ICAD

favorite stuff on etsy

1. real strawberry fruit necklace on etsy from Realfruitjewelry, click here to see...
2. lollipops from asecretforest
3. wild strawberry seeds from SeedsIt
4. felt play strawberries from lilliannamarie
5. strawberry suckers from Candiedcakes
6. strawberry fruit leather from Beezersbistro

white flowers

I wanted to try something different to paint because I saw a video of a woman painting a white flower and it seemed like a challenge in watercolor. 

The smell of these roses was what stopped me ... I could smell them from the car, a whole row of them, past their prime but still beautiful... so this week, no girls, no mandalas... just this...

 IN PROGRESS:

my raised beds...

I showed you my new unplanted raised beds a month or so ago, I have planted a few with herbs, one with peppers, one with tomatoes, one with cukes and dill, etc etc. Here's a few pics of my rocks and plants a few weeks ago...

 looks like the store labeled that wrong...

Until this year, I hadn't had a garden in YEARS, so maybe this is normal but it seems my garden is busting out, way more than I expected. I am loving checking it everyday. It's close to the house so I can step out my door and see that the peppers have grown overnight!. And so far no bunnies or deer have eatten a thing. I did three things different than last time I tried a garden and it got eatten by a woodchuck.

I put little pill bottles of vinegar around in between the plants....

I planted onions and marigolds in front of the peas and tomatoes, and there are alot of pepper plants all over...

I have 2 outdoor cats and 2 dogs that pee all over the yard....

whichever one has helped I am grateful for, because the garden is doing soooo well!

 here are some pictures from this morning in the rain...

 there's another new garden ornament....

Isn't it EXCITING!

favorite stuff on ETSY

I have been been enjoying searching the cute critters of etsy...

Just click on the link below to get to their shops!

1. Atelierpompadour's pocket fox

2. Gingermelon's instant download pattern:

3. Ohalbatross's handmade bear

4. My daughter, Brandy, has a shop: Barefootbanana's quirky stuffed creatures

5. Hannakin's wool felt brooch

6.MyffinDor's plant critter

still writing

 The novel I just mentioned I am writing ( I am up to 65 pages!) is set during the time the Phlox  bloom...

well in googling "Phlox" i learned these flowers that we have everywhere in June are not even really phlox. they are Dame's Rocket, or sweet rocket, an invasive species, unlike phlox which is native to North America.. They have 4 petals. not 5 like true Phlox. And their leaves are jagged and staggered around the stem unlike Phlox which are smooth and even around the stem. 

I have called them phlox my whole life.

I have probably never even seen real wild phlox.

I feel lied to.

 

So, I decided to use that in the novel. In it, plants already had personalities, so now my phlox have become, not down right liars, but sneaky and mischievous. They just stand there, waving  a little in the shady areas, laughing at our little lives as we run to and fro...

ICAD

more from my index card a day sketchbook... just about 5 minutes a day, each day, no grand plan, no scheme, just a few minutes on an index card...