~ Beautiful ~

just Beautiful ~

our weather has been a delight…dry & breezy & sunny.

perfect laundry drying weather, 

gardening weather and outdoor stitching weather!!

it's so nice to be able to sit & stitch and watch the goings-on here at the farm ~

there is inspiration everywhere in color, sounds & sights.

my kitchen garden is coming along, 

 … need to hoe it, so until I do ~ no pics for you!

but here are a few snaps of the patio plants that keep me company…

and a couple of crawly-friends too:

sleepy striped wasp 

son't know what he is, but this has been a banner year for these striped centipedes!
they are everywhere ~ 

my zinnias need a drink…old rusty planter filled with small petunias

sweet gerbera daisies nestled in an old potty

Lowes had a great deal on these humongous ferns ~ so I grabbed one for 8.00!

i put it in our old coal shuttle ~ i love my woodland ferns :)

some stitching on the patio ~

this is one of my favorite little books on antique samplers

… the small cross stitch I'm working on is on cupboard cloth {my hand-dyed osnaburg}
and will be a sawdust & lavender filled pincushion when finished.

You can find me stitching while waiting for that sunshine to come around the side of the farmhouse

~ so I can dry my hand-dyed linens on the clothesline…

I prefer my cross stitch linen to be crisp when I stitch on it ~

 it softens-up with use and has a nice "hand".

Oh!

I've been experimenting with a new color of linen to add to my

"Old Farmhouse Linen" & "Ironstone" Linen collection ~

a darker brown color, with lots of mottling and age…

 thinking I'll call it "Tobacco Leaf",

 but we'll see.

{{ will show it to you as soon as it's dry & ready }}

Enjoy that sunshine my Friends!

~ Blessings from the Farm ~

 Lori