May Day

As the sweet tradition goes...

the small baskets are often homemade and filled with flowers or treats.

They are usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps

or hooked over the handle or knob.

or in this case the door knocker

The basket giver rings the bell and runs away

May Day Basket created with heavy card board and paint sample cards

by cutting them in thin strips and weaving them in and out

in a basket weave design

then wrapping the handle with additional strips.

Easter Greetings

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Published in Altered Couture

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read more about the top here

and a second article on page 135

fun embellishing of a little wool hat with vintage lace edging

with a removable magnetic flower pin

GRATEFUL TO BE INCLUDED !

Spring Flowers

"I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose

I would always greet it in a garden."

- Ruth Stout

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is.

And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want,

but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

~Mark Twain

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. ~The Koran

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~Claude Monet

Yellow Roses

an old cotton sheet ripped into 2" strips

then dipped in slip and creatively twisted into stylized roses

are attached to a wet clay vase form with leaves and stems artfully arranged

and after untold hours of glazing & reglazing

then firing...

TA-DAH !

and it all started with the gift of gratitude here

Artfully arranged treasures

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a short post asked about displaying and creating

beautiful focal points with our treasured collections

if you have been collecting treasures that speak to your heart

consider grouping like items together to create a focal point

having been collecting

and gifted with seashells for many years

( the treasure trove shown above was a gift last week

from my neighbor Jessica, inspiring this creativity )

I selected a few favorites

choosing all neutral tones for my color scheme

and gathered them together

and placed them on a pedestal of the same genre

to show them off at their very best !