Rainbows, Flowers, and Stitches

Hello,
  Today, I am going to show you my rainbows. Many years ago, my family lived on an Air Force Base in Germany. My mamma went to the Crystal Factory on one of her trips with the women of the church, and she brought back several crystals for us to put in our windows. I still have the one that she gave me, and I have a few others that I purchased through the years. These crystals create wonderful rainbows during the afternoon hours. Actually, they only show the rainbows at a certain time of the afternoon, usually between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. in the kitchen window at my house. That is the time that the sun is coming perfectly through the window to cast the beams through the crystals. 

     


The crystal on the left is the one from Germany. This crystal is around 50 years old. It is still wonderful. 

The crystal on the right is one that I bought at a craft fair about ten years ago. It works just as well as the one from Germany!




     My grandchildren LOVE the rainbows! When they were much younger, they tried to 'catch' them all. Now, they understand that they cannot catch them, but they enjoy running over to each one and 'putting' them on their face or their hands, etc. 
  
     Here is a picture that I took a few years ago of my oldest granddaughter with a rainbow on her nose!

The following pictures are of all of the rainbows that were beaming through the house a couple of weeks ago. Some are on the wall, some are on the floor, some are all the way into the next hallway, and some even went into another room! These rainbows are projected straight across from the window to the a wall/door of the kitchen.

These rainbows show how the extra facets of the crystal break up the rainbows and shoot them in a sideways direction into the breakfast room.

This beautiful, bright rainbow is on the wall right in front of the window.

This big, light colored rainbow is all the way out into the hallway.
The small one that looks like fire is in the closet of a bedroom that is pretty far away from the kitchen window! It is right next to the big, light one.


This view is of the same light colored rainbow, just a few minutes apart.

I love my rainbows, because they remind me so much of my sweet mamma and the wonderful, loving times that we shared together. My mamma was one of the most loving and giving people you could ever meet. I miss her so much.

  I also have some new pictures of my pansies, violas, and other porch flowers. They are thriving. 

This first picture is of one of the big planters with pansies, violas, and heather. My two heather plants have gone completely away multiple times, since the summer. There was nothing left of them but brittle, brown stems each time. I almost dug them up! Right now, they are in the best shape ever! They are just big, and blooming, and waving in the wind!

 

These Pansies are in the planter that the little squirrel loves. Some days, there is a big hole in the corner, where the squirrel has either hidden a pecan or come to retrieve a pecan. The bottom corner is bare of flowers, because that is where the squirrel puts his 'stash'.

The flowers don't seem to mind a bit!

Here is my pink geranium that has lived since the summer. It has gone away and come back multiple times! I decided to plant some violas and pansies in with it, so that the geranium peeks out at you! My other geranium did the same thing for a while. It finally went completely away, though, and I had to dig it up.

All of the flowers even survived the recent 'freeze' that we had one night. I took all of these pictures on the afternoon that the 'big freeze' was predicted. Thankfully, the temperature didn't get down as low as predicted. In Savannah, we do not get the type of 'freezes' that you get in more northern locations. 😃

Luckily, pansies are very strong and can endure the cold weather. The geraniums, heather, and violas also survived the cold night. This planter is on the far corner of the porch. The squirrel doesn't bother this one!

  

Here is my basket of violas! I also added a couple of pansies to it.

This big planter is the second big one on the porch. It is loaded with beautiful violas, intermingled with the pansies and heather. 

     Upon the recommendation of my 'stitchy' cousin, I have been watching YouTube videos on cross stitching. There is a channel called Flosstube that has all different types of cross stitch shows. I found a few that I enjoy, and I am watching those a lot! 

     There is one lady who does really intricate work. She is from Ukraine, but she lives somewhere else now. Some of her videos are in her native language, but she also does some in English. Even the ones in Russian are fun to watch, though, because her work is so marvelous. Her channel is called Cross Stitch with Luda. If you enjoy watching videos about cross stitching, I would recommend that you find her. 

     I also found two guys who are very entertaining. Their channel is called Married With Stitches. These two guys definitely put on a good show. They are so sweet and kind, and they love to cross stitch. They also dye a lot of fabrics. Their little trademark is to drink a new kind of tea in each session, to use a new cup each time, and to eat a new type of candy or snack in each session. They are so funny. Many people who watch them now send them things, such as homemade jelly, candy, crafts, etc. as gifts for them. 
     I just found a new video channel to watch. It is called Stitching Kitchn. (Yes, that is the correct spelling of kitchen.) The lady in the videos is really funny, while also being extremely helpful and instructional. 

  My cousin sent me a couple of simple patterns that will help me begin my cross stitch journey. It has been around 30 years since I did a lot of cross stitching. The main reason I stopped is that my eyes are not like they once were. Also, I was working a very high stress type of job and didn't have time to do anything for myself. It may take me a while to get back to my former skill level, however, I am determined to get started. I went out to the craft stores this weekend and got the thread and fabric that I will need to start the projects. That was a lot of fun, so I am on the way!
      Have a great day!