Lemon Tree Tales

Rosy Pincushion

I couldn't resist making a matching pincushion for the tape measure that I made earlier this week. Once again, thanks to Craftapalooza's  tutorial on how to make this pincushion. 

This is from the companion fabric to the smaller print on the tape measure.

I also looked at Hillary's  quick tutorial on making shrinky-dink pins to go with it. I've had this shrinky-dink plastic for quite a long time now but never really got inspired to do anything with it until now. The first ones that I tried are the paler ones in the photo. I used a silver colored pencil to outline the designs but that didn't have the effect that I expected. So on the next go-round I tried drawing the design with a fine-line permanent sharpie on the smooth side of the plastic. Then I colored it from the rough side of the plastic. My favorite is the itsy bitty dragonfly near the button.  (I have a fondness for all designs of dragonflies, monkeys, fairies, mermaids, and sometimes frogs.)

Mosaic Beauties

There's a shopping center that I like to go to, mainly because of Border's Bookstore, but sometimes for Chipotle's burritos. This particular center used to be a cherry orchard back when Silicon Valley grew more agriculture as opposed to new technology. I'm especially drawn to these beautiful mosaic towers and mosaic benches that is the artscaping. (Okay, I don't know if that's a true word, but since we have landscaping, softscaping and hardscaping, this just seems to fit in. Plus it's important to have art as part of the environment.) I don't know who the artist is. I'll have to look more closely the next time I go there.

Here's one of the towers (notice the grey skies above, yes more rain is in store):

Here's a closer look:

Another side, isn't the orange section gorgeous!

I'm now thinking that I need to incorporate this somewhere. Our front steps are old concrete right now. I'm thinking that I should take a cue from Dana's mosaic front steps  and do something like that this summer. That is of course if my DH likes the idea. I think that first I should stain the concrete to look like old terracotta tiles then do the mosaic only on the sides of the two steps. Could be an interesting way to add a hint of color to the front of the house.

I also think that this could be a great start to a quilt sometime ... I know, after I finish the doll, the wall-hanging and the three baby quilts. Lots of UFOs flying around here. Plus I have more freelance work to finish before Passover.