Library Night

I was thinking that maybe I should change the format of library night. I’ve posted Shelfari at the bottom of my blog page and I thought I’d just list my new titles there every week. With the weather changing, my reading habits change and I tend to check out more novels to curl up in bed with. I’ll happily share my latest novel titles but there’s not much eye candy looking at novels. I’d love to know what you think…

 

Yesterday I received this lovely package from sweet Zandra…

TWO absolutely, beautiful hankies!! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Zandra!! My FIRST monogrammed initial hankie too! What a sweetheart!!

My cousin Michele also surprised me with a package…

Lots of vintage sheet music and slides! Growing up, she always had the good stuff and now that we’re all grown up, she STILL has the good stuff!! What’s a cousin to do, but beg her to send me some good stuff!? Lucky for me she has to love me - I’m her cousin!

Hope you had a surprising Tuesday!

A Perfect Saturday

First thing Saturday morning we visited the farmer’s market in Meadville. It was a chilly 40 degrees outside at 8 am.

The hydrangeas were absolutely stunning sitting in the early morning sun.

Inside I purchased this beautiful handmade mosaic picture. This crafter’s booth was all revamped treasures and each item had a little tag explaining the provenance of the piece. I thought that was really interesting knowing where the things came from to create it. I have a very, very special place for this! 

The Quilt Show and Luncheon at My Grandmother’s Teapot was on the noon agenda. I will tell you now that I did not ask permission to take photos of the quilts, only of the shop. First I did not know what to expect and second, the quilts were not for sale. Let’s look around…

These were our lovely quilt holders/tea hostesses helping out.

 

 

And what’s a visit at the lake without being on the lake?? Sit back and take a boat ride…

Can you tell that every one of these adirondack chairs are painted a different color??

 

A perfect Saturday indeed!!

The Garden of Conneaut Lake

Driving around the lake, you glimpse this gorgeous side garden along someone’s home and KNOW you just HAVE to have a tour. As this is a lakeside community, we didn’t think twice about ringing the front door bell and asking for a tour. Our gracious tour guide (homeowner) Frank showed us his southern hospitality (originally from Texas) with a guided tour…

The front yard matches the house in red, white & blue…

A victorian birdhouse complete with tin roof.

Like Alice in Wonderful, through the arch into the white side garden…

and be transported into a whole world of beautiful flowers, winding paths and surprises at every turn.

We’ve made a complete circle to the back patio area. It’s hard to believe this is not a professionally landscaped property, just lovingly tended to, and the property is less than 1/2 acre in size. I took lots of pictures of the statuary, wooden bells and birdcages hanging from tree limbs and the little surprises hidden among the plants. My favorite was this glass prism…

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour! Stop back again for a tour of the tea house and a boat ride around the lake!

A weekend at the lake

This weekend I took time off to play. My BFF Linda invited myself and other BFF, Sharon, to come and stay at her lake house. We arrived amid fog, actually the drive was very foggy almost the whole way. I was warned this was one step above camping out… yeah, right…

Does this even resemble a camp?!? It was unload the car and we were off …first stop Linesville. The hardware store on the main street was all decked out for fall.

These purple mums were absolutely gorgeous and so…purple!

The gift shop next door had this stunning crystal chandelier mounted inside a round canopied bassinet. Highly impractical but just too cute!

Next stop was Pymatuming Lake to see the “sucky” fish. These fish are carp and they eat whole loaves of bread that people throw into the water at them. Throw some bread and see what surfaces…

Throw a LOT of bread and look what you get!!!

Actually these fish are in the spillway and as the lake was a little low they were kind of bottle-necked in here. And  if the fish are getting a free meal, the fowl want free food too! Because they are so many fish in one place, the ducks can actually walk on top of them to fight for the bread.

Next stop, Jamestown Soap Works. You can read all about the store here.

Her store and workshop is located behind her home.

Around the side, is the “husband’s chair”. Most of them make it to the threshold of the tiny shop, take one look inside, then back out and find somewhere to sit outside until their wives are done shopping!

Her garden was decorated with a vintage flair, lots of antiques and wrought iron! You could while away the whole afternoon in her garden. Her husband actually mounted a full-size vintage radio on the outside wall. (The kind the family gathered around in the evening, before television took its place.)

I did not ask to take pictures inside her very beautiful shop. The shop became very busy while we were there and there was just so much to look at and SMELL, just absolutely wonderful fragrances of all her handmade soaps and lotions. It was sooo difficult to pick just one or two! 

Lunchtime found us in Espyville and we found this little treasure quite by accident…

A tiny schoolhouse in a retired school teacher’s yard.

We took a ride to Greenville next. The sky could not have been bluer or more clear. It almost matches their banners!

 

A thrift shop junk store and hardware store. (Keep in mind we’ve been garage sale-ing too!) Tomorrow I’ll try to get some of those treasures posted.

Stay tuned as I have the most beautiful “amateur” garden to show you and the tea party quilt show that we attended…

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!!