"Show and Tell Friday"

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday!" Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!

My show and tell this week is my new "Candle Chandelier" out on my back patio. I got the idea from the most recent issue of Martha Stewart magazine.

I attached two grapevine wreaths to the ceiling with big hooks, then with smaller hooks and thin chains I hung up jars holding votive candles.


It was a three hour long project but I think if I had a proper chain cutter it would be been much quicker. Instead, I used pliers and a hammer. Did I mention it took three hours? ;0)


I used quilted jam jars and added some crystal beads to the bottom wire.


All lit up at night!


The jars are attached to the chains with "s" hooks so they are easy to take off and light.


Here is a look at the entire patio, along with our electric lanterns lit up too. We are having such a mild summer we are still able to sit out and enjoy the evenings.


Thank you for looking at my show and tell!
Instructions can be found at www.marthastewart.com
Instructions for Patio umbrella variation


If you would like to join in for Show and Tell, here are the guidelines:

***Post your "Show and Tell" on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Please do not use Mr. Linky unless you have a Show and Tell or the link will be deleted.

***Link back here so that others can share and read through all the links. If you don't know how to do this, email me and I will send you the link code.

***Please do not host your own "Show and Tell Friday" at your blog. I'd appreciate it if you keep There's No Place Like Home as the only home of Show and Tell Friday.

Once Upon a Time...

Here is a story for my four year old nephew, Jacob...

Once upon a time, (5 years and 4 months ago to be exact!) there was the beginning of a small garden.


Two overturned flower pots were placed near a saucer of water, in hopes that a toad would come by and say, "Look, a house just for me!"


The years went by, the garden grew and grew and soon you couldn't even see the toad house.


The saucer of water also disappeared and now there was a small pond, with lily pads, goldfish and a little girl, who never gave up hope of having a toad friend.


One day, her wish came true, for nestled in among the ivy, ferns and garden shoes were...


...two friendly eyes looking out at her! They seemed to be saying, "Look, a house just for me!" He was given the name Todd and he made himself right at home!


The garden shoes were converted into a bathtub and Todd loved to have an afternoon soak in the cool water!


But his favorite time of day was when the sun went down.


It was the perfect time for a evening swim with his friends, the goldfish!


And everyone lived happily ever after!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The daily rain has stopped and things are starting to heat up here in Texas! I want to share a new Old Fashioned Lemonade recipe with you today, but first, some pictures of our new summertime dresses.

It is very hard to find decent and inexpensive dresses in the stores nowadays. I was looking in Goodwill for a few canning jars and came across these "new to us" dresses...

This bright yellow dress has a red smocked waist and is made by Copper Key. The Bonnie Jean pale green dress is made of linen and has a sheer overlay.


It also comes with this sheer "jacket" with tiny purple flowers sewn on the inside.


A blue and white gingham dress with yellow and white daisies and this red floral Cornelloki (April Cornell) dress might be my favorite!


I love the smocked bodice!


Grace was the most excited about this blue and white sailor dress. She has been watching for one for several years now! This one is made of light corduroy and will be nice in the fall too.
The last dress we found is another Cornelloki. It is made of very thin cotton that has embroidered flower clusters all over it.


There is a slip underneath with ruffled trim.

A few of these dresses will fit Grace for two summers and then on to Emily for a few more. The best part though is that each dress was just $2.99!!

Ok, on to the lemonade! The recipe comes from the Gooseberry Patch "Simple Country Pleasures."


Old-Fashioned Lemonade

4 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
4 cups cold water

Cut lemons into thin slices, remove seeds. Place slices in a large non metal bowl; sprinkle with sugar and let stand 10 minutes. Press lemons with the back of a spoon to extract juice.

I actually got out my potato masher and gave them all a good squeeze. I got way more juice that I usually do just squeezing lemons into a pitcher.


Transfer mixture to a pitcher and add water. Stir and then remove lemons. (I left in a few slices.) Serve over ice.


I hope you all are staying cool on this hot July day!

Happiness in the Garden

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your sweet comments about the baby bird. We are all feeling much better. Several of you mentioned the Bible verse that says not a sparrow falls from thy sky without God knowing about it, and reminding Emily of that this weekend was comforting to her.


Today, I thought I would share some happy things that are going on in our garden. Phillip took these pictures this past week, be sure to click on them for a closer view!

I am sharing my dill plant with a few Swallowtail caterpillars.


They aren't very good at sharing though, they stripped this plant bare in no time at all!


Once a butterfly, they still like to visit my dill plant.


This variety is called a Pipevine Swallowtail.


A busy bees spots a Superbell flower...


Slowly climbs up...


and finally gets a taste of nectar!


Does anyone know the species of this orange and black butterfly?


Click on the picture for a great view of this spider web...


The happiest news of all is that I may finally have a toad living in my garden. I have waited years for this to happen!!

We saw this little guy Saturday night and again on Sunday. The lighting is weird because I took them in the dark with a flash. Isn't he cute?!


Off he goes through the Creeping Jenny. I hope he sticks around!


Thank you for looking at my garden pictures!! After three busy weeks, we are going to be getting back to normal (whatever that is!) around here. I hope you all have a great start to your week!

Sadness in the Garden

On Friday afternoon, while getting the mail, Emily found a baby bird in the middle of the street. It didn't seem to have any injuries but it's eyes were closed and it didn't move. I called Phillip and he said he had seen it early that morning on his way to work, but hadn't realized it was a baby.


After looking online, I was pretty sure it was a baby male cardinal (my favorite kind of bird). Can you see the slight redness on his feathers? I didn't want him to get run over and there was a rain storm coming so...


...I put him in a basket planter in the backyard. He was quickly given the name "Jack," by Grace.


We put an umbrella over him to protect him from the storm.


Soon, Jack stood up on the edge of the basket and started chirping for his mama.


We have had a male and female cardinal in our neighborhood for a few years so I put some sunflower seeds in this feeder and right by the basket in hopes that they would find their baby.


He continued to chirp and soon his mama found him! That afternoon she came near him many times, but wouldn't feed him.


Saturday morning, I was in touch with the local wildlife bird rescue and they seemed to think that he would be fine since his mom knew where he was, but to bring him in if she hadn't fed him by the late afternoon.

By 1:00pm Jack had taken a turn for the worst. He was no longer standing up or chirping. I called bird rescue again and they said to fill a sock with rice, microwave until warm, put the bird near it, inside a box, and bring him right in.


We all got into the van and before we even pulled out of the driveway, Jack took his last breath.

We are all very sad, but especially Emily since she found him in the first place. There were lots of tears and Jack is now sleeping in our garden, beneath the Bleeding Heart and Fern.