Delivered!

We delivered a nice selection of work to Allanstand yesterday.  It really is always fun to have a chance to talk with Julie and all of the staff.

Even now, we both still feel that little tingle of excitement everytime we go to the Folk Art Center.  We're Southern Highland Craft Guild members!  Stay tuned for photos of some of the work!  In the meantime, here are some quick photos of our morning amble around the yarden before getting to work.

Leaf textures in the morning light.

Red Columbine.

Great White Trillium in the shade.

The view from leaf-level.

Lots of Work!

We haven't posted because we've been so busy making jewelry!  Well, we have been eating lunch in the yarden and I've been outside when I can in the evenings.

I'll be posting our new pieces after the weekend.  Hillary's Mother's pendant turned out wonderfully.  We'll be delivering it to her early next week.  We'll also be delivering a major body of work to Allanstand at the Folk Art Center.  Tuesday we'll take at least a few more pieces to Laurel at Arrowcraft in Gatlinburg.  (At the moment Arrowcraft has the best selection of our work.  But at the rate they are selling . . .)

Since Terry had "another dirty snow storm" yesterday,

a couple of our wood hyacinths in bloom with ferns just unfurling behind them!

Spent cherry blossom petals on our moss.

Now, we're off to see David and Denay and Gwen and Thomas!!!

Quick Custom Update

It's been another busy week for us!  Monday Pat delivered this custom piece.

Designed to our client's specifications.  Three different textures, sterling silver and bronze with a bezel set 3.5 mm diamond, then patinated.  It turned out exactly as she had hoped!

Tuesday was another trip to Gatlinburg and Arrowcraft.  The Gatlinburg Fine Arts Festival planning meeting went well.  After the meeting I took a couple of minutes to tour the new penguin exhibit.  Next time I'm taking the camera!  It was pretty amazing.

Then across the street with Craig to join Pat and Laurel at Arrowcraft.  Goodness, we'd just delivered new work and they need more already!  Eek!

We grabbed a quick lunch then stopped at Greenbriars before heading home.

Pat being inspired by the river.

Moss, beautiful inspiring moss.

Of course you have to take your shoes off!

Last weekend, when I was mulching the perennial bed, I accidentally scared the dickens out of this beautiful little guy before I knew he was there.  Wildlife in the yarden is always a good sign!  Eat those nasty bugs pretty little snake!

 

I got lucky, some of my favorites of the Tulipia kaufmannia were in the new mix!

I seem to be straying from posting about work lately.  I certainly have lots more recent photos, but then again, it is Spring!  It's been a pretty good week.  We have lots of work to do.  Some interesting custom commissions are coming up.  I've been spending every evening in the yarden, puttering around potting up new plants and relaxing.

Tonight we'll be at the Folk Art Center for the New Guild Members' Reception.  It's in the Main Gallery upstairs, where the stunning exhibit of The Life and Works of Charles Counts is.  It will be a lot of Fun to meet some of the new members and we're both looking forward to re-visiting the exhibit!

Saturday we'll be at the Guild's 80th Annual Meeting, at the Blue Ridge Assembly.  It promises to be a good meeting!  Then it's off to dinner and the party at Bryson Gym at Warren Wilson College!  Busy and Fun days indeed!

Helpers

Sometimes we really do get a lot of help . . .

Once the wax pot was up to temperature Inky decided I needed to be supervised!

Happy Easter !!!

Happy Easter !!!

Here are some snapshots of our Easter Day for our Friends and Family.  We especially hope my Dear Sister Terry will enjoy them ~ since she needs a glimpse of green so badly!  (Spring really is coming!!!)

About as far back as I can remember Easter also meant plants, rebirth, Spring.

Who ya gonna call when the Easter Bunny needs help ???

(With a Special Thank You to Laurel for Forwarding this from Kri!)

Hey, the Easter Bunny and his Little Tiger Friend came !!!

I must've been kind of good, because the Easter Bunny brought me a New Guinea Impatiens, some baby Cucumbers, and a Dragon Wing Begonia for my container plantings.  (For now they're resting on the Nature's Helper we mulched our little Memorial Bed with ~ most of the plants were ones that Mom or Dad gave us years ago.  The Lily of the Valley and the White Wood Hyacinth are coming up now, but I don't have any photos of them yet.)

Pat's been saying we need even more sedums . . .

She must've been Really Good because the Easter Bunny brought her even more sedums!

 

More sedums here . . .

More sedums there . . .

(I'm beginning to wonder if the Easter Bunny or his little helper is going to help me dig up the hillside that is going to be our new Rock Garden?  And what about collecting and moving and planting all of those

 Really Big Rocks for it?  Huh?  Huh?!?)

Oh thank you Easter Bunny Tiger !

What can I use this lovely container for???

Hey, I have a cool idea!

(It's getting hot out . . .)

Is it level now?

It worked!

I mean, of course it worked ~ I'm a Bauman!

The glass balls were collected by our Family on, or near, Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands in the 60s.

It was getting pretty hot and we both had worked really hard Saturday cleaning up the yarden.  The last of the leaves are finally gone, the beds are fertilized and most of the containers are ready for the new season.  The "lawn" is de-thatched, re-seeded and fretilized.  I've sown a batch of mesculin and radishes, and the Basil Babies are flourishing.  So, of course, we ended up flaking out in the shade for awhile, both of us feeling yesterday in ways that told us just how long this last Winter had been!

So here's a tour of our front yarden from the comfort of our shaded chairs.

Sometime you really just have to take the time to enjoy the day.

Our hillside perrenial bed.  (We still need to trim the liriope on this side of the steps!)

Neat!!!  The Easter Bunny left us five bags of shredded hardwood mulch in the car???

I think it might be a little hot and late to get started today . . .

Our new fountain.  Hal and Bruce's house is in the background beyond our wild flower area.

The bench, with twice as many sedums as we had just a week ago!

Last Christmas Santa Claws gave Pat this wonderful David Grant bird house.  It's a wood-fired salt glazed piece of functional pottery that he thought the kitty boys would enjoy watching from the back of the sofa.

From our front door you can see that the new early crocus have faded and the later ones are in full bloom.

From the sidewalk the pansies really shine.

I changed the hose so we would have even more relaxing lovely burbling sounds from our new foutain.

The trilliums are going crazy in the wildflower area.  We have at least fifty red in bud or blooming this year!

Here are the lower Blood Roots at peak bloom.

One of our white trilliums in bud.

The last of the flowers on our Oconee Bells that I divided from Dad's planting.

A few of our upper Blood Root closing for the night.

(I'll have to upload some pictures of our incredible Trout Lillies later.)

Daffodils in the evening's glow.

Hal and Bruce are our favorite neighbors.  Tonight Bruce brought us a couple of slices of his delicious homemade apple pie!

One of the funny things about blogging is that sometimes just when you think you are finished you aren't.  Here's a photo I found when I was taking another look at Painter's site tonight and checked out their Facebook postings!

Sedums and lettuce and coleus and Fun with plants!

Isn't this a Big Part of what it's all about ?

We hope that you have had as Happy an Easter as we have !!!

Catching Up

A. P.'s finished brooch!

Unfortunately I still haven't gotten the camera set up correctly, so the red rubies look pink.  It's a nice piece.  Pat made an adaptor so it can also be worn as a pendant.  He's going to have a lot of Fun with this lovely surprise!

We've had lots of good things happening in the last week!  The trip to Arrowcraft in Gatlinburg was great.  The drive was beautiful, we delivered our work and had a nice visit.

Pat was test wearing Shooting Stars.

Laurel asked if she could have it for the store.  The next day K. K., one of our first serious Collectors, came in and fell in love with it!

We met up with Nancy and Norman L.  Nancy was able to articualte what it was that had been bothering me about our second Reflections pendant.  (Which is a Big Help!)  We had a nice lunch, in a restaurant whose name I've forgotten, literally sitting over a creek!  Then we went onto to "Swamp North", their family's cabin on the edge of the National Forest.  We spent a wonderful afternoon talking and relaxing while listening to the creek.

I forgot to photograph them, but, Pat had re-strung two gorgeous turquoise necklaces for Nancy.  We made a new traditional-style clasp for the stunning squash blossom that had been her Mother's.  Nancy put it on while still wearing the beautiful Black Opal Ancient Seas pendant we had made for her Birthday and Anniversary last year.

At the time we hadn't even seen her squash blossom necklace . . .  What is so amazing is that both pieces have essentially the same design!!!  And they really look like they were made to go together!

We missed meeting up with Marina P. and David when they came to town.  I'm hoping we still can so we can engrave her Heart of the Mountain pendant.  (We signed it but forgot to engrave it's name before it went to Bellagio Art to Wear!)

We also made it to Painter's Greenhouse for their first Open House and Sale!  Our big project this Spring will be putting in a rock garden on the hillside beside the steps and the wild lilly/foxglove/columbine/iris bed.  So, of course, we loaded up on sedums!

Something tells me we're going to need a lot more plants . . .