Colorful Pansies

I showed you the black & white images of these two pansies a few posts ago. I thought I'd also share them in all their colorful glory! These are what I planted in the pots on the back patio.

Enjoy!

Front Yard Blooms

I love spring! And, altho I have to admit springtime in the Midwest does generally top New Mexico, there are lovely spring blooms to enjoy in our front yard here! The lilac bush we planted a couple of years ago is finally producing the first blooms - yea!!

These lovely pink blossoms are from the little tree we have anchoring the little sitting area we have in the front yard. How pretty they are!

This shrub is a native plant to New Mexico and in the spring, it's just covered with such pretty white blossoms! We actually have 3 of them grouped together, so they add a nice bit of lightness to the section of the front yard where they sit.

And, finally, our grape ivy (I think that's what it is!). I had my doubts that this would make it, but it's finally producing blossoms this spring, so I guess it's decided that it likes it in our front yard!

Enjoy!

Back Yard Gardening !

This past Saturday, we decided to get our back yard area ready for spring. Jeff cleaned out the tub below our granite water feature, and then turned it on so we could have nice calming water sounds as we worked out back.

I planted the 3 pots we have out back with pansies. The nursery lady told me they have anti-freeze flowing thru their steams and leaves, so as long as I keep them watered, they should be fine even tho we may have a few nights left that will reach freezing. The little Popsicle sticks mark where I planted some gladiola bulbs - got the idea to mix bulbs and annuals from a friend (thanks, Karen!). I didn't plan this nearly as well as she did, so hers will probably look better, but I thought, what the heck!

A couple of little neighbors, the Geckos, were also out sunning themselves by the sitting rocks at our fire pit and didn't seem to mind my presence. We do like having them for neighbors, since they are known for keeping other bugs to a minimum. I think the one on the top of the photo looks like she might be pregnant, but I have to admit, I know nothing about how geckos reproduce! Could there be baby geckos in our future??

And, finally, our next door neighbor, Jazz, kept peeking around to check out what we were doing! Her buddy, Patches, was also there, but he kept hiding behind her - silly boy! Do you see the mourning dove sitting on the fence? I guess spring gardening is really quite the excitement for the neighborhood!!

Enjoy!

Fine Art Pansies

I did some spring gardening today, and planted some pansies in the pots on our back patio. They were so lovely, I couldn't resist taking their "portraits". Altho they were purple and white (above) and apricot (below), I played around with converting them to black & white using my HDR software. I thought the results were really pretty - almost like fine art prints!

Enjoy!

Found Poetry - Love Poems ATC Swap

Been working on this ATC swap for the past couple of weeks - just a little bit on the weekend days, as I could. Anyway, thought I'd share! The theme of this ATC swap was love poems made up of found poetry. Found poetry are little snippets of phrases and words that you find in old books. I used a used book I bought at the library's used book sale once - I plan to make an altered book of it someday, so taking a few pages now is no big deal. I just pick words and phrases that appeal to me and I figure I can put them together in some way! This first ATC was meant to capture the joy of those "daddy-daughter" special times - certainly a special type of love!

This ATC had a photo of my parents as the subject of it. I'm not certain, but this photo was taken when they were very young, and maybe even newly engaged - hence, the poem!

And, this one just makes me laugh for some reason! I just love this photo of the 2 couples - i have no idea who they are, but, for me, the woman on the far right as you look at it sort of makes the photo - her expression can mean so many things. I know, technically, this isn't a love poem, so I didn't include it in the swap, but I couldn't resist how the words sort of worked together, her expression, and when I couldn't stop chuckling looking at it sort of pieced together, I knew it had to be an ATC, even if not for the swap!

Enjoy!!

Book Page Backgrounds - Part 4

This was another ATC (Artist Trading Cards) swap using book pages as the backgrounds for the cards. The first one, above, is of a young man striking a somewhat formal pose - maybe this was to be a formal portrait? It just reminded me of how those types of photos really emphasize the fact that time does fly, and we're only the way we are for a relatively brief moment in time. I used the book page background running vertically - I thought it almost looked like a patterned wallpaper behind him.

For this ATC, I used the peeled paint technique over the book page. I found the old image of what looked to be a little stone cottage. It reminded me of a similar building at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, that was set right along a lovely garden. I added the rose petal that was set in some handmade paper, and decided this would be a rose petal cottage.

And, finally, this piece that seems sort of ethereal to me. This time I used some pastel tissue paper over the book page background. The tissue had some butterflies, dragonflies and flowers on it, very soft. When applied to the background of the ATC, they sort of melted into the background, creating that sort of ethereal feel to me. I added a small image that I had of a botanical drawing of a tulip, and that seemed to add the perfect touch.

Enjoy!

Little Houses ATC Swap

Here's some recent art from last weekend. It was an ATC swap, with the theme of Little Houses. I decided to have some fun with this! The above little house used an umbrella from one of the umbrella drinks. Now, I think of those drinks as summertime drinks, so I thought the "little house" would be a summer home. Since I also used dress pattern paper on this ATC, reflecting the sizes that the pattern covered, I thought the summer house would be made to order! A little whimsy!

I liked the feeling of this ATC - a delicate little house and then a nice image of a young woman, who I think of as thinking of her dream house. Kind of a soft dreamy feel to this ATC.

This last ATC was kind of a fun one, too! I found a napkin that had some coffee beans on it, and thought, of course! A coffee house! So, I decided that they would really be doing a great deal on a cup of coffee - 5 cents per cup! Haven't seen that price in years and years!!

Enjoy!