More Scrappy Flowers

"Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain, and still succeed." Misty Copeland

I fiddled around with another Boho scrappy flower motif today..... and I'm still liking the concept.  All the papers are from catalogs.

This time I used the images in the catalog with the colored shirts...or socks all stacked up for the stems. I think the striped stems add just the right touch of whimsy.   

This is what it looked like before I added the doodles.

And before I cleaned up....I ripped up a few more scraps so I'm ready to go for the next one.

Gratitude

 "Gratitude helps you fall in love with the life you already have."  

My white rain lily just keeps giving....there are at least 6 buds.  And I've got one pink bloom....it's a beauty!

                     

And I'm pretty excited that my Seven Son Flower tree is starting to bloom....and the bees love it.          

The hummingbirds seem to love it too!

I'm falling in love again with what I already have!

One Year Anniversary

It's been one full year since Becky, Brenda and I started our 4 x 6 art card exchange....and none of us have missed a week. We'll be finishing up round 18 this next week....each round is 3 weeks long.  The first week of each round we send to one....the second week to the other and we keep the third week's card. Including this coming week we've each done 54 cards x 3 of us that's a total of 162 little pieces of art...and there's no talk of stopping. 

I've been keeping my cards in these little boxes....right next to the cards from my 100 day project.  I've thumbed through them again and again.  

Like I mentioned yesterday I've been water doodling....and later this week I'll share my exchange with Emily. 

I had a lot of rejects...and scraps from making Becky and Brenda's card....and you know how I feel about scraps.  So rather than doing a new doodle....I embraced my scraps and trimmed edges and patched together my keeper card for round 18th.  

It's a little goofy....but I'm going with it!

Here are is Becky's card for round 18......

.....and here is Brenda's.  

Round 18  ✔

Happy Anniversary! 

Water Doodles

Remember the water ripples in the pool reflecting the light yesterday? I got a little addicted to this water doodling the last several weeks so it became the theme for round 18 of the 4 x 6 art card exchange.  It was inspired by my Goddaughter Emily who sent me a video of the artist's technique several weeks ago.  We decided to do an exchange....and that's what started my water doodling journey.  I will share more about our exchange next week when we get each others project.  In the meantime....these were a few of my side projects.

This was the card I made for  Becky a few weeks ago.....

...and if you look closely you can see that the base layer is gel print on a map.

I forgot to take process photos with Becky's....but I remembered for Brenda's....so I'll take you through the steps. 

Brenda's card started with a "not so great" gel print on a piece of sheet music. I drew some random shapes with an aqua Posca marker.......then filled in the negative space and rounded out all the corners.    

As an experiment on this one I outlined this first layer of shapes with black pen.  I wanted it subtle...so it's a very fine line. It not only framed the shapes a little bit...but I thought it was a bit of a nod to the lines in the sheet music.

I used the same technique with  layer of green.

I was pretty happy with the result....stay tuned next week for my exchange with Emily.

Tracie texted me this photo in response to my pool photo.....the sun's water doodles on Lake Superior!  Gotta' love Mother Nature! 

Ripples

Langston took this photo for me this morning when we were all at the pool....we marveled at the way the ripples of water caught the sunlight.  

And....it's a little window into a few projects I've been quietly working on over the past several weeks that you'll be hearing about soon.  

I am so grateful that Alyson and Langston were able to spend time with us and Margie....they head back to Colorado early in the morning.  

Thrifting

Langston, Margie and Alyson...three generations together.

When I asked Langston what he wanted to do during his short visit to Maine....other than quality time with his grandma.....his answer was "thrifting." 

No one has ever requested that before....but that was OK with me. So we spent a few hours downtown Portland checking out funky vintage thrift stores....and there's a bunch of them! 

And how can I not celebrate this fabulous 1000 piece puzzle all done on Margie's table. And...I did find her a cute little 300 piece puzzle at one of the thrift stores....I just hope all the pieces are there.

Alyson's Bones

Margie joined us at the condo for Alyson and Langston's first day....we had a wonderful visit!  I didn't have my camera out at all so I have no photos to share.....but I have Alyson's permission to share a story about her love of bones.

As I mentioned before Alyson and I have been exchanging our favorite nature photos every evening for several months now.....it's been a great way to connect and celebrate something that caught our eye.  A few nights ago I sent her this photo....a scruffy large piece of bone that Paul thinks might be from a cow.  This is not the first time Alyson has seen this bone....read on to hear the whole story.  

I will warn you that I'm writing this a little late in the evening....so I hope it makes sense.  My mind kind of shuts down after 9:00.

Alyson actually has a bone collection which started way back when she was 9 years old and found this cow femur.  She named it Boney and slept with for years. 

Alyson has other bones too...skulls, spines and even a whole opossum.....which is especially special because that is the nickname she gave her daughter Clarke. 

So back to the bone on my patio....I actually sent Alyson this photo back in June when Paul and I first came across the bone on our walk.

We didn't touch it....I just took a photo for my evening exchange with Alyson because I knew she loved bones.  She was a little disappointed we didn't pick it up for her. She didn't know until a few days ago that we did actually go back the next day and picked it up and it's been sitting in our backyard ever since.  And yes....she is going to take it home to add to her collection.  

Puttering

Paul's sister Alyson and her son Langston are arriving later this evening from Colorado.  It's always good having family in the house!  But what that means is I've spent the last couple of days cleaning and spiffing things up....always a good thing.  My house is always grateful....I'm not the best housekeeper.

There was also a little puttering because I finally found this little container of goodies packed up for the move. I've been looking for it for months.  

It's a variety of treasures that were on a little shelf in the dining room in Lexington. I love the collection of tiny vases....one is stone.  (https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/01/is-it-possible.html) There were other things on the shelf that had to be packed more carefully that I already found...but this little pile has been missing in action.

The shelf has been hanging for a while between the living and dining room....and today I did a little rearranging and the little vases are now where they were meant to be. Per usual....it will probably be tweaked....but I always enjoy a little house puttering.

I've always loved this painting of my grandmother done by my Aunt Beverly.

Here's a context photo....and as you can see my puzzle table is the center of the universe.  We're ready for houseguests!

Nature's Artwork

"Nothing is just one thing, but only the thing you see for a moment from where you stand." Flying Edna

I sent Eliza's art journal back to her today.....I enjoyed filling the rest of the empty spaces. It was a fun art exchange for me...and I hope we continue being art pen pals.

I got up close and personal with some of the branches that fell during the storm...which turned out to be not much of a storm at all.  It was clear that the limbs were dead....so it didn't take much wind to bring them down. They were absolutely stunning up close.

I was so taken with the little dark circle growths on the lichen....they all had a little light colored frame.  There are two tiny ones in the center bottom....and a whole clump of them on the right.  

From where I stood....this was nature's artwork!

Saw An Opening

Hurricane Henri was downgraded to a tropical storm so won't be too much of an issue for us here in Maine...but it was a good day to be tucked inside.

We're getting some needed rain with some wind gusts so we do have a few limbs down in the yard. I did bring in my white rain lily just in case.....there are too many beautiful blooms right now for it to get pummeled.

I know the summer is winding down when the royal standard hosta is blooming. I've made it clear that I'm not a big hosta bloom fan.....except these.  They're big and beautiful....and smell fantastic!  

The large leaves got pretty beat up in the hail storm we had about a month ago....as a matter of fact all my hostas got beat up....even the little ones.

But it made me chuckle to see one of the blooms came right through a hole.  It saw an opening...and took it.

And you can't have a rainy day without a little puzzle time.  I hadn't been looking at the box at all on this one...just looking for little bits of color that matched.  But I noticed there was a skinny row of mostly solid blue developing...and sure enough when I checked the box cover the blue ring went most of the way around. So I did a quick search for those pieces and had them all in within minutes.

This is the most pieces I've gotten at one sitting.  Another valuable life lesson from my puzzle. A strategy that worked yesterday might not be the best strategy for today....and probably another new one tomorrow.

Round Things

I came across this lovely dalia on our morning walk. 

 

Kate, a blog reader, suggested that I put my poppy pods on the shelf to compliment the other circles in the space.  I like it!  I also found a combination of things for the shelf that I like....for now.

I hadn't really noticed all the circles..but there are the obvious round plates...then the more subtle ones in the moons and rocks in the fabric pieces.....and of course...the  actual rocks. 

I found this little vase for $1 at the Goodwill store a while ago...and I thought the (round) pattern on it paired well with these little rocks I crocheted around.  I've been teased about these rocks...some people just don't get it.  I barely know how to crochet...so these were quite an accomplishment...I'm quite fond of them.

The other three rocks are almost perfectly round and have stories that go with them....but one in particular has a pretty special story that you can read here.

http://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2016/08/my-favorite-rock-story.html

This little pine needle basket was made by Connie....another round thing.  I just adore it.  

And speaking of round things.....I have a new puzzle going.  It's a round puzzle of water colored squares and triangles....clever concept. At first I wondered if it was even going to be doable...but I'm plugging along.  I'm working from the outside in....and since there is no up or down I can just spin it.  I'm finding it delightfully challenging....and it's going to take me a good long awhile.

When I look at the pieces in the box it seems a little hopeless.

For this spot I searched for that little brown nib with just a sliver of black....and there is was.