Pocket Full of Posies...

Hello friends! Spring has sprung and right now I am blown away by the fact that it's already 26 days into the showering month of April...SAY WHAAAAT!?!?! And, it's been a productive April here at our little "cottage of love" 🥰. I'm not sure some of us were feeling "love" as we were sweating like pigs getting projects done, but love was somewhere, even if it was buried deep!

This month we celebrated two of our kids' birthdays. You know, birthdays are special, but sadly our kids have reached an age where parties are a thing of the past and "partying" with their friends is more their style. In all honesty, they've actually outgrown the partying with friends as well. Regardless, their birthdays are special to me and the one thing I enjoy doing is having a special dessert for everyone. My son's birthday was the first one we celebrated and when I asked what dessert he wanted, he said, "I'm allergic" 🤦🏻‍♀️ Evidently being a smart ass didn't skip a generation as its gene runs strong in the family. So I took it upon myself to make these easy hand pies in his favorite flavor, blueberry. (recipe can be found here) A nice steak dinner grilled by dad himself made the dessert that much tastier! (Best parents ever right here!) Then it was our middle child's birthday. She never beats around the bush. She was very happy to request a homemade cheesecake with strawberry topping, so a cheesecake it was! (the good ole fashion kind with 2 bars of cream cheese and 7 eggs kind!)

We ended up eating out for dinner, but I brought the dessert with us because I'm that mom. I even made a strawberry topping and jarred it like jelly to bring and serve! The smart ass rolled his eyes and was embarrassed and asked why we didn't bring a dinner to the restaurant as well...🤷🏻‍♀️ (there's always next time!) Of course I should have made the cheesecake a day ahead so it had a good 24 hours in the fridge, but it was okay I guess...Bill and I killed it the next two days because it was amazing at that point lol.

After her birthday celebration, I felt like we had to buckle down and get to work outside. The grass already had its first cutting, I already started hardening off my little seedlings, Bill planted some dahlias, gladiolas, ranunculus-susses 😆in our flower garden, the roses were pruned and fertilized, the clematis were cleaned up, the phlox were starting to bloom, and he even cut me some daffodils to start our year of cut flowers!

But, with all this going on, one thing LOOMED in the air. We hadn't gotten our patio furniture out yet because, well, our deck was in dire need of help. And if I had to pick up another paint brush after all the painting I already did since June last year, I was going to lose it. But, like everything else, I tried to envision the finished product. I really REALLY had to mentally pump myself up...and I really REALLY wanted to sit out on the deck by Easter Sunday. With that being said, I had 6 days to get this done...and, in April fashion, two of the days called for 100% chance of rain.

Just look at the poor thing. Of course, because I always dream up the most complicated ideas, I told Bill I wanted a two toned deck with colors to match our house instead of staining it and having it look like a tree house. His reply was, 🤦🏻‍♂️. And needless to say, because he works full time and I don't AND time is of the essence, guess what I had to pick up...yep, another paint brush. But by golly, it got done! After 3 trips to Home Depot, making use of every dry hour, and finishing what I couldn't get to when he got home from work, Easter Sunday arrived and we enjoyed our first "let's eat dinner out on the deck" of the year!

And, he even painted the arbor to match the rails and the basement door arbor to match the deck floor...💕

It's amazing what paint can do! Oh, and did you see the dogwood? Every year on Easter it blooms! Sometimes in March, sometimes in April; it amazes me!

Spring is seriously beautiful. All our trees are showing off and fighting for attention and I look like a nut running outside standing underneath taking pictures, standing at the street taking pictures, standing in the driveway zooming in and taking pictures, and posting their pictures on Instagram like it's my day job! But, seriously, don't flowers and blooms just make you smile?

I decided I'm going to take a picture of the front of our house 4 times this year to see all the flowers that grow each season. This is picture number one, Spring 2019. As much as I hate summer, I can't wait to see the difference!!!

And you know what would look great? A beautiful basket of flowers on the front door! In 5 days May 1st will be upon us and if there was ever a tradition I could bring to popularity it would be May Day and celebrating with a 'pocket/basket full of posies'. Here in the US, it's not a very popular day/tradition like in other countries, but wouldn't it be so fun to surprise your neighbor with one of these cute May Day arrangements that can easily be made?

And look at this cute idea! Simple tin cans wrapped with a pack of seeds and stuffed with pretty flowers! 🤗 Get out!!! So cute!!!

Doesn't have to be fancy, just made with love!

I'm thinking I need to bring back the May Day tradition!!! Who's with me? And speaking of flowers, I have to show you real fast my newest find. So, are you an "apron" person? I like aprons, especially pretty and cute ones, but I can't wear them for long because they hurt my neck (the ones that tie around your neck) so I basically go without. I've always wanted to wear one out in the yard, along with some cute gardening shoes, a big straw hat, cutting flowers or weeding; a true vision of a gardener...when in fact I just walk around looking at everything, admiring Bill's green thumb because God forbid if I ever get down on my hands and knees, I'd have to roll down a hill and hope I hit a tree just to have something to grab to help me stand up. All the while hoping the charlie horse(s) in my hamstrings have worked their way out... That aside, I still have a vision lol and I have been wanting one of these aprons of either cotton or linen, has wide straps, and actually criss crosses in the back like these.

I found several I like online (and not cheap-I've been told I have expensive taste, but I swear I don't mean to), but decided to go with Amazon because why have one when you can have FOUR!?! Right? Well, they do come from China and since I wasn't in any hurry I decided to go ahead and order them...seriously, they were four for $12.13!!! I ordered the largest size they possibly had because, well, I may be 1/2 asian, but I'm built like a viking....😬 When I received them, they weren't exactly what I thought they would be. The back was sewn together (just at the waist, but still had an open slit under it and it wasn't criss crossed! But I LOVED the colors!

So, it was time to do a little "altering"! First, I ripped out the seam in back, then I ripped out the seam that attached the shoulder straps in back. Then I criss crossed them, pinned them and got my handy dandy sewing machine out and stitched them up... BAM! And just like that I have 4 aprons in 4 different colors made to fit a viking! For picture purposes I pinned it to show you, but it's open in the back just like the pictures above.

And, this morning I get to proudly wear one as Bill and I work our garage sale our subdivision is having today and tomorrow. It upsets me that I don't get to go out and do a little garage sale shopping myself, but last year when our subdivision hosted a sale, the traffic was chaotic and shoppers were everywhere. Being that it's only April, it works out best for us to sell our collection of goods we no longer have any use for or desire to hold on to and hopefully I'll earn a little spending cash to use for some summer garage sale-ing later on...like next weekend 😉

Oh, and to complete my vision...I bought these!🤗😂 I have a thing for paisley! Just need a big straw hat!

#blueberryhandpie #birthday #mayday #deck #cheesecake #daffodils #arbor #dogwood #apron #gardenshoes