A garden tiki tour

Summer is officially here and the weather is beautiful. Hot days and warm nights mean everything (including me) is thriving. This is how my garden grows:

A rambling, cottagey wilderness of flowers and vegetables cohabiting peacefully.

Sweet and delicious sugar snap peas to be eaten for tea (or straight from the garden if you can't help yourself).

Strawberries thrive in hanging baskets and the birds don't come this close to the house.

Pretty maids all in a row... Guarding the door are the two ballerina apples Waltz and Bolero. Next is a blueberry in a blue pot, seven tomatoes, a lemon twig, and peeping around the corner...

Miss Rose Chiffon, my darling miniature peach tree.

If you look under the cover of the leaves you can see her babies. They are soft and green and fuzzy and the shape of a blob of glue from a hot glue gun - a fat round teardrop.

Pots on the steps can be changed with the seasons.

Miss Bolero and Miss Waltz also have babies... this is Miss Waltz's and she promises to be ripe later in the summer.

These little pansy sisters begged me to take their photograph.

I love to mix and match in the garden. This basket contains thyme, geranium and a lovely black succulent.

This is a potentilla which I grew from seed. It took two years to flower and I had all but forgotten what it was supposed to look like. I began to expect insipid, tiny pastel flowers, but what I got instead were these amazing watercolour-painted petals.

And finally, because I have got a fancy-pants new camera and because this is a garden post, here is the obligatory insect macro:

He turned his butt to me at the last second, then buzzed and flew away.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour. I for one always enjoy seeing what others are doing in their gardens!

(My print giveaway contest is still open. If you haven't entered already, just go here!)

Opening night, and a giveaway

Last night was Opening Night, and I have four quick photos for you.



People arrived, and wine was drunk.



Exhibits were admired.



Beautiful dresses and soft-toned paintings whispered to each other.



Skulls and spikes and sculptures abounded.

More and better photos will be online at the Gothic Punk website in a couple of days. In the meantime, would you like to enter a giveaway competition? Go on then! Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll put all names in the draw to win an 8 x 10 print of any one of the she loves paintings (pictured below). Make sure to leave your email address if you don't have a Blogger account. In honour of the show, this giveaway will be open until December 13. I'll announce the winner on Sunday December 14. Anyone from anywhere is welcome to enter!

Note to the Universe

Dear Universe,

I would like a little house.

With some nice rooms to live in

A big garden

Plenty of sun

And lots of space for the boy, the cat and me.


Please deliver ASAP.

Lots of love,
Ruth

Gothic Punk 2008

Next week is the opening of the Gothic Punk Art Exhibition. The show runs from the 24th Nov - 13th Dec at Our City O-Tautahi gallery, Christchurch. It's the fourth year I've participated in the show and each year it's bigger and better. The opening night is Monday 24th November from 5pm - 7pm, so please come along if you're in the area! For more information on the show and to view the artists' profile pages, go to the official site here.

I'm working hard this week to finish off some pieces. I'll be showing the she loves series and will have prints and gift cards available. Here are my two latest works:

she loves stars

mixed media

190 x 115 mm


she loves cupcakes
(doesn't everyone right now?)

mixed media

190 x 115 mm

(click on the pictures to view them larger)


And as they say, there's no rest for the wicked. I've been gathering supplies for my next project which is a christmas ornament swap. As soon as my artwork is installed in the gallery I'll be starting on those babies! (I'm keeping the actual design secret, but here is a preview).

Enchanted Dolls

Look at these lovelies. They are by Marina Bychkova and you can view them and oh so much more on her website, The Enchanted Doll. Have a look - they are amazing works of art, and Marina even makes tiny shoes, jewellery and bead encrusted dresses for them! If I had a spare $1,985 CND lying around I'd sooo be buying one...

Somerset Studio

A while ago I participated in a Spirit Card ATC round robin. It was organised by the lovely Susan Tuttle, and the idea was that each participant created a folder to hold the cards. As it made the rounds everyone would add a card to each folder, as well as adding some art or embellishment to the folder itself. This month the project was published as an article in Somerset Studio magazine. Unfortunately the editors didn't show any photos of the finished folders (they did a good enough job showing a selection of cards from each participant!), so here are some pics of my finished folder.


A Spirit Card usually has a word or meaning associated with it, and the idea is that you have a deck of cards with different words, affirmations or phrases on each card. You draw one each day and reflect on the word or quality.

Here are the cards I made for each participant. Some people provided a list of words to choose from and others left it up to the artist.

Miniature stitching and gardening

This is a little garden of alpine plants. In the middle is a viola and to the left, a miniature aquilegia. It's only about 15 cm tall. There is a cushiony patch of moss and at the back, a tiny climber which I'm told will flower in red and black!

It's looking a bit fragile at the moment - hopefully a bit of tlc will bring it round.

Here we are a couple of weeks on. The aquilegia is flourinshing! All that this scene needs is a tiny little house, don't you think?

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with making little houses. Probably because I long for a house of my own. So here is a little house ornament, complete with embroidered flower garden.

I have plans for a series of these. Maybe even some larger freestanding houses... but first I have to finish off the hundred and one projects clamouring for attention!

Including this - the tinyland firescreen, currently about 3/4 complete.

More finished projects soon... promise!

Pretties from Tamsin Cooper

It's hard to stick to a budget when Tamsin Cooper is having a sale. Look at these pretties:


Silk and velvet and beads oh my. But at up to 50% off they are almost reasonable...

Lolly colours

Some days, you just feel like painting rocks. Usually they are the days when you should be doing ten other things like the dishes, planting out seedlings, finishing a project with a looming deadline or organising your next project with a looming deadline, but instead you pull out some nice round rocks and put some coats of paint on them.

Then you paint them with little scenes of birdies and cupcakes and houses.

When they are dry you add some finishing touches to sparkle and captivate...

Then you spray with several coats of clear varnish. Because you are hasty the spray goes on too thick, and doesn't dry properly. Then it smudges and you realise you have to repaint some details. Damn.

So you repaint, respray and this time everything is perfect.

And then you have a pile of brightly painted, lolly coloured rocks to sell at the market next month.