I know this blog of mine is a business blog, however, from time to time I like to reflect on the fact that I am very blessed and very grateful for what the Lord has given me. I like to reflect on what makes my life whole and happy……….. and some of it I will share with you here.

My garden.  Even though I live in an apartment, in a surburban area, my landlady has granted me freedom to take the side of the building I live on and make it into a garden that suits me! She frequently contributes, either help, flowers, or sincere admiration, as does her husband. Here are a very few pics (more to come in future posts!) of some of the flowers of my garden and what I did with a weedy, barren patch of land.

I have two large pots from when I lived upstairs from where I do now, I used to have those pots on the porch. Now, because I moved to a very nice but smaller apartment directly below that in the basement (or the bunker, as I like to call it!) I have the entire side of the building to myself as far as making a garden. So, those large pots now house my “kitchen herb collection”. This particular shot above shows my Silver Edge Thyme with flowers from the Lavender plants peeking through. The thyme and the lavender live very happily together in this pot.

These are my Hardy Pink Lilies that I planted last summer in the ground. They were beautiful for their first year. They came up this year with energy and pizazz! They even made babies. These are large, beautiful pink lilies with a very light smattering of spots in like a fuchsia maroon sort of color near the centers. Very little fragrance, at least to my nose, very light. However, even though they may be light on the fragrance they were more than generous with a profusion of multiple blooms! And baby plants that sprung up near each mother’s base.

This is one of my Stella D’oro Lilies that I planted last year as well. In the back of it you can see my Bleeding Heart plant to the right. I planted two of those, one white and one pink. This spring it became obvious one made it and one didn’t. The white bleeding heart plant made it and came up huge. I missed on taking pictures of those flowers but will make sure I catch that next time it flowers, usually in spring but if we have a cool autumn I may get some more flowers. The Stella D’oro lilies are so bright and cheerful and almost remind me of big overgrown daffodils in a way!

This particular lily is sandwiched between the creeping juniper on her left, the bleeding heart on her right, more lilies and roses in her back along with some hosta, and in the front, which you can’t see right now, in the spring are a row of false garlic with their white star shaped flowers and in front of that, some tulips and hyacinths.

Last picture for today! This is Lizzie, my rescued iguana, who has a whole story of her own to tell. Here she is hanging out watching me watch her through the camera lens in her kitty bed which I bought her last Christmas. My friends tell me I should write a children’s book featuring Lizzie. Don’t know about that, although she really DOES have quite a life story to tell and she’s still quite young! Here in this picture she is still recuperating from her life saving surgery.

More on that another time!

Note her tail, goes all the way down the side of the bed and touches the carpet. Yep, Liz is a big girl ~ 4 feet long in total from snout to end of tail. She’s part of a family of 4 birds and 3 fish. She gives me kisses, is quite docile and tame, and has a very sunny personality. All in all she’s a very nice young lady!

These are some of the things that make my life whole, happy and complete. Many of these things often give me inspiration from nature that goes into many of my artisan designed creations!

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Jewelry Collectibles & Wedding Jewels by Maureen McCullough, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough. In business since 2002 as a artisan designer of everyday jewelry and practical jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, necklaces, eyeglass chains, lanyards, zipper pulls and more. She also specializes in wedding / prom / and formal occasion jewelry ~ ankle bracelets, bracelets, earrings and fantastic necklaces. In addition she also is a designer of textile fashions for ladies and babies such as shawls, wraps, fashion hats, and for babies ~ booties, hats, and blankets.

Happy to be a woman owned small business ~ she also a website designer and personal / virtual assistant ~ Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ as well as a wedding and event planner ~ Wedding Event Planning.

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