Just to let my dear and patient readers know that I haven’t forgotten you. Our computer has been ill and while still not feeling the best, is allowing me to finally be able to post a new article (pictures included.) Between working and a computer under the weather, it’s been a little difficult being able to put up new stories of the life and times of the Wild Gooseberry. Please do not think this little site and you are easily forgotten. You and it are not and finally I can get back here to let you know.

I’ve written about my grandmother’s amaryllis bulb before on this little site. I acquired it a few years ago from my mother and she and my cousin each had a bulb as well. Mama’s and my cousin’s bulbs didn’t make it…so mine is the last of Grandma’s amaryllis. I’ve tried and tried to get this precious bulb to bloom, but perhaps I’ve tried a little too hard.

Amaryllis bulbs do need some neglect to bloom. After finally just giving up for a little while and almost forgetting about it, it decided to surprise me. First, a small, little leaf started up (it’s had leaves before, plenty of leaves, but that’s about all it’s had.) Instead of instantly watering it and putting it outside, I left it alone, and didn’t even talk to it. A few days later, two more leaves joined the first. I still left it alone, and still didn’t even give it the time of day. After about a week and a half, I finally took it outside and gave it a little drink. A couple of days later, something different happened. A tiny stalk sprouted up and at the end of it, a pod. I knew exactly what it was, but didn’t dare think it would really happen.

Weeks went by and the stalk and pod grew…into two pods.

“So,” I said to it “you’ve decided, after all this time, to surprise me!”
I think it smiled at me.

Here is what it eventually did…

I have a book from my childhood called “Leo, the Late Bloomer”.  It’s about a little tiger who couldn’t do what his friends did, such as draw, eat neatly, write his name, and speak. His father kept watching, for signs of “blooming”. His mother said he would bloom, but “a watched bloomer doesn’t bloom.” So, his father tried not to watch, but Leo still didn’t bloom. And then, one day, in his own good time, Leo bloomed!  He could do all that his friends could do…and he spoke. And it wasn’t just one word, it was a whole sentence… I made it.

I’ve decided to name this amaryllis Leo.

There is a house in Savannah called The Gingerbread House. I have seen postcards of it, have heard about it, but could never figure out where it was. Then, last week as my sweet husband and I were taking my mother for a visiting tour of Savannah, we came upon it! It’s on Bull Street, which is a major street, but I’ve never been down that part of it. After finding a parking space, we were treated to a most beautiful time admiring the unique architecture that is famous the world over. After doing a little research, I found that it was built in 1899 and was originally called the Asendorf House. It is one of the most beautiful and intact examples of “Steamboat Gothic Gingerbread  Carpentry” in America and has been featured in magazine articles and movies.  I was so happy finally to find my way to the beautiful Gingerbread House.

Even under the eaves is pretty!

Hello, dear family and friends. Yes, this time I actually did fall off the face of the earth and am happily back in place now.

I had a wonderful place to learn about and to trade ATCs (Artist Trading Cards.) Then, it turned into not such a great place for me and I left, aimlessly wandering the earth, looking for other friends to play with. Just when I thought it might not happen, I found an even more wonderful, welcoming place to make new friends and to trade ATCs! There, folks don’t have ten thousand rules that take the fun from it (and really, according to the originator of ATCs there are only two rules: That they are 2½ by 3½ inches and that they are traded, never sold.) And with this new place, I am currently making one for one, not 11, so it’s fitting in perfectly with the time I can give to creating. So, here are a few new ATCs made for recent swaps (and what I received in return are just wonderful!)

This first one was for a “Surprise!” swap. Whatever we wanted to do. I chose to make a Paper Queen with a cancelled stamp. The gold foil is from an organic chocolate bar, the button is just one I had and the words and envelope are from magazine pages. This was a lot of fun to come up with.

This one was for the theme “Tree of Life”. The tree trunk and branches are made of a box (corragated cardboard), the leaves and envelope are of magazine pages and the tiny bit of pink foil near the jewel is from a Hershey’s chocolate Kiss, hee hee. The base is cut from a camera box.

This next one is for a color-a-month swap, starting with April, which is the color green. Magazine picture and words are elements of this card (and of course a magazine page envelope!) Again, Hershey’s Kiss foil (this time green) make up the dragonfly wings. The cardboard base is from the back of a writing tablet.

Well, a little delayed as I’ve been out enjoying Spring! (and working a lot of hours. Good thing I absolutely am in love with my job!)  It has been just lovely here, a much needed rest from the cold of this Winter. I know it gets colder in other places, but it’s so damp here, it makes it feel colder. Brrrr!

Last Saturday, on the first day of this new season, we loaded up the dogs and went for adventures…and findings of Spring.

These flowering bushes were everywhere.

A little visitor…

We were on the nearby Army post (it boasts a HUGE recreation area, acres upon acres of wild woods to explore). These trees were painted blue to indicate that military training could not take place nearby. The trees belong to the endangered species of woodpecker who calls these woods home. They are red-cockaded woodpeckers and I’ve seen them. This bird was the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker. The shape of his head looks exactly like them!
 

We found evidence of another little inhabitant recently present. This little perfect handprint of a racoon was about 2 inches wide…

We had on our rubber adventure boots on (also known as Dairy boots.) It was a good thing. We’ve had lots of flooding of the Ogeechee and Canoochee rivers this Winter. Some of the places we wished to adventure had water too deep for us to wade through. One of these places was in front of us, when Hildegard decided to lead the pack. She swam to the other side of this little now-island and waited for us to join.

Not even Georgia Rose swam over there and what surprised us was that Hildy hates deep water. I think she started out before she realized how deep it was and just had to keep going. We called to her and tried to get her to come back. Once she realized we weren’t going to join, the doggie drama started.

She cried and whined and whined and cried and finally, we had to say “goodbye” and pretended to walk away. That did the trick and after several false starts (and more drama!) she finally made her way back.

Her swim over was a lot less spashier than the swim back.

Our family reunited, we ventured on.

The ever present palmies…

and the baby palms…

Nearby, we also found a nursery for a bamboo forest…

Finally, we came upon a lovely little swamp. We rested here and enjoyed the view.

Things got a little too adventurous for us after this point. Unbeknownst to us, we had some company. The Three Little Pigs decided to get a drink of water and the Big Bad Wolf had to chase them. Well, actually, Georgia Rose  started the chase (she still has her hunting tendencies) and Hildy tried to herd them. I was afraid Mama Boar would be closeby, but thankfully, these piggies were just old enough to be out by themselves. After what seemed an eternity, and much echoing of piggy squealing and doggie barking, the dogs made their way back and we quickly left the area. (Well, as quickly as an almost 11 year old German Shepherd who thinks she’s still a puppy can walk after very ambitious running.) I think of the boar as Orcs (Lord of the Rings). It isn’t a coincidence that they are often depicted as swine-headed.

Home, safe and sound once again, we had a lovely Spring gift in our own back yard.

The first duckies of Spring…

Will you be my Valentine?

Actually, I do have a sweet Valentine…but I wish for all of you a lovely day. Whether you have a romantic love or not, it doesn’t matter. To me, Valentine’s Day is a day to remind everyone you love them.

With that in mind, this is an ATC I made for my parents who were my very first Valentines…I call it “Ruby Valentine”.

The delicate red foil the red heart is made of was far too pretty to leave on my husband’s beer bottle…so it was carefully saved and incorporated into a Valentine for my parents. he hee! Here is a picture with the little envelope…

23 years after I could have lost my mother, this little card arrived at their cozy house…to remind them that I’m so thankful and blessed to have them both in this beautiful world with me.

Enjoy this day everyone and know that a certain Wild Gooseberry loves you and appreciates the support and friendship you’ve shown by visiting here (and leaving comments!!!)

Well, not exactly, but it did in fact snow here last night.
It also snowed in Savannah just across the river from us.
This will make front page news most likely.

The last time I was in Savannah, a few azaleas were peeking out and roses were still blooming. It takes some doing for it to freeze in Savannah, but it snowed last night. Not for long, only about an hour and a half and not for much, it melted almost as fast as it fell. It did snow though…and it was lovely.

Children down the street were playing and shouting and neighbors ran back and forth between the houses. I could see the snaps of camera flash as folks were proving to their friends that it was actually snowing in South Georgia. I took some, too.

I was so bedazzled, I wrote the wrong date.
It was actually the 12th of February, not the 11th.
Still…the month and year are right!

A little dash of wild gooseberry-ness is needed here…

That’s better.

It took Hildegard a few seconds and then it was like “I remember this stuff!” from when we were stationed in Colorado.

She showed our little houndy dog, Georgia Rose, the fun snow could be (even this little bit).  I apologize for the slight fuzziness of this picture. They were running and I have a new camera (more about that in another post, though!) I’m still trying to figure it out.

She was mystified…

Since we were out, Desperado wanted to be with us.

As soon as his kitty feet hit the snow, it all came back to him…the reason he truly became a housecat in Colorado.

I stayed out, going back and forth between the warm coziness of the house and the icy beauty of outside. I called my parents, the brother who was home from work and a dear friend to share in the wonder of this beautiful dusting of sparkly snow. A little side note…my brother told me that he heard on the news that 49 out of the 50 states had snow somewhere in each one. We laughed about traveling to Hawaii and tossing snow on the beach to make it all 50. I thought that was really amazing and I’m glad he shared it with me.

 As far as this snow went, it was slight, it was short-lived and it wasn’t even sticking one speck in the back of the house (too close to the lake.)

While it was here, though, it was magical.

A little tribute to Paul Harvey in the title there.
Here are the rest of the ATCs, along with the little envelopes I made for them.

This one is “Pretty in Pink”. Lot of glitter, lots of pink, and pretty ribbon.

I just wasn’t sure about this one at all when I was working on it. I painted it and wanted to have the lace detail on it, but it didn’t quite work out like I had wanted. I almost just tossed it, when I kept at it and added some pretty ribbon (always fixes things!) and the perfect words. In the end, my boss said this one was her favorite! You just never know how things are going to turn out sometimes. I entitled this one “A Wonderful Way to Live.”

Again, Josh Groban was singing when I was creating this one. I went between “Mi Mancherai” and “Hymne A L’Amour”. I wanted an Old Paris look to this one, and I think I acheived it. In fact, “Old Paris” is it’s title.

This one was a lot of fun. The little horse from a Piñata fit perfectly! A bit of glitter and glitz and we have “Pink Pony.”

The last two both tie for my favorite. I loved how this little beary turned out. Another foamy little bear, this time a white one painted pink and a stripedy old greeting card form the main focus. That is a little Gooseberry face I drew and again the perfect words. I did look back at my other ATCs from the last swap and realized I used a brown foamy bear with the same words in that swap! Oh, well…probably will for next one, too. This one just makes me happy. I call this one “In the Pink.”

This one is the only one that stayed almost the same from concept to finished art. A BIG thank you and I love you to my mama for giving me tips on how to cut out an enclosed circle! I just really loved how this one turned out. Here are my “Rose Colored Glasses.”

Here are the little envelopes made out of magazine pages. It took some doing to find 11 pink pages!

It is customary to send a little gifty to the host or hostess of the ATC swap. I sent our lovely hostess this little envelope made out of a paper doiley and put some pretty ribbons in it for her to use in a future art project. Maybe even ATCs!

I really enjoyed this theme and how they all turned out. It was difficult letting them go, but I know I’ll get some lovely ones in return. I did learn a lot from this swap and I’m already looking forward to the next one!

The last ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap I was involved in had “monochromatic” as its theme. I could have been more adventuresome, I supposed, but I chose my favorite color as my theme color. Guess what  it is!  Actually, it did turn out to be more challenging than I thought. I knew more what I didn’t want rather than what I did want this theme. No Pepto-Bismol cards and not to be too frilly. The non-Pepto was easier than trying to curtail the femininity of the cards (after all,  they are pink.) A couple are very feminine, but in an Old Paris kind of way, which I love.

Come along with me to the land of ATCs and my very favorite color…pink! I also re-used many items I had around for the cards. I’ll let you know what some of the elements of the cards are.

Enjoy!

For some of my cards, I was lucky to have common sayings and phrases to lend me some inspiration. This one is entitled “When Pigs Fly.” The background is made of the cardstock paper that was in a package of stickers (for support of the package.) I already had the little pig confetties and ribbon. A few free-hand wings and eyes for the piggies, and we’re flying! The corners are photo corners, white which I painted pink. 

This next one uses paint, stationery and a magazine picture along with a sparkly heart. I worked particularly hard on the polka dots, so this one is called “Polka Pink”.

 I used an old piece of lightweight cardboard for this next one. My mother acquired it for me and there was writing on it. I think it the writing was notation for possibly a building project. The handwrting itself was just so pretty that I included it for “Love Note.”  The pretty rose paper was one of those mail-in postcards to receive a magazine and just bits and ends of ribbon I had. I really like how this turned out.

Music definitely influenced this one. I had in mind a playful, light little card, charicatures of the roses, actually. This is not how it turned out at all. This was the first card I made for this collection and it took the longest. I painted the background and roses and corners. What took so long was gluing down the mesh and finding the perfect words. I finally accomplished both. I made this while listening to Josh Groban’s “Mi Mancherai.” I give you “Soul of the Rose.”

This one turned out happy and light. More paint, more polka dots, an old doilie and bits and ends of ribbon. Oh…the pink foil heart in the middle? It’s made out of the foil off a Hershey’s Kiss.

This is about half of what I made for the swap. It’s getting late and I have to get up early tomorrow. So, enjoy these cards and the others will be following in the next day or two. (I’ll really try hard to get the rest up here tomorrow night.)

‘night!

ZZZzzzzZZZZZZzzzzz

Well, crumbs. I had my ATCs all posted and even had a comment or two. However, the forum to which I belong where the swap is being hosted doesn’t have the pictures up yet. The hostess did not ask me to take them down, but I felt bad for stealing her thunder.

*sigh*

We had a couple of Johnny and Janie-come-latelys with the swap and so, the ATCs will return shortly.

Dear Claire, we’ll see if Soul of the Rose is still your favorite after they’re all up! I have a feeling it might be, but there’s another one I think you’ll really like as well.

Sorry for the disappearing act, but they should be coming along soon.

Let’s go ahead and have some of my mama’s wonderful buiscuits and gravy while we’re waiting.

Pull up a chair and enjoy!

Ta-da!!! Here is my first ever art video!!! (actually, the first video I’ve made of any kind!)

I’ve been wanting to get into Art Journaling for a while now. For some reason, it has been a little intimidating for me to just jump in. Lots of excuses “I don’t know how to do this”, “I don’t know what I’m doing”, “I don’t have an art journal.” Lots of “I don’t”s there. So, I thought “All I need to do is play!” and came up with an art journal that’s just all about play without any big expense.

Hope you enjoy it, and that it may help you find your own way to art (or creative) journaling.