LOVELY PLACES TO VISIT

I want to show you the the Lil Prim Bluebird and devotional I recently won from Lea at Shabby Olde Potting Shed http://shabbyoldepottingshed.blogspot.com/ . I have been reading the devotional and have enjoyed it. Lea has a lovely Prayer Garden Room she has created where she reads her devotional. She has inspired me to try and build my own Prayer Garden. I am so glad I found her blog as I enjoy reading her posts and seeing all of her beautiful pictures of her gardens. Please take a moment and visit her blog...you will truly find it inspirational .

I also won a Boyds Bear Christmas ornament from Sharon at Happenings on Chaos Ranch http://happeningsonchaosranch.blogspot.com during the One World One Heart Giveaways. Please stop and visit her blog and see some of the lovely quilts and beading she has created.

Hugs,

Irma :)

LAZY HAZY DAYS

Today has just been a lazy day. I really wanted to go out and work on my poor neglected garden, but what did I do? I just layed around watching TV and did nothing. Well, I did make a list of all the things I want to accomplish this year. I guess you can call it a "Yearly To Do List". I stopped at #60 and I still have more to list. I just got tired of listing everything. I have soooo many projects to finish I just don't know where to begin. I also want to start decorating for Easter early so that I won't be trying to do everything the day of Easter. Well, there is always tomorrow, but tomorrow I want to go thrifting. Now that sounds like more fun. Don't you think?

I want to show you a cute purse my Aunt Dorthy gave me. It has all of these gorgeous embroidered cat ladies all dressed up. Here's the front side of the purse. And here is the back side of the purse. I just love the cat lady in red. Oh La La!

I also want to thank Tommie Joe at http://tjssweethome.blogspot.com for having such a beautiful heart giveaway. I won this very cute heart.

Until tomorrow, I will give you the details of any thrift finds.

Hugs :)

Irma

End of Flirty Apron Swap and Thank You's

Well, the Celebrating Independence Flirty Apron Swap 2 has come to an end. Below is a picture of the apron I made for my partner. I mailed it out today. I hope she likes it. I also made an apron for her dish soap bottle. Oops! I forgot to post the picture of it. I really liked this pattern, its from See & Sew #B5125. I want to thank Wanda from The Rat's Pajamas for the Tag Kit she sent me. It was so sweet of her to send everyone who left a comment on her blog during the "2nd Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway" this sweet Tag Kit. I can't wait to start making some tags using all of the goodies she included.

I also want to thank Tina at Garden Goose for the nice giveaway she had. I really love this print of the girl with a kitty cat. This is a copy of one of her mother's paintings. It's just so cute. Sorry for the glare, I left it in the plastic sleeve when I took the picture.

I also want to thank RoseMarie at Sugarplum Cottage for the nice giveaway she had. I can't wait to decorate with it during the Fall months.

I've been late in sending out all of these thank you's and I apologize for this. I just have not been able to get into a schedule of when to blog and when to do the things I need to do around the house. I just feel so overwhelmed at this time. So many things to do and just don't know where to start.

Our garden seems to be coming to an end. I pulled all of our corn stalks and gave them to my neighbor for her cows to enjoy some greens. It has been so hot and dry that we only harvested at the most one dozen of the corn and they all did not have complete kernels on the cob. Very sad. I think this must have been due to the hot dry weather we have been having. Maybe next time our corn crop will be better. We did enjoy plenty of squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, peppers , onions and green beans. I guess it will soon be time to start preparing my seedlings for our fall garden at the end of July.

Also, keep checking in as my Birthday is coming up in July and I am planning a giveaway. In fact this will be my first giveaway. Yipee! I'm so excited.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. My day was great! Just stayed home and relaxed. My middle son came over and spent the afternoon with us. My oldest called to wish me Happy Mother's Day, he is in the Navy and could not make it home. My youngest son grilled chicken this time and it turned out great, did not get burned like Easter time when I tried to grill it, Middle Son remembered this incident and brought some brisket just in case (I think he was trying to be funny or maybe he just wanted to make sure we had something to eat in case it happened again, He! He!). We had Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Very addicting. Here's the receipe for Hummingbird Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can 8 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups ripe mashed bananas
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl. Add eggs and oil to dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pecans. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 3 well greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. (I used 2 pans which were a oval). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Crean Cheese Frosting:
2-8oz. pkgs. cream cheese room temperature
1 cup butter room temperature
2 pounds sifted confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine cream cheese and butter, cream until smooth. Add powndered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Frost the top layers, stack and then frost sides. Enjoy!

Below are pictures of the sterling silver ring I won at Across The Pond Designs by Casey. Thanks for having such a nice giveway. I need to practice taking pictures, these came out a little blurry. The ring is gorgeous, I love it. Sorry for the bad photos.

Looky! Looky! These are the first of some peppers from our pepper plants. Its an assortment of banana peppers, cayenne, and jalapenos. Hedwig seems to be doing a great job. He has managed to keep the birds and squirrels away. Nacho is on call waiting to be backup just in case.

The Little Prince Has Arrived!

Isn't he a cutie? He arrived today and plans to live here at Rose Cottage. Thank you Michelle @ Faerie Dust Dreams http://faeriedustdreams.blogspot.com for having this giveaway. I was so surprised to find out that I had won. Please check out her blog and esty shop as she has some really cute things.

Well, today was another day of weeding, it seems to go on and on. I started to pull the weeds but hubby said noooo, use the hoe, well I tried and then my arm started hurting. This is no fun, I just want the weeds to be gone (Wish I could twitch my nose like Bewitched and they would be gone, no such luck). So my hubby and I compromised, he would use the hoe and start chopping at the weeds and I would rake them up. Well, we got 3/4 of the way down one row. Yep, 3/4 down one row with 7 more to go. I'm not really a gardner, this is just the second time we have planted and the first time our garden was not this large. We have been working on it only in the afternoon, I guess we need to get up in the morning and also do some more weeding. But I tell my hubby "I'm not a morning gardner", I'm an afternoon like past 6:00 pm gardner. He told me "That's not going to work". Soooooo, I guess I will need to set my clock and wake up early tomorrow morning, but then again maybe I will and then maybeeee Not.

Pretty Things!

Wanted to show what I received from Holly Doodle Designs on her February giveaway. Aren't the nut cups just adorable as the vintage millinery and of course the bling bling inside the cake box. Thanks again to Holly Doodle Designs.

Don't Worry, Be Happy!!!

Great news! Holly just emailed and said not to worry. She just mailed my giveaway this week. Apology to the mail fairies.
Yahoo! I get to practice on my picture posting. As soon as received, I will post the pics.

I'm Soooooo Excited!!!!

Found out today that I was the winner on Holly Doodle Designs Blogg giveaway. Today is my second day of my new blogg. What a great surprise! Thank you Holly. Thanks to all who have found my blogg and for your nice comments. I hope to learn more about this and hopefully have a giveaway soon. I just still have to figure how to maneuver on posting and showing pictures.