Summer’s Almost Gone…

Spring weather finally arrived with all it’s colorful flowers! As the snow left, the Snowdrops started blooming, followed by a few Crocus, Snow Glories and Daffodils. I had lots of Daffodils, after buying a bunch f new bulbs in the Fall, and digging and dividing many clumps I’ve had growing for years.

I was amazed how many bulbs I found in the clumps I divided. Some had 30 or more in each… it had been many years since I had divided them.

Summer arrived in a blur again after the Flower Tent Season was over. It seems I’m always trying to play catch-up in the gardens after “living” at the Tent for all of May and most of June. This year, we also had a LOT of rain, especially in July. One storm dumped enough water to wash a big pile of gravel from the driveway to the Mound garden, burying a big hunk of that garden. Below, is a group of photos from the gardens.

I finally got back to designing again between working in the gardens and mowing the swamp… er… lawn. I had been in a creative slump again (what else is new), and decided to work on a design for another Spoonflower Challenge. Pastel Halloween was the first theme I worked on. I’m not into the oranges and blacks of typical Halloween decorating, but love pastel colors. I thought I would do a design with pastel colored pumpkins, and Glass Gems corn. While working on my initial images, I got thinking about my grandkids who love playing with googly eyes. After that, I ended up making my silly, cute Jack-o-Lanterns in pastel colors with googly eyes. That then led to me finally doing my original idea of groups of pumpkins, corn and Maple leaves, followed by several versions with just Maple leaves.

Once started with the Maple leaves, I worked with different colors. The original leaves were pulled from images of sunprints I had done in the past. My first version used the pastel colors of the prints, then playing in Photoshop, I ended up finding some interesting color combinations. Below is a group of photos of the above mentioned designs.

The next challenge I decided to enter was Autumn Botanicals… perfect for my style of work. I began again with an image of a sunprint. This time, a fern I printed with black paint on a brightly colored fabric. I thought I would do a design including the fern along with Oak leaves and maybe other leaves, but it ended up with just the Fern sunprint and pieces of it.

Again, I played with colors in Photoshop, and ended up with some interesting colors. Not all were “Fall” colors. Unlike many people, I am not that fond of fall and it’s colors. To me Fall brings the death of my gardens. The leaves are pretty, but I hate that day of the first killing freeze. I created some versions in traditional oranges and more, but my entry was the first one I made with a textured white background.

The current challenge is Ice Crystals… I’m not ready for Winter at all, but it was fun playing with photos I took of snowflakes and ice crystals.

I might be playing with snowflakes in the computer, but there are hopefully many weeks left for the gardens to bloom. Also hoping to be back with a new post in less than 6 months or more…