Come in From The Cold

 

 Not long after moving to North Carolina, I learned (through an article in Southern Living) the secret to getting your holiday cactus to re-bloom every year.  They recommended moving it outside for the summer into a mostly shaded spot.  It should stay there until just before the first frost when it will then be brought into the house and given a home in a cooler room out of direct sunlight.

I brought mine into the garage for a few days to acclimate to the slightly warmer temperature before bringing it into the warm house.  I also sprayed it good with an insecticidal soap.

When I brought it in it was covered with tiny buds.

The above photo was after it had been in the house for a week or so.  You can see the blooms are about ready to open.

 I placed it in my living room which is always on the cool side and gets very little sunlight.

It's been a busy week and I haven't been in the living room much.

Until last night that is.

I sat down to read and looked across the room to see this:

As you can see it doesn't take long for the buds to turn into blossoms once it is in the house.

So pretty and I like the way it is brightening up the corner in this dark room.

Speaking of dark rooms, I broke the cardinal rule of blogging and used the flash in this photo.  It was that or a very dull and drab photo.  Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do :-).

While I was taking photos I couldn't help but notice how pretty the inside of this tea cup is and it coordinates well with the cactus.

I brought one more plant into the house for the winter.

It's a Meyer Lemon Tree.

I bought this one from QVC last spring.  I had been wanting one and happened to be watching one of their gardening shows when they explained everything I needed to know about growing it.

It spent the spring and summer on the patio and doubled in size.

It came with a nice booklet of growing instructions which I am keeping in a handy spot.

It will now spend the winter in the sunniest window in the house.

It is normal for it to shed many of it's leaves, which it has just started to do.  Once it goes back outside next spring the new leaves are supposed to pop out quickly.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Have you grown a Meyer Lemon Tree before?  Any words of advice?  I hear the flowers are supposed to smell wonderful.  I'm looking forward to that.

 Now that it is the time of year to spend more time indoors, I am planning to renew my efforts to work on a long neglected project.

We won't even discuss when this Christmas cross stitch project was started.  I can't really figure out why I don't just stick with it until it's done.  I think I'll just blame it on my eyesight.  It's a lot harder to see those tiny holes than it was when I used to love to cross stitch.

Anyhoo, I saw something on HappyOne's blog that has inspired me to get to it.  She will be posting a picture of her weekly progress on one of her cross stitch projects every Saturday.  You can read about it here .

If you read her blog you already know that she whips out afghans and dishcloths and all sorts of beautiful things at record speed.  She will no doubt have her large cross stitch piece done long before mine.  However, I think doing a weekly update on progress could be just the thing to hold me more accountable to finishing this project in time for Christmas.  It might not be til Christmas of 2014 or even 2015, but sooner or later it shall get done.  

Once completed it should look something like this:

Kind of hard to see, but the angel's skirt is a Christmas tree.

The sentiment is  Enter Friend and Welcome Be Share Warmth and Joy Beneath our Tree.

 Wish me luck (I have a feeling I'm going to need it ;-).