FREE HEART and FREE ALPHABET

After nearly nine years of wanting to do something like this...everything lined up! This project was inspired by a free plant photo font I had back then, but lost and never found elsewhere. Now, I have created my very own version of an Alphabet Plant Photo Font Collage.

Spent the day outside collecting flowers and grass, then just arranged them into letters and hearts. I combined photos to create some of my friends' kids names using a free image editing program collage element, Picasa. It is a delight to give them a little surprise in their Inbox, I'll share my favorites here...Hailey, Jan, and Harper...

White Spring Flowers

I was surprised to find these one evening as the sun was tucking away for the day, and they keep multiplying! I do not know the name or what type of flower they are exactly. If you do, please help me out. Thanks!

I managed to return to see a new one forming and more...

Can Tulips Kiss?

This young Tulip looks like it is puckering up for a red lipped kiss... No?

See how she matures into a roaring red Tulip
and view a few of her beautiful pink and purple friends...

Virginia Bluebell

This may be called the Virginia Bluebell, but this one is firmly planted in Wisconsin soil. ;)

Curious how it begins? Continue on...

Have you heard of the Grape Hyacinth?

I think if you look it up, the Grape Hyacinth is not really a Hyacinth.
 However, it is the easiest name to remember of all the names it is given. Don't ya think?

Pink Hyacinth came first, then Purple Hyacinth and finally these little purple pearl flowers that had me perplexed for a bit. Even though I am a bigger fan of purple, I think I like the pink variety best...

Forsythia Shines against the Blue Sky

The neighborhood is full of Forsythia. The first time I photographed this friendly yellow shrub named after William Forsyth, I was just outside the walls of Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. As I did not forget that experience, I did not forget this bright shrub from a dreary day.

I think there may be nothing more beautiful against the sun and the sky as the Forsythia...

White Daffodil Blowing in the Wind

For the Daffodil, the day is not done.
They have come quickly, and they linger while more of different colors come.
Introducing in the last week of March, the White Daffodil ....

Photographing flowers in the wind takes a bit of patience...

Here and Gone...the Crocus.

The first flowers of Spring

were brilliant yellow and purple flowers pushing up through the crusty brown ground. 

When the first one shriveled, I thought they needed more water than the rain provided. I soon learned that it was simply "their time". I have never paid so close attention to flowers. They have come to me in vases and stayed for a few weeks, but watching them come directly from the ground and live their short lives in the sun...it's really something spectacular. It starts with one flower, and then the next day there is a party...

Beautiful Bleeding Hearts

The last few weeks, I have taken the pleasure of photographing plants in the process of beginning their life above ground. It has been much fun discovering what each looks like from the start. Most I only knew by their obvious bloom, and now I know them from the sprout up! Here we have Bleeding Hearts...

Will their beginning surprise you? It did me! 

They have a silly little start of looking something like a sea creature...

A pretty little bundle...

About Ten Christmases ago, I sent these handmade ornaments to my mom...we referred to our exchanges as "Christmas in a Box". Until the last two Christmas celebrations, I had not made it home for the holiday for most of a decade. Our tradition became one of me flying into Chicago for Thanksgiving, before the deep cold and flight delaying snow. Then I stayed away from the Midwest until usually about June or sometimes until the next Thanksgiving. In truth, I came to really love filling up a box and sending it by mail both ways. Probably one day it will go this way again. An unusual blog post for Springtime, but I think sending gifts by mail is a good thing all year long!!!

 

 I share these now because I like the message contained within...

BEGIN IT NOW.

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genuis, power and magic in it. BEGIN IT NOW. ~ Goethe  Or is it Goethe? Well, years ago when I clipped it out of a magazine to create a collage card for my mom, it never occurred to me to ask. About.com and the GSNA site has more on this. Anyhow, wherever these ideas originated, they are GOOD WORDS. 

In fact, Googling the quote took me to a site that a friend sent me earlier this week....Zenhabits. I already knew of Leo Babauta from mnmlist, a site I viewed years ago thanks to another friend. If you haven't seen those before, maybe you will find something of value there. Before you click away, take a look at the cards I made my mom almost a decade ago. Isn't it sweet she kept them? Moms! :)...

An Original Design: Origami Crane Flower

Here's a project that wasn't on my list, but now it's NUMBER ONE!

The other day I was photographing hundreds of origami cranes I intended selling in large batches on Etsy. Having great fun setting them up for the photos, I noticed at one point that the mini-cranes looked somewhat like a sunflower. So, finished photographing I decided I may as well play around with this spark of inspiration. By the end of the night I had a solid design I was quite happy with, and I abandoned the original idea of selling origami cranes as supplies for other artists. Instead they became my own! Here's a little preview of the process...

Breakfast for Ten Days

What I eat at the beginning of the day needs to be high in protein, somewhat low on the sweet factor and very very filling. When I was in Italy doing my best to get along with the locals, I joined in with the cappuccinos, chocolate croissants, cakes, and rolls. For a few weeks it was pure enjoyment. Then I noticed a moodiness, a lack of energy, hunger earlier in the day, and I missed the choice for salty bulky American food. Oh sure, I have my moments even here with sugar in the morning, you'll see.

Here is what I started out with the last week or so...

Multi-grain pita with butter and apricot jam, an apple and an orange.

Oatmeal with banana, walnut, cinnamon, brown sugar and milk...

The Brilliance of the Daffodil

Spring is not Spring until a glimpse of the Daffodil. 

On first sight, so many of the daffodils from Springs past flash through my mind, like lightning bugs in the night. Last year at this time, I stood in the fields of Scotland snapping beauties against a hilly and mountainous range. The year before that the gardens of Kylemore Abbey gave up the Daffodil, and I wandered the hills of Howth capturing another dandy yellow flower. A taste of my flower photo album shows yet another bloom paired with a poem by Wordsworth. It makes me wonder where I will be next Spring and almost certain wherever it is...there will be daffodils and yellow blossoms beaming.

Good For You: Green Tea

At the first sign of Spring and all through Summer I spoil myself with sun tea. 

It takes two minutes in the morning and provides loads of smiles for days to come. 

Do something that makes you feel good TODAY!

I wish I could swim in green tea...

Spinach Cupcake Pies

These three words really don't belong together, but here they are: Spinach Cupcake Pie!

They are sooooo good that my spinach-hating and really all-green-food-hating Dad...
Actually ate it and said he'd enjoy having it again. How about that?!!
So, for picky eaters looking for more veggies...here you have it.

The idea began with a recipe in The Little Pie Cookbook: Mini Spinach Pies.

Here is my simplified and modified (I add cheese and sauce) version:

Bambi's Fragrant Forest

Would you believe that this scratch and sniff book
from my childhood in the early 80's is still fully fragrant?

It's the only one I ever recall having or even seeing around, though I am sure there's a bunch out there from then and now. Although I wonder why there isn't a whole bunch more. I guess there's only so many things a kid may be wanting and willing to smell. Seems like tasting flavored jelly beans and other sweets beats out the sniffer. I'd be happy with an adult scratch and sniff mood enhancer book of flowers or some of my favorite smells I pinned on Pinterest, like tomatoes, oranges, and cake. Well, you can sure tell which scents I favored at the age of eight...

For Dog Lovers

What could she be so patiently waiting for?

Happiness waits in my hand...

For Cat Lovers

Luca is just not used to Winter in Wisconsin. She loves the outdoors, but detests the cold. These last few days have been reaching into the 60's, but as much as she detests the cold, she detests the wind. Strangely she is not bothered one bit by rain. Today was a perfect day with only a bit of a breeze and she made it out to eat grass and lick her nose again and again...

Spring Day: March in Wisconsin Four Days Later

The weather here has gone from 30 degrees to 60 degrees in one day and back again. Spring teases us Southern Wisconsiners. My Dad cheers for the cold days to prolong his ice fishing season, and I cheer on the warm days so I can keep to these flip flops and tuck away my winter socks for the rest of the year. I find the first yellow flower facing the sun, but it is as brief as my time outside.

This purple flower has a wish, but it is waiting...

A Home for Kings

GROWING UP MID-CENTURY MODERN In The House That Dad Built, is a project that I am happy to see put to print. A friend of mine recently surprised me by sharing what a special home she was raised in, marvelous! To be in the house her dad built, what a sweet perspective of this world from the start. No wonder she is a talented designer. Inspiration never comes too soon.

There's nothing like revisiting history through photographs, captured smiles, tiny details that jog the memory, but with changing technology it can be a challenge sometimes. She explains that a slide converter and the newspaper were necessary to piece together the story of the house her dad designed and built. I hope you take a look and enjoy this peek into an artistic American family in the 50's and 60's.

Janine King Slaatte utilized Blurb.com to create this book.

Photo displayed in this post is from her family collection.

Snow Day: March in Wisconsin

This snow is perfect for making a snow man, 

and it made me think of the poem by Wallace Stevens

(October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955)...