Hot Weather and High Hopes

Believe it or not as far north as we are they've been issuing heat warnings so that brings about a number of changes in my plans. Everything was really wet this morning from an early storm but I wanted to take advantage of the cool part of the day and went out early enough to get 3 hours of weeding and other work done in the front garden but I didn't take the camera along because of the weather.
I had planned to paint a few of the spots I missed in the dining room but I just didn't get to it as I was working on a few more designs for Zazzle and had some laundry to catch up on. I keep hoping to get back to drawing and painting the flowers I brought in too. There are always more projects to do than there are hours in the day but I keep trying. Each day I compete against the day before and try to improve. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Getting started with pencil and ink

A study in Lilies

It's much too warm, wet and windy to do very much outside today so I cut these flowers and ran for the house. I don't know what it's like in your part of the world but I'm never happy to see the same numbers for both the temp. and the humidity.
Yes, I stopped and picked some more raspberries before I came in.
You may have noticed that I grow several different types and colors of lilies. That should make the drawings and paintings a lot more interesting and may actually persuade me to buy some vases for next season. This old teapot was a bit difficult to work with.

So This Is The Dining Room

I still haven't quite finished this room but managed to straighten it up enough to have company in for pizza which was the most fun we've had in here in months. Now that the table is cleaned off I can't decide which projects to start next. It's exciting!!!

A Berry Fine Day

Multi-Purpose Room

Work continues on the little room that serves as my office, studio, sewing and dining room. It's feeling good to go to the more peaceful color from the brown. 3 years was much too long to live with the mistake of I'd made in trying to make the room neutral and blend it with the leather furniture in the living room next to it. Lighter and brighter is helping my mood already and this area  is the last one to finish.

Before and After, Back in the Corner

This is how things looked in January when the film crew came in to shoot segments for http://www.brushstrokes.tv (http://www.brushstrokes.tv/player.asp?id=3184&chan=71&dk=1&q=2&seriesid=) This is a direct link to the clip and http://www.stitches.tv  (http://www.stitches.tv/player.asp?id=3187&chan=184&dk=1&q=2&seriesid=) This is a direct link to the clip.  I've only seen clips of them but it was enough to see that the brown walll in here weren't working for me.

The challenge in this room is to arrange everything where it's easy to work with as well as organized. I'm not sure about this color but the room already fells better to me. What do you think?

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.

Slim Pickin's

I really need to get out and clean up the raspberry patch. There were only 10 ripe berries today but it was enough to brighten my day and make my cereal a treat. You never know what you'll ''find'' around here, things have gotten pretty wild and out of control in the backyard as I'd been putting most of my efforts into the front yard.

Yellow Pencils

Yellow Lily in Pen and Ink

Can't you take a compliment?

As I was out trimming vines and branches out of the fence line this morning a couple of people walked by and complimented me on the flowers and garden. Instead of saying "thanks", this is what popped out of my mouth "It's pretty shaggy but I'm doing the best I can".

Why can't I just own up to the fact that it's a "work in progress", a glorious mess and I love it dearly? I'm not even entirely sure what's weeds and which are flowers anymore...

I did invest in a few annuals to brighten things up and provide consistent color as the perennials aren't as showy and don't last as long. I'm enjoying all of it well aware that my health and my finances will put a sudden stop to it someday. Beauty, no matter how brief is always well worth the effort.

Here's one of the birdhouses Doug and I built and that I painted last summer and the sign that's a little reminder of what we're trying to do here. On the other side of this arbor is another birdhouse I'd painted a few years ago which has been well occupied and busy the last couple of weeks. We've really been enjoying watching them as well as the other visitors to the other 3 bird houses, 2 butterfly houses, 4 bird feeders and 2 bird baths in the front garden.

There will always be weeds and although I don't enjoy the smell, the milkweed is essential to the butterflies. I had the opportunity a year or so ago to watch a new butterfly stretch and dry it's wings before getting ready to move on. It was strangely relaxing and satisfying. The sort of thing that most people miss in the hurry of everyday life in the city.
I'm happy here and hope that I can stay but I'm also at peace with life and not going to spoil my day worrying about it.       How about you?

Hanging on by a thread...and some buttons

This old black vest was beginning to get a bit faded and tired looking so I decided to look around for something to brighten it up with. It's a great way to use up odd buttons and bits of embroidery floss. These are going around the edges of the pockets. I haven't quite decided what I'll add to it after that.

Well, I'm not sure how fashionable it is but it cheers me up and anything that bakes you happy makes you look and feel better so I consider this a winning project. I'm off to sort buttons and get started on the other pocket now.

Making the Best of whatever you can find

STORAGE TO GO: I'll bet you wonder why I sew up so many bags to carry things in. There are a lot of reasons: I give a lot of them away, I sell some but The most important reason is that I can take some odd bits of fabric that were in the way (I don't have much space here) and I can turn them into storage for other items. Sometimes the type or the color of the fabrics used will help me stay organized and remember what's inside them and they're always ready to go whenever I need them.

MAKING THE BEST OF THINGS: This lily didn't look like much among the weeds but as you can tell by some of the photos it will have a big impact when used to base some drawings and photos on. I may even cut them to have something pretty in the house or just at my table outside.

SPEAKING OF PAINTING: I continue to be inspire by the sunflowers I grew here a couple of years ago so I keep painting them on rainy days and it seems to cheer me up.

Sewing up a storm

It sounds like a great name for a project to help floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or other natural disasters. But I was just thinking about clearing the last few sewing projects off the dining room table so we could go back to eating in here. It's funny how your mind wanders, isn't it? The title would be a good one to help the military as well.

This place looks like a little of each but the battle is between my priorites. How do you separate the things you need to do from the things you want to do. Sometimes we're lucky and it all comes together, clearly it's a disaster of some sort....creativity seems to come with it's own debris field so I'd better start clearing this one up before I move on to other projects.