Contain yourself...

I'm a big fan of container gardening and fill a dozen or so containers with perennial and annual flowers, tall grasses, hostas or anything I find interesting.  My all time favorite is silverberry petunias.  I love the soft pink color of them and how beautiful they trail.  

Take a look...

 My fave...silverberry petunias 

I plant these in flower boxes on our deck(they also attract hummingbirds and sometimes I'm lucky enough to have them fly right up to me ~  makes me smile!)

I really love pink flowers and like to plant various shades of pink

 some pretty rockfoil I planted in a vintage crock ~  

I also did a border with these in our front yard

Hens and chicks along with sweet pale pink creeping phlox and some river rocks and a trellis.

I like adding ornamental objects to my containers ~  gives it some dimension and makes them a little more interesting!

sweet lamb's ear ~ delightful!

 a bird bath with another container of silverberry petunias and some variegated hostas

did I mention that I love silverberry petunias?

here with some tall grass and a rustic bird house

(I just planted this, but should reach around 2 feet tall when mature)

The nice thing about container gardening is that you can change it every year 

and move the containers around if you want to.

Happy weekend! 

How does your garden grow?

The other day I found this cute little Zinnia mini planter starter kit at Home Depot and it only cost 2.79 which I thought was pretty reasonable.  It comes with a sweet little metal watering can, some coir pellets and white "purity" zinnia seeds.  It's very easy, and all you do is put the dry pellets in the watering can, add some water and the pellets will expand to fill it up.

  

Press a few seeds gently into the soil

Place in a sunny area(at least 6 hrs of sunlight a day), 

and a few days later...

  voila!

you have some seedlings starting. 

take one zinnia kit...

(sorry, the picture is sideways ~ i tried rotating it, but was having trouble) oh well-lol

 add some seeds...

five days later...

you get a seedling!

eight days later...

two seedlings, with another one starting.

Once you have two sets of leaves, transfer to a larger container.

This would make such a great gift for a gardener...maybe that's you:)

This inspired me to create a garden fairy necklace, using some of the zinnia seeds that I put into a mini glass jar, along with a fairy charm and some vintage charms.

the seeds can either be planted, or left in their cute jar.

she's available in my etsy shop!

I will do a follow up post with photos of the grown zinnias.

(hopefully they'll be beautiful!)

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you get to do a little gardening, if that's your thing!

Sharon

The Naperville River Walk Tour

We are having some really nice weather here in the midwest this weekend, so I thought it would be nice to visit Naperville, Illinois, a quaint historic town about 30 miles from Chicago.  They have a beautiful riverwalk with several small ponds and a meandering river along with a beautiful bell tower, rustic bridges, quaint shops and fabulous restaurants, one of the largest outdoor swimming pools with a sand beach, and it's also a great place to people watch.  I love coming here, especially in the summer, where you can also rent paddle boats and they have various events and concerts going on throughout the year.   It's an artistic community and they have bronze statues, beautiful murals and sculptures made by different artists.

    

A great place to spend the day!

one of my favorite spots!

 

one of several bridges

 

meandering paths

 

so picturesque!

native wildflowers

 

duck, duck...

goose! 

 

delicate flowers

 

 

sweet robin

 

 

this bridge takes you over to... 

 

the bell tower!

This beautiful tower is 160 ft tall and has 72 bells and there is an observation deck you can go up to.  It chimes beautifully and they hold concerts in a small park area from time to time.

some fun benches made out of mosaic tiles by area artists.

another bronze statue

an artist painted this beautiful mural on one of the building's walls.

this bronze dick tracy statue is pretty darn cool!

  

A concrete wall with faces molded by local artists representing the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001

 an eternal flame

 some kayaking

another one of my favorite spots...it overlooks the area that you can rent pontoon boats 

~ always a lot of fun!

quaint shops...

fabulous places to eat!

You can easily spend the whole day here, and if you're ever in the area it's definitely worth checking out!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Sharon

Happy Monday!

I love mondays...to me it's sort of a fresh start and I feel recharged and motivated to get things done.  This weekend we had some really mild weather and I definitely have spring fever.  I love the sound of the birds singing and the smell of rain and spring in the air!  

Happy Monday to you!

Sharon

Welcome Spring!

 BLOOM...

where you are planted!

 I love the change in seasons, and each season has it's own beauty.

WELCOME SPRING!

 

Nature's Inspiration

I'm a nature lover and need to get my fix every so often, so I headed over to a great conservation area nearby where there are all kinds of beautiful birds from swans to herons and geese along with lots of native prairie grasses and lakes.

  

It's my thinking place!

peaceful...

A bird's eye view.

 

tranquility...

delicate wildflowers...so sweet!

 

Swan Lake

 

 

putting on a little show!

I highly recommend this!

 

Hope you take some time to enjoy nature and all it's beauty...

 

ENJOY your day!

 

 

Sharon

 

 

To bead or not to bead...

This is the question I ask myself every day ~

Most of the time creativity comes pretty natural for me, but there are those days when I really just don't feel like making my jewelry ~ creativity cannot be forced, it's either there or it isn't.  There are days that I have lots of ideas coming all at once and actually have to try to slow my brain down so I can focus on one design at a time.  And then there are those days, that I need to give myself a little rest so I can recharge and feel inspired to create.  

I just picked up some neat vintage jewelry at one of my favorite antique shops and was inspired to make some new designs with it.  

Here's some before and after shots...

A vintage rose earring, a vintage necklace and a vintage rhinestone pin.

An assortment of vintage bangles, necklaces, loose crystals, rhinestones, earrings, etc.

I love vintage crystals and use them in a lot of my designs.

Here's an after shot of the vintage rose that I secured to a vintage silver band.

A necklace I made out of a vintage heart earring.  

I added it to a vintage chain and adorned it with topaz Swarovski crystals and a vintage topaz crystal.

~ These are available in my etsy shop ~

Stay inspired!

Sharon