Sunday, April 3, 2011

On A Walk In My Woods


Loki and I started our walk in the backyard where this beautiful Bleeding Heart is blooming.  We then continued on into our woods along my trail. 

All the anemones are up!









I think that this is a new tree starting to grow.  Don't know what it is until the leaves unfurl.  It may be a horse chestnut.






Dutchman's Britches




Trillium, they are soooo pretty.  This is the first one to bloom, others are poking their heads up.












 Bloodroot
There are more this year than I have seen in previously seen here.

A pretty patch of three different violets! Purple, white and yellow, along with a nice fern.










This little nature created terrarium has been in the woods since we moved here.  I just leave it and it continues to thrive!

More bloodroot.

Oh so pretty white violet!  Some violets are great to use in a salad or as candied violets on cakes.









Henbit just starting to get it's buds.










More violets, different white and purple ones.  These are actually sweet to the taste!











These are growing all over the front of our house - wild grape hyacinth, I think.  They have a nice sweet fragrance.








Very tiny blue flower with hairy leaves.  Corn Speedwell, a member of the snapdragon family. The flower is less than 1/5" wide!




Ending our walk today is this tiny flower of the moss family.  I have no idea what kind of moss it is.  If anyone knows, tell me please!









And another picture of the moss.  This is growing on the ground with lots of rocks.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Listen While I Work

Right outside my window in my workshed studio is the creek.  It makes the most wonderful sounds!  The sounds can be almost like folks talking, roaring, babbling, rushing - all depending on the amount of rainfall we have had.

The birds are now all singing and making delightful sounds.  In the evening, the frogs chime in.  I even listen to the sounds of the insects around the studio.

And I listen to the sound of my torch.


Now here are some of the other blogs telling you what they listen to!

Kat - http://artistikat-scratchingpost.blogspot.com/
Stacy - http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/
Clarity of Scrollwork Designs - http://www.thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com
Brandy - http://thefrogspond.wordpress.com/
Happy Tortoise Designs - http://happytortoisedesigns.blogspot.com
Claire - http://brightstar109.blogspot.com/
Silver Pearl Jewelry and Metalworks - http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com
Autumn - http://www.autumnbradley.blogspot.com/
Beatriz Fortes - http://cjbf.blogspot.com/
Resurrection Silver - http://www.resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com
RadianTrace - http://radiantrace.blogspot.com/
nancycreations - http://nancysjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Jessica @ Abella Blue - http://www.abellablue.com/blog

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Links to Our Posts

Forgot to include the links to everyone's posts, so here tis:

Jessica - www.abellablue.com/blogClarity - www.thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com
Claire - http://brightstar109.blogspot.com
Stacy - http://formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/
Pennee -
http://allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/Brandy - http://thefrogspond.wordpress.comGloria - http://gloria-hemlockhollow.blogspot.com/Joy - http://www.joypeckjoy.blogspot.com/
Autumn -
http://www.autumnbradley.blogspot.com
Gayle -
http://www.thisartistsjourney.blogspot.com
Esmeralda - http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com

It Was All The Turkey's Fault

I had to come up with gifts for my girlfriends at Christmas and had no money to buy a thing.  I was 13 years old.  What to do? What to do?  Somehow for some odd reason known only to myself I had saved the turkey wishbones from feasts in the past.  Turkey wishbones? Could I make these into necklaces? Hmmm.....metallic gold paint.....hmmmm.  Yup, I painted those suckers ever so carefully, drilled a hole in the top part of the bone , used a ribbon and lo and behold: necklaces!!!  Yes indeedy!  I gave these as gifts that year and had one for myself.  I think my friends thought that I was cccrrrraaaaaazzzzyyyy!  I thought it was clever and cheap.  And that is how it all started.

Then I noticed that I had some turquoise nuggets!  Which I promptly wrapped in silver wire (it was cheap then and Tandy was the only craft place in town)  Wish I could find that nugget today!  I know it is somewhere in this house - I never threw anything out.

So then I went on to scavenge sea glass, now mind you this was in the early 60's!  And there was lots out on the beach when I was 15.  These were wrapped in copper wire. And pebbles became pins.



Finally, I moved on to sea shells and making earrings for everyone and myself.  I was an earring hog!


The discovery of polymer clay lead me to making some awful stuff!  And my mother wore them!  But not all.




I continued making earrings, but it just didn't feel creative enough.  I needed something hands on, so I took a metalsmithing class last year and this was my first piece

.
That did it I was hooked on metal!