The Magic Milestone Number: 100!

 It seems that I've reached what I call the Magic Milestone Number, recently: 100 followers!!!

Wow! I feel so unworthy of so many followers, (most of them much more talented than me!); folks who actually want to read my scribblings and look at pictures of my insignificant Midwestern life!!!!!

I am honored; I am astonished. I am grateful to all who like my blog and have become followers (or even those who don't follow but still take the time to browse and make comments).

And because I just recently finished a nearly 700 page biography of John Adams, Second President of the United States, for my Summer Reading Challenge, I will use one of his very apt quotes:

"A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man."---John Adams

It seems traditional in blog-land to occasionally have a give-away when reaching such magic milestones, so when I have decided on what would make a lovely give-away winner gift, I will probably soon be having one here at Le Beau Paon Victorien!

I also must point out that even though the dear husband fixed my computer issues for me last week, he then decided that I should no longer suffer with my old computer (which actually used to be his) and that I possibly couldn't live any longer without having the latest and greatest in processors, RAM, graphics, storage and a flat-screen monitor (I admit; I've been coveting his flat-screen monitor for quite some time), so as of last week Thursday, when he came home with a surprise for me ( yes, a new computer), I have been busy transferring things from the old to the new, which includes all my project and document files, tons and tons of photos, as well as music files and many other things.
I say this only to explain my shocking absence from regular blogging, projects, endless photo updates of my flowers, chatting, dish envying and tabelscaping. 
I hope to back at it regularly very soon! 

White Wednesday: Sweet White Pillow #2

I finally finished the second decorative pillow that I had planned to make for my bedroom's "summer bedding" look...........

I still have just a little bit of this fabric left. For this pillow I used a small pillow form; it's a 12x16 rectangular form and I made it with an envelope back so I can take the cover off if needed.

To see the Sweet White Pillow #1 that I featured a couple of weeks back, click HERE.
The fabric I purchased initially to make Euro shams for my bed. Click HERE to see the Euro shams.
I bought a little bit of this fancy crocheted lace and sewed it onto the face of the pillow. Then I added a pearl border and some sweet little blue bows.  I just used a dab of hot glue to attach the bows.

It makes a cute companion to the teeny little "P" pillow on the bed.

Thanks for stopping by!
I'll be joining White Wednesday at Faded Charm.

Garden Goods: Double-Decker Coneflowers and Green Envy Coneflowers

Hello friends in blogland...it's good to be back. I have been 'out of the loop' most of this week because the Ethernet PCI adapter card on my computer decided to go bad; which in non-computer speak means that I was not able to connect to the internet until we replaced the card. We have a wireless system here at Le Beau Paon (yes, very ironically modern, when you think about it!), and my husband and I both have separate computers, including a laptop we usually keep downstairs, but all my photos and bloggy stuff is on my computer and it was really more hassle than it was worth to try and transfer things over.

I'm due for a new computer, but we haven't budgeted that in yet....so we replaced the card and now I'm good to go!!!

I had taken some updated photos of my flowers the other day. My double-decker purple coneflowers are getting their "top deck" now. I've heard that they will not grow a 'top deck' the first year, so if you have newly planted double-deckers, they will not grow a second deck until their second bloom year!

I also have tons of blooms on my 'Green Envy' coneflower plants.

When the petals on these first start to unfurl, they are mostly green and then (like the one in the foreground) the petals eventually have a pinkish/burgundy coloring towards the center of th petal, with green tips. The Green Envy coneflower was a new cultivar that came out last year, I believe. I had to order some right away!

I was hoping some new coneflowers I planted this spring would get blooms this year, but they are so young yet, I may not have any blooms until end of August. The new ones are called  Big Sky"Twilight" ( and no, they are not named for the Twilight book series); they are part of a new group of coneflower cultivars called the Big Sky Series; the names of which are Sunrise, Sundown, Twilight, Harvest Moon, After Midnight, and Summer Sky.

Here is an image of the Big Sky Twilight coneflowers that I found online, so you can get an idea of what they look like:

I have an obsession for coneflowers; they are one of my favorite garden flowers.

I have two kinds of white coneflowers; these are called 'Polar White'; they have a green cone in the center. My other white ones are called "Swan" and they have a yellow center cone.

In this picture you can see one of the white "Swan" coneflowers at the the left. I also really like Gaillardia; also pictured here are my Gaillardia "Burgundy".

I love the combination of the "Burgundy" Gaillardia, with the "Oranges and Lemons" Gaillardia and the blue/purple Campanula in front.

This is Campanula "Blue Clips", which is also commonly known as bellflower.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mosaic Monday: The Parlor

(Click on images to view larger!)
 I took some pictures of things in the parlor and then played around with the color saturation and highlights to make the pictures look more "antique". The picture of the 'hands' is a photo I took of a page in one of the music books on top of our harmonium. The tiny framed photo in the lower right corner is a picture of my father, as a baby. It was taken in October/November of 1942, when he was about 8 or 9 months old.

I'll be joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!