Rose Mosaic

I couldn't help myself with all that rose loveliness going on in the garden - I just had to put the photos together and make a mosaic.



Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Friday Photo - Roses in our Garden

Roses in our neck of the woods usually bloom in June - except for this year when the very warm spring has brought the beauties out early.

 

Sigh - rose heaven!

Baby Name Wizard Book

Even as a young child and teenager I wanted to be a mother.  I would spend my spare time create imaginary families and then designing homes for them.  Sometimes these homes were small cottages or trailers and sometimes they were enormous country houses.  My imagination was fueled by what I was reading or where we were traveling at the time.  I would create a family, including the ages and names of the children, and then I would plan a house for them. 

My parents bought me many books with house plans in them which I loved and poured over and used as the basis for some of the houses I was planning.  In a bold move, my parents also bought me a baby name book for Christmas when I was 15.  Crazy, eh?  I mean who gives their teenage daughter a baby name book.  However, I loved that book and spent hours reading it.

My daughter, Kate, also loves names and a few years age we were just as crazy as my parents, and gave Kate The Baby Name Wizard book.  

She also loves it, and uses it to name her families on the SIMS.  I just thought I would mention this book as it is so much fun to read and if you are expecting or know someone who is (or you play the SIMS) you would definitely want to search out a copy.  I recently found out there is a website:  The Baby Name Wizard.  It is a treasure-trove of info - definitely worth pouring over.

This book is in a class of its own because it organizes names into categories so if you like a certain type of name, you can search that category for others like it.  It also gives suggestions for sibling's names.

I also like the description and history of the names - she is always positive about names - even the yucky ones.  There is also a little graph showing how popular the name was over the past 100 years.  All fascinating stuff to someone who loves names and had to give each of her children 3 given names!

What I love About my House

 (Our dining room in March)

Janice from Canadian Cottage did a lovely post a few weeks ago about what she loves about her house.  If you are anything like me then you have tons of decorating magazines and love to look at beautiful blogs.  While this is fun and even useful for ideas, it can be a little discouraging when you look around at your own home and only see the short-comings.  Time and money can get in the way of creating the house we envision; however, there are still things that can make our heart sing, so I'm going to follow Janice's lead and list the things I love about our house.   

We live in a 13 year old suburban house, so it isn't too original or special in any way.   However, these are the things I love about this house:

I love our big backyard (big for our area anyway).  When we moved in 9 years ago there weren't any gardens in the backyard - I used to call it our prairie since it was a big field of grass.  We have planted all the gardens and shrubs you see along the fence and I love seeing them grow and change over the spring, summer, and fall.

I love the front porch so we have a place for the wicker chair and bench - they are out of the elements, but make the front entry look welcoming.

I love the small cozy feel of our living room.  It is 13 x 13 feet, which is the perfect shape and size (in my opinion, anyway) so it is easy to arrange the furniture and it feels intimate.

I love the built-in bookshelves that hubby and a friend built in the living room.  The perfect place to keep some of our favourite books.

I love the big windows along the back of the house that let in the morning light.  I can look through them from the kitchen and see beautiful sunrises in the winter (you can see one I posted here in February) and the garden in the summer.

I love the strange closet that is part way up the stairs that has allowed me to have an office, since there are no spare rooms in our house.

And finally I love that we have a fireplace in the family room.  It is a great focal point for the room, is fun to decorate, and means Santa can visit us at Christmas.

These are just some of the reasons I love our house.  I'm passing the torch on to all of you, fellow bloggers, and challenging you to do the same.  What do you love about your house?

Linked to:
Things in your Home that Make you Smile at Hello Owl
Inspired By at The Inspired Room

Fruit BuyingTips

I thought I would share the 2 most important fruit buying tips I know - one from my father and one from my husband.  Since I only found out about these two tips well into my adult years, I assume there are others who may not know them either.  

So to buy the freshest ripest fruit try these tips:

Smell your fruit - My Dad and I both have good noses so we smell soft fruit before buying them.  You should sniff your pears, cantaloupe, and pineapple and if they smell like pears, cantaloupe, and pineapple then you are in business.  You may look a little dog-like, but don't let that come between you and some good fruit.

Feel your fruit - Hubby discovered that if the fruit is cold it tastes better.  The logic being that cold fruit is from the back storage fridges so it is fresh.  You will look like you are laying hands on the fruit but this seriously works, especially for oranges and apples.  You will get the juiciest oranges and crunchiest apples if you only buy cold ones.

So there you have it.  Now you may look a little strange sniffing and feeling your way around the grocery store but it really does work.  Any of you have special fruit buying tips?  I'm always open to other ideas - how much crazier could I look.