Finishing Up

I thought I knew what we had left to see but just to be sure, I scrolled back through the Valentine tour 2023 posts and discovered that I actually posted the sunroom twice...why didn't anyone tell me? Lol In any case, I think I am right this time and all I have left to show you are the bathrooms. 

I love those little conversation heart soaps that Presley and I made a few years ago to give to everyone as Valentine Day gifts. The memory of that weekend actually just popped up on my FB the other day. This is my little craft buddy. She is usually willing to try anything ...but I will say, her brother Hudson is usually right there behind her. He enjoys some of the crafts we do-others he will pass on. Lol

The decoupaged plate is another of our favorite crafts. This time we used a napkin. I have done this with all of my grand children from the time they were quite young and it is pretty much a foolproof craft. Even if they get the napkin/tissue paper/fabric on full of wrinkles, somehow it always looks pretty when it dries. Hudson used this technique on his wood heart here at my house a few weekends ago and he got it on so perfectly, my daughter thought we bought the heart already patterned. It just takes a bit of patience and a few tricks we've learned along the way. Lol

And, of course, the little nod in my bathroom.

 I think that is it for this year's Valentine tour. I did snap a few pictures yesterday while I was once again thinking about Mother Nature and how we can no longer trust anything she says. Lol Here we are...February 2023...winter...and, my thermostat has gone from heat to AC and back to heat in the matter of hours. It has been in the 80s then low 40s and then back into the 80s. No wonder my plants have no idea of what should be blooming when.

It is no secret around here that I am a lover of spring flowers! I would always rather receive a bouquet of tulips, irises and daffodils way more than long stemmed roses! And so, the minute I see any of these beauties in the stores, I grab them up. I was at the garden shop the other day and there they were. I don't buy many of the potted variety-I would rather have a cut bouquet because these cuties don't grow here in Florida so there's no sense spending the extra money for the bulbs. But, the one that I do always grab is the hyacinth. I love the smell of that flower and if I can have one next to where I sit, I am in heaven. Most of the ones available were already fully blooming and on their way out so I picked up two single stemmed plants-one just starting to open and one still completely closed. I brought them home and re-potted them and put the one opening next to my chair in the family room...and all that evening I was wafted with the beautiful smell each time the AC came on.

By the next morning, that one had grown so tall I had to stake it and the one not opened at all was quickly on its way to half bloom. That night I was wafted with the wonderful fragrance each time the heat came on!

And, while all of that spring beauty was going on, this was going on just a few feet away.

My tiny Christmas cactus has started to bloom!

And, for once, I think I am glad that my camellia blooms so much later than everyone else's. While all of the others were blooming when we hit into the 20s and got frozen, mine just had buds...and, they must have loved that temperature because mine is now blooming so much more than it has ever bloomed in all of the years it has been in that exact same spot!

I think I'll be cutting bouquets off of this beauty for awhile-which is probably a good thing because it is going to take awhile for all of the other flowers that didn't like the freeze as much to come back...if they come back at all!

It's still a bit chilly but the sun is out and it promises to be a beautiful day so I'm off to find a project. Stay safe and stay tuned.