Working on the Garden

It's the end of summer and we're busy with garden projects!

About time!

Last summer my son and I put in this garden. I chose plants that had meaning to me: shasta daisies like my Nana's garden; penstimon, which also grows in the Sierra to remember my friend Nina; iris, which I learned to love in my grandma's garden; flowering plants mostly in pinks & plums. My son suggested "autumn fire" sedum (above) and "dorothy wycoft" andromeda. We also grew lettuce, beets, green beans, and kick-butt yellow bell peppers.

This is the front garden gone wild!
When my son left for Yosemite in April, my heart went out of the garden. I let it go, didn't weed, didn't plant the vegetables, didn't sit out there and enjoy.


Lucky for me, my son is back home for a while and working on the garden. This is his project before he returns to the Sierra Nevada foothills.
A path to the front porch.


My son has been very clever getting us bricks for the path. He worked at a garden center in exchange for about 400 new bricks. He negotiated a good price for a pile of used bricks at a local recycling center. Even he didn't realize the pile held more than 700 bricks. With all these extra bricks we're gonna make a patio between our parking spots and the door.


I've started weeding and cutting back on the catmint which was taking over. I think I can salvage my Hidcote Lavender and I have plans to transplant some of the taller plants closer to the house.

It's' nice to be back working in the garden. And it's nice to be working on a garden project with my son again.

Shop Pictures

My first day open, a friend came by with this pretty vase of carnations. I added the pearl buttons. I love the way it looks. It makes me smile!

I have always liked shops where items are arranged by color, so I tried it here with green.


Have you ever noticed how all greens go together?
All blues do not go together, but greens do.
Interesting!


I know very little about glass and don't collect it, but some large lots at auction have given me a nice supply. It looks so good in the windows, doesn't block the view and no worries about fading! The yellow is beaded lemons from a florist supply shop in a pitcher perfect for lemonade!

My last post showed before and after photos. I was able to get the shop into great shape. But I'm afraid I had to move some of the stuff in a jumble to my studio:

A sign for my son!

This is where all the extra things went!
Things to be priced, display pieces for later, paper to put into packages, stuff.

No end to the things to do!
I think a shop is a little like motherhood. You are never done, you get interrupted often, and at the end of the day, you're awfully glad you did it!

A Mother's Year

As much as I want the shop to be open tomorrow, it just won't happen! I spent all day today pricing and cleaning. There's still so much more to do, but I am not letting it discourage me! On the plus side I have discovered some wonderful treasures, which I will share this week.

This wonderful book, published in 1905, was lurking in a dark spot. It is now dusted and priced and placed in a section with all things vintage childhood.


Each month has a slightly different chapter illustration and for each day there is a quotation.

June Ninth

But never, in her varied sphere
Is woman to the heart more dear
Than when her homely task she plies,
With cheerful duty in her eyes;
And, every lowly path well trod,
Looks meekly upward to her God.
~ Caroline Gilman.

For all the hard working moms out there!
Enjoy your evening.