Signs Of Spring & My New Birds Nests

I’m beginning to see signs of spring. Crocus,hyacinth and daffodils are in bloom in the east, robins have been showing up here and there. Lilacs, roses and wisteria are getting ready to burst open! Frogs have been chirping. The sun is shining today, and we have been getting warmer weather. Hopefully spring is here to stay. If we don’t get a late frost I will post some beautiful wisteria pictures for you, my tree is covered in buds! Below is a pic of some of my daffodils, the cute little chick reminded me of my grandsons new little flock of chickies!
Some daffodils blooming in my yard.

Some Easter treats for my family.

The first sign of spring was my first crocus in bloom.

I have been doing some needlework and crafting. Below are some very sweet bird nests that I have made. A friend once told me that if you put your thread clippings outside in the spring the birds will pick them up and make their nests from them. If you look hard you will see nests with yours threads in them. When I made these nests I imagined how pretty a nest would be using snippets of my supplies. This is the result of my imagination. A sweet lady told me that my hanging nest would be pretty hung from a crystal chandelier. I thought that sounded like a wonderful idea! Chandeliers are on my list of things I want to add to my home!

Next is a pic of my hanging birdnest. It would be beautiful hanging from a chandelier or along side of a pretty window curtain.

This is how it looks hanging.

Even a pretty bow on top. My nests are listed on my Etsy Seller Site.

Thank you for stopping by, I have alot planned for future blogs so please stop back!

Easter Swap With PRH Sister

Hello, Welcome, on this day after Easter! Today I thought I would share with you an Easter Swap that I joined in on. I belong to a group called Pretty Romantic Homes. It's a group of artistic woman who share their talents of decorating and creating. I was lucky to have my friend Steph as my partner.
She cross stitched me this adorable little picture. I just love cross stitch so this was very special to me.

A pretty little egg with lots of bling!!!! Roses, pearls, feathers all on glittered egg.

A pretty little topiary bunny!

A special little treat of a hand decorated cookie! Thank you Steph for all these wonderful gifts!

Below are the pretties that I made for Steph, a cross stitched pillow.

Close up of the pillow.

Another close up of the corner with vintage millinary flowers sprinkled with some German Glass Glitter.
Pretty little silk ribbon embroidered sachet, filled with lavender.
Close up of lavender sachet.

Also a fabric gift bag filled with Lintz white chocolate, roses and my first attempt at making a tag.

Close up of little chick tag made from a vintage easter card that I got years ago.

Scarf and ribbon rose bows for Stephs sweet little puppies! If you go to Stephs blog you can see pics of her adorable little puppies wearing my creations!

One was for Stephs little Rosie and the other for her Mom's little Precious.

Hand made card that I made also from a vintage post card.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I loved sharing with you! Please come back again! Have a wonderful day!

EASTER GREETINGS

Happy and Blessed Easter To You! Thank you for stopping by today! I thought I would put up some pics of my Easter Decorations. I love to decorate for the holidays, I'm always looking for a reason to put up some bling. Our home is under construction so please excuse any unfinished areas you might see. You should be able to click on the pics to enlarge. I have been having some trouble and a few might not work, but please try because it's so nice to look at a big pic. So much more to see! Below is a vintage postcart that I've had and loved for years. There's just something about little chickies that I can't resist! This is a pic of my Easter tree in my foyer.

Here's a close up of some of my pretty ornaments. Some of the ornaments I made myself, some were made by my daughter and others are from friends.

I love to cross stitch so you will notice alot of that in my home. The little framed cross stitch was made by my friend Steph.

Some pretty Easter Cross Stitch and pillows.

This little basket I cross stitched about 20 years ago but it's still remains to be my favorite.

I love Thomas Kinkade and this is one of his little Easter Cottages.

Here's a closeup so you can see how cute, they are having an Easter Egg Hunt

A few little decorations in my kitchen. The little bunny bowl was a gift from my friend Connie.

Some easter cookies on my old hoosier cupboard. Cupboard is waiting to be refinished.

A close up of faux cookies, the crosses were made by my friend Miss Rhea and the egg was made by Pink Rose Pasteries.

Thank you for stopping by, be sure to stop back again! Have a blessed Easter!

Almost Heaven West Virginia, Oak Grove Farm

Hello, welcome to my blog. I’m new to the blogging world and thrilled to be here. I thought a good place to start is with my beloved farm in West Virginia called "Oak Grove". My husband and I purchased this farm in 1988, we were the third family to own the property. We did some research on the property and found that the ground was purchased first by Thomas Ellis in 1833. At that time WV was still a part of Virginia. Thomas Ellis was born July 4, 1776. He moved to WV after purchasing the property and marrying. WV became it’s own state in 1863. In 1916 the farm was purchased from the Ellis family by the Linger family. Over the years the Linger family purchased other land tracts to make the farm a total of 250 acres. When we purchased the farm in 1988 in was in very bad shape but we loved the ground and decided we would take on the challenge of the pre-civil war house. The house had no electric or plumbing. The outhouse still existed and was in use when we purchased the farm. Below are some before and after pics of the farm, we still have a lot of work to do, I still want to gingerbread it up and turn it into a Country Victorian Farmhouse!

The two pics above were taken around the turn of the century. You can't see it in the pic but the front has two doors, it seems it was a custom brought over from the old country.

The next 4 pics are before and after, 1988 when we purchased it and 1993 after we did some of the renovations.

This cemetery is on the property, the first owner Thomas Ellis is buried in this cemetery.

Deeds to the property that were given to us by the Linger Family.

This pic of Alex Haley’s house was our inspiration while restoring our home. His home looked just like ours before and after the restoration. The built ins on the inside of his home were also like ours.
This is one of the barns on the property, our son turned the loft into a bachelor pad.

This pic was taken from the farm over the hill from us, our friends have since purchased that property. You can see our house in the lower right of the pic.

This is a mountain on our property called Pine Knob. One of the highest mountains in the area. I haven't walked up to the top of it yet but my husband and son have. It gets very thick with brush so I have not braved it yet.

The only things we found on the property were a trunk and an iron bed. They were both found in the barn and we believe they were owned by the Ellis Family. The trunk below had a broken leg and we had a new on made then refinished it. The antique tapestry was something I added to it.

You can see a corner of the iron bed in the bottom left of this pic. I am refinishing the bed now for a cottage chic guest bedroom. I hope you will stop back in to see the adorable bedroom! I have alot of cute ideas in the making for this room.

The out house was still in use when we purchased the property. It was a two seater!!! Can you imagine!!! We moved it and now it’s a garden shed.
This old one room school house was on our property. The clipping below the school house is from a book published on the history of Lewis County in 1992 we were named as the owners but when we moved in the school house was not here, rumor was it was moved by one of the gas companies to use for storage.

History states that on our property was, Oak Grove School, Oak Grove Cemetary, and Oak Grove Church, so when it came time to name the farm we thought Oak Grove Farm would suit it just perfectly. Two years ago the 911 emergency services wanted to give street addresses to all rural areas so of course we picked Oak Grove Lane. Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog and I hope you will come back, I have so much planned and would love to share it with you!!! Shirl