we were delighted to visit the beautiful Chanticleer Gardens  several years ago and knew we wanted to make a return visit again someday…

May and June in my view are fabulous garden months with so much blooming and temperatures that are not too hot or humid…

as it turned out this one day out of the four we were away did get a bit warm and sticky so my pretty paper parasol really came in handy for shade while strolling some of the 35 acres…

we discovered that the blooms in Pennsylvania were about two weeks behind us here in Virginia (next Tea Tuesday I have some really fabulous Wisteria pics to share from the other garden we toured as well)…

Chanticleer has been described as a “pleasure garden” that is “planted to perfection” with lots of welcoming places to sit and linger to enjoy the lush vistas along with the flora and fauna…

the arched veranda was especially lovely and cool with breezes blowing through and we were mesmerized by the ceramic pot filled with water that had fresh flowers floating in it…

there was a group of artists intently working  away with pastels en plein air…

joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for Tea on Tuesday and sending up prayers for all those affected by the tornado on 20 May in  Oklahoma♥

it is difficult to try and make sense out of how beautiful AND destructive nature can be all at the same time…

♥Peace to you dear ones ♥

Filed under: Chanticleer Gardens, Wayne, Pennsylvania, Garden, Nature, pixlr Photo Editing, Tea on Tuesday, Traveling Tea Cup ]]> http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/finding-beauty/feed/ 23 ~*~Patty Chanticleer sampler Magpie's Nest Traveling Tea Cup Chanticleer Blooms Sampler Paper Parasol Sampler Chanticleer green spaces Chanticleer Ruins Sampler Chanticleer Places to Sit Sampler Chanticleer Veranda Plein Air Painters at Chanticleer Chanticleer Ruins Water Table http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/mandala-monday-dessert-first/ http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/mandala-monday-dessert-first/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 11:13:38 +0000 ~*~Patty Szymkowicz Magpie's Nest http://bitze.wordpress.com/?p=51010 Continue reading →]]>

my mandala today was done on a dessert plate…

using a columbine blossom for the center on a bed of China Girl pink rose petals with a bit of fennel greenery…

robin redbreasts built a nest in our climbing rose trellis on the corner of our front porch…

in a fairly busy place as that is the direct path from our driveway to our front door…

I tried discouraging the robins from laying eggs there by removing the nests that now decorate a box on the back porch (I know! I felt horrible but it was before they laid any eggs and I hoped they would pick from the many other spots available in our garden)…

finally on a rainy day I gave up and Mrs Robin built nest #5 and laid a clutch of four eggs (I snapped the photo above before she added the fourth egg)…

now mockingbirds have moved in too and built a nest four posts down on the other end of the porch right by our front door… 

in all the years we’ve had mockingbirds in the garden we have never seen a nest…

“Life is short.  Eat dessert first” -Jacques Torres

joining Dawn for her Mandala Monday…

as finishing this journal this month has been a challenge I set for myself I am entering it in Susi’s Art Journal Journey May challenge…

lots of my painted pages began because of inspiration from a Julie Prichard online class that taught me so much (she is a wonderful teacher!)…

the first spread I completed above in this 1958 Funk & Wagnalls  Encyclopedia was inspired by a Pretty Paper Hearts challenge blog that no longer exists …

 links to several other spreads can be found here… 

below you will find a bit of my creative process for the last pages which got quite thick…

strips of my citra solv paper and torn vintage map (thank you Carmen ♥) blended in with some white gesso…

using some of my unmounted rubber stamps on pattern tissue paper…

and lots and lots of layers of Distress Stains (one of my favorite Ranger products!!!)…

using my hand to blend and smear the stains and YES it DOES stain your hands …

to finish off the gutter of the book I wet my hand a little and used a small paintbrush to gather enough color to finish off the center of the pages…

above you can see my pages before I found my tiny seashells and starfish from a trip to Florida…

I did try and not make the pages too bulky but you know how it is once you get going…

I am a big mermaid fan…

twenty-eight spreads (double pages) in the recycled encyclopedia that originally covered French Literature — Gothic Architecture and now all it needs is a cover…

“Enough is abundance to the wise.” ~Euripides

and a bit of extra fun with my mermaid and free Photofunia…

I have wanted to try my hand at using water soluble oil pastels and gesso for some time now…

first scribbling on my encyclopedia pages…

then blending with the white gesso and adding a paper doily from a tea tray enjoyed with a special friend recently…

I made a copy of a face from a magazine and various cut out flowers from catalogs along with a birds nest for ‘hair’…

the bluebird of happiness…

Rumi’s quote speaks to me again and again…

a bit of sari fabric and some velvety rickrack…

my first pages for these two challenges can be found here…

one whiff of deliciously fragrant Lily of the Valley and you are instantly reminded of just how amazing nature can be…

each flower is so distinctive…

it seems that every one that blooms in our garden is my favorite…

“Nothing is more memorable than a smell.  One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.” ~Diane Ackerman …

joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for Tea on Tuesday

for several weeks each Spring our Honey Locust tree shines in chartreuse glory later turning to regular green until the Autumn when the tiny leaves turn golden…

our Wisteria has a few beautiful blooms but is nothing close to the breathtaking display we enjoyed at Dumbarton Oaks at the end of April…

since green leaves hid many of our blossoms I decided to pluck some flowers to enjoy up close and personal…

a few golden Buttercups in our lawn caught my attention too…

joining Dawn for her Mandala Monday…

“The tiniest dewdrop hanging from a blade of grass in the morning is big enough to reflect the sunshine and the blue of the sky.”  -Anonymous

Filed under: Garden, Mandala, Nature, Quote ]]> http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/mandala-monday-honey-locust-delight/feed/ 23 ~*~Patty Honey Locust May Mandala Honey Locust May Mandala (1) Honey Locust May Mandala (2) Honey Locust May Mandala (3) Honey Locust May Mandala (4) http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/blessings-to-mothers-everywhere/ http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/blessings-to-mothers-everywhere/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 07:13:54 +0000 ~*~Patty Szymkowicz Magpie's Nest http://bitze.wordpress.com/?p=51055 Continue reading →]]> “Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” -Unknown

Mom turned backwards is still MOM…

Mom flipped upside down is WOW…

Without mothers, our society would be doomed …

OXO

just a place to play…

back in 2010 I created a “soul” angel from a sweet Paper Whimsy girl’s head, butterfly wings, a Tiffany lamp from a catalog and a stamped heart that I colored…

a copy just happened to be handy on my work table and this time she is acting as the soul of the Bluebell Forest on my pages below (shame about the glare but I was having sunlight issues in my photo below)…

there was some green silk ribbon threaded on a needle all ready and waiting on my pin cushion so I decided to stitch on the torn page from an old dictionary and a closeup photo of Bluebells from our archive of hundreds taken over the years…

when I first ordered these handmade books from LaWendula I immediately stamped the seedhead on the left with one of my hand carved stamps …

the book then got set aside for awhile … 

a bit of found text helped complete the pages along with a scrap of map that I colored and a piece of painted metal zipper…

I shared my “Truth” pages above with you back in February adding some tabs to each spread as I went along this time…

same with my “Kindness” pages…

I am repeating the images here for my own convenience to have the finished book all in one place…

I think of my blog as a visual journal of sorts recording some of what I get into and even find it handy to refer to when I need a date or link or something…

I usually like to add the covers to my books at the end making it easier to work in the journals along the way…

one of my favorite sari patchwork purses was falling apart so I decided to carefully tease all of the patches away from their backing keeping them to use for future stitching projects…

the piece below was the perfect color and made a nice cover for my book…

the title of my little book (also found text) ended up on the back as I did not want to add anything else to the front…

 I hope to share one of my larger completed art journals very soon as I have been busy on the last couple of spreads…

shared from my mother’s garden many years ago which are all together different from the Virginia Bluebells I have shown you in the past…

a dream of mine is to visit an English Bluebell forest one day (when we visit the UK next month the Bluebells will already be finished for the season so I will look forward to other blooming delights)…

nature is a constant reminder of how quickly things change…

that is one reason I am so grateful to be able to snap photographs of nature’s parade of blooms…

there was some conversation last week on my Tea Tuesday post about cutting old quilts…

I really appreciated your forthcoming reactions as there are so many different ways to look at things…

what you couldn’t see in my photos was some of the wear and tear these well loved quilts have (just a small sampling of some rips and holes above) which down the road will make it a bit easier to use them for assorted art projects…

thank you as always for stopping by and making Tuesdays extra special oxo

Filed under: Blue, Garden, Nature, pixlr Photo Editing, Quilt, Quote, Tea on Tuesday ]]> http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/more-than-one-kind-of-bluebell-tea/feed/ 23 ~*~Patty Spanish Bluebells Spanish Bluebells 2 Spanish Bluebell T Nothing endures but change Cutter Quilts tattered well loved quilt Bluebell Pixlr Play 2 http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/mandala-monday-moment-to-moment/ http://bitze.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/mandala-monday-moment-to-moment/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 12:55:49 +0000 ~*~Patty Szymkowicz Magpie's Nest http://bitze.wordpress.com/?p=50869 Continue reading →]]>

“That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, 

is the first mark of existence.

It is the ordinary state of affairs.

Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass,

all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—

is always changing, moment to moment.” ~Pema Chrodron

joining Dawn for her Mandala Monday…