Lady bugs!!!

I just had to share this. My granddaughter found this in the garden the other day. She doesn't have to have glasses on to spy little tiny things in the garden. I do. So, when she showed me this it took me a minute to figure it out. How long will it take you to figure it out??


Anyway, I have lots of lady bugs in my garden ...and more on the way!!!

One-eyed root!!

I can't help it, I pick up pieces of old wood. I have stacks of old wood bits. The other day I was raking leaves and digging in the garden and this little beauty popped out. It had such a wonderful shape to it I decided to paint it. Of course it had to be bright colors, like a Mexican folk art piece.

Dirt Dobbers

I recently posted this fabulous find of a nest on my Rowdy Grandma blog, I have not yet created anything with it.

Pipe organ mud dauber wasp nest....these were huge!!

I was reminded of a project I did a couple of years ago for Lisa at Ten Two Studios. This was a project whose theme was gardens.

There are tons of dirt dobbers at my house, they nest absolutely everywhere!!! Some of them are so cool....and they build their little dirt nests in the most bizarre places.

These little guys built a nest in my husband's golf bag!!....boy was he tee'd off.

Being the keeper that I am, (some would say pack rat), I have saved some of these little beauties....so my garden art is a board book with treasured little dirt dobbers nests in them.

Lump- in- neck gourd

Okay ..again with the gourds...cause it's gourd planting time here in Texas. I have a book about gourds and it is amazing how many there are. I did not grow this particular gourd....I bought a bunch of these at my local garden center a couple of years ago. They were about to throw them out...my god!!!...I got tons of them for $5.00. I love it when I find a bargain! So I looked it up in the gourd book and it's a lump-in-neck gourd, not to be confused with the Indonesian bottle gourd......huh??

Day of the Dead gourd

First thing I will be doing is building a trellis. Gourd vines grow so incredibly fast....I mean it boggles my mind!!....and they climb everywhere..so this year I will give them plenty of space....they need to be off the ground.....while gourds are light when dry they can be quite heavy on the vine and have ended up on the ground before I knew it, and there ain't nothin' pretty about a smushed gourd!!

Out of my gourd!!!

God..I love the shape of gourds....
....every year I try growing my own gourds and have been only minimally successful....who would have known there was so much to consider when gourd growing.....I mean...did any of you guys realize there were women gourds and men gourds????...and they don't always get together even though they are on the same damn vine!!! ...so the first thing I had to know was what's the difference...and then I had to make sure they exchanged pollen!!!....well...that sounds like too much work....... Whatever...I will try growing them again this year...in the meantime I have painted quite a few of them and line my fence with them......here's the latest....


Hocus pocus

Hearts are spooky!!!

It is almost Valentines Day...and guess what I am not a heart person. Skeletons are more my thing!!! So...here are a few anti-Valentines I came up with for a contest at dabbled.org


I have been using old records for years to make jewelry. Don't worry the records I use are the ones I carried from house to house....garage to garage ...ever since I was a teenager..and that's been a really long time... so they ended up unplayable ...but I just couldn't throw them away.

These two anti-Valentines are both made from heating and forming these old records to create the heart shape. And yes...in the "Crazy for you" piece those are real bones. Since I am known for collecting just about everything friends and family who just happen across dried-up bones of small animals think of me!!! This piece stands in a frame made from chicken wire which I spray painted black, and then wired the bones to.


The "True love" piece also has what looks like a bone. However, it is a perm rod painted to look like a bone. I was thrilled when I took some old perm rods to a class given by Michael DeMeng and that son-of-a-gun just picked the perm rod up and immediately turned it into one of my favorite things...a bone.....he's genius when it comes to paint effects. I made this piece into a necklace by adding beads and red craft wire and an adjustable black silk cord.