Flora and Fauna

This post could also be titled "my field guide to wildflowers" as I love this time of the year when all of the first wildflowers start to appear. I'd love to sketch them all and put together my own little field guide to flowers of the North Shore along with my own footnotes about when and where they like to grow and other measurable facts based on my observations. Someday maybe. For now, this post will have to suffice.
{unidentified flower - do you know? - grows near my little garden in the woods}

.....

I have a few different wildflower books for identification purposes. Mum gave me this new one (below) for my birthday this year that I just love... I love the illustrations and the quirky information about the flowers. For instance, how certain native american indian tribes would use the flowers for remedies, in courtship rituals, to help with labor pains, to brew for tea, etc. etc...very interesting! There is also a mushroom book by these same folks that I'd love to have too!

I took heaps of photos over the long holiday weekend of flowers and plants. Perhaps in preparation for my wildflower guide? I just can't seem to help myself.
Above is "Spring Beauty"...a small little flower that grows low to the ground and sprawls all around the wooded parts of our property. Isn't it a pretty name?
Also last weekend, we took a lovely hike through the forest in search of flowers and morel mushrooms. No such luck on the mushrooms but I did notice many more beautiful wildflowers...Nodding Trillium, Wild Columbine, Starflower, Sessile Bellwort (a new flower to me)...and these pretty pink and yellow Tall Corydalis (below). And lots of Marsh Marigolds everywhere along the little streams we'd cross over...a plant that is also growing all over the wetter parts of our own property. I love how it sprinkles the ground with bright spots of yellow. The hike could have only been better if we'd found some morels. We once had a taste of fresh morel mushrooms a few years back when Hub amazingly found 2 of them while we were out on a walk when we lived down in the Cities. You would have thought we'd struck gold when we found them. And they were quite possibly the best thing I've ever eaten. So the elusive hunt goes on.
But we did have a feast for the eyes with gorgeous green ferns sprouting up everywhere during the more wooded parts of our hike.
Oh, and remember this sweet old flower book my mum gave to me last Spring? Well, she recently found a golden guide bird book for me too. She has her own little collection of these books going but whenever she spots one of them, she'll buy it for me so I can start my own collection. How sweet and thoughtful. And just look how neat the back cover alone is too?

And finally, the landscaping project is finished! We're having my folks up this coming weekend to see it...so I'm reserving any photos until they come up because I want them to see it in person first, for the whole "wow" factor thing. I know, I'm slightly nutty. But I'll leave you with this tiny little glimpse of part of it for now. You see, that's the big rock that Hub was finally able to dig up...it looks kinda smallish in this photo but it was so heavy we both had to roll it up the yard and into position. Ahh, so glad that's done.

~More Soon Friends!~

Vintage Hankies & The Seaside...

I found these vintage hankies the other day (same day as the buttons). I bought them because I liked the designs...especially the blue & orange mushroom one...of course, right?...and also because they were dirt cheap. I noticed they had names on them like Faith Austin, Tammis Keefe, and Monique. After a bit of googling last night, I found out a little more about the names...the designers of the hankies and saw some for sale on various sites like ebay. I saw a couple similar to mine. Perhaps some are valuable? I don't know anything about vintage hankies and I have no idea for sure if any of these really are of value, but apparently some people do collect vintage hankies. I just thought they'd be nice to tie up little gifts in...such as pretty soaps or jars of jam...or use as linens on a tray for tea or on a bedside table. Do you have any creative ideas for these pretty squares?
{Seaside ~ 3 x 3.25" ~ glass votive + papercutting}

Also, as noted in a previous post about seagulls...here's where they landed themselves...on a custom order votive. It looks really very neat at night when it is lit, giving a gentle glow, and the paper cutting designs become silhouettes. I'm working on some new things for the shop too, including new votives!That's about all for now. This weekend we'll be finishing up our landscaping project. I so can't wait to be done with it. We're so so close! And its looking quite lovely if I do say so myself. Hub and I just want to stare at it all the time...in amazement. Various people have said to us (in a tone of disbelief) “you guys are doing all of this yourselves?” And we just nod our very dirty, very tired heads yes. Perhaps we’re a little too young and naïve to have realized just how much work this was going to be. But all our sweat and back-breaking work is paying off...and we're both getting some big muscles in the process! ;)
After we finish, we'll be squeezing in some time for relaxation and fun...perhaps a hike or a bikeride along the North Shore. The weekend is before us...we'll see what it holds! I love a fresh weekend. A clean slate before me. Don't you?
Happy Memorial Day weekend to you!
~xoxo~

Blustery Day Buttons...

Today was a balmy 40 degrees or so. I heard that it was about 90+ degrees in the Cities (my old home)...just 2 hours south of here. How? How can that be possible? I said to Hub, we could hop in the car right now and drive down to the Cities and it would be like taking a mini-vacation to someplace tropical. Amazing really.

But actually, I also told Hub that I didn't mind wearing a sweater and puffy vest out today while running errands. So I think maybe I'm a true Scandinavian-blooded girl at heart who doesn't mind cold and quite possibly prefers it (most of the time) to hot, humid, muggy days. And come to think of it, I did tie my hair back in braids this morning knowing how windy and blustery it was going to be while out and about. Is that another sign of the Swede in me? While out and about, I happened upon this big old bag of buttons for 49 cents. I couldn't pass them up. I loved sorting through them and looking for the pretty and interesting ones like little treasures. Not just your basic pearly white buttons. I sorted them by color.And I sorted them by ones I liked best.

And I washed them up in warm, soapy water so they wouldn't smell and would be nice and shiny. Is that odd? Tonight I've been looking through them in the fading evening light. Imagining ways in which I will use them.
And noting that they did get shinier, cleaner.

Although I happened to drop one of them somewhere in my open dishwasher...one of those darn pearly white ones that just blends in and I can't find it. Hub just rolled his eyes when I told him my little dilemma. Just par for the course...

A Little Garden in the Woods...

Next to Lilies-of-the-Valley, Grape Hyacinths are one of the sweetest flowers, I think. And they smell heavenly too if you can get down close enough to the ground to smell them. In the past I've only admired them in others' gardens, but this year I bought some to plant in my own little garden in the woods.
Tucked among them are these cute, mini garden gnomes.
While landscaping last weekend, Hub and I would come and stretch out on the grass that slopes down to my little garden and gaze upon this pretty plot of colorful space when we needed a bit of a break.
This one is a wee bit lazy (and blurry!). But I'll be putting him to work soon enough as I have plans to expand my little garden in the woods.
Recently, Hub found this big mossy rock poking out of the ground near my garden and he determined it might be a good rock to dig up and utilize in our landscaping. There are rocks all over our property as the ground here is so very…rocky? I like to ponder how all the rocks that are or ever will be in existence are here today and no more can ever be made. Well, except for fake rocks, right. Or unless God decided to create more I suppose. I ponder odd things along these lines sometimes. Like how no one, that I’m aware of, can propagate morel mushrooms. They just have to be found out in the wild. As with truffles too. I don’t think anyone can grow truffles either, otherwise they wouldn't be so precious and costly. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but although humans can do a lot of amazing things, there are just some things in nature that exist that cannot be recreated by humans. But back to the big rock... He was going at it with such determination and the rock wasn't budging. And you know guys and a challenge... I looked over at him when I suddenly heard no more battle sounds and well...the rock won. It did not want to be moved. We have since bought more shovels (requisite for landscaping project) and I’m pretty certain Hub will have another go at it very soon.
On a sad wildflower note, this sweet Dutchman Breeches plant, my special little discovery that I was waiting and watching for, was just about to bloom. I took some photos of it in anticipation of its blooming, which I was certain would happen in the next day or two. And the next day I went to check on it, it was almost entirely eaten except for a few sad little flower buds strewn about and roots savagely plucked from its home in the ground. Oh was I mad. Mad at the beast that would so carelessly eat a precious, defenseless wildflower. Was it a deer? Or a rabbit? Or some other careless critter? I’m still a bit miffed about this so they better stay out of our yard for a while. And just to be safe I sprayed my other flowers and plants too.
This was a photo I'd taken of it last year, when we first discovered it growing in our woods. I was so smitten and happy to find it. It was a flower I'd only seen previously in the pages of our wildflower books and had always thought it would be so fun to see one in person. So imagine my delight to find one growing on our property! I guess I'll have to wait for next year, with my deer-off spray in hand.

And on a final garden gnome note...thank you to my favorite Chatty Clan for your kind, thoughtful birthday gift. He is just too cute. For now he's keeping watch at the door but rest assured he will very soon make his way into my little garden in the woods. :)

Seagulls & Sketching

Goodness. I feel like I need a weekend from this past weekend. So exhausting. In a word, landscaping. For now, all I will say (or have the energy to say) is that seagulls arrived and were flying all about the neighborhood.

While sitting in the parking lot at Menards (for the 5th time last week) waiting for Hub to stick more stuff in the trunk, seagulls were hovering, one landing on top of a truck's tailgate. Never having paid such close attention to them before, I was now studying their flight movements, various wing positions, and posture when sitting or standing still. I grabbed scraps of paper when possible and randomly sketched geometric-like shapes of them for a new little project I'm working on. It just so happened to be a nice coincidence that they should appear at this time for me to attempt to accurately model my designs after the actual living, moving birds.

Seeing all these seagulls reminds me just how close we live to a big body of water. After all this landscaping and house stuff is done, I'm looking forward to being able to slow down a bit and enjoy this beautiful place we live...the trails, the paths, the lakeside. Because this is the best time of year to live here.

and it even swivels...

I finally found the stool to accompany my drawing table. It has been a long time of waiting to find the perfect one, but as I’ve said before…I never rush these decorating things. So be it if we have to have a perfectly good drawing table sitting idle for months on end with no stool soulmate. I just don't like to rush things like this. Because furniture and such is something you have to live with for a while. And so I want to really, really love it. So I wait patiently for the right one to come along. Now at last it has and I do so love it.

I came upon it a couple weeks ago and knew immediately that this would be the perfect stool for our drawing table. I didn’t even think to measure the height. Hub and I went back soon after so he could see it too. Right away he said, “Yep, let’s get it. I like it.” So we brought it home and pulled it up to our table and guess what? It was the just the right height…no adjustments needed to the table or stool. Just like it was meant to be. Of course it needed some new fabric on the seat which is another whole silly story in and of itself…our first re-upholstering project the other night. It's certainly not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good for us first-timers.

So back to the swivel…this was an added bonus. I love chairs that swivel. I guess it reminds me of long ago times playing in my Grandpa Sig’s basement “office”, typing away on his typewriter and taking turns twirling each other around in his big, old wooden chair on wheels. And my favorite ride at Disney this year just so happened to be the Mad Tea Party ride, where you spin round and round in an oversized teacup while the entire platform of teacups is spinning as well. So it seems quite fitting that I would chance upon this lovely, swivel-y stool with its hint of Parisian-like style and vintage flair. A stool that has been receiving a whole lot of swivel-love from me already. And much more to come I'm certain.

Mums & Blooms

Plum tree buds, begonias, African violets, bloodroot…it seems the weekend was in bloom with things both wild and cultivated. The juxtaposition of things both old and new. Creating cards with elements of vintage cards (the sweet lady faces, old rick rack) combined with new elements (like pretty papers and paper flowers). Honoring mothers and new life.

We celebrated Mother’s Day a weekend early this year, due to circumstances. So Hub and I packed up again and headed to the Cities. We celebrated birthdays with family and welcomed new life too…both in the garden and in the sweetest, newborn niece. She was the most precious bloom of all.

Sunday afternoon we were home again and began working on our landscaping project, which I think will be quite the undertaking for Hub and I...having never done something as large-scale as this before. We plotted and measured and vaguely recalled old geometry formulas to determine areas and whatnot. We made 2 trips to Menards. Ordered bricks and rock and dirt...which are coming today. We're excited to get started. We're hoping this works out as planned. Wish us luck!

Calling All Birdies

...a new home for rent...

...cozy interior, solidly built (by hub), & even has a one-shingle roof...
...great location near pretty pussy willow trees......see how pretty they are as they start to open?...

See?