New Homes for All

While we have been busy renovating our home, we have had little neighbors decide to build a new home in very close proximity.

Please excuse the dirty eave. We were going to power wash the exterior of the house in the next few days. Guess we'll have to work around the new family, or wait until they have vacated.

This view {above} is from where I sit in the living room. I've been watching the husband and wife build their nest all weekend. They have been working so hard to get it ready.

While they have been working outside, we have been working inside. I'll get my photos organized and later this week start sharing our renovations.

In the meantime, I've got custom watercolor orders to work on in the evenings. I am quite a bit behind on those as it took a while to get some color swatches to work with, and I'm trying to work on the house during the day and work on orders in my workroom at night.

Since I haven't had time to do much handwork, prints seem the way to go for now. Below are a few photos of some prints that will be available for purchase soon. They are professionally printed in a lab {what I call 'real' photographs ~ not printer photo paper} and are 8x10 in 11x14 mats.



{you can see our new flooring in these photos, too!}


I have had fun choosing mats to go with them.

I really like the colors, so I may keep some to go with my new decor. I very seldom have my own work displayed.

The photographs of the partially dried tulips don't match my decor but I do like the creams, deep pinks, and touches of green.

Thanks for stopping by ~ and be sure to come back again later this week. I'll have more to share then! :)

Take care & God bless,
Lana
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Collections

{Yep, it's me. I don't like having my picture taken, but one was requested for the Etsy article.}

Just making a quick post to invite you to come visit me on Etsy's blog:
https://blog.etsy.com/en/the-collectors-handmade-pincushions/
Feel free to leave a comment near the bottom of the Etsy page! :)

I've shared my pincushion collections before, but this also includes a Q&A session with Kristal. She's such a dream to work with  and her own creations are adorable!

We are in the midst of renovations and I am loving the new Bourbon Hickory floors! I'll try to post some before and after photos over the weekend. :)


Thanks for stopping by!

Take Care & God Bless,

Lana

I Never Thought It Would Come To This

The unimaginable has happened! I actually hung a deer head on my bedroom wall... seriously. It is not my accent piece of choice, mind you, but it had to go somewhere.

The thing is, we are remodeling our home, and this is only temporary. It had better be temporary! We are beginning the renovations with the living and dining rooms and that just happened to be where my husband's pride and joy were displayed (no, not the kid's photos, but the deer heads). It's a bit hard to store them in boxes, so we had to move them, yes, them, plural, very plural, and we moved them to walls in other rooms.

A few went in one son's room, and a few are going in the other son's room, and I didn't have the heart to make our daughter put one in her pretty pink and brown / Jane Austen / Paris theme bedroom, so we have one in our bedroom... temporarily. {update: let me just say that it is a bit disconserting waking up in the middle of the night, looking across the room, and seeing a large wild animal staring at you from high on the wall!}

Two things I said I didn't want in our bedroom: a television or deer heads on the wall. One down, I wonder how long it will be before two down??? Not if I can help it.

I am excited about finally getting around to new floors, fresh paint on all the walls, doors, cabinets, and trim and maybe some new slipcovers and curtains. So I am willing to sacrifice a bit to get the finished product. That's what we have to do, right? Compromise... and hang deer heads on our walls.

If the deer has you distressed, let me ease that a bit with a really sweet rabbit that was munching on dandelions beside my porch the other day.

Isn't he just the cutest???

Munch, munch, munch!

And he munched some more, unfortunately hopping right on over to our garden of freshly planted cabbages, tomatoes, watermelons, and muskmelons {I always called them mushmelons}.... Oh deer dear, I hope he doesn't munch any more tonight. I wonder if I can just shoo him away?

Seriously, I definitely wouldn't have a little stuffed rabbit in the house. I'd much rather see them in the yard hopping around.

Now that we have finally, officially started our renovations, I'll share some in-progress pics with you over the next several weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!
Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

Tuesday's Treasure Hunt

Just wanted to share another treasury with you. I love all of these shops ~ they have such beautiful items!
Click on this link to visit the treasury page. From there you can click on each individual item.

Combining two of my hobbies, photography and collecting old pincushions, I thought they {my photographs} may provide unique artwork for rustic, prairie, farmhouse, shabby chic, and cottage style decors. I've been adding professionally printed photographs to my Honeysuckle Lane Etsy shop. Here's a sample of what you will find there:

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I have to finish a hand sculpted French Milliner's Head today. The one you see when you click the link was one I made several years ago and later decided to sell. Someone recently saw it and asked if I'd make another one, only much larger. After a delay in starting on it, I'm finally getting near the end. We had days of rain and cloudy skies and it took the paper mache and paper clay much, much longer to dry completely before I could begin painting it. I'll share some photos of it soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

Just another day...

...of enjoying the beauty of nature



and the friendship of felines

As usual, Sam drops right at my feet when I'm trying to do something.

He rolls around and around, making little noises to get my attention.

Finally, he looks at me as if to say, "Well, are you going to put down that camera and rub my furry tummy?"

Scooter is an odd one. He either follows us around, meowing the entire time, wanting to be right against our legs, or he scurries away as soon as we come outside. Today he wanted to be close by.

He heard something in the woods while I was taking photos..

I think he's about to discover the little noise-makers...

Now where are they?

Finally he spotted two squirrels running up and down trees and jumping from branch to branch...

I think they were too far away for Scooter. He just watched from afar and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. :)

Thanks for visiting today!

Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

Our One Weakness ~ A mother / daughter collaboration

I'd like to invite all of my readers to join my sweet daughter, Jessica, and I as we share our mother / daughter adventures with you. We created a new blog called Our One Weakness for this purpose. Those of you that are familiar with Lark Rise to Candleford will get the reference in the blog title. :)

I couldn't have written the introduction any better than what Jessica wrote:
"Our One Weakness is based on enjoying the simple everyday things in life that God gives to us. Whether it be laughter over something silly, a kind word fitly spoken, or even the thrill of a good bargain at a thrift store, we see that God is a daily part of our lives. We ask you to journey with us through this blog as He shows us how, in our everyday lives, He "giveth us richly all things to enjoy”."

We'd love for you to sign up to follow us on the new blog and we welcome any help you could give us in spreading the word about the launch of our blog. As soon as we can, we will make a page of our favorite blogs and we will gladly link to yours. Thank you!


We look forward to seeing you there! :)

Blessings,
Lana and Jessica

Tuesday's Treasure Hunt

When time permits, I enjoy making treasuries on Etsy. Most of the items are found in my favorites. Sometimes there's a theme, sometimes not.

Today's treasury is called What Once Was. Here's a screen shot of it, but if you'd like to comment on the treasury, or visit the individual shops, just click here. You can also see all of the treasuries I have made here.

Enjoy!

{click the photo for a larger view}

Have a lovely day!

Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

New Toy

I acquired a new {to me} toy over the weekend ~ a Nikon D70! Thank you Donna!

It'll take some practice to get used to a big camera and all the settings again. Years ago all I ever used was my old Canon Rebel, but when I went to digital, the Rebel was retired (but not forgotten). I loved that camera!

And guess what? I finally listed another ready made wreath on Etsy! I've had it made for a while, but just hadn't taken the time to take photos and list it. You can see it in my Simple Joys Paperie Etsy shop.

Thanks for dropping by. I didn't get the giveaway started over the weekend but will try to work it in one day this week.

Take Care and God Bless,
Lana
~*~

Happy May Day!