TAST week 16 ~ french knot

the daffodils are officially announcing our spring by beginning to bud and flower . . .

this week it's the french knot on TAST.
i generally avoid the french knot as in the past i have found it difficult to control. so this practice was really good for me. and thanks to a few tips that i found i actually did relatively okay with it.

what would spring be without a bumblebee~!?
:-D
i've changed things up a bit and have used the stitch on a postcard rather than a christmas stocking this time. the card needs to be in the mail asap and i liked the idea of dimensionalizing (is that a word?) the bumble bee that was printed on the fabric with some of those french knots. in fact, i wonder if this counts as stump work . . . will have to look into that.
i'll get back to the stockings next week.

within the comments section of the week 16 post on Pin Tangle there are some delightful samples of this stitch in use. 

there are some lovely flowers using the french knot: grape hyacinths and these look like hollyhocks, or foxgloves or maybe even gladiolas . . .

tiny spring peeps are adorable using this stitch.

and there's even a clever stitcher who created some oxygen with this one~!

and last but not least, its all about beautiful textures on this blog~WOW~!!~

please take a second and check these sites out. you'll be delighted by what you see.

recent gifts include:

• rain coaxing the grass into green
• wind keeping things minimally muddy
• snow keeping away (~!!!~)

busy as a bee . . .

these shots really must be clicked on and seen large to be fully appreciated. i hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed taking them.
today's gifts included:

• watching the bees and other pollinators within the mint blossoms
• productive 'nesty' feelings
• a cool evening on the back deck with my family

"Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present."

Henry David Thoreau



i've been allowing myself to take life a little slower or perhaps i should say i've been allowing myself to ENJOY taking life a little slower. the end of summer can be a sad time for me . . . i hate to see it all end so soon and i know that a loooong winter is almost upon us . . . the whole thing kind of throws me into a temporary funk.



since moving to a tropical climate is not currently one of my choices i've been doing a lot of reading (rather than a lot of blogging). some of the books i've read are pure pleasure. just a good story to immerse myself in as i feel the sunshine on my skin and breathe the warm garden scented air as the summer season fades into fall.



some of my reading choices have been more about spiritual growth and a desperate attempt to drive back the ugliness of a recently mounting depression. in addition to this reading i've been practicing becoming more mindful of the moment through reflection and meditation.

i'm happy to say that it has been quite effective.

i am getting back into the rhythms of living in the "right here ~ right now". as has happened before, once i get back into the simplicity of that lifestyle i feel great peace and happiness. it's amazing to me that it's both so easy and so hard to keep oneself in the present moment; that i've been here before and with similar results and yet somehow the busyness of life can and will insert itself into the equation if i'm not constantly diligent about the practice . . .



so this is where i've been and what i've been up to. my internet time has been cut down drastically and i do miss it but MUST moderate it in order to find a better sense of balance within my life. so if you notice that i'm visiting a little less often this is why. hopefully you'll bear with me as i work to find this balance. there is a part of me that wants to apologize for this but in truth i am not sorry nor do i really have anything to be sorry for. i began my blog as a way to record thoughts and creativity primarily and a way to interact with others of like mind secondarily. i'm happy with that and hope you are too.



this all relates nicely to the joy i feel while i have my photographer's hat on as well. when i am behind the lens of my camera i am absorbed by what is happening in the here and now. my attention is completely within the moment and discovering what it has to reveal to me. i love being able to capture that moment and share it with the viewer. there may be future posts that have only photos and no words . . . or fewer words . . . don't be alarmed or worried if this happens; it's just me enjoying my moments and sharing them with you in hopes that you too might get some pleasure from them.

i went for a tour around the garden this a.m. and found much abundance and beauty that i want to share with you.

drama queen: given to excessive performance

the artichoke plants have become my garden's drama queens during this late summer /early fall season. they now have a cold frame/green house around them so that i can watch them carry out their powerful performances. i'm quite happy that i allowed them to go into blossom and so are the bees . . .

these flowers have a very intense fragrance and have drawn a constant stream of Bumbles into the enclosure. i noticed that they flew in on a much straighter course than they flew out . . . as if they had become completely intoxicated. some of them even bumping into the walls and needing a temporary rest on the ground.

the trumpet vine grows in a part of the garden that has it's own warmer micro climate and has not yet been damaged by the frost. i've discovered quite a few little nooks like this tucked away here and there within the garden . . . delightful surprises of summer remembered.

i have also found some time to be creative with my needle and this is a fabric postcard made using a needle worked corner of an antique handkerchief. the (HAND) stitching is uber tiny and one practically needs a magnifying glass to appreciate it fully. i don't know who did the work as i came by it via a bulk buy of vintage linens. i didn't even get the piece in it's entirety but was able to salvage what was left nicely.
the background (green) fabric is one of my own hand dyed bits.

this card is a birthday card for a special someone.

i have also experimented with a new format; the ATC (artist trading card).

these typically measure two and a half inches by three and a half inches and are made using a wide variety of mediums. they are made as original artworks and traded one for one with other artists. traditionally they were only traded in person at large "meets" but currently many are traded in other ways using the internet as a tool to reach out further than one might be able to travel physically.

i'm still learning about them but found this one fun to do and the size/format challenging in new ways. i've already traded it and my card is in the mail all the way from the Norwegian West Coast.

Ati from www.malinaplass.blogspot.com was brave enough to trade with this first timer and is sending me one of her amazing ATC's in return. it's gorgeous and i'll be sure to post all about it when it arrives.

the bumblebees seem to be slowing down some on the fruit trees. i think it might be because we've been getting afternoon thunderstorms and micro burst winds. but i did manage to shoot this monster before he flew off.

this is the smallest fruit tree in the yard . . . some kind of dwarf apple, i think. the buds are just beginning to open so it's a bit behind all of the others. i thought this was a beautiful shade of pink~!~

found some toadstools in the grass and decided they were good for the textures file. this one looks a bit illuminated . . . helloooooo, is anybody in there?

the inside of one of the toadstools . . .

this shot was taken from the outside of one of my windows. you can see the curtains on the other side of the glass and some reflections from the yard . . . i love the way this looks~!!~another great texture~!~

this is a macro of one of the seed pods left from last year's cactus blooms. if you look really close you can see the top is a bit open on the left hand side of the shot and there are some seeds in there.

more cactus seed pod . . . these puppies are wicked~!!~

one of the fruit trees in the back. this one is extremely fragrant. we have two of these trees and you can smell them from just about anywhere in the yard~!~it's interesting though that they only seem to attract the smaller pollinators . . .

In the Garden with the Bees

Most of my tulips have finished their bloom cycle but the parrot tulips always come just a bit behind all of the rest . . .

this is my texture study for today. it is a shot of some stone that we have in the cactus bed.

when i seen this petal, my first thoughts were "oh NO~!!~the beginning of the end~!~already~!!~i spent weeks worrying about the buds getting ruined by the frosts then roughly another week watching them open and it has only been a few short days that i have been admiring them, smelling them, watching the bees and other pollinators discover and work them, smiling, smiling, smiling in joy just to see them~!!~ and then this~!!~it will be over before i know it and there will be lovely drifts of white petals under the tree ready to be blown in the wind . . . the only consolation being that this year there will be lots of those little cherries for the birds to eat in the fall and winter . . . sigh.

we have a cactus bed. it is filled with a native cactus and they are beginning to form their buds for bloom . . . see those pointy little spikes~!?!~ but the flowers are beautiful for a short time in the early summer. i have both pink and yellow colored blooms and i think this is one of the pink ones . . .

despite having my head stuck in the tree all day trying to get decent shots of the bumblebees, i was unable to really get any that i was happy with. this honeybee allowed me to shoot her for a time as she went about her business and this shot totally cracked me up because as deep as my head is in that tree hers is in this single blossom~!~i have to actually stand on something to be able to achieve my vantage and i'm absolutely positive that we are getting an extra amount of street traffic as people drive by and try to figure out just what the @#*% i'm doing there for hours on end . . . i hope they are getting a chuckle out of the whole mystery . . . just happy to be making their day a smile or two better than it was before . . . i live in a very small town~!~who knows what the rumors will be~!!~

here she is with her head out of the flower.

just some more blossom gorgeousity~!!!!~

this shot is really terrible but i included it for size reference. that bumblebee is the average size of the ladies visiting this tree. some are actually bigger and some a bit smaller. amazing~!~they often cover the whole blossom when they are pollinating.

this was yet another bad shot of the bee but i loved the detail of her pollen clad hips(?). she and her sister bees have been VERY busy today~!!~i wish that i got such approval for my oversized hips~!!~

i finished that little hand sewn quilt that i was working on. i had a lot of time on the road to get the quilting done and once i got home i bound it and labeled it. i worked on it as a "comfort" project while we got my daughter moved back home and ready to take off for Honduras at the end of June. it really was comforting and i've now given it to my daughter as something to take with her. the label says "home is where the heart is" among other details/things . . .

a detail of the little hand sewn quilt.

once again, i apologize for not doing a lot of visiting of other's blogs these last few days. it has been a very busy time. the good news is that i am feeling okay despite the extra pressures and duties and i really am very grateful for that. i hope to be getting back to a routine of visiting by the begining of next week. hang in there~i will get back to you all~!!~

my Easter wish for all of my readers is that your day has been as full of beauty, surprises and smiles as mine has~!!~ all of these images should enlarge when you click on them and on some it really is worth doing~!!~

it is a frequent occurance where i live for there to be very bad weather on Easter. jokes are commonly made about a traditional Easter blizzard. however this day has been absolutely glorious~!!~ other than a strong intermittant breeze it's an awesomely SPRING day~!~ and low and behold i have discovered our first bumblebee of the year. if you look closely, you will see her hiding there under the Crocus . . . see that bit of bokeh down there? that is her wings.

in this next photo you can see her a little bit better . . .

she wandered about a bit and took a few naps and did quite a lot of cleaning of herself. i watched her for quite a while. mostly she just seemed to want to doze in the sun and i discovered that if i shadowed her (when attempting to get a better photo) she would get busy and crawl back into the sun. it became a way for me to sort of control her movements somewhat. i think she has just woken up from a long Winter nap and isn't quite up to speed yet . . .

peek-a-boo.

isn't she beautiful~!?!~ eventually she did decide to buzz on to some other location . . . i felt honored that she allowed me to take as many portraits as she did and wished her well.