Changes

I've changed the title of my blog to something I think is more representative of me. I love roses and, also, antique fabric embellishing methods, i.e. ruching.

Actually, I just planted two new roses for Mother's Day, but that can wait until they bloom for a blog post. I could not think of a good title when I wanted to start the blog, so I went with something suggested by Google. I came up with the new name a couple days ago when I was looking for how-to's for some velvet roses for embellishment.

This blog is a place for me to showcase my sewing work, my garden flowers or produce and recipes ... as my kids are always asking for recipes of things I make and this way they are there for all my kids at the same time, no matter where they are.

My kids are teasingly calling me Miss Kay and I am flattered by the designation. Miss Kay is Phil's wife from Duck Dynasty and she does a lot of cooking. I can't wait to get my hands on a cookbook by Miss Kay, as I can't even begin to imagine all the things she cooks. The biggest difference I guess, between us would be that I can sew almost as well as I cook. I am a huge Duck Dynasty fan.

So the new name for my blog, ruchingandroses.blogspot.com, does not reflect the amount of cooking that I do, but more represents the creative things I do either sewing or gardening.

Speaking of gardening, my husband helped me plant my Mother's Day roses my oldest son chose for me. I planted "Senior Prom", a pink-red bush rose, along one side of my formal or front entrance to my home. We also planted "Scarlet Knight" on the other side of my front entrance. I also have a yellow shrub rose planted where an almost dead pine shrub used to be in the front of our new home.

I cannot wait for these to send up blooms, but it usually takes a year for roses to get a good root system out before they send up blooms. I will trim off any blooms that the plants send out this year so that they will grow good root systems to survive the winter.

I also planted 3 rhubarb plants, 10 Patriot hostas, 1 maroon day lily, 20 or so bearded irises, a dozen Belladonna lilies, 6 violas, 9 pansies and 4 to 5 Dusty Millers. I've got more types of hostas and irises to come here as well as a few day lilies. I hesitated to move some of my day lilies as they tend to walk all over the yard.

I also brought several bunches of walking or Egyptian onions with me last weekend, but because my husband sprayed to kill weeds at the location I want to plant, I have them in a bucket with a little soil waiting for the the weed killer to do it's work.

I have also planted morning glories and sunflowers in with the Belladonna and Irises. The Belladonna greens will die back in another month and the irises will bloom and leave greens, so the morning glories and sunflowers will bloom in the meantime.

I will also find a space to plant purple coneflowers and hollyhocks, I just have not decided where this will be. There is this little "corner" spot that gets some excellent morning light and a little afternoon light that I decided was where I wanted to start my gardening. It's not an easy location to mow, although Steve does mow it. I think it will work for some of the vegetable gardening I would like to do.

It may take me 2 to 3 years to get everything in that location, but that should be just fine. Then, Steve won't have to mow that location, which should work just fine for him. He has a very BIG mower that works best with large spaces. We have several young trees that he already has to work around, so I don't see the need to create more "things" for him to work around.

Now, with my rhubarb, it is in a place where he has to work around it, but once the plants are established in their new home, they will shade out anything under then and I will mulch with something so that he doesn't have to worry about grass. They are between two separate downspouts for the gutters, so I think they will get plenty of water without watering. I'm not sure if I want to expand out the river rock mulch that surrounds our house or if I want to use another type of mulching, but I have time for that. They need to spend this year developing their root systems.

Meanwhile, I am getting rhubarb from my SV house in enough quantity to keep me busy. I've already made one batch of strawberry jam and one of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I've got more rhubarb, mangoes, strawberries and grapefruits in the kitchen now waiting for me to go play with them, which I intend to do later today. I'm not totally sure if I'm going to make jam or sweets, but everything is there waiting for me to come play in the kitchen.

What I do know is that my kids do not mind that their mom makes jams or sweets or bread and gives them each a small bit to have. And, the older they get, the more they like having homemade goodies that they did not have to make themselves.

To all the Mothers out there, have a beautiful Mother's Day. To my own Mom, please take a day to relax and not worry -- my own Mom is taking care of my Uncle Dale's funeral as he passed away last week. He is her older brother and my mum has been stepping in to take some care of him each winter she's been in Texas. As I have been through some of this, my late husband passing away only 2 years ago, I wish I could be there to help my mum with all that needs to be done (they were there for me when I really needed them after Pauli passed).

So, to every mother out there, no matter what they are dealing with, Happy Mother's Day!
Laura