Words of Love

A mother's work...

is never done.

But the rewards are wonderful.

Something as simple as this notebook doodle which I found laying on his bed when I tucked him in late one night last week...precious hand written words of love.

Happy Mother's Day week to those of you who are.

Ciao amici,

Suzanne

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*The little doodle that looks like a number four is supposed to be the cris cross "and" symbol.

Happy May Day

A quick wish for a Happy May Day!

*

One of my favorite months of the year...Spring blooms, the hint of summer, scrumptious strawberries, song birds chirping...

Marvelous May!

Ciao amici,

Suzanne

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* This precious vintage illustration, was from a calendar I used as a young girl.  This little girl in a field of flowers with a blue bird was on the image for month of May.  I have kept it {and some others from that same calendar} for a million years and still love the art work!

Snow Drops in Spring

Sharing with you one last look at some tiny winter blooms, snow drops...

...the last of which we plucked out of the ground a couple of weeks ago when we were creating Mother Nature's Garden Peeps ~ one of the projects that I will be teaching at my Summer Arts Camp this June.

Fields of these flowers bloom year after year and have probably for more than fifty no matter what trauma the soil endures.

We did not plant these sweet vintage flowers ~ they made their home in our garden a long time ago when my husband's grandparents owned this property.

And now they make their home in and out of our garden.

Enjoy!

Ciao amici,

Suzanne

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PS

To find out what's been keeping me away, you can check out my new summer project, Summer Arts Camp 2013.

Mother Nature's Peeps

On a sunny Sunday last weekend, Spring had finally sprung so the sunshine of my eye {my son} and I were outside all day long playing on our terrace.

We popped open our market umbrellas for some necessary shade from the bright sun, grabbed a basket, some snippers, put on our garden Crocs, and went on the hunt for pretty petals, lush leaves, pods, pine cones, weeds and seeds.

Then the fun began with the evolution of a garden family ~ Mother Nature's Peeps.

Flower Fairies started dancing on the table...

then...some Woodland Creatures came around to play with them.

Later, The Green Guys joined in the fun.

Each one with their own unique personality was made within minutes, and then as soon as I photographed each garden peep, we would clear the canvas board and give birth to new creatures.  {I think we made about fifty of these garden people.}

We decided that we should add to this collection of Mother Nature's Peeps as the seasons change throughout the year.  

And don't be surprised if you see some of these Peeps available on products in my Etsy, Zazzle, and Spoonflower shops one day soon.

Ciao amici,
Suzanne

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{Several years ago I purchased the whimsical little coffee table book titled Blossom Buddies by Elsa Mora.  This book was the inspiration for this project however, when I asked my son if he wanted to look through the book for some ideas, he said no.  All of our Peeps are our original ideas and creations.  Thank you for the inspiration for this fun project Elsa!}

Monet Inspired Easter Table

Frilly butter cream daffodils, periwinkle blue bells, and a big white porcelain rabbit made their home on our Monet inspired table last week for our Easter celebration.

Bright cobalt blue and white vintage china and embossed Italian ceramic salad plates were the perfect compliment to the simple blue and white colour palette I chose for the table setting.

  

Batik style napkins were wrapped with hand painted porcelain blue birds and tiny hand made ceramic Mexican shot cups that I purchased in Puerto Vallarta a few years ago were used for personal garden bouquets at each place setting.

Sprigs of bright green boxwood, petite bunches of blue bells, and a single ruffled pale yellow daffodil were nestled in each hand painted vase.

I could not resist plucking more of these scrumptious daffodils out of our garden {our second blooming batch of these pretty yellow blooms this season} and placed them in a cobalt glass vase with even more branches of boxwood and bunches of blue bells on our marble kitchen table.  

These are one of my favorite daffodil blooms ~ like "peony daffodils" or "English rose daffodils"...

This rabbit was happy...

...and still is, as he sits proudly in his spot throughout this month of April.

Hopping {hoping} your Easter week was joyous.

Ciao amici,

Suzanne