Sunshine After the Storm

 

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is well!

Luckily,  Long Island was spared Hurricane Henri for the most part. Several areas were flooded and some lost power. Usually we get hit pretty hard!  I'm very grateful that this time we did not suffer much more than a soaked and soggy backyard and an abundance of wet leaves all over the garden beds and lawns. Let the sunshine in! I'm looking forward to the cooler weather and Fall. I also keep an eye on the weather though because of hurricane season! 

I had some of my Fall decor handy and began my decorating. I made several new Fall arrangements which I will show you when I know I am really finished with them  I keep tweaking them. I did work on my end counter where i display faux food. I both make i and buy it! I just love how it looks. So cozy! The mugs are candles that I purchased at Jake's Country Trading Post last trip to Lancaster. I also bought the candle peach pie.  The other items are homemade and purchased from talented crafters from my Country Home decorating page on Facebook. There is so much talent out there! People are so creative in their home businesses, and I try to make many purchases. 

More Fall decor and the cute little mice you see were also purchased from a creative home business!

School starts September 9th here. My daughter is entering 11th grade. So hard to believe! My son's girlfriend graduated college with  a marketing and business degree and we are so proud. We happily celebrated with her family at a lovely graduation party bbq last week. Happy to be celebrating some good things since this year has been sad with the losses we have had of close family members. More good things to look forward to in September is my 33rd wedding anniversary! Always looking for the positives! We have to! 

Have a beautiful day! 

 Good Morning! I hope everyone who is reading this is having a good Summer. I hope you got to enjoy some beautiful weather, spent time with family and friends, sat outside in the evenings or even got to the shore. 

 Honestly, its been a strange Summer for us. It had a combination of good things (Sweet 16 party, vacation, new patio) and then sadness with the loss of another close family member. Whereas I hate dwelling on sadness, this loss really hit us hard. I keep my spirits up by immersing myself in my hobbies and family. I have to value all that I have. I am blessed. Life is beautiful. Life is hard. Loss is devastating. Losing relationships is devastating. Ultimately, life is still beautiful. 

I'm really excited for Fall! I promised my husband I wont start decorating till September 1st but I have started some crafts. I'm currently working on some new Fall arrangements and I sewed some fabric pumpkins that I am stuffing. I'm making a Fall sunflower wreath but I need some more supplies. Keeping busy keeps me calm and happy. Its also a way for me to process the loss of both my Mom and this other family member. I bought a few signs from dollar tree that are elongated. Rather than hang them, I'm mounting them on stakes to make signs. As long as they don't get wet,  they will be fine so I will probably add them into outside displays that are under my covered porches.  I had cleaned and organized my craft room which had been a mess since Caitlin's Sweet 16 party so now I am committed to keeping it neat!

My garden is another story. Peppers did great. Zucchini...everyone gets ton of zucchini but not us. I got only one! And I have ten plants with lots of zucchini flowers but no zucchini to pick! Tomatoes were slow coming and rotting on the vine. My husband is currently investigating WHY. Herbs, celery and cabbage did okay. I think next year we need to change up our gardens. New plans. Disappointing but still fun to work on. Now that my husband finished our patio in June, he is currently making an outdoor kitchen area with a counter/stools. An area for our smoker and BBQ and an outdoor fridge. He is always filled with awesome ideas. I wish he had more time to enjoy all the great things he does for us. But it's Fall I'm waiting for!

Fall fills me with inspiration and excitement. I want to bake! I want to get cozy! I want fluffy blankets out and Fall scented candles burning! I like to plan ahead for my trick or treaters and make my pumpkin people and dressed crows! We have two trails in mind for our bike rides. Hopefully we will get in apple picking. We will do our pumpkin picking and we have a trip to PA planned again.  All good things and I am grateful  I know God is in charge. 

Vacation!

Good Morning! I hope who ever is reading this is well and enjoying their Summer. We've had quite a wet July here on Long Island; I know many states are also having a humid, rainy Summer too. I'm a Fall girl anyway! But my garden is certainly loving the rain. Everything is growing HUGE. We went on vacation July 4th and I'm glad we really didn't experience too much precipitation. A few night storms but that's okay.

We started our trip in Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. That was something I really wanted to do for a long time. Finally I got to visit Paul Revere's house, which I've wanted to do for years. And I've been going to Massachusetts since I'm a little girl but we never spent time in Boston. Loved the cobblestone streets! Old North Church, Paul Revere Park, Boston Common, the USS Constitution...all good things! We went to Quincy Market and ate at the famous Union Oyster House! Then we watched fireworks from our hotel because it was too hard to access Boston Common for the fireworks. Great time! Then we moved on to the Salem, Gloucester , Rockport area. We ate dinner in Sudbury at Longfellow's Wayside Inn, which is our tradition.

So many great places to see. Some still closed or had abbreviated hours but still fun.

The Fisherman looks amazing lit up at night! The park that surrounds the famous statue is beautiful.

Fun in Massachusetts then on to Lancaster. Visited my favorite spots and did tons of shopping at farm stands and Amish farms. Most of the trip was driving the backroads looking for those special spots and we found a bunch. The car was loaded with goodies when we left!

Back home and working on the garden, and I'm in a Fall mood! I dont know why every year after 4th of July passes, I am so ready for Fall! This afternoon I plan to sew and stuff some pumpkins! I know it sounds crazy but I have fun! I'm on the hunt for fabric to make corn! Cloth indian corn. A trip to Hobby Lobby is in my future. Wondering if anyone else is starting Fall projects. 

Here are some photos of my yard at night all lit up. i love sitting out there with my coffee and enjoying the evening. 

Well, back to housework, garden and the chickens! Have a great day!

Summer is Here!

Good Morning! I hope everyone is well. It sure feels like Summer is here already here on Long Island Hot temperatures and thunderstorms but cooler nights. I'm not a heat lover but I do enjoy what comes along with Summer~bbq's, flowers, vegetable gardens, beach visits, porch sitting.

So its been pretty busy here. Besides helping to care for a relative who is ill, we also had a Sweet 16 party for Caitlin. Her birthday was March 28th but we wanted to celebrate outside. Glad we got the new patio done. Everything worked out well. 

 We had about 40 people and the weather was perfect. Everyone loved the slushy machine, the candy table and all the games we had. It was a fun day. I mixed up the menu with all different stuff from Sushi, to Italian, to Mexican! A very fun day. Kind of glad its over though because we've been planning it since the Winter and I'm ready to move on LOL 

I spent most of yesterday working in the yard especially in my gardens. I picked some strawberries, broccoli, oregano, parsley, scallions and lots of romaine lettuce. I still want to plant more and it's early enough. Waiting on my tomatoes, cabbage and peppers. They are growing well but I have nothing to pick yet. I need to plant zucchini. Next year I want to make room to plant potatoes. 

One of the things I've been doing is changing up some of the meals for dinner. Something different. I was inspired by so many of the options my kids order when they go out. They order poke bowls or acai bowls. I don't know if they are popular anywhere other than the Northeast but they are super popular here. So its like making a bowl and pretending its compartmented and you have some of several items! A fruit, a grain, a protein, produce, etc.  So tonight on my menu is grileld shrimp from the bbq, butter rice, romaine salad, sliced tomato with hard boiled egg, a slice of cheddar, and sauteed zucchini. and add a fresh fruit! Trust me when you arrange these in neat portions ina circle, it's not only pretty but delicious! I do different dinners all the time. The other night it was grilled chicken, pasta salad, broccoli, hummus with bagel chips, some raw carrots with ranch.  It's a lot of food but in smaller portions. They seem to like eating lighter in the Spring and Summer. 

That's about it for me! I hope everything is wonderful in your life or as good as it can be! 

Getting Spring & Summer Ready

 

Good Morning! I wanted to get a new post out to you before i head outside to plant more bulbs! We've been working hard here on some projects; the largest being our new larger patio. We had a brick patio we put in back in 1995 but decided the time had come to refresh the backyard with a new patio of pavers. The work began last week moving bushes and redesigning the shape. My husband is doing the job with one of his laborers from our company and they are breezing right through it making a lot of progress. Here are some photos of the  new shape. That's sand covering the new design. Soon the pavers will go in! Very excited. 

So we are transplanting some bushes, buying some new ones. It's going to be very pretty! We go to our favorite wholesale grower for the bulk of our plant and flower purchases. We visited Sunday to choose what we want to get for this Summer,

I could just spend a fortune on flowers! I really could. I love them so much.This grower has an awesome selection and he knows we will be coming so he always throws in something special for me! I'm just laughing though because we have this one pesky rabbit who likes to eat our flowers and he has become my husband's nemesis. This rabbit came last year and ate alot of our New Guinea Impatiens. Once again, he's sitting in my neighbor's driveway just waiting...every day we see him. He's waiting for the flower buffet to begin!! Last year my husband sprayed the flowers with a spray that doesn't harm the animals; it just repels them. Well it smelled like wet dog!!! LOL It repelled us more than the bunnies! We'll try something new this year perhaps a home remedy. I've heard grated Irish Spring soap works!

I hope everyone is getting to enjoy the outdoors . I know some had snow still coming! It's cold here today! but we will back to the 60's and low 70's by next weekend. I have all the bulbs planted. This year I even planted fern bulbs. I never did those before.  I planted red cannas, red & yellow cannas, elephant ears, ferns, and three types of lillies. I also planted onion bulbs in my vegetable garden. When I go to Lancaster this Summer, there is a garden center that sells a huge variety of bulbs. I'm interested in some that bloom for the Fall. 

I'm awaiting the release of Amy Clipston's next, and I believe final,  installment of her awesome Amish series "Amish Marketplace." It's called The Jam & Jelly Nook   and comes out May 4th! I havbe loved tis series, which started with The Bake Shop. It's as though it takes place in the Bird in Hand Farmer's Market! The other books in the series are The Coffee Corner and The Farm Stand. Jam & Jelly Nook comes out soon!

Have a wonderful day! Don't forget to hit the follow button!

Happy Tuesday!

Good Morning! What a beautiful sunny day!  I think (but not positive) the cold weather is behind us! I know it will still go down to the high 30's at night but I think my winter coat days are over for this year. I am so looking forward to going outside to plant but first we have alot to do. Before I get ot hat, How was your Easter? Ours was very quiet but enjoyable. We decided to stay close to home and not get together with family right now. We went out early in the morning to the cemetery for my parents as I wanted to put a Spring bouquet. I'm very glad that the cemetery is very good about allowing people to decorate graves as long as it is neat and orderly. So I like to go for the different seasons and I visit my parents and grandparents in the dame cemetery. My Mom's name was added to the plaque next to Dad and I must say it was startling for me to se her name there as it's still a struggle for me to believe she's not here. I miss her terribly. 

Okay, so moving on to happier things! Because we have to~I can't dwell on sad things because it really takes me down and I don't want to feel that way. Sooooo...Look at this chocolate chicken with Easter eggs my neighbor gave me! I am truly blessed with the best neighbors in the world. And I don't just mean for their gifts! They are loving, good people and we care deeply for each other. She knows me soooo well and when sh esaw this chicken she probably thought MARGARET ! And i love her for that thought. 

After the cemetery it was still really early in the morning, but Hicks Nursery in Old Westbury was open early for Easter and Billy and I did some bulb shopping! I prefer to plant perennials and do annuals in pots or as accent plants. And I love bulbs. We got fern bulbs! I got an onion selection bulb packet.  We got our elephant ear bulbs and some blooms in deep reds and blooms in red/yellow 

And we chose that color because my husband has started demo on our backyard brick patio and the deck around my shed. It's time! Between Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irene, my patio has lifted from tree roots plus we have it and used it quite a bit since we installed it in 1995. Time to refresh! So here is my husband demolishing the wood deck around my shed. And then it's on to the bricks. we are putting down dark gray pavers with a black border so red flowers will go nicely with our new red patio umbrellas! Red is  my accent color for the backyard on that side now. I'll post photos as he does it. He's such a busy man. He works all day on projects for our construction company and then does this at night! 

Today I will be washing down the interior of the chicken coop. I did all fresh straw all ready but now I want to wash down the walls from the dust and clean all their "decor" and yes, my chickens have decor inside their coop!

Look at my great nephew Patrick! He just turned three months! He is the happiest baby you would ever meet! Smiles endlessly! He's such a cutie. I'm so in love with him!

Last but not least on Good Friday, my Caitlin and Billy's girlfriend Viera and I went for a nice girls breakfast! We went to am adorable family favorite called Mundays! It's in Huntington Village. We had fun. We always end up laughing about something. My two girls I love them so much! Mundays always goes all out decorating too. Caitlin had an awesome avocado, spinach & onion breakfast burrito. My kids love avocados. Vi and I had omelettes and eggs benedict . Delicious!

 So I think I'm caught up.....I hope you have an awesome day!