scenes from a birthday weekend
sometimes, if you squint your eyes and smile with your heart, everything about life is beautiful. And so it has been since Friday. When I turned 52.
.++++++++++++++++++
My mom, who suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury resulting from a stroke in January, has gained enough momentum, strength and courage to join in a little baseball fun in the beautiful springtime weather Friday morning.
.
TIRR Memorial Hermann – best in the world
.
that’s a smile I haven’t seen in a while.
.+++++++++++++
.
never one to lighten it up when it comes to birthday cakes, my sweet Cristybella made a delicious carrot cake. Who says you can’t have cake for breakfast?
.
++++++++++++++++
and then, of course, we decided to partake in spring break fun and headed for the shore
.
.
which is just a guise for expanding our seashell collection. Cristybella scored the find of the day – a hamburger sea bean (lower right)!
.
.
+++++++++++++++
Finally – a gardening tip: geranium cuttings will take root in water. Roots originate from the juncture on the stem where leaves are growing. It’s taken me months and many failed cuttings to discover the elusive secret.
.
may every day of your life be beautiful. And if it doesn’t quite seem so at first, just squint your eyes a little and smile with your heart.
sticks and stones
this is a post about procrastination, crafting, and literally, a stick and some ocean stones.
.
Last October on vacation with my lovely Cristybella, we happened upon a beautiful Caribbean-side beach where we saw zillions of little ocean stones with holes in the middle. I curiously picked up a few with some discretion, thinking I’d see zillions more throughout the remainder of our vacay. I didn’t. But I brought home the few stones I’d collected and deposited them on my craft room desk.
.
.
speaking of craft room… notice the cool periodic table of the elements hanging there? a gift from Cristybella – who knows me better than anyone else on the planet.
.
.
anyway, several weeks ago, someone contacted me requesting permission to use some of my photos of seashell wind chimes I’d made a year or so ago. and then I got to thinking about those ocean stones sitting there on my desk. I had something similar in mind for them but had procrastinated for months.
.
.
Gathered together my scissors, string, a small driftwood twig, the ocean stones and a few porcelain beads (just for fun).
.
.
mental note to self: collect more ocean stones with holes on next Caribbean vacation.
Had this item been larger, it would be better as a decorative piece for my home. The small scale gets lost in the big collection of stuff going on all around it.
.
.
however, it’s an easy, versatile and most of all fun DIY project.
hope you’ve had a lovely weekend!
view from an iphone
I attended the #DRIVE2013 conference in Seattle this week where I was fortunate to greet old colleagues and make new acquaintances in my industry. The sessions were illuminating, the energy was high and the view was serene.
.
.
.
we had a few snippets of time for nighttime enjoyment
.
browsing at the flower market
.
and milling about Pike Place Market with throngs of other folks
.
and of course, the requisite trek to the original Starbucks storefront
.
many thanks to the University of Washington and the large number of volunteers and organizers who produced this stellar conference. I hope to return next year.
.
until then, it’s sure good to be home 
paint transfer
I’m working on some ideas for another wall hanging project that I’d like to begin this summer. One of the ideas involves stenciling, which I haven’t yet tried, and another was the reverse of stenciling, more of a first cousin to stamping.
.
.
Even though I added pink and orange paint splatters over the top, the white grid effect is the actual topic of today’s post. I used a piece of plastic mesh as my stamp, applied paint to the mesh and pressed it to the paper. Took me several attempts to get the look I wanted, so here’s a quick how-to.
First cut a piece from a plastic mesh produce bag – it has a nice grid pattern. Cut the bag into the shape and overall dimension that you want to stamp. Select your craft paint or acrylic paint and thin the mixture with a few drops of water.
.
.
Use a paintbrush to apply paint to the mesh.
.
.
Place the mesh over the paper or object you wish to stamp.
.
.
Cover with another piece of paper and press evenly across the area for a few seconds. Lift the mesh away without smudging.
.
.
The painted grid pattern left behind has the nicely uneven character you’d expect to get with a stamping process.
.
.
From my experience, the mesh was good for one paint application only. Just saying. But even so it’s a great way to repurpose the mesh produce bags – they have wonderful texture.
.
.
These two are on the way to becoming note cards after a little hand stitching.
Let me know if you have other clever ways to integrate recycling into your craft projects. Thanks so much for dropping in
seashell bouquet
I’ve been wanting to take a winter trip to the beach for a while now, but schedule conflicts dictate otherwise. Of course my motivation for going is always the same — to bring home new treasures. As if this house hasn’t quite achieved its quota of seashells.
.
.
they’re everywhere you look. dancing that fine line between collecting and hoarding.
However. When I spied this cute little arrangement made by the lovely and talented Laurel at Chipping with Charm, a new opportunity materialized
.
Source: chippingwithcharm.blogspot.com via Diane on Pinterest
.
I know, right?! So clever and adorable! I decided to make something like it with seashells and shiny beads. I had one or two glass frogs stashed in a cupboard.
.
.
I used some narrow gauge utility wire twirled around a screwdriver and some heavier floral wire for support.
.
.
The only tricky part was selecting a variety of small beach treasures that already had a hole through which I could thread the wire. I was too lazy to pull out the drill.
.
.
Thank you for the inspiration Laurel!
.
.
Great way to (finally) use those clever glass frogs that hardly ever see the light of day in my house.
thank you for dropping by today – hope you’re having a wonderful week.
all things green
Valentine’s day is an important date for Houston gardeners – all of our pruning should be complete by February 14th because new growth is sure to begin in earnest with the warm sun and gentle rains. So this weekend is a celebration of green in the garden and artful doodles.
.
parsley, mint and rosemary in the kitchen garden
.
perennials (salvia) starting to wake up
.
splattered paint in shades of green
.
vinca cuttings from last week’s pruning
.
a monarch chrysalis in the butterfly garden
.
tiny geranium sprouts
.
azaleas starting to bloom
.
hope you are having a lovely weekend – thank you so much for reading!
paint and stitch
I’ve been out of town a little bit lately, so I took my sketch book along for company and came up with a couple of kaleidoscope patterns along the way that I tried out with paint and thread on paper to make a few new decorative note cards.
.
.
Stitching on paper takes more pre-planning than stitching on fabric. The method that works best for me is to sketch my design concept to scale on graph paper, then use the graph paper to punch the needle points through the cardstock.
.
While I had my supplies out, I decided to try a couple of greek key patterns too.
.
.
I used a saltine cracker box as my paper source (folded out-side in) and a small plastic bottle top for a stamping utensil. In all honesty, even though I prefer the process of stamping paper with paint, I actually like the look of the paint splattered card best.
.
Thank you for dropping in today and hope the rest of your week is wonderful!
.
.
.
sharing at My 1929 Charmer
