Today's Blooms

I had to laugh that one of the daffodils should bloom this long after all of the other ones had come and gone. Recent evidence suggests that the squirrels had dug some up and replanted others. They sure are busy making mischief...and other squirrels around here.

A lone stella de oro lily blooms in the border by my driveway. Not sure what happened to the other ones but I should be seeing some soon.

There are some other pink, purple and white blooms appearing around the earth ramp. I'm not sure just what they are yet but they are pleasant to look at.

Art in your mailbox

I only have one lily like this so I wanted to enjoy and share it as much as I could while it lasted.

I started with a small pencil sketch in the corner of an envelope.

Yellow Garden , Lily and Sunflower

At home with art and flowers

These are old photos but seeing them again made me smile so I thought I'd share them with you too.

The funny thing about painting roses on the corner of this building was watching bees trying to land on them.

A big, yellow surprise!

Well, they're pretty but unexpected. I  thought this was where my pink stargazers had been planted last year.

I need to be shopping for a nice garden journal to help me keep track of the plants and the plans moving forward with my garden.

It makes a bright welcome as you come up the sidewalk here.

I'm looking forward to solving the mystery and finding out if the pink lilies were planted somewhere else or whether the garden place sent me the wrong bulbs. Meanwhile, I'll sit back and enjoy looking at these until I decide whether to draw or paint them.

Today's Card and Envelope Designs

As always I start with a blank watercolor card and envelope then begin to look for odd bits of paper or photos around my work table and studio space.

1. Add photo and bits of scrap paper to the card.
2. Fill remaining space with drawings or paintings inspired by the photo.
3. Do a matching drawing or painting in the lower left hand corner of the envelope.
4. Give it away as is, sell it or do what I usually do - write a letter on it and drop it in the mail.
5. Enjoy both personal satisfaction and a few comments or compliments from others.

Any way you look at it, it's time well spent and a great use of the resources on hand. This one just took an old picture, scrap paper, watercolor paints and a marker.

I don't know where this little scrap of floral paper came from but I thought I'd have a little bit of fun with it. I used pencil and marker on the card and watercolor paints and marker on the envelope. Yes, this is already in the outgoing mail. It's been quite a day around here and it was nice to be able to share it with a couple of people who really know what I'm going through these days.

Changing Seasons

The very last lily

Windswept sunflowers, tiny because they were planted last.

Taking the flowers in to draw and paint and enjoying some tea among the falling leaves. A neighbor even stopped by to join me.

Stargazer Lily Card and Envelope, photo and watercolor

Lily Paintings, Windy day in the garden

Peach Lily from garden to art

A new plan for painting a lily

 The flowers bloom and finish before I get much of a chance to draw and paint them so I'll be painting them on sections of this design as china patterns.

 It will give me a chance to get some practice painting each of the kinds of flowers I grow here and the finished picture will make a nice card design for my Zazzle store.

This seems like a great way to do a lot of positive things in a small space, don't you think so?



I'm never quite sure what color to make the background on a pencil drawing. As you can see here I tried just about everything before finally blacking it out.

Having done the background I realized that I wasn't quite sure which end I wanted to be the top of this image. With the design work I'm doing these days I may try turning it a number of different directions depending on the shape of the item I'll be putting it on.

The Latest Lily and my best effort so far...at least I think so...

Getting started with pencil and ink

Background Check

The Colors on the Lily were so intense that I had trouble coming up with a background to balance it. So far my approach is to keep cross hatching layers of different colors until it "feels" right an I'm not sure whether or not I've finished with it yet.

Yellow Pencils

Yellow Lily in Pen and Ink