Spring is in the Air

As predicted, I have been spending more time outside than in. This year I am doing better at balancing time though, and have managed to complete a few projects a long the way. Soon I will be ready to list a batch of jewelry on my etsy store, and that will be a milestone...

My garden is slowly filling in, getting better each year. This has been a spectacular year for flowers. Here are some scenes from yesterday morning in the garden...

Come through the garden gate with me...

I call these peppermint roses. It is an ancient vine that climbs up the trellis over the gate. In the fall it is full of the most wonderful rose hips. Last winter I brewed tea out of them and instantly felt healthier!

Vegetable gardening has never been my strong suit, and here, between the moles, gophers, deer and crummy soil, it is really frustrating. This year I am container gardening veggies. My cherry tomato already has baby fruit. I have some peas and beans in containers out front of the bus where they get full sun and am converting my garden area to herbs and flowers just for the joy of it. As you will see, it is coming along nicely.

The iris's are spectacular this year. Some wonderful yellow ones opened today, but I have not taken pictures of them. I received a bag of rhizomes last year and stuck them here and here. It turns out they are all different colors, and oh so beautiful.

Need I say more?

I keep as many things in the garden as I do plants. Decorating life is one of my favorite things. 

Last year I made a short bed border out of half buried bottles. This year they became little terrariums!

This is the view into my garden from my 'bedroom' window. Since we live in a bus it is all one room, but up front, where we sleep overlooks the garden. If you look close you can see part of the bed border I put in with different plates. Its kind of fun. 

Last fall I transplanted a bunch of strawberries and they are kicking. I ate the first ripe one today. There are about 25 plants and they are all full. Hopefully the birds and rodents will save a few for the girlies and me.

Our bus is behind this breathtaking rose vine. The blooms start out a sweet pink and turn a lovely lavender as they fade away. It only blooms for a couple of weeks a year, but is certainly worth the wait!

The structure in back with the slide is the home of our future chicken coop. Our landlady has purchased nine chickens and my husband is in the process of converting an old play structure into a chicken coop with a large wired-in yard all around. The slide is going away...

I am on chick duty this weekend. They have gone from little balls of fluff to this in a matter of weeks. In a couple of more they will be ready to move to the coop and in six months should be blessing us with eggs. Life doesn't get much better!

In between gardening and creating I managed to give a minor face lift to our bathroom. We are in the process of remodeling everything so anything I do is temporary. It works for me. I used the staple gun to put up the map 'wallpaper' and elmers to cover the old dresser. I looks much better than it did!

In April my little granddaughter Melanie had her ninth birthday. She is on a horse kick and wanted all horse stuff, and her own tools. She likes working with my husband in his shop. So we put together a tool kit for her and I covered a carrier to keep them in, and made her a horse poster collage to hang above her bed...

Being of the Orthodox persuasion, we just celebrated our Easter, or Pascha, the first weekend in May. Here are some eggs I managed to get together for my five grandchildren. They have a little tree they hang their egg collection on. These filled it out nicely.

During Lent this year I decided to spend much less time on Pinterest. I do love it so, and have gotten so many incredible ideas out there, but was spending way too much time looking and far too little time doing. I have piles and piles of mending and vowed to spend the time I would on Pinterest sewing on buttons and patching holes, some of which I did do...but I also did some altering of clothes just for the fun of it. 

This sweater looks better on and was so much fun to put together. Our Pascha celebration begins at 11 at night and it is always chilly, so it was perfect to wear on that special night.

This vest was made for a cardigan. I really liked the color and stitching but it was too big so I cut off the sleeves (and made leg warmers out of them) and added  trim and the two big pockets because in my opinion clothes without pockets are worthless. 

I made myself these earrings our of copper sheet, rusty dresser lock plates and old clock hands. They go good with my new vest and one of the green feather necklaces I made.

The next few pictures are of a couple of mobiles I made this spring and have listed on my etsy site. I have a third one completed but have not photographed it yet...

And here is my newest passion...tin

Just this week I finished these three 'medals' that I am going to list for sale. They are made from vintage tins and embellished with a variety of treasures. The inspiration came from none other than Pinterest, but as with all my creations, are given my own spin.

Today I started my next project, a tin circus necklace with bottle cap bezels. It should be cheery and fun when done...

I guess I have been accomplishing more than I thought!  I feel like I never have enough time at my studio...but now that I see my blog I realize I have been more productive, and that is a good thing.

Until next time I wish you  happy creating...

Almost a year has passed!

When I started this I had every intention of keeping it up.  Then garden season hit and I never looked back!  Between helping to tend the land we are blessed to live on, working part-time, spending time with my grand-children and attending the births, baptizims, and sadly funerals that wove in and out of our days, a whole year evaporated.

On January 7th we adopted a new member to our family. Buddy. He was abandoned near a monastery in Dunlap and when the Sisters found him and his sister they were diseased and malnourished  They nursed them back to health and we were incredibly lucky to have been granted Buddy. He is the best dog I have ever had. A perfect size for the bus, he is practically perfect in every way and too smart for his own good. He has definitely brought us joy.

On January 15th, our grandson was born, a surprise for everyone, and much of my time lately has been helping my daughter cope with a newborn and our lovely 16 month old Naomi who is still very much a baby herself, though walking, talking and climbing like a monkey.

Nico and Naomi...















We moved our bus to a new location on the property this past year and have been busy making it our own. It borders a nice garden area which I adopted and am slowly creating an herb, flower, rock and shell garden.

I created much in the last year and neglected to take pictures of most of it. Mostly it was gifts. For Christmas  I made 23 altoid box ornaments, each with a different scene inside- they took a huge amount of time but turned out pretty well. I didn't take a single picture of them.

We had a funky aluminum tree I bought at work that was fun. I wanted to find one of those spinning colored light discs they used to sell but instead found a multi-colored spinning disco ball that we 'mounted' on the ceiling (until it fell off) and it turned our little domicile into a Christmas wonderland.

Our bus became santa's workshop for awhile. Our grand daughter's are such fun to give to.

They are all enamored with the main character in the movie Brave and wanted to shoot bow and arrow like she does. My husband bought them a bow for Christmas, and each their own arrows and then he made each of them a quiver to keep them in!

They have been getting lessons out in the field and are getting pretty good at it.

I have only recently started creating again in earnest. I retired from my job at the thrift store for the second and last time and am working as many hours as I can in the studio. I have a new passion and had to rearrange the whole room to set up the right work space for it.

This is one of my projects in waiting pile. I was able to purchase an old broken typewriter and have been taking it apart. The mechanics and workmanship are something to behold. They sure don't make anything like they used to! The globe is going to be a fruit bowl and the maps are going to be glued to the bus ceiling one of these days. So many projects, so little time. I covered the bust you see to model jewelry but it turned out to be a little too busty in an un-giving sort of way. I will find another use for it eventually.

 I have discovered solder and the thrill of watching hard metal turn molten. I and trying my hand at some jewelry creation. My solder gun is a temperamental old thing that I am hoping to upgrade soon, but I am beginning to get the hang of it and really, really like it. I had bought the glass prisms at the thrift store with no idea what to do with them until I discovered solder. I am doing a series of feathers in them. Big fun.

I just finished this box and will list it on my etsy site this week. I am going to do a series of vintage sewing related boxes.

 But first I am going to make a couple more mobiles to list. They have been good sellers and are fun to build. I just put a quick one together for my grandson at my daughter's request. He seems to like it.

Well, there it is for now...my life caught up to date. Oh, except that I also discovered Pinterest this last year and spent hours and hours pinning inspiration. (I have given it up for Lent, and oh I miss it so!)  I learned to solder on Pinterest, and was inspired to delve into jewelry making...maybe if I spend less time pinning I will spend more time creating!


I resolve to keep this up better, now that I am earnestly pursuing a career on etsy selling my creations and the vintage treasures I find. I will theoretically have more time now that I am not 'working'.  But then again, yesterday was the first day of spring and garden season is upon us again...

Ah, Spring at Last

This is my season. My body works best this time of year, after the cold, before the heat. Just like the bulbs that have wintered over, I come alive and for about 5 weeks, getting dirt under my fingernails and scratches on my shins. I have been busy rescuing perennials from waist high grass, building a little fence around my little studio and planting a little garden, and weed wacking the back 40. I have attached a few pictures of the beauty around me and some progress both in the studio and out for your viewing enjoyment.

some things just speak for themselves...

Ah...you should smell them!

First of the season...

I don't think there is even a name for this color!

Today on the pond next to my studio I happened to catch a duck doing what ducks do...it almost looks like a swan! Do I not live in a most beautiful place? A little garden of Eden, it is.

This is a shot looking up into the redwood stand right across from our bus. Magnificent!

The forget-me-nots are wonderful this year. I cannot bare to weedwack them when they are contributing such lovliness, however, in three weeks there will be 10 nasty burrs to every one flower. There have got to go soon...Oh, spring blooms for such a short time...

such simple beauty...such nasty burrs.

I planted some perenials and put up this fence around the studio this weekend. I am hoping there is enough sun for the lavender, salvia and butterfly bush I planted. I will have to water them with water from the pond.

This is the church I attend framed in magnolia blooms. This was taken a couple of weeks ago...they are almost gone now...sigh.

I have been working on creating some product for my etsy site. I have sold quite a few of these repurposed altoid box sewing kits. This time I also added 3 kits with manicure items, bandaids, ect...I wonder if they will be as popular. Time will tell... here they are.

I hope to get these listed along with some other goodies this weekend.

Enjoy the spring my friends...soon the heat of summer will make it a distant memory!

till next time, annie

Here we are again...

I have had a couple of fun projects going on and tried some new things. I have pretty much finished up the Madonna painting. She is set in her shadow box. I am still undecided what to put in front of her, but the shells look nice for now. One of the new things I tried is the finish on the outside of the shadow box. The box was already black, which was a plus for this technique. I saw this on U Tube. I painted white glue fairly thickly and let it tack up for a few minutes, then painted white paint on top of the glue. You kind of float the paint. You don't want to disturb the glue. As it dries you get the wonderful crackle finish, but when you touch it, it is all smooth and won't peel.

I like this next photo. It is at kind of a weird angle. I had a hard time getting a good picture because of the gold and silver leaf, and the clear finish I sealed the painting with want to glare. I am going to have to play with it.

See the rose in the shell? It was one I had hanging to dry and it had dried to a dark blackish red. I poured glue all over it...slathered it, my new favorite word. I slathered it with glue and let it dry for a couple of days and to my surpries, as the glue dried the color lightened back up. I had done this years ago with some roses from a loved one's funeral and they lasted for years and years. The petals get an elastic rubbery feel to them. Here are a few more...The white spots are where the glue is not dry yet. They take a couple of days after a good slathering.

So, here she is framed and ready. I will have to decide what should sit on her alter and get her listed soon, but for now she is keeping me company. I had hoped to capture the compassionate look of the statue of Mary that I knew as a little girl, but she seems very sad to me, beseeching....

As is usually the case, the photo does not do her justice. I will have to get better pictures to list her. Her halo is gold leaf and really pretty. Her dress is pearlescent...

Here is the other fun thing I have been working on. I saw a couple of tutorials on U Tube by a gal named Jenniebelle on making art journals out of greeting cards and decided to try my hand at it. I like them a lot and hope to make one for each of my grandgirlies and their mom before long. They come out pretty fun. Some of the pages are blank because the cards were. Some I painted with the left over paint from the Madonna and some I will cover with papers and pictures. Some I will draw on, some I will paint, and some I will leave just like the are because the cards were nice to begin with...

That's about eough fun for now. I am all caught up to date. I have to spend sometime now getting photos taken and listings written for my etsy store so I won't be doing much new for a couple of weeks, but I will catch up when I have something new to share. Until then... ta ta.

another month done gone...

The days seem to fade away. I stay so busy and have no idea at what! I have not spent a whole lot of time in the studio lately, but that's okay. My creating seems to come in spurts. I did have a studio day with my dear Maria. Her two big sisters already had their days and Maria would give me no peace till her turn came. When the day finaly arrived she was full of ideas of what to glue on her box, but when we got down to the work of selecting treasures she spotted the glass blobs and wanted to go no further. Since, in all honesty, she would rather be out jumping on the trampoline than 'doing art' she wasted no time in finishing her project.

She did give me an idea though. I had been looking at this teapot wanting to do something with it. I love the shape and bought it to use but the handle was really uncomfortable to grasp so I delegated it to the studio for recycling. I wasn't sure what I was going to cover it with until my day with Maria. I found some glue at work that was for repairing broken dishes and is supposed to be heat and dishwasher proof so I was hoping the teapot would still be usable. The glue is pretty iffy though. Glass on stainless steel is not an easy stick. So it is decorative. I did a craft fair a couple of weeks ago and it was a good attention getter.

Speaking of the art fair, it was a total bust but a good learning experience. I put together this sign for it, so will have it to use again, and I made the tack sets below, which turned out really cool (I think).

Each piece of glass has a little teeny tiny holy card picture behind it. My Catholic is showing through! I am a sucker for holy cards, icons, and glow in the dark Jesus and Mary statues. I especially love folkart shrines made with seashells. I have plastic and plaster statues. I have one big collection in my studio, and bits and pieces elsewhere, like in the bus. My mind is very fond of fruitless rabbit trails...little reminders of what I would really rather be thinking about help me alot. I call these Remembrance tacks precisely for that reason.

I want to share here a purse my daughter made for me out of a favorite sweater. I bought the sweater used in South Dakota and wore it for about 6 years. I washed it a few too many times though, and it being wool, it got smaller and smaller. So I asked her to make me something out of it. She had it for months and said she had not inspiration. Then she woke up one morning with a vision of this purse, so she got up and made it! It has wonderful floppy pockets inside too. It is my winter purse...a real treasure.

So this is what I am working on now. I started with a pencil drawing that took me a couple of days and was pure enjoyment. She is on nice water color paper. I intended her to be painted from the git go. I did her face in acrylics mixed with medium to give it the translucent look. I did not get as good a depth or coverage on the paper as I have on other surfaces. Her face came out a bit mottled, but I have done some work to it since these picture were taken. In fact I am almost done with her...

I made a mess of the roses when I painted them so she went from being 11x14 to 11x12, but its all good. I have since gold leafed her halo. The whole background is painted dark blue. All I have to do is add some silver leaf stars and decide what to frame her in. I picture an embossed time frame like the ones so popular in Mexican art, but we will see.

Its time for me to sign off...I am getting that look from my other half...the "are you going to be on that thing all night?" look. With any luck I will be back before another month is gone...

annie