Garden and other news!

Now here are the promised garden pictures.

This one was taken on sunny Sunday morning, but it's still that sunny here :D (click on the picture to enlarge it and see more details):

My big border , where everything is sprouting now :D

A close up of one of my big Allium Globemasters and my Sedum spectabile and more:

A close up of 2 blue Nepetas (cat nip) and a white Lupinus:

And this is my new potting table and space! :D I love it that I don't have to do the potting on the floor/ground anymore!

And this is a brand new visitor to my garden, sipping the sweet nectar of my Virburnum tinus is this butterfly called: Polygonia c-album

My comfortable garden shoes:

Then yesterday I've got 2 envelopes with lovely art from international blogging friends. This mini quilt tag is the gorgeous work of Cat from www.Baumcat.blogspot.com:

Thanks a lot dear Cat, I love it!

And this cute egg comes from the sweet and funny Tia over @ www.Mizsmoochielips.blogspot.com Thank you dear Tia!

Tia and Cath I've send off something for each of you last Wednesday! I just forgot to take pictures before I've send it off!

Lastly I'm glad to introduce you to the new Etsy shop of my sister Cordula. She is a german mixed media artist and is now selling her fab mixed media art collages at Cordi's art shop please go have a look and tell her I've send you!

Well I think that's it for today. Enjoy spring everyone! xox

More eggs on another sunny spring Sunday!

I feel so lucky that we have such beautiful sunny spring weather again since yesterday and it is forecasted to stay like this the whole week ahead yeah! :D Of course I’m trying to spend most of my spare time outside at the moment, but I still managed to finish some more Easter egg collages. I’m quite happy with the way they’ve turned out. I chose my favorite papers & borders & embellishments etc. as well as my fave colors aqua/turquoise/blue and I hope they’ll please you too! Just click on the pictures to see the bigger version with more details.
I'm going to put them into my Etsy shop tonight.

I’m back to the garden now taking some pictures for my next post. I've got myself a pretty and practical new potting table which makes potting a lot more comfortable! This afternoon I’m off for a walk in the woods, we had the change to summer time tonight and today it will be daylight until 8 pm which I love!

Have a gorgeous spring day you too, dear blogging friends & readers! Read you! xox

First day of spring & lot's of tea parties!

Welcome Spring! :D

Artsymama Kari over @ www.artsymama.blogspot.com

has invited bloggers from around the globe to participate in her spring tea party today while posting something tea related on your blogs. Well and this is my tea post for Kari and all of you blogging friends & readers!

This is a tea flower pc wallpaper which you can download for free @ Paul Schraders tea blog:

While searching for Tea related pictures I came across a great website of Paul Schrader & Co. a big tea shop in my home town Bremen, established already in 1921. Bremen is famous for it's port and here especially for the im- and export of tea & coffee. So @ Paul Schraders shop you can chose between 300 different sorts of tea from all over the world.

But among all those teas you can also find lot's of other items in the shop like this tea egg with a picture from Dresden:

Then you can also get milk for your tea there for example from "Pfunds":

"Pfunds" is a very old Dresden Milk Shop founded in 1880 and they call themeselves:

"The most beautiful milk shop in the world!"

To prove that they aren't lying here is a picture of inside the shop:

Oh and just look at the gorgeous old fashioned milk soap they sell and the fab old advertisement sign:

Then at Paul Schrader you can also get special Easter tea baskets:

And also specialities from my home town like these little chocolate cakes called "Domspitzen" after our famous "Bremer Dom" a big cathedral built back in the middle ages:

Well now after all this information it's time to sit down, relax and have some Darjeeling first flush tea along with a few cucumber sandwiches, please help yourself, meet other bloggers and enjoy!

Or maybe you'd prefer a tasty Chai latte? Find a yummy recipe here!

Now last but not least thanks a lot for stopping by today and don't forget to head over to Kari's blog www.artsymama.blogspot.com to participate in her wonderful spring tea party if this isn't where you coming from lol. She has prepared some yummy treats and also a turtorial to craft a little Easter basket. Go see! xox

Birds & Easter decorations

Update Sunday March 18th 2007:

I've just added 7 Easter egg collages to my little Etsy shop (see side bar mini etsy and link) and I hope you'll like those too!

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Welcome back to Boxwoodcottage everyone!

I hope this find's you all in best spring mood!

Wow what a gorgeous week I had, the weather was beautifully spring like and I could even take my deckchair out and read my favorite home & garden magazines in the sun. Also I could welcome my first two customers at my brand new little Etsy shop. :D Thanks a lot to Allie & Louise you've both made my week! It's such a wonderful feeling that you like what I've created!

Today I've added these little bird nest ornaments to the shop, aren't they cute? Unfortunately I've found out that it is quite expensive to send them overseas to the USA because they are not flat enough to send them as a letter, but if there is something else you'd like from the shop I could put it in your parcel too without any extra mailing costs and I also have a little surprise gift for every customer. For my future German & European&UK customers the mailing is much cheaper though.

I think my little bird nest sets make such a delightful spring decoration and a beautiful adornment to your Easter table setting! They are made of thin twigs and filled with delicate quail eggs & feathers. In one nest there even sits a cute tiny hatchling in a quail egg! I only have 6 of these sets in stock and if you place your order fast enough you'll have them at your home before Easter!

I was quite happy to take these pictures of one of my fave little garden visitors a titmouse (chikadee) this week:

The decoration in the cottage is slowly changing to a more Easter like look as well, as you can see in the next 3 pictures:

´

This Easter egg collage was a gift for a friend's birthday this Monday, but I'll make some more Easter egg collages this weekend and hopefully add them to the shop on Sunday night or Monday morning, so stay tuned!

This was my fave place after work this week! Unfortunately the good weather is over now and they even forcasted that it is going to snow next week oh noooooooooooo!

I wish you all a happy & creative spring weekend and a wonderful week ahead dear blogging friends and readers! xox

Shop opening and sunny garden Sunday!

Hello dear blogging friends and readers!

I hope you all had a splendid weekend! Mine was wonderful, Saturday we've planted lots of Violas and other spring flowers and yesterday was the first real sunny spring day and I've spend the whole day in the garden :D. The temperature has even reached 21 degrees celsius in the sun on my patio! I took some pictures of course, but first I have a very exciting announcement to make, maybe not as exciting for you as it is to me lol it's the opening of my own Etsy shop !

I proudly present to you "Boxwoodcottage" Decorational crafts & more! My daughter was so kind to make me the shop banner above. I've got several e-mails from blog readers lately with the question if I would also sell my hearts, collages etc. and I thought Etsy would be the best way to do it. Also the purchase through Etsy and the payment through Paypal is so very easy! For the beginning I've created 4 Easter egg collages and also added 4 heart collages to the shop, but there is more to follow, I'll keep you updated here on my blog. I'd appreciate your feedback and hope that you'll like my little shop! Just click on the banner to go there! Thank you!

Back to the garden now! Here is the patio view on sunny Sunday morning:

My hanging baskets and pots are slowly getting filled again with fresh flowers:

Also my crocusses have finally opened their blooms:

This is the stunning view to my right hand neighbour:

It's spring! :D

Lastly I like to thank all you lovely people to the overwhelming response to my "Tribute to Summer" post! I loved to read all your kind comments, keep them coming please :D! I wish you all a wonderful spring week ahead! xox

A tribute to Summer!

I've been searching for a special photo today and while I went through hundreds of pages of my imageshack account and saw all the glorious summer flower photos that I took in my garden last year I had the idea of making a summer tribute post today, so we have something to look forward too! I guess that most of you are longing for blue sky and beautiful greens and flowers as much as I do during these gray days. So lay back and enjoy!

It was hard to select just a few photos from so many. Is there something more gorgeous and perfect in the world than flowers?

Oh beautiful summer please come back soon! *sigh*