A Crown For My King!

 Like most Americans, we celebrated father's day today.  Since I am married to a man who is one of the most amazing fathers I know, I thought he should have a crown, and spent the afternoon making one to honor him.

 His crown includes many of the things he loves .... camping and fishing pictures, and sheet music to celebrate his love of singing and playing the trombone ... the dapper man in the top hat reminds me of men singing barbershop quartet style, which he did for years ...  I couldn't find pictures of antique running shoes ..., but the picture of the man with his kids definitely feels like the kind of father he is.

Thanks to Graphics Fairy for the great pictures!

 See what a good sport he is?  He even wore it for the whole evening!

 Here he is shown with many of his children, their spouses and his grandchildren, who gathered to honor this wonderful man in his role of father!

I am just grateful that he is also the man that asked me to be his wife!

Patriotic Pennants

 I am a little behind hand with my summer décor.  I did a photo shoot of patriotic items I was selling for an online boutique group I belong to this week, and had to take the spring wreath off my front door to do it ... ooopps

So its time to dig in.  I think an important part of celebrating our freedom, is to celebrate those we love who helped make it possible.  The picture to the right is my husband's grandfather, Milton.

 

Yep, todays project is another banner.  This one is patriotic, and has pennants for each of the men closest to me, who served in the military.

 I also made up a couple of faux 'family member serving in the military' flags.

 

I even embellished a couple of antique post cards that I found on Graphics Fairy that had patriotic themes.  I added glitter, trims, patterned papers, ribbon, stickers, wood letters, and vintage pins on each of the service men's pennants.

 The other two family members I included on the banner are my father, shown here to the right...

 and my husband, who served in the National Guard during the early years of our marriage.

Thanks for coming along and seeing another of my funky banner crafts ...  I went to another historic home tour today, and one of the homes had several banners in the décor, lets just say I had that 'kindred spirit' kind of feeling come over me suddenly.

Garden Touring.

 Here is my promised post on the highlights of the garden tours I did last week.  This garden is at the house where I hosted for four hours with my friend Ginny, who is a Master Gardner!

 

Thought this tree was amazing.

 The home owner who does the landscaping all on her own, had this awesome stone 'wall' along one side of her property, with lots of fun flowers and interesting ground covers.

 I liked the idea of floating roses in her birdbaths.

 

The plant in the middle is just a perennial geranium ... love the foliage.

 The next home had this bench, which I thought was interesting ... it says "For April who loves this garden from Alan who loves sitting beside her." And their anniversary date.

 

She also had a barnwood bird house with the origin of the wood engraved on a plaque.  Being a scrapbooker, I thought it was charming.

 How fun is this boxwood hedge 'basket' with an ivy handle.  I would love to see flowers planted inside.

 I was charming by her back patio, all set to entertain.

 The first two homes were large and relatively new.  This home was older and felt more organic and  established.  I loved it.

 It also had a potager ... or kitchen garden.  Seeing a bell jar used for it original purpose here was a first for me.

 The next house was very unusual, build on the edge of a ravine, on what was originally a tree farm, it was amazing.  The house was built of logs, from the tree farm, some 30 years ago.

 The owners had built this garden shed as a old mill, compete with a waterwheel, in the midst of a large pond.

 Thought this garden wall was a beauty.  Built of cinder block behind, and faced with stone, there is a long trough in the top between the two, in which ground cover is planted.

 This is the last garden I am sharing.  It was behind a huge modern house, with a pool, and all the amenities, but it also had this potager that I enjoyed...

 ... and I thought that the wonderful miniature, decorative hens wandering the yard added charm as well!

I visited another 3 or 4 gardens, one fitted with trains that ran through villages with miniature plantings, and another with a 8 story fountain in the middle, but I have shared my favorite features of the gardens I liked best.

 

And a special thanks to Ginny, who shared not only her free tickets, but her gardening knowledge as well.  Oh, and if you were wondering, she is taking a picture of a plant she is going to look up.

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour.