Wordless Wednesday

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No Flake Monday

(affiliate links to my designs)

I had every intention of finishing and sharing another snowflake today. But time continues to get away from me. There have been many required steps to take and many decisions to make.

However, I was able two weeks ago to finish a digital snowflake collage I'd been working on for months. Mostly during sleepless nights. Of which there have been many. Far too many.

I also finished a new digital snowflake flag while awaiting return phone calls a couple of weeks ago. I had created a similar piece of art using dingbats (remember those?!?) many, many years ago. The new one features MY snowflakes.

I've since used the images to create T-shirts, fabric, posters, bags and even a mug. And I tried shooting snowflakes during our nine-inch pile up last week. (The flakes were graupel.) I haven't downloaded the images yet (I just barely downloaded snowflake images from early March!), but I don't expect to see anything inspirational.

The nine inches of snow brought down many branches from my maple, which required a bit of clean-up and further complicated my scrambled schedule.

My plan going forward is to continue publishing here Monday through Friday. I'm also trying to learn how to take care of me. I'm trying to discover who I am. All the while intensely missing my husband.

When cracks appear, rest assured everything is okay. Or as okay as can be expected. This is a new path for me, and I'm sure there will be plenty of diversions along the way. I'll keep trying to be the curious photographer longing to get back on her bike. The grief is acute because the love is fierce. I'm not ashamed of that.

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A Whole New Dress

My newest dress has been patiently waiting since September to come to life.

I grabbed a few minutes at the sewing machine every chance I got for the last three weeks.

And I finally finished!

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Word Play

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2025 marks the second consecutive year I, as a full-time caregiver, have been unable to meet my photography goals. That doesn't mean I love the craft any less!!!

I LOVE to create photo collages. With paper, fabric and even digitally. I absolutely LOVE collages!

I created my next calendar while watching the 2025 International Balloon Fiesta (via live stream, of course) and while listening to the October 2025 General Conference of my church (via live stream, of course.)

All the floral collages I've created this year inspired me to do the same thing for next year's calendar. When I began compiling photos, I realized more than four per month would not be photographically engaging, especially from a viewing distance. I decided to limit myself to four photos per month. Hence the calendar title. (Which I hope you've noticed I've not included in searchable text anywhere here or on the Zazzle page in an attempt to prevent unscrupulous traffic.)

The title of this calendar is a play on words... some might deem it inappropriate. Or totally get the wrong idea. I did worry about that. It took me a lot longer to push the publish button on this calendar because I had to really consider what might happen if I keep the name. Ultimately, I decided the world won't end. If people don't get my sense of humor, well, that just means we're different. And that's what we're supposed to be. Variety is the spice of life!

The word I used for the title of my 2026 calendar does have meaning beyond the common context. If people can't get the main definition out of their heads, I hope they realize the photos included in this sentimental collection were shot while my husband was still whole. While we were building a life together. Back before Parkinson's robbed him of many of the things he loves most. There are so many joyful memories in this calendar, the total number of photos included (56) multipled by 12 or even 2,026 can't even come close.

My husband brought me joy and brought me to joy. Over and over again. Even though Parkinson's takes little pieces of him every single day, he still brings me joy. This calendar celebrates that joy. Even though things have changed, Lizard is still the light of my life, and I'm still so grateful he came into my life and accompanied me on so many beautiful adventures! Fingers crossed we might still claim a few more fun (and photographic!!!) adventures in the years to come!

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Sunflowers Make Me Smile

(affiliate links to my designs)

I've been collecting sunflower photos in my garden this year because the photos are fun to collage when I can't sleep at night. (I did a sleep study last month, and I have an appointment with my primary care this week to review options, now that we know I have sleep apnea. Perhaps my sleepless nights might be soon coming to an end. Let's hope the photo creativity doesn't jump ship with the sleeplessness...)

Last week I noticed pairs of sunflowers that looked like eyes. So, of course, I had to play in Photoshop. But first, I had to get just the right eye shot. I got a few "on the vine", so to speak, but I didn't really have enough room in the photos to later compose a smile, especially given some of the backgrounds.

After a few fun Photoshop smile attempts, I decided to shoot a few more eye shots with better backgrounds. During the process, I accidentally broke two of my Ring of Fire snowflakes from their mother stem. As a result, I got to pose them in what I thought might be more photographic locations.

The nice thing about removing a sunflower from its stem is that other sunflowers likely will bloom from the multiple side buds below. Especially with the red and chocolate cherry sunflowers!!!

I'll probably keep trying to create more sunflower smiles as long as I still have sunflowers. And inspiration... But for now, I have a few new to share.

I needed extra reasons to smile last week, and I hope these sunflower smiles make you smile, too.

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Purple Power

(affiliate links to my designs)

I recently got another special order, this one a baby quilt for a childhood friend's first granddaughter. She asked for a pink flower quilt like I made for my neighbors down the street when they had their second baby girl. I actually have another Spoonflower panel similar to the first I haven't used yet, but I'm almost out of pink stash for the backing and binding!

When I dug out the second of three pink flower panels, which I designed with flowers from my garden, I wondered why I haven't done a purple flower panel. I don't think I'll ever run out of purple stash!!! I would have plenty of backing fabrics and scraps for a purple flower quilt!

So I made a new collage with my purple flowers. My friend's granddaughter still gets a pink flower quilt. But one day I'll be able to make another garden flower quilt to use up some of my purple stash, and I'm excited at the prospect.

I made a small version, too, because I thought the purple would look awesome in a dress. Then I saw an advertisement with flowers swirling from the bottom of the skirt diagonally up into the bodice. Back when I was in high school, I used to design dresses while I was working the graveyard shift for my parents' answering service. One of my favorite designs would feature my own embroidered butterflies swirling from the bottom of the skirt diagonally up into the bodice and completely covering the sleeve. Somewhere in my basement is one of those envelopes of 100 butterfly embroidery designs from the '70s because I always intended to make that dress one day. Somewhere in my basement is a book of 1,000 embroidery designs, with a whole chapter of butterfly designs.

I got this crazy idea to make yet another purple flower fabric panel with flowers from my garden along the bottom of the skirt and going up to the waist. It took longer to create this new collage with the flowers properly placed on the fabric than it took to do the entire first collage. I still don't know if I lined everything up right. But I ordered two yards so I can see how far off I am. And to make a dress, or a skirt if there's not enough fabric to make the dress. Now I just have to wait for the fabric to arrive. And I guess, the time to sew...

I asked AI to create such a dress (because my photoshopped mockup is so amateur; I could have drawn a better rendering!!!) so I could have an awesome image to help illustrate this blog post, and I accidentally forgot to specify I didn't want a video. The accidental result is so entertaining, I have to share it here!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Oops! I Did it Again!

(affiliate links to my designs)

I came up with this adorable floral rainbow collage a few weeks ago.

Actually, I've done a few floral rainbow collages in the past. They are so fun.

Last week I created a blue floral collage for Spoonflower. Last weekend I had the urge to do it again, this time using all the colors in my garden. Green was a challenge. But I got creative in my interpretation. I'm pretty tickled with how this turned out!

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Blue Me Away

(affiliate links to my designs)

I think it's been a long time since I created any new Spoonflower fabric. Kind of fitting, I guess, since I haven't had time to sew anyway. And I already have so many Spoonflower cheater panels in my stash I haven't even begun to put together as quilts yet.

I did finish a new floral Spoonflower cheater panel AND baby quilt last year for my then newest little neighbor. I incorporated photos of pink flowers in my garden. I've wanted to create a similar quilt top using my blue flowers ever since.

I tried my hand at a blue flower collage back in 2017, and I had a couple of yards printed by Spoonflower. I thought it might look cool as a dress or skirt, though. Not a quilt. Haven't finished that project yet either. Perhaps that yardage now can become the quilt back to go with my newest Blue Heaven cheater panel, once I'm able to get it printed.

I wanted to jump for joy when I finally finished my newest panel. It has many more flower photos than my previous flower fabrics. I think the blue flower collection will make a stunning quilt. I get so excited every single time I look at it. My chicory is in full bloom right now, and I think it's just about the prettiest shade in my garden. Of course, I would say that about my delphiniums, too, if they were blooming right now!

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