our own little midwest meet-up

 Yesterday I had the pleasure of lunching with Penny from At Home in English Valley

 and Cathy from My 1929 Charmer. Penny and I had actually met last year at the 

Midwest Bloggers Conference and have become good friends and see each other

once in awhile, but neither one of us had met Cathy. We talked and laughed for almost

three hours. It's a lot of fun getting to know the person behind the blog!

 {Penny, Cathy, me}

Penny is so sweet, generous, and talented ~ she gave me and Cathy a gift bag

 full of pretty things that she had made. I love this crocheted Ball jar cozy.

 I'm not sure if this vintage Oriole fabric piece is supposed to be a dish towel,

but I think it looks pretty in my office, hung over the door of my vintage dresser.

The colors and the bird theme fit in perfectly!

Another pretty puffed heart to add to my collection! Penny finds gorgeous

vintage fabrics when she's thrifting and then repurposes the fabric by making

something new. I love the colors and details of the flowers in this fabric.

We are finally having warm weather here in northern IL (85F today - a bit too warm

for my likes, but I'm not complaining - sure beats winter!) so Brian and I have been

doing a lot of yard work. I was at Home Depot a few days ago looking for annuals

and they didn't have much of a selection yet - just the usual petunias and marigolds.

I bought a couple of hanging baskets but that was it. I'm going to another garden

center tomorrow to check out the annuals. Hopefully, they will have a good selection

and I can get busy planting flowers in pots for my porch and patio.