Thrifty Finds

Today is my first time to participate in Rhoda's Today's Thrifty Treasures. Be sure to check out Southern Hospitality and see what your fellow garage sale, thrift store, and estate sale "peeps" are gathering.

Our church had a huge garage sale this weekend. I found two Sandy Gore Evans prints. This was my favorite one and it goes great in my hearth room - all framed, matted - ready to go.

A bird's nest, a plate, a little teacup, two bags of Aromatique potpourri, and a small dome that will make a good cloche were some more of the bargains I found.

This old rickety chair will be transformed by my husband. I have several old chairs I've picked-up at sales and brought home. He's transformed a number of them.

A Cloche Party

It's a Cloche Party today. Check out all the great ideas for using cloches (and close variations) at A Stroll Thru Life. A teacup-pot combo with a sprig of ivy is in my dining room.

An old anniversary clock dome is what I used for this cloche. I found it at a Goodwill for $.50. So, in this one is a hen (salt shaker) on a nest of Limoge cups. This sits down in my very country family room.

This little cloche I found and it exactly fit a butter dish whose dome was broken a while ago. I like bows and what-nots affixed to their handles. I've really enjoyed looking at all the other cloches - gives me lots of ideas for changing my own. I tend to change my cloches with the seasons. I like looking at everyone else's ideas to see what I could do as well. Enjoy!

Met Monday for the Garden

It was a weekend for garden tours. I went to a fabulous garden and when I got home to look at the pics that I took I found that I took far more pics of "things in the garden" than I did of plants in the garden. I think that means that I like the addition of hardscape in the garden. What to do with the old tree trunk after you've stripped it of its diseased branches - how about creating a birdhouse from it (not really useful but cute)? Note the glass doorknob for the perch.

How about recycling those vintage tablecloths that have stains or holes in them rendering them "unusable as tablecloths" into seat cushions for a darling picnic set in the garden?

How about recycling the old trumpet from a garage sale into a fountain with water cascading from its bell? Isn't the stand cute too? It looked like a mosaiced piece to me. I took many pictures in this garden - many ideas I've seen before in other gardens but still - I couldn't get enough of the eye-candy in this garden.

Be sure to visit Between Naps on the Porch for the many transformations you'll see in Met Monday.

Albino Euphorbia for Cactus Monday

This is a new cactus that my daughter gave us for our 40th anniversary this week. This is a Euphorbia Lactea Crest grafted. Its an albino cactus that is grafted to another that is green in order for it to live. The albino cactus can not manufacture chlorophyll for its own food so it's grafted to another cactus to generate the chlorophyll. Pretty interesting! I'm anxious to see how it grows and changes.

It is Cactus Monday at Teri's Painted Daisies. Check out the artist renderings of cactus as well as other plants there.

Camp Horizon

I went with my daughter/husband/kids to pick Kaitlin up from a week of church camp at Camp Horizon near Arkansas City, KS; today. She had such a good time and was full of stories from her experiences. She had no reservations at saying she was going back again next year. She got to canoe; camp overnight in a tent; swim; use the high ropes; use a zip-line; and best of all build christian relationships with adults and other kids.

Camp Horizon overlooks the Arkansas River valley. It's a beautiful scenic spot - close to one of the prettiest in Kansas.

Mom, Dad, and siblings were there to welcome her back home with hugs - only took a few minutes until arguing insued (why is that???). We're all glad she's back home and so glad she had a great experience.

Double-Dose of Ladies With Books

I have been lax the past two months in posting about my book club and its latest "reads". Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a book about a woman experiencing early on-set Ahlzheimers and is written from her perspective. This is a very good book and gives one good in-sight into such an experience. This was Dayle's choice for us to read during the month of April.

The May "read" was The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. This is a murder mystery which takes place in Kansas written by a Kansan. This was a good mystery - kept you involved until the end to find out exactly what happened. Ruby chose this book for May.

Derby Garden Tour

Our suburban town of Derby, Kansas, sponsored its 3rd annual garden tour this weekend. Our little town has some great gardens. Today I'm sharing one that belongs to an outstanding gardener who works very hard in his yard. He's used hardscape as well as a wide variety of plants in his garden. The above mosaic is his creation he completed over the last winter - you see this just as you enter his yard.

He has a swimming pool which has been converted to a pond. It's easy to forget that is was ever a pool. You see towering Blue Spruce and all varieties of plants in this yard. He also raises Koi and has large, beautiful fish in his pond. It's hard to believe you're in central Kansas while looking and appreciating this landscape.

Bill paints alot of his hardscape every year and changes the color as well. Orange is the color this year. I appreciate almost as much the hardscape in a yard/garden as I do the plantings. More to come of other yards on the Derby Garden Tour.