A beautiful Hat.

A beautiful hat goes a long way towards making you feel like a Lady . . .

Tamara in the 'My Fair Lady' garden at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle.

Touring A Real Greenhouse.

While on my little adventure, my sister Tamara took me on a tour of one of their greenhouses.

I'm wondering if something like this would fit in the back yard . . . 

  How amazing would it be to get bags of cuttings in the mail!

 

 And have help from these lovely ladies . .

Or being able to put a few of these fantastic machines in the basement???

It was an amazing tour . . . Thanks Tam!

Stay tuned . . . This was only the tip of the iceberg, fantastic machine wise.

Big Dreams . . . Small Space

We live in a small house.

We have always lived in small houses.

I've dreamt of larger spaces most of our married life. Specifically old larger houses. If they are in the Old Glenora neighborhood all the better.

Now a small space isn't a bad thing, after all, it's so much less work to clean!  It just gets tricky when you are trying to fit five grown people, a biggish dog and Rosa's big dreams into such a small space.

Not only do I want to garden, cook, bake, diy, redecorate, take pictures and read as many books as I can get my hot little hands on, I also want to have my own business.

Most my what I love comes with stuff. . . and stuff needs a place to live, which is why the hallways in the basement are somewhat hazardous, my downstairs plant shelves are loaded with books and party supplies and the cold room has more craft supplies than it does canned food that needs to stay cold. . .

So, what's a girl to do when the time comes to start a few (cough, cough) plants for her upcoming plant sale? The downstairs shelves are not nearly enough. More space must be found for the larger shelves. . .

Where to put them, where to put them???

We have had them in our bedroom but that means the bed has to go against one wall and Henry has to crawl over me to get to bed at night. As I like to go to by by midnight and he seldom goes before two, it's not the ideal  solution.

And then there are the fungus gnats. . .

Henry vetoed that before I even finished asking . . .

If they went in the living room, the love seat would have to go, leaving room for only three people to sit.

 And where exactly would we store the love seat? The middle of the back yard would not be ideal as it is presently storing wood for the fire pit, out door chairs, empty plant pots and a host of other garden doodads.

Henry came up with the final solution.

 Because there is always a way!

Move some stuff around in the office/dining room, (everything does double duty in a small house) and get your very handy husband to work his magic. . .

Put the seed mats and first batch of seed in the living rooms . . .

Move the bulbs into the kitchen . . .

  Add the yellow sticky strips . . fungus gnats in the kitchen strain even my easygoing family's nerves . . .

turn on the little plant light and fill that counter with seedlings . .

Plant up the rooted cuttings you 'borrowed' while on a greenhouse tour at Tamara and the Big Guy's . .

I keep telling her that it's not "stealing" if I told her to pick some plugs. Why does she still look so guilty?! — with Rosa Veldkamp.

From Tamara's facebook page . . .

And snuck home in baggies stashed in your carry on . ..

A new gardening season has begun.

Dreams really can come true!

Under Construction!

From the flower show . . . because I thought it was pretty! :D

Well, the picture doesn't have a thing to do with this post but . . . I like pictures with my posts, so I put it in anyways!

If you are here you can see that there have been significant changes.

We are under construction!

There may be a few glitches and things might look a bit wonky but we hope to have everything running smoothly in the next few days.I wouldn't try to subscribe or follow until everything is straightened out though. If you were a follower you may have to re-follow once we are done.

Thank you for your patience!

Cancer Changes The Way You Think . . . About Everything.

Cancer really does change the way you think. The way you see the world and your role in it.

At least, it has for me.

I'm no longer willing to let the little things drive me crazy . . . most of the time. (Ahem. shockingly, I'm still not perfect . .)

I no longer assume that kissing my husband, hugging my kids or telling someone I love them, can wait until tomorrow.

Letting fear dictate what I will or will not try seems incredibly foolish now. It doesn't mean I'm never afraid, I often am. I'm just not willing to let that stop my from trying . . . anything.

There are so many things I want to see, learn and do.

I may not like them, or even be particularly good at them. But that's not going to keep me from trying. Not anymore.

I've got a sale coming up in April that my sister-in-law Leona and I are hosting along with a friend . I'm having a great time coming up with new products to sell. Will people buy them? I'm pretty sure they will.

There's no guarantee though . . . but, I'm willing to risk it.

I'm having a plant sale in May regardless of the uncertainties. If I can't keep up with all that's needed for a fabulous plant sale??? I'll have a smaller plant sale . . . or call in friends and family to help.

I'm still taking my camera everywhere. I have so much to learn it boggles the mind. I might never do much more than take 'nice' pictures . . . but I'm willing to do the very best I can regardless.

The home I keep for my loved ones has become more precious. The food I cook more worthwhile.

The garden an expression of God's majesty. My way of showing the world around me the beauty of His creation.

I've always loved to write. To tell stories. But I didn't go to university. I don't have a degree in English  My grasp of the proper use of punctuation is tenuous at best. (Something you already know if your a regular reader . . .) Spell check is my dearest friend.

Writing and letting people know where I write or what I write is scary.

 Very scary.

The time has come to push past scary.

To change. To take blogging and maybe even story writing, seriously.

That means writing and telling people about my writing. Visiting and talking to other writers. (Scary stuff  for an introvert people!)

My first step?

Something big.

I'm revamping the blog. Updating the look and . . . and  . . .

Giving it a new name!

When I started blogging five years ago it was to challenge myself to write something everyday for a year. I was a gardener. I wasn't quite middle aged.

Diary of a middle aged gardener.

It was cute.

A few months ago my cousin Faith sent me a card in which she mentioned that her family knew me as the middle aged gardener. It gave me quite a shock.

I am a middle aged gardener!

Somehow it's not so cute anymore . . .

I began tossing out ideas for new names. Most of them ridiculous.

Then Holly came up with' A life of Whimsey'. Because, she said, it made her think of me.

Hmmmm. . .

Google the definition of whimsey . . .    A quaint or fanciful quality. Yes, that sounds about right. Why else would I decide to use the alternate spelling of whimsy? Spell check is not my friend in this case!

As we speak, I have a lovely designer working madly on a new look for my blog. The hope is to have it in place before next Thursday.

Because that's the next part of the plan. The super scary, don't forget your inhaler part of the plan . . .

I'm going to a three day blog conference. By myself! To talk to strangers. Alone. . . .

Thankfully, the one thing I have learned over these past months is that I am never alone.

Philippians 4:13

New International Version (NIV)

¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

In honor of all this change I felt it was time to update my picture. After all, the one on my sidebar was five years old and I would hate to be accused of false advertising!

Holly was my makeup artist, hairdresser and stylist. We had a plan. We headed to the dog park with Jada and a camera.

Jada stayed in the truck while Holly grabbed the camera and I headed for the nearest tree.

Now what?

"Do something mom!"

"Don't put your hand on the tree for every shot!"

We didn't have a plan . . .

But eventually, after many, many pictures . . .

We got a few good ones.

Don't you love my facinator? Holly bought it for me after my first surgery.

I'm so excited about the new look and the new name.

A Life of Whimsey. filled with homekeeping, gardening, photography and adventure.

I hope you all like it as much as I do.