B is for Blooming Flowers

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

After such a rough winter, I'm still in awe that it's finally nice enough for green grass and flowers again. I feel ridiculously grateful every time I step outside. Today I'm sharing the best of my flower photos from a recent excursion in the Milwaukee area. Enjoy.

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for the letter B this week right here!

in the works lately

Just a few things that I've been working on lately...

Remember how last month I mentioned that I was finally finishing this piece that I started months and months ago? It's done! I need to take more photos and get it listed, but I'm making progress. It also feels good to finally use some of my ceramic buttons.

I don't use a lot of beading patterns, but I bought Carol Dean Sharpe's bargello ribbon pattern years ago. I've never gotten sick of it. I pulled these colors out months ago without any specific plan for them and this pattern just seemed to be calling them. It has so much color that I decided to pair it with a neutral button. (Edi has these custom buttons in her shop now. Go check them out.)

I finished a red and white striped version recently, too. You can also see it over here. I'll have more pictures of it soon. The green one is a personal piece that I pulled out again to use as a reference for the pattern. I have a 2" version of the pattern that Carol Dean very kindly sent me for free for a custom order a couple years ago. Working on bargello lately is making me itch to try it again.

I've been playing around with some possible color combinations for said 2" cuff, one of which was an all purple cuff. I simply don't have anything in my current stash that works. After multiple false starts with varying colors, I finally settled on this color combination and then decided that it would work better for a skinny herringbone wrap piece.

Originally I was thinking about purple so that I could use another one of my ceramic buttons. I don't think that either of these buttons really works with this piece, though. We'll see if anything else in particular speaks to me as I keep working on it.

I've had an idea for a yellow cuff for several years now. I've picked out beads, not liked what I picked, used them for other projects, and forgotten about it. A couple times. It's way past time to make this happen. Also, this time of year makes me want to work with all of the green beads in my stash. I have beads pulled for a floral / leafy green piece. Getting all of these greens pulled makes me want to create something with yellow and lime, too.

 Finally, whenever Oriental Trading has a free shipping on any order coupon, I check out their current bulk button offerings. This month they had a brand new black and white button stash. Aren't they amazing? This set here is just a small sampling. I also picked up some more wooden buttons.

What have you been creating this month?

Friday Feature: I Can't Make Up My Mind

Back in December, I put together an I Can't Make Up My Mind treasury and then a feature post along this same theme. I still love it so much that I'm bringing it back again. I know that we can all use more color this time of year. Enjoy!

Peach Ombre Paper Flower Bridal Bouquet; Large Coral Bouquet; Light Peach, Salon, and Coral by FlowerThyme

Vase / violet Vase / dark Purple Home Decor / purple housewares / home and garden by CarriageOakCottage

Funny Coffee Kitchen Poster - Instant Human Just Add Coffee - Red Dots Art Print - Morning by hairbrainedschemes

Fern Drop Earrings Peridot Green Olive Sterling Silver Dangle Drops by PoleStar

Blue Floppy Disk Mini Notebook and Post it note holder - for men or women by PipingHotPapers

 Yellow Opal Curved Glass Leaves, 15mm - 25 pieces by TheDutchTulip

 Beauty Tote Bag in Purple Pink / Diaper Bag / Shoulder Bag / Messenger Bag / Outside Pocket / Inside Pockets / Chic / Summer by bayanhippo

Friday Feature: color indecision

Last week I put together a new treasury.

I Can't Make Up My Mind

I love this concept so much (surprise, right?) that I'm continuing it today for my feature post. Enjoy!

Peppermint Sticks (Painted branches in Vase) / Holiday Home Decor / Whimsical home decor / red and white Christmas by CarriageOakCottage

Nursery Decor, Children's Wall Art, Aqua Religious Posters, Set of 2, Jeremiah 1:5, 11x17 Letterpress Prints by PrintandBeMerry

Purple Baby Booties Fake Fur Pelt Infant Newborn Nursery Children Button Lilac Pink by Hopphopp

Mustache Mug Moustache Mug Lime Green Double Sided Kiln Fired by LennyMud

Mother bird card, bright yellow by moonmum

Love, Wood Block Decor. by bubblewrappd

Tote Bag Large Purse Orange Gunilla by GraceandFirefly

What is your favorite color?

Friday Feature: rainbow picks

Inspired by one of my newly listed Etsy items (and my never ending passion for brightly colored things), I put together a rainbow feature today. Enjoy.

Beaded Bracelet - Silver Chain Links - Bright Colorful Multicolored Rainbow by randomcreative

Rainbow Chevron SLR Camera Strap - Free Shipping by seelorisew

Rainbow Polka-Dot Wavy Rimmed Dish - Colorful Pottery Serving Piece - Made to order by chARiTyelise

Rainbow art print, inspirational quote, colorful print, rainbow poster, multicolor art by PrintsByStellaChili

Rainbow Recycled Art Note Card - Mosaic Quilt Collage OOAK Blank Inside by Fuffalumps

6/0 Opaque Rainbow Luster Mix Czech Glass Seed Bead Strand from beadsandbabble

Rainbow Mini Clothespins - Set of 12 by 1PixiePlace

Have you been loving any bright multicolored items lately? Share your favorite links!

photo share: Botanical Gardens

Happy July!

Where did June go? Summer always goes way too quickly, but I'm doing my best to enjoy every minute of it. As you know, lately this has included getting out and taking a lot of pictures. I was able to get out to the Boerner Botanical Gardens last month and capture some of the gorgeous colors. Enjoy.

 

Manual focus: If you have an SLR lens with manual focus, I highly urge you to try it and experiment with blurred vs. focused shots. I cannot get enough of these blurred shots lately as well as the general range of possibilities that manual focus offers.

Some of these blurred floral shots remind me of paintings. For those of us who have very limited painting skills (like me), it's really amazing to achieve this kind of effect through photography.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my monthly top commenters and news post!

in the works this week and other updates

I've spent most of this past week working on my design piece for Kristie's team reveal, which is on Friday.  Here are a couple sneak peaks of my champagne herringbone rope for it.

The September EBW Challenge theme is Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My.  You can read more about it here.   You can take any element of lions, tigers, and bears and pair it with any element from The Wizard of Oz.  I am still obsessed with my right angle weave base that I've used for my last two challenge pieces.  I was planning on using Swarovskis as embellishment with a similar base for this challenge.  I had to go to Michael's last week to get something for my design piece and I picked up these beads instead.

I have used Swarovskis a few times, mostly because of the Art Beads blogging program.  They are neat, but they honestly aren't my favorite.  These beads won't have the same bling that the Swarovskis, too, but they will definitely be more colorful and fun, which also fits with this theme.  I am also very proud of the fact that I got out of Michael's only spending $16.  I had a 25% off everything coupon which helped.  Always go to Michael's with a coupon!

I finished my design piece on Sunday and have started working on my Wizard of Oz piece.

I asked Sharla if she had any good resources for paw print charms.  She very generously offered to send me one from her own collection.  Thanks Sharla!  It's on its way right now.  It will be my animal component for this piece.


Also, catching up, I finally found the picture of myself wearing one of Yvonne's pendants.  This picture is from November 2008.

And Patrice from The Soap Seduction gave me this award last week.  Thanks Patrice!  That's very sweet.