When I planted this tree as a little baby, I had no idea it was two trees in one.
Half pink, half white in the spring, and in the fall, it produces two tones of berries. The leaves are even different shades of green.
At this point, I can’t remember if I thought I was buying white or pink. But I am happy to get a bonus color that I didn’t expect.
Ryan and I walk along this pond as often as we can. For the first time, we noticed that the fountain forms a heart shaped splatter. Is it new, or had we never paid attention?
It isn’t from the wind, as I first thought, because it has been like this all week.
Our property has a couple of fields that border I70. My husband keeps bees out there, and while walking up the hill to walk across the bridge, we had a nice view of his set up through the blooming redbuds.
He has a chair nearby and likes to spend time watching them at work.
Only one chair, I’m afraid that I am not a bee watcher.
This view was less pleasant.
We reached the top of the overpass bridge, and were disturbed by the lack of traffic. It was a reminder that our country is not itself right now.
Strangely quiet.
My walk was emotionally charged, with a flow of feelings from the sad reminder of the empty roads to the hopeful heart in the pond.
Of course, these days, our emotions are on high alert. I am trying to stay balanced, while acknowledging the difficulties and fears, still enjoying all of the happy moments of hope that I find.
After all of the glorious, gaudiness of the Christmas decor at my house, I kind of like my Januaries to be low key. It is a good time to dust, and shuffle things around, and to leave some things simply put away, not even used.
And to add some natural elements to remind me that spring and growing things will have to return someday, and that winter won't last forever.
Even if the icy cold feels like it is a life sentence…
Last fall, I bought some succulents at a garden center clearance for 99 cents a pot. After stashing them in my husband's office for the holidays, I was happy to see the cheerful greenery and bring it back into the house to brighten up a cold winter day.
This is where we spend way too much time since my husband retired and it has gotten so cold out. He builds a fire, we pile dogs on our laps and drink coffee every morning in front of the fire before we get on with our days.
Part of my move for simplicity, is leaving this table bare and functional for books and newspapers.
The mantle is kinda halfway simple, well for me at least. It seems full, but usually is has a lot more going on. I leave the angel wings up through Valentine's Day and keep the colors mostly muted. But I did add one little, oval painting that reminds me that springtime is real, and that I will get through this freezing season.
Winter is just not my deal. I make up all sorts of excuses to not leave the house and keep errands to a minimum. Now that I have a house husband, it is even more tempting to sit by a fire and ignore the rest of the world. I might even be growing to like winter.
Well, maybe just this cozy aspect of winter. Not the howling Kansas winds and ice. I will never, ever be able to enjoy that.
Hope you are staying warm and coping too!
Do you ever just make something for the pure joy of making it? In the past, I’ve operated that way, made what I wanted, then found a purpose for it, or not.
But it seems like my life as an artist had mostly dissolved into taking care of the house, the family, the dogs, upcoming classes, or gathering things to sell. 
Then, the other day, I decided to paint some flowers.
For no reason, and I had other things to do, too.
It was a nice reminder to stay in contact with my inner artist. So I framed and hung it where it would keep reminding me to take breaks from too much to do, and just create for the plain, old love of creating.
Our local grocery store sells marked down bundles of flowers every Monday. They are $1.99, no matter the size.
This time the bunch of blooms was extra large.
I spread them out into four vases and they brought me so much more than $2 worth of pleasure!
While I was redoing a canvas for the Guncles, I thought I would touch this one up too. I don’t have a before, because I hadn’t planned on painting it, I just kinda started in on it while working on the other one (previous post).
It didn’t get a big overhaul. I changed the sign to my blog name, brightened and sharpened up some details.
Added a rosemary plant and some roses.
This hangs over the fuse box in my garage, because, well, what else do you do with giant 6’ paintings?
Years ago, I had painted a canvas with a French market scene to use as a backdrop/divider for a booth at a show. It was a quickie, and not meant to be too detailed.
Here is the original. I have had it hanging in my garage, but have never really liked it. When Guncle Randy needed a French themed mural, I offered to give it to him.
But of course, that meant that I wouldn’t like it any better when I saw it at his house.
So, I spent an afternoon brightening it and adding details.
Including his Bichon, Bella, peeking out of the window.
And his address in French, on the wall.
(the sign isn’t really crooked, the canvas has a few billows, here and there that throw off the perspective in photos)
I like it better now. I think he will use it in his patio tent for a French themed dinner party or maybe to hang on the garden fence?
It is canvas and acrylic, so would be fine outdoors. But over time, could cause moisture to be trapped behind it and the fence would rot, so that couldn’t be permanent.
I tend to junk up my yard and home with old stuff.
And that makes me happy!
Quite a bit of May and into June, it rained.
And rained.
Then rained some more.
I dug some trenches to have the water run away from the house in a few places, but this river was created by the dogs running back and forth to bark at people walking on the other side of the fence. I needed to dig out a tunnel under the fence for it to drain, and then, this raging river became ideal for redirecting the water away from our home.
But just imagine the mud we have had to deal with from all of the dog’s hard work in crafting this trail!
We are so lucky it has only been mud. So many places are flooded or damaged by the tornados.
I hate to even admit this, but the rain hasn’t been all bad at the cottage. We seem to have decent run off, and haven’t had problems with it, once the torrents streaming across the yard subside and drain away.
We have been gifted with lush, overflowing flower beds as an after effect.
Our yard has never been better.
We have also put a ton of work into trimming, planting, and cleaning up too.
And my studio redo made me so happy that I wanted some changes outside too. This swing got a fresh coat of paint, and moved from the big yard that has been taken over by Honey and Sugar, to a cozy spot where it is getting used again.
This corner got a big refresh, I added two rose bushes, a viburnum, some other shrub (whose name I have forgotten), and ten bags of mulch.
I also planted this little perennial that will bloom in pink. My husband said that we should support a local farm/nursery that had tornado damage. He loaded up his chainsaw and gator to spend an afternoon cleaning up there, then picked me up to go shop at their garden center.
We have always loved that farm, in the fall it is a pumpkin patch and we have had many happy memories of tiny grand fairies playing there.
If buying a few pots and flats of plants could help them out, I was in. We even bought a few for our son’s home.
I am very proud of my handsome husband for volunteering his time. He is a nice guy to not only go to help but to also suggest supporting their business.
Although Easter has passed, I still have more to show you from the holiday. I thought I'd tell you how we created Guncle Randy's bunny hat.
We started with a magnificent, pink, wool top hat. Which would have been great as is!
But we wanted it to be even more bunnified. So I tucked Easter grass under the band.
Over the band, I wrapped a white velvet ribbon and pinned it in place, then glued one end of the white ribbon to the other end of the ribbon, overlapping a bit. Our issue was, that we didn't know if the hat would need to be returned to its original glory. I don't sew, I am a die hard glue-er. But- we were not sure if we should let any glue touch the already pretty pink hat.
The white velvet ribbon became the new hat band, placed over the existing band and everything was glued to the white one.
Including the wired ears.
Using The Ultimate Glue, I layered vintage millinery flowers to the ribbon, then to each other, building a full bouquet to add more grass, eggs, and bugs to.
My plan had been to use brighter, less tattered flowers….
But the ones I had packed were lost on the flight, due to a broken zipper on my suitcase!!!! (Along with a crop-o-dile, lace, ribbons, rhinestones, Tim Holtz scissors, more flowers, gel pens, and a bottle of glue)
Well, at least it was a good excuse to buy a new suitcase for the trip home! And a much prettier one at that.
Funny, for a person who lost most of her flowers, I seemed to have plenty left. These were packed elsewhere for me to use in the classes I was going to take at the event. I had forgotten that I had a ton of vintage floral packets with me that I had planned on selling on Vendor Night, so there was no shortage of flowers that weekend. I just didn't get to use the ones I had planned on using on the hat.
But I like the way these look, so it all turned out fine.
The sides and back were decorated too. But less heavily than the front.
It was clumsy to try to glue things to the new band and to each other, not to the hat itself, and it is all put together like a house of cards. But this way, if Randy ever wants to wear a plain, pink top hat, all he needs to do is pull off that white ribbon. Everything will come off in a big bundle.
Luckily, this wire and bead posy was not lost in the luggage fiasco, because it fit perfectly into this old knife handle transformed into a boutonniere holder.
My baby bro and I had a blast making these together. Our collaborated projects are always so much fun!