Nasturtiums in the snow

We haven't even had a hard frost here in NW Oregon but now we have snow. I still have nasturtiums growing and so went out and picked some this morning. By afternoon it began to snow, as the forecasters have been predicting for several days now.

It's barely cold enough for the snow to stick, so it is melting pretty quickly, but everything is covered, including my bamboo. It is always so pretty, to see the branches bend down with the weight of the snow. They always bounce back.

Hope you all are snug in your homes.  I just came in from feeding the llamas and playing with the dogs in the snow.  Sadie definitely loves the snow!  She played and played, biting the snow, chasing snowballs, making snowdogangels, and generally having a good time.  Rocky just dug in a spot, I think he could hear a mouse under the snow.  The llamas watched us, wondering what the big deal was. I think I shall throw another log on the fire.  I'm sticking close to the stove today, doing hand stitching on some fabric hearts as I listen to the radio.

The sheer heart above I created from a vintage napkin I picked up at a garage sale.  I will embellish it next.  The one below is the first one I have made.  These could be fun Christmas gifts.  Maybe not this orange one, but it's a start.

 Be well.

Beaded Hearts

Recently I have been making these beaded hearts. I didn't blog about them because they were gifts and I wanted to wait until the people had them before I showed them to the rest of the world. I put little charms on them that correspond with something special to the person I made them for. The first one went to my friend Martha who raises lots of birds including peacocks, so I chose a peacock charm for her. I think her favorite colors are green and purple so I chose those colors for her heart.

This one I have shown before. I sent it to Anja over in Germany. The face is representative of our friendship. She does a lot of bead work herself and likes most all colors but seems to especially like dark pink and turquoise.

This last one is gifted to Anne. She is especially fond of sacred heart images so I created this one for her, with the sacred heart charm in it.
They are all the same size, about 2" x 3", and they have pin backs on them. Now I want to make one for myself.  I have a little charm that reads GIRLFRIENDS on it, but I also have a necklace that Martha sent to me that has a sort of Pit Bull dog charm on it. I might use that. It is cute.

Listening to a mix on my mp3 player, last song was from Into the Woods, I love Stephen Sondheim.  Now there is some Leonard Cohen, "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in...."

I see I have picked up some new followers.  Welcome!  and thanks for joining me in this artful journey, I appreciate your support.  

Until next time, be well.

Giveaway Winner!

I had 22 entries for my giveaway.  This morning I put all the names written on papers folded up tiny into a little container, then reached in with closed eyes to choose one.  And the Winner is.....

MARIE SEGAL!  http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/  How appropriate because she has been having her own giveaways and today she gave away 3 new pieces of her art.  I am happy that she is the winner, well deserved.  Marie picked Broken Hearts but if she has changed her mind she can let me know.

All my commenters are winners in one way or another.  I thank you for playing along.  I intend to do this more often, taking my cue from Marie.  So keep checking in here.  I will do my best to make entertaining posts.  For now I better get back to making more art.  Until next time, be well.

Broken Hearts

This is what I have been playing around with lately. I found a box of acrylic felt pieces at a garage sale awhile back and gave myself permission to play around with them.  I hand stitched some circles of felt together, then cut them into quarters, rearranged them and put them back together.  A bullseye. After I machine stitched them down on the felt backing I began adding bits and pieces of felt shapes and beads and buttons.

Originally I was going to make this into a pillow but after I saw how much pet hair it was picking up just by carrying it around, I decided it would not be a good pillow.   Plus it would be uncomfortable with all the beads and buttons.  Imagine what your face would look like after resting your cheek upon it!

I had fun embellishing using some rayon threads and fiber strands. 

i
I especially like this orange and hot pink heart, I love the way those colors look next to each other.

I will leave you with this picture I snapped after noticing Charlie sleeping in the chiminea.   Doesn't he look cozy?

I see I am coming up on my 100th post pretty soon.  I haven't been blogging much lately, too nice outside to be inside.  I hope it stays nice for a couple more months yet and that my 100th post is a ways off.  Until then,

Be well.

Wonkier Hearts

Another oh so original title. After I took these photos I decided to do a little seed stitching around the outside of the hearts with some embroidery thread. Then I gave it to my friend Mary for her birthday yesterday. Happy birthday Mary!! If you would like to see some of the other gifts Mary received, take a look here: http://foxontherunarts.blogspot.com/2010/06/marys-birthday-celebration.html

Fox On The Run Arts is the blog Mary keeps up for our creativity group. We all contribute, but mostly Mary.

On the weather front, the official news is that this past May, here in Oregon, was the coldest and wettest in 60 years. Yeah, tell me about it! Good thing I am a true Oregonian and love the rain.

I need to put up a post showing all the wonderful things I received from my giveaway wins, I'll do that next.  They are pretty spectacular and I am so fortunate to have won them from Marie and Tristan.  In the mean time, be well.

Wonky Heart

Here is my latest felted stitched piece.  First I wet felted some colorful roving to a piece of salvaged white wool batting.  I didn't felt it completely and finished with needle felting the roving down a bit better before I began adding the stitched and beaded embellishments.

Here are some close ups

Added a few buttons also.  I am enjoying this slow cloth process.

I don't know if I will do anything else to this piece, the edges might need something but I kind of like it just the way it is.
In other news, I was fortunate to win two giveaways this week!  Wow!  First I won Marie's gorgeous hand made cabochon, I will hope to do something cool with it.  You can find Marie here:  http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/  She is so talented and generous and seems to be just an all around nice person. Thanks, Marie!!
Today I won Tristan's giveaway.  He was giving all sorts of cool art supplies and I was excited to win.  I will be sure and put these things to good use.  Tristan is here: http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com/  He has the most eye candy and the funniest posts anywhere.  It is always a treat to stop by his blog, you never know what to expect.  Thanks Tristan!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week.  It is still raining here, it got up to a toasty 55 degrees today!  Practically let the fires go out it is so warm.  Still some coals there, I believe I shall toss another piece of wood on, warm it back up in the studio here.  No sense making art with cold hands if I can help it.

Listening to Chris Smither today.  Beautiful guitar music and fun lyrics.

Be well.

Natural Hearts

The heart wood from this stump is gone but the heart itself remains.

Here is a definite heart shaped leaf from the Wild Ginger Plant (Asarum caudatum). Unrelated to its Asian namesake, various native and European wild ginger species provide a similar but more subtle flavor. Wild ginger is thought to have antibiotic properties, and Native Americans used this plant to treat headaches, intestinal pain, knee pain, arthritis, indigestion, tuberculosis, colic and as a general tonic.

I am always eager to find the flowers which grow so close to the ground they can't easily be spotted if you aren't searching for them. They look so exotic to me. Definitely worth the effort to find them.

Our weather continues to be cold and wet. The wild plants are thriving, the forest floor is covered in greenery, especially that Miners Lettuce which I am still picking and eating. The good side of this weather is that I am still spending time in the studio, too wet and cold to be out gardening much. Plenty of little garden plants started, some, like cabbages and lettuce are planted out and doing all right. I'm sure if we got a bit of warmth they would really take off. It is a battle trying to keep the slugs out but the copper strips are helping a lot in that area.

I want to send out a welcome to my new followers.  I appreciate your signing up to follow my mutterings and photos on here, I am always surprised to find someone new.  I always appreciate comments, and have been trying to reply to everyone with a private email.  If you don't have a link to your email then I leave comments on my blog.  Thanks to everyone for taking time to write!

Today I'm listening to Andrea Bocelli for a change.

Be well.

Valentines Love

I hope everyone who reads this is having a lovely Valentines Day. I want to share some of the love I have received these past few days from my friends. First, above are the cards and ATC's I was lucky enough to receive from the creativity group I am in, Stitch 'n Bitch. http://foxontherunarts.blogspot.com/ It just makes me happy to look at these and realize all the thought and effort that went into the making of them.

Next, above you see the little Amor quilt from my friend Martha, over at Glitterbones http://glitterbones.blogspot.com/ She also sent a fat quarter of some lovely wool Asian fabric similar to what she likes to use in her work, and this little beaded heart brooch. Sweet! Thanks, Martha! I especially love that little quilt, it is about 8" square and so darn cute with all the hand stitching on it.



Finally, in the nick of time the mail man brought a package on Saturday from my friend Anne. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/ I was rather floored to receive all this bounty. She knitted these wrist warmers (she calls them mitts) for me! Aren't they lovely, I couldn't make these in a million years. She has shown the pink heart plaque on her blog as she was creating it, I never would have thought I'd be the recipient of it. So much detail to look at that was never visible in the photos. Plus a nice blank notebook and some pens to write or draw in it with. The orange java love is a postcard.

Thank you, all my friends, from the bottom and top of my heart. These gifts are all such wonderful expressions of the friendships we share and serve to make me feel very special. I so much appreciate this, you don't know how much. Happy Valentines Day to you all!!

Love from Jan