Good morning spring!

 What a beautiful day!  The sun is shining so bright.  Just what I've been waiting for, sunshine and warm weather.   It's been a really long winter.   

We have some early blooming flowers spreading a bit of color around the garden.     

The pollen is here and the bees are buzzing.   

Strawberry blossoms!  

And the azaleas are getting ready to show their beautiful colors.  

Glorious spring!

A mosaic garden stone

and this one is for Riley.  

I have done other mosaics in the past for the garden, too.  It's such an enjoyable craft and once I get started I want to do more and more.  You can see my welcome stone here.  Another garden stone here (a blue one).  A yellow mosaic birdhouse here.  And a mosaic bird bath here.  

I've also done mosaics on terra cotta saucers, here and here.

I made this garden stone red for Riley because when he was just a pup the breeder painted his toe nail red so she could tell the pups apart.  There were six in the liter, Otis included and he had his toe nail painted purple.  So ever since then we always bought Riley red collars, red leashes and red sweaters.  

He was always red.  And so, the red garden stone.  

Early morning beauty in the garden.

 Early this morning as I glanced out the bedroom window I could see a white glistening frost covering the garden.  It was beautiful!  With my cup of coffee and camera in hand I headed outside.  

The pansies looked like they were dipped in sugar ready to eat.    

Soft, white, and beautiful!  

 Sad to say, by noon, it was all gone.  

Garden decor.....

...for the new year. 

It's January, can you believe it?  Happy 2012 everyone! 
Over the holidays our family played Secret Santa at one of our gatherings and this is the gift I ended up with.  I love it!  It's a metal garden stake temperature gauge in the shape of a flower adorned with marbles.  It's perfect for the garden.  And as you can see the temperature is only in the 20s.  Brrrrrrr.  There was ice in the bird bath this morning.

So what's the best thing to do on a really cold bitter day?  Cozy up by the fire with a hot cup of coffee (or tea or hot chocolate) and enjoy reading your favorite magazine.   

Hope you're staying warm in your neck of the woods! 
 

How to make a mosaic garden stone

Mosaic garden stones are easy to make and they look lovely in the garden. I enjoy working with mosaics and I find myself experimenting with different ways of using broken tiles and pieces of pottery. I'm far from being an expert at this and sometimes just work through a project and figure it out on my own.

This is how I made my garden stone.

Start with a stepping stone that you can buy at Lowes, Home Depot or any garden center.

I use Mosaic Tile Adhesive that I buy at Michaels.

Now use your favorite colors of broken tile (you might have to cut pieces to size using a tile cutter), then glue them to your stepping stone. I let this dry overnight.

I forgot to take a photo of the grout, but you can buy grout at your hardware store, I got mine at Lowes. It's the kind you mix water and then apply. Fill in all the cracks and smooth over. After it drys go over it with a wet cloth.

And there you go! A beautiful mosaic garden stone. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. Sometimes the imperfections are part of its beauty.

Garden Decor

Spring time and gardening is the perfect time to think about some whimsical garden decor for your garden.

Little porcelain teapots on metal stakes adorned with ribbon.

The one (below) is a Distlefink teapot. The birds symbolize good luck and the heart, love.

Strawberries on this fancy one,

and flowers on the other side.

And how about a two-story bird house painted with flowers?

You can find these and a lot more whimsical garden things in my whimsy two shop.

Garden signs

This garden sign was painted on a piece of wood molding that I found. It has wonderful old chippy paint. I'll be painting more of these signs for the garden and you can find them in my shop!

Enjoy your spring day!

Thrifty finds

I had some fun "thrifting" last week with my sister. I found this rustic old lantern for only $5.00. I believe at one time it had glass panels, but, hey, no need for the glass, this will be great for the garden. I have a candle in it right now but it could also be used to hold a flower pot.

This cute little windchime was only $3.00. It has a pretty tinkling sound. You know how much I love windchimes.

I also have a love for colored glass art balls. This one is a beautiful amber color, only $5.00, I have it floating in my birdbath.

And last but not least I found a bunch of these miniature teapots (for $2.50) which I've already attached to metal garden stakes for some garden art! I'll be selling these in my shop. Just a few more ribbons and they'll be ready to go.

Projects

There is always a new project going on at my art table ~ some new projects, some old projects. Here sits a painting I started a year ago and never finished of my garden table in the back yard. I will try to finish that this year, (hmmmm, I wonder why I never finished that one).


I started some garden signs on old pieces of chippy wood molding that Galen had in the shop. I love old pieces of wood. Also, I'm painting a little wooden pig for another marble roller. Do you see those little painted Easter eggs on my art table? They will be painted with tiny Easter scenes of bunnies and chicks.

And, I'm working on more garden art tea cups and tea pots. I found a bunch of little porcelain tea pots at a shop last week, so they will be going on stakes for the garden.

The artist's world is limitless.

It can be found anywhere,

far from where he lives or a few feet away.

It is always on his doorstep.

~Paul Strand