The Cobblestone Cottage Crafts and Re-Creations

06/12/2024

Golden Opportunity. She smells so sweet! 🧡💛

05/25/2024

Scenes from the garden this week. 🪴 It’s a real mess since I took last summer off from it. (But no regrets. I needed to start healing. ❤️‍🩹) I figure two seasons to get it back on track. Honestly I’m just glad I feel like doing something. (Yep, I dug that dead bush out by hand. Sometimes I just get a wild hair lol. )Butterflies rest when it storms to protect their wings. And so shall I. 🦋

05/11/2024

Disguised as a sweet innocent little flower lies the Devils Spawn. 😈😁

04/15/2024

The weather was beautiful this weekend. Got three beds cleaned up and I’m happy with that progress. Here’s some happenings in the garden. 🪻

04/13/2024

🌻

04/13/2024

Amazing!

04/12/2024

It’s not very exciting but when you’ve been in hibernation mode for 18 mos this is a good bit of work! ☀️ The vegetable garden is set up though I still have a lot of compost that needs to be moved (from the far end of my lot of course). The mulch will be laid out as I go through the very neglected flower beds, one by one. It may take all summer but it doesn’t matter. I take lots of breaks and have no pressure on myself (though I do like to have things looking decent by Memorial Day.) I have plans for the back patio too, so that I can enjoy sitting outside safely by myself. It may not all get done but the most important thing to me is just that I’m thinking and moving in a forward motion. I’m trying to figure out who I am. Again. 🐝

04/07/2024

One year. 🌟 I know you’re okay where you are. I’m okay where I am too. Not where I want to be yet but I’m on my way. 🐝 The strength of our love keeps me moving forward, not chained down. ❤️‍🩹

03/17/2024

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03/01/2024

Mason bee season is fast approaching, so now is a great time to learn more about them, or to refresh your memory! The Bee Conservancy has some great tips and tricks about what you can do in your yard to help our native bees, so check out their website at https://thebeeconservancy.org/10-ways-to-save-the-bees/. We sell mason bee houses here in-store, so stop by to check them out or ask us questions about them!

03/01/2024

🐝 Welcome Letter For New Subscribers.
🐝 New Subscribers PLEASE READ:
RULES: If you spam, you will be banned.

The verse on the image was written by the 17th century poet; Francis Quarles. It was often seen in historic literature on the preface pages in books of Academia as a warm welcome to the reader, -an invitation to come, stay, and learn from the gift presented to them. This verse from Quarles is a fitting way to express a warm welcome to the new subscribers of the Historical Honeybee Articles page.

The Image says:
I here present thee with a hive of bees, laden some with wax, and some with honey. Fear not approach! There are no Wasps, there are no Hornets here. If some wanton Bee should chance to buzz about thine ears, stand thy ground and hold thy hands: there's none will sting thee if thou strike not first. If any do, she hath honey in her bag will cure thee too. -Francis Quarles. Divine Fancies digested into Epigrams, Meditations and Observations (1632)

02/11/2024

Check out the color on our Jackson Cam tonight! BEAUTIFUL!!

01/01/2024

The turn of the year. It’s only been in the last few days that I have felt the beginning of hope niggling at the outer most edge of my brain. I’ve chosen Hold on to Memories by Disturbed and my anthem for 2024. Grief never goes away we just learn to live with it. Today I feel determined, not to move on but to move forward. Many Blessings from The Cobblestone Cottage and wishes for Peace to you in the upcoming year. 🎉🕊️🐝. (Link to my 2024 anthem) https://youtu.be/6Q0sMOQvJuw?si=MTLNfruRPIT9rajS

12/23/2023

“This old man, he played one, he played Knick-knack on my thumb…” This is my old man. My old man Hamm. Hammbonz. I’m sure he misses his Dad and his siblings but I also think he’s enjoying the only dog life. He hangs out with me on the couch, enjoys the holiday decor, naps 22 hours a day and gets carried up and down the stairs. He’s 17. That’s 119 in people years. We’re hoping for a better 2024. Merry Christmas and many Blessings from The Cobblestone Cottage. 🏡 🎄And me. And Hamm. 🐝

12/18/2023

Cozy Cottage Christmas vibes. 🎅🌲

12/18/2023

Cozy Cottage Christmas vibes. 🌲🎅

12/16/2023

I find so much comfort in this. Believing Steve’s just in the next room, still close though unseen. It will help me to be happy knowing he can hear me. Even muffled, from the next room. 🕯️

10/08/2023

Oh, Macklemurray my sweet faced pup. My constant companion. My shadow, always under foot. We were two of a kind, you and me. We shared anxiety, mood swings, snuggles and play. Thanks for choosing me to be your mom for 13 years. I’ll miss your expressions and even you being a pain in the butt. Run fast and far, Sweet Boi! with Daddy and Shirley. 🌈 💔

06/28/2023

I know so many people are facing these same challenges with air quality. It’s incredible. Even with all the humidity here in Michigan, visibility is far less than a quarter mile. Take the necessary precautions to protect yourself. Stay safe!

06/25/2023

Grief is exhausting. Some days I’m high, some days I’m low, some days I completely melt down. 💔 Once, years ago, during a particularly tough time at work, my boss told me “You can’t eat an elephant in one bite.” 😋 That comment has stuck with me. At difficult times, I try to pull up that memory because it always makes me smile and reminds me to take on big things one step at a time. 🐘 The list of things that need to be taken care of now is overwhelming. So far I’ve been able to breakdown that incredible list into smaller goals and have slowly been able to achieve them. It’s not easy and it comes with fear and guilt and sadness but also a certain sense of accomplishment. And so I keep plugging along, day by day. 🌅

06/05/2023

I love this artwork!

What is success?
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Artist Catrin Welz Stein

06/02/2023

Ten years ago today, we made these vows to each other.
💙
We took each other to be husband and wife, to live with each other, to laugh with each other, to stand by each others sides, to sleep in each other’s arms, to be the joy in each others lives and the food for each others soul. We promised to bring out the best in each other, always, and for each other, to be the best we could be. We looked into each others eyes and remembered the first moment we knew this was the person we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. I held my very best friends hands and made these promises.
💙 Find yourself somebody who will look at you like this.💙 Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart. I miss you every second. 💙

05/28/2023

Nothing like a healthy dose of “up north air” to help reset your soul. 🌞 I wish I could bottle these blue skies, bag up some family hugs and put the scent of my sisters horse barn in a candle to take home. 💙🇺🇸

05/20/2023

I had to send my husbands beloved pup Shirley over the 🌈 bridge to him today. She was 20 and had lots of problems that I couldn’t handle alone. They we’re together for 18 of her 20. We talked about it before he passed so I know he understands and I’m glad they are together again. It was weird to have one here without the other. But I sure do miss them. 😢. (I still have my “boyz” Hamm and Mac. They are 17 and 13.)

05/12/2023

It was eight years ago this week that my husband found this cottage on line. At first, I wasn’t sold on it. I loved it but it was very impractical….small, steep stairs, it needed a roof and a well. We saw the yard in its absolute glory that year and we didn’t look at any other house. 🌸 Over the years we made it ours, working on projects together and making improvements. I still love it but the feeling is different now, without him. It’s not as much fun. I’m glad we got done as much as we did. There are a couple of projects on our list that I still want to do. Maybe the feeling will change again and make it just a little more “mine”. 💙 It will always be the HOME 🏡 that Steve and I made. 💕

05/06/2023

~ Gwen Flowers

The longest, slowest most painful process. The death of a spouse is unlike any other experience. It cannot even be imagined. 💔

Grieving has its ups and downs, minute to minute and day to day. I ride those waves as they come but in the end I know that the only way to move forward is straight through them. 🙏 🌊

04/16/2023

Minute-by-minute is all I can manage today. I just can’t look forward without breaking down so minute-by-minute will have to do.☀️ The last couple of years, I’ve planted over 100 daffodils in the “woods”. I chose naturalizing, early mid and late spring bloomers. I’m finally starting to get the look I was going for. ☀️Found a cute surprise behind the garage. ☀️ The joy is dulled by my sadness but it’s a small bit of joy nonetheless and that also will do for today. 💛

04/12/2023

We are having magnificent weather this week! ☀️ I’m so grateful because even under normal circumstances, my mood is very closely connected with it. I think if it had been any different I would not have had the strength to get out of bed. The first couple of weeks after someone so close to you passes are incredibly busy and stressful. There’s hardly time to breathe let alone grieve. I feel there’s a turning point coming when everything will likely coming crashing down. Even now there are moments of it. I ride the waves of my grief, I don’t try to hold them back. My grief fills me up and then it spills over. It’s the only way to release it. Doing that will eventually make room for some joy to move back in. But not yet. Not yet. 🌅 💔