Nature Inspiration

My favorite Etsy team, Blogging Business Artisans, hosts a monthly challenge.  Team Member Sharla of beadedtail.etsy.com  has challenged us this month with:  "Your challenge is to incorporate your favorite inspiration into a project of your choice."

I always look to nature for my inspiration.  For me, just one look out my window into the tree tops is restful, calming and invigorating! It takes my mind away from the mundane and transports me into the infinite possibilities.  Ever really looked at a tree branch?  In one tree, there is a myriad of ways that the limbs and leaves attach to the branches, never to be redone in that exact same way again.  Ultimate creativity! And you thought a snowflake was really something!!!

So, I took my inspiration from the tree and created nothing as elaborate as God can create, but a tree none-the-less, a simple one!

 
This is my embroidered tree on muslin and homespun.  It's a button down pillow cover.  This is the first in my line of primitive country products for wholesale only.  Not available in my Etsy shop, at least not at this point in time. 

Thanks Blogging Business Artisans for the monthly challenge!  It keeps me creating!!!
P.S.  Visit  the blog link between the 26th and the end of each month to see what other members are creating and find out more about our team!

aahhhh . . . the country life!

I lived in the country once in my lifetime, and I guess the country got "into my blood", as the old saying goes! I dream about moving back to the country all the time! I truly miss being out in the open spaces. Mind you, I don't like all open spaces like deserts, or flat open prairies that stretch as far as the eye can see. I like to see some relief on the horizon! But my very favorite place to be is in a bucolic situation: pastures, wildlife, barns, crops, gardens, chickens, plows and that beautiful old farmhouse! I guess I just miss the peace of the open spaces and the slower lifestyle. I have found several etsy vendors that have captured that sense for me. Today, I built a treasury about barns and country life. Have a quick look-see!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=61864

My favorite in the treasury is from the shop CountryDreaming.

Check out her photography. I've provided a sample above.

Dream: Farm Girl Grandma

My handmade Farm Girl Doll

A few months ago I ordered a magazine subscription for my daughter. [Although, I really would have enjoyed the magazine also! I figured I could read them after she was done with them.] It was 'Mary Janes Farm' magazine. It's packed with all things handmade and she has enjoyed them very much! You might want to check out the magazine and their site http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

One of my greatest dreams is to live on a farm. I would really like to have a few acres here in Oregon and build a blueberry farm [with my daughter's family.] I really would like to be a farm girl, er . . . grandma! I once lived in the mountains on a seven acre place. This was my first taste of COUNTRY! Even though it was hard living there, in a ramshackle house originally built in the early 1900's raising six kids, the experience stuck with me; sort of like the old saying: "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy." I started gardening when I lived there; the kids had 4H projects of lambs and pigs; we had a horse; and I tried raising chickens!

I've lived other places since then, but the country life is still what I long for. I like the peace, the wide open space, and it's still my dream!

Christmas Season is upon us!

The Christmas season has begun! We decorated the tree at our house today; also decorating the outside of the house, and a little treein my room! I really like the natural decorations, including fresh garland, a tree that we cut ourselves and holly! I miss the country style where you use what you have to celebrate the season. Don't get me wrong, I also like glitz, but I miss the simple life.

I found a simple shop that sells simple decorations! Check it out! http://www.hdvintagedesigns.etsy.com/