And the Winner is...............

JBlanton
 of My Not So Hurried Life.

Thanks to each and every one of you that entered The 4th Annual Cottage Giveaway Event hosted by The Twice Remembered Cottage.  I've met some amazing bloggers thru this event.  One of the reasons I love blogworld so much is meeting all you people that 'get me' and understand our mutual passions.

 Hugs to all my sweet new followers too!!

B & C

B is for Ball jars........I came across this bag of 20 Ball jars at a yard sale and only wanted one very old jam/jelly jar. 

 The seller gave me an awesome deal for the whole bountiful batch though so I bought the whole thing!

 Now, as you know, I already have shelves full of old Ball jars in my basement.  Don't have any idea what I will do with these.  I do love them though....various sizes, they all have zinc lids, and mostly the blue colored jars so to the basement they will go.

Now for that awesome old jam jar........

Can you see the imprint on the bottom of the jar?

It is in the inside of the jar...........

It's a crown and an angel!!!! 

 Amazing!!!!! 

 I can't wait to make some jelly and invert it on a pretty serving saucer and see that imprint in it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

C is for chair......CHEAP!

I got this at a yard sale for one dollar. 

 It is acutally quite sturdy and would have been cute painted and put in the house.

 Hubby cut out the seat for me though so I could make a garden chair.

I pulled this old chicken wire out of the garage to line the seat then realized I did not have enough sheet moss on hand to make a liner for the soil. 

I stuck in some shards from broken clay pots for drainage, filled with soil, and ran to a local nursery for some plants.

I didn't like the wood seat peaking out from around the pot so I pulled out some dried moss I had.

Voila!

Don't forget to enter the Cottage Charm Event Giveaways.

Here's mine

Here's the rest at

Twice Remembered Cottage

Linking to Debbie Doos Garage Salen Partay

AND

Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Teasures

How to Prune Lavender and Lavender Recipes

Can't wait to harvest Lavender from my gardens.

  With all the flowers blooming early this year I should

 be able to cut them 2-3 times.

I will  put them in bundles and wrap the stem ends with a rubberband

and hang them upside down to dry.  I have hammered nails into the backside

of the cornice above my kitchen sink as they are soooooo pretty and fragrant as they dry.....I want them within sight and smell to me!

 I will use the cuttings for Lavender shortbread, put them in vases for Lavender bouquets, and for different uses in all types of creations.

  I found this video on You Tube showing how to prune Lavender. 

 I do this type of pruning in early Spring to shape my plants and prune them in a mound shape rather than straight across as this video shows. 

This pruning keeps the Lavender in a very attractive shape.

Previously I posted some wonderful
Lavender recipes.  (<-<-<-<-<-<-Click to view)

 Have you ever tried Lavender for culinary purposes? 

 It is a must try and I LOVE it! 

 The Lavender shortbread is a favorite of mine.
 I'll be baking some Lavender cookies with my first harvest.
 What will you do with yours?

Flowers and Finds

Oh I so LOVE Spring and our weather here in central Indiana has been superb for the flowers.  Everything is blooming about three weeks earlier than normal.

 Peonies have been blooming for a week or so and I have been enjoying their fragrant blooms in bouquets in the house.

 This one is on my kitchen window sill and I can't keep my nose out of it!

 Don't you just love their sweet smell? 

 I can't get enough of it.

 I got the biggest golden Lantana last weekend for $6.00..........a steal! 

 Too bad Lantana is an anual in my zone. 

 I trimmed it back when I potted it up for the garden and

 stuck the trimmings in this blue Ball jar. 

 Pretty together, don't you think?

Some of my recent FINDS include this vintage faux animal skin round suitcase.

 (Not sure what type of faux animal skin though.)

  I will use it for storage in my craft room.

The inside is a tweed print.  I scored this at a yard sale for $1.50.

 It made my day!!!

Here's a close-up of the maker's tag. 

 Not been able to find much about it on the internet yet.

This fancy dancy birdcage is a Goodwill find.

  It found a new home on the vintage column I have

 stainding in the corner of my front porch.

Another Goodwill find is this silverplate stand that is beautiously ornate and it came with the glass frog insert. 

I added the glass dome that I've had around for awhile and stuck in a dried pink rose. More Prettiness!

Sorry for these flash pictures......too dreary of a day today for natural light.

LOVE the pattern on this old china.  Another yard sale find.....actually the same sale that the cute round suitcase was found.

Sorry sweet Grayson Boy..................

............No cat food to be had out of this bowl.

I also found these scales..................

AND

A leapard print hat (yard sale) and this pretty French pic.

WOWSY!!!!!

Rainy Day Fluff

Since it is a rainy, stormy day today (my day off) I've been looking at some beauteous pics to get me in the mood to do some interior fluffing & organizing. 

A HUGE HUG to all my

 new Friends and Followers, too!

Don't you just love PRETTY?!?!?

 All these pics are from Better Homes & Gardens

Front Porch Frugalicious

This little sitting area on my little front porch has been put together very frugally. It's actually quite amazing to recall where all this was gathered from. 

 The only thing pictured here that was purchased from a store is the wicker chair on the left.  The pink stool was a find from my parents garage that I retreived from their trash pile.  I painted it up pink and added some topiaries and a bee hive .

The wicker table between the chairs was retrieved from my neighbor's trash. 

 I added a coat of paint to help seal in it's shabbiness.

The wicker chaise was purchased at a yard sale and I made the chair cushion from a chenille bedspread purchased at an auction for $5.  I stuffed it with three old bed pillows that I had saved just to salvage the stufffing for other projects but ended up using the complete pillow so they can be taken out and the cover washed.

The stacked bird bath's=FREE from my Aunt's garage

Tabletop decor= yard sales and Goodwill

Shells=FREE finds from beach vacations

Frugal decorating is really the most charming, don't ya think?

Check out Frugal Friday's over at The Shabby Nest

Cottage GiveAway Event

I'm so excited to discover the 4th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway event at

The Twice Remembered Cottage.  I had so much fun participating the first couple of years and somehow lost track of it last year.

  There are some most amazing blogs to discover with fabo gifts to win. 

 I just have to insist you go over there and sign up for...and hopefully win....from these beauteous bloggers. 

 Here is what my giveaway will include..........

a June 1990 issue of Country Living magazine, a bookmark made by moi using pages from an 1880's Indiana English book, vintage eyelet,

 a very old bottle decorated with crochted lace and and old rhinestone jewely remnant, a cute little shabby chic deccoration that looks like old ceiling tin, the book Gardening Mad, AND a vintage handkerchief with colors of gray and green.

Go over there right now.....pretty please.....and enter these giveways. 

The Twice Remembered Cottage

You will have so much fun and be glad that you did!

Oh and all you have to do to enter

is leave a comment on this post! 

Easy as pie!

Would love to have you as a follower too!!

GiveAway Winner

Marilyn and Janet are the winners of my April Giveaway.   

Marilyn's blog Heart Song is awesome and she has got some super pretty flowers growing in her gardens.  She loves to play in the soil too

.....just like I do......

Way to go Janet and Marilyn!

Janet....please forward your address to me.

Thanks to all my new followers. 

 (flicker photo)

 I am loving all my new friends in blogland and have become

 passionate about visiting you and seeing what you are up to.

Hugs N Herbal Blessing to YOU!!!!!!