This weekend, lets go do some livin:>)

Just a heads up, I have added more Ruffled Cottage Flag pillows to the shop.  I'm working on the pattern and I plan on having it finished and in my etsy by Friday:>) 



 I think these are timeless. Not just for the 4th of July. I love our flag so much, I think it is the most beautiful flag in the world!

So these are my tribute, and I think they would look good in a cottage, a farmhouse, or anywhere else.

If you're interested you need to get them fast, I'm moving on to the next thing that is begging to get out of my head and onto my sewing machine!

I'm off to finish that pattern now, and then....well, there's always something new to do isn't there?

There is at my house. What's new at yours?

This 'N That

Good Morning! One more week of July. I'm dragging my heels trying to slow down the calendar. If anyone has found a way to make that happen please share now. I avert my eyes from the Back to School sales. I literally look away. Because if I can't see it it's not there right? Don't even get me started on the HALLOWEEN merchandise that I almost let myself catch a glimpse of. Not ready.

Instead, let us meditate on the latest farmers market  bouquet that dear Husband picked up for me this Saturday, along with the first fresh ears of sweet corn.

 I came home and plunked each kind of flower in one of my old blue jars for the dining room.

 I like how it looks like a mini farmers market flower stand:>) And I never get tired of that shade of aqua blue glass. The smaller zinnias came from the vegetable garden. They may be my favorite vegetable to grow.

This week, I'm working on finishing up a pattern for the ruffled flag pillow for my etsy shop. I hope to have it in the shop by the end of the week, along with a few more ready made pillows for anyone who doesn't sew. I struggle with time management, (bet you didn't notice), priorities, goals.  Working from home for the summer I'm a worse task master than anyone else I've ever worked for. So many projects, so little time. I have to force myself to take time off to have fun, to spend face to face time with the people I love. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. At the same time there is a restlessness that I just can't get rid of. Flitting from one project to the next. Unable to sit still.  Waiting for change, feeling it perched on the edge of the horizon and wondering why it doesn't. just. get. here.

Ever feel that way yourself?

What are you doing with the last week of July? 

Living in the Moment

I like to think ahead. While I'm busy in the now, I plan for the future. It's a delicate balance, this planning ahead. Sometimes you find your head so full of what's to come, that you can miss the beauty of now.

Like these lemony lilies.



 Or these fiery, orangey ones, (which, I'm not usually all about fiery orange, but these were on the $1 rack at the farmers market a couple years ago, and I am ALL about $1 perennial surprises in the garden!)

 Penny, this is as far as our tomatoes have gotten. I'm looking forward to the piles of red riches you are harvesting right now? See I do look ahead!

 I'm loving the bee filled squash blossoms

 And the hollyhocks in every shade of pink and red!

So what is all this talk of Christmas? BHG is sending my email Christmas gift ideas to make now.

I see Christmas fabrics in the stores and Tip Junkie is having a Christmas in July giveaway week, which, yes, I did enter to win a cute camera bag, but I won't think of it as a Christmas gift.

I dream of Spring and Summer all through the dark, cold days of winter.

So even though it is supposed to hit 100 degrees today, I may be hiding in my air conditioned house, but I'll be looking out the window as I sew at the garden. Watching the flowers bloom and the hummingbirds feast, and living in the warm sunshine of the moment.

How about you? When do you start planning for Christmas?

Hollyhocks

I've always loved hollyhocks, their tall spires of cupped blooms that reach to the sky add so much to any cottage garden. A while ago, sweet husband and I were perusing an estate sale when I spotted these dishes on one of the tables. I fell in love with these immediately but the price was too high to justify buying them.  I walked away wishing ...

Sweet husband went back and bought them for me:>)

 Aren't these just the cutest, cottagey dishes ever?

Royal Staffordshire "Hollyhocks".  Four cups and saucers, four dessert plates and a pretty little 10" cake tray.

I adore sweet husband:>)