Through the front door...Sisters Garden and Bloom...

Walking into Sister's Garden always sets the heart a flutter...Barb has the most extraordinary way with a setting, it let's your imagination run wild...

A walk into the front door of Bloom, has the same magical effect...the WOW factor at work...

Farm cupboards everywhere...and birds and blooms...

Maltese crosses and pretty pink posies...

...in the upstairs at Bloom is a corner of a child's dreams, with summer toys and furniture fit for a Princess...

Out the backdoor of Bloom is a shaded patio to cool your spirits and make you dream of that home in the country...I have that bit of paradise...how 'bout you...

Expansion...already...???

Do you remember this lil' shop across the street from our shop...Broomin Sisters, well the owner Cheryl and Lorie and myself have concocted a solution to our dwindling space and her need for more display areas for her yarn product and floral designs...share the space...

How novel you say and with Lorie's decision to move to Palo...soon...it would fill the gap in the hours we are both able to work at the shop. Everyone in this little community is trying their derndest to get this town back to where it was before the flood and with neighbor helping neighbor the task of rebuilding has begun.

A totally different side of the creative energies, as Lorie and I fill Broomin Sisters with a kaleidoscope of interior decor...the possibilities are endless...and the expansion will help me pull the candle/soap business into full force as more room is allotted for candle display.

A thriving candle biz in a growing community near a huge, ever-expanding city like Cedar Rapids, is the catalyst for pulling in local and repeat customers at all times of the year...a steady clientele.

Cheryl's wonderful floral designs and 'Gerty' knitted fashions will expand into the line she always dreamed of for her shop.

...her personal style and our insatiable appetite for trash...I mean neat stuff...er antiques...will pull another dimension into this delightful little shop and Cheryl will have more freedom to design.

Check out Cheryl's web site and read the story of how Broomin' was created and how Lorie and I will fit right into the profile...

Broomin...a feeling, an experience...
Sisters...well, you know the meaning...

Griffin Antiques and Art...Palo, Iowa...

If you enjoy 'folk art', you will love Palos' newest antique shop...Griffin's Antiques and Art. Dave Griffin is also executive director of the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, which is a non-profit after school organization offering a wide variety of classes, such as dance, drama, art, writing and music.

Add his love of primitive folk art and you have a fun shop and studio, Dave fondly calls the shop 'his office'. Altered art made out of seemingly collected pieces of old junk, dot the newly refurbished Palo bank building, also where Dave will hold classes. This building is beautifully restored and is worth the trip to Palo.

David is also having an open house this Saturday, it's something I won't miss, how 'bout you guys...come to Palo!

Just what are glory dayz...

THAR BE BEES.....

All three of these shots are individual bees soaking up the nectar of the coneflowers...I haven't had any bee activity for 3 years...this to me is a glory day, even as the aerial spraying for corn-bore moths continues in the fields around me and the herbicide and pesticides are lavished on the fields through irrigation rigs...life pulls through regardless of our death wishes...


...when a day of shopping goes well...closeups can be seen on the 'White' blog...

...and the Earth wears her fluffy crown of supremacy...all is glory on a country road somewhere in Iowa...

Welcome summer to the country...

White wicker on front porches sends messages clear and sound...
summer's again upon us and all 'round laughter's found...

...while porches and sunrooms spring to life, red geraniums announce to the world...SUMMER...

...harvest tables and church pews long for the dinner bells of summer...buttery sweet corn and ripe red tomatoes drizz'ling down my chin...

...let's catch butterflies and katydids and while away the hours...

...on a powder blue chest of drawers, bouquets of hyacinth await a cooling waft of summer...

...a cascade of yo yos hanging in a summer breeze...

...come on...let's play in the country...Sister's Garden & Bloom...

Shadow Shot Sunday...the fabric of sweet repose......

simple fabrics sewn for a nation
the fabric of freedom
fabric of separation
fabric of determination
the fabric of sweet repose
out of the shadow of tyranny
a simple woman sews my heritage
do you remember
where a Mother's tears were shed
on distant shores
or hallow'd grounds
the new Americas
yes, land of the free
certainly home of the brave
I remember thee
my wish for thee is clear and pure
this freedom of heart
and soul
and country
and faith in a future
shall be spread all 'cross these lands

let freedom ring
from shore to shore
from brother to brother
and soul to soul
all 'cross these hearts
Earth
my home sweet home
on this Independence Day


S.Wilson


As we remember our independence here in the states, let's not forget that freedoms are still only a promise all over this globe, many suffer for the word FREEDOM, something we take for granted here in the USA, but it's meaning grows deep...we are still struggling from tyranny...let us remember what we fight for...freedom for ALL humanity...we are all family...

So head on over to Harriet's house for more shadows...and Happy Freedom USA...

A Granny's pride...sweet dude...

Kids...what are ya gonna do...my daughter Piper and Grandson Jerid...I wonder where they get their foolishness from...

My Grandson is an avid skateboarder, has been since a wee lad. We've been through all the boo boos you go through(should've invested n 'Band-aid' stocks) the cuts , the scrapes, the bruises...even the hollowed fame of being the first broken bone on the newly built skate park in our lil' burg...

But Jerid quit his factory job to do the job of his dreams, working in the newly built Zumiez skateboard shop in the Coralridge Mall in Iowa City...he's in paradise...a huge pay and hour cut...but who knows what may come...and you know, that dream job only comes around once in a life...so why not ride the wave...

My Grandson, the salesman...and like his Mom and Grandmom and Great Grandmom, he's a natural salesman...before you know it you've bought out the store...a new life begins...

IT'S TIGHT...

Transformers...

This lil' smoking stand has been stripped and no finish put back on it...and I like it just the way it is...no more transforming...SWEET!...and on it's way to Palo...

A beautiful focal piece to any one's home, this sweet server/buffet has the cutest lines to it and now it can be see at Sister's Garden, along with the other black set...

See...some may have loved the finish, but the end product is wonderful...as is, the piece would not work in most homes, the top was scared and in dire need of work, so decisions were made...

Cute, but rough, this pair of bedroom end tables can now be used as sofa tables or anything for extra storage...

TA DA...again the black has transformed rough finishes into pieces of designer furniture, brought back from mediocrity to style...going to Sisters'...

Sweet lil' farm chair, I love that the back of the chair has heart carvings in it...how cute is that...a McCoy cream pitcher, an old bird house, a neat old scale and of course, Mary...all heading to Palo this Saturday and yes, I will be open on the 4th...why not!!!

Remember...

Remember my lil' shadow shot picture of my fledgling corn patch...

Well...this is what it looked like after the straight-line winds went through before a nasty thunderstorm a few weeks back...

Well, since my cup is always half full, I diligently went out and stood each stalk back up...now mind you, if this was 300 acres, that wouldn't have happened...but I have never grown corn before. The 'X' always said it takes up too much room...especially when all of his friends and relatives raised sweetcorn that we can go pick anytime...I see his point, BUT...

My patch is more of an ornamental thing, kinda a privacy fence to curb the drone of the 4-lane in my back yard and give me the privacy that I crave until the money comes in to continue building my privacy fence.

But...if I should get a few ears of sweet Iowa corn, I'll be happy as a lark...plus this is the area that was trenched for the septic system, so it will have to be prepped anyway...so hopefully the storms will stay at bay for a while anyway. It's something we are getting used to in the heartland, the ever increasing storms of extreme destruction.

Global warming perhaps....

A sister, a true friend of the soul...

The darling yellow cottage of a dear, dear friend...

You can walk all 'round the grounds and find the most beautifully groomed Victorian gardens in the lil' village of Lone Tree, don't ya just love the name of the town...

A close-up of the porch, with it's aqua porch posts, that harbor the multitude of flora, that partner Bill, dreads dragging in for the winter...

Cathie collects Victorian pillow covers, isn't it grand in front of one of her lampshade creations...

One of Cathie's peacock windows and a lampshade this talented artist has created and a part of her collection of plaster busts that adorn the home in every corner.

This is Grandma...poke in a quarter and she will read your fortune. For all of you familiar with the Iowa City area back in the day, 'Things and Things', was one of those early head shops that had all the coolest hippy, up-beat stuff for our day. Cool clothes and shoes, incense, candles and just plain cool stuff, everybody went there...ahhh the days...but when they closed the doors, Cathie and bill snatched this piece and she now rests in their parlor, how cool is this!


The love of the Victorians is everywhere in her parlor...click for close-ups of a bird's eye view...

A true sister of the soul, Cathie and I share the love of 'the strange', we both love stuffed frog bands, I sold her my collection and she found this awesome old jewelry display, which was a perfect display piece for the boys in the band...our creation of lampshades brought these two ol' hippies together many years ago, as she found me in my first shop, we became instant fast friends...

Then there's Cecil, sorry the picture is a little blurry, but this big bird crowns a newel post at the entrance to her solarium and is one of my earlier taxidermy pieces that I mounted for Cathie. We both love the look of the chickens, although I have sold all of mine...some day, they will roam the grounds of the pink chateau...and chicken dinners will be served again...

Sorry Cecil...

I love you girl!!!