How does your garden grow!

I've been busy in the garden the last few days. The weather has been wonderful and the bugs have been few and far between which is a rare thing for us this time of year. The vegetable garden is almost completely planted except for a few more Tomato plants and maybe I'll add some Marigold here and there to keep the bugs away.

These Giant Allium are in my herb garden. Although they are only ornamental I look forward to seeing them each year. They're about 3 feet tall with 4 inch globes of miniature mauve flowers all over. They're on of my favourites. They just fascinate me.
The rose below is a shrub rose but I don't know the name of it. I got it at a local plant sale a few years ago and if it weren't for the profusion of beautiful single roses it gets all summer it would have seen the garden gate by now. It is the most prickly thing possible which makes it difficult to weed around and trim. Sometime it even attacks while passing by on the lawn mower. It also spreads runners underground and has to be constantly kept in check so as not to take over the flower bed it's in. But what's a gardener to do with such beautiful roses...I guess just keep the leather gloves on hand!

May and June are my favourite months of the year. Their is so much new growth right now, that I find it inspiring. I think after the long winter months I need to get out and dig in the dirt to feel grounded again and be one with nature.















It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

Back to tagging.

After missing a few weeks of Tag Tuesday I was glad to get back at some creative tagging.

The theme this week at Kard Krazy is By Your Own Hand meaning write or draw or do something of your own making.

It got me to thinking about my Art Journal which I had every intentions of working on each day but lo and behold it didn't happen. So I thought I'd get out my Art Journal box of stuff that I had put together for it and use it for my tag. I started with an extra tag already inked and glimmer misted that seem to always be hanging around and just started to doodle and play. I thought I would just doodle a bit and then go find some stamps and other things but the doodle bug got me and before I knew it the tag was complete. I know what Louise means by not liking your own hand writing but a while back I decided to ignore those thoughts and just let the creative process flow through me. What ever happens...happens!

Although this tag is a little out of my comfort zone it was a lot of fun. There was a time where I would never have shown any one this kind of work but I think it helps to share all of our creative endeavors even when they're not our best work.

I'm back

Yes I'm back and I wish I could say that I was away on holiday but sadly that wasn't the case. I've been having Internet problems and was completely off line for week and a half. I think it's rectified now and am so glad to be back. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed and was use to have access to this wonderful internet world. I've missed all my blogging friends and have been trying to catch up with all that I've missed. Thank you to those who have asked where I was. It's nice to now that some one is out there listening!

So what have I been up to? I'd like to say that I have a multitude of creative things to show you but alas it has not been the most creative time for me. I did spend a lot of time in the garden since the Tin man and his helper were around for a few days and we got a lot of outdoor spring cleaning done. It's amazing how much work you can get done with a few extra hands. I was getting a little discourage with my gardens and was thinking I would have to get rid of some because I just wasn't doing them justice with the amount of time I've had to spend on them. But now that the heavy gardening is done I'm looking forward to tending to it the rest of the summer. I haven't been out with the camera since we did the major cleaning so the picture above is one I took a few weeks ago of the property beside us where the Trillium's come up every year. I always watch for them in the spring and they never disappoint. We work so hard trying to make lovely gardens but we can never out do Mother Nature.

Have a lovely Victoria long weekend.

Copper blanks

As promised here is what I've been creating with the copper sheet I got last week. I was very pleased with how they came out. Here are a couple that I finished and some ready to get some embellishments riveted on. No time to talk...gotta get back to creating with copper!!

Copper love

I've been busy learning this weekend and it's all about copper. I've learned how to saw with my new jewelers saw, stamp into metal with letters and texturize with different hammers.
It all went very well. I thought the sawing would be harder than it was. I watch a few videos on line and it was easy peasy. I got about 8 discs ready to patina and tumble. So now I'm off to do just that. I'll keep you updated on the progress in the next few days. I can't wait to see them after the patina and tumbling.

What did you learn this weekend?

Glitter Tag

Here's my tag for this weeks Kard Krazy challenge finally. I didn't think I was going to find the time to get one done this week but I managed to work on it this morning while I was working on a scrapbook order. The challenge this week was glitter. I have some glitter but don't use it much and I definitely wasn't in a glittery mood for this. I seem to be stuck on my Graphics 45 papers and some fairly new flower stamps lately, so this tag turned out similar to a few others I've made lately. I've been out cleaning the gardens so with that on my mind as I created this vintage gardening tag. The glitter I used is Ranger distress glitter. I like it because it's so easy to use and is subtle which works great with the vintage look of this tag.

Now I think I'll go check out the other glitter tags.

Have a great weekend!

Wire wrapping

I'm back on the jewelry road this week. I had a wonderful time at the Goulbourn Museum show last Sunday. It's so nice to be around other creative minds. It's so inspiring and uplifting. Thank you all who came. I look forward to seeing you there again in the fall.

Now I'm preparing for my next show which is next weekend at the Jack Purcell Community Centre. It's called the Tarts N' Crafts show put on by the Ottawa Ladyfest. This is the first time I'll be doing this show. I'm looking forward to it and am trying out a few new things for it. The Tin Man bought me a large sheet of copper yesterday and I'm anxious to try some new creations with it. Actually I was up a 6 AM this morning with my head spinning creatively(or at least I hope that's what it was doing). I had to hurry and get up to write down my thoughts of what to do with so much wonderful copper. I'm thinking about torching, tumbling, pounding, riveting and so much more...

The piece pictured here is one a did a few weeks ago. I learned how to do the wire wrapping from a wonderful book that I highly recommend by Sharilyn Miller called Contemporary Copper Jewelry. I've tried a number of her ideas out all ready. Her step by step instructions and pictures are the best.