A Fresh Start

Changes. 2013 will be about a fresh start and change! I closed my shop last year, which was a major event in my life. I loved my shop, but it was the original money pit! The rest of 2012 bloomed full of surprises. In August, a seventeen-year-old foreign exchange student from Italy came to live with me. I've never been a 'mom' before, so this is an engaging challenge. She is teaching me patience and I am trying to teach her to plan ahead. Her favoirte answer to my question, what are you doing tonight? today? tomorrow? is i.d.k or I don't know! She will be with me through June.

The sunflower seems a great symbol since I dream of going to Tuscany. One of my favorite books and movies was Under The Tuscan Sun. Perhaps I am one step closer! I just need to find a dog sitter for my six dogs at home. 

My  blog format for Barb's Botanical Garden has changed. I wanted a new look to inspire me to post, just as I hope for a new look in my yard this spring! The old white picket fence with it's huge sunflower to the side has been replaced with an avatar for me! But perhaps I am older and a bit heavier, still, I love the image above.

I am not a great gardener, but I do plant seeds of ideas and find myself in trouble a good bit of time trying to make my plans grow...in life rather than in the dirt.  I plan to keep a journal here of my love for all things garden related and then some!

Pansies For Thought

Purchased today at a local antique mall, an early, primitive style pansy painting.

Today a trip out for lunch and a dash through a local antique mall added a new painting to my already overwhelming collection of vintage and Victorian flower oils.  I seem to be on  a shopping spree this month, but the treasures I've found can't be left behind.

I love the folklore behind old fashioned flower names. My antique garden book collection contains several copies of The Language of Flowers.

Pansies mean 'to think', particularly of love. The flower's name comes from the French word pensee, which means thought. The French believed that a pansy would make your lover think of you.

My new painting brought back many thoughts, as I remembered the days I sold vintage art on Ebay. It was a lovely time. Ebay was just starting out and the excitement of finding treasures from the comfort of your home, kept me in trouble most days. Boxes, upon boxes, were delivered to my house, each filled with a wonderful old painting with a flower or garden theme. I bought more than I sold, but the selling was good too.

My husband was alive then, and thought I'd lost my mind, with all my purchases, and the walls of our house full of nail holes covered by paintings. It always took at least three tries with a hammer to get a painting positioned the way I like. He told me once there was nothing more terrifying than watching me walk around a room with a hammer.

My new painting is on a round wood box top. The background is a soft robins egg blue, the color of an early morning sky in spring. The simple flowers, so gently painted, remind me of a time when I was more naive, my home complete, before my life changed. The delicate pansy faces made me smile, as I thought about the man who captured my heart so many years ago.

A Victorian Postcard full of Pansies reads Think of Me.

Life, like a garden, is constantly in flux. Today my garden is full of memories, tomorrow I might just fill it with pansies!

Dreaming At The Garden Table




An Outdoor Garden Dining Table Is A Great Place To Dream

A quick trip to meet a friend for coffee turned into an afternoon of redecorating my dining room. My friend, an antique dealer, had a truck full of treasures she had just picked up. I couldn't miss it as I pulled into the parking lot at The Waffle House. Garden green metal chair legs caught my attention, even before I saw her waving to me from the door way.

"Come on. I need coffee!" She yelled across the parking lot.

"I think I see something here I need more!"

I was already standing on my toes, peeking in on an amazing garden table and chairs. My own dining room table was a great old farm table, but not the right height to eat at. A new table was on my mind, but I was not looking just yet.

And then......there it was. The perfect set for me. We had coffee and drove to my house. On a dreary day, a bit of summer shined down on me . The garden table fit perfectly into my dining room and it is a place I sit and dream of my garden this spring.

My house is my indoor garden. Old lovely cement ladies and frogs fill nooks and sit on table tops. Oil paintings of gardens, Victorian roses, and women with bouquets leave very little white space on my walls. This charming set was the perfect addition.

I spend many hours looking at garden photos, old gardening books. I wonder if this will be the year I bloom outdoors. My yard is full, three outbuildings, a huge deck, the Lady of Lilburn life size vintage cement muse sits tucked next to a lattice trellis that blooms with jasmine when the season changes. Yet I rarely plant flowers and my front yard is neglected. The established beds bloom out of control with butterfly bushes that reach so high they mingle with the brances of the crepe myrtle tree, but it is not as lovely as I'd like.

I want to journal here as I plan my work in the yard. There is a good chance, however, the writer in me will write more than I plant, and my antique dealer side will still shop for more garden treasures. The artist in me wants to paint garden scenes more than dig in the dirt. The dreamer in my heart sees a garden full of the cottage flowers I love and herbs that leave a fragrent scent as I brush pass them going down my gravel path to the little cottage out back.

For now I'll share my dining room. We'll see what blooms in time.

  

Thinking Roses In December

I've always loved roses! Roses on my walls in vintage paintings, roses on vintage fabrics, and of course, old seed catalog pages showing roses for the garden. I rarely grow roses, my green thumb does not exist. I rarely grown anything for that matter. Lucky for me, my garden is full of established beds that take care of themselves, year after year.

I came across some great old seed catalog covers to share with you. While I am anxiously waiting for Christmas, my mind wandered to spring. Perhaps my garden will bloom this year...the words 'master gardener' are now part of my garden fantasy.

Part of my fantasy is this wonderful cottage with a little garden shed in the back. Now, this is the stuff dreams are made of!

I could live here!

A perfect garden shed!

Victorian seed catalogs to spend hours dreaming of a cottage rose garden!





Photos from the web.

Cheryl Alexander's Christmas Booth At Davis Street Antiques, Monroe,Ga

 

Christmas Open House, Davis Street Antiques, Monroe, Ga. Sat. Nov. 17, 2012

My good friend and antique dealer, Cheryl Alexander, has set up her Christmas booth at Davis Street Antiques in Monroe, Georgia. It is a heavenly inspiration to kick start my holiday decorating!

Be sure to visit the Davis Street Antiques holiday open house on Saturday, Nov 17, from  10am to 6pm for a fun time! The shop is located at 216 Davis Street in Monroe, Ga. For information call 678-635-8949.

 

 

 

 

Cheryl Alexander's Booth At Davis Street Antiques Offers A Romantic Farmhouse Look

Cheryl Alexander's booth at Davis Street Antiques in Monroe, Georgia, is breathtaking! Sharing some of the photos I took yesterday at the shop. I also have a booth at Davis Street Antiques and love the atmosphere of Monroe. Monroe is an antique mecca and worth a day trip or longer afternoon to take in all the antique malls, many in the old cotton mills.

Sorry to say, that fab picnic table sold the minute it was unloaded yesterday. But there are more treasures to see. Cheryl goes on regular buying trips and her booth is always full of eye candy!

Blue Hydrangea

I love blue Hydrangea's. These photos from a friend's yard.