Purple

As you may have guessed from seeing corn in the background of my pictures, I live on a farm.  I was feeling kind of frustrated and a little overwhelmed the other day, and being that fresh air does the soul good, I figured I'd take a little walk around my yard and up my road to help clear my head.  I felt so much better when I got back in.

1.  I picked myself a few flowers and weeds to put in a tiny antique vase on my kitchen counter.
2.  My farty, annoying, and always loving dog, Kona.
3.  Chris' grandma let me take her picture.  "Good," she said, when I told her I wouldn't get her face. / One of the many butterflies enjoying nectar on my butterfly bush.
4.  Flojo can't come out on walks, so she watches patiently at the window (and this always makes me kind of sad since we do everything else together).
5.  Where the kind of gravel road turns to complete gravel road.
6.  More of my weed bouquet.
7.  Another butterfly, and Kona's favorite position on the front porch.

When you're feeling overwhelmed or bummed out, what helps you clear your head?

Art you need.

What's hanging on your walls right now?  UNLESS YOU SAY ICEFLOE PHOTOGRAPHY, FORGET IT!  I was hoping to convey a threatening tone; do you think it worked?  Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Dianne Tanner's photography and the soft, dreamy quality of her subjects captured on film.  Some of my favorites include...

I'm lucky enough to have this one and this one grace my walls, and I'm thinking I'm really going to need to go ahead and add the Skullz print to my collection.

Find the prints above here: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Our trip to the north.

Our trip to Pennsylvania was way too short, but I guess that's always the case when you have fun.  I'm not really sure what to say about it other than we covered a lot of ground in just a few days, my brother is hilarious and therefore fun to be around, southern hospitality and manners really are limited to the south, and I wish my brother and his girlfriend lived closer.

On Saturday we went down to Baltimore to explore the city a little and go to the aquarium, which I hadn't been to in over 10 years!  It's incredible how quickly time passes when you're an adult.  I took some pictures with a little juice box camera as well, and those are the pictures I'm most looking forward to seeing!

Other than that, it's back to work, work, work for me.  Oh, and laundry.  How have you been?

how was your weekend?

our weekend was busy but awesome.  a huge, and i mean HUGE, group of people surprised my pop with a retirement party on saturday night.  we ate, we laughed, we talked about him buying a motor home so we can road trip to san francisco, and i dank my new favorite drink - angry orchard traditional dry hard cider.  yum.  but i didn't really take pictures until sunday, and even then i hardly took any.

we started off our morning (really early) with a visit to chris' aunt & uncle's dragonfly ridge and had brunch, art talk, then did some hiking to work it off.  we also had a chipmunk spy watch us eat.  after that we went to the firefish gallery to pick up the watercolor portrait i did of carrie & simon to show in the project perry art show and auction.  it's the first time anything i've painted has been in a gallery, so i was both excited and nervous!  after we picked it up we went to a pretty park to drink coffee (chris) and lemonade (me) and eat snacks, and because it was so pretty, i told chris that i wanted him to take outfit pictures of me.  you won't see those because they never happened.  a local outreach was giving out bowls of chili to the needy and homeless in the park, so obiously i'd feel a little weird standing there like an idiot having my picture taken eleventy billion times.  maybe next time!  then we had dinner and laughs with some of our favorite friends and called it a night.  oh man was it nice to go to bed after such a long day.

i also did the whole messy bun deal and decided that it just didn't work for me.  not even a little bit.

so what did you do over the weekend?

what i've been working on (for animals)...

yesterday i had a few ideas for some necklaces that i wanted to work on, so after i finished hammering some hoops that needed to be shipped, i sat down and started tangling. as i was tangling chains i was thinking about which charities i felt especially drawn to because it's been a few months since i've donated a portion of one month's sales to a specific charity. obviously i love animals more than life so it will always be an animal charity, and after thinking on it for most of the day i decided on the world wildlife fund. so, from now through the end of april, $1 from each item sold will be donated to help protect and conserve the animals we love so much!

i'm going to say that within a week i'd like to have these new necklaces in my shop, but i have to be honest with myself, and you, when i say that i tend to get a little lazy with updates. BUT, i did finish a shop update on sunday so there are 4 new necklaces, 2 new bracelets, and 1 new pair of earrings in the shop!

other than that, i'm being an adult this morning and eating oatmeal (which by no means is my favorite, but it's honey bun flavor, so there's that...) rather than my preferred breakfast of champions, a toasted plain bagel smothered with nutella. flojo is enjoying it more than i am, so there's a chance there won't be any left when i finish typing this. so how are you, and have you been working on anything?

"when are you going to post the pictures of me paddling you?"

since i don't always post pictures of what i wore in chronological order, rather in order of preference, i sometimes get a backlog of pictures. last sunday i wanted to be sure to take pictures so that i could show you one of the pretty headbands that rebecca from manzanita sent me, and since chris likes to mess with me during the picture taking process, this sort of turned goofy...

headband: manzanita, cardigan: i can't remember, camisole: tara jarmon, jeans: target: shoes: payless, necklace i made with: vintage locket, amethyst core from camp + quarry, parrot charm gift from beca

i feel like my animal babies are always in the pictures with me, and i hope you're not tired of seeing them, but if flojo isn't with me she screams at me the entire time i'm trying to get these picture taken, and kona always walks in mid-picture to be rubbed. so there you have it, demanding animals.

after those pictures is when it started to get silly. since the whole family was in the living room, we figured, "hey, why not have an awkward family photo?" once that was finished, it seemed only natural for chris to throw me over his shoulder and smack my butt while kona barked at him.

ever since we took those pictures chris has been asking me when i'd post them, so this is for him! i feel lucky to have a husband that reads and is interested in my blog and also knows how important it is to me. awww, makes me feel so in love.

Dinosaur Toes and Lost Cabin Vintage for RHCCF

I'm so excited the time has finally come for Toni and I to unveil the collaboration we've been working on for the last couple weeks! Toni and I have each created a handmade item exclusively for this auction, with 100% of the proceeds going to The Rachael Horton Compassionate Care Fund.

On April 8th, 2010, Rachael Horton, along with her husband Aaron, was killed in a devastating apartment fire; on that day, animals and pets lost a dear and devoted friend. Before her passing, Rachael would use money from her own paycheck to provide treatments to animals when their owners weren't able to afford it. The Rachael Horton Compassionate Care Fund was set up in Rachael's memory to honor her dream of having no pet turned away from life-saving treatments, or face euthanasia, due to an owner's inability to pay the vet's bill. Through generous donations and local events, animals that may have been euthanized have instead been treated, just as Rachael would have wanted!

Toni, from Lost Cabin Vintage, has created the "Apple Isle," a beautiful and unique hand-dyed vintage slipdress, especially for this auction. Fits sizes Small, Medium and Large.

The Dinosaur Toes necklace I've made for this auction is a hammered brass horseshoe with a chalcedony stone spike. The pendant is attached to a section of polished brass chain and is 28" long.

To place a bid on this fun handmade combination as a gift to yourself, or for someone else this holiday season, just fill in your name and email address in the form below, and your bid amount in the messages box. Names and email addresses will be kept confidential, and you can keep track of the current bid amount here, as well as Toni's blog! Also, to help spread the word, we'd be so grateful if you'd blog, tweet, or facebook about this auction! Bidding for this auction will end on December 10, and your package will be shipped via Priority Mail no matter where you are in the world, that way you can get in time to give for Christmas!

foxyform.com

hey kona, what are you doing today?

i took these pictures of kona over the course of a few hours one day, and to be honest, i could have taken them over the course of 72 hours and they wouldn't look any different! my poor boy, he must get so worn out from all that dreaming, sleeping, and yawning...

snore. snooooore. snore. dream whimper. snore. snore.

"what are you doing? i'm too tired to open both eyes and figure it out for myself. i was in the middle of a really good dream, too."

hey, are you awake? kona? hey, did you fall asleep again already? hey. alright fine, i guess you're sleeping again.

kona, wake up! i just want to play with you. who wants a goodie?! "a goodie?! i'm awake! both my eyes are open now!" yeah, i thought that might get your attention.

"okay, i'm getting kind of tired. would you mind going and doing something quietly so i can relax for a little while? i'm drained"

natural history, natural beauty.

i have a two part blog post planned to fully cover chris's birthday trip, and for the first half, i have to go straight to the best part! auntie amy gave chris two train tickets to washington d.c. for his birthday so that the two of us could enjoy it doing something different. our last stop of the day was the smithsonian natural history museum, my childhood favorite. on the ground floor is a native bird exhibit, and if you're anything like me, you just stare in awe at the beauty surrounding you. part of me is on a natural high being able to see so many beautiful birds native to this area, but the other part of me is sad thinking about the life that is no more. i took a lot of pictures with a vintage film camera, but i just couldn't wait to share these so you get a peek at what we saw!

aren't they gorgeous?! it shouldn't surprise you to discover we spent the majority of our visit to that museum in the bird exhibit. i can't help it! i love birds! i'm really curious though to see what the pictures look like on film, but i'm also a little nervous as most of the museum is dimly lit, and i don't have a flash for that camera. and i know this has nothing to do with birds, but you know how much i love stones, so look at the size of this baby...

i can't remember how many thousands of pounds this hunk of awesomeness weighs, but for comparison, i'm 5'2" and 100 pounds (or a few more if i'm being completely honest) and this quartz was MUCH bigger than me!

turtle day saywhaaaaat!

TODAY IS WORLD TURTLE DAY! okay, i'm obviously incredibly excited. i love turtles more than.... ummmm.... more than i could ever explain! they bring my heart so much joy, with those scaly toes and pretty carapace, and up until earlier today, i didn't even know there was such a thing as world turtle day! i'm marking my calender, and next year, the party's ON! just because i'm so excited about world turtle day, i'm going to go put on one of my many vintage turtle necklaces even through i'm still in my pajamas (yes, i'm still sick) and no one will see me.

i don't remember where i found this picture (i saved it over a year ago), but don't you just want to snuggle that little baby and revert to high pitched baby talk? i know i do. and speaking of turtles, one day i'm going to get a turtle tattoo, because you know it's true love when it's in ink. am i right? am i right?!

i haven't seen as many turtles so far this year, but i think that's all due to the fact that we've had a relatively cool spring compared to normal. but worry not, i'm still running out in front of cars and across highways to save every turtle i can.

in closing, I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT WORLD TURTLE DAY SOONER!!!