Beautiful Nature Can sometimes Sting Too

When I asked my cousin if his dad's house looked the same as when I was there last, he commented about his step mom's flower gardens. He was right; the house looked beautiful and with many colorful gardens in the front and back yard too.

Such amazing nature sights for me to capture.

I walked around and around clicking the camera

As is normal in nature there were plenty of buzzing, flying things about and wouldn't you know it-- my A. was stung for the very first time in her life.

I wasn't sure if she would be allergic since my dad and brother are very allergic to stings. My cousin was kind enough to make a run to the store for some Benadryl while I put a baking soda paste on the spot on her toe. She ended up being fine although she now knows how it hurts to be stung. Welcome to the club of stung people, A!!

As is also true in nature, you sometimes find the perfect picture with flowers and insects together. 

The cousins

I took the kids last week to visit my cousin, in Michigan.

We had so much fun!!!

He was house sitting at his Dad's...which is a shorter drive for me than his own home

which is much farther North.

[A., E. and my cousin's son]

We shared stories from growing up times while my kids and his son played games and went swimming until they grew gills.

[N. and my cousin's son]

We had a cookout/picnic for lunch and for supper we had lunch-left-overs and delicious pizza. We had way too much food so we could have invited the whole neighborhood. My cousin made a salad with fresh fruit and that was yummy looking enough but was made even better when he added pineapple and dressed it up with star fruit!! We also had coleslaw with apples diced up in it- extra yummy!!

We also had lots of fun with my cousin's older brother and his two daughters who live very close by. E. hit it off with myother cousin's daughter -they seemed to talk so non stop they couldn't help but to talk over top of each other. It was comical. They talked for the longest time about fishing, of all things-- who knew??

My cousin's daughter was so interested to hear the family tree stories; of course I was a willing speech giver on genealogy!

I wish the day could have gone on forever.

[My cousin's daughter and my E.]

It was great to be together with my cousins- just like we were kids again...well almost!! You can read more about cousins here and here.

I like...

My hand stitched confetti yo-yo quilt I made over many, many months. It hangs on the wall behind the bed. Many of the fabrics are clothing items that have been recycled.

I wrote a story last year about the making of the quilt. The picture that begins the quilt story is of N. sitting on my friend's Dad's lap. N. has a goofy looking grin on his face and his ears are sticking out after his fresh hair cut . N. has changed looks a lot since then (has grown up teeth in a toothy smile and has grown into his ears a little more!) and sadly, my friend's Dad has died since then. You can read about the making of the quilt here .

The thrifted globes that were found in the trash. This method works when you are not in a hurry to acquire a collection as it can take years and a lot of luck!!

The collection grows as countries change their names and people do not want those globes anymore...I adopt them and love them best! My kids enjoy comparing the globes.

Old ratty looking books. I mean really old...the older the better I say! I don't care if the binding is not sound or pages are torn. If it has a beautiful cover or wonderful pictures inside it is still a treasure to me. I think my oldest book is from the 1870's.

As with globes...free from the trash when people think they are good for nothing is when I love them best!!

Some of my very favorite books (though not old) in my library are my Russian books. These are just a few and I am crazy about them. You can read more about my fascination for the Romanov family and my Russian altered book I made- click here.

I enjoy thrifted paintings of houses on tree lined streets and red barns in the snow. These are 2 of my very favorites. I think I paid 25 cents for each of them. The top one is a paint by number; which seem to be more in demand now and pricier! To me over 25 cents is pricey. Haha!! It is a real shame to think of how many hours are put into these paintings and then they are sold for 25 cents. But the silver lining is they are with me now and I appreciate them every day.

What thrifty things do you love??