Opposites: Bright and Cheery Orange and Blue Floral Tags

Color opposites - I love them in the garden or a bouquet. Red and green, orange and blue, yellow and purple: Beautiful!

Why is it that in the garden, no color combination seems tacky? 

Here is a quick tag set with two finishes, one of them a bit strange, both PNGs for best image quality. Just click, click again to blow up and examine, then right-click if you wish to save. Only click on the "P" if you are pinning it.

Thank you for stopping by.

A Queen Bee, and Antique Spring Blooms Tags / Scrapbooking

How I love the smell of fresh lilacs, fruit tree blossoms, and other harbingers of spring!

Here is a little tag set to brighten a gift, pin board, or scrapbook page.

A queen bee has ventured out on the last tag. She is looking for a quiet place to start a new hive. I wish Her Majesty much luck. Bees are wonderful creatures.

As always, thank you for stopping by. Click, right click, and save or print. Or use the "P" to Pin!

The Dogs and Their Pear Tree

When we moved into our present house many years ago, the back yard had an old, but prolific, pear tree. And we had two middle-aged dogs, a black Labrador named Gracie and a mutt named Twinkie, who was allegedly half-Golden Retriever. Never were two dogs closer friends, with our Lab being the leader, and our mutt being her loyal sidekick.

When the pear would bloom, Gracie would start looking up at it each day, very carefully. As soon as she saw any wee pearlets beginning, she would circle and bark at them. As they grew, she would continue to eye them and bark. And as soon as they began to ripen, she would stand and stare at the one she wanted, barking furiously until it was picked and handed to her. Twinkie always stood by, curled tail wiggling over her back, politely waiting for her pear, too.

The years passed, and the tradition of observing the pear tree closely continued, and as more and more time passed, both the dogs and the tree became weaker. Finally one last autumn, when both dogs were 16 years old and had eaten the last of the pears, they declined rapidly. They died within minutes of each other, Gracie carefully watching over Twinkie until she was safe, and then dying herself, after weakly shaking hands with our vets, who had rushed over to help. 

And the pear died, too, and like our precious dogs, never saw another spring. 

We have their urns, and we tell our new rescues, Sophie and Piglet, all about their older "sisters." One of the joys of my life has been rescuing animals, and our newest rescue, Piglet, not even here a week, already has a special place in my heart. He is disabled. It's a labor of love for that dog to haul his tiny self to his feet and totter over to us dragging a leg damaged from being caught in a chain for months. But he always does get up, "burbling" and smiling and tiny corkscrew tail shaking. I know some people feel they cannot "replace" one animal with another, and we didn't, but we did rescue these dogs in honor of Gracie and Twinkie.

Free printable antique fruit tags. Click the "P" to Pin, and click elsewhere on the image to enlarge it. Then right-click to save.

Shabby Spring Bulbs Tags / Mini Banner Set

One of the most wonderful parts of spring, for me, is the profusion of bulbs that come up after their long sleep in the cold soil.

Here are some tags that can be strung on ribbon or just stuck wherever it suits your fancy.

Before our long drought out in West Texas, certain bulbs would bloom from year to year in this area. Our first year after moving here, we were delighted when narcissus popped up and turned the entire front hedge into a show-stopping cloud of yellow. I interplanted muscari (grape hyacinths) in with them, and the blue and yellow were even prettier. The small muscari is a tough and under-appreciated bulb, but being a short plant, keep it in the very front.

Thank you for stopping by. As always, click the "P" to Pin, but avoid the "P" when clicking to isolate and save the image. Click, click again to enlarge, then RIGHT-click to save.

Feed Sack Teapots and Coffeepots - Cute Tags for Spring!

I love fat teapots and squatty coffeepots, vintage feedsacks and flour sacks, and pretty spring days. I think it will nearly reach 80 degrees today, while the east and midwest shiver.

Here are some little tags for decorating.

I've been looking for a vintage percolator recently. I want the kind that can sit on the stovetop or above a campfire on a grate. Presently we have a "K-cup" machine, and K-cups, even at the outlet stores, are rather expensive. I'm hoping to cut down on the cost of my coffee habit.

JPEGs are the top sheet, and PNGs are the bottom sheet. Remember to click, click again, and then right-click to save! 

Do It Yourself Puppy Bouquet for Valentine's or Any Time!

I wanted to get my husband one of those adorable fresh flower bouquets that are made to look like puppies or dogs. I think either the Japanese or South Korean florists invented these a few years ago. Ever since, I've wanted one.

I called the places advertising them online - and always the same response - "No florists in your area make those," or "Those are not available."

Wah!

I also wanted to make a bouquet for our veterinary hospital. They are the best vets I have ever encountered, and I have lived all over and dealt with literally dozens of veterinarians over the decades. These guys are the best, combining kindness with 100 percent accuracy in diagnoses and excellence in surgery - all at low prices. 

What to do? I just HAD TO HAVE those puppy bouquets to give out!

I decided to make my own.

1-2 bouquets, with at least 12 blooms of the same size, color, and type
Bowl or short vase
Florists' "Wet Foam" brick or block
Animal Eyes, such as Bear Eyes from craft store like Hobby Lobby
Animal Nose, or black pompom or black Sharpie if using a daisy
Optional: Dog Bow for ear
Optional: Spanish Moss or Sheet Moss to help cover the foam


I tried to find a Youtube video, but there was not much there in terms of Do It Yourself. But there was enough to get the general idea. So here are some instructions on how to make a puppy bouquet:

I got out a small bowl and a block of "wet" florists' foam (from Walmart). I soaked the foam in water, cut it bigger than the bowl,  and pushed it into the bowl. It's the kind of foam that comes dried, but absorbs lots of water and yet is soft enough to stick stems into, cut with a butter knife, and hold blooms at any angle desired.

Then I bought a bouquet featuring white daisies, mainly, and some other blooms as well. I really needed carnations or white pompom mums, but I was working against the clock (having gotten the idea late). I knew I needed at least 12 blooms of the same color and type and approximate size.

Dang! Daisies grow in bunches on long stems, with many of the blooms on SHORT stems. Yikes! I didn't realize that. I thought they were all on individual stems. So it was a bit hard to make the puppy using so many short stems.

If you try this, too, get a bunch of flowers that have greenery in them, or just get an extra bouquet of greenery such as ferns or salal leaves.

I stuck the daisies in to form the head (using a clump of them all growing from a single stem), then stuck in some more (growing on longer stems) at the sides of the "head" for the "ears." Then I stuck the "paws" in to make it look like the puppy's front legs were kind of overhanging the bowl.

I put in a very small, unopened red daisy to be a "tongue" at the side of the mouth.

THE PUPPY IS REALLY JUST A HEAD-EARS-FRONT LEGS design.

I placed some green Spanish Moss in the chest area, to cover up the foam block. That's where some greenery would really have come in handy, to put green fronds all around, as if the puppy was coming out of a bed of ferns or salal leaves.

I put longer stems of other flowers and of colored daisies in the back. Ideally, KEEP THE PUPPY using all one color (such as white or pink), and then DON'T USE THAT COLOR anywhere else. My puppy blended into the light-colored "filler" daisies a bit too much.

I couldn't get my hands on something called "Floral Glue." It's what the professional florists use to glue on the fake eyes and nose. So, I used my good old "Fast Grab" Aleene's glue and glued some bear eyes (sorry, teddy bear, for stealing your eyes) onto the centers of daisies where the dog's eyes should go. Then, lacking a nose (OMG, no nose!), I colored in the center of a daisy with a black Sharpie. A black pompom would have been good, but I couldn't find one.

I finished the dog bouquet off with a little pink bow put over one "ear." My dog is happy to see a bow leave the house - she is not one for bows, but I love her to wear them!

I think it came out okay for an amateur attempt, lacking some vital parts!

Handy Victorian Tags, and Cast Down on Valentine's Day

Less than a week now, to Valentine's Day 2016.

I'm always relieved when Valentine's Day passes each year. For me, it's been a yearly lesson in keeping your chin up, having maturity of thought, and being humbled. Husbands, past and present, have never given me a token of their love on this day of days. 

My present husband has given flowers to neighbors and to his favorite female co-workers, when he still taught. One of my more ego-busting moments was picking him up from work one year, and when his bouquet recipients learned I had received no flowers (he proudly told them), they each kindly picked a blossom from their bunches and gave them to me. What can a person do? It was sweetly meant, and painful.

I do make sure that I have my little decorations up around the house. They are cheery and I can participate in the pretty end of Valentine's Day, if not the romantic end.

Click to see the designs better. JPEGs are smaller files, but a PNG is also available for better print quality.

Victorian Shoes Collage Sheet / Tags Free for You

I love the design of these fanciful vintage shoes. And I love the Dutch wooden clogs, too. For Easter I will try to hunt up some images of clogs with tulips.

Print and enjoy, and Happy Sunday to you! Click to enlarge the tags and take a look at them.

And here is the better - but much larger in terms of bytes - png version. PNGs are usually clearer and better, but some older computer systems can't handle them.

Music Tags / Collage Sheet Free Printable

At LSU, one of the older buildings was labeled "MVSIC," with the "U" in the "V" shape, in an attempt to appear lofty and ancient, I suppose. The Latin alphabet lacks the modern letter "U." But we laughingly referred to it as "Mivsic," so the attempt to elevate our sophomoric minds failed.

Here we have a set of tags featuring yellowing sheet music. I received a similar tag on a gift, once. The floral accent had been glittered. I still have the tag and have it hanging on a birdcage. It's one of my favorite "vignettes" in the house, which is relatively bare.

For beautiful, large hearts made from real sheet music, check out the handiwork on this blog post from Goodnightgram. 

Her hearts are gorgeous, and big enough to pair with a ribbon and tie onto a chair back. I'm on the prowl for old music now, so I can make some, too!

Thank you for stopping by. 

Pansy Fest for A Monday

Here is a photograph snapped with my phone, showing the Johnny-Jump-Ups among the pansies at work:

 

 Their blooms are very wee compared to the pansy blooms.

And here are some little tags featuring pansies and Johnny-Jump-Ups and a rather somber-looking gnome. I think if I were standing there, with a beautiful bouquet of pansies and magic gnome powers, I'd have a smile on my face. Remember to click, click again if needed to bring it to full size, then right-click to save onto your computer.

Thank'ee for visiting!

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