I had joined in one of Char's fun swaps a while back and the theme was Patriotic, soI thought I'd share with you the Patriotic Swap goodies that I got from Dani from Old Homestead Peddler. Dani was so much fun to e-mail with. She's a hoot and has a great sense of humor. She's also very crafty!
When the box arrived, I was beside myself with excitement and anticipation. I absolutely loved everything she made! It was great because I had been wanting to make some of the pinwheels that I've seen some gals making and I had also seen an article on making them in the Create & Decorate magazine but I hadn't gotten to make any yet. What a fun surprise when I opened the box to find a cute, cute set of patriotic pinwheels in there! I also loved the painted softball. My son has been playing baseball for 14 years and even though it's a softball, it still is special to me because it brings two things together that I love, watching him play baseball and the beautiful Red, White & Blue colors of our American Flag. The stenciled blocks are wonderful and so are the fabric covered firecrackers~ They're made out of toilet tissue rolls! How clever, Dani! She also included a yummy scented bottle of room spray and some Prarie Cake scented wax crumbles that smell so good you could almost eat them. In fact, my daughter was standing near them and smelled them and when she picked up the bag she thought they were a treat! Teenagers will eat anything!!! Thanks so much Dani for everything, I truly appreciate your kindness.
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Since we've had so much rain this year, it's really been taking a toll on our flower and vegetable gardens. We've had a lot of our flowers just rotting from all the rain. As was the case with my lilies. I look forward every year to the bright colors of the lilies that grow so tall. In fact, here's a picture of them from a few years ago when they looked really good.
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We've had so much rain this year that the leaves and the stalks were starting to rot from the bottom up so we decided to cut the flowers off and enjoy them inside so we could cut the ugly stalks off and get them out of our garden. Here's a pretty picture of them after I put them in an enamelware pitcher.
I'm glad we can enjoy them inside especially since today's rain probably would have finished them off in the garden.
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I've also been playing in the kitchen with some herbs from the garden.
I had some lavender buds that I've been wanting to use in my crafting so I picked up some lavender scented essential oil and made a couple of rolled lavender pillar candles. They smell so good, I can smell them every time I walk by them.
While I had all the wax melted and all my supplies out, I also made some Lavender~Mint soy wax tarts.
I used an old muffin tin (pictured above) that I had as a mold. They smell so fresh with just a hint of mint.... Mmmmmmmmm......
Besides that, I haven't been doing too much. Enjoying some down time at the beach with my daughter and some friends, while the sun was visiting us here in Maine. The sun has moved on for now, but hopefully it will be back again soon. Until then, have a great week! See you all again next week. God Bless~ Birgit
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