Claudia — Page 1618

A Sad Lack of Decorating

April 21, 2011 at 6:41 pm by Claudia

May I be frank? I don’t usually do very much Easter decorating. We don’t have kids, the dogs don’t care and we certainly don’t need any candy around here. Today is, what, 3 days before Easter? Nothing. Feeling somewhat remiss, I decided to look for my fabric eggs. If you remember, I made many, many of them 2 years ago when I was in San Diego. Where are they?

In my catch-all drawer. In the same drawer?

My box of beautiful Quail eggs, which surely should be on display for Spring, right next to the lint brush. And on top of our wedding album.

My egg cup collection?

Tucked into their little home in the guest bedroom/studio/office. I didn’t even give them their usual Easter photo session.

This, my friends, is all you’re going to get this year:

Hey, at least it’s something!

This has been the coldest April I can remember. It it’s not raining, it’s windy. We’ve had only a few days of sun. Hello, Spring? Can you hear me? I’m COLD. I worked outside today in the garden with the wind howling and now my cheeks are red from wind burn. I have to leave for Wisconsin in 9 days. I think you’ve given me about 4 days that were decent enough to work outside. Enough, already!

Side note: I’ve been playing with the blog. (It’s been raining endlessly and I was bored.) I cleaned up the sidebar which was looking too cluttered. I dared to mess with the Html on my template and added some pages right under the header. They contain much of what was on the sidebar plus some extras. This is a work in progress – I’ll be tweaking it in the coming days.

Have a great weekend, if I don’t post before Sunday. If you celebrate Easter, have a happy one.

Bragging About My Talented Friends

April 20, 2011 at 6:58 pm by Claudia

Two of my friends are creating a stir in the blogiverse. I want to share their achievements with you.

First up: One of my dearest blogging friends, Brenda, of Cozy Little House, has started something wonderful – Cozy Little Shoppes.

What are Cozy Little Shoppes? Brenda has always wanted to promote cottage industries. Many bloggers have their own shops, be they Etsy shops or some other virtual form of shop. If you’re a shop owner and decide to be part of this, your shop button will reside permanently on Brenda’s sidebar. Brenda has a very popular blog and gets a lot of traffic. It is a wonderful way to advertise your particular cottage industry. When someone reading Brenda’s blog clicks on your button, she will be taken directly to your site.

She will also have a separate Cozy Little Shoppes page on her blog where she will include a short bio and information about your business. Not only that, Brenda will advertise Cozy Little Shoppes on various venues. She’s already started to advertise on the Flea Market Style blog. She will also highlight each new shop on her very popular Welcome Wagon Friday post.

The cost of subscribing is very reasonable. You can access all that information by clicking this link.

This is a labor of love for Brenda. She really wants to help empower shop owners. It is all about promoting wonderful cottage industries run by very creative women. She is also not above bartering for your subscriptions – maybe a giveaway from your merchandise for her readers?

I know that someday when my sister and I get our shop up and running, I will definitely take advantage of Cozy Little Shoppes. Stop by and visit Brenda – go on, you’ll be happy you did.

And now my friend, Elyse, of Cottage. Elyse is also a dear friend. Not only is she wonderfully creative – she has a shop called Tinkered Treasures – but she is a very talented writer.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Romantic Country magazine? Have you glanced at the Summer 2011 edition?

(Forgive the glare – this is my copy and the lamp is on!)

There is story inside about an adorable cottage entitled Tiffany Blue. I wonder who wrote it?

Gasp! Elyse!

I’m so thrilled for her. She deserves this. If you follow Elyse’s blog you know she loves wordplay – she has a delicious sense of fun in her writing. You’ll love her writing style.

Congratulations to both my talented friends!

Working in the Garden & Peter Cottontail

April 19, 2011 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Our own Peter Cottontail:

Taken from my vantage point at the kitchen window. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.

Signs of spring, though so much later this year than last: tiny little sugar maple leaves. Please get big and green before I have to leave.

When it hasn’t been raining, I’ve been grabbing whatever time I can to work in the garden. I’m under a deadline here and am frustrated by a combination of unseasonably cold weather and lots of rain. I put in a new garden bed on Sunday. Oh my aching back! And it might just be a silly thing to do since I am:

a. leaving for 7 weeks in a little over a week and a half
b. don’t have a lot of extra cash (in fact, none) to spend on plants
c. will have to rely on husband to water any new additions.

What was I thinking? I’ve had this idea in my head for over a year and, quite frankly, if I wait until a time where I’m actually here in the spring, it might never happen. So I did it. I used a method I’ve read about online and that you might find helpful. After figuring out the dimensions of the bed, I covered the entire area with stacks of newspapers (black and white – no color). Then I covered the newspapers with top soil. A little way into the process, I ran out of top soil and I didn’t want to stop to buy some more. So I used some leftover mulch. Then I used the garden hose and wet (wetted?) it all down. Fast forward about 2 weeks and I was able to easily remove the grass. It came right up. Quick and easy! Yesterday I added top soil.

I’ll have to put most of the plants in when I get back in mid-June. I still have to fill the planters and window boxes with impatiens, etc. And I have to mulch. The rest will have to wait until I get back.

Today is rainy. Big surprise. I guess I’ll have to start packing boxes to ship to Wisconsin.

Did I tell you I’m sick of packing?

You have no idea.

A Sad Lack of Decorating

Bragging About My Talented Friends

Working in the Garden & Peter Cottontail

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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