~Garden Walk~

Early Saturday morning, I took a few photos of the Hosta blooms and the Endless Summer Hydrangeas, growing beside the patio.

It's amazing how these plants change, throughout the season. Not long ago, the Hydrangeas were just beginning to bud and the Hostas had no blooms. It seems like yesterday, when the Hosta were unfurling from their winter nap.

The fountain, in the dining room garden, began to leak from one of the shells, awhile back. After repairing the crack, several times, J decided to move the fountain to the side garden, shown in the photo, where it is now a bird bath. It sits among Tiger Lilies. The plants are full of buds. I'll take photos, when they bloom.

We're now looking around for a new fountain for the dining room garden. We like the bubbler fountains, made from urns. We want to see several styles, before we make our decision. Do you have any fountain recommendations?

Tomorrow afternoon (Monday), we depart for the lake. We'll spend the next several days finishing projects and enjoying the peaceful calm, before the 4th of July! We'll return home, late on the fourth or early July 5th. Our sweet Xanti is flying in, for the weekend and we can't wait to see her! She'll return to school, next week.

I'm going to try putting together a 4th of July post, to be published on the 3rd. Just in case I'm not successful in my first time attempt at this fairly new blog option, I'm wishing you a Happy Independence Day!

Thanks so much for your encouraging comments on the Oddfellows Cafe post. Lori and Greg are very appreciative. I was so pleased to find a comment from their young chef, also. Thank you for your lovely comments about my little "attic retreat", in Leftover Makeover, too.

EDIT:

Look for my 4th of July post, here, July 3rd, in the evening. I also have one scheduled for July 4th on the photo blog. Yes, I managed to get two scheduled! I'll remember this feature, next time we're going to be away.

~Leftover Makeover~

A glass and iron bistro table, covered with a vintage handmade tablecloth, sits inside the dormer.

At left, the studio, as it appeared in December 2006, when our home was featured on the local Garden Club Holiday Tour of Homes. I used this room to display various villages, we've collected.

This room is the finished bonus room, over the garage. I use it for projects such as gift wrapping, flower arranging and painting. There are three sun tunnels, that afford lots of natural light. We also installed three small track lights. There is a chandelier inside the dormer. The flooring is laminate.

The makeover of the studio, is a result of the makeover of the white bedroom, I wrote of, in a previous post.

We brought the 3/4 vintage iron bed home from our place at the lake. I thought about just storing it away in the basement, but changed my mind when I had another one of those light bulb moments! We brought it up to the studio and added bedding leftover from the master suite makeover. The bedding was formerly in one of the guest rooms. The accessories and other bits and pieces are leftovers, too.

The bird hook is a gift from a friend, to remember our Nell Hill's trip, last November.

The sweetgrass basket was purchased on a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. It holds a single sand dollar, a gift from my daughter.

The story of the iron bed began about 20 years ago. We were at a country auction, in Texas County, Missouri, where we found wonderful treasures, such as, salt glaze crocks, a crock butter churn and boxes filled with lots of fabulous junque and the bed. The bed was very rusty. We had it sandblasted, then painted white and had a mattress made specifically for the frame. Eventually it found a home in a guest room, at the farm. Several years ago, we moved it to the lake, where it was used in a guest room.

The white wicker settee, with pillows matching the bedding. The hat is handmade, a souvenir from Charleston, SC.

Closer look at the hat. The wide brim is wonderful for sunny days.

This is one of two white wicker chairs. The other is being used in the guest room, at the lake. When we were out yesterday, we stopped at Michael's, where I found the side table and stool, on sale at 60% off. They were in a natural finish. A couple coats of white paint and they are perfect with the chair. The book, on the stool, is To Kill a Mockingbird. One of my all time favorites.

The chest was purchased, several years ago, at a consignment shop. I brought it home with the idea of painting it. Here it sits, all these years later. The finish, as is, has grown on me! The little tin basket of flowers is one of the arrangements I made about 10 years ago, for a bathroom, at the farm. Until the "leftover makeover", it was in a guest bathroom, here.
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One of our stops, yesterday, was Whole Foods Market. The store opened yesterday, in Town and Country, Missouri, near Chesterfield.

We couldn't resist bringing home two of the small fruit tarts. Delicious!

Other foods, we found, are shown in the photo below. We are happy to see this store opening. It's about a 45 minute drive for us. It's very near our doctor. Convenient for stopping, when we have appointments.

We're thrilled to have a market, specializing in organic foods, this near home.

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My Favorite Things

Diane

Nancy Jane

Nancy

Diane, Nancy Jane and Nancy have asked me to list my favorite things and pass the challenge along. It's difficult to choose just five folks from my list here and my lists elsewhere. I'm asking anyone who reads this post, to post a list of their favorite things, if they like. It will be interesting to read your favorites.

My favorite things are:

1. Books

I love to read and have quite a collection of books. I visit the library, whenever possible.

2. Old black and white movies

Among my favorites are, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House,

The Thin Man Series, featuring Nick and Nora Charles and others from that era.

3. White dishes, in all shades and shapes.

4. Cloches in various materials, shapes and sizes.

5. Last, but certainly not least, my camera.

~Oddfellows Cafe & All About Home~

Last Thursday, J and I enjoyed the preview of a new cafe, as guests of the owners. Accompanied by friends, we lunched at Oddfellows Cafe, 411 Main Street, Troy Missouri. The cafe is located adjacent to All About Home, the shop I wrote about in November 2007. All About Home is located in an antique building that was once home to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Oddfellows Cafe is a natural choice for the name of the new eatery.

I chose a delicious herb filled chicken salad on a croissant and a wonderful house salad. Dessert was a lovely cheese filled crepe, topped with cherries and garnished with orange zest. The atmosphere, of the new establishment, is fabulous.

Oddfellows Cafe will be opening soon. The owners, Greg and Lori, also own All About Home, which is listed in the latest edition of, Girlfriends on the Go, A Guide to Great Shoppes and Cafes, Right Here in St. Louis.

A brick wall, just inside the door of Oddfellows Cafe.

The tin ceiling appears bronze, in the light of several chandeliers. The antique buffets, toward the back, are gorgeous.

This doorway leads to All About Home. We enjoyed browsing the shop, before lunch.

This patriotic display greeted us, as we entered from Oddfellows Cafe.

If you're near our part of the world, I hope you are able to visit All About Home and have lunch at Oddfellows Cafe. You won't be disappointed.

~Komen Race for the Cure St Louis~

Participants in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, in St Louis Missouri, Saturday morning, June 21, 2008.
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Just a quick post, this afternoon. Daughter K. just sent these photos from the race, this morning. Members of our family have participated many times, in this event.

Daughter T. found my cousin Shirley's son's name and his daughter's name on the list of participants, today. My cousin, seen in the childhood photo in a previous post, is a Breast Cancer survivor.

Above, photos of our daughters, son in law and baby Noah. Seven month old Noah successfully completed his first walk in this wonderful event.

I'm mighty proud of this bunch!

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Gabi continues to enjoy her visit as we enjoy having her visit. When she arrived, she told us she's staying 5 days. I asked her, this morning, how many days she's been here. She told me, two. When I asked her when she plans to go home, she told me, Thursday night. She's a character!

Back soon with more news from our house to yours.

~A White Room~

You may recall the master suite makeover, we accomplished over the winter. It involved exchanging a king bed for a queen bed. Moving beds and other furniture up and down stairs. Taking a headboard to a car body shop, for painting and other little projects. I wrote about it here.

The makeover began, because the mattress in the master suite was not comfortable. All our plans and ideas worked very well and we've slept wonderfully, over these past months, since the redo was completed in February.

Then one day, when we were at the local furniture store inquiring about the status of the secretary order, we dropped our names in a box, for a drawing. There were several items on the list of prizes, including a queen mattress. I said wouldn't it be funny if we won a mattress after all that switching and changing in February. A couple days later, someone called to tell us, I won that queen mattress! We went to the store and chose an even firmer mattress for the master suite and made plans to take the existing queen mattress to the lake.

Since moving into the condo, several years ago, an antique 3/4 iron bed has been used in the smaller of the two guest rooms and a full size bed is used in the other guest room. Our children and grandchildren prefer Aero beds on the floor, rather than the 3/4, which is temperamental and sometimes falls when least expected. They don't like the full bed any better! After winning the mattress, we decided to bring the 3/4 bed home and replace it with the full bed, then move the extra queen bed to the other condo guest room. Confused yet?

You know, if you've read Back Porch Musings for any length of time, the mattress change over is to be a bit more complicated than simply changing the mattresses around! Of course, I'm taking this golden opportunity for a bit of updating. Not only at the condo, but here at home, too!

I've always wanted to have a white bedroom. I found the white quilt, in these photos, at Marshall's, at a price I couldn't resist. And so the condo guest room makeover began.

Photos below show progress. I hope to finish the redo in the next few weeks. I'm looking for new cushions and pillows for the wicker chair and a small bedside table and lamp, among other things. The room was previously very colorful. It had a mosquito net over the bed and a bright quilt on the bed.

The iron 3/4 bed is now in an upstairs studio, a glorified name for bonus room, over the garage. More about that redo, in the coming weeks.

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This little munchkin is coming to G'ma and G'pa's tomorrow, to spend a few days.

I've visited my blog friends this week, as much as possible. I'll try to get by later this week or over the weekend, also. Until then, I'm devoting my attention to the special doll baby in the above photo.

Tomorrow we are going to a food tasting/test run, of a new cafe/tea room here in town. It's owned by the same couple who own All About Home. I wrote about All About Home, last November. I'll have my camera tomorrow, as we have lunch at the new cafe, housed in a restored historic building, in our town.

Hope you all have a glorious weekend!