Marjorie McNeely Conservatory

This is the beautiful flower garden room in the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Como Zoo.  The conservatory was built between 1914 and 1915.  This room was special for me to see and walk through because while my Grandmother lived in St. Paul, my uncle would take her to the conservatory in winter to walk around and enjoy the flowers.  I could see right away why she loved going there.  The flowers are so beautiful!

 

These lily pads are so pretty.  I found I quite like lily pads.

Pretty Gerbra Daisies.

And no day at the zoo is complete without a snow cone!  Yum!

Until another day!

Springtime Projects

We have some Springtime projects going on at our house and we've been busy busy busy!

The first project is a landscaping one that my husband decided to tackle this year.  Over this past winter we had several of our paving blocks crumble, and they must be replaced.  So, we have decided to do other small landscaping projects as well in order to make the whole yard a more inviting space.

Walk way and "rock garden" BEFORE

AFTER or "Middle Stage" we should call it.  We moved all of the rocks using a shovel, wheelbarrow and our hands.  This space will be filled with flowers, shrubs and some larger rocks.  It will also have a pathway running down the center.

We planted another tree and moved the rocks to this kidney bean shaped bed.  For some odd reason we kept calling it the "kidney stone".  There is a pavement block in the center (behind the small plant pots).  A new birdbath will sit upon that pavement block!  I've always wanted to be able to look out my kitchen window at a lovely bird bath.
 

Along with our outside project I also have an embroidery project started, have been catching up on letter writing, AND have new garage sale finds to share with you.  But all of that tomorrow!  Until then, have a happy vintage day!!
Jen

Embroidered Lilac

"Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly" by Dinah Shore (were her parents paleontologists? Just kidding.)
All kidding aside, Dinah Shore seemed to have a very interesting life.  You can read about her here, on Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_Shore
Dinah's version of "Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly" is my favorite and seems to be fitting for this post about my favorite lavender flower, the lilac.

Autumn and I have been reading the Betsy Tacy books and Maud Hart Lovelace always mentions the lilacs by the backdoor of Betsy's house. 

Where I come from, a homestead yard, farm yard or yard in town isn't complete without a lilac bush nearby. 

I love lilacs.  They are a part of my childhood, most of the yards throughout the small town I grew up in had them.  They remind me of both my Grandmothers and my mom.  When darling husband and I bought our first house it had a lilac bush in the front yard.  Imagine my horror when my darling husband ripped the lilac bush out of the front yard because it was "too difficult to mow around".  Our little yellow house with white shutters and trim just never looked the same to me....something was always lacking.  I'll never let him live that one down haha!  Unfortunately, I still don't have a lilac bush in our yard.  But I'm workin' on it and maybe next spring one will be planted.

But I digress...

Lilacs can be the prettiest shades of purple and lavender.

 

And lilacs always have the ability to bring me cheer, and they smell good too!

 



Birthday lilacs from my Sis-in-law.

So, while looking for a new project for this week, a simple phrase from a Betsy Tacy book inspired me to embroider lilacs. 

 

And here it is finished.  I suppose it could be a table napkin.  I used one of the two 14x14 quilt blocks that weren't big enough for my Dresden flowers.  Soon, I will stitch the other to make a pair. 

Folded neatly into a nice little square.

 

 

Until tomorrow, have a Happy, Stitchy Day!

The Garden

One of my favorite quotes is from Cicero, "He who has a library and a garden wants for nothing".  And even though some will argue that's not exactly what he said, I don't care, I like it.  We have parks and gardens in our city and a library.  And now once again, along with my small library of favorite books I have my very own sitting garden.  

There is still much to do, but it's coming along nicely.  I'd like to attach some chicken wire to the deck, behind the fountain for sweet peas to grow on.  Either that or would like to plant hollyhocks behind the fountain.  They could be easily tied back against the decking. 

I hope to add more flowers during the month of June, but this is fine for now.  It is quite relaxing to sit in my chair with a book, while listening to the trickling water fountain and enjoying the lovely colored blooms.  Until next time...

Have a Happy Day! 

Home From Huntington Beach

What a great trip we had.  My husband's boss invited us to go to the National Taco Johns conference in Huntington Beach, California.  It was awesome!  The only thing that could've been better was the weather.  It was chilly and windy the first 3 days, but the last day was beautiful.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach which was right across from the ocean.  It just killed me the first night not to be able to cross over this bridge to the ocean!  I told Shannan (who doesn't collect shells) to imagine a beach covered in Blu Ray movies just laying there for the taking.  Then he understood.  This bridge stretches across the Pacific Coast Highway and connects our hotel to the beach.

Most of our hotel walkways were wide open.  This is the "Market Place" where there was a small grocery store, an art gallery, a pub and other restaurants and shops.  This fire pit is lite at night and once we saw some people making smores!

Time to learn a little something.  We had general sessions on two different mornings where we listened to motivational speakers, and had meetings about the restaurants.  I learned a lot and sometimes was even able to apply what I was hearing to my own profession.

Shannan the fish whisperer.  They came up to where we were because I think they were hungry.

The hotel grounds were beautiful and very well kept.  There were flowers everywhere!

On rainy days the hotel would set out these blue umbrellas.  You'd pick up an umbrella, walk across the open courtyard, then drop it in the bin on the other side.  I never used one.  The rain was nice.

Pete's Bar was my favorite place.  It had surf boards everywhere, Jan and Dean posters and album covers on the ceiling.  By the end of the week one of our regular bartenders (Dom) knew what everyone would want right down to the lime in one gal's beer!  Our group liked to meet there for "one last round" before bed. 

Record sleeves on the ceiling at Pete's

Jan and Dean!!

These flowers looked like birds!  Crane birds.

The crew took a cab a few blocks down Pacific Coast Highway and we ate at Spark.  It was here that I tasted my first Hefeweizen beer, which is apparently a German wheat beer.  I know nothing about beer but swear I drank more of it on this trip than I did all my college years combined.  I drank beers I'd never heard of and some I had.  Now I want to learn more because this Hefeweizen stuff was Gooooooood.