Roses

My roses were gorgeous before the rain littered the driveway with the petals . . .

The pink ones on the right smell HEAVENLY! Just like roses are supposed to smell.

The peonies were even more gorgeous than last week - the rain has them dragging in the mud now.

Purses

Having spent all of Tuesday on the computer doing the summer class schedule, I revolted & spent most of Thursday in my sewing room. Ok, ok, that meant I was up till 11pm - WAY past my bed time! - getting the email ready to send Friday morning but there's a price for everything.

I made this purse from Pink Sand Beach Designs.

And now I'll tell you the rest of the story . . .

About a month & a half ago, I brought home two projects to do - a big weekender bag from batiks and a purse to make from Krakow. Somehow, they just never got done & slowly got buried in my sewing room under more recent "stuff".

Note to family - tomorrow is my birthday & the butler I didn't get for Christmas would come in real handy now . . . .

So, I took this pattern home Wed night and thought I'd use the Krakow fabrics to make a sample for the store. I looked "everywhere" - no fabric. Did I bring it back to the shop? Was it buried in a pile I hadn't looked in yet? I found the pattern I was originally going to use with that fabric but finally gave up finding the Krakow and used the batiks I was going to make the weekender bag out of. (See, a butler would have not only organized my sewing room, but would remember EXACTLY where the Krakow fabric was.)

I like the sample. I was a little stunned when I opened the pattern & saw 28 steps . . . but it went quickly and the pictures were helpful. It has inside pockets - one zippers shut - an outside pocket & a top zippered closure for security. Sara's significant other told me it looked like someone spilled bleach on it & made his eyes hurt - that's it, that kid is out of the will!

I'm making another sample, with the Krakow fabrics. I found them in a pile I hadn't seen . . .

Peonies!

About 15 or 16 years ago I saw these gorgeous bushes of flowers in Jim's sister Esther's yard. When I asked her hubby Tim what they were, he said Peonies - I never remembered seeing them before. They were GORGEOUS and three bushes totally hid their air conditioner.

Four years ago I found some in BJ's, stuck them in the front garden and expected great things. First year, bushes and no flowers. I read up on them & learned they don't usually bloom for three years - so I bought more and put them in the back garden. The next year, we had one bloom. It was gorgeous but gone too soon and the second bush still did nothing. Third year, we had two blooms and 10,000 ants on each one.

This year!

Patience is a virtue in gardening! The ones in the back garden from three years ago still haven't bloomed, I think I planted them too deep and need to dig them up. Two of the four bushes I planted last fall bloomed this year - white!