OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY: 4th OF JULY AT THE LAKEHOUSE

We celebrated 4th of July up at the cottage with the Irish side of the family. Although our renovations are not yet completed, everyone had a warm bed and a meal on the table. I went on a scavenger hunt for cheap patriotic decor and much to my delight, The Dollar Tree had just about everything I was looking for. I noticed many of the same items out there in blogland and was tempted to go back a second time after spotting some things I missed!!

Emily was in "Future Interior Designer" delirium, playing with the red, white and blue garland, stars and flags. It's hard to tell in some of these pictures but she managed to make her mark on just about everything. She also rearranged some furniture and cleaned out my linen closet.

Food was aplenty. These pictures may not look very cohesive as I was using Emily's camera and most of the time she wouldn't let me have it. Difficult children. Above are my nieces, Grace and Trish, posing in front of a more healthy treat compared to some of the rest. The dip for fruit is made with marshmallow fluff and cream cheese. If you haven't had it before, let me know and I will post the recipe. It is wonderful.

Meals were simple; hamburgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, and chicken on the grill. We also had pasta salad, potato salad and Papa's tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad. Although there was an abundance of fruit available, I lost all sense of control and had banana bread and sour cream donuts every morning for breakfast. Holidays are about food, right? I haven't weighed myself since I got home.

We like our bonfires. You can't see the bonfire since I only took pictures of the people around the bonfire. Here is Emily and Mike, her boyfriend.

Mike, Papa and brother~in~law Marty's leg.

A picture of The Husband and Emily. I can't remember if this was before or after she showed him her new nose ring. Must be before~they look civil.

Grace and Trish playing on our beach.

"And my third wish is that I could stay here forever!"

Fun on the boat. For some reason Emily set the color on the camera to sepia. Not a great idea when you are on blue water under a blue sky. Above, Abby and sister~in~law Megan.

No more sepia!! The happy passengers!

Emily

The Husband and Trish...

...or the Captain and First Mate!

And my favorite boating pastime: looking at the beautiful lake houses!

We moved on to the wave runners. Note the three redheads. I told you this was the Irish side of the family!!

Sister~in~law, Karen.

A nice after dinner walk.

Cousins. Grace, Trish and Liz.

"I had a great holiday. How about you?"

For more great Outdoor Wednesday posts, visit our hostess Susan at A Southern Daydreamer and see what everyone else is up to outdoors!!

xoxo

Jane

THREE OR MORE TUESDAY: THREE THINGS I DID THIS WEEKEND!!

Today I am joining in on the fun of Three Or More Tuesday. Visit Tam at The Gypsy's Corner to see every one's contribution of three or more of anything. Participants should also visit each other! :-)

Today I am bending the rules a bit as I usually do and I am posting three or more things I did this weekend with three or more pictures. Clever, huh?

First off, it was "Take me out to the ballgame...". In Chicago we have two baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. Lucky, aren't we? It is a somewhat loosely construed rule that if you are from the Northside (where the Cubs play at Wrigley Field), you are a Cubbies fan. If you are from the Southside where the Sox play at US Cellular Field, you are a Sox fan. I am a Southsider, as you may well know. Every summer the two teams play in a series and The Husband and I were invited to Game 3, hosted by the Sox. Now, I live in a family divided. Some have broken the above loosely construed rule and are for the Cubbies. Being Blonde and of a "anything goes" sort of nature, I am for either team, depending on my mood. And i usually love the winning team. Cheers!! ;-)

It was a wonderful day. The temperature had dropped from 95 to 85 and we had great seats behind home plate.

The group Sister Hazel warmed up the crowd and sang the National Anthem.

Didn't we have great seats?

Let's chat a bit, shall we? I am not a big sports fan. I grew up with 5 sisters and 1 brother. Call it fate, but my brother left for college when I was 11 and never came back. Actually, he met his future wife down in Southern Indiana and he and his family have lived down there since. He is a sports fanatic, but he left before it could rub off on me. And I'm a girly girl~wait...that is a bad excuse. Okay, I bore easily.

And so, not knowing where I stood with the teams, I literally stood whenever either team scored, much to The Husband's chagrin. In the meantime I entertained myself eating peanuts and cleaning out my wallet.

Great game. The Cubs won. I think.

The 2nd thing I did this past weekend was go up to the cottage and work on my garden and potted flowers. Lazy Jane has just gotten around to it. I have my excuses; first the cold we had almost all of May, then all the rain and mud, then the intolerable heat and in between all of this I have had one bronchial infection after the other. I wish I lived during the Victorian era, where I could loll around on the sofa, feigning faintness, having people bringing me tea and toast and leaving their calling cards. The Husband frowns on my time travel fantasies. He is an "Onward!!" sort of person that never gets ill. Woe to me.

Above is a planter hanging from the new front porch. My procrastination caused more consequences... our local nursery was pretty much picked over in the flower department. I wanted pink flowers and I had to go with red, but I think the planters turned out nice, don't you?

I did solve the "lack of pink flowers due to chronic procrastination" by purchasing plants here in Chicago and bringing them up to the lake. Sometimes I think I am brilliant.

I found this plant stand at Home Depot for $23.00. That might be a little steep but it goes well with my wrought iron furniture. Note that there are no cushions on the furniture yet. Please refer to above lazy/procrastination issues above. To cause you more looks of horror, I ordered the furniture from Overstock.com last fall and it has been in the garage all winter and spring. Happily, I found beautiful cushions last night, again at Overstock. They are sort of a Victorian floral (oh no, here comes that fantasy again!) and to make up for the procrastination problem, I had them rush shipped for $30.00. That was using my blonde noodle, wasn't it?

My English garden is looking a little scrappy. At least Milo likes to hang out in it, watering the plants and getting tangled in the boxwood. This is really the first summer of the English Garden. I planted 28 perennials and I have some blooms but it is certainly not looking as lush as the pictures I have admired. I know it takes time and the cost of perennials is quite high so I am trying to postpone buying more until they go on sale. Last year our nursery was selling the plants 3 for $10.00. Patience, Blondie.

Milo is showing his boredom with the garden. But this picture is not about him. Note the planter in the background.

This was actually a bistro table we had on the balcony at one time. The top broke and we were ready to toss it out. The Husband, being ever ingenious, popped one of my planters in it. "Do you like this, Blondie?". "Brilliant," I answered. With that he began running around the garden, jumping up and down with his fist raised, shouting, "I shopped the house, I shopped the house". He is paying way too much attention to my blogging. We were also able to fit a smaller pots in the chairs, from which we removed the seats. It may be a little much, since we have four chairs, but I have some spray paint and a few ideas of my own. ;-)

This is a perennial called Lily belle Lady Slipper. I never heard of it before but it is almost as tall as me (5'2). I see hummingbirds around it all the time so I am quite pleased even though I don't know what the heck it is!!

This is my clematis that is growing up the black wrought iron arbor I showed in a previous post. I can't believe I am actually growing one!! I never had any luck in my yard in Chicago because of all the shade. It's a small miracle to me. It's pretty though, isn't it?

The Husband picked me up a hibiscus at Home Depot for $18.00. I was delighted since my hibiscus from last year met an untimely death over the winter. I re potted the new one in the poor dead one's pot and surrounded it with flowers. They should be sprawling over the side soon. I like the pink against the blue of the Summerhouse.

A close up of the new Mrs. Hibiscus...

HELP ME!!!! I thought this was a hollyhock when I planted it. At least that was what the plant marker said. But I just don't know what it is!! It has all these green balls and now this peachy colored stuff is starting to eek out! I guess we will have to see more next week. If anyone has a clue about this plant or what a hollyhock is supposed to look like, let me know.

It sort of unusual, isn't it? Maybe it is a weed!

Finally, the 3rd thing I did this weekend was relax in the Summerhouse. I have promised pictures of it for awhile but I really haven't done much with it. Behind the chair are doors that open to a pull~down Murphy bed. They have real twin mattresses and are super comfy. We sleep in here all the time. The Summerhouse has 7 windows and a ceiling fan. Sometimes I feel like I am sleeping in a tree house right out of Swiss Family Robinson!! I have wicker furniture from Orvis.com and the rug was imported from somewhere straight to Overstock.com. Can you tell I like to order from this place?

I found the lamp at L.L. Bean and the toile pillow is from a second hand shop. The vintage plant stand was found at a nursery in Michigan. I need to bring Monster Fern back from his winter get~away in Chicago to spend his summer in here.

The walls are quite bare right now. Home Depot is coming to measure for blinds and I am going to (try to) make bright colored valances. And, I have commissioned sweet Fifi from Fifi Flowers and Designs to paint some pictures with acrylics. I adore her work and I think it's perfect for the look I am trying to achieve in the Summerhouse. Please take a moment to visit her blog if you haven't already. You can see a lot of her work right in her blog posts. She is so talented and wickedly funny. Go. Now.

So after my busy weekend I relaxed. Layla relaxed.

And Milo, who was falling asleep in the garden...

...relaxed too!

Some important announcements... Kelee from Katillac Shack has been involved in the cause of dogs and cats being abandoned at an alarming rate due to foreclosures and job losses. She has started a project that will help and it's a win~win thing for we animal lovers. Go to her blog and click on Pet Shack. There you will find instructions on how to order a bandanna scarf for your own dog or cat. The first 150 scarves ordered are free and after are $2.00. The Oliver Wendell "Play Strong" scarf can then be decorated any way you want. Take a picture of your dog or cat wearing the scarf and email it to Kelee. A sponsor has offered to donate $2000.00 if $200.00 is raised. By ordering a scarf, your donation of $10.00 is free. Plus, your little doggie or kitty will appear on Kelee's blog and a future video and hopefull on your blog, and will help raise more awareness of this sad situation. I have Milo's scarf and I am getting ready to jazz it up with some fabric paint and little sparkly thingies. One size fits' all, but if you have a small pet, it can be folded. The deadline is July 6th and I heard last week that there were still free scarves, so hurry. This is such an important cause and I know we all love to show off our pets. You will find more details on Kelee's blog and you will see Milo wearing his scarf in all it's glory in a few days!

Lastly, I want to acknowledge the Beautiful Blog Award from Ashley at Too Jazzed To Sleep . I recently started following her wonderful blog. I don't have enough adjectives to describe Ashley. She has been battling cervical cancer for a long time and started her blog as a sort of release. But like most bloggers, she is having fun doing a lot of the events, posting about her life in Texas and meeting new friends. She has a great positive outlook and Ijust love her. I am honored to receive this award from her.

I was tagged by Leigh of Tales From Bloggeritaville to list 7 random things about myself. I am going to save that for another post. I can hear you sigh in relief!! :-). I also want to thank Karen from Shades Of Inspiration for painting and sending me a beautiful journal card. Unfortunately, my printer is not working and I can't scan the card, but I will at a later date. Her blog incorporates a lot of her watercolors into her posts and you will be hooked. Please try to visit this talented, beautiful artist. Lastly, I received an award from Lynn at It's a July Thing. For the life of me I can't remember what it is! LOL!! So please, Lynn, if you are reading this, let me know. And all of you~try to visit Lynn. She is a retired elementary scholl teacher who has traveled the world over. She is also pretty funny!! Love her.

Thanks for staying with me on this. If you do anything, order your dog or kitty a scarf today. If you don't have a pet, get one for a friend. You will sleep better tonight. :-)

xoxo

Jane

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: MAKE A WISH!!

Be careful what you wish for!!!!

Thanks for visiting me and my feathered pets!! To see more participants of Wordless Wednesday, visit our hostess, Dixie at French Lique! Have a wonderful Hump Day!!

xoxo

Jane