Take a Hike

 

It feels important to get outside every day, especially now. Get out there & take a hike!

 The weather here is just starting to become Spring like, making our hikes 

 more enjoyable. We are so fortunate to have a township park practically outside our door.

 Lately we make a point to venture to other nature trails close by for a change of scenery.

This is a view from the tip of Old Mission Peninsula from last week. 

Yesterday we discovered someone has been tucking these little guys 

into lots of nooks & crannies on the path. 

Go get some fresh air! Look around & see what might be hidden in plain sight.

Look Down

Happy Autumn everyone.  It is my favorite season. perhaps it's the colors. I'm partial to 

reds & yellows to begin with. Ask anyone who has been in my house. 

The brilliant Staghorn Sumac fruit always grabs my attention this time of year. 

If you look closely the individual little nodules are beautiful in themselves. 

 So much beauty in my neighborhood park. You need to pay attention to the details 

and look down while you are walking. I just happened to spot these. 

They are pearlescent with some smokey sooty areas. I took loads of pictures of them.

Two days later they were liquefied. Glad I caught them at their prime. 

Thanks to a friend who saw my Instagram post of these I now know they are 

Shaggy Mane  Coprinus comatus.

They are edible . Good to know. 

 

 A view from above on a flight to see the colors at their peak last week. 

These gorgeous lichen look like white roses. 

Now I need to get busy in the studio & put some of this inspiration to good use. 

Thanks for stopping by. Leave me a comment. Would love to hear from you.

 

Hang On!

 In my home & in the studio it's all about storage and visibility. This earring display lives in the bathroom on the wall. It's a riff on a jewelry case I saw on a DIY TV show years ago. Hardware cloth & an inexpensive frame from Kohl's. It's been with me for over a decade & I still love it.


 My penchant for peg board has been mentioned before. Things I use all the time in easy reach.

I have an order in with my handy husband to make me a pegboard display piece 

with hinges for upcoming art shows. Pictures to follow when completed.

When we redid an old dresser it freed up two long handles.  Hubby was able to marry old drawer pulls with the modern ones to mount these on the walls.

  

 

 Loads of room to hang all those fabric pods I made that hold "stuff".

Short & sweet today. It's summer & it's time for my morning walk in the park

 outside my door with neighbor. 

Turn Over a New Leaf #AtoZChallenge

Mother Natures accomplishments get me every time. How simple but elegant is a leaf?

Hosta leaves as a center piece all by themselves. 

They come in so many colors & shapes.

So ephemeral you can see through them at times.

They are often part of graphic design. I plan to make a stencil working off this picture.

Leaves add wonderful texture to mono prints.

Lend themselves to compositions.

I was grabbed by this shadow walking down the street one day. 

A perfect vignette right there in front of me.

Do you take the time to notice the amazing compositions Mother nature comes up with? 

Photo Challenge

An aside today about an online class I decided on a whim to take on.  I've been following a photographer, Kim Klassen for awhile. I find her images soothing and they tend to tell a story.  The name of her class is "My Still Sunday". Every Sunday for 16 weeks we are to create a still life. Something I'm drawn to and do on a daily basis in some form or another already. To be offered prompts, a forum to post to (Instagram), tips, and seeing what others come up with sounded inspiring to me. Maybe you'd like to check it out and join up?

                               Mother nature did this one on her own, but I found it striking.

        She provided the flowers, I set up the rest. Not terribly interesting, but you get the idea of the every day appeal of looking for something beautiful or interesting to put together. 

I found my self thinking about "stuff" I have around the house that would work well for interesting items in the up coming weeks.

I will look forward to sharing what I learn & come up with.