Sneak Peek!

Some dear friends are expecting a little boy and I'm working on something that I'm really excited about!  Their baby shower is May 28, so after that, I will post all of the pictures!  Megan likes elephants as a theme, and James likes interesting color combinations.  Here is a sneak peek, no one tell the momma and papa!

House: Hen Mansion in progress

We have been busy with new house projects!  The chicken coop is the most complete, and now that 4 of our 6 lovely ladies are living outside, it's time to show it off!!

This is what we started with.  The grand master plan?  What you see will evolve in the next few years into a garden brewery (yes, that's right, I said brewery) that is terraced on this hillside.  The chickens will have free reign within the garden.  It has to be fenced for the elk and the deer, and the bunnies, so it will be a large space for the girls to roam.  For now, they have their mansion!  Modern with a touch of country chic.

What is next for the hen house?  A few finishing touches.  Adjusting where the sculpture hangs is the first and easiest.  I made this sculpture in college, a little bird crazy, yes.  It's feathers used to be covered with vellum, but the years were not kind to this one.  It didn't help that I left it outside after college but whatever.  It finally has a home, and with a little adjustment, it will be perfect!

After that we need to plant some berries and hops and lay some stone.  The wooden piece that is going across the roof needs to be replaced with aluminum angle that hugs the wire fencing material to the house and the egg door needs to be cut out as well as the small chicken door in the front.  Then to get our garden in.  Final Hen House pictures to come!  Thanks for reading and visiting.

SPRING: a few hairclips and a few hundred daffodils

Spring is coming, Spring is COMING!!  While there are a great many things blooming at my old house, and in Portland, my new house is waiting....  waiting for the yellow explosion from the hundreds of daffodils the former owner planted everywhere.  And while it is nice to have some blooms this year, these guys are getting moved.  Not that I don't like Narcissus.  I do, I just want them to be used as a dramatic statement in another part of the yard.  In the meantime, I'm celebrating the coming of Spring with a few hairclips for Red and her friends.  Here are a couple that will be gracing the heads of cuties soon.

New project: BIG new house

I apologize for being a bad blogger since December.  After the winter sales we traveled to New England to visit family and when we got back, well, that's when we entered the throws of buying a new house.  We made an offer and closed on a new home in 3 weeks.  Holy whirlwind.  With the help of A LOT of people, we moved in a single day.  Amazingly, all of the furniture from our 780 square foot Craftsman filled out the 2500 square feet of this updated farmhouse well.  So, besides a few orders for hairclips that I have, most future blogposts may well be home improvement or garden design related.  Here are a few before pictures.  I'm really looking forward to sharing projects! 

Summary: Scarlett's photos

So as it turned out, we did actually get outside for a few of the photos, and the ones inside turned out amazing! Did I need to worry about the paint in the bathroom (see 'arrangements: moss' in last month's posts)? Nope.

A huge thank you to Emily Garrick-Steenson at Emily G Photography for these wonderful images!  I'm truly excited about them, so go check them out!  And leave her a post if you feel so inclined!

Summary: the 2010 Garden Fever Winter Art Festival, aka my first craft sale

To summarize simply, the sale went really, really well.  If you stopped by, or sent me good vibes, thank you immensely!  I sold out of necklaces (I initially made 6) by 10 this morning, and I made more in a mad dash and brought them down.  I sold over half of the initial hairclips.  All in all, I'd call this a success.  I have to send out a thank you to my fantastic husband and his company, PVS Instore Graphics for making me a really sweet little display:

Using scrap material, they made this with a file I created in AutoCAD and some graphic images that I had taken of my pieces.  I filled the hairclip area, and last night made a few more pairs.  This really helped create a little space for these.  I am truly one lucky chica!

If you are looking for a nice gift for the gardener in your life, please keep Garden Fever! in mind.  They are fantastic people, and Lori does the buying and she has quite the eye.  They also have nice greens and garland for holiday decor needs.

As for the rest of the pieces, I'll be making Twinkle * Twinkle * POOF! Etsy Site postings for them as soon as possible.

Garden Fever! Winter Arts Festival

Garden Fever! is a retail nursery with a sweet spot in my heart.  While it is true that I have spent many days there checking on plants in all kinds of weather and creating displays on the retail floor when I was a Landscape Design student, it's just the kind of place where the people become part of the family.  Not just my favorite former employers, Lori and Richard, or co-workers who have become steadfast friends, but some of the customers are also near and dear to me.  I'll be at the GF! family table, if that tells you anything!

It's easy to see why that is one of the reasons that I'm so excited to be participating in this year's Winter Arts Festival.  I look forward to this sale each year.  It's my annual kick off to the season.  I love the getting my fortune told (she's really good folks, I'm not usually the fortune teller seeking type) and that the Goddess Flora Chorus & Deadheading Society sings their fun, wacky songs.  I like that Garden Fever! spreads the love, supporting a different organization each year.

This year it is the Parker Sanderson Fund of Hardy Plant Society of Oregon which brings in well known, high quality speakers and funds scholarships for horticulture students to attend.  The Hardy Plant Society is great at really supporting further education in horticulture.  I really love them.

So, as in a post from November (see "Announcement: ..."), I have been busy making necklaces and hairclips.  While I fully admit I have jumped off the momma deep end with the clips, I absolutely love getting a kick out of handstitching these lovelies.  That's right, no sewing machine was used in the creation of my items.
While I love my machine, it's just a little difficult to get it pulled out with a cruisin' 11 month old (yep, that means the ornaments were handstitched too).  Many of the pieces are nature inspired, especially in the clips, and then there are geometric pieces.  A lot of it is using a really quiet color palette compared to what it may have had even a year ago.  An old friend said that Scarlett was teaching me about neutral color when I was pregnant, and it seems to be so. In any case, here is a little sneak peek at some new things!

Come out Saturday evening for the festivities!

What: Garden Fever! Winter Arts Festival
When: THIS Saturday, December 4 from 5 - 8 benefits The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon
craft sale continues Sunday, December 5 from 9 - 5
Where: Garden Fever! located at 3433 NE 24th Avenue in Portland, just south of the Fremont Intersection