It's a Gray Gray Day!

Have you ever looked around your home to see how 

much 'gray' or 'tin' colored items you have?

I guess those of us that like the Colonial and Primitive 

styles have quite a lot of it - at least we do.

I'm just going to have a picture day here - no family news

 or other news...just a fun picture post...so enjoy.  

Maybe you all can come  up with some in your home

 to share with us.

I hope you enjoyed my picture show today

Have a wonderful week!

Karen

Playing Catch-Up

I so wanted to do a post a week like I used to do but that hasn't happened yet - but getting close.

This was a very busy last couple weeks.
We did much needed screen room, deck and brick cleaning.
Doug power washed both and then stained the decking and sealed the brick.  I love the shine it has with the fresh sealer on it....and when it's wet it's even prettier. 

Plus I washed all the screens of the screen room, inside and out I always have the job of washing all the furniture so my arms were sore by the end of the day but it was a great job done and it smelled so fresh and clean. And a very relaxing place to be in.

I  did bring out some of my geraniums last week - just a few because I didn't feel like bending over the totes and carrying the others upstairs. It's still very tiring for me to do stairs especially if my hands are full.

I found some flower pots packed away and stuffed them in a basket and love how it turned out.

There's 3 Lavender and 3 of some kind of mixed white flower.

Quite awhile ago we bought two battery operated candles for the hallway and just now put them out - they are a dark muddy gold beeswax and the flicker on them is so real and it flickers on the ceiling as well.

Sunday we went to Emily's graduation.  We were so happy and proud. She was an excellent student and had high achievements and she'll do great when she goes to University of Wisconsin Whitewater in the Fall.  We'll miss seeing her at our once a month family dinners though!!

Our grandson Joe was in woodworking/shop class and we didn't even know it - he's a very quiet boy and doesn't like to be made over or have his picture taken - but I did convince him to at least stand for one photo.
he made two tables and a cutting board - he did fantastic work.
He was also in track the past two years and he really liked the 'relay' part of it.

So that's what has kept us busy and now it's just Emily's graduation party on the 11th and my great-nieces graduation party this Saturday.

Doug is going on his annual golf outing in a little over a week from now so I'm trying to think of some things I want to do while he's gone - lots of ideas, just need to get them planned out.

That's it for me this week
Karen

So much going on!!!

How does one start when there has been such a lull???
Well I guess I back up to last month - and this month is already half over.
I don't know about you all but time goes so fast and you really don't realize it until you look back...scary!  It's like you don't have a feeling of 'time' - a week or 2 weeks seems like it was just a day or two ago...okay, I won't go there anymore...but it just seemed to hit me this past few weeks how fast time does go by.

So what has been happening in my neck of the woods - well, not a lot of interesting things but we did go down to TN to visit my sister again and it was so nice seeing her and her family. I miss my big sis being close but I don't have any control over where she lives...so we travel to see her.  
While there we stopped in at a wonderful place called 'The Gallery' and I found a wonderful large basket that is going to get some Geraniums in it.

(remember you can click on the pictures to view larger)

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Two weeks ago we went to Springfield, IL for a wholesale trade show and we had time when we arrived the day before so we went to the Abraham Lincoln Museum and it was the BEST!!!  I love this kind of history and the museum left me with wanting more.
If you get to Springfield, go to the museum and his home - you won't be disappointed.
I won't show more than these three pictures as there were several.

Lincoln's Home

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I did find just a couple things at the show and one is this doll that is for sale on my other site 'KM Primitives'.
http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

She has beautiful red hair and carries a key around her neck.

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Well, Spring does not want to come and stay with us here in the mid-west, but we did take advantage of it last month to get the mulch down and trees trimmed and one cut down.  Good job done and we have our sons and grandsons to thank for it.

We had an ornamental Pear tree in the back corner and it seems to grow up so straight and ugly so we had our son Brett take it down....plus it was in the back and we never got to enjoy the flowers anyway.

All finished and deciding who did the most work - no, they all worked themselves bone tired.

Eventually the flowers on the Service Berry bush came out but it was so windy and rainy that they fell of almost as soon as they came on. (these are not this years Service Berry's)

There are now flowers planted in this area

Our son Dan caught this shot of Aidan under a bush - he quietly peeked around the corner of the house to get the shot - I love it.

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And again it is Rhubarb season and yesterday I baked my first 
Rhubarb cake (recipe is above under 'Favorite Recipes')

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Oh my gosh - I think my mind has kind of gone wonky as well from those pain meds...Know what this is?

It's one of these!!!  The little plastic drip tray for under the George Forman grill that I use for making Panini sandwiches  :(

I went to make Panini sandwiches Saturday and after I turned it on we smelled this plastic odor - hummmm - lifted the lid and sure enough - a perfectly formed tray totally melted but fortunately it pulled right off - and YES, I let the grill get hotter and hotter to burn off any odor.
But the sandwiches turned out delicious as usual

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Aidan did take his First Communion and it brought tears to my eyes - we were so proud and blessed by it.
He was chosen to carry the wine.

Taking Communion

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And lastly - I have Two more Punch Needle designs on my KM Primitives site and am almost finished with another.
http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

This one is Peahen & Posies

And this one is Watering Can & Purple Coneflowers

Thanks again for stopping by - I will hopefully get some time to do some Blog hopping later today and visit you all!

Karen