About Me

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Sublimity, OR, United States
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I am artist of texture and color. I enjoy working with textiles, mixed media and the graphic arts. I am an avid cottage gardener with a love for pass along plants and big fluffy pink peonies and pink roses. Many of my tangible creations reflect my love of the garden and all its wonderful colors. I have been selling my creations online since 2002 beginning as a hobby. After 10 years I quit the day job to pursue my art as a full time passion.

24 June 2013

An amazing re-purpose


A few posts back, I asked if anyone knew what this was. I am still guessing, but I think it was a silk flower planter of some type. When I picked this up a garage sale a couple weeks ago, I envisioned what it could become. I love when an idea works!

I cleaned up as it was pretty dusty. Spray painted with Painters Touch Heirloom White satin. Then used a dry brush method to add some chalk paint in Provence blue. then waxed with a dark colored wax and buffed.



Next, since this was so deep, I needed to add a false bottom (I bet you are still wondering what I am planning). I simply cut a 2"x6" circle of cardboard, wrapped it around the post and taped it at the bottom. Then I cut 2 half circles, covered and glued some scrapbooking paper and placed inside. Nothing fancy.


I debated on how to divide the inside. I came up with these plastic storage containers. They are light, easy to clean, and most of all they fit the best.


Okay, so now the reveal....this is going to serve as an outdoor serving caddy! We eat outdoors in the summer a lot.


Instead of dragging out a pile of flatware and napkins, I can simply bring the whole caddy to the table and let everyone help themselves, or I can easily set each place setting in a jiffy. Note on the top loops I have added seasoning bottles, which will change based on what is being served

Below, I have a corner table on the patio that I can set this having it out of the way while we are eating. When cleaning up for the day, simply bringing in the caddy never got so easy, And I am all about making it easy on myself.

Total cost of this project was $4.00 That's right only FOUR DOLLARS for the caddy itself.  That is because everything else I had on hand including the spray paint. I am a firm believer in using what you have to make it work.


This week I am joining in on the following parties

Make it Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House
Cottage Style Entertaining Party @ EtsyCottageStyle  
Mod Mix Monday @ Mod Vintage Life
 Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm
Vintage Style Inspiration@ Knick of Time

20 June 2013

Arboroak Cottage on the front



During the summer, I usually do most of my blogging about my cottage garden. Most of that is in the back yard of my home here in rural Sublimity Oregon. When we lived in the city, I cottage gardened in both the front and the back and it was a lot of work! When we moved out to this little rural town, we purchased a home on a corner lot facing beautiful farmland and mountain vistas. I decided to "cottage garden" in just the back yard. Thru the years, somehow a few roses did make it into the front landscape little by little. A few days ago I was out snapping photos of my back side yard rose garden, and couldn't help but notice the monster Sally Holmes rose on the corner out front and just how glorious she was. Then the thought entered that really, I never have blogged about the front of our Arboroak Cottage.

 

Once the roses are done, the container flowers on the porch will be large enough to keep some color going the rest of the summer

 Popcorn rose


This is an extremely fragrant Rugosa rose. If someones knows the name, please clue me in. I bought a pair of these roses on clearance at a local nursery. The blooms only last one day, they extremely fragrant, so intense you can smell them when you walk on the porch. It is a wonderful welcome to our visitors.

This is my monster Sally Holmes rose! She was a small start 8 years ago, I knew she was gonna get big, so I gave her the whole corner. Those are the windows to my work studio, so I get to enjoy the blooms all summer. I actually do prune her back hard in both the fall and spring.


This is a sweet ground cover rose I picked up at Heirloom rose gardens, It is great for under the tree.


Hoping you enjoyed the "front" tour. I can't leave without showing you a peek at that side rose garden and what's in bloom back there. The pictures just don't do it justice

The Abraham Darby in the foreground is just starting to pop open!

17 June 2013

Ladder Planter

If you remember back a couple posts, I said I was having a thing with apple green this summer in my garden. Last winter when we went "antiquing" in Aurora, Oregon, I saw an old redwood ladder that had been re-purposed into a step planter. I thought that was such a cool idea for a narrow flower bed I have next to my patio.


The hunt began for a wood ladder, I found a redwood one, but the shop wanted $65 for it and that was way more that I (cheap junker) wanted to pay. When I was just about to throw in the towel for this season finding one to use, I stumbled on this one for $15 at a local thrift store. Not redwood, but hey, I had this apple green exterior paint, almost a full gallon. I got my hubby to cut down some fence boards I found behind our workshop and painted those to match





Viola, it fit perfect! Since it gets morning shade and intense afternoon sun, I planted some annuals that can take both extremes.


What you see on these shelves are literally out of the cupboards and my rescued garden treasures. I didn't want to get too granny looking, but wanted some cottage garden charm




Now on to the next project...........here it is below....................it won't be for the garden..........but will be outside.............I have no clue what it is, but somewhat of an idea what it will become................



Etsy Cottage Style Cottage Craft Party
It’s Bloomin’ Tuesday @ Ms. Green Thumb Jean
Tuesday Garden Party @ An Oregon Cottage
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday@Coastal Charm
Outdoor Wednesday @ A Southern Daydreamer
Garden Party @ Fishtail Cottage
Simple and sweet Fridays @Rooted in Thyme

13 June 2013

Getting rid of spam on your reading list....

First, I will share this amazing pic I snapped of my Mary Roses yesterday tee hee

Okay, down to some serious stuff. If you have been seeing spam posts in your dashboard, there is a way to get rid of them. I sometimes have 10-20 of theses spam posts in one day, and seriously, it was making me crazy. I had searched Google help, and it said to go to manage blogs and remove them from your follow list. But the problem was that those blogs were not on my list to remove. What has happened is these spammers basically use old inactive blogger URLS to redirect you, and since you were originally following a legit log, now they have you looking at what they have to say even if you don't want to.

Finally,  after several other attempts, I went into the blogger forums hoping to resolve. Still I could not find anything relative, so I posted a question. Before I got done typing, several related links to discussions popped up. It took me a while to do this since I follow 100+ blogs, but doggonnit, those pesky blogs that were trying to sell me loans and other crap are now gone from my reading list.

So here is how you do it. When in your reading list. Mouse over the title or name of the spamming blog. You will see the URL link usually the bottom left of your browser. That is the name you are going to be looking for. Write it down, as you are going to now to to GoogleFriendConnect  If you are signed in, you will see your total list of blogs.

This is where the time consuming part begins. (like I said, I follow over 100 blogs). 
Mouse over each one "visit this site" and it shows the URL link.In some cases it is the same name as the blog title there, but not always. For instance, my blog is named ALL IN MY COTTAGE,  but my URL link is cgtreasures.blogspot.com  since that was the name I gave it when I very first start blogging back in the dark ages  LOL.  Lots of folks change blog names frequently!

So once you find that sneaky spammer URL in your list, go to "settings" and a box pops up that you can click on stop following. Immediately the posts disappear! YAY.
A couple that I had on my list were so-so-crazy (it was a quilting blog at one time) and another was Creationsbyladysara (Sara Creations) and they were legit blogs. Both of those were now spamming me for loans.

Glamis Castle- David Austin Rose

Hopefully today I have shared some enlightening and helpful knowledge to my blogger friends:)


09 June 2013

An easy re-purpose planter

A fun and easy planting project this last week. Simply a vintage rusty 70's enamel colander has become a unique planter. I am having a love affair with apple green this summer----watch for more projects with this color.


 since the colander by nature is not designed to hold water.....

I moistened and added a thick layer of spaghnum moss to the bottom and part way up the sides.
A good quality potting soil and low growing fragrant Alyssum

 Don't forget to add a saucer underneath the colander!

Once this fills out, I will be back to post the
Viola of this easy re-purpose project.

Linking up this week with 

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 Also pop over to my biz blog to see my latest project for the cottage garden I am selling on my website 

04 June 2013

Today is for the Calla Lily

 Today I picked a bouquet


Calla Lily, not really a lily, but a herbaceous plant that blooms May and June. I always identified these growing up with Confirmation Day at church. My mom had a 30ft bed of these and she always provided a bevy of bouquets for the church on that special day for the lot of 8th graders being confirmed as adult members of the Lutheran Church. I learned in later years that these were a lovely formal flower used in weddings too.



I never have had much luck growing them and have often got new starts from mom, never giving up trying to get them as pretty as she grew them. Well, finally this year, for reasons unknown, mine are quite spectacular. Maybe it was that thick layer of organic compost in the fall and again in the spring.

I did a little research on the meaning of Calla Lily. I found this interesting legend


Legend behind calla lily
Calla lily meaning has been related to Greek goddess Hera. The word calla means beautiful. The legend goes like this. Zeus, the roman god had fathered Hercules with earthly women. When Hercules was born, Zeus wanted Hercules to have divine powers. He drugged Hera and let the little Hercules nurse from her. As Hera came back to her senses, she was furious and pushed the baby aside. During this act, the milk way was formed and as the few drops of milk fell on the earth they became lilies. Seeing the beautiful lilies, Venus felt that her beauty is being challenged. She began cursing the flower and soon a heavy pistil came out of the centre of the beautiful cup shaped flower. Callas lilies are associated with Mother Mary, and it symbolises her purity and virginity. Again it is seen on Easter and it herald resurrection. It also is related to the holy cross and Christ’s passions while on it.  During the Victorian Era, puritans imposed restrictions on the use of impure words and since then flowers are used to transfer feelings of the heart. Different flowers have different meaning and the Calla lily meaning is both rebirth and union.



Usually Calla lily can be in a bouquet all by itself, but I like lots of color! My bouquets are gardener cut and stuff, I am not a florist by any means! I added a few Columbine flowers, they are almost done blooming, a pretty foxglove, and a bit of varigated ivy.

joining in on the parties at
these wonderful blogs

Every Saturday

Where we reside

Where we reside

The Oregon Coastline

The Oregon Coastline