Natural Beauty

in the center of my cactus garden i have an antique wheelbarrow planted with "softer" stuff.
my favorite flower within this planter is the lobelia.

the intensity of that blue reminds me of deep tropical waters~!~

and this morning when i was taking these shots there was a tiny feather discovered in amongst the lobelia flowers. i 'm sure that the wind today has long since blown it away but for a few minutes it was moored softly here within these small bright blue flowers. a boat on a bright blue ocean.this afternoon i went into the back garden and by the pond grows a group of one of my favorite summer flowers; the rudebeckia.

i decided to lay on the ground under them to see what sorts of photos i could get from that angle. i rather liked a couple of them.

in these photos, the rudebeckia gets to play the starring role of "sunshine" in the summer sky.

this is a photo of the alyssum that flowers bright yellow in the early spring and unlike most varieties of allysum, comes back every year all on it's own. by this time of year it is going to seed and the ultra teeeny tiny seed pods are just empty vellum envelopes. they remind me of a much bigger plant that i think is called a money plant but i'm not positive. i don't have any money plants growing in my yard but i adore these miniature look a-likes.

i added some words to the postcard that i've been working on. i found them in an old magazine as part of an ad. for furniture polish. i swiped a bit of gesso over the top to give them some "age".

we had a surprise thunderstorm this afternoon which really helped to cool things off.
this is a Japanese eggplant. i grew these a couple of years ago and was delighted with them. last year i was unable to find any plants but had better luck this year. they are just starting to produce and this little eggplant is about an inch and a half long. it will be ready to pick and eat when it is between four and six inches long. these are a much thinner skinned variety and they taste sweeter than the larger black beauty type. my favorite way to cook them is to halve them and grill on the barbecue with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt.

my work on the postcard today was all about creating and dressing the faiery. i still have some words to add and whatever finishing touches i happen to dream up before i pronounce it "done". the paper napkins are quite fussy to work with but i just worked slowly and carefully and once glued i didn't mess with moving it about any more as that doesn't seem to work out very well . . .

you'll notice that rather than just cutting the very top layer of napkin as i did with the spoon on the last postcard, i cut both layers out and then i slightly skewed the under(lining) layer so that the skirt had a bit of a layered look to it. i was actually very happy with the effect of that.

while out in the garden this morning i noticed these tall stems of little tiny bell shaped flowers that were all drooped over due to the morning watering weighing them down. i know what this plant is but can't think of the name at the moment. i visually isolated this tiny pink flower and did an ultra close macro. i know that the focus is really too soft on this shot but i liked the way it looked anyway. it just seemed full of early morning goodness. this next shot was taken a bit further back so you can see more of the whole stem of flowers. love that water/flower bokeh in the background and the drops clinging to some of the flowers in this one~!~

this afternoon i made it into the rose garden and this opening bud was so pretty but did have some spots on it so i tried to frame it up so that they weren't so noticeable. i also did some in camera adjustments and liked what happened with the exposure and slight softening of color.

this one's for you Miss Tiffanny~!~

as far as collage work today i cut my newest watercolor paper background into 4" X 6" card bases.

and i discoverd that i could store them neatly in an old photo album that i had laying around. i'm fairly certain that i can't be the first person to discover the convenience of this organizational trick but i'm very pleased with the way it will work out. i have finished or almost finished cards in the front and backgrounds in the back. now if i could only find those missing backgrounds . . .

i also spent a while cutting out lettuce bits from my paper napkin and arranging them into the latest fairey fashion statement. no glue yet but a definate plan of action now.

a sneak peek

the symmetry of the sunflowers is totally mesmerizing~!~

today i added some light green watercolor pencil to my current background (collage) piece. i brushed it with a dryish brush and let it dry.

a detail

i also decided that it was time to begin work on the newest card for Sunday Postcard Art. the upcoming challenge is: Fashion.

now my idea of "fashion" is a worn, comfy pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt (maybe a button down blouse if i'm going out somewhere) so this one scared me at first . . .

then i decided that i better just DO something to get the ball rolling and so i used a rubber stamp pattern for a small spirit doll. stamped it onto the inside of a Yogi Tea box because i love the art printed there . . . and ended up with a small form that is delightfully tattooed all over her wonderful brown skin~!!~love that~!~ now i feel more like i'm just playing at paper dolls, and that i think i can do~!~

now as much as i love that lovely brown tatted skin look, i figure she's going to need some clothes . . .

so am considering this paper napkin printed with a variety of lettuces for possible clothing options . . . hmmmm . . . imagine running about in nothing but lettuce leaves~!~ i suppose it to be what a fairey would wear to make the summer heat more bearable~!~

so now, i'm thinking fairey fashion . . . and it's becoming more fun by the second~!!!~

i'll leave you with more garden symmetry. this time it's that thistle i have (covertly) growing between some other shrubs.

there are a couple of pond lily flowers floating on the pond today. the sun is so high and hot that it was tough to get a good shot but i was able to shadow this flower with my body by leaning waaaay over . . . one of these days, i'm going to end up head first in that pond and my only thought will be "oh no~!!!~my camera~!!"~lol

this is a portion of the base on one of my larger houseplants . . . watching me, watching you.

i decided to make another background piece. once again i have used a watercolor paper for the base. i glued an embossed paper napkin down to it. the napkin appears white in this photo but is actually a light cream color.

a detail of the glued down napkin.

then i got out a small paintbrush and 2 different colors of lumiere paints (a purple and a metallic gold) and just brushed some on in no particular way.

a couple of detail shots of the painted napkin.

that was it for today's collage adventure but i thought it turned out very pretty~!~and will make nice backgrounds for some postcards . . .

Sunday Postcard Art/vintage childrenjust a bit of blending around the spoon and another couple of swipes with the ink pad and voila~!~