A Closer Look at Ottoman

FEELS Like Fall

Last week we had triple digit weather and fires and yesterday, the weather got chilly and it rained. While it was raining, I remembered that Jenny had saved some seeds for me to plant with the instructions: "scatter seeds after autumn rain."

And that's just what I did. The seeds are both Love in a Mist and Rose Campion. I believe that Jenny's mom brought the Rose Campion from Sweden. Jenny's garden is full of stories, I'll have to take some pictures of it sometime.

I put my mind to finding some orange enamel pots and such about a year ago as I thought it would be a nice punch of color in the kitchen which is going to be white and my dishes are all white. My plan was and is to casually look for some when thrifting. Well, a few weeks ago, I finally found a double boiler and it was only $1.50! The enamel is chipped here and there, but it adds character:

Just in time for cooler weather!

Happy Wednesday!

Moss Rings Now Made to Order

I just got a little love note from Brenda that she posted about my Moss Ring on her blog Phydelle. It reminded me that my Moss Rings are now made to order. This eliminates the necessity to contact me to order one's size if there isn't a ring in that size already available in the shop - yay! You can still send me a little love note anyway.

More Autumnal Colors

Fall is becoming more of a reality. The black walnut trees are starting to turn yellow and the nuts are beginning to fall. The hazelnuts have already fallen and the squirrels have found most of them at the park (I found a few that I'm going to try to grow). These are the colors I've been thinking about as of late (treasuries are great for this):

Fickle tastes. Sigh....

New Photos for Spider Web Plaques

I decided the photos I had taken for my Spider Web Plaques were, well, a little too perky with the robin's egg blue for Halloween. So, I re-shot pictures today and I think that they suit the pieces much better:

Spider Web Plaque 1

The orange cup was just perfect here.

Spider Web Plaque 2

And, this thrifted apothecary jar work nicely as well.

VikDesign

One of the prints that I put in my printmaking exhibit on Etsy Stalker was An Apple A Day letterpress poster by VikDesign; it's one of my new favorite things. Here's part of the item description:

"Here's a quick and easy way to keep in tip top shape. Just peel the little variety sticker from every apple you eat and affix it to a square. Keep it interesting. Try a Belle De Boskoop, a Newtown Pippin, how about a Peasgood Nonsuch, or maybe a Turley Winesap. There's no shortage of combinations and imagine how good you'll feel, when, after a years time, you've filled each square with a colorful little sticker."

(one of the best item photos ever)

It doesn't get much better than that!

Guest Curation on Etsy Stalker (Printmaking)

I curated a printmaking exhibit on Etsy Stalker today (for a link to my first exhibit on conceptual art, click here). You can check it out here. The post focuses on traditional forms of printmaking and has links to most of the major forms...it's certainly educational if you're not up on printmaking terminology. Also, I focused on works with content; I found some pretty rad pieces!

Alternative Color Combinations for Fall

I just popped up Etsy and noticed the front page was a Halloween theme and thought "oh, these colors would be perfect for one of the Suspicious Eyes Plaques," and scrolled down and there it was! Yay!

What lovely colors; very subtle for fall. Grays, browns, lavender, black and white.

I also made a treasury yesterday inspired by fall. It's "little cabin in the wood:"

Another alternative color combo for the fall, but I think very lovely. I like the classic triad of red, yellow, and blue...with a slight twist and the addition of white and rustic brown.

Harvest

I mentioned in my last post that I'm harvesting what I can before it freezes (it was 100 degrees here yesterday however...but the nights are chilly). I have a few photos of my harvesting efforts.

I didn't end up with tons of onions, but I harvested this box full. They are pretty small, but practical. I often only use 1/2 an onion for cooking and then put the other 1/2 in the fridge and don't use it before it's bad, so these are perfect. They are roughly the size of a large egg.

More tomatoes. I took this picture because the two tomatoes roughly in the center are the black tomatoes that I mentioned previously (In the spring?). They aren't too black, but have a blackness to them which is more noticeable when cut open. (Please forgive the  breast-like or testicle-like pose they are in.)

Tomatillos! Finally! These little Mexican paper lanterns are so cute! They are small, but I'm so glad that I'm finally getting some! I cut these up and put them in a fresh salsa I made for Jeff who likes things particularly spicy (meaning more chilies than tomatoes or any other fresh ingredient). I have had an aversion to tomatillos since I happened to get a stomach flu or mild food poisoning after I had some in college...like seven or eight years ago. Isn't it amazing how long that will stick with a person? I'm fine with green sauce, but identifiable chunks in salsa or somesuch does not go over well with me.

I've been wanting to harvest some acorns off the ground to take to Boo's preschool for the kids to sort/count. However, Boo is adament that they stay here so that they can grow into trees. I have a hard time arguing with that!

On Efficiency

We've returned from my grandfather's funeral...it's been rough. I was really close to my grandfather and I will really miss him.

Since I've been home (a couple of days), I've been harvesting as much as I can before it freezes. Yesterday, I made another batch of salsa and today, I picked some blackberries (which are really at the end, they are shriveling before they fully ripen in many cases).

I'm not a high energy person and can border on lazy (I really hate to admit that because I really have a passionate, gung ho side to myself as well)...but I work really hard at keeping myself busy and try to multi-task (not a word I'm fond of, it's too corporate) to be efficient. Oh yes, and I must not fail to mention that I am a mommy and that requires a lot of running about!

So, this afternoon, I made a big batch of brown rice because Jeff is going to use it for fried rice for dinner and I made Blackberry Slump in the Crock Pot again (by the way, I replaced a lot of the butter with olive oil and used whole wheat flour for half of the flour in the recipe) and timed them out perfectly so that I wasn't in the kitchen fussing over one thing.

Later, I did a dishwasher "change-out" and heated water for tea while unloading the dishwasher (while chatting with my sister on the phone) and loaded up the dishwasher while my tea brewed.

(Jeff was a doll and bought this huge tea cup for me while I was in Southern California in April...it's orange, my favorite color.)

I have realized that this timing of tea/dishwasher change-out works perfectly.

I also find myself reading blog posts while my pictures upload on my Etsy listings. And, if I decide to sit on the couch for a bit, I try to do something useful, like needlefelt, sew, or brainstorm ideas.

It's these little things that help me feel like I'm not wasting my life away. There are so many things that I want to do in life and that I want to learn...many of which cost too much money (I'd be a lifetime college student if given the chance). So, I do what I can with the resources I have and try to keep myself busy.

What do you do that is efficient? I want to learn more tricks!

Halloween Favorites

I have a lot of favorites for Halloween from Etsy. For fear of this being a really long post, here's a poster sketch with many of them:

 

 

1. A piece that is altered from an antique photo...there are many more incredible pieces by TheDecoratedHouse for Halloween.

2. Darling vintage-style decorations (many for Halloween and Christmas too) from ohmybuttons. 

3. Papercut prints from monpetitfantome...a favorite any time of year.

4. I am completely smitten with Simon from opticwaste. 

5. A great source for decorations any time of year, royalbuffet.

6. My sister an I adore ellemoss' work.

7. Poodlebreath, incredible ceramic pieces...owls are a must for Halloween.

8. Shadow puppets...perfect for Halloween! From orangemoontoys.

9. Oh my goodness, this is incredible...a Halloween cemetary display by crafterella.

10. Another darling owl (and of course, owls can be out anytime of year), by Etsy friend BROOKLYNrehab.

11. You have got to see all of kategreiner's decorations for Halloween...utterly unique!

12. I have loved talkingpainting's work for some time and only just realized that the moving eye paintings have "suspicious" in the title!

So, there you have it! If you want to get anything for me for Halloween...you know where to go! (hehe)