Yearning for Spring

As I mentioned in my last post, this Winter-especially January has been devoid of color and sun.  I'm yearning to see the little seedlings poking through the ground with promise of grand color and beauty in the Spring and Summer.  I planted some white Anemones and pink Alliums in addition to the traditional Daffodils and Tulips that all should be the first thing to bloom in our garden in late winter and early spring.  Since I can't enjoy them right now, I've been looking at catalogs for more spring bulbs to perhaps purchase for the next year. Here is what I've found most intriguing.

Anemone Lord Lieutenant
I love the color and the fact that the bloom time is in February-my birthday month and is amethyst in color-my birthstone. It would be like a little birthday present to myself!

How about some heirloom tulips? Yes, please!
 DUC VAN TOL ROSE, 1700
These only grow 6 inches tall, but would be great as a small colorful accent in a bed with taller plants blooming at the same time.
Or maybe mixed with some crocus?  NEGRO BOY, 1910
This unfortunately named Crocus is a wonderful deep indigo and would highlight the lovely pink in the small tulip.

This double tulip is very nice as well.  I really like flowers with many petals and have a different look than what a "traditional" tulip looks like. PEACH BLOSSOM, 1890

Another beautiful late winter addition to the garden are Lenten roses or hellebores.  Many of the colors have a "vintage" color to them-with muted pinks, creams, greens and purples.

 

I think that these would make lovely pressed flowers for cards or for framing like a botanical print. 

I can't wait for Spring so I can take pictures and document everything!

Gloomy Day Inspirations and Birthday

I'm home sick today and the weather outside is fitting for how I feel.  It's cold, rainy and there hasn't been even a peek of sunshine for several days now.  We are looking forward to the spring and getting back to the land but for now, I can only brighten up my day with planning for the many projects ahead, and herbal tea...even the kitties have decided to abandon their bird watching perch and nap the day away.

I like to buy a new dress, or have Isaac buy it for me as a present, for my birthday. I also want to buy a new bathing suit for a vacation in May. Window shopping has kept me a little occupied as well and I will list my narrowed down favorites.

Birthday dresses!

Anthropologie: Rising Vapor Dress. I love the ruffles!

Mod Cloth Blowing Bubbles Dress. So cute! It keeps going out of stock, so maybe I should snatch it up! A short-sleeved cardigan, a clutch and some cute shoes would be a great outfit for a wedding.

Fossil Virginia Dress













That's the narrowed down version. Some that I found and liked are out of stock. Oh well!

Bathing Suits!
I'm modest-so one pieces for moi.

JCrew Solid ruched bandeau tank

JCrew Jersey Lomellina® cabana tank

  Jersey Lomellina® retro bandeau tank










You get the general idea!

Flowers I can wait to see in bloom.

Our peonies!

Bachelor Buttons

Lavender!

 

Books I'm Currently Browsing

I work at a Library so I have many interesting books checked out on my library card.  Sometimes I don't get around to reading or even looking at a book before I have to return it for the next person to read.  So I'm trying to make a better effort to browse the various gardening, craft and art books. Here are a few of my recent favorites.

 Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry

The Cincinnati Art Museum is exhibiting the pieces from this collection of Art Nouveau jewelry.  I hope to make it to the show before it closes on January 17th. 

Here are a few that I like best.

Charles Desroisers Orchid Brooch, 1898-1901

Phillipe Wolfers "Dragonfly" pendant-brooch, 1904

Lucien Gaillard Necklace with bleeding hearts

I need to get a scanner so I can scan all my other favorites!

I'm also getting inspirations for more felting projects.  The two books I'm looking at right now are:

Feltique: Techniques and Projects for Wet Felting, Needle Felting, Fulling, and Working with Commercial Felt

The ruffle necklace on the cover is quite cute. There are also felted fortune cookies which would make nice party favors or an alternative to a birthday card.

Felt jewelry : 25 pieces to make using a variety of simple felting techniques 

There are many nice jewelry ideas in the book. The necklaces are quite bold and chunky which definitely makes a statement when you wear them.

The other publications that are in heavy reading rotation are seed catalogs!  My husband and I are starting to order seeds for the upcoming season. A couple of our favorite places for seeds are: The Seed Savers Exchange and J.L. Hudson. I'm searching for the prettiest sunflowers and herbs that we aren't already growing.  We want to make more teas and herbal creations from our garden. I also want to have more flowers for arraignments and drying for crafts this year, including globe amaranth, cone flowers,and cosmos.  We grew an deep orange variety of Cosmos last year named Diablo Cosmos and they were beautiful.  I saved a lot of the seeds and we are going to get more colors!

The veggie list is also in the works, which is for another post.

xoxo,