Progress Pics Coming soon

I have been without my camera for 2 days. The battery has been expanding and progressively getting worse to the point that I could not remove it. So, I went to Gordan's photo to get a new battery today. Now its brand new and currently charging. Also did some back to school shopping and picked up some flowers for my planter boxes (Red and Pink Nicotania), hit a garage sale down the street and did some cleaning up around the house.

I started working on an interesting bag last night. Its black with a silver and gold square pattern and has lots of metal silver hardware. Cant wait to share it.
Photos coming soon... as soon as my battery is ready.

Discovered Baby Jays

Well, I finally figured out why the blue jays have been terrorizing my cat in the window for the last month. I found 2 baby blue jays in my yard. I noticed one little fuzz ball up in the tree and watched as the 2 of them learned to fly, mother and father on guard. I feel so fortunate to be able to witness something so special and glad that they feel safe in my yard. The parents are super protective and taking great care of them. Projects happening today; well I am finishing up my painting and going to the dentist. Later this afternoon I am going to my quilt meeting and I may find some time to work on a cosmetic case I started for my sister in law and I am going to enjoy this beautiful weather and maybe catch a couple more peeks at the birds in the yard.

Decorating

Not a whole lot has been going on as far as purse making in the last couple days. I am taking some time off, getting some things done around here. I planted 2 butterfly bushes. I am excited about that! and been doing some yard work. On Friday I started painting the walls in my dining room and so far it has shifted the entire house. I am now painting the living area inside the closets and rearranging the furniture as well as making up donation boxes of odds and ends and junk we don't need anymore. I guess you could say that I have the spring cleaning bug. Its going full force here and I am exhausted, but it is much needed. I have some new items planned in the making for next week, but first I've got to get this place together. Ive got the extension ladder out and ready for today! I am heading out the door for a hike on lovely Peavine mountain. The weather has been so perfect.

Completion!

I am currently prepping to primer the walls in my dining room which is currently a red wine. I am ready for a change. I finished the rose bag last night. You can see it in my Etsy shop. I am looking forward to some new creations this weekend. I realize now that I just love the cutting of small shapes and apliqueing them to my bags. I may be working on a butterfly next, still trying to decide. I am going to set aside some time over the weekend to teach a little watercolor to my daughter who is drawing an incredible mermaid, so I may just have to draw my own so we can work together.

Starting With Scraps

Planted some basil and parsley today and got my studio organized and ready for more work. Here is a photo and you can see that I have a basket of leather scraps all ready to be cut into my flower petals for the new purse that I am starting tonight. I chose dark espresso brown for the background and will be using this red/rust color leather. On another note...I decided to enter a handbag contest which takes place in August in which I will be donating 3 bags to and getting things ready for a feature for a handbag designer website. I will keep you posted as things begin to happen and will post the bags before they are send off. I am very excited about getting more exposure and participating in public shows etc. so I will be exploring these areas more this year. If anyone knows of any shows or contests I might be interested please send me an e-mail. Looking forward to this new week of work as I begin to fill my shop up with some new items. Check back tomorrow for more progress pictures. Hope to get lots accomplished tonight.

Tea Bag

I didn't get any sewing done today, it will have to wait until tomorrow. Been up since 4 am taking care of a little one who was been sick. I cleaned a lot and planted lots of sunflowers and added more seeds to the garden, can never have enough. Getting ready for picture taking time and need to have lots of color. I love color! I am getting ready to sit down with a movie and have some tea. Hoping to tackle that bag I keep talking about making tomorrow. Oh hey, I just opened my tea bag and it says, "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary" - Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 . How cool is that! Maybe I should be painting.

Rainy Day

Still raining. Glad that I got my plants in the ground - they must love this weather.
I saw Bowfire last night in concert. They were so amazing! I have always had a interest in tap dancing. It just feels like something I was born to do; piano too. I should give myself some lessons soon. The subject seems to always come up so maybe its time to pay attention to it.

Today I am continuing work on the custom bag I have been working on. Its almost ready. I am just about ready to start working on the tassles for the pockets and show them to my client and we will decide to either add them to the bag or leave them off. My goal is to finish the bag today so I am looking forward to posting more photos here of it completed. I am also looking forward to working on some other projects I have started on. I woke up this morning with more ideas fresh on my mind and ready to work. There is nothing like a rainy day Saturday to be inside and work. Its harder when its sunny and warm and all you want to do is be outdoors so it is the perfect situation for what I want to accomplish today.

Yesterday I spent the day securing large wooden stakes to the perimeter of my garden and then stapling bird block around the posts. This is just temporary as I plant seeds and allow the seedlings a chance to grow. I have lots of critters around her that love to nibble all the plants I try to grow. Especially the quail. They love sunflowers and also enjoy my delphiniums.
As soon as the plants are strong and have a good head start I remove the posts and netting and add water dishes to the garden for the wildlife. Today I discovered a bunny making a best in my honeysuckle up against the ties on the side of my house. She is a tiny thing. I gave her some help by breaking up some old coconut liner and lint from the dryer and left it where she could grab it. It was so cool watching her build her nest. I put some chicken wire around the bush to deter the neighborhood cats from bothering her and her babies. Snakes love it here too. I have seen a baby rattlers, garden, gopher and racer snakes in my yard so far. One year a was running frantically trying to save some baby birds from 2 gopher snakes in my yard. Unfortunately one of them was not so lucky, but I saved 2 of them and within 2 more days they learned to fly and left the nest. Nature is an interesting thing. I got the opportunity to witness racer snakes mating a couple of years ago. There is always something going on in my yard.

I have been working on a new custom bag. It is a beautiful flax linen color and I am accenting the bag with blue ostrich printed pig skin leather. I am so excited about this bag, I think it will be beautiful! I am so fortunate to have some of the best custom orders . They are always so much fun and I learn so much from them. It challenges me to try new styles and add custom things like zippers and decorative hardware. Cant wait to share it here with you when its finished.

Getting Dirty and Planning The Garden

I decided to take a look at my compost and see if it was ready today. Wow! It looks good. I have been composting for a couple years now and its great! I loaded up about 5 wheel barrels full and added it to the garden. Then turned it into the existing soil and lightly water it. I had a blue jay join me and he just had a feast finding all the grubs in the soil. I think its so awesome that I have a natural insect control. I really enjoy the fact that I am doing my green part in this world. I like to be able to provide the wildlife with real protein and I am so surprised every year at the new insects that make their home in my backyard. Last year I found so many new beneficials like lacewings, ladybugs and praying mantis. Hope to get some new incredible photos of them this year. I love macro photography. I love to capture the details of the tiniest creatures and make them look life size. Its amazing!






Some photos that I took in my garden last year
1st row L to R (crab spider eating tachnid fly, ladybug larvae eating aphids,lacewing)
2nd row L to R (snakefly hunting for aphids , ladybugs mating on my roses, beetle)
3rd row L to R (bumblebee on thyme, stink bug eggs on my roses, dragonfly)

Progress on the bag that I started last night.
Its raining outside I cant believe it. Its rare that we get rain.
The weather was nice today, a little on the cloudy side but it allowed me to get things picked up outside and did a little weeding.

I finished installing a new retractable clothes line outside under our patio deck. I decided that as the temperatures are increasing, that I would see how much energy I could save by hanging a lot of the laundry outside.
I am so amazed at how much we spend in electrical each month.
It doesn't seem right to be paying that much. I have even had an energy efficient service come in and give us tips and check out all the appliances and it still is high. So I decided to give this a try for the summer and see what happens to the bill. I'd love to be spending that money on other things.

Getting Ready For Spring

Wow, I haven't posted since Wednesday. Thats crazy. I have enjoyed it though. Been relaxing a lot and doing some spring cleaning around the house. I love this warm weather. I went through my seeds a little and spent a little time in the garden yesterday cutting back the dead plants from last year. I sanitized last years pots for new seedlings and I'm getting ready to start them indoors. I wont be able to plant until the middle of May. We have such a short growing season but I still love to start my own from seeds. Its so much more rewarding. My favorite veggie is sugar snap peas. Great for the kids too. Tomorrow I will be visiting a friend who is an incredible quilter to see the new project she is working on. She is getting ready to enter a quilt in the International Quilt Festival and my husband and I spent the afternoon photographing her quilt for her submission. I am certain that she will be accepted because her work is so fabulous!