Home Again to the Garden

I’ve been on vacation the last two weeks and have come home in one of the loveliest times of the year. The fruit trees and lilacs are all in bloom, the grass was knee high and the nurseries packed with people buying plants.  It’s a bit early to start the garden, but after a long winter the urge to go outdoors and play in the dirt is very strong. Here’s some of what was waiting for me when I arrived home.

I’ve gotten a lot of the grass mowed, but not around the edges!

I had started preparing the garden before my trip and gave it another digging after I returned.  Now’s it’s all ready to fence and do a final grooming before planting.

While I was on vacation, I was playing with my books – of course.  I really like the format of the new soft cover book.  I had cut a bunch of paper for text and covers before I left on vacation as I knew I would have a lot of free time to play.  Here’s the result of my play.  They aren’t quite finished as there is some final gluing and trimming to do.

I had a lot of fun with these books.  First in matching up my marbled paper with a complementary piece of heavy stock, then choosing the thread and playing with the long-stitch pattern and finally deciding on the shape of the slots for the front and back tabs.  Only one of these books has the front and back of the same paper.  I’m looking forward to finishing these up … soon.

Next on my agenda is a marbling class that I’ll be teaching for the local arts center.  It should be a lot of fun. I’m planning on just covering the basics and having the participants have fun experimenting with colors, papers and anything else I can think of.