My phone has a decent camera and I can use Instagram…

Or not…

I like the effects on Instagram (top picture) but the pictures are smaller and that bugs me for some photos. The camera app that came with the phone has effects too, like cropping out bunny ears- if you look really closely you can see two tiny fingers behind my head- and the pictures are bigger.

All-in-all, I give the WordPress app a big thumbs up. I don’t think it would be good for a very wordy post but for blogging on the go, or for being stuck on the couch, it’s a great way to go.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Amy

Comfort from my seven year old is so sweet it makes my heart ache just a little.

I hope you all had a fabulous Mother’s Day.

Amy

It was lovely.

I’d like to introduce you to Rolling River Farm. It has 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 4 half baths, is 10, 495 sq. ft., sits on 23 + acres,  has it’s own basketball court and is listed for just under 6 million.

I love this staircase.

The library

This magnificent home was an addition to an historic log home. This living room is part of the original house.

The kitchen

I love this house for many reasons, not the least of which is that it sits on over 23 acres. The basketball court would make a great workout room or volleyball court. I don’t exactly love basketball although I played in high school. That was mostly (all) to work off the vast quantities of Christmas cookies I’d inhaled during Christmas break. So maybe fill half with workout equipment and the other half could be used for half court basketball games? I think Travis would like that.

You can click this link for the photos of the whole house and property. Enjoy!

P.S. Have I ever mentioned how much I *love* Franklin? Because I really, really love Franklin

First up we have hydrangeas! The hydrangeas I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked. I decided I do. Travis bought a Forever and Ever pink hydrangea for me because he knows I’d rather have a plant that lasts for years than a bouquet that lasts a week or two. A couple of days later, I was at Costco and they had  Blue Nikko hydrangeas for $10.98, which is practically a steal, so I bought two.

When I first bought them the buds looked like this.

It’s not terribly impressive. And, honestly, if I hadn’t been purchasing them at Costco I probably wouldn’t have bought them. They have a reputation for quality plus a generous return policy. Thankfully I didn’t have to take them back because look at them now!

I love them very much. I wish they’d stay this light blue color but Nikko Blue gets pretty bright I think. Christy pointed out in the comments section of my “Spring” post that it depends on the ph of your soil and she’s right. So I did some digging and found that blueberries and blue hydrangeas like more acidic soil which can be adjusted by using coffee grounds. That same night I dreamed of coffee, coffee grounds, blueberries and hydrangeas over and over and over, all night long. By morning I was very grumpy and couldn’t have cared less about the whole thing. Thankfully the dreams subsided and I now like coffee, blueberries and hydrangeas again. Mmmmm…coffee.

And I also bought a blueberry bush. Well, she’ll be a bush when she grows up. Meet, Brigitta. I didn’t name her, that’s her variety. But it seems to suit her well.

I still need a Bluecrop for pollination purposes. I have another blueberry in my garden but I don’t know what variety it is. In fact, I wasn’t even completely sure that it was a blueberry until it bloomed this year,  I might have gotten a few berries but we had a freeze that killed the blooms. I think all-in-all we’ll have enough blueberries from this bush for each of the Buttons to have 2-3 berries each. If I’ve learned anything from gardening it’s patience…from lots and lots of waiting.

This will also be the first summer since our very first in this house that I’m planting sunflowers. Sunflowers grow here every year but that’s from the seeds that birds drop. This season I’m cleaning out all the sunflowers from my garden bed so that I can grow herbs and whatnot.

So, I’ve weeded and added composted manure so that I can add the herbs. And I’m in the process of digging out an area in the yard to plant the sunflowers. I’ll still get a privacy screen for summer and I’ve started seeds for several different varieties.

Before I started digging I wet the area using a sprinkler. Here in TN we have clay that’s rock hard when it’s dry. Here’s a little tip if you try this- don’t get the area too wet. If you do you’ll be sloshing around in mud that sticks to everything. Shoes, shovel, hands, clothes…it’s a big mess.

Here’s progress.

It may not look like a lot but it takes time to do that much digging. And I found a rock! As soon as I hit it with my shovel I was disappointed. My next thought was, “That’s going to be an amazing feature!” I get excited about big rocks I guess. I grew up in Florida and all we had was sand. No rocks. No hills. Just sand. The girls and I swept and washed and tried to uncover more of it and I think it will be pretty in my sunflower garden. I still have *far* to go. I also have to dig out the area where I’ll be planting the hydrangeas. Which means I will be a sweaty, hot, dirty mess on Saturday. I’m totally looking forward to it!

The seeds I’m planting couldn’t wait until I’m done digging and amending the planting area though so I bought a seed starter kit.

They have “super growing pellets” which I’ve had some experience with but wasn’t super impressed. I really just wanted a divided off area that I could easily see all the seedlings and easily transplant them. I decided to use the pellets since I bought them and my skepticism was well founded. I added warm water like I was supposed to and this was the result.

Some of them absorbed very little water, some slipped sideways and some did what they were supposed to. It was a lot more work than just scooping some soil into the cells, which is how I topped these off. I like the cells because I needed to start the seeds now but the “super growing pellets” are a waste of time. Today though, I woke up to this.

I started some other seeds in different containers and they’ve sprouted too.

They’re a purplish color and I can’t wait to see how they grow up! I’ve planted a hybrid mix, Citrus, Mammoth and Chianti. I’ve also got some seeds that I harvested from the first ones I ever planted but I can’t remember the variety.

I also wrote the type of flower and how tall they get on the outside of the container in hopes that I can plant them in a decent order height wise.

And that will do it for today. I realize that not everybody is as fascinated with growing things as I am so thank you for humoring me. My Mom says I get it from her Mom. I didn’t know her very well but I’ve heard enough stories to know that taking after her is a good thing. So how about you? What are you growing this summer?

This past year Elizabeth and her husband, Micah, celebrated their {re}Wedding and Elizabeth worked hard to find just the right items for every part of the ceremony. From old lamps to typewriters, brooches to moss, every single detail had her stamp on it.

So, without further ado, meet my friend, Elizabeth. In this photo, she’s wearing the dress and necklace that she made for her wedding. She really is incredibly talented.

This is the bouquet she made for herself, it includes many brooches and if you look closely you’ll see a typewriter key as well.

This is a hollowed out pocket watch that Elizabeth made with her son who was to be their ring bearer.

And here is her daughter’s bouquet made with typewriter keys that spell out her name and an old clock face.

In addition to wedding things, Elizabeth also makes jewelry for sale.

You can find Elizabeth on Facebook here. She often sells things locally but can do special orders as well and you can contact her through her facebook page for that.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Artist Spotlight. You can find my previous Artist Spotlight on Ginny Celoria here. And, again, you can find Elizabeth’s story at her blog, behanrewedding.blogspot.com.

Here we have islands in red…

BHG.com

Orange…

BHG.com

Yellow…

BHG.com

Green…

Coastal Living.com

BHG.com

Blue…

Coastal Living.com

Indigo…

And Violet…

The Luxe Home.com

And there you have it, kitchen islands in all the colors of the rainbow. I can’t believe I found one in violet. What are you dreaming of for this weekend?

Sort of.

I sat the packs of muffins on the kitchen island which meant that anytime I did anything in the kitchen I had beautiful, gluten-full muffins staring me in the face. As the day wore on I began scowling at the muffins every time I walked by. I was starting to get the impression that I hadn’t bought those muffins for Travis and the girls at all. Apparently I’d purchased them because it was I that wanted muffins.

Dangit.

After considering and scowling at those muffins for an entire day and a half, I decided that I needed to make some sort of baked good. I checked my Pamela’s mix bag and I had barely over 1 cup of mix left. Drat! I could have made pancakes but I didn’t want pancakes, I wanted muffins! So I checked my bag of Cup 4 Cup, a gluten free flour that I haven’t talked about yet here at The Button Casa, and I had two full cups of flour. Surely I could make something with 2 cups, right? So I went through some recipes I had in a folder and I found a blueberry muffin recipe that had turned out great with regular flour and it required the 2 cups of flour that I happened to have on hand.

I think it was meant to be.

The really great thing is that while these were fabulous when I made them gluten free, my non-gluten free friends can make them too. Just use your favorite flour.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour (or all purpose flour if you don’t want gluten free muffins)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries

You can find Cup 4 Cup flour at Williams Sonoma exclusively. It’s a little pricey- $19.95 for 3 lbs.- but it’s by far the best flour I’ve worked with. I’ve used others to make things like pizza dough and it honestly felt like I was working with sand and the texture of the finished product tasted like a biscuit. When Travis tasted these muffins he said he couldn’t tell the difference between the ones I made and regular muffins…except these tasted better I think I’ll keep him around a while.

Mmmmm…..muffins.

If you click the link for the muffins you’ll notice that these are supposed to have streusel. Well, when I made them before I realized that the streusel recipe isn’t very good and since I was out of flour at this point anyway I just topped them with raw sugar.

And there you have it, gluten free blueberry muffins. Enjoy!

It’s gotten me thinking about who I was when she was born and who I am now. It’s made me think about my circumstances then and the amazing amount of love that she brought into my life. It’s that love that made me care about what happened to me. Because whatever happened to me also happened to her and I couldn’t let anything hurt her. It’s because of Amanda that I went to college. I had to take care of her and get us off the merry-go-round to nowhere. People saw me as strong but what they didn’t know was that my strength came from a tiny little person with blonde hair and blue eyes that loved me completely. What I hoped for her then was that she’d grow up strong, happy, and healthy. Looking back on it now I fully realize that I should never have been able to navigate those circumstances without divine guidance, without divine wisdom. I was far too young and far too hurt to make the right choices myself.

I look at her now and I’m so filled with thankfulness. She and I navigated many rough waters together and what has she grown up to be? She has overcome  many obstacles and  much adversity and what I see in her now is grace. I’m not proud of her because of what she’s accomplished, I admire who she’s become. She loves deeply. She is unbelievably loyal. She loves God with her whole heart and she’s walking out his plan for her life. In all the doors that God has opened for her this semester at school she’s not filled with pride but fully recognizes that God has given her favor and has opened the doors she’s walking through.

I miss her so much. But I wouldn’t trade having her close in proximity for God’s plan for her life. I don’t know fully what God’s plan for her at SEU is but I do know she’s growing. She’s being stretched. She’s getting stronger, building stamina, and every day she’s changing.

Our life now is a far cry from the place we started. And I couldn’t be more thankful.

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Love,

Mom

Reblogged from The Button Casa:

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My last post gave me some inspiration to tackle two things that drive me crazy here at the Button Casa. The kitchen island and next to the microwave.

I cleaned this up a lot before I took a picture of the mess. Usually the fruit basket has a newspaper, bills,  hand cream, a pack of gum or various other odds and ends.

Read more… 822 more words

I'm re-blogging this today for Tabitha at Debt Free Decorating. She's doing a series on organizing here: http://debtfreedecorating.wordpress.com