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Monday, March 28, 2011

Festival of Flowers


For the past 18 years Providence Hospital has put on the Festival of Flowers. I am quite ashamed to say that I had never been....until Thursday. How have I not been to see this?!?!?! It was amazing! Myself and the Dirt Queen had the pleasure of going with the Hyndrangea Queen, Audrey (garden club friend) and Linda.
(I know its been a while since I posted and you may have forgotten some of the cast of characters...Dirt Queen = my mom, Hydrangea Queen = my good friend & garden buddy Ramona). Last August Hydrangea Queen went to a hydrangea farm in Nantucket for a week. While she was there she roomed with another gardener, Linda. They became friends, and Linda came down this past week to visit from New York.  

The five of us loaded up in the car ( a mid sized SUV) and off we went! 





This was at the main entry


Each tent had a different theme. This tent was set up as roomscapes by various vendors.


This vendor had some really nice stuff. Matter of fact myself, Dirt Queen and Linda all bought the bird feeder shown in the bottom right hand corner. It is pretty tall, and the feeder is probably 30" in diameter. It is "supposed" to be squirrel proof. I am keeping an eye on it to see! 


This was my favorite roomscape!! Isn't it precious!!! I love how they made the food out of flowers!!


There is a large tent that has various garden scapes set up by landscape architects, garden shops, and nurseries. They had done quite some work!










This garden scape was my favorite!! It was so creative and fun!!!


There was also an art exhibit that featured the work of Justin Gaffrey. He has a gallery about an hour from here that I plan on making a trip to oneday soon! His work was amazing!!! He works in impasto acrylics, and it takes his paintings about a week to dry! You should go check out his website.



There was also a flower couture display. Each ensemble is made entirely from flowers. They were very clever. You can click on the photo to enlarge.


When we stepped out of the tents and on to the lawn....we saw the sea of vendors. I think thats when it hit us that maybe we shouldn't have crammed 5 people in the car. 5 gardeners that love yard stuff in one car = no room. I tried to stay focused on the matter at hand and tackle one tent at a time. This was no easy chore!


 This vendor was out of Cincinnati, Ohio (Greg's Antiques) . They had the BEST pricing!!! Unfortunately, they don't ship any of their items. But if you live near Cincinnati you are in luck!


This was the same vendor that was in the room scapes. Here you can see the bird feeder and how large it really is.


I absolutely adored this potting bench!!!! I am going to build one of these.




I thought these were very cute. The are flowers made from old door knobs. Well...I thought they were cute until I saw the price! I'm cheap, and I think $75 is too much...but others may disagree. I have tons of old doorknobs, and re-bar....so I plan on making a few of these as well.


This gentleman made baskets and birdhouses using wisteria vines. I really wanted one of his baskets, but I didn't get one. Mainly due to the fact that all five of us had purchased a lot of stuff at this point and I was beginning to think we were going to have bring a U-haul back to pick up our stuff. Lucky for me he lives near here, and I can get one at anytime.


I thought this was cute....using the old cans for a fountain/pot.


This is also where I picked up my flying pig! The vendor had every type of creature known to man...and I picked a pig! LOL! He has tiny little flying pigs and big flying pigs....and ya'll know I couldn't just get a little flying pig.......

By the time we got ready to leave, we all had our hands full. We had to go to the pick up area to pick up the larger items and flowers we had bought....oh and the flying pig.

We filled up the back hatch with 3 bird feeders, and some wrought iron pieces. Poor Audrey, Linda and Hydrangea Queen had their laps full of stuff sitting in the back sit. And then I realized there was no room for my flying pig.....so I had to make due.....



I had to hold that pig the entire way home!! LOL!!! His hooves were pretty sharp!!! I had to put a sheet in between me and his hooves. I was praying we didn't get into a wreck. I could only imagine the headline
"Woman impaled by flying pig"! The lesson learned here is that if you are going to a garden show....DON'T invite your friends to ride with you....LOL!!! Keep it to a 2 person limit per car. Hydrangea Queen and Linda had so much fun, they actually went back the next day and bought more stuff!!!

We really had a great time, and I can't wait to go again next year....in my own car!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Making Something Happen


I was in a Chinese restaurant a few weeks ago with a friend having dinner. We were discussing upcoming plans we had (which I will get to later...), and laughing at how lame the fortunes you get in fortune cookies are. Mine are usually pretty generic and don't mean anything. However, this was one different. Here's what it said:

LIFE IS ABOUT MAKING SOMETHING HAPPEN, NOT ABOUT WAITING ON SOMETHING TO HAPPEN.

So...in case any of you may have wondered where I have been for the last 6 months...here's the short version.

Got a divorce, and it was the best thing to happen for the both of us. I left my home to him. Which also means I left my garden. I did however dig up almost everything. To leave my garden was the hardest part. He didn't particularly like the amount of time I spent gardening, so I had pretty much quit all together. Here's the irony in that, a marriage is like a garden. Sometime it will rain, sometimes the sun will shine and every now and then you may have a hard freeze. You have to maintain it, keep the weeds pulled, fertilize it and appreciate the beauty it offers. If you don't do any of these, your garden will die, and weeds will take over.

I walked out into my garden at the end of last summer and I realized that my garden was like my marriage. I had worked so hard in both, and now they were both half dead, overcome with weeds and both were obstacles that I couldn't tackle alone.

I talk to the Lord everyday. We have looong conversations. I always pray for him to lead me where he wants me to be. I stopped praying for what I wanted, and I pray for wants he wants for me. And let me tell you....what you think you want, and what he thinks you need are two totally different things.

In the past few months, I have experienced more happiness than I ever have in my life. Things are happening for me that are true blessings.

I have started my own architecture and design firm. Remember my friend I was having Chinese with, and I got that great fortune??? Well he is my business partner. He and I have shared this dream for years, and we both ended up in a situation to make it happen.

I am currently living with the Dirt Queen. Hey, gotta do what you gotta do. It's not bad. I do miss having my own place, but that will come soon. Living with the Queen has allowed me to be able to start my own architecture & design firm.

I don't have my own garden to work in or blog about. I thought I would just blog about the Dirt Queen's garden, and whatever else struck me. I have plenty of southern gardens that I can share with ya'll...so if ya'll don't mind then the Dirt Princess will dust off the crown and get back to blogging!

I've already put a fresh post together for ya'll to see on Monday.

P.S. - I don't know if ya'll noticed the flying pig.....if you didn't then look again. Most of you have probably heard the old saying "That will happen when pigs fly", well that cute little flying pig in that photo just happens to be mine. You see sometimes, pigs do fly, and things happen that you never thought would.  When you let God lead you, I can promise you that you will see a few pigs flying.

See ya'll Monday!!


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