Happy Mother's Day, Pictures of the New House and Roses!

First of all Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms! I had a lovely Mother's Day with my girls, my husband and son-in-laws. Megan's hubby made mojitos from the fresh mint in their garden-they were yummy!!! He also made ribs on the grill smoked with apple wood, Megan made Hot German Potato Salad, tomato mozzarella salad and corn on the cob. Jenny and her hubby brought Oreo Cookie and Reeses cupcakes-they were so good too!!

I promised I would post some pictures of the new house and here they are so far:

This is the antique gateleg table we have in the front hall. I'm going to get an oval mirror to hang up on the wall too.

This is the small formal living room in front of the house which I have turned in to a reading room.

This is the Great Room looking in from the Kitchen.

This is my lovely one and a half chair. I love reading and knitting in this chair. You can see the outside patio from there. There is great light from the outside in this room.

This is a view in the Great Room looking to the right you can see the Butler's Pantry and Dining Room. To the left you can see the front entryway.

My blue cupboard in the Dining Room.

This is the blue cupboard with the doors open. You can see all my green depression glass that I have been collecting for years.

This is my beautiful antique pumpkin pine stepback cupboard from NY state. I love the patina on this cupboard. It fits perfectly in the new Dining Room.

View from the kitchen to the outside patio area. We love eating dinner out here. There is honeysuckle blooming in the backyard right now and it is so heavenly to smell!

Picnic Table on the patio.

John set up the fountain on the patio and I surrounded it with some of the plants for now.

My lemons made it through the move and here is the biggest one!

Yesterday John, the girls, their husbands and I went strawberry picking. We had alot of fun!

Here is the bag of strawberries (2 gals. to be exact) waiting to be cleaned.

This is the end results. John and I had strawberry smoothies last night and they were so good made with the fresh berries!

John bought me some beautiful roses yesterday for Mother's Day.

This is the bouquet that John bought me-just gorgeous!

I put two roses, one for each of my girls, in the vase that was my grandmothers. I love this vase and it is even more special because my Grandma gave it to me before she died saying I always grow such lovely roses and I could put them in the vase and think of her.

Here is a single rose with baby's breath.

Roses on my kitchen table.

That is about it for today! I hope everyone had a lovely day whether you are a mother or not!

Strawberry picking tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning John and I have decided to take a break from the whole moving unpacking thing and we are going strawberry picking with the girls and their men! I love fresh strawberries!! I can just picture sitting on the patio on Sunday morning before Church eating a bowl of freshly picked strawberries-life will be good! After the berry picking we will be stopping at a little local restaurant for lunch and then off to The Garden Gate. The Garden Gate is run souly by this older woman (she is pushing 80 but looks like she is in her early 70's). She has about 5 greenhouses and grows all of her own plants. I love to buy from her because #1 I like to help local growers and #2 she has the best plants around. I wonder what "trouble" I'll get into there tomorrow!! After all the fun, John and I will head on back to hang all of our paintings and photos. It is really feeling like home these days!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Enjoy!!

Chandelier Hunting

When we moved in the house we noticed that it was odd there was no Dining Room chandelier. We then remembered the owner switched the formal living room and dining room. Neither room has a chandelier. We are on the hunt for a chandelier now. I saw on a blog where the person (sorry I can't remember which blog it was) took a brass chandelier and spray painted it with nickel colored paint and put touches of black and that look really wonderful. I might go to the Habitat Restore and look around over the weekend and see if I can find something. I also think I might stop at a great antique emporium called The Sleepy Poet-I'm sure I could find something there. I also just remembered there is an urban renewal type store not far from where I work. They have gathered things out of places that were scheduled for demolition. They have shutters, columns, furniture, chandeliers, etc., etc., etc. I'm sure John and I will find the prefect chandelier.

I did see this chandelier in the Pottery Barn catalog that might just be the ticket!

Saturday should be fun looking for one! I love just going around looking at the many, many choices out there!

Everyone have a lovely day!

My life in reverse!

It is funny how we become creatures of habit. Friday we moved into our new rental home and I was surprised when the first few things were reversed from the town house we had been renting for two years. The front door knob is on the right now and it had been on the left in the town house. The microwave surface light (the one that lights the surface of the stove top) and vent fan switches are on the opposite sides from the town house. Light switches, towel bars and a few other things. These are just little things but I keep touching the wrong buttons and getting the opposite of what I really need.

We are loving the house though! I love sitting on the patio eating dinner or having a cup of tea in the morning. The cardinals are still plentiful at this house and for that I am thankful. They haven't "found" the feeders yet but I'm sure they will soon. The sunflower seeds are waiting for them!

My plants seem to be liking it there too, no yellow leaves, no lost lemons in the transport but my bird of paradise did lose the 11 foot leaf that was unfurling. I just cut it off at the base and I'm sure it will do just fine.

I can't find my bedroom curtains. I think there is still one box from the linen closet hiding in the garage and I am bound and determined to find it tonight. We had one broken dish, which I didn't think was too bad. I had wrapped everything really well, but some how this one just broke in 3 pieces. Overall the move went really well, just alot of back breaking work!

Thanks for all the well wishes you have given John and I! Enjoy your day!

All Moved in, Tired but Happy!

Well we have been on a journey since Wednesday night but I am happy to report we are all moved in and about 70% unpacked!!! We love this house! We ate dinner out on the patio last night and we just loved listening to the birds in the trees in the backyard and the smell of the honeysuckle that is growing here was just wonderful! No pictures yet but they will follow soon. Just wanted to say hi quickly before getting back to the boxes. Everyone have a lovely day!

Baby Blankets and Flowers

I finished the little girl baby blanket the other day and I took some pictures to show you. Emily Katherine was born on Easter Sunday. What a wonderful gift for her parents. Marcus, the Dad is a co-worker of mine. I'm bringing the blanket in tomorrow for them.

Right before we left for our NJ trip I started a baby blanket for my grandson, Owen. Jenny's due date is July 17th. I can't wait to hold that little baby in my arms and cuddling with him! I love the color combo of his blanket!

When I got home from work today I knew I had to start more packing, but first I had to check out my roses. Here are some pictures of these beauties!

I love my moss rose. The color is so beautiful!

This shell pink rose blooms all season long-I just love it!

This is my favorite hosta by my fountain. The leaves are just so huge this year!

Hope you like the pictures and I thought it would be good to show you the baby blankets so you will know what I have been working on. I might not be on here very much until after we move to our new house on Friday. I'll stop by when I can!

Take time to smell the roses literally :)!!! Enjoy nature and life!

I'm Back from NJ!!

I'm back from NJ! It ended up being a 12 hour ride on the way back because there was a backup in Virginia for an hour so it set us back. We had a great time in NJ most of the time. My sister, Sue needs everyone's prayers-she had a break down again and on Good Friday we had to admit her to Mental Health again. She is doing much better. We found out she wasn't taking her meds but she is now on them and hopefully will be back home by the end of the week. Easter Sunday I visited her with my parents and other sister. I talked with her on the phone today and she sounds so much better. I hope this time she stays on her meds, poor thing.

Saturday my nieces and my nephew colored Easter Eggs at my Mom and Dad's. I got a few pictures of them. Jenny also helped them to bring their creative side out!!

My niece, Devyn coloring some eggs.

Jenny and Troy (my nephew) coloring eggs.

Jenny, Troy and Devyn coloring eggs.

Tawny (my niece) broke 3 eggs so she is making a egg salad sandwich.

Easter Centerpiece

This is my younger sister, Sandy. She had a really pretty dress and crocheted sweater on for Easter.

My sisters and my Mom won't be able to come to Jenny's baby shower. My sisters bought her gifts ahead of time. They decided she should open them early. Here she is opening up some of the gifts.

My Dad makes furniture. He made this cherry Queen Size bed for my nephew, Troy. This is the headboard. It is a platform bed with drawer underneath-he did an awesome job!

Here is the cherry dresser he also made for Troy. They both came out so good and look great in his room.

Well that is all I've got from NJ. I am glad to be back home, in my own bed, watching my own TV shows, but even with my sisters breakdown we all managed to have a good time! Hope everyone had a really nice Easter!