Making Florist Bouquets Last!

It was our Anniversary on September 5th!

Who knew all those years ago what a busy time the first few days of September would be!

So busy in fact that there have been years when I forgot and Mr. S  was the one who reminded me!

This year....Mr. S. surprised me with flowers delivered to school!! 

He was going off on a fishing trip....I was busy with the first days of school...

The flowers were a special way to celebrate our Anniversary!

This photo doesn't do the arrangement justice!  

It was stunning and brightened my office for the whole week!  

I loved the way the florist packed all the unique flowers into the glass vase and used a hosta leaf inside to disguise the stems.  

Hmmmm....I am going to have to try that!

I brought it home for the weekend and by Sunday night it was looking a little droopy!

So....This is what I did.....

I simple took the flowers out of the original vase.....put some floral foam in another vase and rearranged them....I added 1 Gerbera Daisy from the garden....

AND....

Mr. S. said he actually liked this one better......what a guy!!!!

THAT arrangement lasted a whole week......now it is Saturday Morning....

AND....the arrangement looked like this.....

But not for long....

One last consolidation.....

 

So now these flowers are 10 days old....

I can probably get at least another 4 or 5 days out of them!!!

Thanks for the flowers Mr. S!

You all have a great day....we are off to a fun Pop-Up shop where the Sweetwater Son-In-Law is showing off the great looking shoes he designs and sells....

Greenwich Vintage

I will write more about that soon....but if you live in the Minneapolis Area....the event is called Northern Grade!  

 Great Fun...Great Shopping....Great People Watching!

Here is the link to the Northern Grade Website!

Maybe we will see you there!

Link Parties
Bowdabra   
Serenity Saturday  Create and Inspire    
Cherished Treasures  Family Ever After  Days of Chalk and Chocolate 
A Pinch of Joy  Nifty Thrifty Sunday  

This Week At Sweetwater!

The first week of school is over....Whew!!! It is always such a busy time....fun....but exhausting!  If you think your kids come home tired after their first days....

Imagine the adults!!!!  

Mr. S. was smart enough to go off with "the guys" to fish....

nice for me because then I can stagger home and just "chill" after those long first days!

 But....Look at these gorgeous fresh faces ready to learn!

Their obvious enthusiam and excitement makes all the hard work worth it!

These photos are from Our school's DAY ONE celebration!

We all gather on the front lawn of the school....music playing....dancing....celebrating! 

It is a wonderful way to begin the year...

The Sweetwater Garden is usually one of the "casualties" of the shift in focus from home to school.

THIS YEAR....I am dedicated to NOT letting that happen!!!

I got to thinking......

Why is it that In MAY....I am so exciting and refreshed when I go out in the garden after a busy school day?

HMMMMMM.....

Maybe in SEPTEMBER....gardening could be the same kind of therapy!

SOOOO....I am committed to keep watering and fertilizing those flowers that I enjoy so much!

I replaced some "tired" plants with this annual grass....even after the frost it should stay looking nice!  You can get some great bargains on these grasses right now!

 It is hard to believe these Dahlias started out in little 4 inch pots.....I keep cutting them and bring them inside for small arrangements! I know I could dig them up and keep them in the garage to plant again next year...but I probably won't....hey they only cost 3 bucks a piece!!!







Hardy Garden Mums are such great late summer blooms in the garden!


I have to admit I am not good at pinching them back all summer like you are supposed to...I let them bloom and use them in arrangements all season.....



And now....they are in full bloom....and they will stay looking nice even after our first frosts.

Mums last a long long time in cut flower arrangements!

These bronze colored flowers are some of my favorites because the color goes so well in our house!

















I just adore Sunflowers!  Most years the deer munch them right down to the ground...but this year we have a nice stand right outside my "work room" window.  I will let them reseed and hope that this happens again next year!

The "Profusion" Zinnias and Rudebekia are looking good too!














It didn't seem to matter to them that we had such a hot dry summer...

These Gerbera Daisy plants were gifts way back in May....



Never before have I kept them alive and blooming all summer!

Usually they die from the center and stop growing after a couple of weeks....

These guys don't seem to ever quit!!!

I wonder what I did RIGHT this year!!!

 Lots of fertilizer, dead heading and watering has kept the deck plantings looking pretty good so far.....

 

the Sweet Potato vine is kind of taking over.....maybe next year I will find something different for trailing......

 The bistro table has this support ring on the bottom that is just the perfect size for a round planter....

The impatiens loves this sheltered shady spot....alas it will be the very first victim of any cold evening....but in the meantime it is looking fine!!!!

Maybe I will make a fall arrangement of some sort when the frost comes!

The fall color of this Sedum spilling out of the planter fountain is really pretty....




I might add a couple of two dollar mums to replace the Begonias so that it keeps looking good for a month or so!

I would have to say that this "end of season bargain" plant  (five bucks!)

was well worth it!!!

HMMMM.....that was on sale in July....

2 months later....

still going strong!!!

Minnesota weather in September is unpredictable....90 degrees one day....50 degree mornings the next!

 I actually looked it up and found out that the average first killing frost in our area is not until the end of September ...three weeks away!!!!

So until that time....I am challenging myself to keep all these beauties looking good...and enjoying them!!!

Wish me luck!

Link Parties
Cherished Treasures  Craft Envy A Vision To Remember Blackberry Vine  Coastal Charm 
Making the World Cuter  
Growing Home  Krafty Kat      

Occasional Chair Make Over

The Sweetwater Daughter scored these 4 chairs and huge table on Craig'sList....all for $250!

She bought them to use as the "guest chairs" in her new law office....
They sat in the Sweetwater garage all summer waiting for a facelift!
 

Maybe you remember reading my post about A New Way to Fabric Shop!

After lots and lots of discussion....this is the gorgeous fabric they chose!

Don't you just love it?  And it was only $8 a yard!

We were ready to get started....
I would love to tell you that this was a simple and fast project.....
I would love to tell you that we finished in couple of hours....

NOT SO MUCH!!!!  
We probably spent about 2 hours on EACH chair....but truly it was worth it!
Lots of Mother/Daughter bonding!!!

Whenever I start an upholstery project, it seems to take me a long time to figure out exactly how to proceed!
In this case.....one night the Sweetwater Daughter and I spent one whole evening....(and one whole bottle of wine) figuring out the construction of the chairs....AND...how to work with the design/pattern of the fabric!!!

The Seats came off easily with the loosening of a few screws....


They would be easy to just wrap and staple....


right????


Not so much....but more about that later! 

 In the case of these chairs it was a bit complicated because of the chair backs....

 We couldn't easily figure out how the chairs were actually put together.....and until we figured that out...we couldn't take them apart...




We even got Mr. S. involved and he couldn't solve the puzzle either....



 So.....

In true "Sweetwater Style" we started by ripping off the welting that was glued in place!

Then we ripped off the fabric....and this is what we found!

We decided to treat the front and back separately!

First the back!  We wanted the large circle to be centered.....easier said than done!!!

After some trial and error we figured out how the pattern worked so that we could make all the chairs look alike!

The circle was cut with a 1/2 inch allowance that was pressed under.

Then we sprayed adhesive on the wrong side of the fabric and smoothed it right over the existing fabric.

 Then the edge was simply pushed into the frame.














 Almost tooo simple.....but it worked and looks great!

The technique for the front of the seat back was a little "trickier"!

Yikes....look at all the staples that were used....there was just NO way we could remove them.  

So...if all those staples stayed there....we wouldn't be able to use the staple gun without hitting them....

EUREKA!!!  We remembered how I embellished this little Faux Leather Side Table with nailhead trim!!!  This stuff is amazing!


So the project went on hold until the trim arrived in the mail!

In the meantime....I used the trusty compressor and stapler to finish covering the chair seats!

What should have been a 10 minute job for each chair turned into a much longer "ordeal"!
Why???
.....the darn pattern had to be matched not just so the circle was in the center....but that the whole thing was straight....
AND
Each chair needed to look the same!!!!
Needless to say....I am awfully glad to have a "mighty fine" staple puller!!!

 Once the trim arrived we were ready to get back to work...

We decided NOT to have the large circle be the center of the seat backs...

When we tried that.....it kinda made you dizzy!!!


Note that the circles are on the sides...


We smoothed the fabric in place and pinned it so that it was straight and then used chalk to go around on the edge.....


I cut it to size with enough extra to fold under.

We used pins to hold the fabric in place and to keep it straight....







We then did the nailhead trim on the seat cushion

and around the front edge of the seat back. It was easy to nail the tacks in and avoid all those staples!!  The nails hold the fabric nice and tight!



NO pictures while this was going on....all 4 of our hands were occupied!!!

But this is a close up of the nailhead detail!











There were a "few" pitfalls....a couple of redos......but FINALLY the chairs were DONE!

They stayed in the garage until the exciting day when they could move into the new office!!!

 Awsome....!!!

We think our time was WELL Spent!

 Isn't the Sweetwater Daughter's Office inviting?

If you can't tell.... the Sweetwater MOM is pretty proud of her girl!

Someday soon I will post about recovering the sectional pieces for the office seating area!

In the meantime...Have a GREAT Day!

Link Parties
Kammy's Korner  

Virtual Glasses Shopping Adventure!

Every good librarian needs to wear eyeglasses to give her SHHH!!! a little more authority!
I have lots and lots of cheaters lying around everywhere....I buy the cheapies and don't worry much about taking care of them.

I also wear glasses for distance....my last pair at cost more than $400 dollars....and alas I didn't worry too much about taking care of THEM....and now they have some scratches on the lenses...

And then....on Thursday night...I was out for the evening and I only had my prescription sunglasses with me.....and by now it was too dark to wear them to drive home.....so I needed to dig  around in the console for the extra pair I keep in there....found 'em.....

Yikes....one bow had fallen off and I spent the whole drive home trying to keep them on my face!

I couldn't  put it off any longer....to me trying on eye glasses at the store is kind of like shopping for jeans or a new swimsuit....only instead of being in the privacy of the dressing room....you are out there for everyone to see!!!









As luck would have it...the good folks at GlassesUSA.com contacted me about writing a post for them with even a little compensation!  I decided to check it out!

Do any of you have experience with ordering glasses on-line?

The Sweetwater Daughter swears by it....I guess it is time for me to "just do it" and order glasses using all the cool features on the website....especially the chance to try all the choices using the virtual mirror!



I embedded the virtual mirror from the GlassesUSA.com website so you can try it too!
If you get hooked....and find a pair of eyeglasses you just can't live without....use the  discounts below to make them even less expensive!!

STOREWIDE OFFER - Take 15% off your entire order amount + FREE shipping (orders over $50). Code: FS15

Take 10% off any order of prescription glasses. Code: Blog10

I decided that I would try to find something in the under $100 range, since I plan on using them to replace the broken glasses I keep in the car console....

Which ones....hmmmmmmm!!!!

Oh....decisions-decisions!  But at least I get to decide in the comfort of home!!!