Cracks and Blooms

I painted a face in my fabric journal - I particularly like the cracks in the plaster on this page, the combination of whatever plaster I used and the type of fabric I guess. The closeup makes me think of a mural on an ancient wall.

And I thought I'd include pics of a few of my favorite flowers blooming in my garden right now. Below is a new honeysuckle vine that I'm loving, as are the hummingbirds. I recently added an old rusty chandelier hanging from the center of the rusty metal arbor it's growing on, which you can see at the top of the picture if you enlarge it - it makes me happy!

I've always felt like fucshias are little miracles, each of the blooms. I love this one in my old enamel baby bathtub - by the heat of July it'll be miserable but I've been enjoying it for a couple of months now so it's been worth it.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Spring!

Gardens and a Marionette

Last weekend my Mum was here for Mother's Day, and I took her on a garden tour that is put on every year in the "Fab Forties" in East Sacramento (mansions, Reagan lived there when he was governor) - or in the general area anyway.  Every year homeowners are nominated to open up their gardens for a tour that benefits a local school. Some are smaller homes, with more intimate gardens that I like just as much as the mansions, if not more.  Thought I'd share a few pics, since I only have one piece of art to share.

Playing with marionettes again, in watercolor

I've seen the front of these houses many times, as I used to live in the neighborhood (on the other side of the street that defines whether you're "Fab" or not!)  It was fun seeing the backyards of some for the first time.

 This was the home of an artist, whose property took up 4 lots.  There was his home, a winery, his studio and a guest house, full of gardens and his huge abstract metal sculptures.  This wisteria was massive, it covered two buildings, I couldn't believe the size of the base.

This is one of his sculptures that I really liked.

This house had a wonderful nook all set up with art supplies, art and globes, I wanted to just settle in!

Loved these shovels, wish I had the equipment to do it myself!

Absolutely gorgeous Dragonfly

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I thought these ladder sculptures throughout the property were wonderfully whimsical.

Excuses excuses

Due to continued yard projects and being out of town, I've gotten NO art done, I'm ashamed to say.  But last weekend we went to the Monterey Peninsula for a couple of days, we stayed in Pacific Grove which is a charming little town just past Monterey itself right at the tip of the peninsula. We took our dogs, wandered around with them and ate at a couple of wonderful fish restaurants. All around had a wonderful and much-needed getaway. I thought I'd show a few pictures.

This is Pacific Grove along the water, SO pretty there when these flowers are in bloom.

Our very happy dogs!

We drove the famous 17 mile drive to Carmel, which goes through Pebble Beach golf course (our Bassett Hound said he could smell the money) and goes by the most decadent gorgeous mansions overlooking the coast.  That area of the coast is famous for the Cypress Trees, especially this one.

The town of Carmel itself is ridiculously charming, I think it must be a law there that every inch has to ooze character.  It turns out to also be full of crazy women obsessed with Bassett Hounds - wanting to get down on the ground and hold him, kiss him, groups of them posing with him.  We found ourselves ducking down alleys to avoid running into a few of them again!  Guinness, our other dog, was feeling pretty bad about himself by the end of the day!

Here's some pics of homes and shops in Carmel, to give you an idea if you've never been.

I plan on this becoming my art studio, haven't figured out how yet though.

You get the idea - it's almost charm overload!