Summer Gardens

The garden tour thing is going on in my city. This year you can just wander around people's yards (those that have a garden tour sign) at will, which is fun. Some friends of my mother have the most amazing garden. They fill up their front yard with vegetables and flowers and the backyard is almost completely full plus paths and numerous seating areas.

 

We went by the other day and my favorite thing is that they've put up numerous large mirrors on the back fence. You don't notice the mirrors until you're right up close to them. Just glancing through the yarn they extend the garden so perfectly and make the tall back fence more appealing. They also keep the compost pile and other utilitarian things tucked inside the garden where they're accessible but half hidden among other plants.

 

It is really my idea of a perfect garden and makes me think of childhood. We always had a big garden with lots of vegetables, and while it wasn't so organized and prettily laid out, it was quite full. Plus we were always being dragged to various country greenhouses when I was a kid so most nice gardens remind me of those places as well.

new projects

Well I decided to leave the Horsefeathers quote without the yellow filling in the center of the flowers. It just ended up looking odd. So that project is all done and I'll be moving on to something new.

My next big thing is a large cross-stitch project around a quote from the TV show Black Books (one of my favorites ever). The quote being "Don't make me get sick into my own scorn," which I've framed with a nice vintage border. I had to alter things a bit to make them symmetrical, but I that's par for the course.

The border and font are both from vintage patterns found on this website, which is about the best resource ever! The layout is a bit confusing because that square chart with the numbered links always stays at the top of the page, but you just have to scroll down to see the patterns. It's fun to explore even if you're not interested in stitching such things. So that's what I love this Thursday!

I also love Miyazaki movies and I'm trying to make a set of cross-stitch patterns around some of his characters and themes. Should be a challenge!

Things I love Thursday

Technically it's Friday now but I fell asleep for most of the day.

Tea cups. I adore tea cups and collect them. Not full sets, just individual lovely tea cups. My mom just got me a new one today, in order of us putting up a third shelf for my tea things. The picture is my new tea cup!

Carl Barks. Fantagraphics is publishing the Carl Barks library in installments (or at least what he wrote for Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge). The first one comes out in October and I'm actually thinking of pre-ordering it, something I never do. I can't wait though. I grew up with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, mostly the ones by Barks and Don Rosa. When Rosa's "Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge" came out my dad and I would go to the grocery store every month and buy the new issue in the series and then read it aloud together. It's one of my favorite memories.