For Better or Worse

"There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet." James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

The days have been full and busy lately....but I still try to take the time to play a little bit at my craft table.  In honor of the fall colors and Seed Season...I did another little collage tag.  This time It was inspired by this collection of leaves and an oak papercut from my stash. 

My little gold dots don't show up unless the light hits them just right. For better or worse...this gold pen is one of my favorite tools. I wrote about it here:

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2023/01/curious.html

The back is a little patchwork of gelli prints.  I used a zig zag stamp for the seams...and it was a little too strong.  So I just embraced the black and cut out these dots from another gelli print. I think they kind of look like tumbling seeds.  And I added a little "Jowd"....the joy of winding down!

All Time Favorites

It was cloudy today....but still a lovely fall day.  On my way home from a walk I had a nice visit with Robin, who lives just outside our condo complex.  I admire her orange paper lanterns every year...and she invited me to pick a bouquet. They are one of my all time favorite fall seed pods! Yay for Seed Season!

And it might not surprise you that I love this  brown dried one as much as the others.  The interesting thing is...they usually keep their bright orange color even when they're dry.  I don't know why it turned brown. It had a mind of its own...and now I love it even more.

For now I'm going to enjoy the bouquet on my puzzle table.

And as you can see the tiny tree puzzle is done. 

I really savored the end....doing just a few pieces at a time.  They just plopped in one right after another here at the end.   

There was something so satisfying about the sorting strategy...and it worked like a dream. Except when I didn't have a piece sorted correctly. 

If you look at the piece on the left....I was certain that was a tree top in the center.  But as you can see it's actually a tree bottom and I had it upside down in the box.  So for a while I was CERTAIN that the piece for that spot was missing....and that happened several times.  So I apologize to the previous owner for the moments I was disappointed in them for losing pieces. Right now I'm so grateful that they donated this beautiful puzzle to Goodwill.  It's right up there as one of my all time favorites.

Roll With It

You have to just roll with what lands in front of you. And sometimes you have to wind up a bit...before you can wind down.

After a tip from my next door neighbor...we both hired a nice young man to powerwash and regrout our patio pavers. Plastic edging also needed to be added around our patio so the grout wouldn't keep washing out.  

Just after David sprayed down the grout yesterday.

The opportunity presented itself...and we just rolled with it. 

Everything had to come off the patio a few days ago....and plants and grass along the patio had to be dug up to make room for the edging.  

It was my task today to put the plants back...and I seized the 

opportunity to split things and do more cutbacks for the season.  I worked for more hours than I should have....and I'm tired. But it's a good...just rolled with it kind of tired....and that's a good thing.

Most of plants all around this corner were dug up, divided, and rearranged a bit. Still more to do....but I'll take a break for a day or two.  David is coming back tomorrow to seal the pavers and I shouldn't be out there making a mess!

Back in June I commented that most of this needed to be divided because  

it was bursting at the seams! We'll see how it looks next June!

Halfway

The last several evenings I've been cutting and folding 150 bits of paper.  This is my 18th year covering Christmas match boxes for Folly 101 in downtown Portland.

It's a mindfully mindless task....and oddly satisfying.  I haven't had to buy paper in years....and I might squeak another year or two out of what's still in my stash.  And it feels good to be using it up!

I'm halfway there....and it's time for glueing.  

I'm also halfway with the tiny tree puzzle....and  I was able to push it on on the table and connect the border. 

Still loving every minute!

JOWD

There's nothing quite like a walk on an early autumn day.  The air is crisp and cool this time of year...and the there are glimpses of the changing season everywhere you look.  

I'm not sure how I missed acknowledging and celebrating the first day of autumn....but I welcome it with open arms.  There is something about this winding down season that alerts all my senses and comforts my soul. 

I often feel excitement...or sometimes anxiety as I anticipate things and events. But I've been thinking all day about the joy...or relief I sometimes feel as things wind down.  

JOWD = Joy Of Winding Down

Row By Row

I will admit that I'm a bit surprised how much I'm enjoying putting together these tiny trees.  

The presorting was the key....allowing me to go piece by piece...and row by row.  Almost every time I sit down I can do one whole row. It's so satisfying.  

And celebrating this puzzle gives me the chance to show off my little trick or treaters. I love these little guys!  And Paul's most recent found object is going to join them on the puzzle table for a while....a sweet little red bear.

I  enjoy a few little seasonal decorations on my puzzle table.

The bear had a little photo shoot! 

I've been picking up these sticks with acorn caps....

...ready for felted acorns.

Good night little bear.

Holiday Season

"Shout out to everyone who got through the day without taking nap!"  This made me chuckle. I've not always been a napper....but I think I'm becoming one!

I came across a gelli print with white blobs....and thought they gave a nod to seeds.  

So I cut a few out and assembled a simple collage on the back of my first tag in celebration of Seed Season.  

You may have noticed that I'm capitalizing Seed Season because I've decided to make it an official holiday season for me.

My tag just happened to coordinate with this spectacular zinnia Alyson sent me in our evening photo exchange.  It's two tones...and absolutely stunning!  I thought it might be a dahlia...but if you follow the stem down to the leaf...that looks like a zinnia....and my Picture This app agreed.

Tiny Trees

Subtitle: Time Will Tell

We see what we want to see........and I saw a tiny tree in this red sumac leaf.

The sumac leaves are some of the first to turn in the fall....and I enjoy watching the change.

A few weeks ago I stitched these free motion tiny trees on paper. 

They were only about an inch tall. 

Then I tried another version on fabric....and just today I wondered whether I could watercolor on fabric?  Turns out I can....but I'm not sure how colorfast it will be. Time will tell.

And speaking of tiny trees....this puzzle caught my eye every time I saw it in the LL Bean catalog.  I love the sketchy tiny trees...and the swaths of color creating such a whimsical overall pattern. At $34....I was hesitant.

But about a year ago I found it at a Goodwill store for just $2...and I wasn't hesitant at all.

It looked a little daunting....I wasn't sure if it would be fun...or frustrating. So there is sat. My last two puzzles were pretty easy....so I decided to choose one from my stash that might be more of a challenge.  It was time for tiny trees.

The border went together pretty quickly because of the directionality of the trees. And that directionality...and the gradation of color were going to be the key to success.

 So I've been sorting the colors into separate boxes....and now I'm grouping and arranging the pieces in the boxes with the trees going up and down in the right direction. 

 

I found the first inside piece pretty quickly.....so I'm fairly certain this is going to be a fun one. But time will tell...on these tedious tiny trees!

Happy Mail!

I won't be able to help myself from sharing interesting seed pods as often as I see them during this Seed Season....and I'm never going to grow tired of using that phrase. I love looking for seeds and pods...and I love when they just appear in my path.

This cluster caught my eye this morning as I was walking along the main road in our condo complex....it was hard to miss them. 

We are blessed with beautiful mature trees in the neighborhood....and this one is a large one.  My Picture This app says it's a lilac....and if it is...it's an unusual one.  

 

The seed pods are quite striking....and so prolific!

 

Roseanne sent me a box of what she calls happy mail.  It was little of this and a little of that including a beautiful vintage book.  All of it useful and fun. 

But what led to a little studio time today was this little package of tags with a ring.  

The tags are tiny...about 2" by 3"....a great size for using up scraps and playing with collage.  I haven't made much time for art lately....but I carved out some time today to sit at my table and play with scissors and glue. 

Thanks for the happy mail Roseanne!

I'm going to do something on the back of each card too....

why wouldn't I!

Bigger Ball?

The city of Portland is committed to having some sort of public park and green space within a 10 minute walk of every home. They want to preserve and protect the tree canopy and provide ball fields and trails to promote family friendly outdoor activities. Paul and I are proud to live in a city with that as a goal.

There is a new trail just a few blocks from our condo that leads to the new 24 acre North Deering Park. The park, which already had some ball fields, will go through various phases of development over the next few years but as of today, is officially open. 

We walked the trail this morning...and attended the ribbon cutting this afternoon.

The morning sky was incredible...and this particular view on the way to the trail was one of those Strikingly Pleasing scenes that caught my eye.  The tall pointed pine mimicked the two peaked roof lines and and that fabulous sky had lovely layers of color and light. Oh what a beautiful morning!

And since it's Seed Season, I'm celebrating Paul's found object that kind of looks like a seed.  It certainly is the right color for fall...and maybe if I planted it, it would grow up to be a bigger ball that we could take to the new park! 🏀 

My new love clematis is starting to produce seeds with white whimsical curls.  

I may like the seed pods even more than the flowers actually.  

This is what it looked like just a month ago.

Seed Season

"Traveling through life with curiosity rather than judgement is how one finds the magic in each moment." Erin Chatters

A week or two ago someone referred to this time of year as "seed season"....and the phrase has stuck with me ever since.  I love seeds and pods.....so this is the season for me.

These dangling maple seeds (AKA helicopters) caught my eye on our walk this morning...and I didn't realize how special the photo was was until I uploaded it onto my computer this afternoon. The way the sun is coming through the translucent pods was a perfect example of finding magic in a moment. 

Paul and I chatted about seeds as we continued our walk...and I did a little research when I got home.  Many plants produce seeds to reproduce....but others propagate in different ways. Ferns and mosses grow from spores, iris and lily of the valley reproduce by rhizomes, or runners.....and begonias and dahlias propagate from tubers.

A lot of us refer to these maple pods as helicopters....but did you know the real name is samaras....which the dictionary defines as a "winged nut."  Perfect!

I happened to come across this fall photo montage I put together several years ago while I was in Wisconsin....during seed season. I sense an ongoing seed and pod celebration coming on....so consider yourself warned.