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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

MEMORIES BROUGHT HOME FROM DOOR COUNTY

What a gorgeous getaway in Door County!  The weather was perfect, the flowers were beautiful, and I found the perfect memory to bring home!  First, the flowers!  There's something about the air in Door County - everywhere you look their flowers are always fabulous.
 Then we came upon Carlson's Island View Cherry Orchard and the lovely Mary Pat!  This lady has such a wealth of knowledge about the early days in Door County cherry orchards.  Her husband's family has had this orchard for over 100 years.  She tends their shop that sells all things cherry and was able to tell me all about the interesting building this shop occupies.  
 Below are the pictures of this shop, a former migrant worker shack!  What is now a cheerful, brightly painted shop, was at one time a temporary home for migrant cherry pickers. 
 This building was divided into about a dozen small cubicles - each with a door, a front window, and a back window.  The original wood floors are still there.  The fact that was hard to believe, was that each cubicle (roughly 10' x 10') would provide 10-12 workers with a place to lay their head after a long day of picking cherries in the Carlson's orchards.  Mary Pat told me of how her husband's grandmother would  cook and feed all of them outside this shack each day.  Most of the workers were men, but not all of them . . . those were close quarters!

Probably even more interesting, is the fact that after WWII, German prisoners walked these very floors!  I have read that about 508,000 pails of cherries were picked by German prisoners!  A book entitled, Stalag Wisconsin, has all kinds of information about the German POW's and their role in Wisconsin cherry and apple orchards after the war.
Every year, we take part in a Fish Creek tradition as we walk down Main Street to a park situated on the shores of Green Bay.  Visitors and locals alike head to this small park just before sunset and sit quietly watching as the sun slips below the horizon.  As soon as the last sliver of sun fades away, the whole crowd breaks out in applause! 

And last of all . . .


 . . .  the tangible memory I brought home this year is a Santos Cage Doll.  I wrote about their rich history a few months ago and you can read that post here.  I had hoped to make one, and I still might.  But for now, I'm really glad to have her.  Either you just love them or you really do not like them - I think they're great!  Here she is trying out a few spots in my home.  I think she'll stay on the hearth!

-Nan

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

DOOR COUNTY IN JUNE

We always arrive in Door County just in time for lunch at The Summer Kitchen.  Not only is the food great, but the gardens are beautiful!
Right across the road is The City Farmer - a great place to find a memory of the trip.  I found just the thing too - it's pictured in this post and we're going back for it tomorrow.  I hope it's still there!
 Time to hunt down a dinner spot!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

JUNE FLOWERS

It's June 25th.
Twenty-two years ago today, I married my best friend, and the most wonderful, kind, and generous man a girl could ever hope for.  Anniversaries remind us of weddings, and weddings remind us of white,  lace, and FLOWERS.  So, here are some flowers from my June garden to celebrate 22 wonderful years!
 Snapdragons
 The promise of lilies . . .
 Lemon Drops
 My favorite new flower . . . the Orange Cone Flower
Veronica
 Fairy Candles . . . gaining speed!  It won't be long.
 Honeysuckle Vine
 . . . and Climbing Hydrangeas
Also, in case you didn't know, it's National Iced Tea Month!  
 Enjoy one in the garden!

-Nan



Friday, June 24, 2011

Make mine PINK!

I love pink - it's probably my favorite color!  When I saw that Frugalicious Me, one of my favorite blogs, had a "linky party" just for all things pink, I had to get my two cents in!  These are some of the pink paintings from my Etsy Shop, some photos of some of the pinks in my garden, and some former pics of some pinks in my home.













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Thursday, June 23, 2011

French Lavender and Hedgehogs

                                                   
It's book group night.  A night to get together with one of my favorite groups of people and talk about one of my favorite things . . . books.  This month we read a book called "The Elegance of the Hedgehog", a book translated from French.  It takes place in Paris, which is right at the heart of so many blog themes and styles!

Since I'm now "retired" and have all this time on my hands, (as my friends keep reminding me) I decided to make something for the girls that would go along with the setting of the book.  France is known for its fields and fields of lavender.  Just looking at these photos makes me want to go to see these fields for myself.  The fragrance must be unbelievable!


 So, I used the "fabric through my printer method" again and printed out a frame graphic from the Graphics Fairy and filled it in with the words "Sweet Dreams", putting the graphic on the top half of the 8 1/2 x 11 fabric so that I could just fold it over for the pillow.
Then, I'm going to sew them into little pillows filled with lavender buds I bought on Etsy!  I got a one pound bag for $14.00 - that's about 14-16 cups of lavender buds.  There are a lot of Etsy shops selling lavender - I got mine here. The order came very quickly and - WOW! - did it ever smell wonderful when I opened up the box!


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later . . .
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Oh, I made that sound just so easy!  Well, lavender is everywhere!!!!
True, it smelled wonderful when I opened it up and it's a good thing I like the scent of lavender because we're going to be smelling it for a long time around here.
 I thought it would be no big deal.  I'd just make a little paper funnel and slide those buds right into the pillows.  Well, those buds are some of the stickiest things out there.  What makes them sticky is the fact that they're fuzzy and they like to stick together - like velcro.  So, anyway, I put them in the funnel . . . and . . . waited.  They wouldn't budge.  I poked and prodded - nothing.

    I had to resort to dumping them into a bowl and spooning them into that teensy opening I left when I sewed them . . . one spoonful at a time.
 I think it would be nice to put some in the linen closet to make the towels smell fresh, or on a guest towel with a pretty bar of soap.
So, they're done.  I bagged them up in ziplock bags so they
don't lose the any of the scent before I give them away. 
They are pretty.  I like them.  I sure hope the book group girls like lavender . . .