I LOVE PURPLE WHEN THE LILACS ARE IN BLOOM

Hello, thank you for stopping by, I thought I'd share one of my favorite flowers with you. I don’t usually use purple in my decorating except as an accent in a floral arrangement but I love purple when the lilacs are in bloom. It seems every spring lilacs delight me with their intoxicating scent and colors in varying shades of purple, blue, white and pink. During that time I pull out all of my purple and lavender from around the house and make little displays on my kitchen window sills along with bouquets of lilacs. Please feel free to click on the pics to enlarge and get a closer look!

Lilacs can survive hundreds of years. The oldest living lilac in the United States is said to have been planted in 1750. There are more than 20 species and 1,000 cultivars of lilacs and all bloom at a different time so you can really extend the lilac bloom time well into summer. I plant a few every year and this year I planted two lilacs that re-bloom in summer. I purchased them from Michigan Bulb Company. As little as they were (only 7 inches tall) one of the plants arrived with little blooms on it.

In Kate Greenaway’s book “The Language of Flowers” she explains that in the Victorian Era they used flowers to express their feelings. The meaning of a purple lilac is “First Emotions of Love” and white lilac is “Youthful Innocence”.

My husband built me this cabinets under my kitchen windows, they are actually kitchen wall cabinets that he mounted on the floor under all four windows, they make a nice place for plants and seasonal decorations.

This cute little bear is made from a lilac print fabric. I bought it years ago and it's still one of my favorites.

These pretty little crochet lavender glass cozies I purchased on my last trip to NJ, I found some really nice antique malls that I go to on every visit. I always come out with some real treasures.

Some of the other jadeite on this cupboard I picked up on the same trip.

While I was in my purple mood, I pulled out this little Victorian cross stitch that I had done years ago and made it into a tote bag.

This pretty vintage crochet basket I picked up in the same antique store that I got the glass cozies at. I guess I was in a purple mood that day!

Of couse I had to have some bling so I used a vintage button with a little bling glued on top of it.

I love this print that I used on the inside, I have some left over that I thought would make some really pretty yoyo's for a quilt I'm working on.

My wisteria did not do to good this year because of a late frost but I did get a few blooms from it. This is the first time I’ve brought a bloom in the house, the scent was heavenly!

The next four pics are all my little clippings that I pulled out of magazines on lilacs, I have a folder full of them. They are nice to look back on when I'm in my purple lilac mood! If you enlarge these you can get a better look at some of the pretty clippings.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little visit of me while in my purple mood! Why not plant a lilac tree or two? I'm sure you will enjoy them as much as I do! Please stop by again!

Blessings, Shirl

THE ROSE ROOM PARTY

My friend Rachael at The Rose Room is hosting a big bash in honor of her 100th post!!!
She is having a "It's Nice to Meet You" party to help us all become better acquainted.
AND if you do a couple of easy things that she asks, she will enter you in for some fabulous prizes!!

Congratulations to Rachael on her 100th post and I wish you many hundreds more!

First thing that Rachael asks is for us to share where we do our bogging~~~

My blogging space is in my bedroom and is being remodeled right now, but I will still show you how it looks now and share with you about some of my new plans for this area. The border is coming down and I am putting up a pretty shabby cottage rose print wallpaper on the top half of the walls,(sample below) a white wainscoting for the bottom half, oak trim around the windows and door frame, since most the furniture is Victorian Oak reproduction. Then most important is some crystal chandeliers will make my bedroom into the shabby cottage look that I am after!
This is where I spend my time blogging! Please feel free to click on the pictures and have a close look!

I got this beautiful leather chair for christmas this past year and I love it but so does my sweet little kitty, he loves to sharpen his nails on it so rather than have it destroyed I'm going to use it in my sewing room for my sewing chair. I just purchased a smaller one for this room that I am making a pink slipcover with a long skirt for it.

I just painted this desk chippy white and put the pink crystal knobs on it.

I would was trying to come up with something to cover the wires under the desk, so I thought I would make a skirt to go under the desk on a tension rod toward the back. I put skirts on everything! LOL

I made covers for all the computer pieces, for when they are not in use. Which is not often!

I've been looking for a little table to put to the right of the desk to hold the router, desk has a small top. I'm going to put a chandelier above the desk. The old desk had a table lamp but it had more room on the top.

Shelf above the desk.

To the left of the desk is a door that leads out to a porch that we are making into a four season sun room. For now I don't use the door so I have a table full of pretties to look at and garden trellice with tags and banners.

Sometimes I take my laptop outside on the porch on a nice day or my daughter comes over we have it on the kitchen island to show each other what cute blogs we found the day before.

Below is a pic of the wallpaper that I purchased to put in this room. Wow I guess I put up alot of pics, I am a very visual person so I tend to overdo on the pics! LOL

Now for the 10 questions that we were to answer ~~~

1. Relationship: Happily married to Edward for 37 years

2. Children: Beautiful daughter and handsome son, and three handsome grandsons!

3. Pets: Two dogs ~ Molly ~ Landseer Newfoundland & Goldie Mini Golden Retriever ~ Cats Angel ~ Blue Point Himalayan & 7 rescued strays that are all precious to me.

4. Age: 56

5. Star Sign: Virgo

6. Fave Food: Crab Legs

7. Fave Drink: Coke & Earl Gray Tea~~~Take A Boost, a NJ thing!

8. House Decor Style: Country Victorian & Cottage Chic

9. Collections: Lenox Southern Belles, Vintage Samplers, Embroidered brush & comb vanity linens, Jadeite, pink depression glass, Cherished Teddies, Vintage Embroidered Linens, Totes, teacups, teapots, Holly Hobbie, anything with pink roses.

10. How Did You Get Into Blogging: My daughter sent me a link to Isabella’s Closet & Aunt May’s Cottage, I just thought they were beautiful and wanted to do something like that. My daughter Jen and my PRH sister Connie helped me to get this up and running.

Now click on the link here to go to Rachael's party on her blog & wish her congratulations!

Thank you for stopping by, please come back again! It was so nice to visit with you! Blessings! Shirl

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Happy Memorial Day to you! I hope that everyone has a nice day planned! We are just going to take the day to relax on the porch! I love all the holidays that have a patriotic theme to them. I love to decorate with flags and red, white and blue. I have a huge collection of patriotic items that I have either made or collected over the years. Below are some of my favorite vintage post cards. I hope you enjoy looking at them and feel free to click on them to enlarge and get a better look.

Honor The Brave!

Many people in my husbands family and mine served time in the military, in honor of them I am posting some of my favorite pictures of them.

Below is a picture of my husbands Great-Great Grandfather Howard Franklin Adams 1843-1915 He served in the Civil War.
My husbands father Robert Hubbs served in the Army during WWII My father served in the Air Force for 20 years William Thomas Wunschel, WWII
My Uncle William Hart, this was a picture he sent to my mother during WWII. I thought it was such a cute inscription!

My cousin John, was in the Air Force during the Vietnam EraMy cousin Tom, (John's brother) served in the Marines, and sadly did not make it home alive from Vietnam

Here's my sweet Sailor Edward, he served in the Navy during the Vietnam era

Here's my little boy, he wanted to be a sailor like his Daddy so I made this sailor suit for him one Easter in the 70's.

My little boy grew up and here he is today. He's serving in the Army Nat'l Guard.

Below are some pictures of my patriotic needlework that I have done and collected over the years. I have always been intrigued by Betsy Ross, I guess since I love to sew so much. It must have been thrilling to of had George Washington come and ask you to make a flag!

This vintage embroidered Betsy Ross I picked up in an antique store last fall while visiting family in NJ.

Another Betsy Ross doing laundry.

Below is a peek into my newly decorated patriotic bath, which I will show you in a future post.

Well I hope you enjoyed our little trip down memory lane with all my veterans and collectibles! Have a very blessed Memorial Day! Shirl