants LOL!!!  It was a gardener's paradise for sure!  I forgot to take photos there but I did take photos of the herbs I bought after I planted them at home. 

This is the container I bought at the herb festival-there are about 4 different kinds of lettuce growing in it!

I bought parsley and thyme too!  I planted them together in this nice decorative clay pot I had.

After the herb festival, John and I went to Jenny's to take care of their bunny rabbit, Mr. Fox and their chickens.  Those girls sure did lay alot of eggs-Yummy!!!

After we went to Jenny's, we went to Pike's Nursery.  It's a good thing I don't work there because I wouldn't come home with a paycheck at all!!  LOL!!   I truly could spend every last dime on flowers and plants!!  Here are some lovely plants I bought or that I took photos of while I was there.

This was a Jean Marie Rhodie.  I want to get this next year for our backyard!

I bought 2 Boston ferns for the front porch.

This beautiful coleus came home with me and I added dusty miller with it in the planter.  I love the color combo!

This was a beautiful display at Pike's Nursery.  Downton Abbey has a rose collection and this one was of  Pretty Lady rose.  I also love this cross they have in the middle of the collection.  Just a beautiful vignette!!

Downton Abbey Pretty Lady Rose

I bought this red verbena for a hanging basket on the back porch.

Pike's Nursery always gives you a gift for shopping with them.  Yesterday they were giving 150 ladybugs away.  Last night I released them onto my rose bushes out front.  I hope they colonize and stick around!

We planted this beautiful Zebra Grass in the backyard yesterday.  We have a manhole cover that sticks up about 1 ft  and we want to cover that.  I think this grass will do that!!

After our hard work we had some iced tea on the patio.  I looked up and saw these two jet streams in the beautiful blue sky and just had to take a photo.  Just gorgeous!

Emma decided she was going to love on John for a bit too!

We rewarded ourselves with a sirloin steak from one of my Dad's grass fed steer.  It was so tender and so good!

We got butter and sugar fresh corn at the veggie stand too.  Soooooo good!!

Our first caprese salad of the season.  I had bought the basil at the herb festival.  It was so good to have fresh basil again!

Here is the steak and we had mashed potatoes too!

My hostas have come  out and are looking beautiful in all their glory!

These leaves are huge and puckered.  They are so colorful!

My Margaret rose is blooming so beautiful this year.  There are tons of buds and flowers and the smell is so intoxicating.

This is a cluster of moss rose buds in my front garden.  You can definitely see why they get there name moss ross. Each bud have moss like growth around each bud.  This rose has many, many tiny thorns.

Moss rose blossom

The front garden looks so beautiful and is really growing!

My potting bench really got alot of use yesterday!  So glad we built this last year!

I love clay pots and crocks.  They look so nice on my potting bench.

My little clay pot holds my twine and flower tags.

My Pink Knock-out Rose was sprinkled with water drops..  Looks so pretty along the patio.

My purple iris is blooming so beautiful.  I picked this blossom because I knew it was going to rain today.  Good thing I did because the rains have been torrential at times.

Closeup of this beautiful purple iris.

We decided to end our day outside sitting on the front porch.  The sky just filled up with these little clouds.

What a peaceful way to end our day outside.

Today, due to the rain I have stayed inside and just rested and relaxed.  The only time we went out was to take care of Jenny's rabbit and chickens.  It was a much needed rest day!