Friendship

Don't you love the quote above? That saying was true today, when my blogging friend Rhondi visited my home. Rhondi lives a couple of hours from me and until today we had never met in person. We became friends when we met in blogland. Rhondi's blog is called Rose Colored Glasses.


Here we are! Mr. Comforts of Home took our picture standing in my dining room. We had been planning a meeting for almost a year now. When Rhondi arrived she handed me a gift bag filled with the most wonderful things!





She knew that I had started a collection of vintage gardening books in the colors blue, green, yellow and red and she found this one! Look at the great detail on the spine!

Rhondi also knew that I was adding a little more blue into my decorating and this sweet Mary Engelbreit book fits the bill!

And....look at this wonderful yellow rooster trivet! It is just perfect for my kitchen!

After visiting at my house for a while, we headed downtown Hendersonville for lunch and a little shopping. We were so busy talking we forgot to take pictures at lunch! I remembered after we were in one of the little shops and took a couple of pictures. This wall was filled with rooster items.

I had to take a picture of this cute purse. Click on the picture to enlarge for details

We walked through some antique stores and some thrift stores, talking away. Rhondi was exactly like I thought she would be. Sweet, funny, interesting and genuine. I felt like I had known her forever.

Rhondi, thank you for driving all this way to come visit me. And thank you again for the very thoughful gifts! I am looking forward to the next time we can get together.

Welcome Home,

Penny

Meeting A Blog Friend Today!

I am meeting a blog friend today! Someone I have not met in person. We have talked on the phone, emailed and blogged for the past couple of years. I am so excited. She is coming here to my home. Then we will go out to lunch and shop a little. I will tell you all about it tomorrow!

Speaking of friends. I was working in my studio the other day and looked out on my front deck. Here was Mr/Ms White Squirrel looking in at me! Isn't he/she the cutest thing?

Welcome Home,

Penny

Project Update

Remember this silverware chest I posted about a couple of days ago?


Here it is after painting three coats of Apple a Day Red on it. This color is the same color as the red hutch in my dining room. This is just the base coat. Still lots more work to be done....

Welcome Home,

Penny

Toile Party!!

There is a toile party going on in blog land! Hosted by Pretty Organized Palace! I love TOILE don't you? I didn't know about the party until this morning so, these pictures were taken in a hurry, without great sun light...Here is just a little bit of the toile in my home...

I made this pretty lampshade and it sits in my studio on my desk.

In the background in the picture below you can see the toile curtains in my dining room.


Below is the eat-in area of my kitchen....

I made these shades and they are on a chandelier in my eat-in kitchen.

I even have a toile ironing board cover!

My master bedroom is toile, tole and checks!

Toile background inside my kitchen hutch.

Lavender toile in the guest room

And finally a toile shower curtain in the guest bath.

To see more toile visit Pretty Organized Palace for all of the other participants!

Welcome Home,

Penny

What I Did Over The Weekend

It was a wonderful weekend in our mountains. The weather was cool...in the 60's. I bought some pansies to plant in the planters on my front deck. These will survive the cooler weather and when May comes along they will be replaced with some summer flowers. Ms. Bunny is my favorite planter....

I have a pair of these lion urns on either side of our door. Can you see the bird doormat in the background? (you can click on the pictures to enlarge for detail) I love that!

And Sunday afternoon, I sat down with a cup of tea and went through all of these magazines for the 12th time. See the one on top? I bought that one while I was in Italy a year ago this month! I ripped out pages in some to add to my inspiration board and the rest I will take to the library for their donation table.

So, what did you do this weekend?
Welcome Home.
Penny

A Before....

Before the holiday this past year, I bought a set of beautiful vintage silver plate silverware. It came in this really abused chest. The chest is very sturdy and has great lines, but it definitely needs some work.


The stained finish is all scratched and flaking off. There are gouges in the wood. I thought about covering the top in mosaics, but decided against that. So I am painting it. I am going to try to do a decorative finish on it too.

So far I have the first coat of paint on. Hopefully I will have it done in a few days. Wish me luck....

My new post at Home Goods is up. We are participating in an Ultimate Blog party. Come visit, take time to leave a comment then click on the link for the party and visit the host site, where you can register for great giveaways. You will find the link on my Home Goods post....don't forget to leave me a comment there too :-).

Welcome Home,

Penny

Butterflies

Some of you who have been reading my blogs for a while, especially my Lavender Hill Studio blog, know that I place a butterfly on every one of my mosaic pieces. In the bottom two wings on the butterfly are my initials. You can see one in the picture below.

Why a butterfly? Well, my Mom absolutely loved butterflies. She loved real ones and she loved decorative ones. My Mom passed away a few years ago. And every time I see a butterfly, I think of her. So I place a butterfly on all of my mosaic pieces in memory of my Mom.

Beverly, from How Sweet The Sound posted this picture below of a beautiful butterfly box a few months ago. She had mentioned that her husband picked it up at Biltmore Estates for her. I left a comment on her post about my Mom and butterflies and said I would love a butterfly box, like this one. I live close to Biltmore and I was going to look for one the next time I was there.

I received an email from Beverly last week, telling me there was a little package coming in the mail for me. When I opened it, I couldn't believe what I saw! Look at this beautiful butterfly box!


It is stunning! And the wings lift up to reveal a space to place something special. I have two of my Mom's rings and they will be placed in this beautiful butterfly box. I know my Mom is smiling down on Beverly right now!

Beverly, I want to thank you again for this beautiful gift. I am so grateful that I have gotten to know you. You thoughtfulness means the world to me.
Welcome Home,

Penny

Playing In The Dirt

It was such a beautiful day here in the mountains of NC! I spent some time outside gardening. Here is one of our raised beds. Do you see that it is filled with weeds?

While I was gardening Woody Woodpecker decided to stop by for a visit. Click on the picture to enlarge for detail. He is huge - at least 20 inches long.

After weeding, I had to add some soil to the raised beds. The dirt had settled over the winter. Boy are these bags heavy!!

Today, I am planting the cool weather veggies. Peas, lettuce, radishes, broccoli and beets. The first week of May, I will plant green beans, tomatoes and maybe some cukes.

After finished planting my seeds, I wandered around my garden and found some Hyacinths blooming.

And some pretty daffodils.

Has spring arrived at your home yet?

Welcome Home,

Penny

A New Friend

I met a new blog friend recently and I would like to introduce her to you. Her name is Andrea and she has a lovely blog called Opulent Cottage. Don't you just love that name? The picture below is from one of her recent posts.






Andrea also makes jewelry and sells them in her ETSY shop. You can find the link to her ETSY shop on her blog. If you have some time today, head on over and visit Andrea. Just click on her name. Tell her Penny sent you!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Cheap Chic!

Look what I found! See this sweet little white bird? I have put this one under one of my cloches next to the moss filled lions head bowl.


I actually found a whole flock of these sweet birds. I found them at a locally owned home decor store called Dream Weavers. They had a few more and I am thinking about going back to get them. I can also use them on my birdhouses when I mosaic

Enlarge the picture and you can see the price tags....85 cents. REALLY! Speaking of cheap chic....check out my post on Home Goods this week. I found some other great CHEAP chic items to glam up my home.
Welcome Home,
Penny

My Adopted Blog Dog

I have mentioned my adopted blog dog, Cricket before. So many of you have sweet dogs and I have so much fun looking at their pictures on your posts.

We don't have a dog right now. We are thinking seriously about getting one (I mentioned that a while back on a post). But we do have our neighbors dog, Cricket. She is a long haired Chihuahua.

Cricket visits us every day for a dog treat. She comes to our door and barks, until we open it and let her in. She knows the cupboard the dog treats are in and she runs there and waits until we give her one.

Cricket does not like having her picture taken. When I try, she usually puts her ears down and crawls away. I was outside snapping pictures the other day and she came to visit. While she was busy "guarding" me, I quickly snapped this picture.

Some day, I will have a dog of my own, but until then, I have Cricket.

Welcome Home,

Penny

To Give and To Receive

Remember the giveaway I had a couple of weeks ago for the Mosaic Heart Wall Peg? Cindy from My Romantic Home won it. Well, I forgot to take a picture of it before I mailed it to her, so please go on over to Cindy's blog and take a look at it. She placed it in a really fun place in her beautiful home!

Now on to the receiving part of this post. I was fortune enough to win a giveaway myself!

Gabrielle from Home...be inspired everyday, had a giveaway a few weeks ago. She asked us to guess her favorite store. The winner would receive a gift from that store. Well, I guessed Anthropology and I was right!
Look what Gabrielle sent me! I love this apron so much! The colors are perfect, reds, yellows and blues. See the larger apple? That is a pocket! Too cute!! Thanks Gabrielle. I really do love it!
Welcome Home,
Penny

Hurry Spring!

I know technically Spring is a few more days away.....

Hurry Spring!

Welcome Home,

Penny

A New Look For Spring

A Fresh New Look For Spring!

I was lucky enough to receive a BLOG MAKEOVER from Nancy at Southern Lady . The talented blogger that did my makeover was Tara from Blog Makeovers by Tara . Tara was so wonderful to work with! She instantly understood what I (a computer and html novice) wanted. Thank you Tara, for all of your patience and hard work.

If anyone is thinking about getting a professional blog makeover, I recommend Tara!
Welcome Home,
Penny

Peak A Boo

We have one male and two female cardinals that visit our feeder. The male is very skittish. I have tried to capture a picture of him at the feeder from both inside and outside our house. Whenever I go near the window inside or peak around the corner outside, he takes off.

See the bright red patch in the holly tree above? (Click on the pictures to enlarge)That is Mr. Cardinal.

Here is Mr Cardinal in some bare branches. I took both of these pictures from inside our house, through the kitchen window, standing on a chair! Now, these might not be the best pictures of a cardinal, but I have been trying for a year to get his picture!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Sunshine Came Softly Through My Window

I bought these beautiful tulips about a week ago. They were tight buds when I purchased them. I was so surprised to see how lacy they were when they opened!

The have a beautiful scent too! Almost like a rose.
Does anyone know what type of tulip this is? You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

I hope the sun is shining softly through your window today too.

Welcome Home,

Penny

In Like A Lion

I know a lot of you mid west and northern bloggers are really tired of snow. But here in NC, in the area I live, we get very little snow. Yesterday was the exception. It started snowing about 11AM and snowed for 12 hours. We ended up with about 8 inches of snow. When I woke up this morning it was to a winter wonderland. I put on my boots (garden - I don't have winter boots) and heading out to take a few pictures. Please click on them to enlarge and see all of the beauty.

A walking path at the end of my driveway.
The view from my front courtyard.


A lacy tree at the side of my driveway.



My driveway.

A sweet birdhouse and sign made by Donna of Donna's Art.

A little bird at the feeder.
A dragonfly sculpture in my courtyard.

The entrance to my courtyard on the way to my front door.

Welcome Home,

Penny