R & R

Hard to imagine what just 24 hours away from your "normal" life can do for ones attitude. DH and I went to Berlin for an impromptu overnight. We stayed here.
That's just the beginning. We (DH really) built us a fire


and


roasted us some corn

and


Tbones over the open flame.




How's that for a little R&R?????

Happy Friday. Be back with a couple treasures I found while antiquing with DH the next day.
He's a keeper. Knows just what a girl needs.

Blessings,
Rhonda

Dyeing Hydrangeas

What a productive Saturday I had. Getting something done and posted however is another story.
I dug out my Hydrangeas that I dried from last year.

They were from a friends tree. They dried nicely hanging in the rafters of the Olde Stone House. I leave a long stem on them to hang them.


I wanted Royal Blue Hydrangeas.

This is where the experimenting began. I boiled water and mixed in a box of Rit dye. The directions on the Internet didn't give specifics for ratios of dye to water so I made up my own.

The really long stems came in handy. Some I laid in the bucket for a long time and others I just dipped till they took on color. I wanted varying shades of blue.

I wound rubber bands around the stems and hung them to dry. My old Amish drying rack came in handy. Too bad someone broke a dowel rod with their football......Jason.
But it worked. They didn't take long to dry either. Now they are ready to use in a wreath or arrangement.

Next I have Scarlet Red for the other bag of blooms.

A couple of things I learned.

1. Less water or more dye.

2. It was really fun and they turned out very pretty for not much effort.

3. Don't go for your pedicure after dyeing Royal Blue Hydrangeas in your bare feet. You might not have gotten all the blue spots off your legs and feet before you went.

Here's pool silliness.

How many floats does one teenager need??????????

And of course...............



ABU.......6 months. Notice he has his own quilt already. Spoiled.....Not??????



Enjoy your summer.
Blessings,
Rhonda

New addition

It's hard to believe that I've been gone from here for more than 2 months. Shortly after my last post we got a new addition to our house. We got a new puppy.
Here he is at his foster moms.

A friend of ours fosters for the Humane Society here in Pittsburgh. She called and said she had the perfect dog for us. She couldn't have been more correct. He is amazing (even if I do say so myself). We had never had a dog before and he certainly is a great first dog. No one can believe what a good personality he has. He's part Black lab and we think Chow cause he has blue on his tongue.

This one is from the babysitter while we were away at a wedding.

I can't believe it's like having a 2 yr old again.

Have to constantly watching where he's going.

Potty training.

Sleepless nights.
Just really needing constant attention right now. But it is a constant learning experience for all of us.
The girls love him except when he needs to be up in the mornings.

You know teenagers..... sleeping till noon.........
We named him Abu,the monkey from Aladdin.

Em found a site with the names of every Disney character form every movie. Didn't know every one of the 101 Dalmatians has a name!!! Wow we weeded through that to about 4 and chose from there. It suits him.

He is a welcome addition to our home. And now that he's settling in it's time to return to my other past times. Be back with more projects.

Blessings,
Rhonda