Butterfly Garden Plant #3

Purple Coneflower
Perennial

This plant grows abundantly and the butterflies love it. Check out my First Butterfly Blog. Also known as Echinacea purpurea this beauty will grow about 3 feet and will multiply itself. Once established you can transplant throughout your yard and your neighbors yard for that matter.
Plant in full sun.

Butterfly Garden Plant #2

A Butterfly Bush is staple in a Butterfly Garden. This variety has reached about 8 feet in height by 3 feet across, I have 3 other butterfly bushes but are much smaller still. I prune back early spring and patiently wait for spring growth. The purple flowers bloomed less than a week ago. This perennial loves a sunny area and will thrive year after year.

The Butterflies and Hummingbirds absolutely love this plant so be sure to plant one that you can see from an indoor window.

Butterfly Garden Plant #1

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) 'Camelot Cream' attracts hummingbirds blooms early summer grows 3 to 5 feet.
These flowers bloomed early June and were here for a few weeks. Very nice attractive white bloom with red speckles, very pretty. I planted three separate plants about 4 feet from each other. It will take a couple summers for them to multiply and fill out.

First Butterfly!

I spotted my first Butterfly of the summer Sunday morning on my Purple Coneflowers in my Butterfly Garden. This butterfly is called a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele.)

Although there is a flower petal shadow on him you can still see some great detail.

I have been working on my Butterfly Garden since I moved into my home 6 years ago. I have planted mainly perennials that attract Butterflies and Hummingbirds. I believe this will be my best summer yet, for observing Butterflies!

Blown-In Insulation

I want to share my story about our family's experience when we trusted a company to blow insulation into the exterior walls of our home.

I am not going to name the company, but this is a well-known large company located in Erie with offices outside the Erie area as well.

We decided to have our home's exterior walls insulated in the Fall of 2006. We live in an older city home and knew there was absolutely nothing in-between our walls. We contracted a company after a sales guy assured us about his product and that the job would be well done by his crew.

Many flags were raised when the job was done. We were not to happy about their clean-up, the amount of siding they broke, and that they were blowing in the wrong insulation to begin with. Although I was not happy with the company's professionalism, the job was supposedly done and although I always had a suspicion, they were paid $300 less and were on their way.

In November 2007, I had a new cable line installed in a third floor room. Since the cable guy was drilling holes I asked him to check if he sees insulation. . . . He sees no insulation and this now leads me to the beginning of a fiasco to get the insulation company to return to my home and prove to me that there is insulation in my walls.

After, a few months of the run around, two guys finally come out and they confirm only about 1/4 of the house has been insulated. You have got to be kidding! They never insulated my home. These two guys proceeded to do the job that was never done a year and a half ago, with a promise to return a week later and finish a few other areas.

Meanwhile, I spoke with a lawyer friend and he says you need to contact the Attorney General if this issue cannot be resolved between us.

A week later the two guys never returned. From this then started numerous calls, complaints, emails, and consumption of my time. I finally had it resolved where I got my money back, plus some. Although I never needed to send my letter to the Attorney General I wonder how many homes this company promised to insulate and never did.

Fortunately I listened to my instinct, even though it was nearly 2 years later.

Ice Storm 2008

We have a huge maple tree in our backyard that is in the middle of the property line of our neighbors.

This tree is old and branches fall quite often, but nothing like what fell to the ground on Wednesday. First one branch fell, which is about 15 feet at least. I was just about to walk in the backyard to get a better look at the damage to my fence and to see just how big this branch was, when my 4 year old called me into the living room to show me something she "wants for her birthday" on the TV, just as I was walking back through the house to exit my back door, down came this branch that made you stand in awe for a couple of minutes. This branch is at least 40 to 50 feet in length and just missed my garage by about a 1/2 a foot. The branch broke more of the fence and one of my bird feeders, but still amazes me how it missed my garage by just a hair. The ironic thing is that my home insurance will only cover the clean-up and removal of the tree branch if it WOULD have hit my garage, plus cover the damages to the garage. My pictures don't show the mass volume of the tree but you can get the idea.

Thankfully no one was injured and it shows what the power of mother nature can do.

My White Cabinets

In August 2007 I shared my kitchen refinishing cabinets experience, these are some of the after pictures I was never able to display properly.

Although my kitchen is still being updated the cabinets made a huge difference for such little money.

The cabinets paint color was "Abby White" from Lowes'. If you don't have a sander already I recommend the Craftsman Mouse hand sander, it's simple.

Tupperware

Are you looking for a trust-worthy, knowledgable Tupperware consultant?

Andrea Nesselhauf has over 30 years experience and knows her products. Looking for a catalog or looking to have a Tupperware party yourself call her at 814-838-4723.

Life's Luxuries - Number 2

100% pure Linen Bed Sheet Set and Duvet cover.

I got going on this after I saw the movie with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, called Practical Magic, there was a linen blanket on one of the beds that looked wonderfully comfortable. After some browsing online and a few shopping excursions, I realized this would be a harder item to find and cost more than I had anticipated.

I ended up purchasing my duvet cover from Pottery Barn. The website was having an online special and I ended up purchasing the cover for just under $100. The sheets I totally lucked out again, but this time at Tuesday Morning. If you have not been there it is located at 2169 West 12th Street, Erie PA, which is at the corner of 12th and Pittsburgh Avenue. Tuesday Morning reminds me of T.J. Maxx but without all the clothes and shoes. This sheet set was originally $400.00 and I ended up paying, again, $100.

Garnet Hill carries the sheets online if you want to check them out.

Sweet Dreams!

Life's Luxuries- Number 1

Life Luxuries Number 1.....

Dual Shower Head. If you shower with a partner frequently this is a must have. I have had one since we purchased our home 5 years ago. The best part is that you both stay warm and have your own personal on/off switch. It really is quite wonderful.

Check out this one from SkyMall.

Corn Stove

Well shortly we are going to be facing the time where we need to turn on our furnaces.

The best part of my furnace is that it's actually a corn/pellet stove and heats up to 3,800 square feet. Quite possibly the best investment next to my house. We bought our Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon stove in the early spring of 2005 from Scott's Heating and Cooling in Wattsburg and have reaped the benefits of burning corn and pellets.

Our whole quality of life has improved just for the fact that I can have all rooms open at my home and have everyone very comfortabe without having to wear extra clothing in the comforts of my own home. I recommed everyone to look into corn and/or pellet stoves for their home.

Our winter is already paid for and the best thing is that at my house in the cold winter months ahead I can count on my house to be an average warm 76 degrees.

Restoration Hardware

Please check out Restoration Hardwares website and/or visit the nearest store in Pittsburgh.

I have been on the lookout for a particular chaise indoor chair and have finally came across a company that is speaking my style.

I have since purchased the Grand-Scale Chaise in Linen Sage and absolutely love this chair.

I have been to this store at the Galleria mall in Pittsburgh and at the store in King of Prussia Mall and have never realized the wide array of products they sell until recently, check it out..Love them all..

Searching for a a ceiling fan...next mission.

Hope you find what you have been looking for.

Finished Kitchen Cabinets

I have finally finished the kitchen cabinets to Abby White from dark oak stain, and they look wonderful.

This is a great project for anyone with lots of patience and just a half hour to spare daily. Check out before and after pictures.

Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets

I have started refinishing my kitchen cabinets and after much research and confidence, I finally have the process down to a T. I am actually enjoying the process and seems to be the perfect project when you can only spend an hour or two at a time. Currently I have old, dark stained Oak cabinets with a shiny, waxy gloss finish. I am painting these cabinets "Abby White." Here's what I have learned.

1. Clean cabinets with TSP cleaner.
2. Strip Cabinets...I am using a Citrus Paint Stripper.
3. Carefully scrape off stripper residue with a putty knife or similar item. Wipe clean.
4. Steel wool and Lacquer thinner the entire surface ...this gets rid of any dark spots the stripper left behind and overall cleans the surface perfectly. I would not leave out this process.
5. Sand cabinets smooth, wipe clean. Clean nooks out with toothpicks or whatever works to get out any leftover steel wool and stripper in the corners.
6. Apply a sealer/primer. Let dry overnight.
7 Sand smooth again. Wipe clean.
8. Apply first coat of paint. Let dry overnight.
9. Apply second coat. Let dry overnight. Apply third coat if needed.
10. Buy new hardware, and rehang.

I skipped the paint stripper process , but continued with all other steps on the thin wood cabinet facing that is mounted to the kitchen walls, and on the backs of the cabinets. I will see overtime if it made a difference, but I assumed the facing would get the most traffic and should be done completely for best results.

Dianthus

I recently learned that pinking shears were named after the perennial flower Dianthus.
It appears that the edges of this pink flower are cut with pinking shears, but actually pinking shears were patented in 1893 and got their name from the flower.

Pier One Imports Sale 75%

We just went to Pier One Imports yesterday on Peach Street, and they are having a 75% off sale, which is a rarity for Pier One Imports.

We really got some great deals. One of the items I got was originally priced for $99. It's a wooden wine cubby stand which I am using as a laptop stand, with paperwork and sorts inside the slanted cubby slots. It's perfect, and was only $24.75.

The sales woman told us that the sale runs until the over-stock is sold, or unless otherwise told. I would hurry in due to stock availability.

Happy Shopping.