Petal Pounding

My sister is joining with her community this weekend to participate in a Garden Walk to raise money for the city to erect an authentic windmill from Holland. I am going to be demonstrating the art of Petal Pounding. In its most basic sense, you simply tape down plant material, pound it and remove the tape. I've been pounding flowers for about a year now and it is addictive. Most of my work has been turned into cards, but I've recently quilted an 8 x 10 wall hanging and shaped my first sample into a stuffed bird! As I've stated in my Word Picture above, it is also a great outlet for relieving a bit of daily frustration..........if you can stand the noise!

Bird House

My daughter and I spent a whole day painting this birdhouse to hang in her room over the tree I painted on her wall. A birdhouse similiar to this was shown in a Mary Englebreit book and featured a battery powered nite lite on the inside. It would be fun to find a tiny light to glow softly in her room for those middle of the night, "I'm scared" episodes.

We printed a black and white image of the Hawaiian flower from the computer. Then we scribbled using the side of the pencil on the back of the paper. Placing the image with the pencil scribbling side against the birdhouse, we traced around the flower and the image was then on the birdhouse. My daughter painted the flower and the surrounding leaves herself!

Hanging it requires one of those metal circle screws for the top and then fishing line. Hopefully, we can find them from when we did our hanging birdhouse project for the real birds outside!

Deck Of Me

I found this free html that attaches to a flickr set for a while so thought I'd make an official record of my Deck Of Me. Ignore if you'd like! ~jane

Reading Groups

How do classroom teachers

deal with different reading levels today?

The Orb

Without warning the orb began to glow

an iridescent violet

surrounded by a reddish haze.

A high pitched humming

shook the purple salvia

against the chartreuse spirea shrubs

and a voice echoed into the vibrating space.

It was impossible to hear the exact words

but a peace settled in the garden then

and the bees continued their droning

as if nothing had happened.

(strange things can happen in the backyard garden

when you alter the photo.)

Quilt Along

Six Word Memoir

Inspired by this post,

I thought I'd write my own Six Word Life Memoir.

The Door

The door was partially hidden

by the red and green tinted leaves

but the glass panes

reflecting the sinking rays of the sun

drew me from the edge of the field.

Crumbling white panels

hung crookedly

while the green knob

glowed with a secret summons.

True Admiration

The Fingernails

Fourth of July Fun

Land of the Free Home of the Brave

!!Happy Fourth of July!!

Dream photos

Inspired by this post at Shutter Sisters.

This is one of those photos

that makes me want to get lost in it.

The beach, the water, the bird

setting out from the shore

into the unknown

but always having the land

there when you want to come back.

Vacation Scrapbook pages

Scrapping some photo collages

of our summer holiday!

Flood Tourist

I have joined the ranks of a group of people known as “Flood Tourists”. Touring our downtown area and gawking at the road turned river with several other “tourists” was a unique bonding experience. I found myself talking with people that I would never have engaged in conversation before. As I was taking photos of the hundreds of carp swimming up a concrete parking lot and exclaiming over this remarkable sight, a shabbily dressed young man with tattoos and a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, motioned for me to stand beside him and observe a temporary pond where several of the vomit colored fish were gathered. In order to join him I had to duck under a yellow police tape that was stretched across the path. While I could easily envision this individual ignoring police directives in the past and find myself reluctant to join such a one, I instead eagerly followed him under the forbidden ribbon. The camaraderie we shared was instantaneous because of our connection as flood tourists. This unexpected bond has me thinking about knocking down those artificial barriers that separate me from others. Something good from all this bad.