Garden Tour

On Saturday, we went on a local garden tour---all about sustainability and organic methods. We toured 10 gardens, several we wondered why they were on the tour (small raised beds between the street & sidewalk...uh cool...Next!) and of course several that were absolutely amazing gardening efforts (interestingly our favorites were gardens of friends!) Saw a lot of things we'd like to try, asked questions about the best mulch between beds (straw? peppermint compost? small gravel? All have their pluses & minuses...) These are some of my favorite shots of the day:











Of course, couldn't pass this up either, tho it's not very "gardeny"...

Happy 100th Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my Grandpa's 100th birthday---my Uncle invited us to their new house to celebrate, with pizza, beer & cake---all things my Grandpa never was able to eat when he lived since he was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 17. He died when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember him as being quiet, wearing plaid wool shirts over his tee shirts, kinda baggy khaki pants and paint spattered light brown leather shoes. What's really cool is that he was a sign painter, designer---just like my husband is now. Sadly they never met, but Brad's first shop was his old sign shop---which my Granny loved!

At the party today, my Uncle had a lot of little things out for us to see that used to be my Grandpa's---books, billfolds with his old drivers licenses, job related receipts, sketches, wooden bowls he made on his lathe, and a fun little diary from 1923, 1924 where he had short entries---"Went to school, came home, went out to the woods with friends to check mink or muskrat traps, bait "et" but empty. Played checkers, went to bed 15 to 12..."---totally cool! Brad really liked these stamps---one I've inverted so it's easier to read---I'm guessing Grandpa designed these and had them made.




The photo below shows my Grandpa---he's the one with the glasses---this is a close-up of a much larger photo showing 20-30 display artists in the Portland area---not sure when, but guessing the 30's or 40's. He worked for a while doing shop displays in Portland---way back when. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Beads

Well, it all started with a desire to have a necklace like my daughters. I borrowed it for a couple of occasions recently and really liked the length---along with the colors & style.


So, a week ago I took a look at our local bead shop downtown, saw what was available, bought a few, then returned home to see if I was anywhere close to my inspiration. Not bad! I still needed a few more beads to finish it off, so went back the next day with her necklace in hand, hoping to find a few more beads similar. Back home I settled on the dining room table & proceeded to make myself a new beaded necklace! I loved it! My daughter came home, admired mine, said "Copy Cat..." then almost in the same breath said "Would you make me one?"! I said "sure!" (someday...!)


I had enough black beads leftover to make another necklace, adding some shiny black beads with streaks of colors embedded in the glass---this time a bit less bright and colorful---yep, like this one too!


Suddenly I was flashing on more---more bead shops, more designs, more bead information. I could hardly wait 'til Tuesday this week when a 2nd bead shop would be open after the holiday. I was there for over an hour playing in the beads, finding some treasures, asking questions... I had to go to Eugene to pick up my paintings Thursday so of course did an online search & found 2 shops to explore there... Yep, I was bit bad!! Hoping to play some more today with my new obsession... Wishing you all a great weekend finding something that feeds your passions! (hoping to paint some today too---that's a whole 'nother post tho...)