Butterfly Housing

I've been working on painting a butterfly box for a Christmas present and I've got it finished except for the clear coats. I used acrylics and of course I had to add a little metallic paint and what perfect place to add that but the only colored butterfly on the whole box. It looks a bit like a hot mess in these photos, I took them at night. But it really does look better in natural light.

close up of metallic butterfly!

I've been sick this week and to add insult to injury, I fell down my very wicked stairs last night. I am so very sore. I couldn't even sleep on my injured side last night.

wicked stairs - see my slippers? that's where I landed.

Luckily, I landed on my very cushioned caboose and didn't break anything, bone-wise. It could have been very ugly. These stairs are wicked I tell you and there is a brick floor at the bottom. I was at the very top and took a step or two down (I had slippers on) and I felt it slide out from under me and down I went . I think I even bounced. I landed where you see the slippers, about half way down. Like I said it could've ended very badly. At least I didn't have an audience. I won't be wearing those slippers again. This is a good reason to try and talk my husband into a main floor studio!

Happy Holidays!

Say hello to my little friend

Here he is... an upside down praying mantis!

I woke up this morning and took Zoey out like normal but besides the breath taking humidity so early, I noticed lots of black and blue butterflies! So beautiful and magical in the morning light as the locusts sang their persistent calls. They must've had a hatching all at once or whatever it's called... but they were everywhere and a wonderful site to see. Those locusts are out with bells on and that always reminds me of Florida. Ahhh the sounds of summer.

So even though it was like 600 degrees outside and now the hottest part of the day I took my camera and waited for the foggy lens to clear up to take some mid summer pictures and try to get some pics of those beautiful winged creatures. To my surprise I finally got one and then another and I think I took about 200 pictures trying to get them with those gorgeous wings open and then oooo! across the porch I noticed one landing on my tiger lilies. I had to get the contrast of that orange flower and black with blue butterfly. As I got closer, surprise!! A little praying mantis shot out of nowhere and ran up the flower to see who this winged invader was. I'm not sure if I scared the butterfly off or the praying mantis did but as I tried to snap as many close up pictures that I could my battery went kaput. Wouldn't you know it. I think that praying mantis's are the neatest little creatures and can watch them for hours. Sometimes they hitch a ride in with my plants and end up in the greenhouse in the fall but I don't know where they end up cause I usually never see them again. I just read recently that praying mantis's are one of the top predators of hummingbirds. Who knew! But that is nature. But aren't the butterflies and all the little creatures just so magical? 

Here I'm chasing a butterfly, see it on the far left hand side about mid way down?

Ok, these petunia's don't have a butterfly on them right now, but they are my favorite color of petunias.

Here is the butterfly tantalizing me...

Success! It finally lets me touch it and hold it! It must like the way I taste because it lingered for many pictures.

Here is the praying mantis running up the flower to chase away the butterfly.

I want to thank my friend Sharon over at Plumrose Lane for an excellent tutorial of adding a signature to your posts on Blogger. Thanks, Sharon!! She is a wealth of info and has spectacular FREE designs for your blog. Sharon also has an Etsy shop, Mana Moon Studio's, that she is closing down and everything is 75% off! Go now! I just swooped up 3 beautiful pieces that I can't wait to get and show you all. 

So, how does my signature look? See ya soon!

Butterflies and snow

Hi everyone, it's been a week since I posted. I've been busy getting ready for an arts and craft show that I'll be in next Saturday. My friend and creative partner, Gale have been cranking out our work. (The butterflies are one example of what we've got going on). One thing we're having trouble with is pricing. We don't want to price ourselves out of the show, but we need to make it worth while, too. I'm sure everyone that sells their stuff asks the same questions. This will be our first show together as a team and it is exciting and also scary to think our stuff may be rejected. You really put your heart out in the open for people to tramp all over with art or anything that you create. Oh and by the way, I've created these digital designs with her poetry (please respect our copyright) and I'm trying to come up with some different ways to actually mount them to sell. So far, I've come up with framing them (not so different) and decoupage them to wooden plaques. Anyone have any great ideas that they would be willing to share with me? I'd love hear your thoughts.

We've had I don't know how many days with snow and I am sick of it. I'm ready to get outside and I am more of a fair weather kinda gal. I don't like to get out when it's cold. Now we are looking for another possible winter storm this Sunday. Yuck. I long for the days of late spring and summer. It's days like this that I wish I lived in Hawaii or Fuji or some fantastic place like that.

My fellow blogger friend, Kathryn of SassmowthDesigns mentioned today the One World One Heart being over and all the giveaways that was going on. (I didn't win any either, Kat) I know that I enjoyed the One World One Heart as a spectator and ended up following a whole new bunch of great blogs. I now have so many that I keep up with that I find I am not getting as much done as I want to! Oh well, they are usually such great inspiration that it will pay off. And who can have too many friends, right?

Also, if I have any Florida friends that are in the area of Wolfy's Waterfront Bar n Grill in Sanford, please email me and I'll mail you a gift certificate for there that will expire before I get back down to Florida. I only have one, so if there happens to more than one, I'll put your name in a hat. You've got til this Saturday the 20th to contact me.