Garden and Cards

 Having space left in my last kiln load, I quickly rolled out, stamped and shaped several embellishments for these cards that I recently became addicted to making.  The fabrics are cut from upholstery samples, stitched and mounted. Then the surprisingly time consuming but fun job of choosing a piece of clay to stitch in place.

We've had our little garden for over a year now. I'm not an avid gardener but my thumb is gradually getting a little greener. Above is a shot of the cilantro that is nearing the end of its season. I'm hoping I'll have some coriander once those flowers go to seed. 

Below I experimented with Picasso to label my garden! My broccoli never became larger than bite size before going to flower. Maybe it needs more sun. The dill too is starting to go to seed as the weather warms up, the peppers are just starting into their season and the arugula keeps getting a second and third life. Oh the arugula didn't make it into the photo. It is below the peppers. 

On the other side of the house the black ti's are showing off these gorgeous flowers!

And back to the garden side, my little cherry tomatoes are yummy but something is happening to the leaves. Anyone know what it is?

New Clay

Not much new happening in the studios but I have finally photographed and listed a few new items for my etsy shop ..... and I took a few new photos of Nicolas and Cleo!

Ducks on Valentine's Day, Egyptian Geese Actually

As I was busy working this morning I heard the dogs suddenly barking like crazy so I rushed outside to see and hear these two ducks honking loudly and doing what appeared to be a Valentine's Day dance. They are new to our yard and I have not been able to identify them. I gave up on the Google image search when  my search returned images of camouflaged men and dead birds changed my uplifted Valentine's Day mood to one of 'the cupid really did shoot my heart with an arrow'!

Anyway, does anyone know what type of birds these are? If they are rare or tasty please no one rush over and shoot them, just take their photo and let them continue honking and dancing.

 

Update: While discussing the new bird siting at lunch with my husband I suddenly realized that I had said they were honking yet I was searching for ducks because they looked like ducks. I came in and did a search for geese and discovered these are probably Egyptian Geese, native to Africa but have been sighted in South Florida because of collectors. One site said that most are escapees, few actually breed here.

And thank you to Sue for her suggestion about contacting the Audubon Society. I sent them an email before I discovered other Egyptian Geese photos online and the president of the local Audubon Society has just sent me a reply saying that they are Egyptian Geese, that they are becoming more common in Broward County.

Sewing, glazing and a bit of inspiration

I bought these three fabrics to make pillow covers for our family room but last week when I pulled them out I was in the mood for a new purse, and I didn't even have to make the pattern up as I had bought Simplicity 2617 with a purse just the size and design I wanted. So I downloaded a book from the library (Sarah's Key), put it on my I-Pod and made a purse.

If you happen to be like me and want everything available in my sewing room for whenever the mood hits to start a new project, disliking to have to make a trip to the store for a zipper for instance, then you will love having a few rolls of these zippers around. I was glad I had this roll or my pocket would not have a zipper!

 Yesterday I finally spent the day oxiding and glazing. The kiln fired during the night and Monday I open and unload.

As the sun went down a couple nights a go I couldn't resist snapping some shots of the gorgeous inspirational color!