Spring Flowers

Spring is one of my favorite times!
Our family has found a favorite weekend place
called Tagawa Garden Center. It is on Bronco Pkwy and
close enough to ride our bikes to!
Last Saturday it was time to pull out my pots
and go shopping for the indoor flowers.
(I never plant outside before Mother's Day)

My favorite pot deserved my favorite flower,

the Hydrangea! Isn't it beautiful?

The boys also helped me put out my Easter decor!
I love this topiary!

I also just hung my latest purchase from etsy.
The bird garland!
It looks great on the mantle!

And one more indoor plant to brighten the
kitchen area!

If you are needing a little 'lift' bring the
flowers indoors...it makes your home
beautiful and bright!

Look at this

I think this looks like so much fun to have!!
I am already dreaming about the baby plants I could nurse.



click here for instructions on how to build this $150 greenhouse.

Simple Treasures

This girl really knows what she is doing.

She creates seedling kits as favors for gifts!

http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/2009/05/seedling-kit-favors.html
What a great gift for a friend, or even yourself!

Another great find, is this great idea...from things r better with a parrot.
Aren't these pressed stamps beautiful?

http://thingsrbetterwithaparrot.typepad.com/myweblog/2009/02/press-post.html

And now, a new favorite website!
All the luck in the world!
This is their new storefront!


http://www.alltheluckintheworld.nl/

Enjoy!

Garden Symphony

Today is a good day!

I am loving my yard right now.

I may have needed some counsel recently, but I will tell you that there is nothing that feels better in my soul that a few hours of working in the yard...call me crazy!

A couple of days ago I woke up to find a blue gift box on my front porch. Inside the box were specific instructions on how to plant my garden this year.


Thank you to my friend Kristine, the seeds have been sown, and we will wait to reap.
"A man reaps what he sows" Galatians 6:7

I have really felt convicted lately about I Corin. 13, I just keep reading it over and over.

I pray that I am a better wife and friend daily.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

I Corinthians 13:4-13

Please forgive me if I have been a bad friend over the past weeks.

Please accept my apologies.

I would love to share my garden with my friends this year. I still have seed packets to give out and I have many Stella Day lilies that need to be divided if anyone is interested; it is a great time for dividing.

"A friend loves at all times"

Proverbs 17:17

Garden Guru

Today is a good day!

I went to Home Depot and they are truly selling Spring.

I bought a few of my favorite vegetables!

Came home and took pictures of the beauty in my garden.

Hung out in the yard with the 'boys'.
My handsome father-in-law and husband!
Then I went to work in the garden!!



I had to try out my new purchase!
She is amazing!
A fire-engine red roto-tiller and cultivator!!!
Wow!
I still need help Mr. Adam Floyd!

(He has the monster of all roto-tillers)




Give me two weeks and then I will take another picture!!




This is the BEFORE picture!

(PS. Incase the green looks really green...kudos to Picasa)

Unwrapping my Passion

I am currently reading Katie Brazelton's 'Pathway to Purpose'

with a group of women from church;

however I have missed the past couple meetings, I am still reading.

I just finished chapter nine entitled "Expect the Desires of Your Heart".

Wow, what a great chapter!
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

These are pictures of a scrapbook I made today of all of my favorite bible verses!

Back to the bible study, Katie was so right, I am guilty of thinking "

God probably won't give me what I really want"...

Perhaps you are also wondering, Maybe this stepping stone isn't really from God. What if it's one of Satan's traps to coax me into worldly rewards?

Let me assure you the psalmist David spells out the win-win nature of this step in Psalm 37:4, and it truly is as safe as it looks.

If you will make God the chief affection of your inmost heart...
Meaning you delight yourself in the Lord, find enormous pleasure and joy in him, get to know Him well by continually sitting in His presence and obeying Him.

He will give you the desires of your heart.
Meaning you will receive boundless enthusiasm for the deep passions, cravings, longings, petitions, and aspirations that he planted in your heart. And God can't wait for you to unwrap that gift!

Our passion reflects our deepest yearnings.

It underscores the beauty we crave, such as art or music (that is me),

and reflects our need for such intangibles as freedom or adventure (that is me too).

What does the desire of your heart look like?

I woke up this morning and said, "I need some new flowers"....

Whit Hobbs quotes "Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there is something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at- something that's bigger than you are and you can hardly wait to go at it again today. It is something you'd rather be doing than anything else. You wouldn't give it up for more money, because it means more to you than money." (page 152)

So I LOVE that quote!

And I love LOWE's for having pink Geraniums, and of course, they were for a good cause.

I only needed two , but I loved them so much, I had to buy four!!!

I am not smart enough to derive the cure for breast cancer, but I know someone who can! So as I planted, I prayed. And I prayed. I and talked with the Lord about all the people I know who have been affected by cancer. And He knows how I feel. I am claiming BIG.

Don't they look great?
It just takes faith the size of a mustard seed! Have you ever seen the size of a mustard seed?

Spring Growth!

Oh, how I LOVE spring! I love the Spring growth I see in my garden.

I love the sunshine I feel on my face, and I love the birds I hear at my window!!

I went to the Porter County Fairgrounds Garage Sale Day with a friend a few weeks ago. There were over 200 booths of amazing things to see, man, was that ever a trip!

Talk about trying to push your way through a crowd!

I went looking for a couple of things. One thing I did NOT find was a large family Bible!

The coolest part was the very next Thursday

I was working at my church (VNC) and I looked over to my left, and there it was,

the large family bible that I had looked for the Saturday before!! It is beautiful!!

I just wanted to show you the beautiful pages inside,

not to mention the artwork that HE gifted someone to create!



Thank you God for the gift of the large family Bible! I love it!

It is laying on my white end table underneath the stenciled letters

"As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" Josh. 24:15

So you have heard about the inside of my house,

here is the outside....

Here is some spring growth from my garden! Love it!



More beauty!






Tiny crocus!







Yellow daffodils!

Light yellow daffodils!

Here comes the day lilies, I believe.

My personal favorite...the hydrangea!!!

You can see her if you look 'real' close...she is the green leaf in the center!

Oh, and we always fill the bird feeder this time of year!

PS. Yes, the red bird has returned many times and tap, tap, tappie on the window...

Front yard beauty!

Last year I did NOT do well with this rose bush!

This year, I am praying that she has a better year!

So as I looked through the gift the LORD gave me=the beautiful BIBLE...

I thought I should give my friends a gift! And then I asked, "what do I have to give Lord?".....

I then remembered the eleventh commandment

"Love one another as I have loved you"....

so I say...to my friends "I love you"...

Oh and I also say ....for some strange reason when I went to work last Sunday (Porter hospital) the guy in the cafeteria gave me a stack of Refresh YOU coupons with scratch off codes and said "i hope you win" but I cannot get the website to take my email address, so please try to enter yours and let me know if you win a free trip for two and a chance to refresh yourself with a luxurious spa package or rejuvenating golf vacation via Pepsi.

If you win , I will start drinking Pepsi, just let me know!

Just let me know! Thanks!

Dreaming in the garden!

Love the rows and fence posts. (Thanks Flickr)

This garden is divine! It is Thomas Jefferson's Vegetable Garden (taken from Flickr). I do have a passion for Presidents and this is just too good to be true!

My mind has shifted, many times this past week to many various places. One of those is the garden of my dreams. It is cold in Northwest Indiana, really cold, but I can see this garden from my kitchen window. I am anxious to change the layout this spring. The four squares was fun, but I might head to the traditional rows this year.

These are the transplants from Aunt Barbara's garden that thrived in our Kansas yard. I do miss those beautiful Perennials. I loved them so, but maybe I just had more time to love them.

I loved the dusty miller! Some people call it Lamb's Ear. It reminded me of my grandparents yard on Dartmouth. Grandpa had planted Lamb's Ear on the corner borders and as a kid, I loved "feel the softness".

The Shasta Daisies always took on the Black-Eyed Susans here. The Shastas always won!

There is nothing better than a healthy Stella!