Gardening between showers.

Even though it's a grey day today I was out doing some gardening. We seem to be having a lot of rain the last few weeks and it's been difficult to get out there and get some much needed weeding done. As I sit here looking out the window, the sun is trying to peek out and another shower has begun...oh my!

After I did a little weeding in the herb garden I grabbed my camera and set out to capture some seasonal flowers. I was inspired by Sheila's blog the other day as she has an amazing close up of a daisy. Go check out the heart she accidentally captured along with it.

So I was drawn to do some close ups. I also seemed to be drawn to globe shapes today since that seems to be the pictures I chose to share with you. The first one is a Globe Thistle which is just about to bloom. It has beautiful blue flowers in a week or two. I'll try to capture them for you later.

The next photo is a Sea Holly thistle. The bees love this one. The photo is a little deceiving though. It's really only about a half an inch in size but there is lot's of them.

And the last picture is of my Giant Allium's seed pods. If you want to see them in bloom check out this earlier post. I'm not sure which I like best, the flower or the pod.

Monday morning

Another weekend has passed again. Where do they all go!! Monday morning is here. Time to reminisce on the weekend past before I get on with my day.

While at the Perth Market Saturday a lovely fellow vendor there was admiring my bee charms and my friend Sheila's bee cards. She makes lovely lotion and creams and uses bee products to make some of them, so she is drawn to the lovely creatures. It's funny how things in our life give us our creative urges or ideas. As I was getting ready to relax and watch some Farscape with the Tin man later that evening, I knew exactly what I wanted to work on in from of the TV. Bees! So I got out my TierraCast bee charms and set to work making some bracelets and earrings.

As you can see on my work table I also made a few angels to finish up into earrings and bracelets later. What a wonderful way to pass an evening. Watching a favourite program with a special person, doing something I love.

I've been spotted

When I was out for my walk the other day with my camera I seemed to have birds all around me but not the right lense with me to capture them. So today I brought my 140-600mm lense. I was ready and on the lookout for birds.

I was so intent on spotted some bird that I almost missed this fellow. I think he spotted me first so I was very lucky to capture him before he bounced away.
Unfortunately he ran off across the road think the trees on the other side looked safer I guess! Not to worry, so many around here are use to deer roaming around so there wasn't even a close call. He walked across in his own due time. And I thought that was it for deer spotting since this isn't something I see a lot of on my walks. They usually spot me first and are off long before I think about the camera.

But as I walked on searching for the perfect bird to photograph lo and behold there was another deer or was it the same one? He was cooling himself in the river when he spotted me but didn't seem too concerned.
Here we're hiding from each other behind weeds.

Well maybe I'll capture those elusive birds that keep singing to me on my walks next time.

Postage tag

This weeks theme over at Kard Krazy is postage stamps.

Of course it had to be Canadian stamps. The first one I came across in my small collection of stamps was this Polar Bear stamp, so then the challenge began. What seemed like an easy task last week was more of a struggle this time around. So it is with our creative lives. Eventually I managed to collage this tag with images of other stamps and an Inukshuk ATC image I made for a previous swap.

Now it's off to Perth so sign up for more Farmers Market Saturdays.

New bracelet

A few weeks ago while sitting in front of the TV I made the swirls for this bracelet not know exactly what I was going to do with them. Then like so many of my jewelry creations it just occured to be that of couse it had to be a bracelet. I added some Serpentine Jade beads on a copper chain and made my own hook clasp so that it's an adjustable bracelet.

Country living

I'm so grateful to be living in the country. This river is where my morning walk usually leads me to. Recently we had to say good bye to our family dog and my faithful walking partner Xena. She had been having problems with her back and hips for a few months so our walks had become few and far between. So I didn't get to see the river much this spring and my body is complaining about the lack of exercise it's been getting. Xena's been gone for a month now and I've been struggling with going for walks alone. I've only managed to get out a few time. But yesterday I brought my camera with me which I discoverd was a good diversion from the lonely walks without my partner.

Thanks you Xena for always being ready for a walk any time I was and for giving me that extra push with those eyes to get out there and stay fit.

Lovely weekend

Yesterday found me at the Perth Farmers Market in the Crystal Palace along Tay River in downtown Perth. I had a booth there selling jewelry along with my friend Sheila who was selling her graphite and colour pencil art. As you can see it's a beautiful venue. To learn more about this venue check out Sheila's blog. Their annual Kidsfish Derby was on for Fathers Day so when we weren't busy selling things we could watch many little guys and gals fishing with there father's. We had a wonderful day and I managed to buy a berry pie for our Father's Day dinner before they sold out.Here is my display in the Crystal Palace.

Men tag

The theme this week at Kard Krazy is Men in honor of Father's Day this Sunday. I've been doing some major cleaning and organizing in my studio this week so this was a welcome break from it. I think this is the quickest tag I've ever made. It's a few collaged images, some stamping, sticker and of coarse distress inks. If only every creation came together this easily! LOL.

Peaceful Sunday

How was your Sunday?
I had a lovely quiet Sunday. The boys were home for the weekend, so while the Tin man was off watching a local ball tournament we played a game of Wizards. Their friend Chris said he hadn't played before but he prevailed over us.

While playing our game I had the tumbler filled with copper goodies to polish. Here they are after being rinsed. I tried a few new things with my copper sheet. I hope to get some jewelry making time in the next day or two. I'll post as soon as I get something new done.
Then it was outside to take a little tour around the gardens. There is so much in bloom. I must bring some in to make a bouquet.

The Honeysuckle are attracting the hummingbirds.


These iris' were a little sparse this year so I guess they'll need to be divided in the next week or so.

The peony's look like they need to be divided too but they will wait until fall or spring.

Today is looking very grey so maybe a little basement cleaning and organizing is in order! Wish me luck!

Steampunk tag

I had a lovely day yesterday at the Perth Farmers Market despite the rainy start. After having a recuperating nap when I got home I stayed up late working on my tag for this week.

The theme over at Kard Krazy is "A few of your favorite things". Well I've never been good at deciding my favorites because they change from day to day or is that moment to moment, so I guess these were my favorite things last night.

Of coarse just playing with a tag is a favorite of mine. I started off with distress inks and glimmer mist as a base and then just as in my daily life I used music for my background. I had some gears already cut from Tim's new gear die so there started my steampunk theme, a new favorite fascination. Another all time favorite is metal embossing so I used some brown Ten Second Studio metal with their new Time kabuka mold. Add a little alcohol ink and it's ready to adhere to the corner. I love old keys, I've been using them in my jewelry lately, so it's seemed a given that my favorites should have one too. Added a few more embellishments here and my favorites was revealed.

Antiques any one!!

I was out shopping and signing up for Saturdays Farmers Market in Perth yesterday with Sheila from How I See It. As avid shoppers a few rainstorms barely slowed us down so we ventures a little further out on Rideau Ferry Rd to check out this Antique shop. It's in an old farm house and every nook and cranny of every room looks like this. There are small paths leading around each room to view the mounds of antiques. It's daunting to say the least and I'm not sure how you find anything there but if your looking for something specific and ask the owner, he's very helpful and seems to know where things are...incredible.

Well I'm off to pack up for the Market tomorrow and maybe make this weeks tag challenge.
If you're in the Perth area I'll be there from 8am-1pm.

Have a creative weekend!

Hummingbird love.

I just had to share this hummingbird I captured on film the other day. These are my favourite birds. I think they are the most incredible little creatures.

I was a little late getting my Hummingbird feeder up this year but within minutes of getting it out there this little guy or one like him was feeding away. I never get tired of watching these guys hover and fly around. And on the rare occasion you can find them sitting contemplating as I imagined this one was doing. He just kept coming back to perch on my deck so I had lots of time to find my camera and even change lenses to get a close up of him. When I have time soon I hope to sit out on the deck for a while and get some more poses of him. I'll check back with you when I do.

Music Tag

A little late in the week but here is my Tag Tuesday contribution. The theme this week at Kard Krazy is music.

This was great timing because I recently bought a large sheet music stamp that I was able to use for the background. As usual I started with Distress ink and Glimmer mist for the background colour. The image is an old photo is from my collection of vintage photos. A few flowers, some lace and it was done.

Time to go check out what everyone else has created.

Gardens growing

It's always rewarding to see the first sprouts coming up in the vegetable garden.

I finally got everything in the vegetable planted and things are coming up all ready. Here are the sunflowers.Here are my green beans.

And these are my leeks which were started from plants that I put in a trench so that I can cover them up as they grow to get more whites on them.

I'm also growing tomatoes, onions, and squash.

Beautiful Blogger Award

WOW! I'm so honored to be given this Beautiful Blogger award by Sheila from "How I See It". She has a few blogs for her photography and her art. Go check them out here. She's a special friend and an amazing artist. This is my first blogger award I've ever gotten and it came as a wonderful surprise the other day. Part of the requirement for getting this award is to tell you 10 things about myself and share 5 special blogs with you.

So here goes, 10 things about me:

1. I love to garden(okay I guess that was an obvious one!!)
2. I'm a packrat(I may need help LOL)
3. I love tools of the trade, right now that means jewelry tools(I'm wishing for a dapper for my birthday, a not so subtle hint for someone. )
4. I miss my dog Xena even though I said I wouldn't.
5. I recently discovered making panini's and am hooked.
6. I hate house cleaning and it's effecting my creative outlet right now.
7. I love music, almost any kind and almost always have something playing no matter what I'm doing.
8. I love living in the country and wouldn't change it for the world.
9. I have 2 great sons who are working their way through University right now.
10. I don't have a favourite colour, it's just too hard to choose between them all.

It was hard to pick just 5 special blogs but here they are:

http://artfulroom.blogspot.com/ This is my friend Sheila who does amazing colour and graphite pencil drawings.

http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/ This is Louse's blog where I participate in the Tag Tuesday challenge.

http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/ This is Lynn's blog which I discovered through Tag Tuesday and have enjoyed following her steampunk treasures.

http://jenzart.blogspot.com/ This is Jennifer's blog which I've enjoyed following for about a year now and actually got to meet her and visit her Milk House Gallery last fast. I always enjoy seeing what new treasures she's found.

http://tofallorstumbleupon.blogspot.com/ This is a beautiful blog by Faerwillow that I discovered while doing some wish casting. A blog I find inspiring and magical.

Thank you to Sheila for sharing this award with me. I hope you enjoy checking out some of my favourite blogs.