things are better with a parrott

l-i-v-i-n

Livin'!  Stones that is!  {anyone get that...?  Dazed & Confused anyone?  Alright alright alright.}

I was surprised with a wonderful package today full of living stones from Rich!

I love these little succulents!  They are considered collectors plants because they take so long to grow & mature.  The one in the round pot is one I have had for over a year & it took that long to split into two.  They are called living stones because...you guessed it...they look like stones, mimicing the stones & pebbles which often surround them in their native southern Africa.  They are actually only found growing wild in three countries - Namibia, Botswana, & South Africa. It was the botanist William John Burchell who, on a trip to the northern Cape Province of South Africa in 1811, bent down to look at an odd-looking stone & found it to be not a stone at all but a plant. 

They are hard to find sometimes, however if you have a great greenhouse near you, they will most likely have them.  Rich ordered these from Go Succulent an excellent online nursery for succulent & cactus.  Rich has ordered a bunch of succulents from here & they are all doing really well.

On to an entirely different subject: I made a new gocco print tonight!

5 x 7 Goldfinch print, in a limited amount.  I thought I would start small & see what happens.  I believe this will be the beginning of a larger bird series.  I manipulated the image in illustrator & added the distressed border for a vintage look/feel.  You may purchase it in my Etsy shop if you like...yay!

I'm off to beat the heat...probably by eating ice cream!

Here it goes...

Things are better with a parrott now on Etsy...ek!

Tell yer friends! Tell yer family!  Tell yer neighbors!

I am actually pretty excited & not nervous at all.  It is all quite an experiment.  If things sell, yay!  If they do not, I will try again with new designs.  I am so new to the scene I will be happy to sell one set of cards!  I will be adding more designs & a print or two {I have to get the ideas out of my head & onto paper first!}

Let me know what you think!

Now off to beat the heat...somewhere.  10 pm it is still 78 degrees, geesh!

{!!!}

As if this past weekend was not amazing enough {Rich's family met my family for the first time, finally got to check out Local 121, painted the living room an amazing chocolate brown/vanilla...more on all of these on the next post when I have photos} BUT....

My gocco card was featured on poppy talk!

I love this blog for all of its designerly inspiration and it is one of my go-to blogs for beautiful imagery & indie artists & designers.  I had a lot of catch-up to do on reading my favorite blogs because the last week & a half has been a bit nutty getting ready for our families to visit, so this morning when I got into work I 1. chat with  my officemate for almost 30 minutes 2. read my e-mail 3. put in a vacation time request, which I got, yay! 4. drank coconut coffee & read blogs.  As I am reading poppy talk I see she has created some amazing gocco post cards & was thinking how I really need to work on some more prints...I keep scrolling & reading & I see she has a section entitled "more amazing things being done with gocco" & I see some cool things I have been staring at in the Gocco Pool on Flickr {a daily viewing habit} thinking to myself "These people have it together.  They make amazing things with their gocco, like these bags & this funky card, & have Etsy shops.  I need to open my Etsy shop..." & then I see my sunflower card!! 

Tonight I am going to work on taking photos of my other cards & flat notes I have to put in my etsy shop {which is set up, it even has a banner on top...just no products!}

Thanks again to poppy talk!

More on my weekend later.  I need to like...do work or something...!

Frogs, Friends, & Other Things

My little bullfroggy friend who hopped up next to me at a graudation party this past weekend in Maine.  We were at a family friend's house with a giant yard filled with open space for the dogs to run, a pond for the frogs & kids to catch them {though I could not help but laugh & think of Rich catching frogs with the kids, he would have had so much fun with them had he been there!}, & land for veggies, like corn!  It is an ideal piece of land & could see us living on something like that someday...though perhaps closer to the ocean {not that 20-30 minutes is so far to drive}.

I attended a surprise 30th birthday party for one of my sister's friends after the graduation party, continuing a day full of eating, but now with a Sam Summer always in my hand.  Though, even before the drinking commenced, I managed to lock my keys in my car, still in the ignition.  That is the last time I talk on the phone & try to get out of my car at the same time!  AAA was there in mind-blowing record time of 10 minutes to rescue my keys!

I spent a lot of time lying in the grass with Philip, Jay's dog & my sister. 

It was a Guiness-themed party, as that is the birthday boy's beverage of choice.  Jess was dressed like a glass of Guiness, dark on the bottom, & foamy on top, ha!  I am not looking so Guiness-y, though I did have a dark brown skirt on & a green tank top {you know...green for the Irish!}.  We headed down to the Old Port to the bar of choice, Bull Feeney's for some Irish tunes & Allagash.  I met up with Christina & Deana, my two best friends since...a very long time!  I would post those photos, but I do not have them from Deana yet...& I am not quite sure I want to share those as they were taken towards the end of a very, very long day!! 

Sunday the family came up to Portland for Father's Day/my parent's 29th wedding anniversary {!!!} which consisted of more food {no more beer thankyouverymuch!}, hiding under the tent in the back yard as the thunder storm rolled through, watching the Sox, & playing some basketball in flip flops...but always fun to see my family.

By the time I drove back to Providence I was p-o-o-p-e-d though I tried to act awake so I could hang out with Rich since I had not seen him for...a day...& I miss him even after a day!  I lacked conversational skills so it was a good thing we watched a movie. 

On another note, I did some more gocco at the end of the week last week!  This was one of my favorites:

They are flat note cards.  I did not make too many & I think I should make more!  You can see other things I did on yonder flickr page.  I especially like the pink peony.

This week is shaping up to be quite a busy week filled with gardening, painting, cleaning, movies, music, & hopefully relaxing with my love.

Happy Monday to you.

I Lovermont

Rich & I went up to Colchester, Vermont to visit his friend Sky who has been living on Lake Champlain.  It was a nice little escape from the city & great to spend time with Sky & her fiance, Dickey. We spent the early part of the evening on the dock watching the sunset & the sail boats.

Lady, Dickey's dog, watched the boats as well, but would not jump in the water.

After much food and drink we headed into Burlington for their Annual Jazz Fest, which we did not even realize was happening.  Welcome surprise!  We walked down Church Street stopping to listen at the multiple stages bands were playing on {some good...some not so much}.  We hit up the bar, The Red Square which had a great band playing, Revision, which kept us dancing for the remainder of the night.  We had an amazing breakfast the next morning at Sneakers & we went to a neat little vintage store called Green Closet.  Little pricey for our vintage liking, however they did have some cute aprons to admire! 

In other news:

Front

Back

TADA!  Finally.  I have so many ideas in my head & I was able to get one out and onto paper!  I printed some on white and yellow.  And I have plans for them, just wait & see!

'till next time!