Kate of Tall Tales of Chiconia invites us to share our scrappy creations once a month for a meme she calls scrap-happy. I’m sharing three cards this month.
Imagine my delight when planning a baby shower card, reluctant to trot out the twentieth-century culture trope of pink or blue, to see this delightful, digital invitation.
Cuties are small mandarin fruit, and the oft-used descriptor of adorable babies and, stating the obvious here, they’re orange.
A few years ago, I bought a paper pack with 6 x 6 inch sheets of fruit-themed paper. I have a few odds and ends left, plenty to make this card,
and I found the perfect gift bag to go with it. It’s fun when things come together like that.
The other two cards used up the last of my beloved beehive paper and three rub-on bee transfers.
The following bloggers participate in this monthly challenge. Thank you, Kate, for inspiring us.
A May visit to New Mexico with my dear friend, Barbara, provided a lovely break from day-to-day life and the barrage of unsettling world news.
By phone and text, we planned ahead, agreeing to have unscheduled days, interspersed with activities and put-your-feet-up time in our residence hotel, making for a relaxing holiday. I flew to New Mexico from California and Barbara traveled from Ohio.
We stayed in Albuquerque for the week, with a day trip to Santa Fe. My friend Mary Ann was born and raised there, so she gave us a few recommendations. While there, we visited the Old Town and prowled a few shops, including a wonderful museum store, where we had lively conversations with the proprietor and a few guests. We ate authentic New Mexican food at a local diner, then walked through Burro Alley to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
The museum features decades of the artist’s work, some familiar, like the close-up flower paintings she’s known for, along with works from art school through her later life, when she lost her central vision.
Of particular interest is the final exhibit hall, featuring the work of several Native Pueblo people and addressing some of the conflict between O’Keeffe and the area’s Native people and this country’s relationship to the land we live on, land stolen from native ancestors.
Back in Albuquerque, we had a thrilling ride on an aerial tram that ascended to 10,378 feet, depositing us at the crest of the Sandia Mountains. You can take a peek at the spectacular aerial views of the tram ride on the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway website.
We took in views from windy observation decks, then enjoyed fruity drinks and decadent creme brulee banana splits while continuing to appreciate the view from our cozy seats.
Each tram holds about twenty standing-room-only passengers, and they alternate along the side of the mountain throughout the day. Employees of the restaurants also travel by tram, as do all the food, beverages, and other items needed to keep things running at the top. It’s an impressive operation.
The climb moves slowly with several brief stops, taking about 15 minutes to reach the top, with a 15-degree drop in temperature once on the decks. We had an amazing time.
Toward the end of the week, Barbara discovered Farm & Table via their Facebook page. This local gem features a restaurant, the family farm, and a cultural gift store called La Parada.
We loved La Parada’s around-the-world offerings and unique displays and enjoyed chatting with the shop owner and curator. La Parada is Spanish for “the stop”. Originally, the building served as a stagecoach stop in the 1800s. You can read more about the history of La Parada and Farm & Table here.
Dinner was fabulous, and we got to wander the gardens afterward, a treat for this gardener’s soul. You couldn’t ask for a nicer evening.
Our final adventure for the week was an interactive murder mystery dinner theater of a sort, more camp than drama, but fun nonetheless.
Dinner Detective HostThe Dinner Detective
I’ll end with one of those pinch-me moments: we spotted a roadrunner racing through a commercial parkway, and fortunately, no Wile E. Coyote in pursuit.
We’re not really going to bob for apricots, but we could.
Apricots hang inches from the ground.
Last year, we hired an arborist to prune our grafted plum and apricot tree. They shaped it beautifully, and it produced lots of fruit, most of it plucked clean by the neighborhood squirrels. No matter. The arborist thought the tree would hold its shape for a few years.
Instead, our grafted fruit tree has sent out long branches, heavy with fruit and dangling close to the ground. I had to prune several branches last month to make the path walkable. When I returned from holiday, the weight of the fruit had pulled most of the apricot branches to within inches of the ground,. The plum graft was standing tall.
This morning, I thinned the branches, removing the ones that were once again draped over the walkway, hoping that the substantial weight doesn’t snap limbs from the tree. Not for the first time, I may have left a few strands of my hair and a bit of scalp on a low-lying limb. Ouch.
The cherry tomato plant is producing lots of green tomatoes, and the beefsteak has formed at least 2 large fruits.
To our delight, a volunteer strawberry plant appeared under a shrub in the front garden, then sent out runners for a second and perhaps a third plant. So far we’ve had two berries.
Before the advent of tech and the birth of “Silicon Valley,” Santa Clara County was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight. We were once the largest fruit producer in the United States.
“Overall, California produces roughly 90%of all strawberries grown in the United States, with cultivation occurring year-round across approximately 37,000 acres of the state’s central and southern coastal regions.”
All this is to say that if we want delicious, fresh strawberries, there is no need to grow our own. As we move closer to June, I’m looking forward to smoothies, blueberries with frozen yogurt, strawberries, either alone or on cereal, or blended into fruity drinks.
We celebrated Mike’s birthday with a brief, mid-week holiday to Monterey and Carmel.
Mike near Canary Row
Leaving daily life behind for Carmel’s cool, coastal weather and quiet streets felt restorative.
Carmel, California, is a quiet, quaint oceanside town that’s worked hard to keep things that way, and who could blame them?
We had brunch at The Village Corner when we first arrived, and when they brought our bill, it was slipped into a paperback book rather than the usual vinyl folder. Enlarged black-and-white photos of famous people who live or lived in Carmel decorated the walls. Pulitzer Prize winner John Steinbeck is perhaps the most famous.
After brunch, we continued to the center of town and browsed shops and scouted places for dinner. Narrow alleyways and equally narrow stairways are prominent, adding charm to our meandering.
We had a fabulous meal on our first night at Pepi’s Little Napoli Bistro Italiano. The cozy ambiance felt like a warm hug with great service and tasty food. Instead of a large meal, we ordered four dishes to share. I should have skipped dessert, but where is the fun in that? At least we had a twenty-minute walk back to our hotel.
Carmel doesn’t have street lights at night, which proved a bit challenging as we traveled back up the gentle hill to our accommodations. I wore low-heeled shoes, but heels nonetheless, since we were dressing for dinner. We traversed brick sidewalks, sandy step-downs, and in some places, no walkway at all. Mike was at my side and steadied me a few times, but it was the ultimate test of my new hips. It is fair to say they passed.
The following day, we drove to Cannery Row, immortalized by John Steinbeck in 1945. It wasn’t as I remembered from many years ago, and it is now a bit cheesy, though facades of many buildings still remain. We hung out on the beach at the base of a hotel and took in the vast view of the bay.
Since we were on holiday, we enjoyed ice cream for lunch on the patio at Ghirardelli Chocolate, then took the scenic drive along the Monterey coast. McAbee Beach and Pacific Grove Beach are pictured below
I found a nice linen shirt for Mike’s birthday, and I picked up a small selection of postcards at my favorite pharmacy. We laughed out loud at a display of muslin tea-towels on the back patio of a small shop called Ami Carmel. I quipped to the shop owner that she could charge admission. I bought my son, who is setting up house, the one that says “Stove is for display purposes only.”
Witty tea towels
Highlights included time spent reading and putting our feet up by the gas fireplace, afternoon naps, and snacking from the bag of taffy we picked up at the old-fashioned candy store.
Cottage of Sweets
Then, just like that, it was time to drive home as we considered our next getaway together.
An extended heat wave in March, followed by a mix of high temperatures and rain, has left my garden confused.
After days of temperatures reaching 15 to 25 degrees above normal, our orange tree started dropping leaves. The pittosporum did the same. I hooked up a hose to our rainwater tanks and gave both trees a long soak, grateful for the stored water.
My self-seeded sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) didn’t like the heat either. They normally do well into June as summer temperatures set in, but the prolonged, excessive March heat sent them to seed before April’s end. I pulled them out over the weekend. I have one sweet pea vine hanging on under the Magnolias’ shade, but it, too, is fading.
Under the Acer, Four o’clock plants(Mirabilis jalapa) are up two months early and already blooming. It’s all a bit unsettling.
Temperatures have climbed again this week, as our dry season approaches. San Jose’s semi-arid climate is typically rain-free from May through October.
I’m trying to reset my expectations and remind myself that all the native plants in my garden continue to thrive, and several of the succulents are flowering.
We shopped for a pair of tomato plants a few weeks ago and dug holes between rainy days. Fresh garden tomatoes are a summer highlight.
I stumbled across a few sunflower plants at a local nursery while shopping for mulch and scooped up three. In recent years, I planted sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) from seeds, but foraging squirrels unearthed them just as quickly. The new plants have already doubled in size, and now the squirrels will have to wait for the bounty. They’re welcome to eat the seeds after I’ve enjoyed the cheerful flowers. (Photo below of California Grey squirrel, 2014)
Elsewhere in the garden, I’ve manifested good fairy energy by turning a redish root into a garden swing, with a former soap dish serving as a ladder to reach it should the fairies choose to rest their wings. More garden debris forms a hanging post for an abutilon bud lantern. The playground resides under the hydrangeas.
I planted two cellpacs of sweet alyssum (Lobularia hybrid) in pots on the back garden steps. The honey scent teases the nostrils, pleasant but not overbearing, and it’s a fan favorite of butterflies and bees. It tolerates the heat better than most annuals.
I spotted a gorgeous orange butterfly this afternoon from our kitchen window, but I was too far away to capture a decent photo. I need to practice my “be like a tree” skills, where I hold still long enough for the butterflies to land and stay awhile. I’ll let you know how I get on.
I’ve always liked this quote, and as we honor Earth Day, it continues to resonate.
I’m grateful to live in a state with strong environmental laws, beautiful lakes and streams, access to clean drinking water, and a commitment to combating the climate crisis. I hope we’re not too late.
Alum Rock Park, San JoseCarmel by the Sea, CarmelAño Nuevo State Park, Elephant Seal in backgroundView of Silicon Valley from Harwood Hill, San JoseFiloli National Trust, WoodsideBeneath the Santa Cruz Wharf Sea LionsOpen Space, San Jose FoothillsMy Humble Garden
“The earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry
I’m sharing two cards for this month’s challenge to create with scraps, hosted by Kate at Tall Tales of Chiconia. The idea is to use up your stash, be it paper, fabric, or any other crafty medium, by creating something new.
The first card uses a pair of patterned paper scraps. The green print is subtle once it’s die-cut into the leafy background, but it still adds variation in tone. The blue mixed-media styled paper is the last bit of one of my favorite paper packs from 49 and Market. I used it to cut three circles. For dimension, I brushed the outline of each circle with a dark blue distress oxide ink, then added a greeting using vellum. I brushed a light amount of ink on the white card background to soften it, and that’s one scrappy card done.
I had a lot of fun with this second card, using a variety of my seemingly endless green scraps to cut multiple pieces of foliage to create a birthday card.
Green scraps and dies
My friend has recently started collecting and nurturing house plants. She told me about a shop called Leaf & Vine that sells houseplants and indoor plant accessories created by local artisans.
I bought her a gift card to the store and incorporated it into her birthday card as a faux planter for my scrappy foliage. The gift card is adhered with foam squares, but it can be removed easily when she decides to redeem it.
Thank you, as always, Kate, for inspiring this monthly challenge.
You can see what other bloggers are up to at the following links.
I changed the settings in my comment section today. Please let me know if it becomes cumbersome in any way.
More and more, I see “someone” or “anonymous” comments from regular readers. WordPress has settings to avoid spam, but if not logged in, it apparently allows the comment without identifying the user.
Another puzzle, as yet unresolved, showed up earlier this week. My spam folder contained several comments, all from long-time followers. I usually ignore the spam folder, assuming it’s doing its job, so it was a shock to see these lovely comments land there.
I’ve used some of the forums in the past, but without much success, or frankly, patience, trying to get through the weeds. In my world, weeds are tamed from a kneeling pad, garden fork at hand.
If you’re a WordPress user, commenting while logged in lets me know it’s you.
If you’re a friend popping in from Facebook, you can leave your name and email address (the email is never published), so I know it’s you.
And finally, as my mother used to say: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Alas, that’s what the spam filter is for, yet here we are.
The lovely Cathy at Rambling in the Garden encourages her followers to share a vase of flowers from our garden each Monday. It’s also a fun way to explore the creative side of flower arranging. She calls it In a Vase on Monday or IAVOM.
It’s April, so the options are plentiful.
I’ve cut flowers for three vases today, using two garden components in each.
The tall glass jar has been patiently waiting for long stems. My friend Jasmin filled it with sunflowers and brought it to a dinner party earlier this year. I’m happy to have three lovely Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) stems to show off the glass shape. I’ve clipped twining green fern (asparagus setaceus) for a walk on the wild side.
My second vase, also a gift, came from a friend’s kitchen. I’ve been helping her declutter, and when I spotted this pretty pitcher, I mentioned how much I loved the pattern. Portmieren debuted this collection in 1972 when I was 12. She said it had belonged to her mother, and she was getting rid of it, so lucky me.
It’s not intended for flowers, but that’s never stopped me. My research indicates it’s a “Garden Drum Jug Pitcher from their Portmieren Botanical Garden collection,” but around here it will now be known as a flower vase. I’ve filled it with sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) and sprigs of Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa), a soft-leafed beauty from the garden.
The final vase for the day is a tiny treasure I picked up in nearby Campbell from a shop that sells items made in California. It’s no taller than a deck of cards, but perfect for these sprigs of Silver Siberian bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’), along with more of the green fern.
I’ve placed the first vase on our dining table,
the sweet peas in our living room,
and the wee vase on a shelf in my crafting room.
It’s sitting on my “homage to Canada” shelf, along with a photo of my mom, and other Canada treasures. The framed art above are a pair of garden designs from one of my dad’s horticulture studies. The mixed media tag with the nigella is a gift from artist and blogger Wilma Millette nd the postage card is from my friend Donna.
Please visit Cathy, our In a Vase on Monday host, at Rambling in the Garden to see what others are sharing. I promise an uplifting experience.
I’ve been enjoying the process of creating imprints from some of our vibrant garden greens. In turn, I’ve cut those prints into panels or used dies to cut sentiments, before making them into cards.
I experimented with this technique nearly ten years ago. At the time, I tried different papers, including an old file folder, watercolor paper, craft paper, and vellum. I learned that not all paper is created equal, and the same goes for flowers and leaves. Some transferred beautifully, while others looked more like mud.
It was a pleasant surprise going through my sample booklet, seeing plumosa fern (Asparagus setaceus) and the catmint or catnip (Nepeta) prints still retained a lovely shade of green.
Using a die to cut from Nepeta imprint
The subtle, earthy scent remains on the watercolor paper, at least initially. In some of the images, you can see the impression of the stems.
Poor lighting, but if you look closely you can see the green imprint cut into a leafy shape.
When I first tried this technique, our cat Mouse jumped on the desk, enticed by the lovely Nepeta, also known as catmint. I miss this sweet boy.
The fern in these prints has been with me since 1988, when I bought it for seventy-nine cents at a now-defunct nursery. I rented an apartment in those days, where the fern lived on my nightstand next to the bed. The plant followed me everywhere, and by the time we bought this house, it was huge. We finally planted it in the ground, and it’s done well in that spot for nearly thirty years.
It’s fun blending two hobbies into one.
Mirrored images: one fern frond pressed between two pieces of watercolor paper.
Gardening Nirvana 
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