I am absolutely obsessed with my garden at the moment.  Meet some of the new additions, resting in pots and waiting to find out just where in the garden they will be taking up permanent residence. 
The weather here is cool and rainy, which is good for watering and softening the earth for digging.
My goal is to tidy up the front beds, make things presentable, and then concentrate designing on the back yard.

Libby the border collie is helping - except her holes tend to be right in the middle of the lawn.  She climbed into the rabbit's play tunnel the other day, the better to watch the goings on.

As for the work, the first 6 little soft artist booklets are finished.   I hope to open an ETSY shop to showcase these beauties.  The goal was to have the first 6 done before I moved onto the marketing end.

 Each booklet cover is original.  I have used my fantasy crochet flowers, buttons, exotic ribbons and thread to create them.  Inside, they each contain a front and back pocket, and 4 soft pages for stitchers, knitters, and crocheters to put sewing needles, pins, tape measures, embroidery scissors, all in one neat little book that is easy to carry in a work bag.

I'm pleased to have the first 6 created and am now designing again.  My stash is full of surprises.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  I have been away on a working holiday/road trip, first flying into the very warm California desert, and then driving back to Canada on scenic highway 101 which winds its way up the west coast of North America from California to the Canadian border.

The Southern California desert is fascinating and in places below sea level.  South of Palm Springs about an hour and close to the Great America Canal is a massive folk art creation, the imagination of Leonard Knight, called Salvation Mountain www.salvationmountain.us. Leonard is very frail now and no longer resides on site. However, he was there the Saturday we arrived, smiling and greeting tourists come to see his work.

 Here is Lois- cousin and traveling companion-  standing by the Mail Box

 Leonard used found and recycled objects collected from the desert - a great example of "steampunk"art.

And Paint, lots of lots of paint, straw and cement - tradition adobe techniques.  These flowers are made by punching a hole in the middle of a glob of cement and then painted.

Next Stop was Cabot Yerxa's Adobe home,now a museum

 Adobe techniques used very differently than Salvation Mountain,  Cabot's Pueblo Museum www.cabotsmuseum.org , another eccentric and wonderful creation built in the 1940's by Cabot Yerxa, using found objects to build what eventually became a Pueblo style 35 room residence.  Everything - doors, window glass, lumber boards was entirely recycled and rescued from his explorations into the desert.  I expecially loved the windows - using pieces of glass and every one different.
And then it was down the road home, and into the magnificent Redwood forest in northern California and out to the Oregon coast.

This is Arch Cape and the Pacific Ocean.. 

And then home.
 April showers turn to snow about 3000 feet and spring is a wish and a hope yet.

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