Zinnia

What a pair!  Zinnia #2 on left, #1 on right

With the Balalaika

Peasant scarf

#2's Balalaika with Red maple neck and black walnut body

What a sweetie, eh?!

~~~~

Pure Whimsy! A Bohemian Free Spirit!

A fall offering: Named after the beautiful wildly colored flower, Zinnia is wearing her brightly colored attire but is prepared for cooler weather with her little Jacket. She wears a Sleeveless Coatdress, fully lined, that closes with three snaps and is decorated with leaf shaped buttons. Her jacket is also fully lined and closes with a button at the top, with a tiny hand-crocheted loop. Of course, she’s wearing Bloomers! They are elasticized at the waist and legs. She wears a Peasant Scarf over her full head of hair. With her Balalaika, she’s getting ready for the Autumn harvest of flower seed, and she’ll be placing them into the Seed Bag strapped across her chest.

Candy Flower Magic

Am extremely homesick today.  Maybe, just maybe, these

Candy Colors will make me feel better. 

I found this piece of Grandma's Flower Garden piecework

on Ebay years ago, and have never known just what to do with it.

The blues just got me today, and then I had a brainstorm.

This window was just too bare.

All I did was fold over one edge of the piece and sewed it

down to make a casing, using a Long stitch length, in case there

comes a time to take it down and use it for something else, the stitching will be

easy to remove.

It needed the little "V" in the middle, like my other valances, so I found:

a Vintage Turtle pin, which I used as a younger child. (I'm an "older child" now!)

 I simply pinned up the middle just a little.

I like the way the turtle shell echos the hexagons in the

Grandmother's Flower Garden patchwork.



These are some of the bears in the corner chair.

This little one is only about 2 inches high.  I made this little one

several years ago.  It's so small, it's a wonder it hasn't been lost.

And, holding up the corner, is a wooden church box.

~~~

I really think the person who made this patchwork really

understood what a Grandmother's Flower Garden patchwork

ought to look like.

It really captures the wildly bright colors I love in flowers.

Above:  Flowers from my garden: Red Rose, Purple Zinnia,

Coral Zinnia, Pink Peony, and Orange Zinnia.

~~~

The valance is hanging on the window that you see going upstairs

to the Playroom (sewing room). 

Will it cure my "blues"?

I pray it works it's magic.

~~

You have to get up and do something when you

are missing someone or something or someplace.

Make something new, rearrange the furniture,

go play with color, even if it's your kids' crayons.

What else would be fun is to buy yourself a

set of watercolors- I like Windsor and Newton colors -

and a couple paintbrushes and some watercolor paper.

Then Play with Colors.

It's the best medicine.

XXOO,   BB



Treasures - Worth More Than Money to Me....

"Blue Vase" - painting by moi - circa 1974

Grandfather's ledger - 1930

Blue Vase - on my shelf, where I can see it every day.

~

Some things are worth more than money, in any amount, to me.

I had a very happy day the other day because

I found some misplaced treasures.

I found my "Blue Vase" painting,

that I painted around 1974.

My mother had this pretty blue vase, which I loved,

and we had some zinnias growing, so I put them

in the vase, and painted it.  I was influenced by the impressionist

painters back then, so I made that background.  I love this little painting.

It brings back good memories, and it makes me happy.

~

My second treasure is my Swedish-American grandfather's ledger

from the Depression Era.   It is so precious to me.

This is how they made their living- by farming, selling eggs, an occasional calf,

selling apples and produce.  It lists what and how much they paid for all their expenses.

It wasn't easy living, but they lived off the farm.  I love them for that.

Farming is in my blood. 

~

O happy day!

Updating you, one post at a time!

I'm just so busy I can hardly stand it!! I'm up to my ears in cucumbers,

 picking them every 4-5 days and making pickles!

Truely there's so much I am going to update you about,

but have to do it piecemeal, one at a time.  We're in the farming/canning season,

and there's so much to do, and the days just aren't long enough to do them!

 The corn is high too.  This is before it dried out too much.

Hello Zinnia!  Isn't she lovely?

And how about this?  I'll leave you with this picture

for now......have to run....  XXOO, BB