Daisies, Daisies Daisies!

I wanted to share some photographs with you that I have taken over the years and will be posting a few here and there as I find time between my handbag creations and other posts. I hope that you enjoy them. The first and third photographs were taken on a denim background. These flowers are similar to daisies but they are not; its on the tip of my tongue, but cant seem to think the name right now, ugh! If you know what they are called please let me know:) The second photo is taken on a blue tile that I keep in my garden stash. I acquired a bunch of tiles for mosaics and like to use them every now and then for a splash of color around the flowers.

Ready for San Diego

Another amazing photograph taken in my front yard. I love these butterflies. This one is drinking from a blue Petunia.

I have been getting ready for San Diego all week. Lots of last minute things to do before leaving. I cant wait to take some time off and sit on the beach, not thinking about work for a few days. Hopefully I will come back all energized and ready to work. I have lots to do:) always!!

A cold morning

It's a cold and crispy morning. The temperature gauge inside the truck read 2 degrees. yikes! Some tracks in the snow - maybe they belong to a rabbit? The sun coming up looked so beautiful with all the ice formations in the trees and the plants, I had to capture the moment.

Its Snowing!!!! :)

I woke up to snow this morning!! It started as a light dusting and now its coming down pretty good. We never see much accumulation here but its still fun. Gotta go out and run some errands before taking off over the mountain for a birthday party. I bet it will be a pretty drive. I love the Sierras in the winter. I will be crocheting hats all weekend. getting ready for the colder weather. (Photo of snow is taken off my balcony looking down at the now sleeping garden)



My kitchen counter top is loaded with tomatoes that I saved yesterday. We are suppose to get a really hard freeze tonight. I think that most of them will turn red on the vine. Tomatoes in the winter:0 - How cool would that be!

If they don't turn red I have no idea what to do with them! I am not sure I am into green tomatoes.

Flowers In the Fall

I love the fall. The weather is starting to get cooler and the flowers are just so amazing right now! Of course these orange cosmos are my favorites! I also grew some strawflowers this year so that I could make some colorful wreaths for gifts. I have been picking the flower heads and collecting them in a basket so they will be ready at the perfect time. Back to work. I am finishing up on the new brown leather bag with flower accents.

Lavender Oil

I decided to make a bottle of fragrant lavender oil this afternoon from the flowers I picked this year. I placed them in an old recycled glass bottle that I had some eucalyptus bath salts in previously. After filling the bottle 3/4 the way with lavender blossoms I filled the bottle with grapeseed oil, which I will let sit for a few weeks and then I will strain for use. This will be so perfect for the winter time when it is really cold outside and I need that little boost of aromatherapy to lift my spirits!

Is it Friday Already?

Wow! Its seems like I have been in another world that last few days. It went by so fast. Now that my studio space is clean and organized, it's time to work on some new projects. Today I am planning on completing the black leather flower accented bag; I finished the flowers a while ago but never completed the bag. Its time to get it done. I started on my quilting group challenge project last night and I chose my "in laws" cute little dog for the focal point in this one.(see photo) and yesterday I gathered lots of tomatoes and some squash from the garden and topped all my plants and new blossoms so that the energy is directed to the fruit that has already been producing. It will be getting cold soon and green tomatoes aren't very appealing to me. Even with the late season we had this year I am still happy with what the garden has produced so far, but I will still be making changes to the garden for next year. I am always learning something new. I just don't have as much time for gardening as I use to.

The balloon Races are here! I will be getting up at 4am tomorrow and leaving for the field to watch them all take off with the kids. That means I should get to bed earlier, ouch I have been staying up till 1am the last 2 nights cleaning and organizing. I received some of my brochures last night so I was folding some of those last night and packaged them up for shipping off to family today. I am ready for a nap right now:)

Garden Grapes

I went ahead and harvested all the grapes that we had left on the vine this morning. The birds got most of them, but when I realized our neighborhood Robin was making a regular feast of them, I was able to save some of them by putting a bird block net over them for a few weeks until they fully ripened. Great munchies for the kids! They love them.

I don't think I will be getting my collage finished today. It is a holiday and have plans all weekend, but might be able to get something done on Sunday or Monday. I added a border around it last night. It is a yellow with gold shimmery fibers running through. Then I added some brown vinyl around that. The vinyl is super soft and is a very high grade material. The main bag will be done in the brown with some accents of maybe buckles and some zippers. The inside will have lots of pockets and slots for organization.

More Progress

Here is another progress photo. I spent the morning doing watercolor and I am finally getting back to work on this lovely red bag. I am sewing the front pocket on at the moment. I am using a different silver clasp for the front and am almost done with this part. Next part will be making the big buckle and then choosing a liner and making the zipper pockets and also any extras I think might be good for inside.
Lastly I will sew it up and then add the handles. Can't wait to share the completed bag. I am curious to see if this bag will be as nice as the last one? I made a few alterations from the other bag, like this one is done in half fabric and half leather on the outside and just a bit taller but not much.
Something exciting happened today while I was watering. I got stung by a bee that was on one if the sunflowers I just brushed up against.. I know, exciting? But this has not happened to me in so long. It use to be a regular occurance as a small child. I was always getting stung. Another vivid thing I remember is stepping on my mom's rose branch clippings bare foot as I played on the lawn and it happened more than once. Ouch! Any ways I wanted to share with you my most favorite flowers in the garden. If I could only grow 3 flowers, it would be these.

Bright lights orange cosmos, teddy bear sunflowers, and then these mini sunflowers that are tall and have multi branches. All the sunflowers are going crazy right now and the cosmos are exploding. I love them so much, that this year I planted them all around the edge of the planter box so they are just spilling out the entire way around. I hope to get some better pics later as they continue to bloom and add them to my flickr account.

Swallowtail Butterfly

I found this huge Swallowtail in the garden today sipping from the Zinnia. It was really windy so it had a difficult time hanging on. I took a small video clip for fun that you can watch. It only takes a few seconds. You might want to turn your sound down because its windy and I am fiddling with the buttons.

I love sunflowers!! Aren't they pretty against the blue sky! Lots and lots of bees were out this morning as well. I don't think I have ever seen so many different varieties! Maybe I will get some good pictures in the morning. They seem to be more active then. I haven't seen any hummingbirds, although its hard to see these things when I am working so much inside.
I picked some chamomile flowers for tea, they smell wonderful!!
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The Focused Bees

I took these amazing photographs of a bee and bumblebee in my garden this morning. I just love how focused they are and how they know just what they need to do. They remind me a lot of myself:) how they just dive into their work completely. Its beautiful!!! I need the therapy of the garden in between my projects. It keeps me sane. The winter time is another story. I just love this time of year. Its like a big explosion of color in July!!!

The flowers are just equally beautiful. I guess you have to have the flowers to have the bees, right. I love to take close ups, that is what my itty bitty camera does best:) The pink flowers to the left are Godetia and I was lucky enough to see at least 3 of these bloom. They look like tissue paper flowers-so fragile. You never know when you plant seeds what will show up. Its always a surprise and I love the waiting and the suspense. The spider flower is one of my favorites with its long shoots coming out from each center. I will plant these every year from now on.

Creapy Critters

More work today, this time on my website. I couldn't figure out why in Dreamweaver I could not view my code and design, it's been like this for the longest time. Its hard for me to work on code, I am not much of a code person but I am learning a bit. I need visual as well so I decided to recreate my home page and also made a page to view all my sold items in one glance and even made them each link to etsy for pictures. This is acting as a mini portfolio for me because I think it is important that I can show my work without making it to complicated for the shopper and I think that this will be a tremendous help for my customers. I also went though and grabbed more recent etsy minis for my site as well and had to adjust some old pricing so my site reflects the current ones. After working on that all day I decided to go spend some time outside and while I was watering the garden, I found this beautiful scorpion 3 " just at my feet. I wear flip flops all day and this thing was fast and, whoa watch out!!. He scurried up the side of the planter box and I captured into a jar and took it onto the neighbors patio for some portraits:) He wasn't too happy, he had webs stuck all over him and he kept flicking its tail up in defense. Last summer my husband fell asleep on the floor in front of the tv and was awoken by a tickle on his arm. He brushed something off and turned on the lights and found a 1.5 inch scorpion on the floor..Oh thats too creepy,..We do live in Nevada and we ARE in the desert. I had a black widow handing from my bedroom ceiling once.. and a 4 inch centipede in my sons shoe right off the kitchen. No bug spray here. I don't do pesticides so I get to experience all the critters. Oh yes! About a week ago I saw a small fence lizard jump down and capture a black widow in its mouth and run off with it! Crazy! He is my best friend now. Natural insect control:) We even had a baby rattler in the back yard that my son discovered. Nice!!!! I miss many things about San Diego.

I have a new handbags to list tomorrow. Yay!!

Lime Green and Plaid Bag

I worked a little on the new plaid bag today and I am just about to add the sides. I decided on a lime green leather for the sides and I will be making some piping to run along the edges and probably finish up with a green leather handle.

I picked my first batch of sugar snaps this afternoon just in time for lunch. I think this was the most exciting part of my day besides the lightening and thunderstorm that rolled in for about 10 minutes and then vanished. There is nothing better than fresh beans from the garden. With the amount of blooms I might be picking them every other day. I could live off of them:) Well Almost.

Well back to work . I would like to get some more work done on the bag tonight.

Busy

Another hot afternoon. Staying cool inside and finishing up on the bag. Almost done. I mean it this time!!! I have been busy busy busy. I made a trip to my favorite fabric store and only went in for buckles and left with much more than I planned on buying. I need supplies and its good to stock up , but sometimes I get a little carried away:) Its all going towards specific projects, but still. With the price of travel right now, I am trying to avoid multiple trips. I have been having to drive about 3 hours per day for activities all week so I am trying to do a little better planning.

Its very smokey and hazy out today as you can see in the photos. Just got back from a trip to the garden and found some yummy sugar snaps. The chamomile smells nice and my strawberries are finally blooming. After 3 years, I decided to move them hoping they would do better in the new spot. And my favorite mini multi-branching sunflowers are finally needing to be staked so I am happy about that. The bugs are still eating everything but the good news is that I have seen a ton of ladybugs this year. Ok, back to work.

Hurry Up and Grow

The first bloom appeared on my sugar snap peas today and that means only one thing:) ....Peas will be arriving real soon. Everything is starting to take off and things in the garden are looking good. This has been the easiest thing to grow so far. I am having a problem right now with something eating my sunflower tops and making all my zinnia flowers leaves look skeletonized. What a waste! I am not too happy about this. That is the very reason I started growing and planting excessively. I don't use pesticides so not everything survives and to avoid too much disappointment I grow more than I need and it has been working out so far. Once the plants get a good size, the pests usually don't bother them anymore. Its this in between stage when everything is tender that they get chomped and I wish they would hurry up and grow!

Whats happening with my latest project? Well, I applied stitching around the bird and I am beginning to sew around each leaf now. It is progressing slowly but I am hoping to get much more done tonight.

Black Hollyhocks

I was out watering the garden this morning and I found my black hollyhocks are blooming and they are black! although they do have a slight burgandy color to them. I did plant some magenta hollyhocks as well so I am wondering if these are black or magenta?Its hard to tell. This bumblebee was sure enjoying something on them.

Heavenly Lavender

I realized that today was really the last day for harvesting lavender, since they are now beginning to bloom and so I spent over an hour cutting bundles to hang and dry. I like to make eye pillows with flax and lavender for gifts or just have the lavender around when I need some cheering up in the winter.
Here are some photos that I took today and a very cool spider just waiting to pounce on something.The smoke finally cleared up today so I was able to get outside and do a little exercise and gardening. I planted some more sunflower seeds so that I have them all season. I also moved about 30 zinnias to a different flower bed. I love color so much that I tend to overcrowd and try to get as much as I can into a small space. I plant lots of seeds, because I have critters that eat everything too!
Here is a photo of what my garden looks like now with the little sprouts coming up and a picture of what it looked like last year. . By mid summer it will be amazing! Great for pictures. I discovered that the hummingbirds like zinnias but I didn't get a chance to take any good photos so this year I am hoping to get some great shots. I love the Cleome (spider flowers) too - they are one of my favorites!!!

Woke up really too early this morning. I went out to the garden and took a few snapshots before heading out to Verdi. The sugar snap peas are climbing, my favorite things to grow! I just love how they wrap themselves around anything they can find. They are so yummy to eat fresh out of the garden. No blooms yet, maybe another couple weeks. I hope. The saddle bag I made was a big hit in Verdi this morning. And just as I was leaving I received a custom order to make another one. I am not looking forward to machine issues in sewing the thick leather but I cannot turn down a job like this. I love to do this type of thing. What a beautiful place! I miss southern California but I admit that there is nothing as beautiful as the sierras and the surrounding areas. Here is a photo that I took in Verdi a I was leaving this morning. You can see the haze of smoke in the distance from the fires in California. Today I hope to finish up the yellow and purple bag and get it posted in my shop, so off to work I go..

Relaxation

Isn't he the prettiest bunny! I took him out in the yard today and he just lounged. I did the same thing. It looked like a good idea, I have been working on the computer all morning and needed some fresh air. There is nothing like a little time in the garden and a change in scenery to help stimulate ideas and get motivated to work on something new.

Honeysuckle

I was working on the buckles of the bag and remembered that the honeysuckle is blooming and
that is the time the hawk moths come out and drink the nectar quickly darting everywhere. A couple of years ago we had so many moths that the bats were dodging down to catch them. That was an amazing sight! My camera is not the greatest for this kind of thing but I did manage to get a shot of one of them.