A Huge Outdoor Project ...Yard Work Is Hard Work!!

Hello me dear friends,

a few day ago I mentioned that we had big plans for our backyard and that is where I am spending a lot of my time these days ~ preparing the yard for it's transformation. I spent many hours these past days digging up plants and pulling up our stone paths and moving everything to one side of the yard. I can tell you it is hard work. The plants are older plants so they are really well in the ground so it took a lot of tugging and heaving to get them out and the stones for the paths were so heavy that I had to use a cart to get them over to one side without injuring my back.

Our backyard hasnt' been looking well for some time now because of last years work we had done. We used to have two huge Ash trees which both had the "beetle" and were dying and had to be taken out. That was really something!! Our lawn didn't really recover after that and since most of the shade was gone weeds started to go wild ~ so much actually that it was a challenge to keep up with them.

This is only the beginning of everything to come in our backyard.

Does this picture give you an idea of what is going to happen??

I must be crazy!!! We have thought long and decided to have a pool put in our backyard. I have been working since weeks and weeks on this now getting all my "ducks in a row" (organized) so everything will hopefully go OK without any hicoughs. I am so glad that my husband will be home from work when all this will take place. I am sure I will end up needing more than one box of hair dye to cover all the grey that will be a result of this project. I will take pictures along the way and share so any of you thinking of doing this will get an idea of what you are letting yourself in for.

Unfortunately creating will have to take a back seat for the time which I find a bit sad because when I feel stressed or down creating is the thing to take my mind off things. I am hoping to escape in between for a wee while and maybe get a chance to use one of my ideas that are tucked away in my little book and if I do I will try and share them with you but if I don't get a chance to I hope you won't forget me and take a peek to see when I am back and blogging.

I have added two images to share with you today ~ I thought you might like them.

I wonder if you might know who this is. She was born on August 4th 1900 and her name is Elizabeth. She was a very special lady and she was the mother of a very special lady (if that makes any sense to you).

I will let you know ~ this is the Queen Mother Elizabeth when she was approx. 3 years old.

I found this picture of her one day on the internet and thought it was just so precious.

This is a negative from the Victorian days. It was proof that fairies were real.

 (Well we bloggers all knew that one!!)

Can you see the tiny fairy clothes hanging on the wash line inside the flower?

This is way over 100 years old but hasn't lost any of its magic.

And last but not least ...

... I now have a fairy of my very own!!! Take a look!!

This is my wee tiny fairy. 

My daughter Ashleigh loves photography and used a new software she found to create this image of herself as a fairy standing on a daisy. She has her own blog http://everything-is-better-with-sprinkles.blogspot.com/ and if you ever feel like it why not fly over and take a peek!

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.



Please Meet Evelyn

Hello my dear friends,

I hope you don't mind,but this is just a very short post today in which I would like to share a few old photographs with you from my collection.

I would like you to meet Evelyn Casey.

I love this photo of this young girl simply because of her natural beauty and when you look at her it's like she is looking inside you, almost like she knows you.

Evelyn is 16 years old in 1900 and she is from Irish decent.

These pictures were taken of her while she was trying to get a job in a factory in the U S.

She was one of the many working children of those days.

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Some Old Creations and Others To Share

Hello my dear friends,

I haven't been able to create anything new yesterday or today really since my chores needed my attention first this time (taxes ~ yuck). I also have to finish off a few of my 'old creations' tonight which I need to take to a lady that sells them for me at an indoor market here in town. I used to and still do love primitives, but just not as much as I did a year ago, so I am selling off some of my 'old stuff '. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow at the market and post them. I am also going to make the attempt to go back to  'THE' antique store and see what the owner is doing with all her things. I get really annoyed thinking about all the beautiful items she has thrown in this store just rotting away almost and then she has the nerve to tell me she loves every single one of them. OK and I really do (not) believe that. I will also post about this again. My other tasks for tomorrow are a few church sales and a few estate sales looking for new treasures and hopefully a few new ideas to go with them.

This is one of my 'old' creations ~ a make-do bird.

This mouse was my first mouse pattern I made.

On the other hand I did manage to find some new photos I would like to share with you. These images are not your usual pictures of lovely dressed little girls and boys but of working children in the early 1900's. I don't know why but I am captured by the Victorian/Edwardian Era especially the working class.

A young girl crocheting lace.

Young girls working in a millinery.

I am not even sure what kind of work this young girl is doing.

Photos like these make me think about the person in the picture. Who are they and how did they live? Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time, and meet these people. To see what their life was like, what they were like...

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Roses In Winter

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share one of my new makings. I have been working on some new roses from a tutorial I had found at Anj's blog "Snowybliss".

Anj makes her roses from patterned fabric and I really like the way she created them - I just put my own little twist to them. I decided to use tea dyed muslin and I also added leaves to the stems. Being a hand quilter for many years, I prefer not to use a sewing machine when I craft, because I just love to sew by hand. It is so peaceful and rewarding for me.

This is the link to Anj's blog:

http://snowybliss.blogspot.com/2010/06/long-stemmed-fabric-flowers.html

Why not go and take a look at her lovely creations and her great tutorials?

I am planning to make more of the roses soon. For my next bunch I would like to maybe dye the muslin with food coloring and see how they will turn out. Of course I will show you the result of this.

Another task for me is to fix my wee old bird cage. The swing needs to be rehung again and it also needs to have a new hanging hook. I would have loved to have used something old for this project, but unfortunatly the antique store that I was planning to visit had suddenly shut down. I ended having to buy new brass wire and I am hoping to  find something old and tatty hiding away in one of my boxes that I can incorporate in the project.  I do hope that with time the wire will age and tarnish to match the rest of this beauty.

I have also been working on a few other things this past week, which I am planning to make into small tutorials, if they work out. Hopefully I will be able to work a lot on this weekend and will be successful, so I can share something new next week some time.

And last but not least ...

I would like to share some old pictures from my collection with you.

                          A young woman working in a millner factory, threading large spools.

                                       Two younge victorian girls working hard in a sewing factory.

A little girl playing with her baby doll.

I love these photos because they are not staged in any way. They were taken in a moment of life and I find there is nothing better than that.

I hope you have a  peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.