That is just the only way to title this post!  I have been busy all day getting ready for the big craft show on Saturday.  This show will be so much fun.  The theme is colonial times, so we’ll be dressed in long dresses and  bonnets, but I’ll still have to have my flip-flops.  That’s where I draw the line!

Some of these still need their coats of polyurethene, but otherwise they are set for the birds to move in.  These will be for sale on Saturday.

The other thing I got done was to finish the butterfly bath.  It turned out really pretty and my daughter likes it very much.

Can you see the little porcelain turtle in there?  I apologize for the bad color of the pictures.  It was dark out by the time I finished up.

I also grouted two more pots:

I did take some nice pictures today of flowers and insects in the garden, but I hate to put too much in this post.  I also finished a small mosaic sign to hang on my garden gate.  I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow!

One of my favorite little plants in the garden is a shamrock that I bought about five years ago.  I was not sure it would even survive the winters here, but it has surprised me by doing really well, year after year.

I went out this morning to walk through the garden and my shamrock was blooming.  One little pink bloom.

Isn’t it lovely?

Some of the birdbaths I make are pretty small in size.  I call these smaller mosaic birdbaths “butterfly baths” because they seem to be just right for insects and butterflies.  Yes, butterflies love water in the garden, too!

Actually, I was thrilled this morning to see a large dragonfly in the garden. 

This bath will be grouted tomorrow.

and that would be salmon from a can.  But it’s okay!  I love salmon patties fried really crunchy.  Yum.  So that is for supper, along with some stir-fried snow peas (thank you to my really nice gardening neighbor for sharing snow peas) and some macaroni and cheese! 

This certainly qualifies as eating more green.

I was reading this morning an account of a family traveling down the Ohio River in 1778, written way back then by Anne MacMeans Jamison and shared by her great-great-great-great granddaughter, Martha Barron Barrett, in Early American Life.  Heart-rending!  Truly life-threatening hunger – something many of us have never, ever known. 

Here is a quote from An Interesting Narrative by Anne MacMeans Jamison from the magazine Early American Life, Feb. 1988: 

She could stand alone, and was sensible of sharp cutting hunger: the last day, after night she would scream very bitterly, as if pained at the very heart, and continued so till about midnight, then became silent with little motion till about sun rise, and then silently departed from this world of pain, sin, and affliction.

This child was only 2 years old, and her poor mother, Anne MacMeans Jamison, buried her on the river bank.  I plan to read this article in full to my children so they can understand better why we give thanks for our food.

It was love at first sight!  I was in one of my favorite stores - GW Boutique (GoodWill ha ha) – and I saw it.  A little end table that someone had primed and painted pink.  I could just picture this table with a mosaic top and sitting at my bedside.  I dragged it to the register and paid for it.

I also found some other things – some rose patterned dishes to break up, a baby dress I could not resist (it is so cute!), and a few books.  Always books.  I lugged the table up the steps to my workshop (the front porch) and started placing tiles.

You FIARowers have got to love this little corner with Peter Rabbit.   Gotta have some whimsy!  It took a couple of hours to place everything and then about another hour to adhere every piece into place with a mixture of mortar and glue.   But the finished top is gorgeous!  I am not sure if I will grout this in white or pink.

I will be sure and post pictures of the table when it’s done!  Do you think I should do the grout in white or pink?

I finished grouting some of the flower pots today.  I’ll have to do the rest tomorrow.  I was just too tired to do it all today.  Once you see what else I did, you’ll know why! 

You can see the pots on the left are lighter in color than on the right.  As the grout dries it will go back to a lighter shade of pink.  They are lined up in the order that they were done.

More in the next post!

The Fallen Soldier

Consider, my friend, the one who has fallen.
For life and its freedoms to him once were calling.
Now silent he sleeps, his destiny sealed.
He laid down his life on life’s battlefield.

In youth something called him to go and to serve.
His place he embraced with his zeal and his nerve.
Whatever the reason, whatever his claim,
the flag that he died for bears our country’s name.

While you have the privilege to go and to do,
to kiss your dear parents, tie your firstborn’s first shoe,
remember the fallen, the one who lies silent.
Remember his losses, get quiet for a moment.

Remember his father, his sisters, his brothers.
Remember his comrades and all of their mothers.
It’s a wrong in this country should the day ever dawn
when a soldier who’s fallen lies sleeping alone.

Stop from your doing, your shopping, your baking.
Stop from your busy life, the plans that you’re making,
and whisper a prayer to the One on the Throne,
for soldiers yet living or whose fighting is done.

Pray for their outcome, their cause and their lives.
Ask mercy from Him who our very life gives.
Remember the brave young soldier, now sleeping.
When he fell, forever still, it was us he was keeping.

I spent several hours this afternoon working on mosaic flower pots.  It was so relaxing.  Doesn’t feel like work!

Above you can see the pots sitting out in the sun where they dried pretty quickly.

After a while, I brought them in from the sun and put them on my potting bench — just in case it rains tonight!

Tomorrow they’ll be grouted in a pretty rosy-colored grout.

I have challenged myself to eat more green.  If you think about what people ate 200 years ago, I am sure it was not boxed, pre-packaged food full of white flour and refined sugar.  I am sure they would have looked at you like you were from Mars had you offered them some high-fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil.  I think they ate a lot of green. 

I am not complaining about all of the wonderful conveniences we have now, mind you.  I am just knowing it would be healthier for my body to eat more green. 

I am challenging myself to put a little more fresh green into every meal.

For breakfast, eggs scrambled with fresh garlic chives.  I put them on a sandwich with just a tiny grating of cheese for flavor and topped it with a lot of fresh arugula from the garden.

It was really good.  I’ll be drinking a lot of fresh herbal teas today.