Season of Extremes

I know that the whole country is experiencing crazy weather and unseasonable extremes and it has been no different here. Early Spring was one of the rainiest on record and now we would welcome some of that rain with open arms! as well as some of those cooler temps! The soggy weather delayed me a bit in getting  out to the garden but now that it seems as if we passed right over Spring to land directly into Summer, the gardens are seeing their full share of sun shine.  The dirt underneath my finger nails is well worth the results that we are experiencing now...

I love selecting the plants that I use to make up my planters! The colors, textures and blooms are so much fun to put together. When I pick them out at the nursery, I mix all the selections right on the cart that I am going to use, to see how they look together.

Now the only problem is the constant watering that they need!

Plants that I put in last year are coming into their own! I love Catmint, Wild Honeysuckle Vine and of course my Peonies.

Beginning of The Big Barn Renovation

Hello again! Sorry to have been away for so long...We started to gut the Upper Barn... and I got lost! I have attached some pictures so that you can see how that might have happened. We have this awesome old Bank Barn that was built in the late 1700's but burnt down in the 1860's. We found an old newspaper clipping stating that it burnt down after catching fire from a tramp's cigarette and was rebuilt soon after. It has the fabulous markings of a barn that was heavily used, year after year, to store the equipment of the working dairy farm as well as the hay and other grains that would have been harvested on the 150 acre farm. Fortunately, for us, it had became a cavernous storage area over the years.  Discarded windows, doors, woodwork, shutters, sinks etc, that document years of architectural changes are piled against the massive stone walls.

 Unfortunately, joining those historical elements were objects that ended up there due to our inability to separate from them "just in case we needed them one day."

 Well I finally took the bull by the horns and spent a significant amount of time purging the items in the barn. We all know how much stuff we can accumulate when you have a large area where you can put it and it does not interfere with your everyday life! Decisions, decisions...what to keep? what can be made into new objects? what becomes a past memory?  Did I forget to tell you that this massive project was totally predicated by a dumpster showing up outside of the barn, along with a few Amish barn builders and stone masons? They simply asked the question, "What are we supposed to do with all this stuff?" Enough said!

Stay tuned for the progress... 

My First Blog!

I have to be perfectly honest with you in that I never thought that I would ever write a blog! I had heard about them but was not even sure exactly what they were. What do you do on a blog??? All of that changed when I picked up a copy of Stampington and Co's, Artful Blogging and I was blown away. All of the beautiful images...page after page, along with articles written by the bloggers themselves revealing what got them hooked on blogging, inspired me. The urge to create and communicate with other creative souls was overwhelming! 

Creativity has been a part of me for a very long time. From my earliest attempts at decorating my room for the Holidays out of my stash of goodies in a shoe box to teaching elementary school to raising our own children; creativity has always been an integral part of my everyday life. Those shoeboxes have doubled, tripled and so on so that a Holiday does not go by without the proper adornment. Birthday parties have been huge fun for me as well as for my children. Speaking of the kids (we have five), who range in age from 19 to 9, they are used to me always working on a "project." Those "projects" have been creative in nature including decorating, gardening, scrap booking, planning parties, school projects, school Benefits, cooking etc.

I am now pursuing the biggest creative "project" that I have dreamed about for a couple of years. It combines many of my creative passions into one venue. The shoe boxes have turned into much larger boxes but the idea remains the same; to instill in life a vibrancy of celebration and beauty. We are here for a short time so incorporate a feast for your senses in your everyday life. I would like to share with you how I have tried to do that in our home. I hope that you can glean some inspiration from my blogs as I have from so many of yours! Stay tuned!