A Few More Neighborhood Flowers

 Last week I went in search of color in my own yard and those of my two neighbors.  This is my final post.  The first three photos are from my neighbor, Dawn's yard.  The purple is from my own yard.  The weather is changing here.  Cool (for Arizona) and windy today.  Glad I took my photos last week because today is cloudy with little sun.

 Thanks for visiting my blog.  I spent the weekend making and embroidering pillowcases.  I'll show you those tomorrow. 

In Search of the Color PInk

I found these lovely roses in my neighbor's yard.  He has three rose bushes along the picket fence that divides our properties.  The bushes were tended lovingly by his wife.  She passed away and number of years ago and they aren't nearly as beautiful as when she took care of them.  Here are roses from each of the bushes.

These lovely mums are in my other nieghbor's yard.  She has the most lovely mums growing on the side of her house.  I think these qualify as pink.  

The flowers above are from my yard.   The rose is what my mother called "Old Time Rose".  The bush has been in the yard since the house was built in the 1950's.  They are very delicate and don't last long when you cut them and put them in a vase.   The other flowers washed in with irrigation years ago and my father decided to let it grow up near the house.  (He usually mowed everything that wasn't in a flower bed.)  You must have guessed that the home belonged to my parents.  We decided to down size and move into the old neighborhood in 2005.  We love it here. It's a neighborhood where we have front porches and leave the light on at night.  Our neighborhood (West Clark) was recently listed in the National Historic Registery.  Such a great place to live.

Hope you have enjoyed this Pink tour of our neighborhood.   Weather has been lovely here in the desert Southwest but we are scheduled to cool down this weekend with possible rain. 

Thanks for visiting my Pink Saturday post and thanks to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hostessing the event.

In Search of Color

Yesterday I took my camera outside "In Search of Color". The last months have been consumed with my DH's doctor appointments and medical testing and procedures. When we came home from his appointment yesterday, I felt a need to find something bright and colorful. I found it in our yard and that of our two neighbors. I went out and took photos. Today I am sharing some from our yard. Tomorrow I will share the lovely color pinks I captured on my little photo shoot in the neighborhood. I know it fall.   But in Arizona, we can still find many brilliant colors.

Star Glow and Shimmering Silver Tree

I found 6 of these Star Glow dinner plates at the thrift store recently.  They are vintage Royal-Ironstone by Royal China of Sebring, Ohio.  I hoping to use them on my Christmas table.  I think they look great with this fabric.  Haven't decided if I will make placemats or a table runner.  My blue Christmas theme is slowly coming together.  Haven't done much the past few days.  We are dealing with DH's health issues. 

I did find this little silver tree (shown below) at WalMart for $6.00.  It will make a great table decoration. 

More Blue Christmas to come.  I'm considering a collection of small trees this year instead of a larger tree.  Just haven't found the perfect large tree.  Maybe a large tree on the patio.  Lots of ideas floating around!

Gathering of the Blue

The Gathering of the Blue is underway!

For the past few days, I have started collecting blue items for my Blue Christmas.  I already had the vintage fabric.  I picked up the little silver pieces at the thrift store(45 cents for the little vases).  Background fabric is from JoAnn's (more later).  I picked up the ribbon and other items today at WalMart and Michaels.  I'm sure I will be returning for more but I just wanted to see how everything goes together.  So far I'm pleased.

 Below is the second piece of my wall arrangement.  Ornament and fabric are from JoAnn's and frame was in the garage just waiting for a coat of silver paint.  I can  see these on the wall hanging from some of that lovely blue ribbon I purchased today.

I just had to show you a close-up of this great retro inspired fabric from JoAnn's.  I found 6 retro dinner plates last week and plan to make placemats from this fabric.  I'm not sure it was intended to be snowflakes but that's what I saw. 

What fun I'm having.  I have a few more items from the thrift store to share tomorrow.  I'm also searching for another frame for the third silver frame.  Haven't found the perfect tree yet but WalMart has this cute little blue cashmere tree that may just jump in my basket this week.

It's Going to Be a BLUE Christmas

I have decided to use the color Blue and Retro as the theme for my holiday decorating.  I was inspired by a piece of vintage fabric that I recently purchased at the thrift store.  I think it is 50's or 60's.  You can see my post here.

This is my first piece.  It will become part of a wall grouping in my living room.  You may remember that I recently painted the walls a pale blue.  The background fabric is my inspiration vintage fabric.

Last week I purchased the frame below at the local thrift store.  I think it is someone's wedding photo.  So sad that it ended up in the thrift store. 

Once home I removed the glass, matting, photo, and backing.  I discarded the glass.  Actually it broke when I was removing it.  Luckily, I was standing over the garbage can just in case this happened.

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Frame, matting, and backing were then sprayed with silver metallic spray paint.  I gave the frame two coats.

Put it all back together.   Glued the fabric to the backing.  Added an ornament from JoAnn's.

A special thanks to kelleyhighway.blogspot for the inspiration.

I purchased some retro blue fabric and another ornament at JoAnn's yesterday.  They are destined to become the next wallhanging in the display.  I just need to find the right frame. 

Can't decide if I want a aluminum tree or a white one.  I've looked at a couple of white ones and wasn't impressed.  I have seen some of the vintage aluminum ones on ebay.   What do you think?  I'll keep you posted on my progess toward a Blue Christmas.

Pink Cupcakes

HAPPY PINK SATURDAY

I have been busy making Christmas gifts.  I found the most wonderful book, "All Dolled Up" by Joan Hinds.  It features patterns for Girls and their 18" Dolls.  I finished this little pink Cupcake apron for one of my granddaughters.  I purchased the fabric at JoAnn's.  (No I didn't have any cupcake fabric in my stash.)  The apron is completely lined and is reversible.  I will make a matching doll apron using the same fabrics. 

Below is a photo taken from the book.  Since the cupcakes on my fabric were larger, I decided to omit the applique cupcake.  The instructions are very easy to follow.  Book if full of great ideas for girls clothing and accessories and matching items for doll.  My granddaughters have American Girl Doll (gifts from previous Christmases).

The second little girl's apron is show below.  Since I have two granddaughters, I decided to use the same cupcake novelty print but changed the second fabric.  This way they will know which one is theirs.  I'm thinking a Mommie apron from the same fabric might be a great gift for my DIL.  I purchased the last of the cupcake fabric and think there may be enough left over for an adult size apron. 

Since I'm featuring pink cakes, I thought you might like to see the Pink Cake pincushion I made for a friend last year.  You can read the post here.  The matching apron is here

Thanks for visiting my blog on Pink Saturday.  For a list of all participants check out Beverly's How Sweet the Sound. 

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