garden update

since i wrote in an earlier post about my garden, i thought i'd put in an update as well. despite the off and on torrential downpours battling against the ridiculously hot and humid days that are in the 90's, the garden is flourishing! as you can see, my herb garden has really taken off. the mint has grown especially well, and i must say that i've used the oregano much more than i expected (the mint is destined to be dried and used for tea this winter...but that doesn't stop me from adding it to lemonade now)!

i spent a lot of time this spring cleaning out the area by our driveway where we usually get perrineal wildflowers, and to be honest i was afraid i did a little too good of a job and that the flowers weren't going to come back. well, no worries! the flowers are blooming now in a mass of pink, white, purple flowersand orange lilies!

and you may or may not remember my orphan flower project: i grabbed a half dead hanging plant and some other rejects from the compost pile at work and decided to give them a second chance at life. was it worth it? i certainly think they're thriving (and not bad for a completely free flower display!) but i'll let you decide:

berry picking...does it get better than this?

this morning molly and i went blueberry picking...i'd forgotten how much fun it is! molly loved it, of course...i mean, what could be better than walking along and popping fresh blueberries into your mouth? but the bushes were just dripping with berries, and they were nice and sweet with just a little bit of tartness to them. just the way i like them! i'm not sure what i'll make with them yet (if they even make it that far and don't wind up in our bellies before i get a chance!) but either way, blueberry season is the best. we will definately have to go back before it's gone!

behold: the quest for the perfect berry...

yes! success!!

the fruits of our labors:

can you guess which container is mine and which is molly's?

well, i was feeling quite creative yesterday and i whipped up a new necklace. i call it my "chunky funky gypsy button necklace" and i (after much thought...but i'm going to make myself one this afternoon) posted it on etsy. now i have a whopping 3 items in my shop now. can you even imagine?


anyway, the necklace is a bunch of glass beads with some vintage buttons mixed in. it's attatched with a toggle clasp. i like the way it turned out...it's a nice, heavy necklace that feels nice around your (or, in this case, my) neck. and it's got so many different colored beads it goes with everything!

remember me, etsy?

i finally got myself in gear and posted my foam heads sculpture on etsy last night. i finished painting it/them on friday afternoon (while avoiding doing other work that was actually necessary), had a photo shoot while the baby girl was taking a nap and then actually got around to putting the photos up after work.

i'm curious to see the response...i think i priced it a bit high, but as william said, "it's art. people expect to pay a bit more." i may be bringing the price down, but we'll see.

i entitled it "skybluepink" because apparently (just like "toasted cheese") not everyone in the world grew up knowing that that's what you call a pretty sunset sky.

anyway, if you're interested in checking out all the gory details, here you go: skybluepink

2 more signs

these 2 signs were commissioned by my mother in law. she was wandering around in my garden last week with molly and saw one i had done for myself and ordered 2...one for her garden and one for her best friend's.

these actually came out better than my original (and i stole the faux embroidery pattern from kristi ...it was on an embroidery piece she gave me) so i'm pretty happy with them. i aged the mustard colored one a bit but left the cranberry as is (well, i rubbed it with some burnt umber, but no sanding) and gave them to my mother in law today. she seemed very pleased!

let them eat...blackberries!

over the weekend (and despite the bugs) i noticed that our blackberry bushes were producing a huge amount of yumminess so (despite the bugs) we all went outside and picked blackberries! we probably got a couple of pints, if you include all the berries molly ate as soon as i put them in the basket, which is impressive!

we've been eating them for desert for the last few nights and they are delish...i can't wait to go out and pick the rest (despite the bugs).

and you may notice that the berries are resting on some pretty fabric (and here is the crafty portion for today)...that's the $1.50 fabric i picked up for molly's (eventual) dress. it's pink and has little tiny fireflies on it. it's very cute, although it was hard for me to pass up all the adorable flannel. maybe if this dress goes well i can go back and make one for winter!

that's all for today!

today was my parents' anniversary, so i made them a card. i wasn't entirely happy with it, but that was mostly due to my lack of proper supplies. i wasn't happy with the blue paper (clouds would have been much better than...bubbles?) but overall i guess it turned out well enough.

on the front: pastel clouds, cut paper posts, embroidery thread line and paper socks.



the most exciting thing by far this weekend is that my loving husband woke up early and, while his 2 girls were sleeping in, tackled the ridiculousness that was our sunroom.
now, the sunroom at one point was actually a barn type structure attatched to our house. over the years it's been worked on here and there and now it's a pretty nice 3 season room. it is not insulated, however, and at the state it's in right now it needs some pretty significant work. we had been basically ignoring it since we moved in, using it as recycling storage. it was the perfect place to store obnoxiously large cardboard boxes etc that we didn't feel like carting to the recycling center. well, one thing led to another and it sort of got out of control, but william took care of it all this morning, and now we have a lovely (almost) empty room to start remodeling.

this is a shot of the current door, one of the projects at hand. we want to plug that doorway up and put it on the other side of the room so it can be accessed more easily (and maybe eventually become the regular way into the house, if we're good/patient enough) from the driveway. at the moment it's hung badly and not at all weatherproof, so one way or another it's got to go.

the old chimney also has to be pulled down and the ceiling replaced...but maybe i can recycle the bricks to make a pathway to our new door!

we've also been in discussions about what to do about the floor. it's been covered with a number of rather hideous layers of linoleum, and we just assumed that they covered plywood. imagine our suprise (and excitement) when we peeled those layers back and saw this:

the linoleum did not cover plywood, it covered wide plank pine!! obviously it would need to be refinished (badly) but i think we're just going to clean it up and paint it a nice bright white. i'm really excited about it. not only will it save us money (and allow us to spend it in other places) but i love the idea of a painted pine floor. the space is going to be used as a workspace for me, play space for baby girl and a good spot for the animals to congregate that is not under our feet, so something that easy to care for would be perfect. and eventually we can put a rug down and make it even cozier!

i'm really excited about the possibilities for this room...now i just have to figure out what color i want to paint it (obviously, because that's the stage we're at)...martha stewart green? a warm creamy yellow? the possibilities are endless!

god bless the rupert "tailgate fleamarket"

on saturday molly, my parents and i went to something my mother discovered: the "tailgate fleamarket". it was at a little tiny church in rupert, vt, and while at first glance pickins were slim, i actually did pretty well!

i got an old wooden folding chair, 2 books, a "knit this" kit with 6 skeins of yarn, buttons and some sparkly dangly disks, a set of 4 red and white enamalware basins (i gave one to my mom) and (at another flea market in salem...and my favorite) a red box that says "toolbox" on it in white paint. all this...for (are you ready?) $16!!!! i was very, very pleased with myself.

the basins have already been repurposed in the entryway cleanup of '06 (see previous entry) and are holding hats, leashes and misc. junk.

the toolbox (appropriately enough) has also found a home in the entryway to hold...tools! it's just the right size to hold my little containers of brads, collection of assorted screws and hanging hardware as well as a couple of paintbrushes.

i haven't quite figured out exactly where the folding chair is going to end up, but i think that once we redo the sunroom it could definately find a home there and who knows when i'll get around to the knitting and books, but overall i'm very happy with my haul.

i love fleamarkets.

i've been busy, i swear

i just haven't had a computer to update with.

so since william was out of town i thought i'd get a HUGE amount of crafting done...but unfortunately the craft gods were against me and things didn't turn out as they planned. i did, however, get a lot of stuff done, and while it's not necessarily artsy, it is sort of crafty in some way, shape or form.

first off, i originally planned to catch up on a whole lot of scrapbooking, but the 133 photos i ordered from kodakgallery didn't get here until today. but, i did still (optimistically) go out and get supplies.

i also planted my herb garden and put out little brass markers (not seen here) that i got at the dollar bin at target (oo la la!). i planted it all in an old copper tub that had been kicking around since god knows when and has a lovely patina. there's peppermint, spearmint, oregano, and red basil.

i also finally planted some orphaned plants in the big caldron in our back yard. i found a discarded hanging plant at the market and so i put that in as well as some lovely different types of flowers. i'll be interested in seeing what survives. hey, angelina adopts children, i adopt plants.

and last but certainly not least, this is what people used to see when they walked in our back door:

it was basically our storage area for all the crap we didn't want to deal with. not the most attractive welcome into our home. so, i took an oval tablecloth i got on clearance at kmart for $2 and made this:

it's still not the ideal solution (which would involve moving major appliances, ripping out existing shelving, moving the door into the house and other major renovations) but it does look a whole lot better! i also cleaned up/reorganized all the baskets above so they look much neater too.

and that's what i did with my summer vacation!