celebrated summer birthdays at school recently...cupcakes are a no-no so we put together these little bags...just a twig/stick colored pencil, but the kids all loved them...we got lucky and found two boxes of them at marshalls the other day, cut out some leaf shapes and loaded them into cellophane bags that we had at home...worked out much better (and cheaper)  than our original plan of a bag of  little plastic toy-type-things from the party store.

sights and sounds from the weekend...a history festival...there was music and cannon fire...craftsman and costumes...all on the site where washington crossed the delaware in december 1776...

there are jars of interesting things collected through the years just sitting on shelves in my studio area waiting to be used...last night, for no particular reason and without too much thought, i carved some stamps out of old corks...years ago, these were taken from my grandmother's basement...they had been there for years...not sure why they were saved or who saved them but, at the time, it made sense that i should save them too...so here they are as stamps...finally.

mine are much too tiny to use on clothing, but this blouse has been in my favorites for a while...

hearts and hands...hands and hearts...the kinds of things i can not leave behind...the kinds of things i feel compelled to save...i love that these were made by hand...i love not knowing the intention...i love that some have been carved in wood and wax and others molded from clay...i love that some are outstretched and others clenched tight...i love that they were tucked away and saved...i love that they may have just been forgotten...i love their story even if it hasn't been told...i love their mystery...i love that they could someday find a place in my art...i love that maybe they never will.

around here, flowers don't seem to last too long...the deer come through to have a nibble...the ground hogs graze all day long...the six year old wields his clippers on whatever's close by...and the littlest hands in the house are growing fond of them too...and so...

some rainy day flowers picked fresh for you...thank you so much for visiting our little space...so glad you are here.

around here...up high and down low...

in honor of earth day 2012...river clean-up...not pricker bushes or poison ivy, train tracks or fallen trees, slippery banks or deep,deep mud can slow down a boy on a mission...watching my not quite so little anymore guy working so hard to take care of the world he loves so much makes for a very proud mama...the smile never left his face...or mine...except maybe crossing those train tracks...