What's Growing Wednesday

What's growing outside Bliss Monkey Studio? Fancy pointy tulips.

I planted a bunch of bulbs last fall and it's so exciting to watch them come up. I can only 1/2 remember WHAT sort of bulbs I put in around the yard, and this is the first flowering.


Flowering kale. I love growing over wintering Kale. Yummy to eat through the cold months, then I pull it out when the aphids arrive. Rather than fight them for it, I've just taken to growing it seasonally.


The plum trees take turns blooming in early spring. All the bees gather for a humming session on warm days. Imagine the scent of all those blooms and the lovely sound of the buzzing?



I left a power cord out on the walk way and when I came home, it had made a friend. See what it is?

Gardening Tuesdays - Container gardens

I'm HOOKED on miniature gardens in containers! It's a brand new hobby. When we bought this house, three years ago, it had a very empty yard, so we started with the most important: the vegetable garden, then next year- flower gardens, then worked on the lawn, so this year, it's finishing the patio which leaves room for decorating in containers, and miniature gardens.

After a lovely Mother's day brunch, cooked by my family, I took my mom thrifting for fun containers to plant succulents in. I couldn't believe the abundance of FUN things we found. (I'm going to have to learn how to drill through ceramics if I keep this up). The little Dutch girl was built for plants. I added baby strawberry plants to her pockets and hat.


My new Bliss Monkey Studio mascot had a former life as a cookie jar (thrift store find). Break the lid on your fav tea pot or cookie jar? No worries, drill a hole or use lots of rocks at the bottom and don't over water, soil, succulents and wa-la, a happy garden for your sunny window, porch, or friend's house!

I am suddenly fascinated by succulents! After bringing these containers home, I had a look around, and realized I have quite a variety of neglected, overgrown succulents, aloe, and such around the yard and in the house. I took an afternoon to repot and distribute. Let's see if I can get more babies to grow, thus feeding my need to thrift up MORE containers and fill them with little, easy to care for, arrangements.

This one is already gifted. Easy to make: rocks in the bottom for good drainage, new potting soil, baby aloe and succulent plants, and several pretty rocks. Do not over-water. I'm going to have to learn to drill holes in the containers that lack.


For fans of Saffron: he's doing great. After a winter of three surgeries for his leg, and lots of reclusive mending time, he's back outside, playing with the other cats, built up muscle, and almost back to climbing. Yey, happy kitty! Age 3.

Ski Trip

Me and the kids at Odell Lake during Spring Break. It's hard to get away for four days in a row, but boy is it fun!!! We don't get snow like this in our valley, but in the mountains, only an hour away, we can play in winter wonderland! We rented a cabin with friends, and enjoyed cross country ski trails, sledding, games, and food. Lovely.



Long Legs MacCormack after a sledding wipe out.....



The boys enjoying a tow back to the cabin for cocoa after a long morning of sledding.....



Me in my ski hoodie by ThingsinStuff. Check out her shop! Her hoodies rock and they are all on sale for spring! Catch yourself an up cycled wool hood, lined in soft fleece, with needle felted designs! It's ever so warm and snugly and naturally waterproof.




Sledding hill. View from the top.



Snow cave that someone built. We can fit the family of four in there, and even our dog Toli liked being inside.

I'm In Love With The Sky Today

There is another sky by Emily Dickinson

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields -
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

Friday MORE Snow!

We woke to a fresh blanket of snow this morning (view straight out back- I love the sky!), and the last day of the school before vacation cancelled!

So far today, the kids and I have played, built a snow CAT outside, did some office work (me not so much them, though they did work on holiday gifts), and I stitched up a few new pairs of wrist warmers to ship out. We had a long walk in the snow and out for "second breakfast-es" like hobbits do, and over to the store and back home. It's nice to be able to go places without the car.

I've just discovered that I have several rolls of vinyl in my studio (from a long time ago) and that my new machine sews it up nicely.....hhhmmmm, what will be come of THIS discovery?



Can you spot my item in this neat treasury?

Wonderland

We experienced a practice snow fall on Friday, much to our delight, but woke to REAL snowfall this morning. Ta -da! It's fairly unusual for us, on the valley floor, to get this much snow, let alone have it stick. What fun.

This is Saffron experiencing his first snow. Both kitties think it's so fun. They keep going in, and out...... and in and out and in..... and out and um, no, in, then right back out, then oh, in, then out...... brrr! In and out and in. Out. Ooooowwwt. In.

I had a lovely walk with our dog Toli this morning. He was so excited, I wanted to let him off leash, but he's not so well behaved yet. We met up with another off-leash lab and they played and played and played. The friendly dog owner and I chatted away, went back to her house to get balls for the dogs to fetch, then she showed me her back yard where the dogs could play together in future. (This is how dog owners in Eugene are! That's how we roll. Friendly bunch).

I fell right in love with a hand carved elephant she had and she was like, "Oh, I'd like to get rid of it. Would you like it?"
WOULD I????!!!!!
(Max don't read this!) :-)

Happy winter wonderland. Time to take kids sledding!

xo
xo
xo

Delights of Winter

Was last night a full moon? On the way to bed, I was soooo sleepy, until I caught a glimpse outside....... the clouds were lit up in a way I've never seen before- almost from underneath like a big spotlight. They were blowing so fast, I stood at the glass door in amazement as creatures came tumbling across the sky.... troll with staff, smoke ring that got larger before collapsing, a large rabbit that rear ended a monkey...... it was unlike any 11pm sky I'd ever experienced. I didn't want to go to bed at all!

The sky this morning. This is my view as it gets light out each day. The kids off to school, I had a wander in the garden still wearing my pajamas. It is so WARM this morning. The two kittens followed me with my coffee cup and camera outside.....

Nasturtiums, who gather dew jewels on their plates.

The garden all tucked in for the winter. Does it look grey and cold? It's lovely and warm and bright compared to the past week of grey and damp! Lovely Oregon weather. REally.

I wanted to share Teagan, the mushroom doll, who arrived in the mail, so sweetly wrapped, yesterday. I love Projectgrabbag! I am rather obsessed with gnomes (watch for my gnome ornaments and kit coming out soon). HER gnomes are a must-have for any gnome collector! There's a gnome couple for only $22 that are soooooo dear! And her dolls are wonderful, and many more mushroom girl dolls to be had. Like Teagan, they can be a keychain ornaments, but I wouldn't want her to get dirty.

Love

Wednesday - Garden Day

I've decided that Wednesday will be the day to share some garden photos or tell a story. But today, today is weather BLAH in Oregon. We Oregonians have a lot of tolerance for grey skies, but this is seriously damp, chilly, and blahhhhhhh......... So what I have are photos we'll pretend are today- overcast, but not so blah.

This is a feature in the front path garden, next to the Moomintroll Garden. See the mound in the back? That's Singing Rock Mountain. I collect rocks that appear to have open mouths. They gather there, on the mountain to sing. Baby rocks next to mama rock too.



Inspector 86 doing his job in the herb garden. He pronouces the new dirt and "hen proof" fencing satisfactory.


Two weeks later..... herbs getting established, tiny celantros making secondary leaves, alyssums purpling around the place, and pinapple mint getting bushy enough to make a batch of sun tea.




Yesterday, I spent the day with THESE devine creatures. My own Mudslide, and his two delightful classmates. We took a long field trip to the awesome children's museum in Salem. We stayed together and had such a nice time. Hours flew by!

We loved the bubble room, where you can make a bubble form around your whole body! And we liked climbing inside a model stomach. We all agreed that we didn't have enough playground time. Pah!


Finally, one last photo of the day's events. Mudslide and his knightly friend poised for action.

A delightful day to be sure, and I raced home to a hot cup of coffee, and afternoon spent in the studio, making new TEA themed cozies! Oooo, la la!

Letterboxing as art?

Is Letterboxing art? Let's talk about it. But first, it's 2 oclock. Yes, tea time. Would you like a cuppa with me? I'm really hooked on having a few Marie Lu dipping biscuits with my tea these days. It's just Irish Breakfast today, I'm afraid, nothing exotic. But it's a nice standard.

Finally, conditions were right to find our first Letterboxing series of the spring. The sun came out, the kids had the day off of school, and we printed out the clues to an eight box, book themed series, called Dead Poets Society, all in a park we have hardly explored. Grabbed our kit, and our puppy and off we went!

Letterboxing always gets me into new parks, hiking new trails, climbing mountains because it's beautiful, and fun, AND there's an art reward at the end. I mean I love to be out in nature, and pretty much ALL artists spend a lot of time in the studio and probably need more exercise. Is it the artist in me or the pirate in me that loves a little adventure that leads to art booty?

Here's the trail scouts, Mudslide Sydney and Long Leggs McCormack honing in on a hidden letter box. We've followed the clues to the "giant mossy rock laying against twins" and searched the right side. Careful, don't let anyone see what you are doing! Letterboxing is kinda secret........ there it is! We found it! ......Nice. The person who produced these letter boxes did a great job camouflaging them with tape and keeping the contents secure from moisture.
What is inside a letterbox? Can you see? There is a hand-carved stamp based on the theme, and a sign in book. To collect the art, you simply ink the new stamp and stamp it into your own book. You make an original stamp with words or symbols to represent you, and stamp it into the box's sign in notebook, and can add the date and write a little note. Some of the stamps are simple renderings, some are amazing! Then you put everything back, and move onto the next box, if you are lucky to be in a park with a series. Most boxes are singles. They can have all sorts of themes to them. Some clues are riddles and hard to puzzle out. Some are simple directions. Sometimes the book inside the box is a beautiful, hand bound miniature. They are fun to read through before you stamp your own stamp. People travel from all over to letter box in Eugene. And honestly, when I'm traveling, I look up letterboxes in the area in case I get the chance to visit them. I've made my own boxes and posted the clues as wel, but you should only do that in your own area because you have to monitor the boxes to make sure contents are safe, and the book hasn't gotten full. Occasionally, nature changes a site and you may need to find new locations. Always hide boxes right on the trails so people aren't encouraged to trample all over in search of things. You know the "stay on the trail" rules.

Letterboxers like to have gatherings. There's debate about whether or not to show off your books (of collected stamps) because you might ruin the surprise or hunt for someone else. Perhaps if you shared stamps from far away? It's a tradition/game that started in England, after all, and has spread world wide! Perhaps I'm funny, but I prefer to keep letterboxing anonymous. You start recognising people's stamps, carving style, and notes in books after awhile, and I like the mystery involved. I don't want to put names to faces. I like to imagine everyone as an exotic, eccentric, magical, artist............. normally, I love meeting other artists, but sometimes it's just nice to keep a little mystery in life.

So is letterboxing art?

Cloud busting

I've gotten addicted to cloud photography this spring. It's some funny reaction to watching the sky, all the crazy changing weather, sun and cold dips, nutty HAIL every other day...... When the sun comes out, the kids and I grab our great and dash out for some outdoor action. Not that Oregonians DON"T go outside in the rain. We don't actually melt, but if we are going to choose a time to hike it's nice to at least start during a sun break.

Here is my collection of dragon cloud photos.

See the two dragons chasing a wee sky snake about to be gobbled up on the left? The dragon on the right has a uni-horn, and wings outstretched behind, and a long tail. The dragon on the left is outstretched, going in for the bite.

This is my favorite. A gigantic cloud serpent dragon with it's tongue out!

Dachshund Stampeed

My Oregon joke list referenced "sun breaks". This photo illustrates that perfectly! A break in the clouds and rain, and the sun rushes out dramatically. Sometimes part of the sky continues to be rather black.

I was so glad to have my camera in the car. Doesn't this look like a leaping dachshund??!

Oregon jokes

Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Five. One to change the bulb and four more to chase off the Californians who have come up to relate to the experience.

YOU KNOW you are an Oregonian if........

* You've ever ordered a half caff/decaf, nonfat mocha grande with sugar-free cranberry whip (or you know what it is). (Yes!)

* The bride and groom registered at REI. (sport supply store)

* You are amazed at an accurate weather forecast.

* You know more than 10 words to describe a cup of coffee.

* You throw an aluminum can in the trash and feel guilty. (but then we'd take it to the recycling can, wouldn't we? Why waste time feeling just guilty?) :-)

* You use the words 'sun breaks' and know what it means. (Totally!)

* You never go camping without water-proof matches and ponchos. (Oh yea, I've been flooded out on more than one camping trip!)

* You know more people who own boats than air conditioners. (Yes! And the actual wood finish boats too!)

* You only honk your horn if collision is imminent and never for anything else. (We might be quacker backers but we aren't much for honking).

* You consider swimming an indoor sport. (yes! ha ha ha!)

* You consider something a "hill" (not a mountain) if it doesn't have snow on it or has not recently erupted, regardless of its altitude.

* You can't tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai food.(That simply isn't true! We have all those in Eugene and I am addicted to Thai and Korean)