All Fired Up

Got my owl back on Sunday from last month's art class.  OMG, he's so cute!  I don't think I realized how dark blue he would be, but I love the way the color came out.  I know, I really should pay more attention to color when I'm doing, umm, art, but it just doesn't really happen that much.  Cue art teacher to roll her eyes here.  Yup- I'm kind of a fly by the seat of your pants artist. Sometimes it works out great for me (see owl pictures) and sometimes, not so great.  And those are the ones you don't see posted here.

This guy is pretty good sized- like a bit over to feet tall.  I tucked him into the mulch of my garden this evening.  If my dogs break him I am going to be very mad.  But I don't think they will.  It would only be in a moment of protecting-the-yard-from-the-coyotes running around like crazy that something like that might happen. Because that coyote could just come right through that fence, you know (just kidding).   My daughter and I agree that the owl needs to be raised up a bit to show him off in the garden.

Here's the back with the cool sunflowers.  My amazing photography skills really show this off with all the glare and such, don't you think?  It's the phone camera- that's the problem.  Like I would have noticed with my regular camera,  lol.

I'll take another shot of him in the garden and you can see how cute he REALLY is.  When it's light.  :)

Update: Here's a shot of him in the garden.  Look how pretty that cobalt blue is!

Stone Birdhouse

I am kind of addicted to garden art sites lately, and www.empressofdirt.net is one of my new favorites.  It had great directions for making stone birdhouses.  Here's my attempt.

I decided to grout my house, which wasn't exactly in the directions. I think I got carried away with the grout, because it kind of looks like more grout than stone, but oh well.  I'm not sure any bird will want to move in, although I imagine it would be cozy in winter.

I painted the roof metallic copper to make it look like metal.  I'll need to seal the whole thing and weather proof it before it cools down.

This house is heavy!  My kids joked about an angry bird who climbed in and crashed due to the weight.  Right now it's hanging in a plant stand on my front porch.  I'll find a safer home for it in the yard, but it looks cute here for the moment.

Now let's hope for cooler weather.  Seven start days of 100+ degrees heat is enough already.

Birdhouse or Dollhouse - same fun!

I found this little birdhouse on the Collections, Etc. site.  I just fell in love with it.  Isn't it so cute?  I just had to have it.  I tend to pick up a lot of cute little things on this site.  I always find something fun for my garden.

So I put it in the cart and shopped around to hit my $40 for free shipping.    I found a lantern and a solar light for my American flag and I was all set.  I hit "Check Out" and something awful happened!  The site said my birdhouse was SOLD OUT!  How could such a thing happen?

So I searched the net and found the house at a lot higher price.  Not good.  On a whim, I went back to the Collections, Etc. And this time I checked out, birdhouse ordered.  Weird.  Did they find another box in the back or something?  Either way, I was just happy to get my darling little birdhouse.

Being a miniaturist, I could not just leave it all unpainted.  What bird would want a house with style but no color?  So I stained the shingles and gave the feathery abode a fresh coat of paint.  Then I mounted it on a tall pole.  The opening for the birds are on the side, in case you are wondering.  The feeder pole also has two Shepard's hooks for humming bird feeders.  Everyone is happy.

This was a lot easier than doing a dollhouse because I didn't have to do the inside.  I'll leave that to the birds, as they say.

Tipsy Pot

We've been fixing up our back yard this Summer and I've been trying to create a bit of a garden in our rather small yard. In surfing the web for ideas, I found this fabulous idea for making a tipsy pot.  It looks really cool, and it's quite easy.

There are lots of great sites with really good directions on how to do it (my new favorite is www.empressofdirt.net), but in a nutshell you start with a pot with a hole in the bottom and take a metal rod and thread it through the pot and pound in into the ground, at least two feet so that it is a solid base for the rest of the pots.  Then you thread each pot by its hole onto the metal rod and tilt it the way you want it to go.  Add dirt to each pot for stability as you go and voila!  When done you have a tipsy pot.

I started with more pots and made it much taller the first time I tried this.  It wasn't a success.  The dirt in my yard is a nasty, hard clay, so it is really hard to get anything dug deep into it.  (I tend to pile top soil on it to get anything to grow.)  I think the pole wasn't deep enough to support it. So my first attempt ended in a pile of dirt and pots all over the yard.  At least nothing broke!

I tried again, getting the rod deeper into the ground and this time when I planted the pots, all was well.  I know my plants look a little sad, but it's been over 100 degrees all week.  Totally miserable.  I can't wait for football and sweater weather! 

The one thing that is really great is that in Southern California I can garden almost all year long!  So even if I got a late start in the garden I have plenty of time to make up for it.

Olympic Toes

My daughter is a genius with a manicure.  In honor of the Olympics, which we are all crazy about in this house, she painted my toes in red, white, and blue.  I think the starts are the best part!

Garden Bench Restoration

This has been the Summer of my garden.  We've put in new grass, added lighting, put in a spa, and I'm working on fixing up the planters and adding some really cool garden art.  I'll get into more detail on that in another entry.

I have several benches in my front and back yard, and some of them are getting a little weather beaten.  The one on my back porch is in pretty good shape, but just needs some stain and a little TLC.  So it was a pretty easy weekend project.

 Here's the before shot.  It's in good shape, but pretty weather beaten.  The iron on the sides looks good, though.  Just a quick sand and wipe down was all that was needed.

I used a stain with a rich red toned base.  The color is called Cabernet.  Two coats and a matte based sealer and voila!  Looks like a whole new bench.

One of the things I really like about this project is that I didn't have to go out and buy anything to finish it.  It was just one of those rare projects where I had everything I needed on hand.  What, no five trips to Home Depot?  Who knew that was even possible?!

Stay tuned for garden pictures.  I've done a lot of work on the decorations.  I guess I should add some plants too. . .

Owl's Well that Ends Well. . .

It's me!  Yes, I know I haven't posted much lately, but I felt the urge today to post my darling owl I painted in art class today.  Sorry for the first picture.  I obviously wasn't paying attention to the background with people, cups, and supplies in the picture.  But as I'm always saying, you get the idea!  So this is done in ceramic paint and will be glazed to a shiny finish.  The plan is to put him in my backyard that we've been redoing.  The yard has grass finally.  Hooray!  I figure my owl can sit in the back where we've put a rock fountain.  When he's glazed and comes back to me, I'll share another picture.

Here's the back of my owl.  The class was a study in the Talavera style, and this is not true Talavera but Talavera inspired.  In case you want to know what Talavera is, here is the Wikededia page (Talavera pottery) and you can learn all about it. I have used blue as the base and painted sunflowers in golds and oranges.  I think he is soooo cute!  I swear, each time I paint a new ceramics piece I decide it's cuter that the last one.  I just cleaned out a whole cabinet of my linen closet to house my ceramic pieces, and soon it will be filled and I'll need another spot! But this guy is going outside.  Once glazed he will be shiny and the colors will pop.  I can't wait to see him in his glory.