Early Spring in the Garden

This time of year makes it impossible for me to put my camera away!  I'm filling up all my storage with spring-time-everything, so I thought I had better share a little: 

Pink Dogwood

Hosta

Muscadine Grape

Fern

I loved finding these in the wreath on my front door (!)...

and a few days later!

They are just about to take flight as I write this and I will miss checking on them every day.

White Azalea

Chives

Phlox (on its way out), Clematis (on its way in) and Angus (on his hind legs).

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of the year, too!

Seeking Beauty...Spring Edition

Hello wonderful people!

It's been quiet around here as I went into party planning overdrive last week. On Saturday my son had a Pokemon-themed birthday party which I will post about later this week.

In the meantime, I realized my phone has been filling up with snapshots of flowers.  For this nature-lovin', beauty-seekin' girl it is paradise out there right now.  So...here are some snapshots from my last week's worth of walks...just because Spring is so darn pretty!

Happy Spring!!!

Random Crafty Stuff and a Free Mother's Day Printable

I am so bad about letting y'all on on my crafty life lately, and so disorganized that I just decided "to heck with it, who needs organization?"  and let's just see what I have been up to in no particular order, shall we?

Glitter Relax Jars and Ocean in a Bottle
Tutorials here and here

L-O-V-I-N-G Spring in my garden!

And I visited our local botanical gardens not once but twice because I am a major flower geek.

Oh!  Best thing ever!  Thanks to my friend Gina I discovered Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive and I love it!  And no this is not a sponsored post, I truly do just love this product!

(1 million bonus points if you can name that show).

I helped Gina make this cute sign for her preschool class's Mother's Day event:

And!!!  And I turned it into a free printable for YOU!  Admittedly, the printable won't actually sparkle (if you can make your printer do that CALL ME RIGHT NOW)--but it is still a cute little printable for Mom's special day.  Just click on this image:

Have fun and Happy Mother's Day!

Digging for Treasure

We went strawberry pickin' on Saturday morning.  (There's no other way to say it--it's "pickin," never "picking.")

This is a family tradition for us, which I love because it is active, outdoor work which teaches the kids about farming and rewards us with healthy, delicious fruit.  Love that!  We've been in all kinds of weather, but this year was perfection.  Sunny, with a cool breeze.

Pickin' strawberries is addictive, maybe because it's like digging for treasure.  You just keep thinking, what's under the next leaf?

And the strawberries are like treasure--like rubies--literally glistening in the sun.  We all love it!  We should get jobs in the fields, I tell you!

We got two gallons this year, which means I have to freeze most of them.  I like to wash, dry and stem them right away (I don't even bother with hulling).

I then lay them out in a single layer on wax paper-lined cookie sheets, freeze them for a couple of hours, then switch them into a freezer bag.  Doing it this way helps them stay separated, so we can pull out as many as we need each time.

Saturday evening, we had fresh strawberry ice cream, which went so fast I never even got a picture! Welcome to Summer everyone!

Around the Garden

One of my greatest pleasures in life is seeing things grow, especially in the spring when everything that comes up is such a joy after a long winter.  It has been especially fun this year, in a new house.  I have been so surprised by so much that has bloomed around here!

One of the major highlights has been the clematis.

These two vines have put on a straight-up show for us.

We also had incredible azaleas!  I'll be honest, I really don't love azaleas, but these were really pretty.

Here is a picture of more azaleas, along with these crazy bluebells that came up everywhere.

That was Round One.  Now we're into Round Two and getting gorgeous roses.

How quickly and beautifully these have bloomed has been a surprise to me.  I did cut the roses back in February and fertilize when they started growing, but I can't take credit for this gorgeousness.  That's all God.

I used the roses plus oregano from the herb garden for a simple floral arrangement for my Mother's Day Brunch.  It's a trick I learned from the florist at Fearrington House, where I used to work wedding receptions: mix herbs in with your flowers for beautiful fragrance and a natural look.

So, what's growing in your garden?  I would love to hear about it...and I'll take any cuttings you want to give me;)