Family, flowers, face masks...the little things in life

A rose from the new bushes

 

A beautiful moth Rich discovered this morning.
 Look at those markings.

I haven't been sewing very much of late. Between enjoying the beautiful weather and the yard, dealing with being quarantined, and making masks (yes, sewing but not my fav), the days are flying by. 

My new issue of Quiltfolk,
dedicated to Louisiana quilters

The children do occasionally visit, but we are keeping social distancing alive in the back yard. And of course, we visit Rich's mom daily, but again social distances have become the norm. 

New tee-shirts that a wonderfully talented friend 
delivered to my mailbox. 
Social distancing means not visiting as usual.

I've been walking more while it's cool enough to be out-of-doors. I took these pictures of the slough down the hill from our house on one of those excursions. 

And those masks! Thus far I've made and mailed four to my sister Laura, donated 10 to the local nursing home, and have two ready to mail to my niece who cannot find completely black masks for her flight attendant job. 

Happy birthday little reader!

And the most heartbreaking of all: this little guy turned one Sunday and we could not attend his birthday party. Family who live close by drove to their house and sang happy birthday from their cars. We did so via Skype. 

My fear is that they littlest ones will forget who we are if the quarantine lasts as long as projected. I guess it just means we'll have to make up for lost time by spending lots of time with them when CoVid-19 is in the past.

Please keep safe distances of six or more feet from others, even the ones you love. We can beat this pandemic with time, distance, and clean hands. 

Spring? Summer? Winter? WHAT?

These amaryllis are standing in
a camelia shrub, so I have to
untangle them from the limbs.

We have the zaniest weather. Earlier in the week I needed a coat while on school duty. The wind was cold, the air damp, and the temps just above freezing.  

This little guy was trying to decide on a color for his coat.

Slowly we warmed up to a point of wearing pants and long sleeves, not unusual around St. Patty's.

more amaryllis

 The azalea bloomed back before the crazy
weather turned cold again. But I can't leave them out.

Lady Banks rose...barely blooming
but growing in other ways.

Today? Hot. You know, spelled out, H-O-T, hot. The air conditioner is running, and I need a fan in the studio. Bees are buzzing in the wisteria: I know this because one chased me. I saw the first Eastern Bluebird in the bird house. Richard and Adam planted the garden. Neighbors are catching fish in their pond. There are flowers in bloom all over the yard. Check it out.

Wisteria have way more blooms now.
You can smell them anywhere in the back yard.

pyracantha

Pyracantha, which are huge shrubs now

The last of the spirea flowers

The swamp on one side of the house. A favorite view while walking.

The back yard (taken from the front yard) 

One of my favorite places in the yard. I love the trees and the shade.
Oh, and the quiet.

The driveway and side yard. Yes, Richard has already cut the grass.

Pin It Weekly #144

Welcome to Pin It! It's been a while since I introduced a Louisiana artist. I'm taking a class at school (as opposed to teaching one) for a few days because we have a local artist who has offered to come in and teach painting for a few days. The opportunity to talk to Kay Lee got me thinking about the many artists we have in Louisiana. I soon found Dianne Parks. 

On her Pinterest page Parks notes, "New Orleans is my home and my love! I am the luckiest artist alive and living the dream because I spend my days painting our Louisiana life!"  You can find her  at "Dianne Parks Louisiana Art."

Her artwork is well worth your time, so go by and see a more of it here. I'm sure she'll enjoy the visit.

Une tête à tête

I was very disappointed last week that my design submission was disqualified and didn't make it into Connecting Threads' contest, but I've had a sit-down with myself.

In Cajun French we call that a tête à tête (literally, head to head) meaning a low, private conversation between two people, but it can also mean a face-to-face discussion in which one person comes to understand something important.  Generally that person deserves the tête à tête.

So I'm facing reality now.  I really needn't have been so disappointed.  After all, I didn't give myself enough time for research or planning.  I surely did not consider that what is a great design to me may not be from another point of view.  And I didn't get much input from others.  

Basically I made an interesting discovery about the contest, had a whirl-wind romance with my ideas and in a week submitted my design.  Disappointed?....well, I hadn't considered that I might be!  

I should know better, but every now and again the wild artist persona splits and runs, and the rest of my persons can only sit and watch.  I know, I know, take the meds already, right? 

So, now that I've over it and am moving on, I thought I'd share the artwork I created before the disappointment started: alligators and lotus flowers.  My intent was to sprinkle the alligators across bright yellow and green solids and the lotus flowers on orange and muddy browns.   Ah, maybe next time.

What a disappointment!

Voting begins today for the Connecting Threads Fabric Design Contest.    My design did not make it into the competition.  I don't really know why except that it may have been "disqualified due to poor image quality or inability for the design to be reproduced with screen printing methods in 15 colors or less. Photographs of artwork, snapshots, pixelated artwork, and designs with numerous colors in small spaces all fall into this category."  

I was so excited.  Oh well, on to other things...
You can still vote on the Connecting Threads' website.

Fabric Design Contest--vote, please!

Connecting Threads, the fabric and thread company, is having a contest for a new fabric design.  Since I'd just gone Swampin' with a couple of my sisters and because I love my Cajun culture, I decided to submit a swamp scene.  

It's not exactly what I have in my mind, but it's close.  My watercolor has deeper colors, more green and brown, but I can't seem to be able to fix the saturation once it's scanned.  Still, I'm not unhappy.  Plus, my ideas for coordinating fabrics will easily work with this--think alligators basking in the sun, water lilies and lotus flowers,  mosquito hawks and ducks, Spanish moss and lichens....all part of a beautiful swamp scene.  Add some deep grays, greens and muddy brown stripes or solids.  

I'd love some of this fabric! Wouldn't you?  Let's hope we have the opportunity!  I'll share more info in a few days.  The voting begins on the 14th and I'm asking EVERYONE to go vote for my design.  Of course, I'd really, really appreciate it if you also convince family and friends to vote for my design, too.  

In the meantime tell me what you think...like it?  hate it?  plan to vote?  have suggestions?  will you share?  Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.  I need feedback.

Swampin' Again

We did it again!  Two of my sisters and I went back to Lake Martin (post here) in Breaux Bridge to Cajun Country Swamp Tours for a two hour tour of Louisiana's beautiful swampland.   Although we went just last summer, we enjoyed the tour very much and saw some different areas of the lake.  For example, today we saw an alligator nest but missed the wasp area.  

The best part of the trip is being able to spend some time with my sisters.  We don't get to see enough of each other, so this weekend has been fantastic.

If I were to choose the part of the tour that is my favorite, I'd have to say the lotus flowers.

They are beautiful and smell wonderful.  The sweet scent lightly waifs into the boat adding another dimension to the beauty of the swamp.  

And they are everywhere.  Lily pads and white flowers dot the open water and there seem to be hundreds of them in an area.  

I was surprised to learn that the young leaves are edible and can be cooked like cabbage.  The seed are also edible, but I didn't try tasting any of it.

I picked a seedpod and opened it to see what the seed look like, but I wasn't so brave as to eat one.  The pod was brown and dry, and the tour guide said that those need to be cooked, like dry beans.  We didn't get close enough to a green one, but I wouldn't have eaten one anyway.

Who wants to get sick in a boat in the middle of a swamp?  Not me. And while I wasn't really worried that the seed would get me sick, I didn't know for certain and I surely do not want to tempt fate!

Angie and Laura would not take me on another adventure if I did such a goofy thing.  Besides we do enough goofy things just being ourselves.