Mullein & wreaths

It's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, so I went scavenging down the hedgerow & got down and dirty digging up some mulleins to replant in my gardens. I LOVE the fuzzy texture of the huge leaves and the super oversized stalks when they bloom. We'll find out later how I did, because they grow with a tap root, so I might lose some.
Today's cookie choice was Russian Teacakes, which I quickly froze or I would eat them all! Just a few more batches to go, but I keep finding some great recipes off Pinterest! Follow me!
I made several wreaths today and here's a sampling:

Brick red and Creamy Bellflowers with red berries encircle an 18 inch hogbrush wreath

This lavendar is faux, but looks good enough to scratch and sniff on an 18 inch Hogbrush Wreath!

Coral Posies and Berries are designed on a 10 inch grapevine for a rustic wreath with a homespun bow.

These wreaths will all be available at the Open House and will soon be listed on etsy and my website at www.fireflygardensbypam.etsy.com and www.fireflygardensbypam.com

See you there!  

Rainy Cookie Day

Today was a dreary rainy Sunday & we SO needed the rain, that I didn't even mind! I baked two batches of cookies for the upcoming Open House, and have several more to go. Today's cookies of the day were  Lime Meltaways by Martha Stewart and Cream Cheese Press Cookies from my Mom & Gram. Gram baked a batch of Toll House cookies almost every day of her adult life and was always so generous with her many visitors. So, when I am baking cookies it's kind f like a visit with Gram. And that's a very good thing.

Website Live!

Please visit my website - it's FINALLY live!!!! www.fireflygardensbypam.com
It was a long, challenging adventure for me and I had loads of help, so thanks to all. Postcards went out today for Open House, and the count down has begun. My to-do list seems to get longer everyday instead of shorter! And my head is filled with ideas! Here's a few "new" items I listed on my etsy shop at www.FireflyGardensByPam.etsy.com and my website today.

This has Lime Hydrangeas and purple berries with striped zebra grass.

I adore the somewhat homely sepia vintage pix on the "Smile Pretty Please" heart shaped wreath box. Wonder if she wore these vintage kid leather gloves (offered under Vintage on my etsy shop only)?  

Open House Products

Here are some products that will ONLY be offered at our Mom's Day Open House (May 11th & 12th from 9-4). For more info you can email me at pam@fireflygardens.com

I promised pix of Curly Willow & here they are! They make into kind of wonderfully wild & woolly OOAK wreaths (that might be a challenge to ship)!

This one is freeform and I used strips of homespun to contain it a bit! Eveyone I do turns out different and takes on a character, size and shape of it's own!

I used a small grapevine wreath base to wire on branches of curly willow and it makes for a wreath that needs some space so it can spread out the spidery looking branches! I could see this on the side of a barn. Again, each one takes on it's own unique character, which is really cool to see as it is created and takes shape.    

These sweet bird's nest topiaries are done in  a grey clay pot and have a bit of burlap or homespun added to them. You can't see it, but buttons are added to the nests to complement the design colors. Perfect choice for a naturalist.

More products will follow - Keep looking!

Mulching and Martins

So far, I've put down 2 yards of mulch around our house flowers beds and have two more to do in the herb garden. One month to the Mother's Day Open House and the to-do list seems like it will take longer to-do than just one month!  Somehow it all seems to come together. This is just a small section of the herb garden where I gather many of the items that I will use in my wreaths and designs. The beauty of the herbs is that they not only are lovely in floral arrangements, but they smell good, too!

As a bit of a surprise the purple martins arrived a little early this year (see Don's Martin Houses below), which is always an exciting day in our household. For those who are "in the know" it is a bit of a challenge to get martins to your property.  I get to listen to their pretty songs while I work in my herb garden and enjoy their flight patterns as they do their job in lessening our very robust insect population.



Heart wreaths with bows

I'm not normally into hearts or bows, but I had the cherry branches from a felled tree, so I made the wreath forms, and somehow I guess I just think a bow kinda goes hand-in-hand with a heart, so there we are. I have several in my etsy shop & you can check them out at www.fireflygardensbypam.etsy.com . If I had to say, I think my fav heart with bow is the one I call Mended Heart, because the sorry little expression on this guy just breaks your heart.

Greenwich Yacht Club

As I was working feverishly Friday evening, 4/6/12, the Greenwich Yacht Club held it's first Bridge meeting for 2012 in our kitchen. This was also Don's first meeting as Commodore, and by all counts the meeting went well. We have a busy season ahead of us, and we are all looking forward to it. Let's hope for clear skies, some wind and very few biting insects. Sailing is a passion of ours and during sailing season you'll find us on the Cohansey heading to the Delaware Bay most every Sunday. Check out the yacht club website for "Don & Pam on Apparition" (pix by Carol H.) at www.gycnj.com. This is Don while we were cruising the Chesapeake a couple of years ago. Good times!

Full Moon

Friday, April 6, 2012 was the full moon, and with the graphics of my blog, I would be remiss if I did not comment on it in some way. The graphics witch is named Griffin in memory of our beautiful chocolate lab, named Griffin, who we lost this past December at age 14. She was a true and loyal friend and we miss her every day, as we miss all of our beloved pets that we have lost over the years. Griffin was named so for several reasons. John Fenwick sailed the ship, the Griffin, in his explorations of North America and his eventual history with our hometown, Greenwich, NJ (get it - the Green Witch!). Plus, I love the gargolyle type griffin and have several in my gardens.

In this pix, one of our last of our Griffin-girl, she is the one with the white hair on the left and Fenwick is our 9 year old on the right.  

Grandfriends Day

I had the privilege of going to my granddaughter's second grade class on Monday for Grandfriends day. Each second grader had a grandfriend visit for lunch. We were served a lunch of chicken nuggets, green beans, rolls, chex mix and ice cream for dessert. Her teacher wanted us to bring a spring hat and something that reminded us of spring. Some of the spring things that we saw included baseballs, flowers, a turkey decoy, and a kite. This was a true quintessential country school experience and I am so blessed to be able to live here.

On Tuesday, I spent a large part of the day prepping my herb garden for spring by pulling weeds, which grew quite well with our very mild winter, and pruning off some dead branches of the many old and gnarly lavendar plants I have. New ones might look prettier, but the old twisted ones have character.   One of my fav products are gardening gloves by Foxgloves. I buy a new pair every year, and that's what I took to  Bella's class for my spring item. Here's Bella in my gardens listening to the sound of the ocean. I am able to gather many herbs from my garden and dry them for use in the wreaths that I make and sell. Visit me at www.fireflygardensbypam.etsy.com
      

Open House at Fairweather Gardens & Greenwich Talent Show and Annual Auction

Yesterday was a big day in the small town of Greenwich. I have the pleasure of working for Fairweather Gardens which is is a mail order nursery that specializes in specimen plants, trees, shrubs and perennials, and is only open to the public on designated days. Yesterday we had an Open House which was very well attended, even in the cooler damp weather! Gardeners are very hardy people! People had the option to "pre-order" at this event and we had them lined up, ready for pick-up. One of the big sellers of the days was this sweet "panda-faced" Asarum 'Ling-Ling'. You can find us at www.fairweathergardens.com  for a listing of future Open Houses.  

Last night my husband went to the Annual Talent Show and Auction held at the local school and benefitts the school's foundation, which does a great job with helping our kids! I decided to stay home after a cold long day at the nursery! Once again, it was an event well-attended and he came home decidedly impressed  by the quantity & quality of the donations and talent generated from our small town. You just gotta love country livin'!