Columbine and Wintergreen

The columbine I grow because it's a good plant for woodland areas and I've got 3 large trees in the front yard. My hope is that it will reseed and spread to fill the border with flowers.

The wintergreen can be used in many ways so I'm researching all of the different things that I'll be able to make from it.

The place that I got it said "eat, drink and grow berries...fruit can be eaten fresh...the leaves make tea." I'm looking forward to trying it.

Today's mail and a bit of hand sewing

As usual while sorting through things around here I stopped to write a letter. I'd written all around the drawings on the letter so I'm just showing you the corner of the envelope.

I'm turning this little piece of fabric into a napkin for when I have company to tea. It should go nicely with things here and I was pleased with the quality of my hand stitching which I had hoped would show up better when I scanned it. I don't do much hand sewing anymore so it was nice to see that I can still manage to get the stitches pretty even.

I did some floral arrangements yesterday and plan to start work on a painted box next. There's always something to do around herre and I feel like I'm making progress all of the time.

Designing invitations for a Halloween tea

This is one of the first times I've tried designing anything special for Halloween. The only reason I'm doing it is for the friends will be joining me for tea. I painted these on envelopes for the invitations.

A week of kindness and amazing surprises

There are so many people to Thanks this week and most of them don't want to be mentioned by name here so I'll just list what came in and when as I marvel at life and the fact that everyone wants to see the art keep coming enough to help us make ends meet until it starts to pay the bills.

Monday: Bags and Bags of groceries just when we didn't know where our next meal was coming from.

Tuesday: 2 bags of card making supplies along with a cutter and folder
              fresh fruit, veggies and bread
              5 wooden Dala Horses
           
Wednesday:

Thursday: 3 packages of tea from a friend cleaning out her cabinets

Friday: Embroidery floss
           Card Stock
           Clay and clay tools for my sister

Saturday: a can of coffee left on my doorstep

I'm happy not to be a "starving artist" this week and am very grateful to everyone as I set to work on my next project.

Teatime in the studio

The fun thing about having company in the studio today is that the design on the mugs is from one of the paintings that hangs on my wall in there. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone notices and what they think of the idea.

 A lot of my projects are piled up and waiting quietly on the sidelines until I get my worktable back.

A friend crocheted the pad under the teapot and I sewed the napkins. My tea selection is pretty thin while I wait for some new sales and can afford more but I think we'll manage.

Tea with lemon

There's one lemon on the little tree that is spending the summer in my front yard. We laughed at the fact that we were having tea and it wasn't ripe or ready for us yet.
The climbing roses on the front trellis quit blooming a week or so ago and are setting fruit so I invited my friends back this winter for rose hip tea.

Painting with words

As always I'm working on a number of different projects here. Today I'm designing t-shits for my Zazzle store and having quite a bit of fun taking cute things that I say all of the time and making something fun out of them by choosing different fonts and colors for each word.
I'm having company for tea in the garden today and have spent a couple of days touching up the paint on the furniture and moving things around. I'm hoping to get some nice pictures when I get it all set up because I think the tea table in front of that big rosebush would make a great card or sticker image, don't you?

Fabric Scrap Fashion

I started out painting this morning, still working on that design for valentine's day cards but the house needed tending to and as I was doing laundry it occurred to me that the best way to lengthen one of my shirts was to insert a patchwork band.

If this sounds familiar it's because I've been doing that since I was a kid in the 1960's.

 Hey, sometimes the old solutions are the best. 

Actually this shirt has shrunk up so short that I may add two bands and as always I'll post pictures when I've got some.

Here's the picture. I haven't tried it on yet but it looks like the one band of patchwork is going to be enough.

Meanwhile, there's a cup of tea and a loaf of bread just out of the oven...it's smelling SO good that I feel my attention wandering again.

Company for Tea and the attack of the creeping craft monster

I've been cleaning and organizing the house trying to get ready for friends that are dropping by this afternoon and as always there are a hundred distractions from the task at hand.

Still, I kept at it and then I thought it would be so much nicer if I had some pretty place mats. Not having any cash or transportation didn't really slow me down as I headed to the lair of the "dreaded creeping craft monster" (otherwise known as the 17 by 36 inch front hall closet where a lot of my supplies "live" these days. )

I'd already "found" the box I keep my patterns in some days ago so so getting to the 3 boxes of fabric I had left only required moving 4 other projects out of the way.

What a relief! I often expect everything to come tumbling out and start taking over the house...again...

Bravely I stack and stuff and beat it all back into place. Another small victory over the "creeping craft monster" that is my companion here, sometimes my nemesis, and often my comfort.

All that remains now is to see if I can get those place mats made in time for tea or whether I'll get caught up in a bunch of other projects as I sort through the bins in search of just the right fabric for them.

City Gardening and Wildlife

The summer has gone by fast. I'm eagerly awaiting the 3 sunflowers in my yard this year and looking forward to planting lots more of them next year. The bird feeders are busy and I enjoyed the company of both watching and listening to the birds as I rearranged my container plants (pulling out the ones that weren't doing well and putting the best of what's left in the large urn in the corner of the yard.) This gives me 3 empty pots that I'll put away until next season and quite a bit of a nice soil mix that I'll  use to get some more transplanting done.
It's a nice feeling to walk out in the yard and find birds at the feeders and birdbaths. The rabbit was sitting by my chair, when you hear about the trouble with bees around the world it's nice to see them looking happy and healthy here. There weren't any butterflies out today but that may just be the change in the weather (we're expecting thunderstorms in the next few hours)
The sun is out right now so I'll enjoy that while it lasts and deadhead a few more lilies before grabbing a cup of tea and heading for my favorite chair.
It's too bad that gardening is such hard work but on the other hand the exercise is good. The main reason I garden of course is for the flowers I draw and paint, somehow the art is better when I've chosen and grown them myself.