My last post was May 28th. Oh my!
This has been a year of every emotion.
 Sadness with the loss of my dad.
 Frustration and Exhaustion with all the estate work that went on for 3 months.
 Excitement and Anxiety in our "new" old home that we will be moving to shortly. (twice as old as this one)
 Bittersweet feelings leaving behind all the hard work we did to make this place ours. All those tiny trees we planted are finally getting big and creating the privacy we'd hoped for.  It's all just in the wrong location.
 Double Exhaustion, Confusion and Anticipation getting the studio painted, and thinking of all the work yet to come to update the house we're moving to. Structurally it's fine,and the layout is perfect for us, but it's very "80s" in decor. While we both love antiques and a more relaxed style, we prefer not to have blue flowered wallpaper, or seeing a lighter square where every picture the former owner had was on the wall!
 And I'm not sure what word to use for the emotion I get from the new yard.  It's the same acreage, but 2/3 of it is timber. And that's fine, lots less mowing. But the plant choices around the house and yard are very boring, over trimmed or overgrown, and I expect to be making changes to that next year. But no, no extensive gardens. I just can't do the work any longer. :(  I'm taking along some iris, just to enjoy them.
 That doesn't mean I won't post pics in the spring of the few I'm keeping.They are just too pretty not to share.
 I just can't do the bending over for hours work any longer.
 I've sold out my inventory to some great guys at Alford Family Farm in Texas.That's right, they drove all the way from Texas and dug them in only two days! wow. Check them out of Facebook.
So , once we get settled into our new home I'll start sharing my adventures in my new studio (36x24!) and sewing room (38x12!). Right now we are scrubbing and painting and packing and it's crazy nuts around here.  Yesterday we painted the studio floor a dark mustard yellow. Yowza! Sure makes your eyes pop! My intention was to make the room inspire me to create and energize me. I took the colors from a sunflower in my yard...I'll see if there are any more that the corn bugs haven't chewed up and post a pic. I'm planning to do some stenciling on the floor once I get the shelving and tables in. I sure hope it turns out like I hoped. I had the craziest time deciding on colors! It's been a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng time since I've painted a room. And this had been a wood shop. It was FILTHY, we washed every inch of it before painting, including the ceiling. I thought my arm was going to fall off one night after 7 hours of scrubbing walls.
We have to wait about a month for the carpenter to come change the garage door to a glass sliding door. I can't wait. I don't like a room w/o windows.  And I have to talk to the heating /ac people about cooling the studio. It's too stuffy w/o the ac. for this old lady! Luckily it already has in floor heating.

Off to pack, and I really better do some laundry! My feet say no, but the calendar says GO!
Deb

Check out this years gardens! Get your orders in now at www.sunshineannie.com  Shipping begins in mid - late July.

Enough with the Snow Already!!

I'm not going to post a picture of the iris beds now, we're all sick of looking at snow.

How about these instead. From last spring in full bloom!

I did finish cleaning off ALL the beds before we covered them in mid November. And boy am I glad we got the straw on early because it's been nothing but cold ever since.
They have a good cover of snow on top of the straw, but once it starts melting I'll have to get out there and remove it. The straw was very dry and crumbly. It will pack down quickly when it gets soaked . And that's not good for the iris!
Lets all think WARM thoughts and chase away this winter. It's been lonnnnnnnng and cold.  Oh and while I'm complaining ; )  enough with the noisy wind too, sheesh!  A girl has to sleep some time.

~Deb

What have I been doing?
Well, lots of this-
                          Before: lots of brown leaves and blasted dandelions.
                                                           Shame on me!

And After: Over an hour of weeding/trimming (per-bed)

and they're ready for their straw blanket.

                                                and here is that bud, Earl Of Essex

And of course since I've been away from the garden the last two days, I forgot to go out and cut it to bring inside. I'll go see, but I expect a frozen mushy purple/white mess :(   There were a couple early buds on Zee also, but I expect they froze too hard to keep going.  We're just too far north to give the re-bloomers enough warm weather for fall hurrah.

 I hope we get some more warm weather so I can try to finish.  17 beds to go, but my Dr. actually said the bending was bad for my GERD and I should "leave the rest till spring".  Doctors orders ;) If only! ha  If I don't clean them off they will be a real mess next spring.  *sigh

Just a quick post, 
There are TWO BUDS in the iris beds! I hope they open before it freezes hard. 
Old Earl Of Essex is the only one brave enough to bloom again in Oct!
I'll post pics if he makes it :)

Akkk October 14th??  October 14th??   It was just August! Wait , what? whoa!!

  Wow, my Mom wasn't kidding about time going faster when you get older.   Kind of scary. I must figure out how to slow it down a bit or next week I'll be 80!

  I've been busy clearing the iris beds of weeds, and trimming the leaves to be ready for the straw cover in Nov. Ohh my back is not happy, but it feels good to be outside doing something.
  At night I'm usually busy filling orders from my shop on etsy for Advent / Christmas countdown calendars.  From 3/4" to 3"  numbers numbers numbers!  This is the most popular size and font.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/74371257/125-advent-calendar-complete-set-1-to-25?ref=shop_home_active
But there are many many more!

I've also been getting my fall and winter things listed in my other etsy shop. The weather is getting cooler so it feels like fall. The darkness at 6pm is making the days seem too short. I hope to get some new things started soon. I like to have some hand work to do in the evening ,so I can sit with my feet up and stitch.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SunshineAnniedesigns?ref=si_shop
 Last night I finally got the last scarecrow, and the new snowmen posted.

Oh we did move the antique sewing machines out to the garage. Got a new heavy duty shelf to hold those heavy suckers! I would sure like to find time to play with them.  It doesn't seem like I ever do. I'll post some pics of them next time (if I don't forget!)

Back to the numbers, 5 sets to cut tonight, plus some flowers,letters , snowflakes and stars!
Chop chop!!