I need your help!

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I remember hearing a quote, something about....
I would rather have fresh flowers in my home than diamonds around my neck.
Does anyone know that quote and who said it? I love that quote because that's so *me*! I love fresh flowers in my home and I would have them in every room if I could afford to. I cut flowers from my garden in the spring and summer but my garden does not provide me with enough. I need a huge cutting garden, like Martha Stewart or the Barefoot Contessa! I also love the quote that says something about...give me a small home with a large garden...anyone know that one? That's so *me* too!

I bought these flowers at Trader Joe's last Sunday and only two of the flowers have opened. I love long-lasting bouquets.

Do you Freecycle?

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Who says you can't get anything for FREE? Can you believe I got this ficus tree for free? I got it from Freecycle. If you are not aware of freecycle, it's a place where you can give things away that you no longer need. It was originally started to keep things out of the landfills. There are groups all over the U.S. and even outside the U.S. You sign up on their website and then you receive email with all the things people are giving away. I suggest you set up a separate email address because you get a ton of email with this, although if you live in a smaller town you probably won't. You can find out more and sign up at http://www.freecycle.org/ Then on the left you will see "groups in your local area"

So here's how I got the ficus tree about 2 years ago. I saw it on freecycle and I replied back to the person who posted it. Since there are so many people trying to get the good stuff it's a good idea to say more than "can I have that?" I told her I had just moved into my new place, that I'm a single mom and I have a big empty corner that I really wanted to get a ficus tree to fill in that area. I didn't hear back until the next day. She said she had about 30 people that wanted it and she didn't know what to do. She asked her mom how she should chose the right person. Her mom told her to pray about it and make a decision....and she chose me. The tree originally belonged to an elderly lady and when she moved she donated it to her church. She told me that the lady loved this tree and hated to leave it. It wasn't doing very well so they decided to give it to someone that could take better care of it. It looks a better than when I first got it so I think it's pretty happy in our home. I sometimes wish I knew that elderly lady so I could tell her how much I enjoy this tree.

(I should add that I didn't get the blue and white pot with it, I bought that but it was a great deal. I think it was originally around $100 and I got it for $30.)

Busy Weekend

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I made these two button wreaths about a week ago. They are made with the vintage buttons I bought on Ebay awhile back.

This weekend was so productive for me. Saturday I cleaned house and did laundry. My daughter and I also rearranged her bedroom. Sunday was the really productive day. Here's a list of what I did (I hope I didn't forget anything)

• Grocery shopping at 8:00 AM


• Came home and cleaned out the fridge


• Marinated chicken that I was going to cook for dinner but didn't because I was too busy. It's Indonesian chicken from the Barefoot Contessa's first cookbook. Recipe can be found here if you don't have the cookbook. If you love ginger and garlic, you'll love this recipe.


• Went to the hardware store to get paint, ran through the nursery section and found impatiens


• Went to Trader Joe's.


• Came home and planted impatiens (wow, I've never planted them this early in the year before, let's hope for the best)


• Repainted the nightstand I painted last weekend. Now it's the right color of white


• Painted a side table that I bought at 75% off on Friday. It was black and I painted it white


• Stripped the finish off 5 drawers on one of the pieces of my bedroom set. (the other piece has 9 drawers so this bedroom set paint job is going to take forever and I may have to take some of my vacation days if I want it done anytime soon)


• Painted a footstool and recovered the top


• Painted my thrift store birdcage white. I painted it with a brush. It would have been so much quicker to spray paint it but the weather did not cooperate and I lost patience.


• Vacuumed the whole house even though I vacuumed the day before.


• Took pictures of the button wreaths above


• Finished my day around 9:30 pm and went to bed at 10:00, whew...very tired!

Now that's my kind of a weekend!

Dried Peonies

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Peonies don't grow very well in California. At least that's what I've heard but I've never tried growing them myself. I found this website, Vermont Dried Peonies that sells beautiful dried peonies. The pictures above are from their website but click on the link above to see more. I think I'm going to order the top bunch to put in my bedroom that I'm redecorating.

Bunny Cake

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I found this bunny cake pan on the Williams-Sonoma website. Isn't he adorable. They just dusted him with powdered sugar and did a few easy decorations at the bottom, so easy but so cute! I may have to add this to my lists of "I wants".