Coffee Pot Sisters, Isabella & Gillian

Isabella Mary Goode

Was ever a bride so calm? Isabella peacefully awaits her bridegroom, who should be here momentarily. Part of her joy in marrying is taking her bridegroom's last name. It would not, probably, have mattered what it was. She has spent her entire life being teased: "Is-a Bella gonna Marry Good?! HAHAHAHA!" At last, at last, at last, she thinks to herself, athough she would never, ever, intimate those feelings to her beloved parents, who had a particular thing for names.

Isabella's mother, blissfully in contrast, is bustling about greeting guests. The wedding is taking place in the garden, of course, quite competently planned by Isabella’s sister Gillian.



Gillian Westhope Goode

Gillian’s parents were poor, but proud, and never afraid to dream grand things for their children. To that optimism they added a certain wisdom: “Fate favors the well-named,” Mrs. Goode would remark, “And the well-educated!” Mr. Goode would invariably respond.

Never a couple to speak one thing and do another, they named their eldest daughter Gillian Westhope Goode, and when she showed a love of people and a pronounced interest in all things botanical, they scrimped and saved to send her to the local College of Horticulture.

Gillian now works as an Events Planner specializing in Garden Celebrations, charming both clients and participants, and turning “yards” into “Landscapes of Delight”, sometimes in a matter of days. Her parties always come off without a hitch, and hardly anyone remembers the (well-earned) nickname her siblings awarded her years ago: Giddy Gilly Goode.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #17

It's Spring, and even the fences are in bloom! Don't you just love it?

Appropriately enough, in view of all that blooming, I have a show tomorrow. And not just any show, oh no. It's the annual plant sale the Aloha Garden Club has (allow me to be redundant here) every year. If you live in the Portland, OR area, come out and see us!

Aloha Huber Elementary School
5000 SW 173rd
Aloha, OR

It goes from 9am until 3pm, and there will be plants, lots of plant, and also a good bit of garden art, including mine.

APRIL BRINGS MORE MEGA BLOSSOMS

Warmer weather, and with it the garden show season, has arrived, and with it what I, with tongue firmly in cheek, call "work"--creating the garden art I take to those shows. Yesterday, I focused on more Mega Blossoms, so today I have pictures. As usual, I couldn't wait until I had the stem-holding fixtures made and affixed, so they're photographed lying on the grass or leaning against things. (Personal chide: Better photos soon. They do need to be shown in their natural habitat, on sturdy stems, blooming in the garden.)

No more verbiage, just photos:

TWO ZANY ZEBRAS

Every month, the Etsy Bloggers Team features a different team member. I confess to having been so distracted (not to mention out of state) lately, that I've missed doing my entries for the last month or two. I repent, and will try to do better in future.

This month's featured blogger is Two Zany Zebras

Below are several items from her Etsy shop (www.twozanyzebras.etsy.com)Now I ask you, could kids' clothes be any cuter?!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade TwoZanyZebras.etsy.com

I love the tactile quality of the appliques, the way parts of them are not sewn down, so that little hands may explore. If you click on any of the images above, you'll be taken to the shop itself, where there are more cute-cute-cute items. Do check them out, and if you have little ones to buy for, well, you know what to do!

Her blog is great, too--full of fun and photos. I think a trip there will not disappoint. (You will love the photo of her son in his new "Easter headgear"!)

MIDNIGHT

It's best to go to bed before midnight, before
my confused circadian rhythms get the best
of me and I forget common sense and alarm
clocks and start that wide-awake prowl
through dim rooms with lost corners to the seat
beside the black window where I sip
solitude like wine and taste
the quiet, not a silence, but a different
kind of noise, as if shadows
could muffle your ears and only fearful sounds come
through like the sudden creak of a coffin's lid and you
gasp/laugh, embarrassed, because it was your own chair
squeaking and then you're past the scare
and you hold this hour like a hungry man
holds his plate with his forearm on the table and his hand
curved around the rim
and that plate's not going anywhere,
and you hold this because
it's yours, you possess it
and no one wakes to wrest it from you.

HOW GREEN IS MY SHOP

The Etsy Blogger Carnival choices this time focus on Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22. One of the questions we bloggers might chose to answer is, "What is green in your shop?"

Well, that's easy enough. Virtually everything in my shop is "green". My art materials are what I find at estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and other people's junk piles, and I use those found/recycled materials to make...

Coffee Pot People





Tea Kettle Characters





China Blossoms



Mega Blossoms





And Button Stack Jewelry





Most of what I've put in this post isn't in my shop right now, either because I've already sold it, or because I don't have it listed yet, but this is a pretty good representation of my art. I say "pretty good" because (standard disclaimer here) I'm ADD, and, well, showing more than the tip of the art iceberg would probably be way more than you want to see or know!

IT'S SPRING--MEGA BLOSSOMS ARE BLOOMING!

I've been making Mega Blossoms, during this first week of really good weather.

It's easiest for me if I can work on them outside, where I can set up the big tables and spread out the china. Then, when everything has been arranged, and rearranged, and stacked, unstacked, and restacked, I can start gluing. The warmth of the sun sets up the glue more quickly, which means fewer times back to the table to see if anything has slid off-center.

I'm just going to upload some of my favorites, with an apology for the less-than-awesome photography. Until I get the back assemblies on them, I can't put them on their stems and show them in the garden, so they get the flat-on-the-table treatment.