More spring sights.

I went out and trimmed my hedge today. It's another nice day. I love to work when it is cool outside. It's almost 60. I've never trimmed the hedge before the leaves come out before but it grew a lot longer this year because of the warm weather. I like the hedge as it's at the back of my lot but it is as tall as I am so it's very hard to trim. I cut it down pretty good. Maybe I'll decide to trim it this early every year.

A couple of my prim roses are blooming. The blue one was blooming in December! Some of my pink ones are starting too.
I have them down the stairs on one side.The myrtle around the tree out front is beginning to bloom.
My daughter gave me these tulips last year. I had forgotten about them until I noticed the colored leaves today. I can't remember what color the flowers are.
One lonely daffodil in bloom.
I was surprised to see this pansy already blooming.
This one too! Okay I cheated! I confess! The daffodil and the pansy are at my neighbors! They get more sun so theirs always bloom first. But I really was surprised to see the pansy.

I love this time of year when things change from morning to night. A couple more days and my daffodils should be out. Our weather looks good for awhile. I keep expecting a drastic change for the worse!

Out back

I've mentioned the back of my house several times and thought I would show it to you. As you can see, the house is 3 stories from the back. The door on the bottom level goes to my beauty shop, which is actually in the basement. You can see the barber pole by the door if you look really hard. The next floor is the deck which is off the kitchen. Because I live in the city the only way to the deck is thru the kitchen. The roof over the deck is where I was removing ice this winter. I climbed out the hall window which is on the right. The area on the left that juts out is my tiny bathroom that used to be a porch.This is my gardening area under the deck. Laurie and Chris had this green table in their basement and the shelves were in a closet at my Moms.
These are the stairs that I have to keep shoveled all winter for my customers. The pussy willow tree is in the middle of this, my largest garden.
This picture is from a garden in the middle of my back yard. I bought an old metal crib and I use the ends for a "fence" at the back of this garden.

These are the sides of the crib. They are what you see on one of the posts to the deck. There are 2 different clematis that grow up the rails. There is an orange trumpet vine on the post on the far left.
This wind chime hangs under the deck. Some one gave it to my friend Lloyd and he said it fit my taste more than his.

As you can see I like to use old "junk" in my gardens. I will definitely be showing you more "junk" as the summer season progresses. Like my house, that's what makes my spaces mine!

A drive plus a bonus!

I was feeling a little "antsy" on Tuesday so decided to drive to TJMaxx (it's about 40 minutes away) and I'm very glad I did. Found some great things!Of course, I had to look inthe baby department. Isn't this adorable? The "skirt" is really shorts and I love the capris. What is an outfit without socks to match!
I love this angel! I'm not sure which garden she'll end up in. I have gotten new garden things all winter so I may have to put in another garden to put them all in!
This birdhouse caught my eye in a display the minute I walked in the door. I love the rustic look. It will stay in my kitchen for now.

These were the best buy! I got all 5 boxes for $4.99! I put a couple in my patriotic entry but I can use the different sizes for all kinds of things.

It was a nice day and I really enjoyed just getting away for a couple hours after going to the dentist and the tax lady. The great finds (and a junior bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's drivethru) were a bonus!

Spring this n'that

First, I have to tell you that the critters I caught yesterday were chipmunks not squirrels. Chipmunks climb trees but they live in the ground. They dig holes and tunnel all over. That's why I had to get rid of them.

We're having another nice day. It's cooler but still in the 50's which is good for this time of year. When I got done in the shop I went out and fixed my eaves. The ice had made the front one bend forward and the brackets weren't attached to it any more.

Since I had the ladder out, I hung this on the house. I got it at a craft show a few years ago. It was quite expensive but is a one of a kind piece and I fell in love with it. It is all cut from tin and the stars are on a twisted wire so it is very dimensional.I hung my spring/summer flag too.
These are my few little crocus that I have out front. In case you don't visit my daughters blog I thought you might enjoy this.
These are all crocus! Seems Laurie and I had the same idea. Check out her pictures on yesterdays blog. Isn't this beautiful?
This is my Lenten rose (Hellebore). It is bending down so was a little hard to take a picture of. This is the first time it bloomed. There are more buds so maybe I can get a better pic later. I love the color!

Gotcha!!

Remember when I showed the caved in rocks on my patio? Well,I've caught one of the culprits! I know there is at least one more because I've seen 2 at one time.I know that they are really cute and fun to watch and if they would stay out back farther I would leave them alone. Once they get close to the house it isn't long before they are in the house.
I put on some gloves just in case and grab my recycling bin.
In goes the trap and into the trunk of my car.
After a short drive, I take the trap out of the car and set it on the ground.
I just open up the end and out it goes. There are several acres of woods in this park and I'm hoping he finds some friends and doesn't come back to my house!
Here's hoping that I can catch the other one. There is a squirrel up close to the house too but I've never caught one. I'd really like to get rid of that too.
Update: Just took number 2 to his new home! I'll put the trap out again in the morning.

Jerzie-guest writer

I had a super time at Grandma's today! It was so nice we could go outside for the first time. I got to ride in Grandma's big swing!It was really fun! I heard all kinds of sounds I don't remember hearing before. Even though I couldn't see too many birds I could hear them. I just sat very still and listened. I also heard some wind chimes. They sound beautiful.
Grandma and I went for two walks. This morning I met Jay who lives down the street. She was very happy to meet me and she asked us to come again. We saw some purple and yellow crocus on that walk but Grandma forgot to bring her camera so we don't have a picture.

After my lunch Grandma and I went for another walk. This time we stopped to see Cora. I've met her at Grandma's beauty shop before. Her birthday is in July, just like mine, but she is going to be 95! We went in to see her house but we didn't stay long because she hasn't been feeling to well. She showed me lots of pictures on her refrigerator of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She asked us to come again, too.

Grandma and I will be busy taking care of her flowers and visiting people this summer. I found out that I really like going for a walk so we'll have to do it every Monday when I stay with Grandma.

I'm real tired from all the sun and fresh air so I'm going to take a nap now.
I wrote a story about wrestling a bear the last time I wrote on Grandma's blog. Click here if you'd like to read it.

Update: After my long nap and bottle we went across the street to our friend Anne's. Today is her birthday and Grandma and I gave her an Easter lily. It smelled really good. I flirted with JJ and had fun with Anne and her sister Marilyn. We got home just in time to play a couple minutes and then Mommy picked me up.

We had a great day!

I smelled spring today!

I saw my first robin just yesterday! It was such a beautiful day today I had to get out in the garden. It was cool and very wet but it sure felt good. I only have a couple small patches of snow left to melt.

Sometimes I get carried away too early and uncover things that still need the protection of the leaves that cover them. I decided I would just cut down things that I hadn't cut in the fall. Some of my gardens are very orderly and then there are others that are more wild. I'm not sure exactly what is what in the wild ones until things come up more. I found some things by smell today. I love the smell of bee balm and I could sure tell where it is planted.
I have a huge bunch of fennel and I knew what that was when I cut down the stalks. Smells just like licorice!
Fever few has a very distinctive smell. I wouldn't say that it is a favorite smell but there is no confusing it with something else.
I had to really cut back a couple lavender plants. Sometimes their smell can be overpowering but not today. Just a nice, fresh fragrance.
It not only looked like spring today, but it smelled like spring!

Mildred and Earl

Mildred, 93, was despondent over the recent death of her husband

Earl, so she decided to just kill herself and join him in death.

Thinking it would be best to get it over with quickly,

she took out Earl's old Army pistol and made the decision

to shoot herself in the heart since it was

so badly broken in the first place.

Not wanting to miss the vital organ and become a vegetable

and a burden to someone,

she called her doctor's office to learn her heart's exact location.

"Since you're a woman," the doctor said, "your heart is

just below your left breast.

Why do you ask?"

She hung up without answering.

Later that night, Mildred was admitted to the hospital

with a gunshot wound to her knee.

I can relate, can you?

Removing winter!

I removed winter today! I brought in the sled that stood by the front door, took the winter wreath off the beauty shop door and took down my snowman flag. Most of our snow is gone and it's in the low 40's but so far there is no snow in the forcast.
I picked these pussy willows in my garden. I bought the tree several years ago at Walmart on clearance for three dollars. They called it a pink pussywillow. See how pink some of them are. When they get bigger they don't look pink.
One of my customers comes from Sweeden and he told me that they tie bright colored feathers on pussywillows for Easter. This picture I found shows them on several spring plants. The pot on the right looks like pussywillows.I did see some more stuff sprouting. The hyacinth and the lenton roses are showing new growth. I even threw some grass seed on the front lawn.
I'm sure not expecting to be snow free now, I do live in western New York, but I'm hoping for just a couple inches here and there not feet!

Quick change!

I decided to change my candle stand in the living room today. I've been thinking about it far awhile. I don't mind all different wood tones together but this cabinet just wasn't right with the other furniture. It stands between two doors and is the perfect size for that spot. You can see in this post what it looked like. I based it all a light tan. When I decided to do something I want to do it NOW, so I just mixed some paint I had until I got the color I wanted.
When that dried I put some crackle medium on it. I usually use a dark background when I crackle but it seemed too old country with a dark first coat.

When the crackle medium was tacky I painted with a cream color.
Within a couple minutes it was doing it's thing. I just love this look and it's so fun to watch.
You can see the difference in the colors once it starts to crackle.
The whole process only took a couple hours and I'm really happy with the finished piece. It's the same color as my TV cabinet so it looks more like it belongs in here now
I might look for some different knobs but these will do for now. They are quite small so it may be hard to find something.
What do you think? Do you like the crackle finish? Ever do it yourself?

Spring '99?

I spring cleaned my bedroom today. I'm not sure what year I'm on but I'd guess 1999! I'm not one of those fall and spring cleaning people. I'm more of a "Oh my gosh, that's GROSS!" kind of people. I'll bet I'm not the only one! Come on, fess up!

Anyway this is my purple bedroom. You can't really tell the color in most of these pics but it is dark purple and it's sponge painted. The bed is a three-quarter bed that I got at a household sale. I would rather have this bed in my room but it is a lot bigger.

The cedar chest came from my Grandmother.

I love the picture over my bed. It came from a clearance table at Kirkland's. The shelf and picture are Home Interior and the angel, Kirkland's clearance table again.

I switched these two dressers around and I will hang the mirror once I'm sure I like it this way.

I don't normally cover a window like this but it will help save my sanity! Look at the next picture and you'll see why.
This is the view out my window. They actually cleaned some of it up last week and the landlord took 3 bags of pop cans that were on the stoop yesterday! I do not live in a ghetto, really I don't! These are the neighbors that have given me trouble before and when the snow is gone, if it isn't cleaned up, I will report it. I'm just so tired of fighting with these people that I am trying to "turn the other cheek". Maybe I won't get so upset if I can't see it! I bought this frame with the glass missing real cheap at Burlington Coat Factory. I used an old linen tablecloth for the background and some stuff from my garden and had a new glass cut.
This is a tray from my Mom. The picture is on a ceramic like substance and there is a silver edging on it. I kept it because I thought it was pretty and it's perfect in here.
Last but not least, my computer station. This is the only place for it now that I don't use the upstairs.

Hopefully I will get real ambitious and continue my 1999 spring cleaning. I better hurry because once I can get outside I'll be doing the spring cleaning in the gardens. Now that's cleaning that I enjoy!