An Unidentified Shrub

UnknownAugust 28, 2010
A few days ago I was on my daily walk when I spotted this gorgeous tree in bloom.  I would have stopped in to ask the owners what it was but the house is their summer cottage so they aren't there very often.  As it was they weren't there that day since the house was all closed up.  I love the whispy look of this shrub.  I would like to identify it so I know what to ask for

Some Things Just Don't Work Out

Remember the project I told you I was working on with these?

Well, the project just didn't work.....

In fact it was a big ole stinking mess!  I am not going to tell you what it was, because I might try it again, differently someday.

Anyway, I did create some fun things with the burlap coffee bags.

They are for sale at Lavender Hill Studio.

Welcome Home,

Penny

p.s.  We have 7 bloggers coming to the brunch so far!  For all of you that are coming.  I will send an email out Oct 1st with my address, Map Quest directions and my phone number.  So if your email is not in your profile, you are going to need to email me.

Harvesting Basil Seeds

A kind reader pointed out that I glossed over the seed part of basil harvesting, so I thought I'd give you an easy visual. The first photo is a basil spike after the flowers have dried up and the spike itself has turned brown. This will typically occur in the early fall in most plant hardiness zones in the U.S. If you need to check the zone for your area, there's a handy link at the bottom of

my craft room

If it can even really be called that right now...

Clearly not a lot of crafting is taking place in there at the moment. Needless to say, I have been a little distracted with other things and it more or less became a good dumping ground for things I needed to get out of my kitchen. Now we are having it painted, so everything is stacked in the center of the room and I will have some serious organizing to do when it is all over...

I have this built in desk in the corner of the craft room and I have been trying to decide if I should paint it black or gray or some color... can't quite decide... What do you think? As always, I love to hear your suggestions!

Hope you don't mind me sharing my clutter. I am hoping now that I have posted these pictures, I will get my self motivated to clean it all up and have some fantastic "after" pictures to show for.

25 years later

We have had these barrel chairs in our family for about 25 years now and it makes me laugh that they still are in perfect working order. Talk about being well-made... They swivel and rock just as good as ever. They have, however, taken on several different looks over the years. I wish I had taken the slipcovers off and photographed the old upholstery, but I am sure I could dig up a picture somewhere. In the meantime, what do you think of the latest look for these good old barrel chairs?

These were the previous striped slip covers...

And one newly recovered barrel chair made it into my living room...

So, what do you think?

Whimsy in the Garden

Hello everyone,

We are having an amazing summer here on the Island with lots of sunny hot days(but not too hot) and cooler evenings. It has been awhile since we had a summer this lovely.

Today, I am sharing some whimsy in the garden. Every garden needs a little touch of whimsy don't you think? the little woman above was a gift from my daughters last year and she is sporting my apron and straw hat .

I love this little fairy that moves around the garden.

Our garden is large so we have a few statues to add some interest here and there.

I got this old cement birdbath at the Restore a few weeks ago.

A pretty teacup adds a little whimsy to the garden.

I love birdhouses and find them hard to pass up.

This old iron stove was sitting on the side of the road for junk day a couple of years ago- a little spray paint and a Fairy rose and it added some interest to this corner of the garden.

What could be more charming then a real little fairy in the garden?

I like to have a few birdbaths scattered around the garden.

A mirror behind the statue adds a little intrigue.

I love this birdhouse from tjmaxx.

The same spraypaint on this obelisk draws the eye into this bed.

A place to put some seed for the birds and welcome you into the garden.

The little woman decked out for a wedding- our grandneice and nephew were in a wedding recently and they came to the garden for photos so I thought it would be fun to add more whimsy.

I love this birdhouse also.

Mary tucked into the virginia creeper.

Cute little cement rabbit.

And finally this bicycle from our local Winner's and spray painted pistachio green adds some whimsy as it gets moved around the garden.

Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers for my Mom. It has been a difficult road for Mom as at 87 bowel surgery is always major. I am happy to say that Mom is showing improvement but it will be slow. She still has a tube in to drain her stomach and has not had anything to eat in 12 days except a little sugar and water in her iv. She was smiling today but we are still waiting for that cup of tea-hopefully tomorrow! I pray after going through all that she has, she will make a good recovery and be back at the home where she has lived for the past few years.

Thank you so much from Mom and I for your kindness. I have not had much time for playing with my camera lately but these are some pics from over the summer.

Take care,

Carolyn

Harvesting Parsley

Choosing a method for harvesting parsley is always a judgment call. Parsley is the little black dress of the herb patch. It can work with lots and lots of dishes, is a very green, bushy little plant that looks good in the garden and is relatively easy going, as in not fussy. It's also available for snipping all summer long.

It is so ubiquitous, in fact, that around the holidays some grocery

Funnel Spiders

Funnel SpiderAugust 30, 2010

One of the first things we noticed when we moved here were the large funnel spiders (grass spiders).  As spiders go these are about the size of a quarter.  Their webs are a thin whispy sheet with a characteristic funnel shape that the spider hides in.  They were everywhere to the point that we resorted to spraying to knock down their numbers a bit.  The risk to

A Japanese Garden; Can You Guess the Movie?

Japanese Garden
Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens
Pasadena, California

The opening scene in a WWII war movie was filmed in this Japanese Garden. In the movie, the setting is Japan and the bridge is painted red. At the time that I took this photo in January 2010, I didn't make the connection. While watching this movie again today, I immediately recognized the garden. An all-star cast includes Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Glenn Ford, James Coburn, Robert Wagner and Charlton Heston—and other popular actors at the time. Can you guess the movie?

The Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens is a great place to visit while in the Los Angeles area. Located in Pasadena, California, it is worth a day trip to explore the collections, indoors and out. In addition to the Japanese Garden, other themed gardens include: Australian, Camellia, Children's, Chinese, Desert, Herb, Rose, Shakespearean and the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science. If you are fan of bonsai, there is an impressive display!

The Japanese Garden is one of the most beautiful that I've ever seen and I was there in winter. I'm sure it is even more spectacular when the apricot, cherry, peach and plum trees are in bloom.

Japanese Garden
January 10, 2010

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Harvesting Basil

Harvesting basil for winter access is fragrant fun.  Your patch of fresh basil, catnip, parsley, oregano and rosemary can be bountiful contributors to your winter herb stash if you have a few hours to spare.

Over the next few weeks, we'll cover some gardening ground as it relates to fall and winter herb harvesting projects, culminating in a step-by-step tutorial for making herb wreaths.

You Are Cordially Invited....

Calling All Bloggers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and any other bloggers who might be in the Asheville, NC area on

Saturday, October 16th.

You are all cordially invited to a Saturday Brunch at 10:00AM, at my house.

Following the Brunch, we will go antiquing around Asheville.

Sound like fun?

RSVP to lavenderhillstudio@att.net by October 1st, 2010

I hope you all can come!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Beating Bedbugs Naturally

The admonition ". . .and don’t let the bed bugs bite." was never truer than it is today when super pesticide resistant bedbugs are taking a bite out of a record number of unprotected sleepers. Barring a few super noxious and possibly illegal chemical treatments, bed bugs can be a challenge to get rid of. I wrote a blog about it a while back that you should review if you're having problems.

Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)

Japanese Beetle
(Popillia japonica) 
Aaugust 26, 2010 
A couple of days ago I posted about velvetleaf that is considered a noxious weed in some locations.  I noticed that despite a bad reputation with reducing yields in cash crops that my peppers didn't seem to be adversely affected by the velvetleaf in the beds.  I have been pulling before the velvetleaf was able to flower.  Upon closer

Friday Madness

While remerchandising the other day, I noticed an abundance of lonely items whose partner had sold and they were left all alone. Feeling kind of sorry for these single items, I decided to have a fun Friday Madness to find homes for all of them.

Euro pillow covers

one candlestick left!

60% off all "Singles" TODAY ONLY!

We have tags around the store marking each of these items as a "single". Items include lamps, artwork, pillows and more. Come take your single home today!

As a last mention, my very good-looking nephew Kevin who is a fireman, young and 6'3" - is also single! He lives in Phoenix for all you interested ladies. Did I mention he's single?

Katallic Shack Miracle Party and Amazing Giveaways!

Just to avoid confusion, I am turning comments off on this post. Remember to enter the giveaways for the custom made mosaic cross and all of the other giveaways, you need to visit Kelee at The Katallic Shack and leave a comment there.



Kelee Katillac from The Katillac Shack has something special going on.  Here is what she has to say:

A "MIRACLE PARTY" INVITATION FOR YOU--PLEASE JOIN US...Lets Celebrate Colette's Makeover Reveal Video & Story! Janome Sewing Machine GIVEAWAY! And Much More....

Colette Gauthier was suffering with cancer. She had moved into a tiny and dismal rental home. And, she was almost out of hope.


I decided to take a crew up to Michigan, in the middle of last winter, to create a healing room in which she could recover. Friends and volunteers became "Design Angels." A miracle resulted. The story is featured in the September issue of Guideposts Magazine.


The makeover video documenting Colette's project is deeply inspiring. A must see. And it all started with the comments, cards, thoughts, prayers, and actions of many of the blog community and readers like you.



That included The Pink Saturday & Country Wings in Phoenix bloggers. To name only a few. Now, Spiritual Sunday has become a part of the effort.


If you are just finding out about the project--join in now! Share in the joy and inspiration. Please tell folks about the event. There are plenty of great design ideas and the heart warming video should inspire many. It is amazing and Colette shines!


You have to see the room to believe the transformation. It brings HOPE. Colette was given a 5-15% chance of survival. God has given her different odds though! You can see her journey in the reveal video.

To find out more about the Miracle Party, visit Kelee at The Katillac Shack.  There you will be able to enter some wonderful giveaways.


I am giving away a Mosaic Cross like the one seen here.

 Except it will be custom made for the winner.  To win this cross - you need to visit Kelee's blog and leave a comment on HER blog, not mine.  Just click on her link, highlighted in purple.

I am also linking up with Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for Pink Saturday. 

A Cute Headboard

We had to show off this adorable twin headboard that one of our designers who shops with us did for a client's bedroom - using our burlap rugs sold at The Willows! What a creative idea Michelle!

What creative ideas have you come with from items you bought at The Willows? If you send in your pictures, they may just be featured on our blog!

Noxious Weeds

Yesterday I wrote about my experience so far with velvetleaf.  This weed is classified as being noxious in British Columbia and several US states.  To be classified as a noxious weed the plant has to cause harm to human via toxicity or cause an agricultural loss however every municipality has their own definition of noxious weeds.  In some localities a weed (eg. water hyacinth) can be classified

Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)August 25, 2010
As a gardener my style is not to get too bent out of shape with respect to weeds.  Some weeds act as companion plants in a garden while others are edible.  I only get concerned if the weeds present the potential to choke out the fruits or vegetables.  My preferred way of dealing with weeds is pulling.

Earlier this year I noticed a suspected weed

girls in tutus

When little miss Ruby pulled up in front of the store and saw a little mannequin wearing our new tutu she gasped and said, "Oh, Mama!" Needless to say, we didn't have to twist her arm to try it on for a few pictures... and her cousin Lucy was more than happy to oblige as well...

When the excitement of dancing wears you out and you need a little break, leave it to the Willows' to always have a "coze" hanging around (anything silky will do)...

Let's be honest, what could be cuter than girls in tutus...

Oh, and Ruby's friend Carrots was so kind as to pose for a few pictures as well...

So, come check out our new tutus at the Willows' in our kids section, Vanilla Chair...

but try not to forget your shoes...