Nonna's Gardens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't my mom's yard gorgeous??

good things

I was long overdue bring my sweet friend, Wendy her birthday present.  You see, I had it in my head that I wanted to stamp her birthdate on the tag with my library stamp but I couldn't find it anywhere... for days!!!  I became obsessed and would not give it to her without finding it.  Lucky for her it only took about 2 weeks!  Ugh...  Oh well, maybe the cuteness of the wrapping made up for it??

I used a recycled dessert box from the grocery store and cut up some old book pages for the fluff at the bottom.  Then I wrapped up a vintage tea towel, some of her favorite tea, and a tiny ceramic tea spoon from Crate and Barrel.  I wrapped the outside with a strip of vintage Holly Hobby fabric and some cute tags I bought from the gals at Modern Textiles a long time ago.  I've been waiting to use them.  The top tag I recycled from a used one I had and covered up the writing with scrapbook paper and washi tape.  And of course, we cannot forget the added touch of her birthdate stamped on it!  Ha!
I kind of like this cute packaging thing... my mom is the master at it, as I've mentioned and shown you here before.  I will have to keep thinking of new things to try out in the future!

I wanted to share this too- I stopped at a yard sale yesterday after picking up Mary Beth from Art, lunch and recess... and spotted these beauties!  The chair was only $5 and it just needs some piping added around the edges of the fabric.  And behold!  Vintage sheets!!  I've been collecting these to use for the crafts I'm making to sell at Unglued and the Junk Market coming up next weekend.  You won't believe it but the really nice gal who was having the sale GAVE these to me for free!  We got to talking and I found out she is from The White House Boutique(love their stuff by the way!) and she told me she had wanted to come to our sale but didn't make it so to consider this a donation.  How sweet is she??  I know I can make good money with these items in the future- I'm so excited and blown away by the kindness of others once again.  But that's not all!!  She also offered to sell the vintage jewelry I have left from the sale at her booth at Junk Market!   Yay!!!

And in closing, a shot of the sunflowers Jeffrey planted at the community garden- they let him cut some to bring home last night.  Gorgeous!

HAPPY MAY DAY!

Like many other of the insignificant holidays, my children LOVE celebrating May Day.

This year we decided to make paper flowers to leave on our friends' doorsteps instead of "baskets" of candy. They are prettier, healthier, and a fun craft project for the kids.

These were a big deal in Texas(I lived there for 4 years during high school)- especially around cinco de mayo and "Fiesta"- an annual celebration in San Antonio down on the Riverwalk.

We spent all morning making these... the kids took breaks here and there but we managed to get them all done.

This isn't all of them- we had already delivered a bunch by the time I took this picture.

These bright colors make me so happy! I wanted to keep them all for myself!I had some little bees left from Mickey's homemade Valentine cards this year so we decided to glue them in the flowers. Mickey is learning about bees right now in science so he thought this was a good idea.

I made little name tags out of some cute springy cardstock and tied them on with some ribbon. I think they really turned out cute!

The one downside was that it was a really chilly, gloomy, rainy day outside. Not very May Day-ish at all! So they tried to deliver them in between bouts of rain showers and they also had to leave them inside the doors so that they didn't get ruined by the rain if the people weren't home.

Mickey said "this was the best May Day ever!"- they say that every year. :) They never got caught but Mary Beth did catch their little friend Stella so she got a kiss! Hope all of you had a great May Day too!

love

Jeffrey brought this home to me from school the other day- wow. His class makes the most BEAUTIFUL art- I'll have to post more soon... but I "love" this one for sure- what a wonderful valentine!

happy colorful day

Apples and mangoes bought for Jeffrey... "I love mangoes Mom!" he informed me yesterday. He does???? So I went and got him some today- he's been kinda picky with fruit lately so I thought I better give him some he'll eat.

Clementines are Mickey's obsession!! He eats up to 6 a day if we let him. So when they go on sale I stock up- today I bought two bags- which will probably last about 3 days.

The kids either tell me they want a "monkey nana" (which means whole) or "banana coins" (which means cut up in pieces)- they've done this since they were babies. I think it's cute.

Jeffrey picked his crocodile shirt to wear for class picture day today. Hopefully this isn't the face he made for the pictures! Look at my new plants in the background- I wonder how many days it's going to take for my basil and rosemary to die. They never do well for me indoors... oh well, it's worth a try!

Today was "blue day" at preschool. Mary Beth was adamant that she had to wear jeans?!?!? I FINALLY convinced her she could wear this outfit since all her jeans were in the wash(big surprise). She did puzzles this afternoon- she's getting really good at them!

I needed something purple- our dora chair will work! I always contemplate getting rid of this and our dora couch but they remind me of when the kids were really little and I get all sentimental and end up keeping them. Plus they still use them!

Time to go do homework and start supper- my least favorite time of the day- why can't we just play all evening??