Valentine’s Day 2024

Valentine’s Day 2024 Valentine’s Day has always been a high holy day for me. For some reason, I’ve looked forward to it since I was a child, buying all kinds of cards and annually baking all kinds of red desserts for my kids. So, of course, I chose red roses for my new crepe de chine shawl-26” x72”. Carmen is a sultry wrap for an evening out. I have one in stock. Red happens to be my favorite color. What’s yours? People say your chosen color paints a certain picture of the person behind the color. I agree with SOME of
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Holidays Are Here!

Holidays Are Here! December has ushered in a quiet garden and a new holiday season. I love this time of year as thoughts turn to gifts and scheming over festive cooking recipes for family. And, of course, creating new artwork. As an artist, my interest in every season stays focussed on color – a driving force behind the need to create. I’m not sure if flowers will always be at the center of my artwork. Flowers are a means to my end of celebrating color. The image at top, is a shirt I made many years ago. Not floral. I
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Autumn Begins

Autumn Begins. Once again, it’s taken me too long to reach out and stay in touch. This could become a seasonal blog, which means only posting maybe 4x annually. There’s a thought.   Like all of us, I will try to do better- until life once again gets in the way.  Yes! Fall is here, and with it, torrential rains in Connecticut. We’re busy sewing and cleaning up per usual-with one caveat. My left foot remains encased in a walking boot for another two weeks to round out EIGHT WEEKS- due a stupid foot fracture. It’s really a quite simple practice to remember-
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Mother Nature: Litchfield Summer 2023

Mother Nature: Litchfield Summer 2023 Mother Nature has always been the inspiration for my creative work. It makes sense that summertime is incredibly labor-intensive- caring for all those growing things that inspire creativity.   Since flowers are the high point of plant life in my garden, one puts lots of time in to get the flowers. Of course, as we learned especially well this year, Mother Nature may have entirely different plans- regardless of what you do or don’t do. An early frost here in Connecticut killed the entire hill of azalea flowers, save one bush, a Maine native that blooms late.
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Spring Into Summer

Spring Into Summer …ouch, I’m pretty sure that’s been said before. Spring is motoring ahead into summer- which officially starts June 21. Featured today is a new scarf I call Savannah-homage to a recent visit to that beautiful Georgian city. I was inspired by the city sidewalk grates. Beautiful and functional too. Beauty is something that’s too often lacking in our everyday lives. Mulch is in. Three yards of mulch arrived this week. These last many days I’ve been doing azalea bloom prep work like pruning and checking for winter damage. That includes placing Hollytone, cultivating winter-hardened soil and watering
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Let The Show Begin!

Let the Show Begin! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Did you know the shamrock was considered a sacred plant in ancient Ireland? It symbolized the rebirth of spring.  This week was my first sales event for 2023. It was a single person trunk show at a very well appointed life care facility in Bloomfield, Connecticut- Duncaster. Lovely people, enjoyable time. I enjoyed sitting with my friend Janet, a recurring partner, who makes for a very pleasant few hours. Equally pleasant, sales were hotter than my Christmas event. We shall do it again!  The Guardians of Early Spring- Skunk Cabbage Call it a
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Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is your first look at my new scarf, Star Sapphire, which features red parrot tulips. Even though I faithfully photograph tulips each Spring, I’ve struggled with a lack of interest in using them in scarf designs. Parrot tulips, however, are my #1 favorite for their wild and wooly ways. Thanks to Pantone’s announcement of Viva Magenta as its color of the year, I’ve taken the plunge. Red tulips en masse. In this design, I’ve also incorporated some of the work I’ve been doing this winter-creating repeating designs I can marry to oversized florals. Honestly,creating repeating designs somewhat offends
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Let it Snow

Let it Snow. Bring on hibernation then- even though Fall was waaay too short. Let’s slow time down, just a bit please. Toward the end of September, Larry snagged an opportunity to switch houses for a month in Seattle, Washington, starting just before Halloween. Happily, we changed houses with my brother and sister-in-law, so not so scary, just labor-intensive. Fortunately, we didn’t realize that prepping the house for such a gambit, in addition to fall garden and lawn processing was INSANE. Did I mention I was also committed to labeling and packaging scarf and pillow products for a fair, happening just
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The Circle Game

The Circle Game. We all know it. You can feel it. Fall. The circle of seasons continues. But doesn’t it feel like it got cool all of a sudden??? A few days ago I brought in some plants that I’d put out for the summer-just to be safe. I left one out because it hasn’t been doing well and I was secretly planning to let it go to compost. This morning it was mildly blackened from a light frost. On October 6! I just read that in Connecticut the risk of frost is from October 5 through May 10. By
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Holding Onto Green

Impossibly, today is a little cooler following a long dry summer here in Connecticut. It’s nice to not be constantly worrying about the last time I watered my garden residents. And it’s wonderful to look out and see the dark soil, nicely saturated. Mother Nature does such a better job than I. This is the first year that almost all the hostas, day lilies and phlox were chewed away pre -bloom. Mysterious nocturnal marauders assaulted my little garden. I started spraying a Bonide product called “Repels All,” after the fact. It holds some hope for next year and I’ll begin spraying
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