Fall color week on elsie marley
September 23, 2009
September 22, 2009
Burnt Sienna
Fall color week on Elsie Marley. Pretty sure there's some Burnt Sienna in all the reddish-brownish-orangey goodness of this flower.
September 21, 2009
Brick Red
Brick Red for Fall Color Week on Elsie Marley. This is a Doily Stretcher I picked up for $3 at a garage sale in Shawano, Wisconsin. I have no idea how it was used, but I love it's graphic beauty.
September 16, 2009
Odd Fall Blooms
Not what I usually see in the garden in mid-September:
A single orange rose. I bought this vine in May and didn't expect any blooms this year. And the package said pink. However, orange is my favorite color (okay, tied with green) so I love it. Except it's in the "cool" garden with purples, blues and pinks. I do love contrast, though ...
Unknown purple flowers growing in the lawn. I think they're wild geraniums. Pleasant surprise because I usually only see flowers in the lawn in spring (other than dandelions, of course)
Pincushions, usually only seen in spring.
Forget-me-nots, planted in the vegetable garden two years ago, keep popping up.
Jalapeño plant appears to want to provide one more harvest - let's hope the frost stays away long enough!
Could it be ... sunflowers!?! In mid-September? Oh, I hope, I hope they bloom before it gets too cold!!
August 29, 2009
Late Summer Garden
And, I'm back! I hope to come back to this space a couple times a week now that I have my other blog moving along nicely.
Late summer harvest from the garden - gazillions of tomatoes this year (yay!!), tomatillos (which grow like weeds in my yard and garden) and jalapeños. Will be making salsa shortly. And bruschetta (with store-bought basil, as both garden shops I went to were sold out by the time I planted last spring).
Ladybug found in garden and put in an unenclosed "kid-made" habitat. Ladybug has since moved on to other habitats :)
Growing pumpkin.
White pumpkin! Still growing. We picked a white pumpkin from a pumpkin farm and saved the seeds. We planted the seeds in spring and here we have our first home-grown white pumpkin! Didn't work with the blue Belgian pumpkin, but there's always next year!
May 1, 2009
Musical Park in Milwaukee
I had driven past this park many times, not knowing that it was even a park. I thought that it was some sort of promotional display for one of the museums in the area. Well, one day we happened to park across the street from it during a visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We decided to stop and explore... and we were pleasantly surprised!
The flags (?) make a rustling noise in the wind, like leaves on tall trees in a very large forest. They sparkle and wink in the sunlight and you can turn them with wheels at the bottom of the poles.
We were really surprised to find that the benches had drumsticks tied to them! They are musical benches!
And the "sculpture" in the middle has a sign on it to drop in pebbles. The pebbles make music on their way down.
Probably one of the coolest parks we've ever visited!
March 21, 2009
Charity Block - Aqua & Red for Project Improv
To be mailed next week! The wonderful fabric selection is thanks to Cynthia at fabricworm. I told her I was making a block for the aqua/red charity quilt group and asked her to pick some fabrics that would look good together. I'm very pleased with what she sent me! I worked the block from Jacquie's Wonky Log Cabin tutorial and it was so much fun! Off to Kansas City it goes!
Nature Walk at Wehr Nature Center
Last weekend we went to Wehr Nature Center, not far from our home here in the Milwaukee area. The last of the snow was melting in the heavily wooded area and we brought the camera in search of signs of spring!
There's a hanging nest in this tree! If you click on the photo you will go to my Flickr photostream where I highlight the next with the note feature.
Red berries - not sure if this is a sign of spring, or leftover from winter?
There's a goose landing on the ice!
March 15, 2009
Irish Soda Bread - Yum!
We started some of the March Book of Days activities (also note link in sidebar), put together by the inspiring Stefani at Blue Yonder. Here we are making Irish Soda bread (and we learned a whole lot about Ireland and baking in the process!) It was delicious - eaten for dinner, then breakfast, then snack, then... gone!
February 14, 2009
Birds On A Wire
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| From Birds On A Wire |
We went outside today in our small urban yard and I tried to find something beautiful or inspirational to photograph. A difficult feat in Wisconsin during a minor winter thaw. Most plant life is dead and the snow is dirty. I did manage to find a few things that I might post later, but the most inspirational image was that of doves on telephone wires (in the alley, no less!) The photo quality is not good, the doves were too far away for my camera to get a decent focus. But I found the composition to be quite good and fun with it in iPhoto when we came in. Here are some of my favorite "new" looks for what started as a mediocre photo. Enjoy!
Above, enhanced with color boost and cropped.
Below, the original:
Next, sepia with color boost:
Black and white with matte:
Color fade vignette:
Antique with high contrast:
I think it would be fun to make note cards or calendars with images such as these...
February 12, 2009
Recent Thrifty Finds
I thought I'd show you some of my recent thrifty finds from my favorite area thrift store. I used them to practice close-up (indoor) shots with my camera! Above (and below), Pig Ribbon!
Next up: Green and Gold Fabric Ribbon
Next: Harvest Colors Star Ribbon
Lastly: Fabric covered button kit
January 31, 2009
Project Imrov - 2nd block (or 1st?)
I completed another block for my Project Imrov quilt. I decided to challenge myself by using all patterns and no white. I also added yellow to the color palette because this fabric was screaming to me from my stash that it belonged with these reds and blues. I am very pleased with the result! Now I'm wondering if it will work with the first block... It could, I have to think about which direction the quilt will take and if it will follow one block or the other or will incorporate both.
January 18, 2009
Valentine's Cards for Classmates
This year I came up with a new idea for the annual Valentine's Day card exchanges for my girls' classmates. In years past we have bought Valentine's cards, but it always seems so impersonal. We've also made cards (with glue, doilies, colorful paper, etc), but my daughter is usually bored and/or frustrated by the third card and I end making all the cards. This year I had my 8-year-old draw out her designs with marker and artist crayons on 5.5" X 8" paper (a regular piece of paper, cut in half). For my 3-year-old, I drew hearts on the paper and had her color them. I scanned the artwork into the computer as JPEG files, cleaned up and added text (if needed) in Gimp and imported them into OpenOffice. I then resized them to fit 12 on a page (really easy, you just grab the "handles" and move to the correct size). I made them each approximately 2.5" X 3.5". I am printing them on card stock and cutting them apart with a box cutter. The girls will write names on the back. Handmade artwork without the "production line" frustration! (and of course, I had to get in on the act as well, I used stencils for the lettering on my "crossword" Valentine!)
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