Tiptoe through the....

TULIPS!!!!!
The tulips are blooming and just starting to wither away now. I really have loved the show they put on in the front and backyard....

...and in my kitchen! I got this little vintage chalkboard and every so often I will doodle with my colored chalk. Lately it's tulips of course!

Steve took this lovely shot of our backyard.

The yellow and red ones came up first, followed by bright pink, deep plum and we even had some pale pink ones.

Our lilac bush bloomed beautifully this year!

Last year we only got a couple of blooms. I read that if the previous summer is hot and rainy then the following year it yield less blooms, whereas a mild and cooler summer will be more favorable for blooms. Funny how last years weather affects some plants.

They are so heavily perfumed. I put some in the front hall and they smell great!

Some of the perrenial flowers we planted last year our coming up!

And these bleeding hearts.

Archie is enjoying the sunroom! The owl an the pussycat...heehee!

He is usually in there most of the time.

As is this new kitty from my brother and sister-in-law from Baltimore who gave this delightful handmade plaque to us. I love the bird and mouse details!

Speaking of birds, I was lucky enough to snap this photo of a bluejay from my bedroom window. You can click on the photo to see him better.

Ahhhh, nature!

little things mean a lot...

these tiny grape hyacinths are so pretty and petite and fit perfectly in this miniature vase.


I've always loved tiny things. The smaller the more precious they seem.


I picked up these cute little dishes on my Niagara region trip last July in a cute little shop...



and found this little blue tea set on Etsy.

I planted some seeds - basil, parsley, mint, thyme and lavender. I love to watch them grow from tiny little seedlings into leafy plants.


This little dove has made a nest on our porch column. It was a robin's nest last spring. She has precious tiny eggs underneath her warm breast.
Speaking of new life, I wanted to announce the birth of little Claire Louise Guillerez.
She is the new daughter of my dear friend Nathalie and her husband Jean Francois, and new little sister to Alex and Emilie.

Congrats to the Guillerez family!!!!

I hope I get to see the baby sometime this summer. Oh, and I will finally get to see my own new little nephew Sean in Boston at the end of May.

Lots of colors everywhere!

We've got color outdoors....

in pretty reds, yellows and green.


And we have the new colors indoors. Yes! We finally painted our kitchen!! What a job! Cleaning walls and removing all the pictures and things, so many things to dust and wash....then the taping of the walls and then finally dipping your paint brush in the can. Now I'm finishing the trim in the livingroom. Then I have to think about colors for the basement. We just got new carpeting and now I want to spruce it up down there.


This is the other side of the kitchen, we decided to leave it the color it was when we moved in. The lady picked a nice shade of bluey purple...periwinkle i think.

But I am so digging the new color. At first a bit shocking, but after we put back everything we loved it! So fresh and bright and pretty!

I painted this old bookcase with fake wood white and then the kitchen color for the back panels. It looks so nice now.

You know, once I start painting, I find it hard to quit. I keep finding more things to paint. I painted my dresser white and light celery green then decoupaged some flowers. I think I may need to add some more though.


Steve thinks it's a little too feminine but hey, I'm sure he'll grow to like in time.


Then we have my favorite sweater which is a brilliant shade of orange. This is the best item I have ever picked up at a thrift store. Soft vintage cashmere. I replaced the old buttons though with these cream ones. Oh, I got a haircut last week too. It's kind of sassy, no? Decided to go for bangs which I think make me look 10 years younger!!



I picked up this great book from the library from the new books display. I'm so into this new book called 'The Guynd: A Scottish Journal" by Belinda Rathbone. It's a memoir of a New England woman who marries a Scot and moves into his 400 year old ancestral home, The Guynd. The once-grand mansion is now in a crumbling state with overgrown gardens. It is a comical and often touching story of how they cope with the struggle of renovations and trying to restore it back to it's once glorious state. She writes poignantly and with wit about her marriage and living in rural Scotland, trying to adjust to a different land and class system. It's so wonderful to end the day reading in bed or outdoors in the middle of the afternoon. It's been awhile since I picked up a book that I find very hard to put down.

Time keeps on slipping...

slipping....into the future. Isn't that a 70's song? Not sure of the band...but I've been thinking constantly about time and how quickly it goes. It seems as if my life is in fast forward and I'm forever trying to catch up.



In terms of my business (see above for my latest biz card) I feel like I have so much I want to do to improve it and to make more sales. I don't think money is my main motive, it's more the need to make beautiful things and to have others appreciate them. I feel like I want to accomplish all the ideas that are constantly filling up my brain.




I'm spending more time in the backyard lately, contemplating all that I wish to do with my fleeting life. What projects do I want to work on or complete?How do I make this? Then questions of a more mundane matter......What should I make for dinner? What do I need to pick up at the grocery store. You know, all the things we do in our everyday routine takes time, from keeping the house clean, all the errands, cooking, taking care of pets or children. It just amazes me how much work it is to keep a house nice and clean, and keep your body clean and fed, not including exercise. Not to mention, how much time it eats up! I have to figure a way to cut out things that interfere with my creative time and allows me to fulfill my need to create things. I hope I can find a way.
Anyhoo.....I don't get to think for too long though with a rambunctious beagle demanding my attention.

She loves to play fetch, yet as soon as she catches the ball she will race back towards me and veer off and scoot around me, as if to say, "Catch me if you can"!!

Then fetch turns into tag as she runs in circles around me and eventually plops down to chew her ball. I love to chase her around the yard, since it's great exercise for me (trying to lose my Buddha belly from too many cookies and cupcakes). Lulu has already helped me lose most of it since I got her last fall.


Speaking of pretty things.....I made this felt tea set this winter from a cute book about crafting plush toys. I still need to make another cup in case I have someone come over for tea, like my niece Jordan in the photo. I toyed (pardon the pun) with the idea of making these for one of my shops, possibly in the future. My shop 'talkofthetown' is more about pretty things, and 'kookyhandbags' is more about fun and whimsical stuff. Lately, I'm having more success with 'talk' than with 'kooky' so it seems people are more interested in pretty than kooky I guess. Maybe it's just that my 'kooky' items are not kooky enough, they sort of fall in the category of almost kooky. Oh well, I'll figure it all out......in time!

spring projects

I've been very busy with lots of projects as of late. If you notice in the picture above, I have a half-finished project of this bird house. I painted it white and orange and gathered some twigs from the yard to hot glue on the sides. I'm also going to decoupage the front of it and glue on buttons and beads. It is a fun little project, but I have to admit that I started it last fall, and it's still on the table for the past week waiting to be finished!!!


I love this pretty geranium, such a great orange color. It goes nicely with the bird house project on the table behind it!


Project No. 2 - We are painting the kitchen finally! It's been on the to-do-list since last fall too. We got the house insulated then and we had all these holes, which we filled and primed. So since last fall we had the blue walls with clouds (the primed holes) and I told Steve THIS is the weekend we are painting the kitchen! It took forever to pre-prep, taking all the pictues and knick knacks off the walls and shelves, and cleaning off cobwebs and dust and grease...yucky!
We ended up doing a lot of spring cleaning in the kitchen, which is a good thing.
The green splotch on the wall is the color we chose, last fall! It has since become runny and so we need to take it back to Home Depot tomorrow to have them shake it up good. Hopefully it will be usable after it is shook up good and proper.


Right now the kitchen looks so boring and sterile. I need color!!

Project no. 3- I cleaned up the sunroom recently, it was quite messy and was full of junk and stuff, so it was more like a closet than an actual room. As you can see, Lulu is enjoying the sunroom since it's makeover.

I had to clear out the whole room to clean the floors and then added pillows and lots of knick knacks, books and magazines.

The glass table holds my collection of glassware, minus the light blue sand hourglass which Steve broke recently! I was rather upset when it happened since I just bought it and it wasn't cheap. But you know, it's just a thing, so I got over it.

The table behind the bench, has more cute country shabby chic stuff.

I love my sunroom now! I can sit here in the morning with my coffee and read and enjoy the warm sun. Someday I hope to get a wicker loveseat, since the bench's back is so upright that is not comfy to sit for too long. I like to read my latest design books from the library, like one of Kaffe Fassets' books. I'm really amazed at Fasset's designs, I'm reading his 'Glorious Interiors' book at the moment and one on patchwork. I've always loved anything patchwork and have made quite a few patchwork bags and pillows, including the two on the bench in the above photo.
I've got other projects on the drawing table, more lavender pillows and some decoupage items, plus I've got more bags to make. I just sold a few more pillows which I'm jazzed about! My sales were in a slump lately, so I was happy to get a few.
So, enjoy the rest of this weekend, and I hope you're having great weather. Here it is unseasonably warm, we reached a high of 22 C today, and this evening it is still a very warm 20 C!

April showers...

bring forth the most gorgeous crocuses.



Such pretty little flowers crocuses are! They are the most perfect little flower. These are blooming in the garden now, and our tulips are making their debut very soon.
I've seen quite a few crocuses in the area, while walking Lulu. The purple are my favorite, but the yellow and white ones are lovely too!

and......

our lilac bush has buds! Last year we got a very poor showing on our lilac bush. Only two blooms! I don't understand what happened. I'm hoping that it will bloom more successfully this year.

I sure am enjoying the weather lately, except for the rain of course.