Spring Prims In My Work Basket

My studio work basket is full of brightly colored farm life this week. Prim pigs, sheep and mice are ruling the roost with folk art flair.

Bubbles the Pig is back in production after being well received on his first run.  With thrifted winter woolies scarce in the hot Texas spring and summer months, I am thinking of making a summer linen version to keep the piggies happy.

Inspired by the colors of spring, these sheep are made from felted wool in teals.  They lumber quietly about the studio- lending a shady resting spot for wee mice.

Bubbles will soon be joined by his newest pen pal, Edna. Together they will laze about the pasture in the warm spring sun day dreaming under blue country skies.

 

Today is a gray day outside the studio windows so these colors should make for cheerful work.

 

LOVE  &  WORK BASKETS!

Feeling Sheepish

   Emerging from my common cold coma of the past week I realized I had spent most of my couch time counting sheep.  Suddenly the work basket was full of fat forms with tiny faces begging for final touches. Feeling better now, I kindly obliged.

 

Made from an up-cycled wool/mohair sweater, Sherman Simpleton has rented out his side  for advertising.

His face is a fingertip of an old leather glove.  Vintage gloves have been one of my go-to faves for years due to their versatility and expert craftsmanship.  

A new Sherpa fluff was born while I was resting.  Wanda proudly wears her full coat knowing it will be the talk of the spring county fair! 

Wanda's face is made of distressed leather and her tie is a simple scrap of Americana calico.

Rounding out the common cold collection is the sheep trio "Baa, Baa, Blacksheep".  These wee guys are made from up-cycled garments, garden sticks and wool roving.

The beige Baas have a face of painted cotton distressed just so, whereas the black sheep has a leather glove tip face.

In addition to sheep- pigs, mice, and bunnies were found all in stuffed and ready to finish condition- just littered all over the house.  Makes me wonder if I was actually productive in my coma- or were other wee hands at work?

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Guess we'll never know!

 

LOVE  &  GOOD HEALTH!

 

Playing In The Dirt

One is never too old to play in the dirt.  In fact, as we get older we hone our dirt playing skills into the fine art of gardening where we play with the hands-on wonder of a child.  Mounds are palm-sanded to smooth perfection, dirty kneecaps prevail, and colors are chosen like crayons from a fresh box.  Yes, playing in the dirt is good for us.  Every gardener knows this.  And the unspoken truth is that much more than we tend our gardens, our gardens tend to us.

Unfortunately, my body doesn't always support my child-like ambitions and much of spring's garden prep work usually leaves me in a head to toe Thermacare body wrap.  But this weekend I was blessed to have two helpers with strong backs to do all my heavy lifting, weeding and mulching.  It was the best gift ever!

  All that remained was the task of setting the flowers in place. 

Having lived in this house for a full year now, the first year plants have secured their roots and have filled in the backdrop.  I added daisies, zinnias, and vinca for color pops.  In between, coriander has exploded everywhere!  Peppers, crepe myrtle, and grapefruit tree seedlings have also been carefully transferred to sun themselves in well fed pots.

You'll have to check back to see what that spider-ish looking thing grows into.  I am constantly collecting seeds and chucking them into the winter garden to see what will take root and offer me a spring surprise. I am hoping it is from the seed pods I gathered back home in Connecticut last fall. 

 

LOVE  & SOUL TENDING

Inspirational Tweets Headed To Hendley

So many peeps chilling in the trees these spring mornings!  Nesting activities abound as the quiet winter skies give way to warmer days and green leaves.  In celebration of the season, new Inspirational Tweets have emerged from the studio ready to take flight to Hendley Market!

 

 

There were days when getting goodes ready for market was a fretful plague of anxiety, self-doubt and the certainty that Hand of Bela Peck goodes wouldn't match up to my fellow Galveston artists.  After the first basket was delivered I was shocked to see my Russian Mice collection grace the front table and doors! After the second basket, I fell into a welcome routine of artsy chat and friendship.  Now, several baskets later, the Hendley trip is a welcome break- a chance to share in recent finds and girlish banter on daily things.  In my Hendley journey, and over the past year, I've come to realize that all artists doubt their work.  I've found a new community of friends who try to balance the struggle for creativity with the challenges of everyday life.  Most importantly, in the vast anonymity south of Houston, I found a place where I belong.

 

Though timely for spring, this delivery of Inspirational Tweets reflects the feelings and undercurrents brought on by my involvement with the fab peeps of Hendley Market!  If you find yourself in the Galveston area- swing on in!  Hendley Market is located on The Strand and is open Thursday-Sunday. 

 

LOVE  &  SPRING TWEETS!

 

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring here on the Texas Gulf Coast are less dramatic than Spring awakening where snow has forced a winter slumber, but we still get just as excited here!  After all, Spring means a return to garden tending, walks in the sunshine, sweet blooming trees, and the return of songbirds nesting for chicks.

 

 

 

I am not a textbook gardener.  Martha Stewart's lessons are lost on me.  I am more like Johnny Appleseed or Lady Bird Johnson with pockets full of seeds that I simply scatter about.  I am known to pull up a wild specimen from an abandoned rural garden for a new life in my backyard.  Iris and daffodils still remain as old houses crumble, standing like guards of the final decay.  Now, some stand guard at my own front door and I feel the spirit of the women who once tended their country gardens with pride.

 

 

Outside my kitchen door is a small patchy garden that has received many a seed over the winter.  There have been discarded pepper seeds, eggplant, meadow seeds, and it is also where I dumped out the remainder of every batch of my mulling spice grungy soak. Suddenly my kitchen patch is alive with seedlings! Coriander is definitely winning the growth race! It's EVERYWHERE!

 

 

Because the Gulf Coast rarely sees a hard freeze, some plants stay in bloom year round.  This wee plant grew from seeds from my best bud Ashlie Blake.  It is a lot like our friendship: strong, resilient, delicate, and enduring.  Growing in an unlikely crevice it is a reminder that all things are possible.

 

 

Soon all our gardens will be alive with blooms and stories of horticulture phenoms!  Blogs will be full of splendid scenes of floral bliss, nesting cuties, and green as far as the eye can see.

 

 

"Oh give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year."

                   ~Robert Frost

 

LOVE  &  SPRING