A Garden Trail | May 3, 2014

May 3, 2014

I went to visit with my aunt out of town to deliver her the Mothers Day box I made up of Bath and Body Works goodies that I had shared on a previous blog.  My intention was that of a quick visit because there were other chores to be done.  That is not what ended up happening.

She was busy with my uncle cleaning a light fixture when we arrived but that was okay with me because my attention was diverted with what was going on in her side yard.  I stopped briefly what I was doing to give her the cello wrapped box which she loved.  She thought at first I had picked up a premade gift....mentioning to me as she unwrapped it that she wanted to go to Bath and Body Works because she saw online they had a light up rose wallflower.  I smiled and told her I knew that and in a moment, so would she.  The gift made her day beyond words and the card brought her to tears. This aunt is my mothers only sister and the only surviving member of that side of the family now.  We were close my entire life and she's always treated me as a daughter so it made my heart smile to give her something just because I was reminded of her as soon as I saw the rose.

Gifts being done, I went back to what I was doing....photographing the birds out her kitchen window. 

She has feeders all over her yard and the ones just out the kitchen window usually draw your typical birds for her area.   I get a few different kinds to my feeders occasionally and it was that discussion that was going on with Lou and my uncle as they were looking through the bird almanac in the living room. As I was mesmerized with the swarm of yellow goldfinches feeding on the black oiled sunflower seeds they were talking about a Grossbeak bird. My uncle said he has never got to see that bird there.

 I saw one at my feeder once.  A pair of them....the day my girlfriend died from lung cancer.  I was devastated, and as almost a distraction to my pain, this bird with a red patch on its breast that reminded me of a heart shape, came to my feeder the entire day....and then left when Lou got home.

And as if the fates heard the conversation, a Grossbeak bird appeared at the feeder.  We were all shocked and I was yelling for the two of them to come and look.  I clicked the shutter in disbelief trying to make the camera as steady as I could in shaking hands, trying to get at least one picture worthy of this pretty bird.

I looked at my uncle and said...okay, did you ever see a bluebird?  And he asked did I mean the one that looks like a blue robin?  I said yes and he replied no, not yet.  I continued to click the shutter and try not to let the birds see us moving around and I kid you not....a blue bird appeared in the neighbors tree and came down to the feeder.

At this point we are all standing there with our mouths open...looking at one another....and then back at the feeder. I said, "Quick, someone start talking about winning the lottery!"

It looked as if a Indigo Bunting got the message that there was a buffet at my aunts house an he, too, wanted to join the party.

I stopping shooting long enough to check the pictures and saw that because I was shooting through the glass using the zoom to get up close pictures that it made them not crystal clear as I would have liked.  But that in no way diminished the beauty of these creatures.

So we opened the window....and of course, scared the birds. 

My aunt invited us to stay for a belated brunch and she proceeded to begin cooking not wanting any help, letting me resume shooting the birds who did come back.  All except for the blue bunting.
I shot over 300 pictures and I am still going through each taking in everything I may have missed in my excitement.

Like a page from a Marjolean Bastin book, my Saturday was one filled with beauty and peace.  My gift...

Here are some of the photos:

Male Cardinal






Cardinal and Male Goldfinch


Male  Goldfinch and Grossbeak




Female Goldfinch


Goldfinches and Redheaded Finches


Male Goldfinch






(bird flying away is a Titmouse)


Indigo Bunting



I will add more photos to my FaceBook Page photo album

Bath & Body Works | Semi Annual Sale | June 9th 2014

I Dig Gardening | A Fairy Garden

May 5, 2014

(photo credit: qvc on facebook)

 

 

I saw floating around on Facebook this week a picture of what was called a Fairy Garden, and in seeing that I thought...I could try that too.

It has often been said that you should leave a special part of your garden alone, reserved as a space where fairies may play.  Okay, I didn't come up with it....I just thought it was a bunch of lazy people trying to explain why one part of their gardens didn't look tended to. Personally I like that thought of fairies playing among my flowers at night.  All I ask is that they clean up after themselves, and stay away from the lawnmower when in use.  Cleaning bugs off of a car is hard enough, I don't even want to think about cleaning fairy off of the lawnmower.

Are you smiling yet?

Okay, so.....the picture shows a large clay pot.  I thought I had one of those around here somewhere, but on a quick look I don't see it so I grabbed a used smaller size but still perfect enough. And I bet you can use a large plastic flower pot as well.

I don't yet have my hens and chicks or my ferns and moss. I will get to the garden center this week to begin the assembly of it then but I wanted to see if I could get the pot taken care of first.  Oh, I did stop at Michaels Craft store and they have cute wooden houses on either jute or cord for a dollar should you want your fairy to have a house.

Now back to the pot.

I grabbed a used clay pot I had already.  You can buy new to try this, I just wanted something to play around with first as I figured out how I am going to do my garden.  I would hate to spend a lot of money on a new pot and smash it.

In the picture, it looked like someone cut it out with a Dremel hand saw or something.  I do have one of those but I wanted something more natural looking so I decided to control break my pot.

Before you start I suggest these few things:

• safety goggles or glasses- no need to risk getting something in your eyes
• a cheap white mask.  if your cutting this pot, it gets dusty and who knows what's in the clay so why breathe that in
• duct tape - to control the break
• pliers  --don't tell my husband I used his craftsman good pliers ;)
• a solid place to work
• a hammer

1.

I laid the pot on my husbands basement work bench

2.

I took some black duct tape in long strips and tore them in half lengthwise and lined the inside and around to the outside down to the bottom of the pot.

3.

I wasn't sure just how big an opening I wanted as I wanted it to look natural. I began by GENTLY tapping the pot at the top between the tape with a hammer.  I know your reading this thinking how can I hit that pot without smashing it?  You don't really know...I gently tapped it and you can see I got a nice straight crack down the center.  I was tapping it to weaken it...not Smash it.  And yes, cutting it with a tool can be done too....but this is how I did it.

4.

 

I used the pliers to chip small pieces away. The tape really helped it not break past where I wanted it to.

5.

I worked my way down the pot...turning it and looking at it to see how I wanted the opening to look, and then chip a bit more.  Remember, you don't want to go too far down to the bottom because you need to add dirt there to start the first layer.  And flat clay trays or broken clay pot pieces will be added throughout to give that layered look.

6.

I pulled the tape back when I was done to check if it was enough....and then carefully removed the rest of the duct tape.

7.

And here is how it looks.  I love that raw look to the edge making it seem time worn.  I will be sure to pick out the plants for the pot in the appropriate size to the pot. This pot measures 8" tall with an 8.5" diameter opening at the top. Depending on the size of the pot, the house also needs to be in proportion and in looking at these Michaels houses I got they may be too big for this sized pot.  But I do have Christmas village houses with an English look to them that may work too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Houses measure 5" tall.

However you lay your pot out, this is meant to be a whimsical, fun  project so no way is wrong.  As soon as I gather my greens I will update this blog in how I layered everything together step by step.  I hope that you try making a fairy garden as well and I look forward to seeing your photos on my Facebook page.

Bath & Body Works | Mothers Day Candle set

May 2, 2014

 

For sometime now, I have known when the VIP tote was coming and when the Mothers Day candle was also coming out.  And with every visit to my store, I was hopeful that they would sneak out earlier.  So when the VIP tote came online at Easter, I grabbed it.  And Wednesday when the Mothers Day candle showed up online as well with the pedestal as a free item with NO purchase necessary I made sure I got two....one for me and one for a gift.

 

Yesterday when I went into the store to grab some 2/$22 candles to also put in the gift boxes, the sales associate reminded me again that Friday is the day for the Pedestal set.  So I held off getting my candles. 

 

In todays email, I was lucky enough to get a different deal of the day from everyone else.  Mine was still the 2/$22 candles but it was also for Triple Moisture Cream for only $3.00.

 

A great price for sure, and that and a little something else in a gift bag is a perfect I am thinking of you today gift...so I planned on getting a few.

 

I called my store asking if the MD set was out and when the SA checked, she came back and told me that because the store was doing the TMC deal today, they pushed back the MD set until tomorrow, Saturday.

 

Having something like this on a Saturday made more sense to me because I never understood why this would be a Friday sale item.  I was still getting over being able to get the set for $15.00 nothing else required online.....as I think a lot of people were happy and surprised at that.

 

I asked the SA was the TMC sale happening and she said yes and I told her I would see her later.

 

When I went to the store the same SA was there filling in as there were a lot of shoppers.  That DOD was a good one definitely.  The manager came over to me and told me that they were told to hold back on the MD set and the sa that told me about it was not suppose to.   She told me that because I knew she would get me a set so I didn't make a wasted trip...again. Which was so nice of her and I appreciated it.  But then I felt bad about the SA maybe getting into trouble.  Truth is I know pretty much a lot before I go in...so I really hope no one gets in trouble over a candle.

 

I wandered around getting the TMCs I needed, cleaning out the last few OAHU and went and grabbed my Pink Petal Teacake....blessed candles I have been waiting forever for....only to have the manager tell me that today that sale was lifted in this store. Um, really?

 

But because it was included in with my email...she was going to honor it for me as well.

 

I left the store with three bags and I would be finally able to wrap up one of the mothers day gifts I want to take care of so I was happy about that. But geesh, is shouldn't be this confusing.

 

Here is the box I purchased at Michaels Craft store to hold the goodies.  And afterward, it's pretty enough to use as storage.

 

 

Here is the Mothers Day Candle and two of the Pink Petal Tea Cake candles.  The scents aren't at all get up and grab you strong on cold sniff....Maybe when they are burning the scent will be better.  I was hoping for a pure garden tea rose scented candle finally...but these aren't.  I am not sure what's the problem in making some rose scented things for the home and body...But I must say...my first sniff and thoughts on the Pink Petal Tea Cake was it's a signature fragrance scent...

 

 

 

 I added in a few other goodies...

 

 

And wrapped it in cello with the lid ajar, and used the pink ribbons the store gave me.

 

 

These are the Triple Moisture Creams I bought...well worth the sale price of $2.00 after the survey coupon.

 

 

Today, I noticed the pedestal holder came back online for sale by itself $8.50.  Wednesday, there must have been a certain amount of sets that were to be sold online because by mid afternoon, the free pedestal offer was no long attached to the candles.

 

And then yesterday when the candles went 2/$22, I did see that the price of the Mothers Day candle did go from being regular $22.50 to $11.00. 

 

Now whether or not all stores had the Set out today or if they are going to do them tomorrow I am not sure. I was told that tomorrow in my stores they are handing out a free soap coupon with a ten dollar purchase.  Which is good...If you don't have any of the bounce backs that let you get a free $12.50 valued Signature item with a ten dollar purchase.

 

I think I am done for a while until Endless Weekend comes and I get to try the new handsoaps in that line....okay...and hand sanitizers too..

Bath & Body Works | Online Exclusives | Signature Fragrances

May 1, 2014

Here are the current online signature fragrances:
Pre SAS June 2014

• aruba coconut
• bali mango
• black amethyst
• black raspberry vanilla
• brown sugar and fig
• butterfly flower
• cherry blossom
• cotton blossom
• cucumber melon
• dancing waters
• dark kiss
• enchanted orchid
• forever sunshine
• juniper breeze
• mango mandarin
• midnight pomegranate
• rain kissed leaves
• secret wonderland
• sensual amber
• sheer freesia
• vanillas coconut
• white tea and ginger
• wild honeysuckle

Bath & Body Works | Coastal Cool Candles

May 1, 2014

Today, Bath and Body Works launched online their new line of candles, Coastal Cool, that will hit stores later this month with the new Signature fragrance Endless Weekend. They also timed this release with a 2 for $22.00 sale. And in checking them out this morning I noticed right away a different name on one of the candles.  Which also made me wonder what other changes will we see from what the test stores offered.

January 27th I posted the Coastal Cool candles in a folder in my Facebook photo album {and blog}with information from the store testing the candles and what the list of names was to be according to the sales associates waiting for them to arrive. Here are the pictures and the names:
Stores list of what is coming:

❥beach day
❥coastal sun
 *endless weekend-- summer mandarin, sun kissed magnolia, vanilla sandalwood
 *ocean driftwood-- iced lavender, bergamot, artic air
❥palm leaves
❥perfect wave
❥sunset beach
❥turquoise waters


 
When they did arrive in test stores, some of the names were changed:

On the actual candles:
photos shared with me from YouTube (touchthefiretwice)

❥beach day--salt water, lemon leaves and citrus musk
❥coastal sun--vibrant orange, zesty grapefruit and bright California days

 *pacific coast highway-- ocean mists, vetiver woods and pacific breezes

❥palm leaves--green palm, aloe and agave

❥perfect wave-- eucalyptus and sun
❥sunset beach--fruit pops, sugarcane and sun rays
*suntan-- sundrenched flowers , neroli blossoms and driftwood

❥turquoise waters--sea spray, sunlight and beach grass



(Photo credit: youtube touchthefiretwice)



       

And today, when the candles came out online, I noticed that one of them was changed once more. Gone was Perfect Wave, but the picture stayed and it was named Eucalyptus Mint and Waves.  I am not sure about anyone else but when I think of Endless Weekends and Coastal things...eucalyptus isn't there. :)

❥beach day
❥coastal sun
 *endless weekend
 *eucalyptus mint and wave
 *ocean drift wood
❥palm leaves
❥sunset beach
❥turquoise waters

We never know what the names will be after a test launches and we never know if more are coming into the stores than what launched online....all we can do is keep watching.

I know some are unhappy with the candles coming out without lids, but I am really loving these colored glass jars. I think it's because they don't have lids that make them have that perfect summer feel.  I hope this thinking continues for some fall candles, and we see darker colored glass with embossed lids....