To market, to market...

If you click on my photos you can see them full screen and get an idea of the texture and depth of the brushstrokes and other paint work (palete knives,fingers,sticks,spoons etc.)

I listed these 2 paintings for sale in the neighborhood today. Can't keep tripping over them forever and in a 604 square foot house 44 paintings are just too,too many to deal with and I've decided that I need to get out of my own way both literally and figuratively so I can make better decisions when it comes to life, hobbies and finances, Wish Me Luck!

Seconds

Today was all about second chances, these rosebushes are blooming for the second time this summer and I pulled everything out of the strawberry box, got rid of the weeds , trimmed the strwberries and replanted them for next year. The people that think gardening is boring haven't been around them enough to realize that they change almost everyday and there's always something else happening. It's a lot of work but I really enjoyed it this season.

Letters from my front yard

We took a few minutes to share summer morning with you. Doug put the video together and I shot the pictures while drawing pictures on some letters for his Aunts. Yes, I'd grown and arranged the flowers I was drawing too.

My favorite things this morning

Isn't it amazing how much things change from day to day when you step back and look at things around the yard and garden? I loved the way the sun was filtering through the trees and the way that light green chair shows up so much better in the corner than the bench did. (don't worry about the bench, it's very happy hanging out on the patio these days) Everything fits somewhere, it just takes some doing to find just the right place for everything and the season is short so I keep at it whenever the weather allows. I'm going to cut that sunflower today so that I've got something to work from as I paint a bird feeder and a couple of other small wood projects. I may even put them on a dala horse...

Art is for the birds

...at least this is. While working around the garden I'd been cleaning and refilling bird feeders and decided some of the old, plain wood ones could use brightening up ( it also helps hide nails and flaws in the wood) Anyway, it was fun and I enjoy the look of them again so all that remains is to see whether or not the birds like them too.

Dead grill act two

What do you do with an old grill That's rusting through after only 15 or 20 years of use? If you're like most people you pay someone to haul it away but by now you know I'm NOT most people (and pretty glad of that I must say ; ) Anyway, I decided that what made it bad for grilling made It perfect for planting,after all, it's got plenty of drainage holes. I rounded up some hosta, violets and lily of the valley that had run wild in the yard and I'm calling it good for now. The lid sits on the ground in front old the ruins of an old brick and stone bar-b-q and the base of the grill sits behind it. From the patio you can't even tell that those planters were ever anything else and until I can manage to do anything else back there I take comfort in the fact that rich people hire someone to build them a stone ruin to give there garden character, apparently all the character this place needs is this one and her shovel.

One potato, two potato

Well, today was payback time for the fingerling potatoes I'd given my best patio planter, container mix , time and attention. I'm an impatient girl and was wanting that planter for flowers and other plants so I dumped the potatoes and let them take care of lunch (time for them to take care of me).

Some meals I've boiled them, sometimes I roast them but today we were in a cheeseburger mood so I made fries. Not the healthiest way to cook them but they were fresh and raised totally without chemicals so as the old song goes "two out of three ain't bad".

Now I'm excited about the new things I'm planting and the fries were delicious so life doesn't get better than that today.

Anything that gives you food, exercise and something to look forward to can't be all bad.

Who knows, tomorrow could get interesting...

I Love it when a plan comes together

While sorting through things today I came across a flour sack dish towel. I can't recall where that came from but I grabbed a pencil and drew a picture on it which allowed me to use an embroidery hoop from one friend and the embroidery floss that another gal had given me to give myself a present that I'll enjoy using for a long time.

If you're the sort that enjoys getting something for free you can see why I was excited about this. If not it wouldn't really matter because you wouldn't be reading this anyway.

Well, there was one more of those towels and I guess I'll draw an Iris on that one.

I don't know too many other people that still embroider these days - do you?