A Re-Cap

This week we've been doused in rain. Sideways rain, torrential down pours, hail, soaking-freezing rain.....none to which I am in any favor of. I've also been pretty busy lately- my artwork and blog have taken a seat on the back burners as well. The gardens have been weeded, plants have been transplanted, seeds have been sewn in. I've also been immersed into a never ending sea of laundry {what the heck?} and so finally it feels like I have some time to do the things that this girl likes to do: be creative in a treasure trove number of ways. What better way to encapsulate our time than with a photo montage :)


 I was so excite to find Jacks growing in the woods I've never seen them in real life besides in flower catalogs.
I think they're wonderfully weird.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

A canopy of  Umbrella Plants

Soak in that Sunshine!

 Trip to Kemenyffy's

 

 I love coming here. I. LOVE. It.

A small portion of our very large family

I ♥ you too!

 

 

.... Back for a picnic & some kite flying.

{Those power lines only LOOK close by. lol}

Sophie Graduates Pre-School

They were all so cute singing for their families.

{Home}

 I was so encompassed in the site of these tulip flowers I had to capture their beauty. A tripod would have helped, hehe. I couldn't believe how many came up this year! This photo was taken last Thursday, and they're pretty much spent right now. So I'm glad I snapped this picture when I did.


Through out all our rain the girls have taken a liking in watching Alice in Wonderland, both the classic Walt Disney version and the Tim Burton Disney version. And I have to admit that through their love of the story, I have Alice on the brain. I was so disappointed with the Tim Burton Alice that it made me mad about even purchasing the movie. The more I see it, it slowly becomes ok....but if I had the talent and know how he has, well, that movie would have been AWESOME! I've begun to read the book again so I can accentuate my own interpretations of this dear, favored story.

I hope you've enjoyed my photos! I'll try not to stay away too long this time!

♥

The Secret Garden

Monday's thunderstorm was a small and welcomed surprise. The temperature turned warm with the oncoming storm, rain danced in fat drops on the little heads of Snowbells growing in my garden. It was in fact a pleasant day, the girls read quietly with their new stack of library books while I worked on some projects. When it came time to take a break, Sophie asked if I could read a 'BIG book' to her. We went to the over-stuffed bookcase to choose, immediately my eyes fell the the pale green children's classic  

The Secret Garden. Oh such love ♥ As a child I ADORED this book. 

I was even more stoked to see Design*Sponge featured the 1993 movie as their title for Living In .   

When I think back to my childhood, roaming free in Kemenyffy's gardens I was the epitome of Mary Lennox. In the strangest way, she is a total part of who I am today. A character so loved and cherished that she has been instilled on my being since the time I was 8. So many distant memories come flooding back. It's from the movie (which I can safely say is one of  my top 5 favorites of all time) that I've become fond of skeleton keys (I have a collection of about 20 or so), my love for rainy/foggy Spring days, my obsession with plants and seeds and secrets of the outdoor world.

I can only hope that one day my girls will find the love like I did for this lovely book while I read it aloud they are playing and conversing amongst themselves, almost too young to understand it all, but I read on anyway. The re-introduction of it all seems to be mostly for me, a passageway from past to present.

♥

Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire...

I have some serious issues in keeping up in the blogosphere world. *Oops* It's been a little over two weeks since my last post. ....Not that I'm letting an army of people down or anything...haha. I've been finishing up art projects, working on home reno projects, being a mommy, and geez...whatever else I can seem to cram in.

I was thinking about my last post featuring my nemesis: Winter. It's almost over, I know- my Martha Stewart  March issue came just the other day (& I love my Martha). The planting and growing season is just over the horizon but I still have a tiny, uncreated Old Man Winter sitting upon my shoulder (remember I said I would have a go at my own rendition?). Even after all the Springy type things I've been working on He's still weighing on my mind.

As a child, I always knew I would be a life long artist. I grew up with some wonderfully creative people (mom, aunts, cousins, sister), including a couple that neighbored my Grandparents house; The Kemenyffy's. They clearly have had an out standing influence on my own personal artistic abilities. Susan and Steven, are a husband/wife artist team that create clay pieces using the Japanese Raku firing process. Beside their amazing work, they also live on the most spectacular piece of property. A true to life Secret Garden. They are the most phenomenal, eccentric, warm, generous people one could ever meet. The numerous gardens strewn through out the (quite literally) 50 acre wood- was where I spent day in, day out all of my childhood days. I took these photo's from Susan's site....I'll have to rummage through the trove of pics I have of my own and post them up. :) (p.s. you can expect these pics to be posted in 2-3 years!).

In the Secret Garden

Pathways and Pondways

It is here, my thoughts drifted to while taking out the trash last night. Our neighbor boy had created a snowman in the previous days when the snow was ripe for the making of men. It had toppled over in the recent "heat wave" leaving its body disassembled. The lower base, in the darkness and reflection of the porch light created an uncanny likeness parallel to the giant heads emerging from Raku Place gardens. Though, opposing an 'old man' virtue, the head looked like that of a young skateboarder type man, or Michaelangelo's David's head. I stood there studying the features enough for me to go inside and sketch from memory.

Giant Heads of Raku Place

I fantasized myself  actually creating this piece out of clay to place in my own garden (I have no familiarity in clay/ceramics at all...you know, beside grade school). The 'torso' of the snow man looked like it could be the young man's wife. The actual snowman head looked like their child. It was an 'Old Man Winter FAMILY'!! All three poking out of the snow from the shoulders up, like they were melting into the earth. Their rein was through and it was time to surrender to the warmth and  green of Spring.

The quickest of sketches a sketch could ever be sketched. :)

I went to take photos this morning of this phenomenal site. But all the 'heads' had rolled off the 'shoulders'. :( So I just have to go by what I sketched in my book last night.

Beside, getting caught up into that whole ordeal. I created a treasury this morning for the Undiscovered Weekly Challenge. Glazed some of my paintings and birdhouses to prep them for the shop. Picked up the neighbor girl off the bus, made chocolate chip cookies, sat down to write this post, and oh- did I mention that I may (or may not) start painting the Dining Room tonight?

So after a few meltdowns from my girls through the duration of this post, it is time for me to go.  Take care and keep creative!