Normally,  I always have at least 4 or 5 books that I’m reading but I thought I’d tell you just about these two today since they are similar.

We Had Everything But Money is a compilation of real life stories of people who lived through The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl (which also happened during the Depression). I’m sure some would say it romanticizes the Depression Era since all of the stories are upbeat. Most are about people helping each other & how even though it was a time of great hardship it was also a time that some remember fondly. It’s really a very cheerful and uplifting book seeing how it deals with such a tough time in history.

Here’s a story we all can relate to. It’s called “Creative Mom Turned Drafty House Into Cozy Home”. She went to the creek bank and gathered buckets of clay which she spread over the wallboard in her house. When it dried it was a pale buff color and much nicer looking. Reminds me of Venetian Plaster She also worked wallpaper scraps into a pleasing design in one room. They didn’t have a sink so she made one!  I’m sure she’d have a DIY blog if she was around now!

It’s got great photos to go along with the great stories. Here are some other stores that are included:

• “Hobo Code Directed Hungry Men to Meals  and Caring Strangers”
• “Depression Years Filled with Courage and Sharing”
• “Friends Saw Each Other Through Hard Times”
• “Family Admired Dignity of  ’Thread Man’”
• “Depression Era Recipes You Can Try

Good Old Days in the Kitchen is collection of recipes and short stories from the garden, kitchen, and pantries of a simpler time when life didn’t revolve around TV, iphones or computers.

Here’s a recipe from the story “Gathering Greens” in the book:

Dandelion jelly:

Pick 1 quart of fresh dandelion blossoms. (be sure they have not been exposed to pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) Quickly rinse blossoms with cool water to remove any insects. Snip off green collars.

Combine cleaned blossoms in a saucepan with 2 quarts cold water. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 min. set aside to cool.

Strain liquid, pressing petals with fingers to extract juice.

Measure 3 cups dandelion liquid into a saucepan; add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 package (1 3/4 ounces) sure jell. Bring to a boil.

Add 5 1/2 cups sugar, stirring well. Boil for 2 1/2 min, stirring well. Put in jars and seal.

The stories in both books are  short so they are a quick read. I find myself reading a story or two every day. Haven’t tried any of the recipes though.

I bought these books on Amazon and if you search the titles you’ll see lots of other books in the series such as:

• Tough Times,  Strong Women
• The Old Time Art of Thrift (I’m getting this next)
• Making Our Own Fun
• We Survived and Thrived
• Good Old Days Remembers – Working on the Farm

These are great books  if you enjoy a trip down memory lane or just want to learn more about the “olden days” !

I always thought “Hydrangea House” would be a lovely name for a home.  As it is, I have to work to keep mine blooming during our hot summers (which seem to get drier and drier and hotter and hotter).

They are really easy to propigate like forsythia. I wrote about Blooms On a Budget a few years ago and included how I propagate hydrangeas. You can go here  if you’d like to read it. It’s really easy!

I thought I’d share a few photos of my hydrangeas with you since most of them started to bloom a few days ago when we got some torrential rain.

 I have one Pee Gee hydrangea that’s at the end of it’s bloom and turning this lovely pink color.

The rest are lovely shades of blue!

Have a wonderful weekend!

That big mirror is now  hanging where the fireplace used to be. They’ve sort of  switched spots.

I didn’t bother to take it down to paint because it’s really heavy! But that’s also what I did when I painted it white (it originally was  silver). I just painted it with a good angled brush – two coats. Actual painting time couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes! LoVe projects that are quick & easy!

It’s the same color as my china cabinet which you can see reflected in the mirror in photo below.

I thought it was a good way to spread that color around so that the cabinet wouldn’t be the only thing that’s a dirty robbin’s egg blue.

It’s a good starting point for something on that wall don’t ya think? Maybe more hoop art? Or a collection of  cottage paintings, or paint-by-number flower paintings, shutters maybe? Or how about some vintage trays? The possibilities are endless and exciting!

Woo-hoo! Space to collect something new!

I suppose some would keep just the mirror. Maybe to give the eye a place to rest. But I know myself, a practically blank wall won’t stay that way for long!

Linking to:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

I have a white picket fence that goes around my vegetable garden (which has two entrances).  This is the smaller gate.

I had a little bit of of white exterior latex left and mixed some other odds and ends with it to get this nice shade of green.

The gate is flanked by arbors and one side I have grapes growing up some lattice. The other side has a HUgE KnockOut Rose.

I just love it it! It’s so cheery!

Things are growing behind the picket the fence gate!

                  Have a wonderful weekend!

I hung it on the door to my china cabinet. Which then led me to re-arrange my china cabinet – which is ridiculous because I have to move it tomorrow since I’m finishing up painting the living room and now I have to move it filled with china. Crazy I know! But screwing eye hooks into a fence is so boring that I had to have a little fun!

I love this cup and saucer so much!  It’s Red Vintage Rose by Gracie China.

Aren’t these fun bowls! They’re all from TJMaxx.

Plates in my favorite colors!

No rhyme or reason to this display of china – just pieces I love.

What can I say….color just makes me happy!

Linking to:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

So my idea is to grow vines against the fence! A living wall of green.

Jasmine stays green year round here plus in spring there are the wonderful flowers and fragrance they produce.  (Plus, should CP want to come back and do more chopping – these vines are quick to re-grow).

But I didn’t want to have to buy trellises and vines need support especially since I eventually want it to look like this

source: flckr

A wall of green with flowers in the spring.  We decided to make what will eventually be an invisible trellis (when the vines grow and cover it).

So here’s what you need to make this trellis:  eye hooks, heavy gauge wire, ruler, drill or hammer and nail

DIY Invisible Wire Trellis

Measure out a grid of 12- 16  inch squares (we did 12 in. here but I think we’ll do 16 in. or so  since we have a lot of fence to do) and make a mark.

Insert a  eye hook at each mark. You may want to pre-drill the hole or use a hammer and nail to make a hole. It’s sometimes hard to get the eye hook screw going.

Feed the wire through the eye hooks.  We did all the horizontal first and then the vertical. Twist ends back on themselves to finish off a row.

Plant a climbing plant at the base and train a few vines along the wire to get it started. As it grows it should grab hold by itself but you can help it along the way.

This is a relatively easy and inexpensive trellising system that you can use for all types of plants!

There’s about 100′ feet of fence back there – so I have “few” more  eye hooks to screw in

I think it was back in January that I said I was doing a little makeover of our home, anyway I set aside some money to buy a few new pieces of furniture – not a lot, but I figured I’d either get something at the thriftstore, TJX/Homegoods or Ikea or maybe catch a great sale somewhere else.

So last week I went to Ikea and bought an Ektorp chair with a white slipcover. Very inexpensive but well made!

I love it! It is so comfortable. It’s got a firm cushion so it’s easy to get out of the chair (I know some of you know what I mean). It’s big enough so I can sit sideways with my legs over an arm when I read. The arms are nice and cushy you don’t feel the frame at all. Plus I love the Ikea slipcovers. They’re inexpensive, come in a variety of colors and are very easy to wash and get back on.

And I got this cute round yellow gingham pillow at Ikea!

AND we had a very yummy breakfast there before we went shopping and it was free. They deduct the price of breakfast from your purchase over $100 (don’t know if they do it all the time now or we just happened on a promotion).

 I heart Ikea (but only during the week – avoid it on the weekend)!!

Linking to:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday

I got these chippy shutters for $14 at a neighbor’s garage sale  last month (yes it’s garage sale season here already). They are very very, extremely chippy and unfortunately forest green (not in my color palette). So I scraped the loose paint off and mix up a color that is more to my liking.

I have one done and thought I’d show it to you. I’m going to hang them on the outside of the door leading into the screened porch.

****Update on my Colonial Pipeline situation******

They are sending a stump grinding crew out next week to take care of all the stumps they left. It will make it much easier for me to replant. A small victory but at least I feel they are doing something that actually helps me.

We’ve already purchased some plants to replace the one’s they chopped down and have a plan of what we’re going to do.

I’ve been so busy planting and painting that by the time I sit down I just don’t have the energy to blog.  Hopefully things will slow down a bit now and I’ll be able to spend some time here!

Have a wonderful weekend!

I took a walk in my backyard recently and so many lovely things are happening! So much is blooming or getting ready to bloom in this Georgia yard.

The most interesting thing is that daffodils that I planted in November are blooming now!  All my other older daffodils bloomed a few months ago. I didn’t think these newer ones were going to bloom at all  this year.

There were only green leaves for the longest time but temps have cooled a bit and now I have the lovely surprise of having another bloom of daffodils!

Hundreds of little Morning Glories are popping up along the picket fence that surrounds my vegetable garden.

Even the hydrangeas are starting to flower!

Some things have come and gone already like the little purple flowers that grow in between the mosaic stepping stones.

Even the roses are in full bloom.

Hope things are greening up and blooming in your neck of the woods!

My porch is divided into a dining area and a seating area so I started working on the seating area first.

I bought this blue scrolly rug at TJMaxx because my husband didn’t like the beach matty one I got at Cost Plus World Market last year (you can see it here) but it’s really too small. I think I’m going to move it under the dining table since that rug has seen better days anyway and look for a better size for this area.

This is my seat – I get the chaise!

I painted the fleurs many years ago. I like to keep some ball jars in it and fill it with flowers or bits of plants that I’m rooting.

I bought two new pillows at Target. Outdoor pillows get so dirty! Even in a more or less protected area like this porch. I’ve never been able to really get them clean so I wind up tossing them every few years and starting over.

This is the birdcage I found at Goodwill last year. It has driftwood, starfish and shells in it at the moment.

I’m going to work on the dining side this week I don’t really have too much to do – just getting rid of a piece of furniture and  I found two chippy shutters that I want to use somehow. One of them is VERY chippy so I’m going to have to do something about that before I can hang them.

         ************************************

I am going to take a little blog break.

This is the reason why.

My neighborhood has a Colonial Pipeline easement running through it (Colonial Pipeline is a refined petroleum pipeline). To make a long sad story short – they have the right of way in the back 20 feet of my property. A few weeks ago they came through and told us that they were going to do row maintenance so they can fly the right of way by air to inspect the pipe line.

 See all the trees that used to be there.

They have been flying over and walking the pipeline in our yards for as long as we’ve lived here so why they have to cut everything to ground all of a sudden is a mystery to us all. According to my neighbors, the last time they came through to do any sort of tree trimming was over 20 years ago! And then they hardly touched anything AND they provided replacement shrubs and trees when they did have to remove anything.

Not this time. We are all left to figure out how we’re going to replant. We have a list of  ”approved” plants. But no funds were given to us to purchase new plants.

To cut it so low at this time of year…they might as well have cut it to the ground with everything else.

Now it just looks like devastation!  It’s so horrible – we are all just in shock.  They gave us such short notice we couldn’t even organize to oppose it which I’m sure was their plan.

Anyway, they might as well have cut my arms off. I’m so sick about the whole thing. My entire fence line border is gone with the exception of a few plants. To top it off  - our fence was never meant to be seen. It was put in after all the plants were mature and we had to work around tree roots and prickly hollies. It was just meant to block out the house behind us which is a rental.

AND they didn’t even grind all the stumps they left making it doubly hard to re-plant. What a really horrible horrible company!

So now I have to figure out what to do.  So I’m taking the rest of the week off. I’ve got to go take a look at these “approved” plants and see what I can do with them – apparently the plants now can’t be higher than 4 ft! Plus I have to get quotes from fencing companies to fix the existing fence and extend it all the way now that my neighbors don’t have any trees either.

Ugh! Those of you that know me know that I am just heart sick about the whole thing. I feel violated.