Let the Holidays Begin!

Common Redpoll Ornament -2012 Winter Bird Collection
This year's Winter Bird Collection is ready to be purchased at my
 Etsy Shop or Artfire Studio.
The Common Redpoll, Tufted Titmouse, and Young Emporer Penquin are the 3 winter birds that have been selected to be featured on my one of a kind hand painted ornaments this year.
 



Thanksgiving is over and the Holiday season is upon us. 

Black Friday is here and the craziness has just begun! Everyone is gearing up to hit the stores with their gift lists in hand and hoping to find those great deals before they're gone.  For some people, its a day to begin putting up Christmas decorations, planning holiday parties, relaxing, or hitting the gym to take off those extra pounds you put on yesterday!

For me, Black Friday is a busy time for listing items onto my two online shops, rewriting my store introductions to alert people that I also am offering a 10% discount using the coupon code SHOP4DAYS and getting my mailing supplies in order.

  

Tufted Titmouse Hand Painted Glass Ornament - 2012 Winter Bird Collection
All my hand painted ornaments are signed and dated by me and can be personalized on the back with a name, date, or short sentiment for free.
 

Each year, for some reason, the holidays always seem to creep up on me --as if I didn't know they were coming! Then I find myself scrambling to get all the pieces together to have a successful holiday for both my family and business. Why is that, when I consider myself an organized person? 

Maybe there will be a time when I actually follow my list of "To Dos" and start painting my ornaments in the summer, or updating my family's personalized Christmas Tree Skirt before Thanksgiving! But why change things now? Things always seem to work out? Remarkably, I always manage to get the tree up and have Hanukkah & Christmas presents ready when I need them! Then like clockwork, every New Years Eve I promise myself that next year I will make things easier on myself, so I can really enjoy the season without all the stress! Ha!

 

Playful Young Emporer Penguin Hand Painted Glass Ornament - 2012 Winter Bird Collection
Each ornament includes a lovely handmade tag with a short description of each bird that is purchased. It comes in a box, wrapped in decorative tissue paper and a raffia bow - perfect for gift giving!
 

So here I go....ready or not, I'm about to jump into the whirlwind of activity, emotions, and expectations that come with this amazing holiday season! But this year, I don't want to forget to take a minute along the way to slow down and enjoy all that I have, the people I love, and the true meaning of the holidays!

 

 

 

Irish Sea Glass Christmas Tree Mosaic Keepsake/Jewelry Box

  Have a great weekend of shopping!!

 

Tracey

A Yellow Sea of Poppies! -Woodland Walk Wednesday

Yellow Celandine Poppies & Virginia Blues have filled

 my little patch of Heaven with a golden yellow glow!

It's hard to capture how magical
my woodland garden path looks at this moment!  
During this time of year, in my little patch of Heaven,
 the woods are aglow with hundreds of Celandine Poppies!
These beautiful yellow wildflowers are in full bloom!

While the poppies are dominating the woods
right now, there are many other native wildflowers mixed in and gorgeous in their own right. 



 Bleeding Hearts, White Foamflowers, and Blue Violets



!

Pink Bleeding Hearts

 Allegany Foamflower

Some of the flowers along the path aren't so obvious!

They make you search to find their flowers!  Right now, its the Wild Ginger plants, and soon it will be the Mayapples!

Wild Ginger patch along the path.

Their heart shaped leaves hide little maroon flowers. 

This is the maroon flower of the wild ginger plant.

 There is only one flower per plant, 

it is small and close to the ground.....

 very hard to find unless you know where to look for it!

Although I like to plant new wildflowers where I think they will thrive and be happy, I often find they will eventually move
 where they want through seeds or roots!! 

Mayapples pushing up through the mulch along the woodland path.
Notorious for spreading aggressively by roots, these will have to be moved
 or they will be trampled.


The beauty of the natural garden
 is finding a balance between keeping some structure, but also allowing the plants to find new places to settle -

like nature itself. 

Surprised by a yellow violet nestled in between the rocks
 at the top of a wall. Violets are the free spirits of the native garden!
They can pop up anywhere- but I love them and happy
 to see them most anywhere. They are a host plant and source
 of food to many butterflies and insects. There are
 certain varieties that are much less invasive
 than the common purple and white varieties.

White Trillium- It's taken me years to finally have a variety of Trilliums
growing through out my woodland garden.
The deer love to eat these!

Jacob's Ladder 

I'll end this walk with a picture of the Red-Bellied

 Woodpecker. He was busy hammering away on the tree limb above me while I was busy taking pictures for this weeks walk.  I'm so fortunate to have many different woodpeckers take up residence in our woods! I've learned through the years how to tell them apart by their call. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker has a loud chu-urr, chu-urr, chu-urro. You can find out more about this bird by clicking on  the link Red-Bellied Woodpecker below.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker - He's about 10", has a barred

 black and white back and upper wings, with a striking red crown,

 nape and lores. This little drummer is a male.

  If you look closely, they have pale red-bellies!

  

Until next week!!

Tracey :-)

No Joke!

It's hard to believe that this picture was taken yesterday!

It WAS April Fool's Day, but this was no joke! We actually woke up to this beautiful snowy winter scene on April 1, 2011! I'm sure our resident Red Bellied Woodpecker was wondering what happened! Only the week before we were enjoying 80 degree weather (Also not typical for NJ) and I planted these gorgeous Violas!

Aren't they amazing! 

Violas and Pansies are my favorite spring flowers to plant in early spring. They are extremely hardy and have bounced back already after being snow laden yesterday! My garden is in full bloom with white snowdrops and blue snow glories are just beginning to dot my garden!

A week ago during our short lived warm spell, things were just beginning to come back to life after a very long, cold winter. Anxious to get out and work in my garden, I got my first blisters of the season raking around my gardens! I cleaned up our two ponds and got the waterfall working again only to find out it has a leak somewhere along its path. The frogs came out to enjoy the warmth of the sun and watch me fuss around the pond, patiently waiting for me to leave.

Hopefully this snow melts quickly and we've seen the last of it until next winter! I'm so ready for spring!

I love hearing the birds happily singing, watching the chipmunks busy scurrying around looking for seed at the base of the bird feeder, and laughing how the squirrels have managed to make the feeder into their version of McDonalds, dining on my bird seed!

Spring is here ---- if only the weather would co-operate! !

Have a great day!

Necklace Inspired by Lilies of the Valley

Surrounded by lilies of the valley, my cat decides to sit right in the middle of them! Their beautiful white bells dangle off a single stem between two big green leaves. I have always loved picking them in little bouquets to bring into the house. It only takes a few stems of these little bell shaped flowers to fill a room with its wonderful scent!

Each spring they fill my front yard with an incredible sweet aroma!

No wonder they use this wonderful scent in perfumes! 

They have pretty orange/red berries in the late summer/fall, but I'm always sad to see their flowers fade!

Simply Sophia Antiqued Brass Necklace

I created this wonderful antiqued brass necklace to capture the graceful beauty of one of my favorite spring flowers! The Lilies of the Valley! Two Swarovski bicone crystals frame each side of this lovely stamped brass pendant, giving it a gorgeous sparkle!

I wanted to keep this necklace simple.... like the flowers it represents!

I love creating items that are inspired by the nature

that surrounds me!

My Talented Followers Series - 7

Today I had a hard time making up my mind on choosing items, so I  decided to feature two items from each of my talented followers!  Enjoy!.

Nature's Fragile Beauties Collection

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31297739

created by Faerie Moon Creations on Etsy.

Birds and butterflies are my weakness! I just couldn't decide which to pick! So I decided to include both!:-)

Sing a Happy Tune Collection

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=303446116
This charming wood pendant is part of a wonderful collection creatd by Faerie Moon Creations on Etsy.
I just love Theresa's jewelry! These cheerful little chickadee's would look so great with my handpainted Nuthatch Wood Box!

To see the complete Collections of 'Sing a Happy Tune' & 'Nature's  Fragile Beauties'

Visit her Etsy shop: http://www.faerymoongoddess.etsy.com/

Blog: http://faeriemooncreations.blogspot.com/

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Garden of Mist

 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32825973

 Vintage Whimsical Necklace Harvest Green Enamel Flower Prairie Steampunk by

Bionic Unicorn on Etsy.

 Kristen is another amazingly talented jewelry designer! I love, love, love both of these necklaces!

Sunflower Periscope 

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29454563

Vintage Yellow and Orange Autumn Enamel Flower Fall Harvest Halloween Steampunk Necklace

Bionic Unicorn Etsy Shop:  http://www.bionicunicorn.etsy.com/

Blog:  http://bionicunicorn.blogspot.com/

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Haunted Hayride

Handspun Thread Plyed Yarn - Merino, BFL, Mohair, Bamboo, Silk and Glitz

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31095679

This is Hauntingly Beautiful!!

Sedona Hand dyed New Zealand Wool by Split Rock Ranch on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32210307

This full time rancher and fiber artist offers gorgeous hand dyed and hand painted rovings and yarns, handspun yarns and custom fiber blend batts. I am so jealous that she is surrounded by Llamas! I kid my children about wanting to get one - they think I'm crazy! But I just love them! :-)

Visit her Etsy Shop http://www.splitrockranch.etsy.com/

Blog at http://www.splitrockranchllamas.blogspot.com/

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Check back soon for more incredible Artists and Blogs!

Oh Feathers! These are Gorgeous!

Majestic Peacock Feather Earrings
Created by Bionicunicorn

http://www.bionicunicorn.etsy.com/

Feather and Copper Wire Earrings

By FunkyMatilda

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24695890

Feather and Hammered Bronze Wire Earrings

By FunkyMatilda

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25375011

Exotic Feather Earrings

Created by Wildspirits

Exotic Feather Earrings

Created by Wildspirits
http://www.wildspirits.etsy.com/