How to Make Pillows using Wax Paper Transfer

Chairs with French themed pillows in our library room

One more house project, and this one is my favorite: new pillows for my pretty chairs in the library.

I started with this lovely vintage french bird and wreath from The Graphics Fairy. I personalized it by adding some pretty text underneath that says, "Havenwood 1925," which is the year that our house was built. I needed to use my computers preview program to make a reverse image so that the text would not be backwards. (Some computers will do this reverse image in the printing set-up options.) 

A Gardener's Laundry Room & other Vignettes...

Shelf in my basement laundry room.

I have always wanted a pretty laundry room, mostly to help me actually enjoy being down in the basement folding, folding away. After a bit of tear out and painting, the basement in Havenwood works really well for doing just that... adding a bit of green and bling.

How to: Wooden Stool with French Typography

On our new landing at Havenwood

Welcome back inside!  We are having some nice days this week, but I am still excited to share some of my new inside projects for our new home.

I found this lovely stool in an antique shop in our area that actually has reasonable prices. So, I snapped it up and knew just what to do as I have been admiring so many projects on a wonderful site called The Graphics Fairy. I chose the above graphic from their beautiful list of french words, made an inverse copy of it in my computer's basic paint program, and got ready for some fun. :)

Art Inside Our Havenwood

Welcome to our new home! :)

Here we are in April, and we are finally having our first week of nice weather this spring! We have all been itching to enjoying the outdoors... and this gardener has been going a bit crazy for it, honestly.

But one nice thing about all of our bad weather in March was that it gave me more time to be inside our new walls, wondering what to do with them. (... Seems like winter unleashes some of my craft craziness... like last years' coffee filter flower wreaths...)  I was finally brave enough a few days ago to take a try at at stairway photo arrangement and was able to use some of my favorite new craft-making techniques too! Would you like to take a walk around with me?

Painting Autumn Flowers and Fruit

My watercolor inspired by the flowers of fall: purple and white Asters, bright yellow wild Helenium, blue Lobelia, toad flax (Linaria vulgaris or "Dear little bunny nose", as my girls prefer), Persicaria, and a fluffy Pennisetum.

My girls and I have been doing some paintings this week that are partly inspired by the flowers and fruits of autumn... but mostly inspired by the beautiful work of our friend Melissa Ellen. She has been posting some process photos of her watercolor paintings lately. We could not resist giving it a try ourselves!

The Secret Garden Coloring Book by Johanna Basford

Our new favorite book by Scottish artist Johanna Basford

My girls love to color and it is an activity that I like to encourage. Coloring is great for working on hand-eye coordination, detail work and even color theory. And kids gain all this practice while completely enjoying themselves. When I purchased this book on Amazon last week, I knew that it would be a winner. At least, I hoped so.

The Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford is more than a winner: it is captivating. I was totally blown away by the intricate styling of this book. Every detail is sublime and every page opens up more discovery. It is part treasure hunt, part coloring book, part drawing class and altogether beautiful. And I wanted you all to see it for yourselves...

Visit to Phipps Conservatory's Summer Show 2013

Glass passion flower at Phipps Conservatory

We were visiting at Phipps Conservatory after my RHS test in June, and were wowed by some of their pretty glass flower sculptures for the summer show.

I posted the enormous glass waterlilies last week. Here are a few more highlights from our visit.

Frost this morning...

Clematis on the butterfly trellis by the Circle Lawn

I am encouraged this morning by remembering that this frosty beauty is part of the process of  
               creating art in the garden.
                                                All must fall for spring to rise.

There are reports that Sissinghurst Castle is likely to have its frost any day now too. There is also comfort in commonality. All gardens, big and small, ancient and new, will face this fate: to live through the harshest part of their year in order to enjoy the season to come.