Bits & Pieces...

of things at Number 17

Our first tomatoes of the season...I've given up on growing the Great Big Fat Tomatoes...especially in the ground...I've gone to little tomatoes in pots...

A Big Sale

, as the bag states, at Bath & Body Works...

I only go into B & B about twice a year...I like the wallflowers and I like their Jasmine Vanilla liquid soap (I have very easily irritated skin on my hands & this soap doesn't ruin my hands like a lot of other soaps)...the Jasmine Vanilla Body Scrub is beyond divine if you're feeling decadent...and feel like scrubbin' your tub after using it so the next unsuspecting person to step into the tub doesn't break something...

Anyhoo...loaded up with wallflowers and refills...some birthday gifts for later in the year...and I "discovered" an Orange Blossom lotion and eau du toilette that is so dead-on with its scent that you will feel like you are an Orange Blossom much less standing near an orange tree loaded with flowers...I hope since these were in the 75% off area that B & B aren't discontinuing it...that would be disappointing...

I also picked up some

that's right...Pumpkin Pie Body Scrub...because I have a serious Pie Jones and I can easily imagine wakin' up one crisp fall (okay...I realize this is southeastern Georgia and that should really read "muggy hot fall" but just play along with me) morning and sayin'

"I think I'd like to smell like a Huge Pumpkin Pie today" :) ...really, I can...

and more on the Home Project Front

My second attempt at the painting the lower kitchen cabinets came out much better than the first (without too much detail, suffice it to say there is a paint salesman with his name on My List)...just a little touch up and I'll be movin' on to the upper cabinets

(these will be soft white with glass fronts and the walls are going to a soft grubby yellow...I know it is a cliche but I love a yellow kitchen :) ...now if I could only figure out how to get those black-and-white tiled floors I love in a kitchen...I'm seriously thinking about trying some light sanding and oil-based paint on them...them maybe some sealer...of course, keeping the furry ones off the floor long enough for it to dry would be next to impossible...sigh...

oh...do ya'll think these bananas are ripe enough to be made into banana bread?

(what I was supposed to be doing instead of painting cabinets)

Lavender, Sage and...Liriope

Those are what I picked up this morning...and a few other things...of course...I only went to Lowe's to look at their replacement cabinet doors (Big Doin's in the Kitchen ReDo area!)

But, force of habit, I park so I walk through the garden department...

And I had just been thinkin' to myself...and going ahead and sharing my thoughts with Mr G (early justification foundation) that I need something in the veggie patch to draw pollinators...truly, the courtyard garden has loads of bees...

and yet the poor Veggie Patch hardly has any! and the veggies suffer for it...right now, my little cantaloupe vines are bloomin'...and I have yet to see a bee anywhere near them...so I'm afraid it'll be a repeat of last year when I finally got cantaloupes but so late in the season that they didn't mature before the first hard frost came...

anyhoo...the Spanish Lavenders were 50% off and, yes, I morphed into a Spanish Lavender hog...I got all 5 that remained...the dwarf Santa Barbara Mexican Bush Sages were 50%, too (I only took 2 of those:)...well, crud...after finding a link for ya'll for the sages, now I really wish I had gotten more than 2! the card in them portrays the flowers as more of a fuchsia-violet-pink colour...well...we are going back this evening with a cabinet door in hand...

the New Blue Liriope was regularly priced, but the courtyard has some major Bare Spots...and I'm trying to eliminate most of the colour in there except for foliage...it seems calmer & cooler to have only foliage when the summer gets here...sorry for yet another crummy pix...

I hope to have an arbor of some type built to cover the courtyard area one of these days...one of these days wayyyy down the road :)

I also finally got around to pickin' up a new coconut mat liner for a huge iron hanging basket my MIL gave to me months and months ago...the remains of a 3/4s dead Boston fern lived in the basket...and I finally felt shamed enough by its lingering presence to do something about it...

for the basket, I chose white petunias, variegated ivy, blue daze and I plopped a Christmas Cactus I had about the place into the basket as well...just for some height & fun texture...

now I just have to remember to water the thing...and hope Mama Wren doesn't come along & decide to have some babies in there...

I decided to make up two of these easy planters for atop two of the courtyard columns...little off on the scale, but oh well...the grasses will make it easier for these not to roast in our Georgia summers...

and we got a bit more painted in the courtyard area...we're just about through in that area except for right along the top of one wall (you can see that in the right photo below) and the columns...

the scale on the fountain is off...but I plan to remedy that will adding trellis work around it one of these days...probably not until next winter...

do not look at the bare spots on the ground! I'm trying to slowly fill in with different plants that provide not just texture, but unusual colours...like the creeping jenny you can just see in the very back of the garden...

Frugal Heads Up

I found these sheet sets @ amazon.com...spring for 2 sets, pick the super saver shipping option and you simply can't beat the price...well, free is good, but unless you like to ask for sheets for your birthday :) and you can even just mail them a check (I'd love it if they were set up for paypal :) instead of using your credit or debit card...

Anyhoo...I've ordered 3 sets...our sheet selection around here is, um, "varied" would be a nice word...and sliding into a fresh set of white sheets after a long hot summer day is one of life's wonderful pleasures :)

Pinzon 300-TC Sheet Set $16.99


300-thread count is probably my favourite count for bedding...300 TC is high enough to not be like sleeping on a jute floor mat, but low enough to not be excessively delicate...


early in our marriage, Mr G's mom thoughtfully went out & bought us a beautiful set of high-thread count sheets...

long story short, since the FBDs (Furry Baby Dogs) are allowed on our bed, someone's sharp little toenails ripped the livin' blankety right out of that bottom sheet the first time I dressed the bed with it...

Kind of Sad...

Our little town's only free-standing fabric store is shutting its doors come May 26th...true, it wasn't much a store...sort of dimly lit and nothing too exciting in the way of fabrics...or was I just not looking hard enough?


Because I went in today for some tea-dyed muslin (at 69 cents a yard) and came out with $71.62 worth of fabric and bias tape and a new marking pen...and some heavy duty needles...I don't know why but the sales lady seemed to want me to buy them so...

and now I'm regretting not getting more of the plain muslin...and the rest of that copper-coloured tulle (top of the stack)


I'm sure the decision to close the store was all about dollars and cents...this was a Hancock's Fabric but somehow became a Fabric World and now will become a nurse's uniform shop...


That leaves Wally World fabrics...and the scuttlebutt is W/M (or H/M as I like to call it) is closing down their fabric departments...I've read that all of the fabric departments will be shut and I've read that only some will be...


And 1 local quilting store...otherwise, saddle up and ride, boldly ride to find a fabric store...


What a shame...I think with some effort made to attract a wider clientele by including hobby & craft items (there is no hobby store here or craft store except for stitching and scrapbooking...and Wally World, of course, has a limited amount) along with some of the new hip fabric lines and offering classes (we are a university town) this store could have really shone...


okay, moving on from Maudlin Slightly Reproving Tone Directed Towards Corporate Office Who Will Never Read This Anyway...


so what, you ask, am I planning to do with this Big Beautiful Pile of Fabrics and whatnots?


I'm glad you asked...because I need to bolster my courage by repeating this over and over to myself...plus if I write it, I'll feel honour-bound to do it...because I've got an over-active Guilt Myself Mechanism, that's why...


I'm going to 1) make several cute summer skirts and 2) make dolls


I know! I'm a Wild and Crazy Woman :)


I've wanted to make dolls for years...and have bought some loverly doll making books...and have yet to work up the nerve to begin the first one...but I've determined this will be the Summer of the Doll...not "dolls" because, well, I'll probably have a nervous breakdown just getting through one...but I figure the First One has to the be the Worst One...right?


And the skirt thing? well (I know...I say "well" a lot), I love fabrics and it just seems strange to stockpile all this stuff...so I'm going to try to make some skirts...simple, slightly A-line...elastic waist...


I tried...several years ago...to make a 1 hour skirt pattern...12 hours later, I was in tears and the skirt never got entirely finished...but I did wear it to work...once... with the elastic held together with a safety pin (hidden beneath my t-shirt) because I was bound and determined to wear that stupid skirt...


I may end up with a lot of pretty dust rags...

Little Happy Things

Yes, I am a Coffee Mate Seasonal Flavours Pig...oink, oink...













and, yes, I love Claxton Fruitcake with an intensity that could be considered frightening :)















and these bulbs are 50% off at our Lowe's...so I got 2 packets....




















and this is the pattern I picked up for 10 cents on Saturday...after the holidays are over, I plan to try to actually make this skirt...not with the pleats...believe me...a pattern with pleats, my lack of sewing skill and my patience level...well, jail time could be involved...

Sooooo...guess who could not resist Wayside Gardens' marketing ploy (e-mail)?

and guess who ordered an olive tree?!

I've been on the lookout for an olive tree for months now...no such critter around here...

and the ones I found on-line were prohibitively priced...

I'm so Garden Happy right now :)

before any one becomes frightened, I don't plan on brining any olives...I just love how mature olive trees look in a garden...

I almost ordered two...

I should have ordered two...

hmmm...