Trip to the Arboretum: Magnolias & My Dog

My friend Amy told me that the magnolias were blooming this week and that I should go for a walk at the arboretum before it rained later in the week. So CJ and I took Luna there for a walk tonight and I took pictures of her and magnolias. I take pictures of them every year, but it just never gets old! They're so pretty!

Vintage Japanese Silk Blouse into Fabric Roses

I had a unique project request recently from my new friend Ann.  

There is quite a story that is the background to this project.  (Ann tells it better than I do, but I'll try).  So...Ann's father passed away last February, just before Valentine's Day. That Valentine's Day, her mother received a delivery of flowers.  They thought at first that they were sympathy flowers, but when they read the card, they found out the bouquet turned out to be from Ann's father.  He had scheduled the Valentine's Day delivery before he died. *tear*

But the story doesn't end there.  Every holiday since, Ann's mother has received flower arrangements.  Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, her birthday, his birthday, Christmas, even a "just because" bouquet.  He had scheduled all of them in advance!  Aww! *more tears* What a husband!

So... here's where we come to the project Ann wanted me to do.  Her father brought this Japanese silk blouse home for her mother back when he was in the Navy in the 50's and was stationed in Japan .  It had sentimental value, but it was pretty tiny and no one in the family could wear it anymore. So Ann wanted me to take this blouse and make five fabric flowers (one for her, her mother, for her 2 sisters, and her aunt).

I was SO nervous to cut into this VINTAGE blouse that had such sentimental value.  And I hadn't done much with silk before. Most of the flowers I have made before involve singing the edges of polyester fabric.  That technique wouldn't work here, since silk would just burn if I tried to singe it!   But Ann had such confidence in me.  She told me that I was the only one she'd trust with this project (no pressure, right? I found it confidence-boosting and nerve-wracking at the same time!)

When I finally mustered up the confidence and courage to cut into the blouse, I cut 5 strips and sewed each of them into a tube with a tapered end.

(A look at some detail of the fabric)

 Then, I did a straight stitch down the middle of the tube.

 After stitching down the middle, I pulled the top thread and scrunched and gathered the fabric for get it to ruffle a bit.

I folded the fabric on the gathered seam, stitched it again with an overlock stitch, and then rolled it up into a rose shape.

Then I put plenty of hot glue on the back to hold it into place.

After that, I took a circle of green felt, stitched around the edge, gathered it into a ball, stuffed it, and hot glued it onto the bottom of the flower.  Sorry I don't have photos of that process or my process of making the stems.(maybe I'll do a full tutorial at another time).  I made the stems with felt and wire.

I was able to get these finished and delivered in time for Ann to give them to her mother (and sisters and aunt) for Easter.  So Ann's mother still got her flower for Easter...and this was the first holiday a flower arrangement wasn't delivered. So bittersweet.

Instagram Sunday: Visions of Fall

Visions of fall from a trip to our favorite local apple orchard with my parents yesterday...

Basket O' Gourds

 White mums.

Rows of Yellow Delicious.

Instagram Sunday: Flowers and Berries and a Family Outing

Lots of plant and garden pictures this week...

I have a blue hydrangea bush in my front yard that came with our house.  This is the beginnings of a bloom on it. (Sadly, maybe the only bloom.  But next year there should be more, since hydrangeas bloom on the previous year's growth.)

 I planted 2 different colors of dahlias last year.  The red one bloomed last week.  The orange one bloomed this week!

The first decent strawberry from my garden!  this was off a plant I'd bought at Aldi!  I have another larger strawberry plant that I planted last year, thought it died, but it came back from last year...and it has been producing small, dinky, shriveled strawberries.  I was getting discouraged until this strawberry came along from the Aldi plant. My mom thinks that large plant is actually more than one plant that is too crowded and I need to thin it out so it will produce better.  

I went blueberry picking with my friend Amy and her kids in the morning on Thursday, and took advantage of the cooler weather to work on weeding my vegetable garden in the afternoon (and picked the first of my sugar snap peas!).

Our new Mason Jar Goblets (aka: "Redneck Wine Glasses") that came in the mail.  They were our belated anniversary present from my brother.  (the Adirondack chairs we are sitting in were our birthday presents!)  Gotta love Mason jars!

On Saturday, my parents came out to visit and have lunch.  We went to my favorite local cafe, the Shirt Factory Cafe.  I had a greek chicken salad and a chai latte with a shot of espresso (my gateway drug into the land of coffee!).

 After lunch, we went wandering the aisles at Tractor Supply.  This symbol on a warning sign on a tractor "power takeoff shaft" made me giggle (although I'm sure an actual injury would not be so funny)

Instagram Sunday: Spring Flowers

I find most of my Instagram photos are of flowers over the past few weeks...

Small pink rose from my rosebush.

 "Copper-Purple Sunscape Daisy Nuanza" (Osteospermum)  We got these yesterday to plant in the flower pots next to out front steps.

A white ranucculus I took a picture of at Wegmans a year ago...but only recently "Instagrammed"

Forget-Me-Nots from our walk in the Arboretum a few weeks ago

My rosebush.  This is the most roses I've seen on it in the 3 years I've lived here.  Not sure what I did this year, but I guess I did something right!

A photo of the first rose that bloomed on the rosebush.

Sunday Flowers

We have church at our friend's farmhouse.  This morning, while we were hanging out and enjoying the nice weather outside before church started, these new hydrangeas they'd just planted caught my eye and I was inspired to take some pictures (and go all Instagram!).

These hydrangeas had a story behind them though.  My friends Rachel and Tricia went to NYC last weekend for the National Stationary Show.  They had a booth there for their line of stationary, Fawnsberg.  

Apparently one of the other booths had some hydrangeas for decoration, and when the show was over they were going to throw them out (since they had flown there from Florida and weren't able to bring the flowers back with them on the plane).  So Rachel and Tricia's Dad decided to bring them home and plant them in front of their porch (there were six plants in all).  No sense wasting perfectly good hydrangeas, right?  I guess there was a LOT of stuff that people threw out after the show...like display stuff and even furniture.  Gah!...such a waste!  If I'd known, I'd have called my brother (he lives in NYC) and had him go down there with his truck.

Back to the flowers.  The question is...will they remain pink or turn blue? (Hydrangeas change color depending on the acidity of the soil.)  Either way, they are really pretty!

Turquoise Fabric Roses Brooch

I made this pin/brooch for my mom's friend's twin sister. Their younger sister is getting married in Venezuela next month. The wedding colors are turquoise and brown (a winning color combo in my book!) and Mandy (mom's friend's twin) wanted something to add color to her white bridesmaid dress. She saw a hair clip I had made for my mom and decided to take a look at my Etsy shop and liked my turquoise fabric rose hair clip, but she wanted a pin, and wanted more than one rose grouped together. No problem! I'm on it!

I'm really satisfied with how it turned out and actually might start offering these in the shop now. This could also be easily converted into a headband or hair clip.

(back view)

I felt the need to model it, so she could get a sense of how it will look. So I busted out my one white dress I own (besides my wedding dress) and went outside to take pictures.

I hope she likes it! :)

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 3 (Cherry Blossoms)

In addition to the pretty flowering trees we found in Highland Park on Saturday, was the Flowering Cherry Tree. From far away, at the bottom of a hill, I thought it was another magnolia, but when we got closer, we realized it was something else. Mom and I didn't even know what kind of tree it was at first (although I guessed Cherry Tree!). We even had a man ask us what kind of tree it was while I was taking pictures. The tree I was taking pictures of only had the scientific name, but the tree next to it had a sign with its common name.

(I did NOT pick these blossoms off the tree! We found them on the ground!)

Love this close-up!

*Next Post: "Lilac Festival 2011: Part 4 (The Monet Tree)"

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 2 (Magnolias)

Highland Park doesn't just have lilac bushes. There are a lot of other plants and trees there too. And there are some beautiful magnolia trees there that are in bloom at the same time of year that the lilacs are.

I love how the ground beneath the tree was carpeted with petals! When the wind would blow, a new batch of petals would come fluttering to the ground. It was so gorgeous! Moments like that remind me of the movies!

I LOVE this photo I took (above), but I need to take it into Photoshop and edit out that stupid yellow rope! They had that section roped off from some reason. Our theory was that it was to prevent children from trampling the plants that bordered the path.

I love magnolia trees! I'd love to have one in my yard!

*Next post: "Lilac Festival: Part 3 (Cherry Blossoms)"