:: in the garden ::

a sweet little spiral off our Asian cucumber plant
new radishes
We have made a lot of dynamite fresh pesto this summer from our huge basil patch .

and this goofball was walking around our yard, hoping to eat some of these goodies. I didn't know I got such a funny shot until I got it on the computer.

:: Coffee and the thrift store ::

some tiny espressos we had in France.
our local coffee/chai stop( one of the 5 buildings in the town) along our usual 4 mile walk . Yesterday when we were in there the waitresses were blasting and singing to David Bowie and running around swatting flies...quite a scene.

today we hit the coffee shop somewhere else and then the big thrift store, I love rummaging.

:: Mint Flower Mandala ::

My newest mandala painting. This one has layers of printed paper on the bottom and lots of curly q's and swirls. Recently listed in my shop , this is a 12"x12" acrylic painting on canvas.

ocean, sky ,and flowers

waves at Ho'okipa, Maui.
pretty clouds along the way...............
Nigella damascena

things to enjoy in the summer.

Mod Pods

my newest and tiniest paintings yet. Two little 4"x4" canvases that I painted seed pods in retro colors.

:: Summer ::

Some very perfume filled roses from the local botanical garden/nursery just down the street from our house. It is about a 5 minute walk down our little country road to an oasis of redwood trees, rhododendron forest, and flowers.
Ride at the Sonoma County Fair.

Today is the hottest we have had this season almost 100 degrees today. The county fair is going full on, but it's too hot to go today. Spent the day yesterday juggling with some new friends at a juggle gathering we were invited to. My husband brought along his guitar and played classical music for us while the rest of us juggled...Today is a lazy Sunday....I don't want to go outside until later this evening when it cools down.

:: R.I.P. ::

tea for two

Just finished this set of tea cups last week.....listed them this morning. They have been so nice to have in the studio ...cheery and bright. They are each 5"x7" , acrylic on stretched canvas.

......Raw format......

I just tried shooting in RAW format last night for the first time....I'm amazed at the quality. I just quickly messed with this one after I took it to see how the whole thing works and it was pretty amazing to be able to change the white balance AFTER the fact. It was really yellow and blown out to begin with.....so now I set my camera to RAW and I have 80 pictures available to take on my memory card instead of 350 or so....the raw files are huge. I'm so excited to have opened up this new way of photographing.....The lovely model is my husband who volunteered for the pic :)

feels like summer

The fields are all getting cut and baled ,once green fields and mustard blossoms now the summer is here and the world is turning golden.
the roses have been blooming for the last month or so and they are still going strong,we love to stop and smell the roses everywhere we go, so sometimes taking a walk, we are stopping so much to look at the flowers and smell them ,we forget we are out for the exercise.
and of course the red wing black birds, they are so entertaining to just listen to , hard to believe they are not some kind of aliens listening to their songs...

:: cards ::

New to my photography shop is Cards and Postcards, I just listed some. I have singles , sets and make your own set too. Still have a lot more to list .
I also just ordered some postcards to be made of my photography and they turned out wonderfully ! this set already sold.....but more to come.

:: Orange and Green Flower ::

This is my latest painting , it came about from a drawing I did that I then traced and pasted onto the canvas. One thing I figured out is when doing collage on a canvas it makes it so much stronger , the surface gets all pulled tight like a drum, it makes it a lot funner to paint on because it doesn't give at all , just a smooth surface.

yet another beach !

O.k another beach photo , we went out and got blasted by wind again. The Sonoma Coast is rugged and beautiful. I've been busy with the new garden....and being outside . It probably won't rain here for another 5 months so I'll have to force myself to make art on these bright and beautiful days.

-- Jewelry in progress --

Some copper jewelry in progress before it goes into the liver of sulfur.....

○ -- Flowers at the beach -- ○

A couple days ago we went out to the shore , it was a beautiful overcast no wind kind of a day, perfect for roaming around and exploring. All the flowers along the shore are in bloom and the diffused lighting made them glow.

Way down at the end of the beach were all these seals. Having to zoom in from a distance, They didn't seem bothered by us just very curious, lifting their heads often to look at us with their big black eyes. They had a lot of pups who were squirming around and going in the water. At a quick glance they just look like driftwood on the beach , resting along the Russian river that comes out into the Pacific just another few hundred feet down the shore.

SPRING SALE--20% off all Jewelry

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My Aqua and Red necklace was featured in 'LuvHandmade' yesterday. I've never even heard of this website before , but they do a beautiful job of promoting handmade art .

a new quilt.......?

Vernaza Italy
An old sewing machine at a junk store.
some lace and fabric at an antique mall.

I'm really thinking I would like to make a new quilt for the bedroom. The last one I made was about 5 years ago and it's had a lot of wear. It's really more of a winter project but , I am also feeling the newness of spring and ready for some more fresh energy. I've made 3 full sized quilts, sold 2 of them, luckily or they would be taking up room in the closet...The thing is, what to do with the old one....

:: Spring in Pink ::

a sketch I did of a quince branch in early spring.
one of my newer collages ' hanging the sheet' I had a lot of fun with this one painting digitally to spruce up her outfit.

Some wonderful Eucalyptus flowers that are growing here in town, The branches on this variety hang down low , like a weeping willow sort of, so I could get close enough to get some flowers, but the big trees have these awesome white/cream colored flowers that are too high to reach or photograph. I keep looking on the ground though.

....Original paintings....

I've finally got my Original Paintings section filled out a bit..... I have some really big one's too not listed yet...mostly wondering about the whole shipping thing for such large canvases. Once I look into that I can list the rest. It feels so great to list originals, I would love to be spending my time making those more.

:: Sketches 2 ::

This some banana leaves, from giant banana plant (herbs they call them officially) I sketched while on Maui at my friend Megan's house.
These are Ti leaves I sketched while in Bali , just off our deck were these lovely Ti plants. you can see the writing on the back side of the paper as this was taken from my journal. :)
Papaya tree on Maui, on the land I was staying on.

all these are field sketches , done outside looking at the plant, my favorite of all ways to draw.