Rose Lovers Come Hither!

Today's post is part of a collective called Tuesdays Unwrapped, hosted by Chatting at the Sky. You are invited to enjoy more posts that will encourage you to look for the gifts of ordinary,  ~ or stop and smell the roses ~ enjoy!

Sunday, Steve and I took a stroll through one of our city's treasures, The Tulsa Rose Garden. It is located on Peoria about 26th street, right in between Woodward Park and the Tulsa Garden Center. It's free to the public. While not in full bloom yet, it was a spectacular day, save the wind, and it should be in full swing Mother's day. Take your kiddos to church with Grandma, go out to eat at Furr's for a LuAnn Platter and then head over to the Tulsa Rose Garden for some family photos. I kid about Furr's... kind of. Your grandma might love it there.

The rose garden has two full time gardeners and a whole host of volunteers. The Tulsa Rose Society, I think this lady called them. Tulsa is a very society kind of town. They have a society for just about anything you could put your heart into. Big round of applause for these folks for all they do to make the TRG a beautiful place year after year. Oh by the way, you can plant a rose in the honor of anyone you want to at the Tulsa Rose Garden. Just call the Tulsa Garden Center and they can hook you up.

Now let's take a stroll, shall we...

Beauties ain't they?

Gotta get me one of those!

Or how about these? They look like peppermint candy to me.

Mmm. Delish!

D'oh, there's me and my wind blown look. This is very effective for some models.

Hey, here's a knockout!

No, the roses silly! Knockout Roses. Hey, easiest roses for non green-thumbers to grow. 

Even I have one.

It's a beaut!

Not sure but they might be kin to those knock out ones.

Pretty huh?

Then there was this stinky thing. Vibernum maybe? I don't know, but it smelled like somebody's stinky tennis shoes. Or maybe it was my tennis shoes?

Another defacto... clematis? What is it doing here? I offered to dig it up and get it out of there, but they said uh, no way. 

So sorry, I did not get the name of this petal pink posy. It was a climber.

But this one, of course looks like butter, look who it's named after...

Just pour a little wine in the sauce and add some buttah. I do a mean Julia Child.

Then there was this big double bloomer. Amazing color. 

Not so much on the fragrance score though.

Still, it is pretty showy. You could forgive it for not smelling sweeter.

It might be my choice. It was Sophy's anyway.

(Thank you for bearing though each one of these lame jokes.) 

And then I leave you with another unidentified version. This bee seems to enjoy it, thought you would too.

Okay, get yourself to the Tulsa Rose Garden and see it in person.

Landscaping a Natural Environment, and Making It Look... Natural

It's been a rough year for our little cabin in the woods. Between the winds of Hurricane Ike last fall, and the record ice storm this past winter, the woods around our cabin have really taken a beating. Steve's been playing Lumber Jack nearly every weekend he's gotten to go since September, so in an effort to make cabin trips relaxing again, I hired a friend, Chris Fischer to come and finish up the work.
He quickly identified the areas that still needed clearing. You should have seen it before Steve got busy on it, because he had already removed several large trees from this slope which fell from ice. We considered ourselves quite lucky compared to other damage in the area though.

Here it is after the first day of Chris's work. This is the "back yard" to our cabin. Though mostly it's used by chipmunks, squirells, sometimes deer, and yes, ticks. We've always thought it'd be nice to be able to use our property, enjoy the view and the great outdoors from a few steps beyond the deck. So, here is an idea Chris came up with for dileneating some spaces.
Chris is saving this cut timber to use as a stabilizing web of limbs on the slopes. He cautions it might look awkward for the first year or so, but he suggests that we allow the leaves to collect and rot in the cavities between where he will place the limbs. This will do a couple of things:

1. help build back our soil on the slopes
2. hold the surface of the slopes in place during rain
3. give us some pockets we can plant some ground cover into 

Chris happens to be working on a few hiking trails around Eureka Springs and has a great eye for how to find an entrance in and out of the woods. I've always wished I had a path that would scale down the front of our "yard" to the road. So, Chris sees an area here, believe it or not where he can cut a step up through this stone wall and create a rugged trail up this slope. It will zig zag it's way up and create a nice focal point where we could dot in a few lower growing shrubs.
This is the view out the side of our cabin. We had roots of our biggest oak tree wrapped with rock last fall because it was washing out and undermining the stability of the tree above our cabin. Chris wants to finish that rock work over to the stone bluff where Steve has stacked about two ricks of wood he chopped. And I want a fire ring out here where we can roast a few mallows and sing kumbaya. Nothing fancy or permanent, just a circle of rocks found around the hill to contain our ashes.
And I had to show you this. Chris built this cedar deer guard near the library in town where deer had created a freeway to the public gardens, a  little all you can eat buffet for Bambi! I loved the natural look of it and yet, it is graceful and elegant.

This is the kind of look I hope we can replicate at the cabin. Improvements that are man-made, but which enhance the natural beauty of the area. Because Lord knows I have enough formal gardens to tend to back at the homestead! And of course I'll be giving you guys some updates as we go along! 

All photos for this post by Christopher Fischer.

Opportunity Knocks!

Last weekend, I happened to have one of my scarves with me, a donation I was making to The Clear Springs School Auction which is being held on May 1st. See, Miss Jessie Lux Guillory was so kind to make my desserts for the Simply Scrumptious Tea and asked not for money, but for an in-kind donation in return. I was happy to do it! The tulip scarf pictured above will be in their auction! 

I just had to get that plug in for them! Anyway, I had stopped by one of my favorite shops in Eureka Springs, Regalia Handmade Clothing. Mark who is the entrepreneur also is the designer and seamstress of his wonderful casual styled linen clothes and accessories. He has recently moved to Center Street and I wanted to check out his new shop and buy some oil cloth which no one in Tulsa apparently carries.  So, I said, "If this is a good time, I might have something in my car that would interest you." I was totally taken off guard saying this, I had not planned to, and was not even appropriately dressed, much less, obviously, I should have called him ahead of time and not put him on the spot. But the words just spilled out of my mouth. 

He was gracious. People in Eureka are, most often gracious and generous with their time.

Well, after he inspected it, asked a few questions and then we talked money, he said, "Okay, will you bring me six in spring and summer colors?" 

O -h  M-y GOOD -NESS! 

Okay chicks, someone is going to have to burn the midnight oil! You all know I gave away nearly every scarf I had in inventory during my New Year's Day Art Purge! lol! 

But this seems like something that I need to follow. I've always said I would sell my scarves but I am no good at shipping, and don't want to do etsy and don't want to do craft shows... well, here is my chance! So in just a couple of weeks, you should be able to go into Regalia on Center Street and buy one of my scarves, right off the shelf! 

I am so totally psyched about this! I gotta go paint now! ta ta!

And the coincidental thing is, Jessica Guillory has also been getting more requests for her baked goods, too. Oh My! I have never had such rich and creamy chocolate bird eggs that melted on my tongue, and with a hint of lavender! Yum! I heard through the grapevine that opportunity is knocking on Jessie's door too, and she is selling her delicious sweets by special order now, an honor previously reserved only for friends and family!

So, to me and Jessica! Woo Hoo!

Surprise! We Have A Winner!

I failed to mention in the post about the tea party (just below) that the Eureka Springs Preservation Society also raffled away this gorgeous table complete with service for eight of Fitz and Floyd Bunny dishes, the green stemware, white chargers, table linens, party favor buckets and the birdbath centerpiece, including all the live plants which can be used in your garden!
The lucky winner of the table was Kim Rodda! And she was very so surprised and excited to win! There were other door prizes, including tickets to the Eureka Springs, Holiday Home Tour and a $25 Gift Certificate to Little Bo Peep's Yarn Shop (which was won by yours truly!).

Tea is served!

The designers were out in full force on Sunday in Eureka Springs, as we set the stage for the first Simply Scrumptious tea and dessert fundraiser. Lucky us, it was held at the Crescent Hotel which made just the most absolutely wonderful venue in their beautiful light drenched Conservatory. There were 12 tables presented and each one had their own unique and festive design. So much creativity here you are going to find something that sparks your own ideas! Or heck, just copy us, we would be flattered!

I have to lead with my good friend's table, Miss Cee Cee Dupps...

Her table centered around this bunny she found and refurbished, adding the Cee-Cee charm to him.
Loved her individual carrot cakes baked in the flower pots!

Gorgeous Cee-Cee! You really outdid yourself!

This is Vicki Hardcastle's table, she's a cowgirl at heart...

I thought hers was the most unusual and unexpected table at this event. 

I wish I had sat at her table!

This is Becky Ross's table, completely sweet and springy!

Her favors and glimpses of her dishes...

Outstanding Becky!

I loved this whimsical centerpiece Stan Fradd made out of foam core!

His desserts matched, and the flowers on the cakes were marzipan! Completely edible!

Carol Steffens' stunning centerpiece took everyone's breath away! Real roses! Ah! Exquisite!

Her china was a beautiful accent to the yellows in her table. Each plate had a different bird on it. Beautiful!
I loved the way she tucked so many little surprises in her centerpiece, something to capture your attention everywhere.

Mel and Jan Shipley's table just made me chuckle. It is so festive and so light-hearted and fun! Real dogwood branches, by the way, in her arrangement. The dogwoods were in full bloom this past weekend.

And what a great choice for her plates, square! Gorgeous!

This is Kaylene's table from Something Simple. I know some of you have mentioned how hers is your favorite shop in town. She does black and white the best I have ever seen! 

And her recipe serves as her favor. Sweet!

She made all these paper flowers. I could have fun spending time with Kaylene I bet!

I thought this was just the sweetest shade of pink and yellow for a table. Perfect for a spring garden party! Greg Moon designed this table.

Okay here is mine... My centerpiece was very tall, I was afraid the whole time it would fall over, as it was kind of top heavy! It made it through the day in place. Whew!

Here is a better pic of the whole centerpiece...

Jessica Guillory made my desserts, a coconut cake formed like a bird's nest and lavender chocolate truffles, each hand-formed to resemble bird eggs. And OH MY! They were scrumptious for sure!
Apple Annie used the same china pattern my mother has... I felt right at home seeing her table.

And this pretty table was set for proper tea, by Iris Wheat. 

And the final table was arranged by Charleen McCain who organized the entire event! She was a real trooper! 
Her table was very victorian and lacy, so appropriate for Eureka Springs!

And so that is it! I hope you all enjoyed seeing the beautiful tables. This was a successful event held by the Eureka Springs Preservation Society. I believe it was completely sold out! And the money raised will go to pay for the beautiful baskets of hanging flowers that line the downtown shopping area!