About Me

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Sublimity, OR, United States
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I am artist of texture and color. I enjoy working with textiles, mixed media and the graphic arts. I am an avid cottage gardener with a love for pass along plants and big fluffy pink peonies and pink roses. Many of my tangible creations reflect my love of the garden and all its wonderful colors. I have been selling my creations online since 2002 beginning as a hobby. After 10 years I quit the day job to pursue my art as a full time passion.

22 September 2013

And we almost stayed home....

Last week I took you with us on our mountain adventure east and this week I am taking you west to the Pacific coast. The one thing about living in western Oregon is that you are never too far from the mountains or the beach.

Yep, we had the dates set aside for the family beach house since last spring. But the weather forecast was not promising at all. Rain. And lots of it. But we decided to go anyway. We brought several movies to watch and figured we would hunker down and just enjoy being away from it all. When we arrived Sunday evening it was cloudy with a heavy mist. We hit our favorite restaurant in Newport, The Chowder Bowl for fresh seafood and of course the clam chowder. We settled in for the night, and the next morning woke to drizzle. By mid morning the clouds broke and out came the sun, And by one o'clock the weather was so fabulous, I was planning a beach hike for us.
This is an easy 2 mile trail that winds just above the beach.



We didn't see any seal pups today, but they are quite common on the beach here

We pretty much had the trail to ourselves...


The above is one of my favorite scenes...the trees show the force of the wind that mother nature doles out on the coast line in winter.
until next time...lots more trails to discover!

Today is rainy and windy, how appropriate for western Oregon on the first day of fall.The forecast is that late this week we get maybe one more peek at the sun with some warm weather before the eternal rainy season sets in. And maybe one more chance for an outdoor adventure?

14 September 2013

from the top of the world...

Well, not really the top of the world, but it felt like it climbing those bumpy roads that you can only drive with a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle. I feel like somebody beat me up.

 We climbed to the top of several mountain ridges, and came across this spectacular vista~Mt Jefferson in the Willamette national forest.

The roads got worse with big chuck holes and washed out areas, but the rewards were so worth it. The little lake above is one we kind of stumbled upon. Jim decided he wanted to climb a more rocky dirt road. At the crest of the hill was this serene little lake.


Above and below is another larger lake a couple miles up the road. This one is Elk Lake. It has a forest service campground, just shy of being a total primitive setup. You bring in your own drinking water.and cart out your garbage.There is no options for a quick run to the store for ice or beer LOL. This is getting away from it all. The peaceful beauty makes you never want to leave.


We figure we have 1 or 2 more outings left before the rain and snow move in. 
Enjoying the beauty in our own Oregon backyard is so wonderful!

05 September 2013

Summers garden review

Yes I know, I should be thinking fall. but not just yet. I guess it must be something about growing up and being from the Pacific Northwest. While many of you breathe a sigh of relief when the cool fall weather arrives, I don't.  to me, it must be that here in Oregon, fall signals the start of a long gray rainy winter where the days are shorter and no hope of really seeing any sunshine until late March (if we get lucky). Spring can be slow to arrive and the joke is that summer never really arrives until July 4th. We also do not experience high humidity so hot summer days are tolerable. I am a summer girl, and nobody can force fall on me!



So I savor September as another month of glorious summer. You won't see anything related to fall on my porch until late October when I finally give in and accept the change of seasons. But I do use the month of September as a time to reflect and note what worked and didn't work in my garden.



My front porch hanging baskets were my prizes this year. Early spring I purchased large peat pots  with a special loop metal hanger for each one rather than the wire or chain hangers. This gave the plants plenty of growth room since my goal was to have baskets that lasted all season without being root bound half way thru the season.


I purchased 6 inch pots of already mixed combos of annuals. That way I didn't even have to think about the perfect composition of flowers to each basket.



This chair planter sits on full shade, impatiens planted in an old hard hat worked well this year.


Back in the cottage garden, it was glorious until the hollyhocks, mallow and queen annes lace came out. Note to self: more color in the middle that blooms longer, And no more of that mulit color Alyssum, It got ugly early. I scrambled to fill in some holes with a few of my flea garden finds bringing in a little color

The chair back was in the re-purpose pile for next year, but it found a temporary home for the rest of the season.

 My granddaughters placed their little watering cans on this chair, keeping them handy for when they help in nana;s garden.

This little garden vignette is not new, but I do like to share it. It is simply a watering can hung off a shepards hook over a little bird bath. When you have visitors, put a few big chunks of ice in the can and water will drip as it melts out into the bird bath. Quite a conversation piece as folks try to figure out where the water is coming from!


Every Saturday

Where we reside

Where we reside

The Oregon Coastline

The Oregon Coastline