Summer Greetings!

My window sill gardens are full

and the yard is full

I'm still working on my painting...

I found this sweet picture today that has a bit of summer fun in it...

by Sarah Silwell Weber 1919 magazine illustration

I hope everyone has a fine summer day of their own!



                                          

Ocean Spirit

Look at what I just got!

Last Thursday I read The Wonderful World of Sparkle Girl and Doobins to the children in my magical friend Nancy's kindergarten classroom at Sedge Garden Elementary School.  Look at how richly I was rewarded! Wow!  I got 20 self portraits for my kitchen wall! 

I am so delighted!

Today's Garden Gifts

It has been another Saturday in the garden.  It is just such a sweet place and I am just so thankful for all of it.  

Beautiful Saturday Morning

There is truly no place like home this morning.  Alice finished 7th grade yesterday so there is a sense of summer vacation around the house on top of the usual weekend off work feeling.  Just sitting on the front porch, I felt like I could be at the luckiest resort in the world. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend.

hello and good morning!

my black hollihock all loaded with pollen

In Case You are Unsure...

This very important know-how comes courtesy of the Easy How-To Book by Seymour Reit and illustrated by William Dugan.  I will pass along more whenever generosity strikes me...

Great Find

My prize find at this year's Shepherd Center book sale was a biology book that was illustrated by Charles Harper titled Learning with Colour Biology. I am in love with his work.  Look it up at www.charleyharperprints.com

Inside Looking Out

I love May

                                              May is the month of fresh strawberry pie...

brave seed babies with pencil shaving mulch...

                                           the joy of being able to paint out in the garden...

and best of all...it is the month that honors mother's day!  Love, peace and grace to all mamas!

Waters Rising

Gifts for Today

 

Staying Open

One of the hardest things in life for me to do is to stay open and real and available whenever I have been hurt or I am just hurting.  It is such a great place to trust God in though.  Here is a quick sketch I did yesterday in attempts to illustrate this thought.  It's called "Be Vulnerable". 

Here is one of my first garden harvests for the season.  Few things are quite as gratifying as harvesting.

                         

Being Fed

This introduction to first Peter is out of the Reader's Digest Illustrated Bible.  The art was done by Harry Brockway.   This letter and this art so perfectly fed me in a very hungry hour today. 

Worth the Wait

My son Asher chose this iris out of hundreds on an iris farm 3 years ago.  He chose it, and I purchased a piece of the same plant, brought it home and planted it.  It failed to bloom the past two years. I was afraid that we had lost it.  Well, much to our joy and satisfaction, it showed it's beautiful face this year! What I love most about it is that Asher was 7 years old on this iris farm covered in iris flowers of every imaginable combination.  Hundreds and hundreds of showy flowers.  I told him that he could pick any one he wanted.  He chose this one because he said it was "pure".  It's petals and beard were all the same color. 

                              I know this is unrelated but...this really is how Faye lives her life. 

 

Who Knows?

I have a beautiful copy of Arabian Knights that I found a couple of years back.  I love the illustrations so much it makes my head spin, but I don't know the artist's name!  The only information I have on the book is that it was first published in Great Britain in 1968 by Ward Lock Limited.  The stories are retold by Anoif Maharg.  There is no mention of the illustrator.  A few of the pictures are signed BAR.   If any of you are familiar and know the artist's name, please tell me! 

With Unveiled Faces

                                         
               






                                                           Looking forward to it!

Beautiful Book

The Shepherd Center Used Book Sale is coming up May 3,4 and 5th at the Dixie Classic Fair Grounds.  I am so excited and it has me recalling some of my finds from years past.  Gordon Laite's pencil lines are so sure and angled and I entirely love them.  He colors them with a little blue, bronze or teal and makes them seem so full.  The author Alice Geer Kelsey has a really interesting biography.  The story follows thirty gilt pennies through the hands of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, the Queen of Sheba, Solomon, traders, the manger, and ends with Judas and a potter's field. 

Well worth seeking out!