Birthday Bear

I've added another bear painting to my sister's collection! Yesterday was her birthday and I painted her a panda wearing a party hat!

Pink & Blue

Here is my latest quick craft:

I dyed some little drawstring bags pink and blue! I set them outside to dry and apparently it's Fall. Why are there leaves on the ground already?

In May while sharing my garden plans I mentioned I had some yard beautification projects planned this year. I'm making slow progress, but have a picture of the little area by the back gate that makes me happy:

I'm putting in a pathway from the house to the alley. Sunday I installed these pavers to assist in the goathead removal. (Puncture vine is common in my area and the alleyway is full of the little pokey devils. I scrape my shoes against the cement and most of the goatheads come out. The worst thing is for a goathead to make its way into the house and to step on it while barefoot.) I also filled this frame around the water spigot with rocks! Hurrah for drainage!

Bird Lady

The shawl is still not finished. I'm progressing very slowly and am ready to move on to my next project. Instead of sharing more photos of this incomplete knitting project I'm sharing a photo of a hummingbird that visits my feeder. I snapped this on my phone the other night. It startled when I first pulled out my phone, but it is the animal that is least bothered by my presence. The other birds fly off when I open the curtains and the neighborhood cats usually run away even when I apologize for startling them and tell them to lie back down and enjoy the evening. Anyway, here is the hummingbird; it's a nice one, it zooms around the yard eating lots of bugs!

Flip Cup

During our last Crafternoon, Katie, Chelsea, and I had our first try at fluid painting/paint pouring using the flip cup method. It was a fun and messy afternoon and we can't wait to do it again! Here are our masterpieces:

Kelly's. Chelsea's. Katie's. made with the leftover paint.

We used the flimsy canvas boards which wasn't a great idea because they warp so much. The paint from my orange painting pulled away from the board because of the bending. We haven't added a glossy coat over the paintings and I'm not sure if we need to. What do you think?