Gardening with the Girl

Here is my cute patootie in the garden!
We planted violas and repotted a peace lily and some succulent plants.
The whole gardening experience was a BIG hit with little Lavender... she had such a blast throwing and eating dirt, inspecting the beautiful flower petals and playing with gardening tools like mama.
What a great helper!!!


Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation. It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart. ~Karel Čapek, The Gardener's Year

Silly about Spring & my new Wreath!!!

Spring has definitely sprung and I can't seem to make myself stay inside for too long. Lavender and I find just about any reason to be out in the lovely lovely, not too hot yet weather.....we pull weeds, inspect the pea gravel, wash the car (to no avail... pollen everywhere!) and take many many walks.

I am discovering that this little one is quite like her mama when it comes to the outdoors... she begs to go outside, reaching for the door and when she gets out there I catch her kissing our pretty red bud tree and giving it a big hug... What a tree hugger! ha

Anyway... all these lovely days inspire me... to plant flowers (I know the violas won't last too long, but hey... so pretty!), to make a new foam flower wreath for the door, to not pull the dandelion "weed" that is growing in my rose bush, and to enjoy the gentle "spring snow" that falls from the Bradford pear trees as the wind blows. Walking in these little white petals makes me feel like a garden nymph!

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

At Long Last

So here i am... finally. Things seemed to get all busied up in no time around here. Joshers and I have been busy celebrating the birth of my bro's newest little girl, Naya Faith!!!! So exciting! She is just really tiny and has this wonderful fuzzy full head of black hair!!! I think she may just be the cutest newborn to ever cross my sight.... so precious.... so lovely. I think we forget just how tiny and fragile these little angels are when they first arrive.
Anyways... I was so excited about the wittle one that I made her a little something to brighten the walls of her pretty little room. The triptych collages with the little girls here are for my new niece. They are kinda in the same stream as the "children's art" that I have done in the recent past (like the 2 pieces that hang in Lavender's room... for those of ya'll who have been to my house!).

This second work is a portrait that I did of my sweet sweet husband... the guy who makes me the best version of myself.
It is the first of a series I have been referring to as "A righteous man." The piece is kind of a tribute to the heart of my husband and an acknowledgment of James 5:16.
I plan on making several more of portraits to accompany this one. But, I will definitely make some different technical choices... like the choice of paper for the portrait. I had loved loved loved this brown packaging paper that Josh's portrait was created on, but the beeswax really penetrated the paper and made it so dark that the image is hard to detect... I was also very disappointed to discover that the beeswax also diluted to pencil itself on the drawing... it made the wax a bit grey... which I didn't mind, except that the drawing just got more and more faint... ugh ugh ugh! I was so pissed... oh well. Live and learn, right???

Anyways... all this to say.... for the first time in a while I am really really excited about the art that's happenin in my studio. This portrait was one of those landmark pieces for me.
I'll keep ya posted!!!