FINALLY, SOME TULIPS... and the winner of my giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I went to Lowe's last Thursday to pick up some paint samples for some furniture projects I want to

get started on this week (more on this later), and on my way into the store, I couldn't help but notice

all of the beautiful plants they were stocking in the garden center.  I was so happy when I saw that

they had tulips! I've been wanting to get some fresh cut tulips for a while now, but didn't have luck

finding any locally, so I found the next best thing... live tulip plants.  Now, I will have some in our

garden that I can bring inside whenever they're in bloom. :)

Finally, some tulips... 

I brought them inside to enjoy until we planted them in the garden on Sunday along with some pink

peonies.  I'm so excited to finally get some peonies for our garden, too.  I've adored them from afar

for so long, first in magazines and then on other people's beautiful blogs.  I hope they bloom in the

first season, so I can have peonies to bring in the house this Spring/Summer... keepin' my fingers

crossed. ;-)

Seeing these gorgeous bouquets in the January issue of Jeanne d'Arc Living got me itchin' for Spring

to get here.  I finally got all of my rose bushes and vines pruned back, and there are new red shoots

starting to grow on them already and buds on our flowering trees... eeehhhh!  I LOVE the antici-

pation of what's to come in the garden at this time of the year.

It felt so good to be planting in the garden over the weekend and having my hands back in the

soil again.

Here in Central California, we get Spring a bit earlier than a lot of you do throughout other parts of

the country.  We'll get a few more rain storms before winter is over, and temps are still pretty cold in

the mornings and evenings (mid 30's), but Spring is definitely soon on its way for us.  I hope this post

helps send a little sunshine to those of you who are still having freezing temps and snow storms where

you live. :)

OK... now, onto the winner of my giveaway sponsored by Maria of The Growers Daughter...

the winner is Sandi from Wayside Treasures! 

Congratulations Sandi!  I'll contact you to get the information needed for Maria to send you your

package. :)  The winner was randomly chosen by my daughters.  They each picked a number between

1-412, and then I tossed a coin to choose which number I would use. 

I want to thank all of you again who entered my giveaway and especially to those of you who took

the time to blog about it or post it on your sidebar... you gals rock!!!  I wish I could have had the time

to visit each and every one of you and welcome all of my new followers, but there were just too

many of you... 412 entries!!!... so I wanted to take the time now to thank all of you for your very

sweet and encouraging comments.  I read each and every one and appreciated them all so much!!!

My internet has been running crazy slow for about a week now, so I'm a little behind on all my emails

and comments for my non-giveaway posts.  I will get around to all of you eventually though, so please

don't give up on me.

♥

I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!!!

'Til next time...

~ Jo :-)