Holding Onto Hope

Subtitle: Vote Early

Every morning when I read the newsletters I subscribe to...my heart sinks just a little deeper with constant barrage of corruption and hate.

Some days it's hard to put it aside....and focus on loving our neighbor and finding joy and magic in the everyday things of life.....but we have to. 

Joy is an act of resistance. 

On way to silence those who do nothing but sow seeds of violence and hate is to VOTE. And vote early is you can. 

Paul and I headed to downtown Portland to vote this morning. We both prefer to vote at our local polling station at a church just up the street on election day....but it seemed more important than ever to vote early this year. 

And there is something about the grandness of City Hall that helped make OUR voices seem louder than the haters. We are holding onto hope.

Now something just for fun. Patty sent me this photo this morning where at the Fryeburg Fair's tree felling competition...it's all about accuracy over speed. The goal is to hit the target exactly....and smash the pumpkin.  She noted that the stem looks strong...but what a waste of a good pumpkin. You can't make this stuff up! 

Connected by Butterflies

Cherie has a tall skinny pumpkin too....and her funky stem is looking fairly relaxed.

This warty pumpkin/gourd came home with me from a local farm store and found a home on the rock wall.

  

I love the tiny pop of orange...and I can see it from my puzzle table. 

Speaking of puzzle tables....I just finished assembling all the butterflies. With the foil accents...it's so pretty in person and I love that all the butterflies are connected. It's the whole world connected by butterflies. It reminds me of another butterfly puzzle I did that had such an impact on me. You can read that post here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2026/01/learning-from-butterflies.html 

Maybe we CAN learn something from Butterflies!

Time to move onto the background. I've got some ordering to do.

A Little Abstract

Ever since her kids were little....Lori buys a pumpkin family representing each person in both size and shape. And she ALWAYS....looks for good stems. It's a thing....a family thing. This is her 2026 family gathering! 

I went a little abstract with my latest tag. It incorporates the pinks and blue greens from the last tag...but also transitions to a variety of other colors.

I started with a mixed media piece I did a while back and added a few extra elements and marks. The black scribble is painted on tissue and glued on with medium. You can't even see the edges. There is no way I could have painted something like this on the tag without messing it up. I finished it off by stitching on some gold Angelina Fibers. I think the black zig zag balanced the paint scribble.

The colorful circles on the back...or side B as Dotty calls it....are cut from a napkin and collaged over a text page. I'm happy with this little abstract tag....so different from the others.

   

Let's Make it a Thing!

It was a bit summery yesterday....but I was happy to have fall back today.

The morning air was crisp and beautiful....and I was tickled to catch up to Patty on my morning walk. That's the joy of having a friend right here in the neighborhood.

Did you notice the reflection in that ever-present heart puddle on the sidewalk?

Julie S. sent me a photo of this stubby pumpkin stem. I smiled because she didn't take a photo of the whole pumpkin....she knew it's all about the stem! (sorry....I just love saying that!) 

If you have fabulous pumpkin stem to share....send me a photo and I'll post it here. Let's make it a thing! 

This is one from my archives...just look at that crazy stem! 

I Just Decided

Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. Roald Dahl

I found magic in the raindrops! 

Look closely at the ones lined up on the left petal of the daisy!

I also found it when I connected my puzzle from top to bottom. 

And then again when I connected it from side to side. My ordering strategy is working like a dream by the way. I just decided that these puzzle moments are magic....and I always celebrate them.

And I have to share the chubby pumpkin stem that caught Cherie's eye.  I've never seen one that thick. The two of them together are chubby and stubby! Cherie knows it's all about the stem.

Singing

We had our first blue sky day since before the storm....and everything seemed to be singing. October is my favorite month....so I was singing too!

Right Down the Street

Subtitle: A Generous Heart... A Playful Sense of Adventure....and the Final Stop for The Wandering Flowers

Settle in....I have a story to tell.

Patty was a big cheerleader for The Traveling Flowers. If you are new to the blog...that journey started here...with a guy named Chuck. With the help of Cherie and Dale Chuck's hand crafted metal flowers made a cross country trip from California to Maine....and Patty celebrated with me every step of the way. After they arrived...she secretly photographed them around my condo. 

She invited them down to her garden for a photo shoot with her evening primrose....and she brought Sluggo (her stuffed banana pepper) to my garden for another photo shoot. 

Patty was a fan....and that caught Cherie's attention. Patty made an impression.

Cherie contacted me in early August saying she thought Patty needed her own Traveling Flowers....and wondered if I would help with the surprise. Of course I would! 

She and Dale were heading out on a two month driving adventure to and from California to visit her dad.....and she wanted to bring Patty some of Chuck's flowers. She called them the Wandering Flowers  this time....and on their return trip...showed them the the roadside attractions along the way....and I shared all of that here on the blog. Cherie and Dale....along with the flowers arrived home in Pennsylvania last week. 

Cherie boxed them up....and courtesy of the USPS they made their way to Maine. I love her MUSE box...which is a actually a bag from the Corning MUSEum of Glass to cover  a wine box. Cherie knew...and you probably know too....but I learned the hard way that you can't send liquor boxes through the mail.

The flowers arrived at my condo on Monday....and today they wandered down the street to Patty's home....after making a stop by my front door.

Thanks to Chuck's generous heart, and Cherie and Dale's playful sense of adventure....The Wandering Flowers have made their final stop....right down the street.

They checked out the back garden....but landed by Patty's front door while she was out.

Surprise! Patty loves them....and Sluggo does too!

Thank you Cherie and Dale....and thank you Chuck!

What a fun connection journey this has been!

Order

Subtitle: Game Changer

I have a string of sequence confetti lights I bought several years ago for Christmas decorating. I left them up until March that year so I declared them as my equinox lights. They go up in the fall...and down in the spring. The evening sparkle is a game changer this time of year.

I mostly keep my main living area fairly tidy. I have been known to clutter up the dining room table...and I do use the guest room as a plop spot. And since I'm the only one who uses the little TV room....I tend to have piles of projects and mail to sort patiently waiting for attention. 

But the upstairs studio is a different matter....it's almost always a wreck. I've been trying to do some organizing lately because I have no open workspaces anymore. I need just a bit of order. Maybe I can be motivated by my current puzzle. 

I said it was a doozy...and I wasn't kidding. Hundreds of colorful rainbow butterflies scattered on a world map. I pulled out all the orange pieces....and fiddled with them for a bit with very little progress UNTIL I came up with a strategy and established some order.

I sorted the oranges into lights and darks. Then I sorted each side into two groups...the long skinny pieces that go horizontally...and the short stubby ones that go vertically. I was mostly able to place them the right right side up because of the bits of butterfly on the piece. 

I started with two pieces that were already joined in the box....I consider that a gift from the puzzle fairy....and started building from there. Because of my sorting and order.....it was a game changer! 

And just like that....I had almost all the orange butterflies assembled and connected to the border. 

And after dinner I did the same thing with the yellow.

Just think what some order would do for me in my studio! 

Drips and Strips

You don't have to do everything. Just do the next thing.

My votive rain gauge was full this morning....so that means almost 3 inches on day one of this nor-easter. 

It's been drizzling/raining on and off all day today....so I enjoyed another indoor day. I've come up with a strategy for my new puzzle challenge....more on that another day when there's more visible progress.

I can see my Stewartia tree is from my kitchen window....it's one of my favorite fall transitions to watch.

The changing leaves are especially lovely with the raindrops (drips).

While I was puttering in the studio...I made another tag using punched gelli print squares. They were pretty bright...so I toned them down with a little zinc white paint. 

I added skinny strips of text and a crow as a focal point and I think it flows well from that last tag. 

I couldn't take it to the backyard to photograph in the natural light....so I had to walk around the condo until I found the right light. It was a dark and gloomy day....which I kind of liked. 

I used a piece of striped tissue for the back. I toned it down with white paint and added more skinny text strips.

You can also see that I added a little black and white circle on the last tag for interest and balance. 

Time to transition to a new color scheme. I'll have to find the right inspiration paper or image. 

Rainy Day Activities

Some of you have probably heard about the nor'easter. We get them now and again here on the east coast with strong winds and heavy rain or snow. We're just getting the edge of it here in Maine so not really a dangerous storm here....but just a bit further south it's a whole different story. 

It rained on and off all day...and we desperately need it. It's also been a bit windy so I was happy tucked inside all day. As I write this...the rain is coming down pretty hard. 

Rainy days are good for puttering around the house. I added a few of my favorite Halloween things to my puzzle table...the little trick or treaters make me smile.

And I've always been fond of the shadow box my sister made with photos of my boys in their childhood costumes.

I got the border together on my newest puzzle...and puttered a bit in the studio. 

Perfect rainy day activities.

You know how I feel about butterflies so this one caught my eye. And the fact that they were in a sort of rainbow order sealed the deal. It's going to be a challenge....but I'm up for it! It will take as long as it takes.

I'm starting with the orange butterflies from North America....and so far it's s-l-o-w going on this rainy Sunday.

Focal Point

My days seem to fly by filled with this and that....and I've not made much time for art and projects. But the studio will be there when the time is right....and I know there will be plenty of quiet winter days for making art.  

But I need to make a little tag every once in a while....just to get some glue and paper in my hands. I decided to stick with text for flow and continued with similar soft colors. Once I saw the first photo....I decided it needed a focal point so I added the tissue swirl (it's a little too subtle) and a woodpecker. 

The woodpeckers must have been vacationing with the bluebirds because they disappeared for a while too. But they're back now pecking away at the suet....and that makes me happy.  

I used just magazine text on the back....with a bit of filling in with colored pencil and marker. 

I added little pumpkin as a focal point in the corner garden at the end of our street. It's not my personal garden...but I'm the one who mostly takes care of it. It was robust and beautiful during the summer...but like most gardens it's winding down. The purple verbena and scaevola have been gorgeous and are still doing well...and I love the purple and orange together. There were pops of color with day lilies, daisies, coreopsis, and black-eye Susan throughout the season...most of which have been cut back. And now that the grass is blooming and there's a pumpkin focal point...it feels like and infusion of fall.