Gardening, rain and miniature watercolors

Good afternoon Folks,

It’s Monday and after doing some errands I mowed, and it’s a good thing, as we’ve already had some rain since I finished and I hear thunder in the distance.  I hadn’t mowed in two weeks and it really needed it. I’m glad that’s done. I enjoy mowing but it’s not as nice when the grass gets higher. I try to keep on top of it, but sometimes rain, or work stops me.  Tomorrow I hope to get out to weedwack and do some major trimming/pruning. I am behind so need to get caught up.

We were in a drought for about 5 years and gardens were easier to handle, now that we’ve had all of this rain I can hardly believe the growth on a daily basis, and feel like I’ve almost got more than I need and overwhelmed at times. Once cooler weather gets here though it will be nicer working outside.

Yesterday I dove into a stash of miniature watercolors that I did in 1996. Things happened in life, and I had put them aside. Now that we have my little Etsy shop I dug them out. I had to find a spot to take pictures without having shadows, and that wasn’t all that easy. I only did so many yesterday, then edited and uploaded them to listings on Etsy. There are more to come.

The paintings are all around 1 by 2 1/2 inches at the most, the overall sizes are larger of course because of the frames.

This morning I woke up before 5 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I was thinking about my wish list of books on Amazon, one of them is about Embroidering Redoute’s flowers. I have a book of Redoute’s finest flowers in our little library of books, and had to get up right then. I came out here to my little creative space, found the book, then saw another book I had forgotten about, The Florilegium. I had painted paintings from both of these books in the past. After looking at the little paintings from ‘96, I started feeling like painting again. DH encouraged me to yesterday when looking at them himself. He also paints (I have a miniature nude that he did after one of the old masters that I’ll have in my shop), and taught me and encouraged me to paint when we had our picture framing shop back in the mid 70’s. I used to doodle a lot, I mean a lot, but once I started painting I have hardly doodled. He would make miniature frames for me and still does. We’ve sold our art at art shows, flea markets, in the picture framing shop when we had it and then in our antique shop later. We have short lengths of picture frame moulding even now, in our stash, and he makes up frames for me and I fill them.

This morning I also thought of painting out in the caravan once it is finished.  There is LOTS of natural light in there and since I paint miniatures it is a nice space for that. We’ll see. One day at a time.

If any of you don’t think you have any talent, you are sadly mistaken.  It might be hiding and you’ve just not stumbled on it. At other times you just start out doing something and it turns into a love for doing it and you go from there. I used to say I couldn’t draw a straight line. You don’t have to. Let your heart speak through your hands, your words, cooking, gardening, in whatever medium you might enjoy. Have fun and don’t stress. The more you do something, the better you become at it. I want to paint better, do finer needlework etc.

Well, that’s it for now from Plum Cottage.

Thank you all so much for your kind comments and anniversary wishes. They are saved and cherished.

FlowerLady Lorraine