Lemon Tree Tales

Patio Set Redo

I was inspired by Kathleen of Liquid Sky Arts to add a little color to my backyard. I'm a slow painter, but finally over the last several weeks I've spray painted my formerly black patio set with a pretty cobalt blue metallic paint. Today I bought one of those inexpensive market umbrellas to add a little shade. I like the tan fabric but I think that the deep brown wood and that brass need to be changed. It needs some pretty paper lanterns hanging from the umbrella.

In the meantime, with sun protection, I can finally go outside during the days and enjoy the fresh air without turning a bright shade of red. Hmm, plenty of lemons on the tree. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, I do believe that there's a pitcher inside that's begging for some fresh lemonade.

Colorful pillows

Do you remember the Crate & Barrel table linens that my mom bought me in December? Well I finally got them out and turned them into new pillows for our sofa. It's a great sofa, nice and comfy but it's such a deep dark blue, midnight really, that it needed something light. Our living room and dining room are basically furnished in blues yet I've discovered that it's lacking contrasts. When we saw these place mats and cloth napkins we knew that it was exactly the pizazz needed. They make me think of colorful mosaic pottery.

From this ...

to this!

The center dark green stripe was much wider than the others. That was quickly fixed with a few pin tucks. Voila!

Dolls and art in my home

The other week I went to the home of three friends. They were all different styles: rental apartment, eclectic assortment of buildings in the hills, and a suburban two-story home. As soon as I walked through the door one thing was common in each home, you knew that an artist lives here! I found myself wondering if guests to my home would have that same thought. If you looked in any room other than my studio then the answer would be no. How sad is that.

Yesterday I began to change that. I completed the Verity doll from Deanna Hogan's class. All that was missing was hair. I sewed a wig from a light auburn plate of Tibetan lambswool (from Dollmaker's Journey). Once that was done I made a nice fabric covered stand, and VOILA! she was finished. UPDATE: Here's the link to Deanna's pictures from the class.

This is how the entry way looked before I put Verity there. Now when you first step into our home you'll see one of my artworks. Hmm, but I'm not 100% happy with the way that it looks. I think that the candles were better because of their height. I may have to go back and find a chair for Verity to sit in and restore the height balance. I'll just have to use that lovely doll stand for another doll.

Here's a better look at the finished doll:

And a closeup of her face:

Weekend with Mom

The weekend visit from my mom was filled with lots of talking, laughter, weeding, talking, organizing, shopping, and yes, more talking. We organized the garage shelves, the hall closet and the shelves above the washer/dryer. Then she helped me trim the lemon tree while I did a little weeding. I'm still sore! Sunday morning after Steve treated us to breakfast, I treated mom and me to a much deserved manicure. After showing her my unfinished wall-hanging quilt that was destined to go above the sofa in the living room we went shopping for accessories. I kept fighting my original color scheme and then realized that the quilt would look so much better in the guest room. Ah ha! Now I was a bit more free to choose something that would work better against all the dark blues in the living room. I needed accent colors! Mom suggested we look at the napkin section as potential pillows. Sure enough, these graphic stripes and circles jumped out at me. So mom treated and now I will soon have some pillows in the living room. Then in a blink of an eye the trip was over and she was flying home. Thanks for the visit Mom!

Backyard bounty

This is the view of my backyard that I see whenever I take out the trash. It's good that it's springtime because all the plants that were planted last summer are really starting to be established. Well, except for a few loses that we had due to the unusual frost this past winter. I had to replant a few lantanas and a lavender sage bush. Of course I didn't have access to the same nursery source that the landscaper had so I made do with the smaller pots that you can get at Home Depot. They'll just take a bit longer to get to the same size, but that's okay. There's still a few missing plants that should be replaced. Only one of the kanga paws survived and I'd really like to get two more to take their places. Otherwise I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

The roses are climbers and need to have some sort of trellis or stainless steel wire mounted for them to train on. I read one source that said not to do anything with them for the first couple years and then to train'em. I don't know, I'm not familiar with growing roses. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Now it's back to Lemondrop. I'm almost finished with the new illustration. Stay tuned (either later this afternoon or early tomorrow morning.)

Saga of the kitchen sink

Do you ever feel like it's just one thing after another? Well Monday night I clogged the kitchen sink. (Yes, I should have known better than to put the burned rice down the garbage disposal. Lesson learned, believe me!) The plumber wouldn't be available until after 10pm so I asked if they could come Tuesday morning instead. Tuesday came and the plumbing company said that no one would be available until the afternoon, but I had an appointment I couldn't cancel. Finally we arranged for someone to come yesterday morning.

Plumber showed up and promptly made a mess. Water was all over the floor and he got water into the electrical outlet under the sink (for the garbage disposal and dishwasher). Hmm, you know that water and electricity don't mix, doncha? I'm not sure that this guy was thinking because we then smelled smoke. I ran into the garage and turned off the circuit. Oy! I really don't want the house to burn down because of a clogged drain. He finally fixed the clog after 1 1/2 hours, during which he complained to me about having to drive far for his next appointments. Then he complained to a friend on his cell phone about having to fix this stupid clog.

The upshot is that the electrical outlet is fried and will have to be replaced. The good thing is that when I called the plumbing company's owner and told him how upset I was about the shoddy service he agreed to mail back my check! Wow, that made me feel much better. So another lesson learned ... politely complain about bad service and you just may get some good service.  :-)

Porch Decorating

I decided that I needed a sewing break this afternoon and tackled the porch. It's been a bit barren looking and needed some touches of color. The pot used to have some colorful flowers in it, but they died last July. Needless to say, I've been a bit slow to replace them. It also turned out that I put the wrong plants together. Some wanted drought and others wanted the rainforest. It was fated to go badly. So they went out and the standard never-fail geraniums went in.I found the cute little metal chairs from Costco, the tiny mosaic table from Bed, Bath & Beyond, the chair cushions from Lowe's, and the plants from Home Depot.

And just in case you thought that maybe the porch wasn't so bad before, here's what it looked like earlier today. (The table and chairs have only been there for the last month ... it was really sparse looking before that!)

Spring is at our porch!

This is the remains of a little nest in the eaves of our porch. Apparently two amorous birds have decided that this would be the ideal place to store some eggs. Luckily we've discovered this BEFORE any eggs were deposited. Otherwise it'd just be too cruel to destroy the nest. It's a very fragrant nest due to the use of pine needles and leaves from the lemon tree. I'll have to keep a close watch to make sure that they don't come back to rebuild.

[EDIT: Doggone! Those little birds are persistent buggers. Wouldn't you know it, but not 15 minutes later they had built that nest again. This time I got some hardware cloth and finishing nails from the hardware store. I don't think that they'll be able to get through that now. If so, then I guess that they're destined to nest at our porch. It's not that I don't like birds .. I do. It's just that I know from other people's experience, that the mother bird will be flying down and chasing anyone who's at the front door.]

Also last weekend we saw two squirrels "chasing" each other around the tree in our friends' backyard. It's definitely that time of year for our local animals.  :-)

Last week was also a busy one since I started a new work project and I turned 39 on Thursday. Just one more year before the big 4-0! Steve took me to Il Postale to celebrate. It's a cute little Italian restaurant that's in the same building as the old Sunnyvale post office once lived. It's a nice piece of local history, plus they have outstanding food. And I got my very own molten lava cake complete with a candle on Sunday! All in all a very nice time.

Now it's been a very quiet week for our Pesach this year. Just some pastel and maybe some hard-boiled eggs. And of course, lots and lots of matzah! I hope everyone's having a happy Passover!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah everyone! This is a quick picture that I snapped Saturday night of one of our menorahs. This one is from my good friend Rachel when we swapped art. In return I made two little dolls for her sweet little granddaughters. I really enjoy the little faces as they sing their songs. Did you see the little cat that's holding the shamash candle? It's not really laid out in a traditional manner, but it's a beautiful piece of art. Rachel's work is stunning in person. I'll have to ask permission to photograph a few of her pieces the next time we meet for a sewing circle.

This year I also found a nice electric menorah for our windowsill. Somehow the thought of candles next to the blinds makes me nervous, but electricity is fine. The little light bulbs flicker like real flames. I'll have to brave the cold one of these nights and take a picture of it. Maybe I'll wait until the eighth night so that you can see it fully lit.

So I managed to send out my Hanukkah presents to everyone in the nick of time. This just leaves Christmas presents for our friends who celebrate that. Okay, I've been procrastinating as usual, but here's the little piles of a few of the presents to be completed. I guess I'll have to really jump through hoops to get these done. Maybe next year I'll be more on top of everything? Is there a 12-step program for procrastinators? Hmm, somehow I'm thinking that they don't even manage to get to step #3.   :-)

This is the sock-monkey quilt for Tina's new baby and these are two Wee Wonderfuls' put-together kitties for my two favorite little girls. I'll have to embroider their initials on the dress after I sew it together. Did you see the little turquoise flower buttons that I received from Petulant Feminine in last month's pincushion swap? I couldn't wait to use them in a project.

Okay, it's off to sewing ... can I make it in time? Stay tuned friends and find out.  :-)

Happy Halloween!

This is "Marcus the Carcas" in our front porch's rock bed (from Target). It's a little bit on the scary side and glows on/off. But as you can see with the porch light on it's not so bad. Hopefully it won't scare the trick-or-treaters too much. Not that we get a whole bunch of munchkins in our neighborhood. I think last year we managed to almost run out of candy. But that's only because towards the end I told everyone to take 3 pieces of candy instead of the usual 2 pieces. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!