Enjoying the rain...

It rained a bit last week and this past weekend.

We really need the rain around here so I do not have a single complaint.

In fact it was rather refreshing to go out and do errands in the rain. It is only water after all!

My dad's birthday...

Today would have been my father's 89th birthday. He died when he was 54. I was 27 and there was so much more of my life I would have loved sharing with him as I got older. For some reason I especially miss you today daddy...

Fall is here...

My neighborhood is finally looking like it is Fall. Trees are changing colors, dropping leaves, and while we still wait for the days and nights to cool off more (I mean, come on Sacramento -- 70 degree days and 50 degree nights in November is not right!), at least we have some nice leaves. I look forward to going to the East coast one of these autumns and really seeing trees show their splendor!

And I went to the Garden Center today (Green Acres Nursery) to get some iris bulbs and bulb fertilizer. I had ordered tulips and ranunculus but forgot totally about irises. Our iris plants have stopped coming back up over the years and I miss those stately flowers.

Even though I am showing you all the pansy plants, I didn't get any. They just do not last long enough for me. I guess I am just amazed that we can garden all year around here (not that I have ever lived where one couldn't)... I just see gorgeous photos of people's snowbound homes online and realize I may not have the snow or even enough water in the state, but at least we can put out some pretty flowers  any time.

Sending out some Mail Art...

I realized the other day that I was lagging behind on returning some Mail Art post cards from several folks, so I made up a bunch of collage cards to send out. They are collaged from magazines, newspapers, old junk art papers, and a lot of doodles and stamping and miscellaneous coloring. A little different for me but I like them. I made two sets, similar to the couple I am showing here. Hope the thicker ones make it through the mail ok. I scanned these before I added some final stamping but I didn't want to scan them again.

A lovely day with alpacas and a natural dyeing workshop...

On Saturday I went to a Natural Dyes Workshop held at Renaissance Ridge Alpacas up in the foothills, about an hours drive from my house. Got a chance to see cute alpacas and then do a fun workshop with Anni Redding. I used to do a lot of natural dyeing (40 years ago) and wasn't sure if I would remember anything but I guess it is one of those things, once you have done it, you remember. Here are some photos from the day.

First the cuties...

And now some from the dyeing workshop:

What I liked at the end was having this nice color card to know not only what we did at the workshop but also how to get the colors I like again.