New Leather Bags

I finished this new bag recently. I am very proud of this new style and design. I am currently working on another one in red, black and gray. Hope that it will come out as nice as this one did. I have multiple colors lined up in the same style. Will also be working on more small zipper coin purses with the same design elements.

Saw this cool butterfly this morning on my honeysuckle vines so I just had to get it's photograph. So gorgeous! Its fun to see these guys dancing in air together. Saw 3 of them all together on the patio the other day.

Back to work. I've got lots of sewing to do!

Nice Weekend

The weekend went by quickly, but was it was so nice to take a day off and spend some time with family and visit some relatives I haven't seen in awhile. This praying Mantis was fun to take pictures of. They are so animated and not something I see very often. I would love to have these guys in my garden. I tried for a long time to get some pictures of the hummingbirds zipping around but they weren't very photogenic. We also had the chance to see some deer as we left on the driveway out. Time to get back to work. I am anxious to get this bag finished so I can get busy on other merchandise for my shop. I am planning on finishing up today so that when tomorrow hits, I am back into the normal flow of things. The weather seems to have cooled way down. It really feels like fall is here!! It's a nice change.

Garden Photography

I didn't have the right camera with me for this but I caught a quick picture of a hummingbird that was zipping around the garden this morning. I am going to keep trying for a good shot. This bee in the sunflower came out great. He is loaded with pollen!

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!!

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.