Painting Bliss

String Me Up - String Gardens

 

 

 

So lately I have been a bit of a Pinterest whore... but hey, aren't we all? Pinterest, a place full of idea sharing is just a tip of the domino that knocks down others until there is a plethora of ideas all having a giant orgy together. You naughty naughty Pinterest with all your loose ways...

Anywho! my top search on Pinterest as of late has been garden ideas... whoa, big surprise right!? You totally couldn't have guessed! Be honest, your completely floored! No? fine then... guess I'm just a silly transparent window then! It's ok, no feelings hurt! But seriously, I have found a pretty cool thing I think I'm gonna give a whirl... string gardens. Not really a "garden" per-say as much as a really modern - cool - funky garden add in.

 

 

It appears to be simple, and I like simple! Especially when simple looks so damn cool! A string garden is basically taking a plant, wrapping the root ball up in twine, then covering with moss or grass seed - then wrapping again and hanging it up like a Christmas ornament! Now, these contraptions can be hung indoors... but the problem I see with this... is that when you water it, your bound to have puddles on your floor! Funny... none of the tutorials mention the mess. Sooooooo I am going to make mine and hang them outdoors from hooks or trees.

Here is a super cool, nice, and visual tutorial if you would like to join along with me! I take no credit for this idea as my mind just didn't create it and well it's gone to big for me to even try and take the credit! Plus, taking credit for other peoples ideas is just a big NO NO! (I don't partake)... I also take no credit for the images posted here today, each picture is linked to where it came from (see me covering my artsy non photo stealing ass?).

Now, I do promise to show you my hangy thingies once I make them! I really can't wait... I went all ass ho on my gardens over the past month and so they are already done and waiting for mulch... being a creature who desires to get her hands dirty I now must supplement my need to garden with ideas such as this!

Rock on with your gardening self!

 

 

 

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Cultivate my Soul

I Was Designed...

 

 

 

I was designed for green grass

Toes sunken deep into unseens and sunshine.

 

Under a blue celestial sphere

tan shoulders - brown as my coffee,

turn a richer shade of brown.

 

I am freckled

 Head to toe

connect the dots - game of hide and seek.

 

This is the season,

my season...

the season of unfurling

and coming into my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring - To Me

 

 

I sit here typing to you, eating edemame thinking about spring. How can I not with the newly exposed leaves and spring green that emanates from every inch of outside!? Spring to me is about firsts. There are so many firsts... spring is the beginning of it all and that's exactly why I love and revel in spring so deeply. I used to think summer was my favorite, and when the snow falls I say "this is my favorite!", but no it's spring. You wait so long for it... and anything you pine and wait for is worth it. It's the something that makes your heart pitter patter, thud thud, and boom boom until you can barely contain the sound bouncing around your ear drums. Spring is beginnings.

Spring is the beginning of warmth... bright light through the trees!

 

 

 

 

It's the beginning of color... after a season of blue, grey, and white... it's a feast for the eyes...

 

 

 

 

Spring is when children grow just a little more and try out challenges they have never attempted before...

 

 

 

Spring is birth...

 

 

 

And spring is the opportunity to be born again... into something better than before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Turtling Season

Fruits, Veggies, and Bruchetta, OH MY!

Cloth Paper Scissors - It's Here!

 

 

Being so humble and artistically shy it's not easy for me to share big ta-doo's... but I'm just about jumping out of my skin. I have had some minor publications in Somerset Studio, but I currently have my very first serious spread in the May/June issue of Cloth Paper Scissors!!!

Maybe you remember my sweet mixed media egg owls, maybe you don't... but now you can make one of your very own, for in the current issue I have a how to article complete with step outs and an adjoining article! I am so excited, delighted, and happy to share the news with you!

 

 

 

Opening up the box that I knew contained my complimentary issues was a bit surreal... actually holding, leafing through, and seeing my work on glossy pages next to other talented artists was just mind blowing!! I am so thankful to Cloth Paper Scissors for giving me this opportunity and for being so friendly to work with. The magazine staff was kind and super responsive... they made it so easy! I hope to send them more artwork in the future in hopes of more publications.

Hope you pick up the magazine and have a look see, thank you to you if you do!!

If you love my owls and would like to give one a happy home, you can visit my etsy shop here.

 

 

With Little Snippets

 

 

Fingering through the pages of an old book, long forgotten and placed on the used book store shelves, it is my intent to bring home these words and transform them into my own. I sit, I snip, I place and rearrange... until the words flow into reflections of my insides turned out.

Poetry flows through my mind and out through my fingers. When I am satisfied I glue them into their final resting place, a natural toned brown journal.

As I sit with my books, I graze my eyes over the the pages looking for phrases, sentences, and single words that stick out only to me. It is my mind, my soul, and my heart that sees the words that are meant for me. I am fascinated with the thought that given the same pages, and someone else, that a whole 'nother set of words and phrases would evolve.

The words are waiting like seeds in the winter, suddenly given light and warmth... another chance to live.

This personal meditation gives me a sense of ease in a body that breathes anxiety.  This time of self expression gives me the opportunity to dilute the rush of beating wings inside my chest.

It is when the bird sleeps... 

 

 

I am a deep thinker.

I am a deep feeler...

and often times my heart is enlarged.

 

 

Cultivate my Soul

 

 

 

There's is mental relief to be had in the dirt. The release of bottled up emotions just seem to sink out through your feet and back into the earth. The ground is so receiving, malleable, and reliable. I don't pretend to be a master gardener, know every single plant by name (although I do know a ton), or think I can grow every little seed in the Burpee catalouge. What I do know is I need my garden as much as it needs me. That this winter was so long and so cold that it seemed like forever until I could get dirt under my nails and into each crease of each of my palms.

My garden never stays the same from year to year. I'm never patient to just let things grow and tend to themselves. My ADD tendencies need to move, relocate, and dig up what grew in one spot last year but seems oh so much better over here this year. I split the day lillies into smaller mounds and sink them into places that my eye has decided is just right. As I decorate my patches of dirt like I would a piece of bristol board, smoothing the surface and making things to my liking... I envision the growth to come. In my mind I can already smell the peonies and hear the buzzing of bees.

 

 

 

This year another piece of lawn is gone... less to mow right!? HA! Every pleasant and warm day has been spent building blisters on my hands and collecting mosquito bites like girl scout badges. It's a game of connect the dots from my ankles to my neck.

Tis the life of a gardener!

 

 

 

This year I will be taking a more serious approach to vegetable gardening. My husband is making a beautiful raised bed for me and I have already put up chicken wire fencing complete with burgundy green beans that turn green when cooked planted below. I want to have enough vegetables to not only provide for my own family but to give to neighbors and friends. I know that sounds a bit ambitious, but I'm an ambitious kind of girl!

What about you!? Garden plans?

 

 

 

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Walk the Halls

 

 

Abandoned homes with un-locked doors that you can sneak into is so adventurous and fun. You listen for every sound wondering if you will be caught by a local saying "hey! who goes there!?". These homes are the kind that have left behind antiques, open cupboards, and the original skeleton keys still hung on a nail on the wall by someone who hoped that someone else would come along and give the crumbling home some love and rejuvenation.

 

 

Walking into each room you wonder who lived there, who loved there, who walked the floors and made the beds. Once before this place was loved. It was someones safe place and spot to rest their head.

 

 

 

Perfectly peeling paint I imagined how if it were my home that I wouldn't touch the walls at all. They would stay as is, perfectly aged and full of wonder. How long does a home have to sit in the hot texan sun for every wall to peel, crackle, and unfurl?

 

 

Wildflower Hoppin'

 

I may be home now and acclimating myself back into routine, but that doesn't mean I still don't have a bunch to share with you from my adventures in Texas. My last full day in Texas found us traveling a few hours out into the flat country farm land of that grand ol' state. It's blue bonnet season in Texas and it's just starting to really demand attention.

Blue bonnets are the texan state flower and when you see them you know exactly why.

 

 

 

We stopped for just about every patch we saw, sitting amongst the petals and catching each other in awkward poses trying to capture just the perfect shot. It was refreshing to be with someone else who also gets right down on their bellies for a photo. Someone who knows it's not just about pointing and shooting, but about a careful eye and seeing what others don't.

 

 

 

 

The blue bonnets are mingled with the bright orange and coral blooms of Indian Paintbrush, the subtle pinks show off as wild poppies and wild phlox. It seems flowers never come in combinations that aren't flattering. It's as if they know and prepare for the show that is spring.

 

 

 

Being amongst this jaw dropping display only makes me more eager for New York's own spring exposition. It was hard coming home from warm climates to cold. My first day back found me layering up and not wanting to exit my warm blankets in the morning. I brought home a tan, a renewed heart, and a missing of a friend I wish I could see on a regular basis. Till next blue bonnet season Jax! I'll be waiting for your visit here when the apples turn red.

 

 

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Hey Guuuurrrl!

My First Day in the Grand State of Texas

 

A Day of Adventure and Chips Please

 

 

Our day started in our own separate fluffy hotel beds, stretching out and saying to each other "what do we wanna do!?". 

I have been driving in Texas!! HA! I'm a bad passenger and often find myself nauseated and feeling close to death. Okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it feels like that when I am in the throws of a stomach turning bout of UGH! So yup, I've been driving! It's fun and Jax makes an awesome travel guide. It's so refreshing to not be on any type of schedule.

We go, do, and drink coffee whenever and wherever we want.

 

 

 

Breakfast at Starbucks and a drive onto the Galveston Ferry. I have never been on a ferry let alone drove a car up onto one! It was such an experience! Once securely on board and moving, we got out of the vehicle and perched over the edge of the boat. The laughing gulls chased us as the pelicans which I have aptly named aviators for their precise flying skill graced the sky off shore. Back in the car, driving off the ferry, we drove twenty or so miles on High Island where we checked out the local graveyard and after made our way to the beach and stayed for hours just combing through piles of shells looking for sea glass until we decided we were hungry and had to pee.

 

 

Turkey wraps, a soda I couldn't open, and a bag of chips and we were setting up camp back on the beach!

 

 

 

 

There are only so many chips you can eat in one sitting and we found the perfect way to use the rest... by sharing!

 

 

 

 

These feathered friends had extreme precision! After throwing chips to them we began to throw them straight into the air over our heads! These laughing gulls knew where it was at for sure!

 

 

 

 

We said goodbye to the beach, rode the ferry again, and drove back to Galveston and walked the strand. There I bought my first cowboy hat (straw one) and some souvenirs to bring back home. I have fallen in love with italian sodas which are flavor mixed with I think sparkling water. My first one was a lemon drop, yesterday I decided a perfectly pink strawberries and cream was in order. After a long day of adventure we two girls were worn the #$%# out. Crashing early back at Jacquie's humble abode was a immediate necessity.

Did I mention I saw dolphins!?