Frocks and Marigolds

About 30 years ago Poppy bought me two nice metal rakes, rakes that came with a lifetime guarantee. Well, I wore them out.  Seriously! Too bad I didn't keep the receipt. :) 

So I bought another rake this week. A much cheaper, lighter weight, rake...

Never owned a big plastic rake before! It makes a nice wide sweep but doesn't grab all the leaves and debris like the medal rakes. 

Anyhow, I've raked leaves for three days now and barely made a dent in them, but can sure feel it in my back and legs. I'm beat!

I'm still cleaning up the teeny tiny garden too and today pulled up the marigolds...

"Wonder if the chickens would like marigolds", I thought? Then remembered! Do you remember Frank Perdue's TV ads? He bragged about the nice color of his chickens. He fed them marigold petals! He also produced his own chicken feed containing marigold petals...

Well then! I dressed up the raggedy old chicken lot by placing bunches of marigolds all around...

Of course, the rooster bragged that all this was his idea...

The hens hardly had time to eat with him calling them from one bunch of flowers to another.

Wonder where the four new red hens are...

close together as usual and  gathered around the feeder inside the little hen house.

Well, I didn't wear an old frock outside to work these last few days. I do have a few old frocks, but none so beautiful as those Tasha Tudor wore.

This one, Oh my gosh, was hard to make, for me anyhow. I am not a dressmaker! Three layers of fabric in the bodice!

two layers in the skirt. I love the buttons in back, but who could wear this out raking leaves! It looks uncomfortable.

I made this simple dress too. Little red checks. Not too pretty though...

I might could rake leaves wearing this one with an apron, maybe...

and this dress, my favorite, I found a Goodwill store...

I wore this one to the Duke Homestead Festival a few years ago where Shelby and I were vendors.

Oh, wouldn't you love to have a few of Tasha Tudor's dresses, or some like them? I would settle for just the pattern.

These dresses have been hanging in the sewing room for ages! When I started trying them on the dress form for pictures, I realized all three were dusty and dirty. I threw them in the washer. 

and hung them out to dry...made for a right pretty picture anyway...

Guess that's about it for now. It's near 8:00. Think I'll go dip us a cup of ice cream. Thank you for visiting. 

Love,

Henny