Tea and Roses

Happy Tea Tuesday...

and look what I found.

This is a little watercolor I painted a few years ago.

It was one of my favorite tea mugs...

yes, tea, because I never have drank coffee.

I drank mostly herbal teas from my garden.

The house I lived in at that time was in the hill country of Texas.

I had a large herb garden, as partly seen in the photo below.

I always used my herbs for many different things,

including making my own tea recipes.

Herbs that made great tea and that I loved was

 lemon verbena, anise, bee balm, German chamomile and mints.

I also loved rose hips, but never grew the roses to have my own.

I have found the rose hips in specialty stores

and mixed them with chamomile and pineapple sage.

Below is a picture of a rose hip flower that I took

on Cape Cod during one of my visits there.

The rose hip is the fruit

as seen below and

also seen in the background of the above photo.

I did read somewhere that an antique rose called

Old Blush produces hips and grows well in our Texas heat.

Old Blush (1752) is one of the most common,

fragrant and treasured of old roses.

This rose easily reaches 6 feet in height and 10 feet across.

The fragrant, semi-double, lilac pink flowers are in loose clusters,

turning to a darker pink in the sun.

They provide large orange hips

that you can use in tea or jam.

I guess I'm just going to have to find some 

 Old Blush roses

and add them to my garden.

Visit Kimmie for more tea posts

at http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Trite???? musings

I have heard people use the word 'trite' a lot lately.

I happened to make a comment

and someone told me that it was

"trite but true".

Then just two days later,

I overheard someone tell

someone else that very same thing.

Is 'trite' the new word of the year or something?

Above is the dictionary meaning of trite.
It basically means DULL.

Jane Dunnewold, the famous fiber artist,

has a wonderful article regarding the word 'trite'.
Click here to read her interesting article.

In my opinion,
Jane Dunnewold is anything but 'trite'.
Her book is...
Art Cloth: A Guide to Surface Design for Fabric



To keep from feeling 'trite' I write down goals
and constantly try to learn or do something new.
Go here to read my New Years goals.

Usually my goals are centered around creativity
and/or learning
and most of my goals are simple things.

Big goals are reached
by accomplishing a combination
of smaller goals.

This year on my recent birthday,
 I thought about this...
I will do 58 new things during my 58th year.

My life is simple,
has some routine,
but that doesn't mean it's 'trite'.
I guess the meaning of that word
is all in the viewpoint of the person.

Savor the Day!
Yvonne

Playing Inchie Catch up

It feels so good to

cross things off of my to-do list.

I finished the Lover's Knot quilt top

and it is getting quilted by my friend Mary.

I have also caught up on my inchies.

Feb. 21st had the prompt word

COSMIC.



Below is the inchie for Monday Feb 28th.

The prompt word was FROLIC.

I have already done an inchie for this coming Monday.

The prompt word was DANCE.

I try to keep my inchies very simple.

All 52 for the year will be on similar backgrounds.

The background is cut up used watercolor paper of

a picture I had done and didn't like.

Each inchie also has it's prompt word

cut from an old dictionary.

I glue or sew it all together

and then put matte medium over the top

to finish it.
AS you can see below,
they are all one inch square.

The magnifying glass you saw on my table,

in a previous tea post....well, I use it to look at these

inchies, and other things. 

Some of you were asking about that. LOL 

I also have some MAG_EYES

that strap to my head,

for me to see better close-up.

I feel like fumble fingers

when I work on these tiny pieces.

Visit Kris at

Every Inchie Monday

to see some beautiful tiny art,

much more elaborate than mine...

or join us for some fun.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Barbara's Pinelands Treasures and a quilt show

Crazy things happen....

When Barbara deleted her gmail account

her entire blog disappeared.

So anyone out there who followed the

Pinelands Patches Beadscapes and Spirit Dolls blog,

you will be happy to hear

that she now has her new blog open.

It is Pinelands Treasures. 

Go by and say hello by clicking

 http://pinelandstreasures.blogspot.com/.

Good luck Barbara, your new blog looks wonderful already!

***

I have attended so many quilt shows in the past few months.

It has been so inspiring.

I thought I would share just a few of my favorite quilts

from the Corpus Christi quilt show.

I just love the colors in this appliqued quilt!

Love this one too!  Very colorful and the design

is wonderful.  She was a winner with I think two of her quilts.

Congrats to her!

I love quilts of many colors!

This one above looked like a Persian rug.

It was a quilt round robin.

Gorgeous!

This is Ann with her hand quilted Mariners Compass.

She won Honorable Mention.

Congrats to Ann!

One day I will attempt a Mariners Compass.

Reminds me of Geougia O'Keefe,

one of my favorite artists.

Very nice!  Love the garden theme.

I love how they use vintage hankies in quilts.

There is a butterfly quilt that uses them also.

I am collecting handkerchiefs.

Well, there were many, many more beautiful quilts.

I could never show them all.

Congrats to all the winners!

Congrats to everyone who entered!

They were all beautiful!

Savor the Day!

Yvonne



Swaps and Round Robins

First of all...

thanks for all your comments on my ballerina piece

in my previous post.  If you would like to see/read more

on my background graffiti papers, go to the labels in my sidebar

and click on graffiti background papers and it will take you

to 5 posts showing the GBP swap I was in with Bea and Kris

and then the project I created from them.

I did a bit more to it before putting it in the March show,

then had it framed, and it was finished.

I was very pleased with the end result. 

I would love to do more of these background papers

and have another swap.

If anyone is interested, please let me know

and we can discuss the details.

***

I finished my additions on another doll in the

Art Doll Coolaberration 2010 project.

This is Onoma.

She originated with Arlee in Canada,

and I was the 4th artist to work on her.

I gave her several things...

turquoise eyelids,

a metal mouth (can you guess what her mouth is made from),

a rabbit fur cape,

"energy" symbol flap/apron,

 and a

blue/black feather in her hair.

Spirals and other symbols

 are painted in the blue underside of her cape.

I used a Tugua nut button as a closure.

This is real rabbit fur.

I ask Arlee first, if using real fur was okay.

Her journal was fun to work on.

I added her photo with a quote from

Aristotle about energy....

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

The page above right contains her thoughts...

I will not worry about my unknown past or from where I came

I will shape the clay of my life into what I wish it to be

I walk alone with my shadow on the edge of the precipice

This I am today.

These journal page above left holds

her energy symbol and

on the right is a page that I added to the journal

made from a piece of my graffiti background paper.

Here I told what additions I contributed,

signed and dated my work.

I sent Onoma to Gail

in North Carolina yesterday afternoon.

I anxiously await the next doll in our project,

which originated with Mary Anne also in Canada.

To find out more about this cool project,

and to see all the dolls at each stage of their journey,

 click on

Art Doll Coolab 2010 Project.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Tea Day Musings

Happy Tea Tuesday!

This morning the sunshine is just streaming in

from my patio doors.

Another lovely day ahead of me!

I'm having a cup of Zhena's Gypsy

Italian Chamomile herbal tea

with agave nectar for sweetner.
Ingredients are....
chamomile, fennel, hibiscus, lemon peel,
orange peel, licorice root, rose petals, lemon myrtle,
natural vanilla and citrus flavor.
Ummmm good!
You can visit
http://gypsytea.com/
to see what all they have.

I have a full day planned...

work on a few projects,

lunch with a friend,

and enjoying the outdoor sunshine.

This weekend I had to take a piece over to the

Art Center for our next show.

Not a very good photo, but it is a mixed media piece using

grafitti background papers with

acrylic painted abstract ballerinas.

It is called,

We Might as well Dance

During our trip over to the Art Center,

we went to the beach,

where I snapped a quick photo

of this Great Blue Heron,

and to the birding center,

where I snapped a photo of this

Blue Winged Teal.

There are many, many birds in our area,
and I need to get me a camera and scope
like I saw many people using that day.
Wow, I was blown away by their equipment.

Visit Kimmie to read more tea posts.
http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/


The birds are singing,
seeds are germinating,
new leaves are appearing,
so I hope you.....

Savor the Day!
Yvonne