Elizabeth Barton Quilts

Everything on our To-Do List has been completed, as far as our home inspection goes.  Great feeling!  Today we met the buyer of our house, an Englishman who is thrilled to be moving in with his family.  It is nice to know our beloved home is going to someone who loves it, too.

I have almost the whole house packed.  This weekend, all our kids and grandkids will be here to help us finish packing and get ready for the movers.  We will take the first pick-up load of stuff to our new home tomorrow!

Since I don't have any new projects to show you, perhaps I can share a link to some beautiful art quilts by Elizabeth Barton.  These are her cityscapes.  Such beautiful glowing colors!

http://ebarton.myweb.uga.edu/cityscapequilts.htm

Seeking Fabulosity

It has been months in coming, but we are just about ready to put our house on the market.  The POD is almost full, the rooms are painted, the closets and cabinets are cleared out, the windowsills are caulked.  Finally I began to look at decorating the rooms to make them very cozy, comfy, and inviting.  I don't really enjoy spackling walls, but I do like to make the rooms look pretty!

Here is my kitchen table, which received sunlight from three directions.  The glass hurricanes are 40% off the sale price at Coldwater Creek, a great find when I popped in there last weekend.

 

People who have been to my house would not believe my kitchen counters, all cleared off instead of covered with appliances, houseplants, and junk mail!  Staging the kitchen means removing stuff instead of adding decor.

 

 

We also have a small dining room that looks larger after removing a tall chest, a side table, hanging shelves, and my quilt rack.  This is the room where I had to remove all the wallpaper.

 

 

Our living room has the same type wall of tall windows as the kitchen. 

 

 

There is a screened porch behind the living room windows.  I added some branches with LED lights to the bouquet of silk flowers on the table.  They are currently on sale at Kohl's.

 

 

Here is a view of the deck.  I moved some of the rockers from the front porch back here, and moved the old adirondack chairs from the deck up to our mountain cabin.  Okay, Charlie and Dave did the actual moving.

 

 

Here is the entrance to the deck.

 

 

I have some terra cotta pots filled with mums marching up the steps to the deck.

 

 

We have a big front porch surrounded by flower beds and shrubs.  This house is perfect for nature-lovers like me who prefer the outdoors!

 

 

Last Christmas, someone sat in this little wicker rocker that belonged to Charlie's mother and broke the cane seat.  I hid the hole with a very realistic cat ornament, but my grand-dog Roo tore the cat to shreds one day while left alone inside.  Now the chair is a plant stand.

 

 

If you look on the other side of the front porch, you see the garden pond with fountain.

 

 

Of course, the real star of our property is the wooded back yard.  The leaves are just starting to turn.  On a sunny day, our yard is very inviting.

 

 

Thanks for going along for the virtual door.  Looking at these photos helps me to see what else I need to do before the realtor comes to take pictures.  Next time I'll show you the upstairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon Light

Don't you love the long shadows and golden streaks of light from late afternoon sun?  That's our dog Kasey watching over her kingdom in our backyard.

Our trees here in Wake Forest, NC, still have a lot of work to do to reach their full autumn splendor.  But they sure light up in the late sunlight.

 

I have signed up to take two watercolor classes at Art of the Carolinas, both with Tom Jones.  And both deal with painting light.  The first one is Sunrays Filtering Through the Forest, and the other is Painting the Mountain Mist and Clouds.  I am thinking of adding a third class.  It will be great to do some painting again.

 

Anyway, when I walked back to the edge of our woods, I heard something moving around.  Sure enough, a small deer went scurrying past.  (Too fast for me to get his photo!)

 

 

I was reminded of the movie Funny Farm, where Chevy Chase is trying to sell his Vermont farm house, and yells "Cue the deer" when the buyers are in the yard.  They let a deer out of a wire cage to capture their charming environment.  I'm not so sure that would be a plus around here, with deer being so prevalent and eating people's landscaping.  We have not had that problem, probably because everyone has a dog in the backyard and there is so much woodlands for the deer's habitat.  We rarely see the deer near the house.

 

We are about finished working on this house.  I am hoping the "For Sale" sign goes up soon.  We have company this weekend and our annual pig-picking on Saturday...but not at our house.  I have changed gears and spent the past two days pampering myself with new highlights and haircut, manicure, and the most luxurious pedicure at the salon. 

 

Ah, that's more like it!

 

 

 

 

 

New View

What a difference a day makes!  Actually, Beryl blew on out of here by early afternoon, and the sun came shining through.  This morning, the woods behind our house were beautiful in the sunlight.

I spent the morning with three hunky young men...not a bad thing! 

They were not able to get my windows installed yesterday due to the rain, but they were finished by lunchtime today.  I am so happy with the shiny new windows in our dining area of the kitchen!

After they left, I took Kasey for a walk on the greenway.  She had been very good through the whole installation, but kind of freaked out with the sounds of the nail gun.  She did not understand why I was letting these strangers knock out our windows.  We saw another deer from about ten feet away.  It's been a good day!

Spring Time

My brother-in-law is a former dairy farmer.  He plants by old Southern and mountain folklore.  It's time to plant the garden when the oak leaves are the size of  mouse ears.  These oak leaves are more the size of the whole mouse.

The traditional day for planting the garden is Easter Monday.  That is so late this year that I am starting a little early.  I double-dug the bed for my cutting garden yesterday.  This was much easier before I was sixty!  Today I will plant zinnias and marigolds.

My neighborhood is starting to look rather beautiful as the trees fill out and the flowering shrubs are in their glory.

When we moved into our house seventeen years ago, there was not a blade of grass or a single tree in our front yard.  It was nothing but dirt.

We did all our own landscaping.  I am so happy that we dug all those holes and lugged five-gallon buckets of water to the trees to get them started.  When we sit on our front porch, we are screened from the road and the neighbors.

In front of the house I planted an island of shrubs which attract birds and butterflies.  Behind us are many acres of woods and a creek.  It is good being surrounded by nature.

Trying to Save a Little Snow

It is still so cold.  You know I love my dog when I am taking her for a walk and the temps are below freezing!   This is the neighbor's duck pond, slightly iced over.  Even the ducks were staying out of the water.

My oldest son and grandkids live in South Carolina, where they get even less snow than we do.  We are trying to hold on to the little snow that is left until they get here Friday evening.  In shady spots, there is still a bit on the ground. But the sun is shining brightly and doing its job.

This area beside our driveway is where most of my guests will park on Saturday.  It is supposed to shoot up into the fifties, so this will probably turn to mud.

I have been getting to know (and love) Kasey a little more each day.  In addition to motivating me to go for walks, she wants to help me do my exercise videos. 

She thinks when I get down on the floor, it is to roll around with her.     Sometimes I get licked in the face with every sit-up.  I wonder why I waited so long to get another dog!

November Nature Walk

All my good intentions for doing chores disappeared this morning, when I looked outside and saw sunshine for the first time in a long while. I had not walked through my neighborhood since I lost my little companion, Maggy. It did not seem right to be walking without my doggy, but the sunshine and beautiful autumn scenery put my mind at rest.

My street looks very beautiful against the clear blue November skies.I have always liked this big tree that seems to lean across the street to lend its shade.

Isn't this a great nature shot? The leaves are gone from this honey locust tree, leaving the long seed pods and branches silhouetted against the sky.

I walked all the way through the new Heritage neighborhood across Rogers Road. The developer, Andy Ammons, has done a first class job on all the landscape and architecture of this large development.
In this photo, you can see the dock and shelter on Forgotten Pond, and the red roof of another shelter near the children's playground.
The ubiquitous Canada geese were enjoying the sunshine.


On the way back I stopped by the Freeman family cemetery. The iron gate was open, so I went in to pay my respects. The headstones obviously are not original. Some loving descendant of the family must have identified as many of the grave sites as he could and put identical granite markers on them. For some reason, Blogger insists on turning the photos sideways today. The oldest date on one of the markers is Mary, wife of Allen Freeman, born in 1805, who lived to the surprising age of 85. There is a wonderful history of the Freeman family online at the Wake Weekly, our local newspaper.


Many of the gravestones marked the graves of infants and children.

I was heading home after taking these photos, when my camera was acting sluggish. I decided to switch out the battery. There I was, camera in hand, when I heard a clattering on the street next to me. Less than ten yards away was a female deer tearing across the street. She jumped over the iron fence into the gated cemetery. Close on her heels was a magnificent ten-point buck! It was a sight I will never forget. The bucks are in rut now that it is mating season, and they are making some bad decisions for their safety right now. I hung around for awhile in case she ran him back in my direction, but they disappeared in the woods.

When I got home I decided to walk across my back yard and check on the grave where I buried Maggy. My previous dog, Sassy, is buried between two large hydrangea bushes, and I put Maggy near to her. I planted a double-file viburnum called "Summer Snowflake" next to her grave, thinking that it would provide beautiful blooms next summer. To my surprise and delight, this is what I found.

RIP, old friend.

Pretending I'm on HGTV

Kitchen table and windows

Back door to screened porch

I admit to being an HGTV junkie- even though they are going to less sewing/quilting and more home remodeling/decorating type shows. Of course I used to get up in time to watch Simply Quilts. Anyway, yesterday I decided to spend the day "redecorating" with things I already have, just moving them around. Motivation: my bee is coming over tomorrow night, and I got my new Monet print back from the frame shop.

I put a lot of little quilts and some of my dad's artsy cards on the narrow walls between my very tall kitchen windows. I moved a quilt from my Gammill room to the living room. I hung the Monet in the dining room and re-hung Daddy Grady's portrait (he fell off some time around Christmas!) This was my husband's maternal grandfather. And...I cleaned!

Anyway, it looks better. I am off on a quick trip to South Carolina for a little emergency child care. I am coming back tomorrow with my four-year old grandson, and we are taking him to the Asheville area Friday for my brother-in-law's wedding. So, busy, busy! I have a very nice surprise to blog about when I get a chance, and also a new king-size log cabin quilt to do for a customer.

Zinnias coming into bloom- I planted these on Mother's Day (May)