It's All Coming Up Roses

My mother in law emailed me the photos above and below of her glorious roses in front of their home, so I just had to share them with you. California has so much warmth and sunshine that roses bloom for long periods of time and profusely as well! The roses in their front yard are beyond gorgeous, and even more stunning in person.
More gorgeous roses!

This is a climbing roses in our back yard. For a climbing rose, the flowers are huge and look stunning in an arrangement, as you can see in the photo below. I am hoping that in a few years, this plant will be large and full like one of Bette's, but I won't hold my breath!
This is a bouquet I made today from flowers in my garden. I could not help but snip that peony right off the bush (my first that opened this year) and get it into a vase. The bachelor buttons look so pretty with the large yellow roses from my trellis and the delicate white iceberg roses, and the plump peony. There is just something magical about being able to create something so pretty from your own yard.
This is one of my favorite roses, it has so many layers!
More peony's getting ready to open...
This rose reminds me of my Nana's lipstick when I was a little girl, "hot orange" is the only way to describe it.

I hope that you have enjoyed this little garden tour. I don't know when I will blog next because our oldest daughter Victoria will be graduating from grade school on Friday and then Valerie Jane will be getting her tonsills and adenoids removed on Monday, so I will be busy celebrating the right of passage of one, and then happily nursing the other back to health.

I wish you a very happy end of May and happy beginning of June!

Love & Blessings,

Sanya

Therapy

I don't know if any of you other mom's with kids still in the home suffer from this too, but there are days that I just can't take it. It seems as if the moment everything is back where it is supposed to be, it just gets messed up, and walked away from without the slightest thought. The once orderly and ever so pretty home no longer exists. Seeing the mess downstairs today just hit me harder than normal and I knew that I needed to do something to get myself motivated to organize my own things before giving the lecture when the girls get home and have to pick up their stuff and fix the messes they have made. I decided to do a little bit of "self help therapy" and reorganize my ribbons. As you can see, they were a mess, although I did try to organize them, the baskets I had were the wrong size, so when I happened upon some pretty new ones, I knew that they would be perfect for the task, so I turned on the TV to AMC and listened to an old western with Donna Reed while I worked, and then another with a young & quite sexy Clint Eastwood. It was great!
cozy blankets on the floor and area rug mushed up.....
Play Station & games left out on floor with random artwork & Jacqueline's vanilla milk cup from the morning....
my spring & Easter decorations are still out, help!
kitchen table is a total mess, I won't even show you the dining room table, it is too embarrassing!
Finished ribbon organization! Hurray!
I got this idea to use this shabby old tool box for my ribbon remnants from my friend Holly over at HollyDoodleDesigns.com and I LOVE it!
This basket tray is shallow, so it was perfect for my smaller rolls of ribbons
I use this box for the ribbons I use most when gift wrapping, the other larger basket I used for my thick rolls of specialty ribbons and the medium basket I used for all my rolls of tulle that I use mostly for wedding flowers. I really felt great when I was done, and I was able to get the kitchen table cleaned up and the dining room table is almost done. Lord only know when I will get to the "spring" decorations with this week and next being the last of the school year, but I know its not going anywhere, and hopefully, neither am I!

By the way, it worked, I feel better!

Ciao,
Sanya

Sweet Surprise

This morning I packed up my orders and when I got back home from running my errands there was a box on our porch for me and this is what was inside.....
A gorgeous antique luster tea cup, yummy butter cookies, a pretty pink antique soap dish filled with tea and sugar with the sweetest Mother's Day card from my friend Becky. I was so taken aback because I love to give gifts, but I don't generally expect to get them out of the blue like this, and I must say that it really made me feel so special. Truly the greatest blessing that has come from having this business has been making friends with incredible women that I have never even met in person. Becky is one of those women that I bonded with right away. Her husband Rod is in the military and has already been to Iraq and will be going back again soon. Becky and Rod are so sweet and love to use their antiques daily because they know that each day is special. I will treasure this gesture as well as the beautiful treasures Becky has bestowed upon me and each day when I see them in my kitchen I will think of her and her thoughtfulness and say a prayer of thanks for her love & friendship.

I will be working hard for the next few days with a large wedding on Saturday and lots of flower orders for Mother's Day, so I will not be posting any new Flea Market Finds until next Monday, and hopefully I will have some good wedding photos for the blog.

Happy Mother's Day to you all!
Love,
Sanya

Tri State Flea Markets Opening Day

I am still on the high from today's trip to Indiana for the Tri-State Antique Market. I am truly having a hard time adjusting to not having year round flea markets like they do back in California, so opening day was a really big deal to me. I almost felt like a drug addict driving to get my fix, and the worst part was that I had to set my cruise control so that I would not get a ticket like I did last year, and it was a doozy! I about fell over when I saw this set of antique French Furniture above, and had I had an extra $1,200.00 with me, I would have bought it in a heart beat! There were 4 chairs and a settee, which I can only imagine will look beyond spectacular when taken and upholstered. I am thinking that maybe the flea market gods will be with me and they will be there next month....this rarely happens, but it has a couple of times, so I am keeping my fingers crossed! I had so much fun looking at all of the architectural pieces and dreaming where they could possibly go or who would be going home with them or what shop owner was lucky to stumble upon them.

The crowd was good and cheerful and the vendors were so sweet and happy to see familiar faces. I love getting to know these people who love to hunt for treasures like the rest of us do and to hear what they did over the winter.
The photos above and below are of my friend Pam's booth. She is so talented and lucky that her husband Jeff is handy and talented as well. I always find something I love at Pam's and our home has lots of hers & Jeff's creations.
The piece she made above is filled with antique sheet music and photos, it was just gorgeous!
Deweesea and Cheryl are my favorite vendors of fine china and I always make a b-line to their space. They are the sweetest ladies and have exquisite taste and find the best pink pretties for me to buy, I just love them! Their booth looks more like a shop than a space at a flea market, and I can't help but try to remerchandise their displays for them when I have finished pillaging through them. I am so glad that they tolerate me!
This is what my cart looked like after I got done shopping in just their booth alone. I had to go and dump it out so that I could continue shopping. Needless to say, the day was a great success and I am thrilled that the season is back in full swing again. I missed all of my sweet vendors, and you know what? I even missed the grumpy ones too, and I find that as long as I keep a smile on my face, all is good.

I hope you enjoyed my little jaunt, and I hope that you will pop over to my shop and check out all of my treasures. I will be posting them starting this evening....

Enjoy!

XO~

Sanya