Lulu's Christmas Corsage

I should be wrapping packages, or putting up the fake tree, but I didn't feel like it today. I was thinking about my mother and how she always wore a Christmas corsage. She was good at arranging greens and table decorations, maybe she created the corsages herself. They were usually made with holly leaves, red berries, maybe some evergreen twig, and little white bells that looked like sugared Easter eggs. I wish I could find those bells today! Lulu always looked cheerful and upbeat during the holidays.

So instead of doing something practical today, I made a Christmas corsage! Not quite like the ones Lulu wore, which I wish I could reproduce, but it was fun to be in my studio and I like the whimsical finished product. Did I go to far? There is a lot of stuff in it -- pine cones and seed pods, tiny bells, leaves and a vintage red blossom, paper rose, stamens, feathers, even cats whiskers! (I knew I was saving them for something.)

To make the little bird I glued birch bark to card stock, and when it was dry I used my "Martha" craft punch to stamp out the bird.

I really like the cats whiskers.

Morning Glories by Studio Door

I planted morning glories in two large planters on each side of my studio doors. They climbed up the strings and down, over the doors, and up and down the opposite side. There was much foliage, but no blossoms! It was so hot and dry this summer, they baked in the afternoon sun. I watered them like crazy. Then this fall, after most of the foliage was gone, the morning glories started to bloom, and there was no stopping them! They bloomed until I pulled them out two weeks ago to string Christmas lights around the studio doors.

Some of the blooms drooped down in front of the door. Here is Charlie wearing a live morning glory blossom behind his ear.

Fooling around with Photoshop Elements

When we were home in September we went up to the farm to visit John and Linda. Wow, their gardens are so beautiful, flower and vegetable! The next day we met them on Mt. Greylock (?) and Linda had picked a bunch of beautiful raspberries for us. I remember going up to the farm 40 years ago to pick berries in Mary's big, productive berry patch. Mmmm.

In Linda's garden I took a photograph of these phlox with part of an old machine sitting on a rock. It was a nice juxtaposition. When I came home I had HUGE problems with my old computer, and eventually decided to get a new one. Now I have to learn all new programs and software. It isn't easy. Since this photo didn't turn out so hot, I thought I would fool around with it in PSE. Wow, you can do a lot of fun things with a photo in this program.

Various "effects" I tried were: watercolor, sprayed strokes, Pointilist, mezotint, and grainy- speckled. I think I like watercolor (first one) and grainy-speckled (last one).

Autumn Arrangement

It isn't really much of an arrangment. Charlie brings home the flowers and I just kind of plop them in an appropriate size vase.

Charlie likes going to the Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings and buys delicious local produce, preserves and baked goods in season. Sometimes he brings flowers home for me too! This bouquet, picked in October, had several stemmed okra pods in it! That I had never seen in a bouquet, but they looked very pretty. And it sure beats eating the stuff!