Happy Monday

This orchid was growing in a little garden in Griffith Park. Lovely.

MiniWorlds

(downtown!)

(i love how the grass is dancing in this one...)

More miniworlds for you to enjoy.

Ah, How I Love Thee!

I lovelovelove the natural grasses in California. Someday I'd love to landscape my yard with these and sagebrush and herbs. These particular grasses are so soft, they feel like kitten tails.

Griffith Park day

(the green on the hills took our breath away! sooo verdant...mmm)

(my camera insisted on picking up hazyness that didn't exist to the naked eye. bad camera. you could see the ocean glimmering past downtown.)

Saturday was gorgeous--luxurious, even. I was hoping and hoping we would have a respite from the rain because the plan was to go hike and take pictures at Griffith Park for the afternoon. Strike that. The plan was to get lunch, hike, take Holga pictures, have a coffee break, go back and walk through the observatory, take advantage of looking in the telescopes, and then go to dinner. I even brought my sketchbook to draw in. This didn't quite happen. But at least the day was so beautiful it filled and overflowed our souls.

Spring in L.A.

Spring has sprung in L.A.
These are some of the flowers that live in front of our house...lovely!

Dreaming...

Maybe it's a spring thing...in fact, I will blame it on spring fever and that will make me feel better. I've been wanting to MAKE lately and it feels like there are not enough hours in the day to do this (especially when you have other things like needing to work and cleaning the house and running errands to do.) I wrote a list last night before a talk by Marion Bantjes ( who is brilliant!) that included decoupaging a tiny jar (it wants to be a flower bud vase), making a couple of little sculptures, working on some bird paintings, embroidering and painting an apron, re-learning calligraphy and embroidering a bird pillow for my bed.

Last year at this time, I determined to take some sort of creative retreat during the year and then the year rushed by and it didn't happen (though that painting class was such a great stretching experience!) Now I'm sorely tempted by Susannah Conway's online class, Unraveling as it is actually an affordable one. But is that what I need? I'm not sure if I have this great need to get the creative juices going--I think I need some focus and direction, ha. Speaking of dreams, another one is to somehow come up with the $$$ to participate in my beloved Squam Art Workshops. I mosey over to their site every few months or so and think how incredibly beyondo wonderful it would be to do those, especially if I could go with my mom!!! Ahhh!!!

In lovely creative news, I get to help a friend make teeny sets on Sunday (hence the picture above from the set of Coraline.) We'll be making cobblestone streets and shop fronts! I'm sooo excited about this.

Etsy Inspiration

Beadin Babe on etsy consistently makes magical jewelry that I love. mmmm

Emma Lou!

It is incredibly difficult for me to wrap my mind around the stunning fact that my niece, Emma, is turning four years old very soon. She has brought so much joy to our lives. :) One of her favorite things to do is help with cooking (and taste-testing), so I decided to embroider and applique a tiny little apron for her. I'll admit I was sorely tempted to attach ruffles to it but then realized I needed it to be somewhat practical as it will undoubtedly be covered in bits of cookie dough and such. I showed the apron to my boyfriend and when he handed it back, it was rolled into a tube and the apron strings were tied in a bow--brilliant!

Little Bird Embroidery

This is the card and embroidery I made for Baby Girl #2 for my sister. Originally, the embroidery was going to be a birth announcement but it took on a life of its own. The card is a sketch of the embroidery and watercolored. So much fun! I love how spring-like it looks...can't wait to meet this new little munchkin. :)

Baby, Baby

2010 is the year of babies, at least in my life. In the last month, I've been to three baby showers so I figure that gives me the luxury of making such a statement. And let's see, I have seven friends/family members who are expecting right now (not to mention all the friends of friends, good heavens!)...

Anyway. So my sister is due in two weeks with baby girl #2. I'm so excited! I decided to try a different pattern for her baby blanket and went with this one that looks like squares. It is soooo beyondo soft. In the next couple of posts, I'll share some of the other treasures I made for her and for Little Miss Emma who is turning an astounding FOUR on the 24th. Good heavens!