Butterflies and Brooklyn...

I've been lucky enough to photograph some beautiful butterflies in my garden like this swallowtail last summer...

and even luckier to experience the monarch migration several times over the years.

This past weekend was mostly damp and cold but I did spot these 2 butterflies in the garden...

but my most favorite butterfly photoshoot was beautiful Brooklyn modeling a butterfly headband for my June header!

At 7 months, Brooklyn doesn't sit still for very long so Jayme and I had to be quick with our cameras. She just wanted to crawl off the blanket and explore grandma's garden :)

As we were taking photos and a really neat thing happened...do you see it below?

A butterfly landed on Miss Brooklyn's headband!

Soon it moved to her back and checked out the flowers on her outfit.

We thought on this Memorial Day weekend, it might have been a sign from her angel big brother, Ethan.

Pine Hollow...

I'm joining Fishtail Cottage for her Garden Party #5 once again this week. Click HERE to view all the other fantastic garden posts (this is one weekly meme, I really enjoy!) For any new readers coming from the party...let me introduce you to the Pine Lady! She is a smiling pine whose wide branches shelter Pine Hollow, the fairy village that has settled in my garden.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! I entertained family all 3 days and lots of little nieces were here so I helped the fairies finish setting up Pine Hollow for the summer season just in time to be visited by enchanted young ones. It seems like each year, Pine Hollow increases in size.

I hope you enjoy looking through these photos to see the little touches the fairies have added! There are stepping stones, gazing balls and bird baths in new little garden areas, lots of new little plants and a cool new roof on the rose cottage. New this year is a swimming pool/hot tub combo which you will see up close at the end of this post. Come enjoy a walk through Pine Hollow with me....

The roof on the Rose Cottage didn't hold up well to all the rain and sprinkler running last year so this winter a new roof was added. See all those shiny blue leaves? Can you guess what they are made of?

While looking for a fun (but cheap) way to shingle the house, I discovered that the inside of coors beer cans are a pretty aqua blue, the aluminum is also very thin and easy to cut with dollar store scissors so leaf shingles were born. Thanks to Jeff's air stapler this was a quick and fun afternoon project.

Here is the new fairy sized pool/hot tub combo :) As soon as I saw this wooden chip/dip bowl at Goodwill, I knew immediately it was a pool :) Surrounded by small tropical trees and relaxing places to sit it has been a hit with the fairies but what I didn't expect was the robin that bathes in it daily. It is hard to keep it filled and clean with all the robin's splashing.

Remember...always leave room in your garden for fairies to dance...as well as work, swim, play piano, ride horses and trikes, nap, birdwatch and bring smiles to young and old alike!

hummingbirds...

My garden is hosting several hummingbirds for the last week and what a joy they are. I love that they are territorial and actually sit near the feeder they stake out to protect it from the others coming for a drink. This leads to lots of fun aerial shows that I sure wish I was fast enough to capture with the camera! I'm very thankful for this male ruby throat that spends most of his day perched in the pine lady. Depending on the lighting his throat appears red, orange & even black.

I'm looking forward to sharing lots of photos this week of birds, blooms and Brooklyn :)

Clematis love...

It's no secret I've become a fan of clematis and have continued to add to my collection again this spring. While my new babies are a foot tall, some of my old favorites are already putting on a show. Top Row, L to R: Bourbon, Elsa Spath, Clair de Lune, The President. Bottom Row, L to R: H.F. Young, Dr. Ruppel and Rebecca. Linking up with the weekly Fishtail Cottage Garden Party, click HERE to see some awesome gardens.

Lost without a camera...

There was a noticeable absence of blogging this week because I forgot my camera up at Jayme's. It's a good thing Grandpa Jeff & I came up to see Scott, Jayme & Brooklyn again this weekend so Grandma can get back to blogging.

It is so much fun to watch Brooklyn play with her grandpa - can you tell how much we both enjoy being grandparents?

eyelashes...

Man, I wish I had Brooklyn's eyelashes...I'd never need mascara again!

a busy week...

I spent the first half of the week getting everything done in the office but at least I have a window over my desk looking out at the crab apple tree which was busy with warblers and a catbird. I hurried through the work at home so I could come up and spend a few days doing grandma daycare for this beautiful little girl...

Brooklyn and I spent this beautiful day playing outside and going for walks with her stroller. She's not sure what she thinks of grass or dandelions but she sure enjoys her new pink chair :)

They're back!

How exciting it was to see my first oriole of the year today...

these guys are one of my favorite birds and always make me think of my dad...oh, how I missed them!

A little big girl...

I'm spending a few days up north loving on this little princess who is 6 months old today. What a joy it is to see what a big girl she is getting to be and sitting up by herself already.

In honor of her 1/2 year of life Grandma cut a birthday card in half and a birthday candle in half to celebrate with her. Of course at six months old Grandma helped her out and ate her cookie cupcake :)

tip toe...

through the tulips...






and a couple hellebores.

Kitchen tour part 2...

When I first started planning my kitchen a year ago I joined Pinterest and starting pinning away inspiration photos. Then when I hired Heida Woodworks of Raymond, MN to build my dream kitchen I showed Brad the above photos, the layout I wanted and said I hope you can make it work - as you will see the father-son combo of Brad & Brandon Heida made all my dreams come true.
Let's start the cupboard tour on the right lower drawers which are my plate storage drawers. I also have many divided utensil drawers but neglected to take a photo of them.
My trash & recycling bins are next...
Flanking the sink is a towel rack and...
a rack to hold cutting boards and cookie sheets.
Next to the dishwasher is my double decker silverware cubbies...
and both corners hold extra deep lazy susans.
The majority of my upper cabinets are glass fronted with a ridged glass (seeded glass was above my budget) - after all I've been collecting dishes for years I may as well view them daily.
Next up is my baking cupboard which is behind those 2 large doors coming down to the countertop...
Here I store and use my mixer and other small appliances including the microwave and all my baking staples. The doors open and slide back in like in a tv armoire.
Below the baking cupboard is a rack for all my baking pans.
Between the baking cupboard and the stove is a single glass cupboard filled with my collection of bowls and below is this neat recipe I found for a happy home.
The lower cupboard stores all my sauce and frying pans and measuring cups.
Flanking the stove are the neat drawers I pinned that look like 4 small but are actually 2 deeper ones.

The whole while I planned the kitchen I had glass mosaic tiles picked out for the area inside the stove hood surround. It wasn't until I actually purchased them and held them up in this area that I decided they were too modern looking for me and went with plan B which was painting the backsplash the same warm melted milk chocolate color that I used on the rest of the backsplashes. I then found a canvas I liked for $10 at Big Lots and sprayed it with 6 coats of spar varnish which is highly moisture resistant (they use it on boats). Any grease or stains that splash on this picture are easily washed off now.
The fan itself only takes up room to the top of the mantle shelf so above the mantle I have 3 more doors of storage. I look forward to changing out the decor on this mantle as much as I do the one above my actual fireplace.

The sides of the surround house my spices and flavorings and sprinkles for baking.

All my lower cupboards that I didn't take a photo of house pull outs...no more kneeling on the floor and reaching to the back of a shelf for me...it is my dream kitchen :)

What I love best about my kitchen is the warm, comfortable feeling it gives us. The mocha cork floors are so soft to stand on - they were purchased from Fragodt Floorcovering of Raymond, MN. I wanted warm cream for the cupboards and Heida's had the lacquer matched to the color "cashew" from Pratt & Lambert paints. I picked out a milk chocolate paint color for the backsplash to bring the browns out in the granite and requested the back of the display cabinet above the fridge to be stained choc brown as well. It was Brad's (Heida) idea to bring the brown stain up to the crown moulding instead of cream paint and what a great idea it was!

The tour is done...the remodeling is done...it's time to start cooking and posting on the kitchen blog and get out the camera and bring the birds and flowers back to this blog!