Spring Turns to Summer

Summer is officially here. In our area - that means that hot, humid weather with little rain is here too. We had a great, rainy spring though that I am very thankful for. In an attempt to not get started on a soapbox, I will just quickly say that it irks me when people complain about the rain. Seriously??? Have you been in a hole the last few years when we were so low on water that you could walk across the lakes? and people were wondering where we were going to get water from? You won' t hear me complain about rain. ANYWAY-- enough of that.

Because of the great rains that we had this spring, my flowers have done a lot better this year. My Nana gave me some day lilies of hers a few years ago. The stellas are planted on a terrible bank that we have that is mostly rock. I started with those and the green part has done great, but the blooms rarely bloom. (So I guess that means they aren't blooms...oh well). A few years ago she gave me some other day lillies that I planted in another place in the yard, and they are beautiful this year after all the rain.

I am becoming more of my Nana everyday. I am in love with flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Garden of Love

Over a year ago, I read an interesting article in the Southern Living at Home magazine. It was about starting a flower bed in an area where the soil wasn't great without digging in the dirt. Basically you layered the ground with newspaper/cardboard, good soil, and some fertilizer. You had to let that settle for about 3 months and then you could plant. Well I did it. When it was time to plant last fall, it rained every weekend that I had free, so I never got the hosta garden planted. This spring my dad brought me a truck load of dirt and during spring break I finally got it planted. The pictures below show some of the progress. I wish I would have taken pics of the ground before I actually made it a bed. It was just a rocky, bare spot.

My Nana gave me some of her hostas. All of these in this picture came from her garden. There is something really special about that to me. When she gave them to me, she told me that would grow really quickly because they loved to be moved and split. I had no idea how quickly. They were NOT this big when I planted them. Most of them were just barely poking there heads out of the ground; some were still completely underground. This picture was one week after I planted them.


This picture is two weeks after they were planted. I was amazed at how quickly they were opening up.

And now, this picture was taken today. It has been 5 weeks and this is what they look like now. I absolutely love them. They make me happy; it's the small things in life I guess.


This picture is of a special hosta. My Nana's brother, Luke, sent it to me when she went to his house one day. Uncle Luke is battling cancer right now; it means a lot to have one of his hostas because he loves plants as much as Nana and I do.

A finally, this is my newest hosta. Nana found one that we didn't have, so of course she just had to have one; being spoiled, as we grandchildren are, she got me one too. This one is called praying hands.

Another addition to my "garden" is this gardenia that my cousin, Sarah, gave me yesterday. It smells soooo good. I hope I can keep it alive.

The beginning...

Well, it's official. I have started a blog. I hope that this is something that I will be able to keep up with, but we'll see. I'm afraid I may be a little too particular for this type of thing because I tend to want everything to be "just right", and I'm not sure I'll ever completely get the blog they way I want it.

The first obstacle that I faced in starting this little project was the name. A name's important, ya know? For two days I have thought about the name. I wanted the name to incorporate most all of what this blog is going to capture: stories, family, my quilting projects, gardening, "couponing", adventures, etc...

So Blooming Life Stories: A Blooming Life Quilted in Love, Hope, and Memories evolved. Despite tough days or problems I may face, my life is blooming. I have a husband that is awesome, a career that I enjoy, a family that is the best, and so many blessings that I can't even begin to list them all. Getting a plant to bloom takes love, attention, and hard work and my life is just like that. There are weeds to prune and droughts to endure, but in the end -- my life is blooming.

The blooming part of the title is also symbolic for my interest in gardening. It's a part of my heritage I think. My Nana can grow anything and always has beautiful flowers. I always took those for granted because she lived with us and somehow the yard was always magically filled with flowers. I appreciate those things much more now, and I have taken interest in soaking up all the knowledge I can from her. There will be many gardening stories I'm sure. I'll probably label them "I don't know, call Nana" because that's what my husband always says when I ask questions about flowers, cooking, etc...

My life has truly been quilted in love, hope, and fond memories which I am very thankful for. I hope to share these stories and document future memories in this blog as journal that I can keep. Too many times, we neglect writing down memories and wish later that we had.

I have also started quilting. I'll share the story of how this came up one day, but right now I'll just say that this has been adventure for sure. It's one of those things that you like the idea of doing but have no idea what you're doing, so once again, I'm learning and guess who I call?? Yep, Nana. (By the way, her name is not the usual pronunciation of Nana... It doesn't rhyme with banana; the "Na" part sounds more like the slang version of "No" as in "Na, I'm not going to go".)

Finally, this blog will not be about any one particular thing, but instead I plan to document many aspects of my life.