Posting from Little Rock this afternoon!
I'm visiting my mom, and instead of sewing, I found a different pin cushion here.
The pin cushion flower. A perennial which is in full bloom in Mom's backyard now!

Inside her home, is this wall-hanging which I made about 1980. It is called, "Lady of the Lake"...I still love that name and this pattern!

Having time now to browse the internet....books on art and gardening. These are now coming my way! (from Alibris)

Mary Woodin's "Painted Garden" (2003) is full of watercolor sketches of an English garden....no way could I resist!

This charming book from 1911 was featured in a post by Karen of the CORNFLOWER blog. I have never sucessfully grown domestic sweetpeas...it is too hot here I think ( though we do have a wild, fushia-colored variety in our roadside ditches in May). I once had Laura Ashley wallpaper with a sweetpea border.

Pictures from the garden this morning.


The near corner has a pink geranium in a container along with one of my "treasures", a broken "Thistle" mug from Scotland.
The far corner has a container with the "Lemon Sugar" daisy which I love!

Snap dragons, "Merlot" lettuce, marigolds, and radishes all freshly watered and mulched. I am leaving town for a couple of days....so mulching will keep things fine until I'm back!

More of the garden, with fresh mulch around the lettuce and tomatoes. A "Martha Washington" geranium sits in the middle (herbs should soon be coming up around her). I also added some verbena (flowers not "lemon verbena") in the borders...I also sowed some seeds for leaf lettuce and basil.
So far we have enjoyed some of the "Merlot" leaf lettuce in our salads....no other harvest yet...it has been cool. I do wonder how our local Hmong farmer/gardeners get so much lettuce ready for our farmer's market when the weather is so cool! They are wonderful gardeners!

We headed to the garden center this evening to find a few more of these [French dwarf marigolds] to add to the garden.

While there I was completely taken with this new perennial daisy variety!!!!!!



"Lemon Sugar" is the charming light yellow with bright yellow button-centerd daisy. As it blooms, the center becomes a pompom! So this container plant is now sitting at one corner of the garden, "Eye candy" indeed!

Thank-you, thank-you for all your tips! I down-sized some photos, checked carefully and payed attention to the HTML error messages.

Now, I think, my blog is better. At least for me, the side gadgets and links are there!

I'm off to work soon, then the allergy doctor and later yoga class. This will be a good day!

No matter what I do, I can't get BLOGGER to "put up" the elements in my "layout" that are links to other blogs, gadgets, etc.
All BLOGGER is doing now is my posts. This looks nice and clean, but where are the other elements of my blog layout??????

Even though it was windy today, I "put out" my 2 tomato plants and a red bell pepper plant.
The tomatoes are "Cherokee Purple" (see Internet image above) and "Beefmaster". I planted egg shells with them....and they have a collar ( toilet paper roll) to keep cutworms away and the tomato cages are there for them!
I want to add more marigolds and herbs around them!

The radishes are still growing here and some marigolds in the foreground.

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Today in our front yard...as April comes to an end, our gardens are in bloom, and I am showing off two skirts which I have just finished. Wearing one, and perhaps the other will be a gift to someone special.



Off to visit my friend Sally now, and see her gardens.....

I am wearing the floaty soft pants I sewed yesterday. Love them. The breezes go right through, great for warm weather! To me, they feel much more feminine and mysterious than bermuda shorts or other hot weather short pants!


More signs of spring....saving eggshells to plant with my tomato plants.



Eggshells can become planters too!

I'm reading "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. Part of the story takes place in Bath, England.
My bread cookbook had a recipe for "Bath Buns" these are traditional (since the late 1700's) for the area. I noticed that the recipe was very much like the "Hot Cross Buns" which I wrote about on Good Friday.
So, the dough has been made in my bread machine and is now ready to be baked for our breakfast.

Bath Buns


2 cups flour, all-purpose
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 c. butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 medium lemon rind of, grated
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg well beaten
1/2 cup raisins, seedless
1/2 c milk

Directions
Place all ingredients except raisins into bread machine. Process on "dough" until ready. Add raisins.
Form small amounts into round buns. Place on baking sheet or glass cake pan. Cover.
Allow buns to rise overnight in the refrigerator or for 45 minutes in a warm place.
Reserve a little of the egg to brush over the top.
Bake at 375 F for 20-25 min.
Brush top with 1 tablespoon sugar moistened with a little cream.

Serve hot. 12 servings.

Our overnight guests last night....because my sister never travels alone!
We loved watching them romp in the backyard yesterday evening. SO CUTE!!!
Now, they are on their way to new homes, my sister being an English Shepherd breeder.
[See my sidebar under family webpages] It was delightful to enjoy their antics and then send them on! The garden was protected by portable fencing during their time here!

Possible project for today...

McCall's patterns are on sale at Hancock's so this one came home and may be sewn into some comfortable lounging pants with batik fabric from my stash. I could try out the "new" Genie sewing machine which arrived a day or so ago.

I am heading, first, to our local farmer's market on the square downtown. There I hope to find local honey to use, hoping it will alleviate my on-going allergies.

I would also like to visit the botanical gardens, in full bloom right now...but maybe that is more pollen than I need!

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These are going into my oven in a minute....

BAKED ITALIAN MEATBALLS
1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 tbsp. parsley
1/2 c. fresh bread crumbs
Mix all ingredients well. Form into small balls and place in glass baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes, turning after 6 minutes. Add to your favorite Italian sauce and pasta.

A bad case of spring fever today....I am enjoying watching my garden grow and bloom .
Here is a watercolor[ in a notebook] of a coral pink tulip, one of a dozen or so out there. Because of allergies, I cannot just linger outside and enjoy the balmy day...

For improving my mind, I am reading this book by Jane Austen. Her last published novel.

I have also pin basted 2 quilt tops, and am going to yoga this afternoon. Dinner is in the crockpot!

A quiet day to do some things I love....here is an art journal page I was able to work out for today.

I also worked in the garden, listened to a book on DVD while piecing quilt backings and then hand quilted on the Dresden plate quilt[seen in the photo with the tulips...2 posts back]. A friend is bringing pizza for supper. We will watch an English mystery series.

Today we drove through the nearby countryside and saw lots of dogwood in bloom! Springtime is beautiful!

Our trees trying to make a come-back after the ice storm damage in January.

The "lasagne garden" trying to make a come-back after visits by nocturnal nibblers....

I added 12 marigold plants to it today and gave everything a good watering. Below you can see the baby lettuce and the marigolds. Above the kale and pansies much loved by our visiting bunnies and the red merlot lettuce which they left alone!



I have two tomato plants, one is an heirloom "Cherokee Purple" and the other a hybrid "Beefmaster." Also a red bell sweet pepper plant. These will go into the garden out here in mid-May when warmer temperatures will encourage more progress!

Today in my world.... I am resting on my day off with a sinus infection which has even taken away my sense of taste. I am not enjoying eating at the moment, so I need all the "eye candy" I can get to compensate! Here is a quilt top I am handquilting....posing outdoors near some tulips! [My camera won't work indoors at the moment!]

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I had more photos, of the little lasagne garden, to which I had just added marigold plants and of the tree tops around here, leafing out inspite of loosing most of their canopy to the ice storm in late January. I don't need the "fight" with Blogger to get these photos up now. I'm going to rest and watch "Nights in Rodanthe" on DVD. I'll come back later and see if the garden photos load more easily!

At last, photos of my grandchildren on their Easter trip to Jamaica!



Lilia with the wind in her hair and the beautiful Caribbean Sea around her.

Little "B 3" running across the lawn, wearing the seersucker romper (Simplicity pattern in size 1, still "big") I sewed for him!
This is what days off are for, catching up with family and friends! [all photos from my daughter's blog, www.myeloise.blogspot.com ]

Happy Easter!!!!!

Bunnies from years gone by.....and paper mache eggs!

Today is a good friend's birthday! .....someone who has been my friend since junior high school!

Happy Birthday, Sally!!!!

Instead of a birthday cake, I am making HOT CROSS BUNS (recipe) for the occasion. I will be visiting Sally tomorrow in a nearby town. Mutual friend, Lizzy will be with us!

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Is anyone else having trouble with Blogger???? In the past, I could drag the pictures almost anywhere I loaded them. Now they will not move, because the side bar will not scroll down when ever I have "clicked" a photo to move. So this limits my layout.....just wondering!

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I just took these photos for those of you wondering how the garden is doing. It has been a month since we built it and some plants, the pansies, kale and merlot lettuce have been in (as small plants) for 3 weeks now.
It has been very cool. Something has eaten a lot of the kale, and the pansies too....I was hoping to have many more blooms on them.
The merlot lettuce is doing fine (my "nibbler" doesn't seem to go for red lettuce!), though nothing is growing very fast. I do water, cover and uncover when nights are frosty and days are sunny. It is sprinkling out there now, thunderstorms are coming.
My radishes have come up from seeds planted 12 days ago. It will be time to thin them out this weekend.



Here is my salad bowl lettuce, 12 days after planting the seeds, and my sweet basil too. Much thinning to do this weekend!

I dream of "Genie".



A 1970's Retro sewing machine which I just "WON" on e-bay. This small machine is so cute, I just couldn't resist! [Called both "Genie" and "Starlet" , this "hippie" machine goes to show how having orange flowers makes the day for some of us! Flower power! It may have been made in France...according to the foot control.]
It has a carrying case which makes it easy to store and transport. I first saw this model when a customer brought one into the shop for a clean and service. It sews five different stitches....like a Singer Featherweight with zig zag and stretch stitches too. Now it is mine!!!!!

I know that one day, it may be given to my granddaughter who is interested in sewing!

Donated art.....(update).

This is Sunday morning, the day all the society and party photos are in the morning paper.

I checked to see if the story about the "Chair Affair" for Lifestyles was in the paper. It was! They used a photo of my friend Katherine with her donated chair. The small photo is of a very creative chair made of driftwood and branches, by artist Jason Jones.

Here are some photos which weren't used.

Olivia, daughter of my friend, Lizzzzie agreed to pose with me and my "Come away with me" chair. Artist friend Tracie and her beaded (real stones, no plastic here...copper wire too) chair!

In case you are wondering, the chairs were being celebrated at The Museum of Native American Artifacts, Bentonville, Arkansas. If you love archeology and Native American treasures, this is a wonderful place to visit!