Hats Off...

If anything this October photo challenge I am embarking on will surely get me back to blogging on a regular schedule! While there most likely will not be a blog post everyday there will definitely be a prompted photo (or two or three, maybe ten) and I will post them as able. Today's prompt is Hats Off - and I took it literally and decided to take photos of my vintage hats and of course I couldn't take just one :)

Are you of my generation? I remember growing up when you didn't think of wearing anything to church but a dress, you had your Sunday best shoes, coat & dresses that were saved just for church. At Easter, you got a new summer dress (sewn by mom) and purchased white gloves and at Christmas, another new winter dress (again sewn) debuted at the SS Christmas program and Dad bought us Christmas corsages (not fresh floral, but shiny artificial ones with baubles and greenery). As girls we didn't wear hats but I remember mom pinning hers on every Sunday right before we left. By the 1970's the hats, gloves and corsages were gone and by the twenty-ten's we sometimes see jeans and shorts appearing in the pews. I still love hats even though I've never worn these in public but have pulled them out for garden tea parties.

If only I had an occasion to wear a magenta pink feathered velvet hat...big sigh...

or maybe the blue floral pill box...

or a soft white chiffon rosette number.

I think these next ones are the oldest ones I have - definitely a 1940's shape...

and then the pill boxes became popular, thanks to Jackie-O...

I think the royal blue one above and this black one - we could actually pull off wearing as a fascinator as the British do.

Some of the old labels are even kind of cool.

This last one I'm actually storing for Jayme, it is one of her Grandma Mary's hats & gloves found in the attic when the family cleaned out their home after Grandpa passed away. Very pretty and elegant in peach...

I have one more photo to share that has nothing to do with the prompt of the day but instead my favorite subject to take photos of...the grand girls!  They were so cute in their matching outfits!

Ready, Set, GO!

I love a good bargain and consider myself lucky to find these 2 matching Princess cars with new batteries on an online auction for less than the price of one replacement battery. Brooklyn spent a couple days at Grandpa & Grandma's house this week and really enjoyed driving them around, especially when her cousin, Bailey, came to visit.

I also want to thank everyone who responded to my online survey as well the phone calls & "in person" requests to keep the blog going. The results tallied as follows:
Should I continue blogging?
Yes, continue to come and share the garden of life and life in the garden: 43
Yes, but only share photography and not my family: 3

If I continue to blog would you like to see the blog expand into different directions?
Yes, please share all of your interests and pursuits (garden, crafts, recipes, decorating, traveling, photography, digital scrapbooking and of course family): 40
Yes, please combine your old food blog and continue to share recipes and table settings: 3
No, stay as is: 2

If I continue to blog how often would you like to see me blog?
I'll take what I can get - if you post it I will come: 38
Once a week: 3
Three times a week or more: 3

With those encouraging results from all of you,  I hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis and have been brainstorming some ideas on what I want to share.  I've been so busy this summer that other than taking photos of my family, I haven't hardly picked up a camera.  Crazy right?  Especially for a gal that took 100s of photos a week just of birds :)  To get me back into the photography/blogging mode I am going to participate in the October 365 Photo Challenge List.  I've already printed out the list of 31 prompts and look forward to seeing how I manage to interpret some of them especially number 18. Patient.

For today, I leave you with some more photos of the little princesses playing with their new cars at Grandma's house.

should I stay or should I go?

I hope anyone reading this is having a wonderful September! Please help me out by completing the survey at the end of this post.

wordless Wednesday...

one...

We just love this little princess so much and can't wait to celebrate with her today and at her big party on Saturday!

I'm back...

I'm back from a wonderful vacation with these two princesses...

and their parents. We had a wonderful time and met a beautiful baby boy for the first time...can you guess where we were? I'll be back with more photos and the location of our trip after I catch up a bit.

Lady slippers & other wildflowers...

I've lived out on the MN prairie my entire life, it's farm country and the only "woods" are the farmstead groves, so I was thrilled to spend our long holiday weekend camping in the northwoods of MN. An even bigger thrill was seeing all the pink lady slippers in bloom on our cycle rides. On Friday, we crossed the border into Canada at Baudette, MN and rode the backroads of Ontario up to Nestor Falls. One of the roads turned into gravel about 35 miles in so we had to slow our pace down and really enjoy the scenery and I was surprised to see such big bushes of wild roses as well as so many lady slippers.

I got a good start on conquering my fear of working in the garden and have a few of the pathways and other areas weeded. So much is blooming now that I would love to take photos but it has been a windy couple of days. I'll have to do a end of July garden tour (if I can get the weeds taken care of by then).

July cuties...

mosaic Monday...fireworks

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful long holiday weekend! We sure did and while I catch up in the office today, I thought I would share a few mosaics of the fireworks we attended on July 3rd.

We spent two of our 4 days of holiday time on the road traveling to Waskish, MN on Upper Red Lake. It was an almost 6 hour drive each way but the two days we spent cycling in the Chippewa National Forest and Canada were well worth the drive. More photos on that tomorrow.

Granddaughters and garden woes...

I can't believe a place I used to love to come to almost daily (this blog) has fallen to the wayside. Life just gets busy sometimes and that's the only excuse I have :) In the meantime here are a few mosaics of my beautiful granddaughters for my family and friends to see...

I was lucky to spend a few days up north with Brooklyn last week. We had a "girls" day on Thursday complete with a picnic at Leif Erickson park overlooking Lake Superior and a drive up to Two Harbors while she napped in her carseat and grandma enjoyed the views. Then we stopped to watch a big ship docking and finally had a few hours of fun at a big playground.

I am very thankful that little Miss Bailey lives locally and I get to see her several times a week. She has her own little playground and pool in her yard so it is fun to see her play there. She is now 11 months old and walking all over the place!

I haven't been out in the garden for weeks and I'm disappointed to say that it is the weediest it has been since I began gardening. My former joy in gardening has been taken over by fear of snakes. It seems I have an infestation of garter snakes this year and I know they cannot hurt me but that doesn't stop them from scaring the bejibbers out of me when I am suddenly startled by one! I can let out a good scream even when I am home alone and it takes a good 15 minutes for my heart rate to return to normal :)

WARNING TO ANYONE SCARED OF SNAKES A PHOTO IS NEXT!

I am seeing them in the pond as I assume they are eating fish eggs or baby fish since I haven't seen any live baby fish yet this year. I find them on rocks around the pond and especially around the big rock fountain. They crawl across paths I am walking on and the last straw was when one was in my fairy garden...Yikes, I'm crying Uncle. I've purchased every last container of a product called "Snake Away" from the shelves of a local farm store and I haven't spotted any for 3 days so maybe it is working! As part of my year of renewal I am going to try and overcome my irrational fear and put my "big girl pants" on next week and get back to the garden. I'm motivating myself to overcome my snake phobia with some of these quotes found on pinterest...

He said it more than once...

Let's hope I can get myself cured of definition 1 so that I can choose option 2 and start enjoying life in the garden again.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of this holiday week. We have fun things planned starting with a local fireworks show tonight already and then some days of cycle riding. I'll be back next week, hopefully showing off a weeded garden...wish me luck!

mosaic Monday...garden shots

I finally am seeing COLOR in the garden this week!  In these parts my peonies and lilacs usually bloom around Memorial Day and I am finally enjoying the sweet scent of lilacs in the garden this week.  The first of the garden peonies is in full bloom and I expect the others will soon follow suit as all are sporting huge buds.  The iris are also all blooming.

I planted this perennial poppy 2 years ago and this year was the first to have multiple blossoms. Such a striking color compared to the orange ones I grew up with.

Yarrow, loosestrife and blue flax add more color.

I had several clematis die after our long winter and the remaining ones (even group 2's) have had to regrow from the roots and not previous stems. Dianthus and roses add more pretty pinks to the backyard.

I added 2 coral peonies in the fall of 2011 and this year I have the first buds opening. Gorgeous!