Garden Update

A Distant Relative?

No just a photo from our zoo visit yesterday.

My First Daylily Bloom

Siloam Doodlebug

(this is their second year in my garden)

All is Well in Puppyville! [Surgery Update]

Yellow made it through his surgery just fine. He needed 33 sutures to close up his wound. He is resting comfortably with his boy.

Emergency Stuffed Puppy Surgery!

This is Yellow.

While my son was playing with him I noticed a serious injury to his back and had to put him in isolation away from the other puppies and his master. Now, it is not going over well with the puppy boy(he is serenading me with a chorus of 'puppy,puppy,puppy' at the top of his lungs as I type) but luckily it is time for lunch and then a nap. Surgery is scheduled for nap time so that Yellow will be able to recover comfortably with his beloved master. I'll keep you posted on his recovery!

Parade the Circle 2009

For 20 years the Cleveland Museum of Art and other museums in University Circle here in Cleveland have put on an amazing parade called 'Parade the Circle'. Now, I worked at the art museum 12 years ago, knew about 'Parade the Circle' and had always wanted to go but I have an aversion to large crowds of people. [Don't misunderstand this as me hating people, I don't. As a matter of fact, I quite like them, just in smaller groups.]

Well, I agreed to help organize a group of teenage girls for next years parade. I needed to see what I got myself into! I invited a bunch of folks to meet up with myself and my family. It ended up just me and my son (even my husband had to work!) in a sea of 70,000 people. Luckily, I'm a plotter. My tot and I arrived about 2 hours before the start of the parade to claim our spot (front row at the beginning of the parade route, not too shabby!)I had food, water, stuffed puppies, you name it, I brought it. 3 hours and 287 photos later we headed for home. Tired but happy.

These were my favorite shots.
If you'd like to see more go here: Parade the Circle 2009

Sneek Peak at Another Project in the Works

When I was little, the first Christmas tree I remember had the big retro Christmas lights. I still love them (must be the nostalgia!) These felt "lights" are in homage to those. I have a vague idea of how I will finish these. When they are complete, I will post those pictures too.

1st Finished Candy Ornament

This is the first finished candy twist ornament. (we affectionately call them chubbies in our house, the idea originated in old-fashioned candy sticks and then transformed to this!) I think it came out very cute. So cute in fact that I have finished making 6 ornaments each of 9 different colorways (and more planned in my head) I hope to make little sets of the different candies that coordinate and package them in a nice gift or display box. I have just posted another poll (since you were so helpful helping me decide last time!) I'm trying to name my store section in my etsy shop as well as branding this line of ornaments. I hope to actually transform my web page into an online store from what it has been for 3 or 4 years(a place holder!). I would like to have individual shops represent the jobs Santa's elves hold in his Christmas Village (bakery, candy, decorations, cobbler/leathersmith, seamstress) I plan on designing a product tag for each ornament I make, so the name of the "shop" will be very important and prominent. If you have any better ideas please share in a comment, Hubby being a network geek [01010101] isn't always all that imaginative when it comes to these pursuits of mine (I can't wait til the tike is old enough to help :o)

A Few More Current Photos of the Garden

I've been a busy little elf as of late! Between the garden, my son, working on an astrological chart reading and the other umpteen projects I am currently focusing on, I've neglected my blog and other social networking sites. Don't get me wrong my virtual farm on Facebook gets daily attention and I drop my entrecards almost every day (especially those who've dropped one for me!) but for the most part my spare time has been channeled into my projects.

The garden is resting a bit as far as blooms go. Astilbe is going to start blooming soon and daylilies are gearing up. The Globe Thistle is getting big, as is the coneflower. Hydrangea have buds and my container plants are beginning to take off (the sweetpeas are very happy!) Finished blooming are the peony, columbine and iris. The sweet william, moss pinks, foxglove and rose are all in full bloom. I planted my dahlias this weekend and continue to plant zinnia seeds when I finish a bed in the backyard (it's much more fun to play kick ball with the boy than to weed and prepare a flower bed!) I also have a slew of calendula plants that need to be put in the ground but those are going up front and I have to have either my husband handy to watch the G-man or have to have the little one in a good (read: mellow) mood where he will sit happily in the pack and play while mommy works. So, there is the little garden update.

Within the next few days I should be able to share some of my Christmas ornaments that are nearing completion! Thanks to those of you that voted on the poll, I followed the unanimous decision (also my favorite!) I think you will like them! They make me smile, which is usually a good indicator of success! :o)

christmas elves

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Since I'm working on a project for a holiday window walk, I was digging for some old photos of my past window displays to include with my proposal. I posted these to Facebook but I wanted to share them here also. (a little change from my Perpetual Garden :o) The pictures were taken at the Dancing Sheep, a wearable art, contemporary craft and gift gallery on Larchmere Blvd. in Cleveland that I managed for 5 years.

All of the props in the windows were made by myself or in the case of the glittered snowflakes recycled from another retail store.

The Alice in Wonderland windows were for a British Street fair.
The Daisy was just one of our seasonal windows.
The last two were our Holiday Magic windows and if I remember correctly the original of the highly dressed windows that I did. I still like them although I look at them and think, oh, I should have done this or I wish I hadn't done that. Still a success for me.

Enjoy!