In the Garden...

Come stroll through my garden with me...

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This Rose of Sharon, or Althea, as my Grandma Collier called it



(Hibiscus syriacus, actually) ~



is a "daughter" of the one(s) in Grandma's yard from almost 50 years ago...



(it's really two different-colored varieties combined in one clump).



My mom took off-shoots to her house, then moved them with her twice more.



Three years ago on my birthday, I told my children that all I wanted was for



them to move the shrub from Mom's last home (I got permission from the new owner)



to my yard. It was quite an undertaking, but they did it!



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One of my favorite things to "pretend" when I was little,



was that the Althea blossoms were little Faerie ball gowns...



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Who would have guessed that 50 years later I'd be making shoes to match?



Hmmm...now, do these go best with the pink or white gown?



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I know ~ the white blossom makes the perfect petticoat!



What do you think?



Fae-approved, I believe.



(BTW, if anyone else wants to play, I'll have more Faerie Shoes in my Etsy shop next week!)



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My friend Elaine started my growing (no pun intended) obsession with Daylilies a few years back



by sending me these, which have multiplied greatly!



This is called Decatur "Cherry Smash"...



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This gorgeous pale peach ruffled Day Lily is called "Land of Cotton";



given to me by Elaine as well, in "honor" of the region ~



my current yard and garden were a cotton field just a few years ago!



It smells heavenly (more so in the evening) ~ like honeysuckle!



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(If Grandma had grown Daylilies, I'm sure these would 



have made lovely gowns as well...ruffly underskirts built-in!)



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A little visitor to "Land of Cotton"... think he was whistling Dixie?

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One more Day Lily...this one is "Star Dream"...such a beautiful, sunny yellow!



Thank you, Elaine!



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Pretty in pink...

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A bee in the Pentas!



This is my first year for growing this pretty perennial, and I am quite impressed!



They are holding up extremely well in the heat ~ they seem to thrive in it ~



just as the petunias are pooping-out on me...



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I first thought this was just a "regular" Bumblebee,



but I looked it up, and it's an Eastern Carpenter Bee,



which makes sense, as he (or she), along with some friends, have been



doing a little (ahem) work on my wooden trellis...



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I kept getting closer and closer with my phone's camera!



It was okay; the bee was much more interested in the yummy Pentas!



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Honeybees love Echinacea!



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Another little pollinator!



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Yellow Floribunda "Julia Child".



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Clematis "Will Goodwin"

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Pretty Astilbe...I used to have such an abundance of shade,



and now it's just the opposite...



I have only one little (day long) shady area!



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"Next window, please!"



My vintage bank teller's window (circa 1900) is being engulfed in Cypress Vines...



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My flower border...I planted it really thickly (and thinned very little)



to try and have the flowers "crowd out" the weeds...



We'll see how this works as the season progresses ~



Maybe a good idea, maybe I should have thinned!



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I'm really loving the large "Cactus Flower" Zinnias...



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Pentas, pretty little "Heart" (on some blossoms) petunias,



and Verbena "Wicked"...wicked cool, huh?



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The herb garden...



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A gift from daughter Katie two years ago...Butterfly Bushes ~ they've gotten huge!



(They would have been even bigger had we not had such a cold winter; I had to trim a lot...)



I love the honey-wine (mead) fragrance (and so do the bees)!



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Tuberoses, tuberoses, tuberoses...



I get more excited over these beauties than I can even tell you!



Maybe I'll have flowers by next week!



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More garden visitors ~ tiny...



an itsy-bitsy snail...



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And BIG!



This is a female Eastern Hercules Beetle (also called Rhinoceros Beetle or Unicorn Beetle



because of the male's big "horn") ~



They can grow to nearly 3 inches long! This one measures 2 inches.



You can read more about them here.



(Son Jon found this one at work today and brought her home for me to see...



we'll let her go after we observe her for a bit!)



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The Waved Sphinx Moth...Ceratomia undulosa.



A subspecies with an undulating wing pattern instead of the more commonly seen



banded wings. Look at those colors!! Even a tiny bit of Cerulean Blue!



(On our porch this afternoon...flew away after the "close-up".)



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Arachnophobes....avert your eyes!



Believe me, I was so "arachnophobic" for most of my life...



and I'm still not entirely fearless, but I am trying to look at spiders in general in a new light...



I'm striving for "enlightenment", if you will.



I take harmless spiders outside in a paper towel instead of killing them...



Exception: Brown Recluses (Satan's spawn).



We even have Black Widows around quite often...they like to hide in rock and



wood-piles, and I'm careful not to reach into something like that where I can't see...



they're really shy, however ~ not aggressive like the dreaded "BR". (Shudder.)



I digress, though... I was weeding in the herb garden and saw this spider;



at first glance she looked furry ~ then I took a closer look and saw that the "fur"



was all her little grayish, semi-transparent babies, hanging on for dear life...



How cool is that? You can read about her here, at the Missouri Department



of Conservation's website.



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A little Southern Leopard Frog, resting on a hosta!



Such a beautiful little creature...look at the metallic-gold eyes!



(Click on the name to read about them at the Missouri Department of Conservation's site.)



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A little American Toad.



My son Jon is The Toad Whisperer. 



When he started his summer job, he was told that one particular employee was



the "resident toad-killer".



How awful!! Mosquitoes would carry us away if not for little fellows like him!



So, Jon has been relocating as many as possible to our toad-friendly



yard and garden...



(My spaghetti pot contained about 20 relocatees one night last week!)



I washed it, don't worry.



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Oh, one last visitor!



A particularly furry one!



Cyrus had actually never been outside and "down" before...



(he is "fluffy" enough that I was pretty sure I could catch him if he ran...but he didn't...)



He sniffed the herb-pots on the patio and looked around for a few minutes,



then decided it was time to go back inside...like, now.



"Outside was nice, Mom...I've seen all there is to see...now let's go back in!"



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We have a winner for the little Cheshire-Cat rock!



Elizabeth, of "Life at Hilltop"...

(she has a great blog; click the link or check it out over on my sidebar!)



Chessie will be coming your way, Dear!



Also linking to Beverly's Pink Saturday ~ it's been a while!



Love,

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Mad Tea Party 2014!

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Hello!!

Happy "Mad Tea Party! ~ (I got the correct date this year!)



Linking with Vanessa's ( www.afancifultwist.typepad.com ) 



Seventh-Annual Alice-Inspired Extravaganza!



(Thank you, Vanessa!)

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I had such fun arranging things just so... 

(Who says one must grow up?)

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Here are Red Queen 1 and Red Queen 2 ~

They'll be your hostesses today...

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Presiding over their table...won't you join them?

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Earl Grey or Constant Comment?

I inherited these three pretty tea cups and saucers from my Grandma Launius...

She collected them for years...



 (Grandpa made her a very cool display shelf, which we still have).

In later years when she could no longer stay alone and went to live with her

sister (Aunt Bertha), she wanted to return to the givers many



of the cup and saucer sets she had received as gifts over the years...



 a little remembrance.

But first, she had me choose my favorites.

(Those folks just didn't get their gifts returned!)

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What would she think of my tea party and her cups with "Drink Me" tags?

I think she would be delighted!

We had tea often, the two of us (sometimes we invited Grandpa)...

choosing two (or three, sometimes) of her beautiful cups from the shelf.

Grandma would approve.

But, I digress! This is a Mad Tea Party!

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I decorated the sugar cubes with tiny bits of icing...fun!

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I got my little red paperback "Alice" in my Christmas stocking one year...

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Isn't this just the cutest little teapot finial?

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Gorgeous sunny yellow day lilies (a gift from my dear friend Elaine)

hold court over the tea table...

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A Lilliputian cake!

I added a little more icing decor, and of course the roses...

(I was actually going to use sprigs of Vinca and Hydrangea, but I looked them up

and they were a no-no...toxic). You can eat roses, if you want!

(But we didn't.)

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Queenie-Approved.

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"I'm late, I'm late!..."

This bunny was carved years ago by my friend Jerry Smith...

I know I probably shouldn't have tampered with Jerry's artistic expression,

but I'll have to admit that this fellow's jacket has been many different colors

over the years as my decor has changed!

I thought he would like to join the party, and he fits right in...

he's a little Mad, too...;)

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Looking toward the herb garden and the setting sun.



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Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, softened at room temperature

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy (do not over-beat);

Gradually add sugar, beating well.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined. Crack eggs into a bowl first before adding to the mixture, to make sure you avoid getting shells in the cake mix.

Sift 3 cups of flour. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan.

Smooth the top of the cake or bottom of the cake (depending on how you look at it) with a spatula to even it out.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack. 

(The cake will have a crusty layer on the bottom that you can trim off if you want to.)

That's it! Enjoy!

Here is my Cheshire-Cat-on-a-Rock Tutorial!

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Basics...

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Chessie is a very TOOTHY fellow...I didn't realize just how much so until



I started putting in all these wicked little teeth!



And....Voila!



I'll give my Cheshire Kitty away next weekend;



Leave a comment and he might be coming your way!



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One more thing..."Mini" Faerie Houses!



They'll be in my Etsy Shop tomorrow.



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That Crazy Cemetery Lady

Hi, everyone!

 My daughter Mandy told me I shouldn't apologize for my absence



 every time I start a blog post now, so I'll just thank you all for checking



on me and show you what I've been up to...

(I haven't forsaken A Little Fur in the Paint, I just have such a one-track



 mind sometimes...okay, a lot of the time) ~

 I have a passion for cemetery photography, which started out



as "just the pretty angels" and evolved into history,



 and photographing (often) some of the most humble stones

 imaginable...so, on my travels north to Saint Charles, Missouri



 to see Mandy and south to Atlanta to see Katie, I've visited quite a few



 cemeteries ~ large and small, some multiple times. I've pretty much kept it



 "under wraps" until now, 

as I wanted to get all the pictures...a LOT...on, and then go back and put

 in text and informational links ~ I'm working on all that but there



 are still several with no text, and even some post titles with nothing at all so far...

 Still, I wanted to go ahead and share it; it is and will continue to be



 a "Work in Progress"...hey, kind of like me. ;)

 I'm applying for "Graveyard Rabbit" status today



 (a group dedicated to preservation of cemeteries), 

and I would love it if you would take a peek!

 The link is www.agraveyardrabbitinsemo.blogspot.com  ~ 

but I will also put it permanently in the sidebar



and note when I have a new post there.

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 This lovely angel (yes, I'm still drawn to "pretty") resides



 in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville;



 I just recently found her, having visited Mount Olivet several times



previously (always new discoveries)...

I said I was going to bring roses on my return trip (best $4 Walmart buy in a while) 

and do something "arty", so I did.

 I'm still working on this post, so you won't find her in A Graveyard Rabbit 

(be sure and check out the poem on the blog's sidebar



 for the explanation for that title) just yet.

 Soon, though! 

 Thank you for looking, Happy July,



and I hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far!

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My Helper...

Good evening, everyone!

 Can you believe it, another post so soon?

 I'm still making little fairy-shoes and houses,

but I just had to show you how I work...

 ♥ ♥ ♥

 I just don't have the heart to move her...

 'Lulah loves being on my lap...

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 Have a good night, all!



 Love,

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Queens of Hearts...♥

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Happy Monday, everyone! 



It still looks very Valentine-y here, doesn't it?



I'll fix that soon...;)

 I just wanted to take a minute to show you my finished

Queens~of~Hearts...

 (Now in my Etsy shop).

 They were such fun! 

 Now on to the next project, some little "mini" Fairy Houses... 

 Made just like the larger versions,

but on the small gourds like my little Queens.

 Pics of those soon!

 The kitties love it when I have stuff everywhere...

 (When do I not??) 

 They stalk around like lions, sniffing everything ~

 It doesn't even have to be "new" stuff

(though if it is, so much the better).

 It just has to be moved to a different location in the house



 for it to be prime sniffing-material...;)

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A Queen and her Tarts...(with a Flamingo friend).

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""Family" photo!



Have a great week, all!



Love,

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