Musings of a Vintage Junkie: Bacopa

Showing posts with label Bacopa. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

October One Day at a Time

I love these day by day posts because finding something to highlight each day helps to make the day more fun somehow.

Since October is my favorite month of the year, I decided to give you a peek at October in my world, one day at a time.

1 - My granddaughter Cassidy plays Fall Ball every year, the only girl on an all boys team. It is a family thing, her Dad coaching and her Mom keeping score. Cassidy is at bat with her neon yellow socks!

2 - My large hardy salmon colored Mum finally bloomed. The rain spread it out but it still looks pretty.

3 - Sadly, last evening we were given the news that our dear friend Fred passed away from a massive stroke. As my daughter put it, "he was one cool old dude". He was a father/grandfather figure for our family. The strangest thing happened on the day he died...October 2nd. Earlier that day my sister texted me to remind me that my natural Father died 49 years ago that day. That evening we heard of Fred's death.

4 - How lazy can a fat cat get? Here is Cyrus, laying down using his paw to pull the dish up to his mouth so he can eat. This cat has personality plus!

5- Wednesday is my day with my grandson JC. He likes to play with all the toys, even the necklaces. Hey, pirates wear them!

6 - Today was Fred's memorial service. It was a celebration of him and the wonderful life he lived till the age of 86. Here are a picture of his sons, Mike and Kevin and my husband Frank. The brothers told my husband that Fred thought of him as a son, which meant the world to Frank.

7 - I found this treasure at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. It is a mercury glass pumpkin that is pink on the outside. Goes perfect on my parlor mantel and is so pretty lit up at night.

8 - On a weekend away to a Fall festival in Ellicotville, NY, this was a scene we passed by while walking. Kind of Harry Potter-ish.....

9 - I picked up some leaves while there and brought them home to wax.

10 - My sister Michele was home from Florida for the weekend so we all decided to get together on Columbus Day since the kids were off from school. We went on an apple tasting tour to local farm markets. It was a sunny, crisp and chilly day so we huddled close together to get a selfie while the kids played.

From left to right, my daughter Jena, me, my sister Rosanne,
sister Michele and my daughter Candice

11 - I took a drive to check on my booth today at Ye Olde Schoolhouse Country Store. It was a beautiful sunny, clear day.

I found a few things were sold and I needed to move some things around. That's always a good thing!

12 - My son does not feed himself lunch so is usually starving by dinner. He wanted something easy to make and mentioned in jest that he should become a real college student by eating Ramen noodles. So, when I was at Aldi's I picked up a pack of them. He loves them and is now an official college student :-) Did you know that the stuff has 900+ mg of salt in it? Bleh.

13 - Every month on the 13th my husband and I celebrate our wedding day with a small gift to each other. His gift, from me, was a homemade apple dumpling with caramel sauce from a local farm market and mine is this t-shirt from the Fringe Fest. Our Community Theatre performed at this anything goes arts festival in downtown Rochester. I have a thing right now for t-shirts (especially gray) with logos on them. This says "The Fringe. Unordinary" with a skyline of Rochester.

14 - Twice a year, Spring and Fall, I look forward to the barn sale on Johnson Rd. in my town. The owners of the antique store on Main St. hold a huge barn sale at their home with extra stuff from their shop. I have gotten some great stuff with really low prices. Today, another gorgeous clear day, was the day for the Fall sale!

15 - My bucket of Bacopa is still blooming, or more like blooming again! The perfect little lavender flowers die off and then appear all at once several times throughout the summer. I was surprised to see them again in mid-October!

16 - It was 75 degrees today so after church we decided to take a ride to Yia Yia's Ice Cream Shoppe for one last Monkey Madness sundae. They close for the season on October 17th. That sundae is so good and so big. It is hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, peanuts, bananas, waffle cone pieces, vanilla ice cream and repeat! Topped off with whipped cream and a cherry. I was so busy digging in that I forgot to take a picture of the sundae!

17 - I finished my Christmas project! I just thought these trees were adorable when I saw a similar project on the internet. I decided to make some of my own to sell in my booth. I had the thread spools, Hymnal book pages and the "snow". I found the cute bottle brush trees on Etsy and the pearl and rhinestone peel and stick embellishments at Michael's. I made 16 in all. They are all just a little different from each other.

18 - Every year my sweet friend Bonnie and I celebrate our birthdays together.We go out to lunch and then find a new coffee shop to try. Today was for Bonnie's special day. This year we found the Glen Edith Coffee Roasters, off Park Ave in Rochester, NY. I forgot to take a picture of the two of us but I did take one of the latte's.....yummy Fall flavors called Oktoberfest and Honey Harvest.

19 - We had comfort food for dinner tonight....White Chili. This stuff is so good with chicken, white beans, green chilies, corn, sour cream and cream. It warms the belly. Don't eat too much or it will fatten the belly!

20 - I live one block from the intersection of the "Four Churches of Palmyra", a signature site in the town, and three of them had rummage sales today! It was pouring down rain but I made it to all three between dropping my son off at school and getting to work at the shop where I have a booth. This is my haul....not as much as usual but still good. Two things are not shown because I already took them to my booth.

a sunhat made out of twigs, a 1950's ceiling light, a fridge
jar, a wooden Santa, a box of vintage pins, two metal Sexton
antique car wall hangings all on top of a snowman flag

21 - It is a miserable day with cold, damp rain expected all day. I am not going anywhere so I decided to make another 3 Ingredient Pumpkin Cake. My son will eat it for breakfast and then I will serve it later with coffee when a girlfriend comes over. Love this cake!

22 - In the 44 degree, rainy, damp weather I went to a flea market today. Yup, I am one of those diehard thrifters and yes, we have had non-stop rain for three days!! I found some great stuff, the best of which is this upcycled wooden coke crate, made into a tray table. It can be a mini bar, a planter box or, with a piece of glass or wood, a side table. Actually I bought two of them! One for my booth and one for my Etsy shop.

Available

23 - My husband and I took Chloe and JC to pick pumpkins today at a local farm market. It was so busy there, it was crazy trying to pick pumpkins and keep track of two little ones. We survived and here is Nonno leading the way out of the whirlwind!

24 - I went out on a limb today and bought some Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer at Aldi's. I usually don't go for that kind of stuff because it is way too sweet, but I was in the mood for something pumpkin in my coffee. I tried it in my after dinner decaf. I was cautious not to fill the bottom of my cup with it....I just put little bits in with my usual non-flavored creamer and it is pretty good. Just a light taste of pumpkin spice. Hmmm, if you go by the serving size on the bottle of 1 tablespoon it is not too bad!

25 - The Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies are baked and ready for grandkids to decorate tomorrow. I have peanut butter and buttercream for frosting, candy corn, mini chocolate chips, M & M's and sprinkles to decorate with.

26 - Today JC is home sick so it is Chloe and Cassidy decorating cookies. There are no rules and as much as I try to get them to make faces on the pumpkins, this is more fun!

My daughter got in on it too, decorating a few to eat before running off to work.

27 - Woke up to snow this morning...I had to capture it early before it melted....wishful thinking!

28 - We drove the 3 1/2 hours to Toronto, Canada today to see an NBA basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. We were in the nosebleed section....literally! I felt quite dizzy up there! The Cav's won 94-91.

29 - We had the whole day to spend in Toronto before heading home tomorrow. We went to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament for a chicken dinner you eat with your hands and a tournament of knights and horses that involved games and jousting. It was a fun, must see event if you are in Toronto.

30 - Today I am the featured guest post for Ms. Toody Goo Shoes Favorite Things feature. I got to pick a few of my favorite things and write about them!

31 - With Halloween comes cute pictures of my grandchildren in their costumes. My daughter Candice (Cassidy's Mom) wore the mouse costume that I made when she was about 2. She is 34! Oh, the memories!

Cassidy - the accident victim

JC & Chloe - cat and mouse

Coming up this Friday, November 4th, my Etsy shop NaNa's Things will be featured on At Home With Jemma. Jemma's Old Fashioned Christmas Shopping feature will highlight a different Etsy shop each Friday. Shopping for Christmas décor and gift items each week will be fun in the comfort of your own home. I will be offering 15% off all items in my shop......there are over 520 great vintage and holiday décor items. I hope you will stop over and browse my selection of vintage goodies to decorate with or to gift to a vintage lover you know. There's nothing like vintage to warm your home at Christmas!

Hello November!

AnnMarie xoxo

I am sharing with these fun blog parties:

Share Your Cup

Thriving on Thursday

Thoughts of Home

No Rules Weekend Blog Party

Simple & Sweet Fridays

Home Sweet Home

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

As My Garden Grows

It has been especially hard this year to get the garden growing. I missed all the garden blog hops because mine just wasn't ready.

I blame it mostly on the cold weather. My garden is almost all perennials but I do like to plant annuals in pots for around the yard and the front porch. It just never fails here in the northeast that you just can't trust the weather until after Memorial Day.

At least my favorite Spring plants came back in a big way this year and flourished.

My Bleeding Heart is just huge and was full of gorgeous flowers.

The Quince bush bloomed profusely this year and my Forget Me Nots doubled in size and quantity.

I have been collecting new things for my garden since last summer. All stored over the winter, now being revealed in my garden at last.

I found this great fence at a roadside sale I just happened to drive by on the way home from Naples. I could not afford much of what the antique dealer had but the fence was $8 so I went for it.

I love how cute an old sink filled with flowers looks in the garden so I started looking for one. I found this one at the Restore. I am still looking for a faucet. The plates are a recent barn sale find. I filled the sink with my new favorite flowers, white Bacopa.

I could not pass this rusty milk can up, even though it would be the fourth one in my collection. The wheel is a barn sale find and the watering can garland is something I have had that rusted perfectly over the years.

I found this great door last year, also at a drive by sale. It was only $5.

I didn't do anything with it last summer because I didn't know if I wanted to paint it or distress it. I figured we'd put it away for the winter and then I would deal with it in the Spring.

Fast forward to Spring and I am wondering where my door is. My husband says, "oh, it's behind the grill". It never got put in the garage for the winter!

I am so glad because the fierce northeast winter weathered it so much more perfectly than I could.

I saw the idea for a garden hose wreath on Pinterest and I just made mine very simple. I just tied a garden shovel, a garden fork and some old gloves to the top.

I showed you a sneak peek of the door in my last post but I restyled it to this....
the little rocker a recent yard sale find.

Just around the right side of the same tree is where the fairies live.

And this is where the Royal Fairies live...

I mentioned a few times before that I was going to make a fairy garden in my big galvanized tub for my garden. Well, I decided that smaller is better and I am happy with my small enamel pan fairy garden.

I even found some small plates to add to her garden. The plants are small succulents and pink baby's breath. The little fairy just sits by her house all day admiring her lovely garden.

Next to the fairy garden the Poppy's are starting to bloom...

Instead of the fairy garden, I planted purple Bacopa in my huge galvanized tub again this year. Last year it grew to overflowing and was gorgeous. It is early stages....

In my middle garden, that needs a good weeding, I tried another new idea I found online.....a succulent garden in a bird bath. The birds never noticed this old wrought iron bath last year so I decided to try a new kind of garden. It has already grown and spread out.

I hung my blue shutter up again from last year and added a rusty star to the rusty shovel that was there.

Last year I found a huge ivy geranium to hang from my post that stayed beautiful all year. This year I decided to try and plant my own in the rusty old wire basket my daughter Jena gave me for Mother's Day.

I finally found a plant to survive in my aqua wire basket. It is a very hot spot and the planter is very shallow. Purslane seems to love those conditions so we will see how it does this summer. It has the sweetest pink flowers.

Along the house I have been digging out and re-doing the garden. It was so overgrown.
Last year I had a table with a chair and the shutters in this spot....

In one summer that poor table got so weather worn that I decided not to put it out in the garden again. It is being very useful in my new booth. So instead, I did a makeover on this vignette.

The chair was a roadside find. That is my Elephant Ear plant in the large galvanized bucket that hasn't started growing yet.

The plates are another cute idea I found on the many blogs I visit. I just happened to have a few left over from the garden flowers I made last year.

The large one to the right of the shutters is one I made for myself after making three others for gifts....Aqua!

My purple Iris bloomed this year after a no show last year. They are so pretty but seem to want to grow out instead of up. I know I need to move them but I am so afraid of killing them. They are unique!

I just loved these ceramic garden hands with two birds on them. It reminds me of the scripture Job 12:10 - In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

I found them at Rite Aid of all places!!

My Orange Blossom tree is a little late in blooming this year, which is magnificent when in full bloom. Here is a peek at it just starting to pop. That's my new birdhouse hanging from it. My husband got if for me from Wegmans.