beetlegrass

Near ... Far ...

While I continue to wait for the return of my repaired printer/scanner and camera, here's another illustration that's been residing in my computer. You can click to see a larger view.

Yesterday would have been an excellent day to have my camera BECAUSE:

A PEACOCK strutted through my yard!!!
As some of you may know, I don't live in Burma east to Java, so to see a bird native to warmer climes like faraway INDIA, walking in my Seekonk, Massachusetts yard, had me a "little surprised". To put it mildly.

I yelled out to my neighbor who was doing yardwork, "THERE'S a PEACOCK!!!" and he went and got his camera. The peacock stuck around for awhile, and then crossed the road as folks were driving home from work. Can't imagine what they thought when they saw him!

Q. Why did the peacock cross the road?
A. Make up your own punchline.

I heard the peacock squawking in the woods this morning @ 6:30 am. Hope he's not too cold or lonely.

I made up a tongue twister.
Say this ten times fast:

Seekonk Peacock.

This illustration is copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

My Mascot

I get a lot of these ladies in my house -- do you suppose it's because they know how welcome they are?
Then there is the old wives' tale that ladybugs visit houses that are clean.
Hmmm...
Well, I did vacuum last week.
This ladybug was haulin' butt, hence the blurry motion lines.

With Icing & a Cherry On Top

It was icy this morning!
Here's my cherry tree that resides by my deck:

Later, the sun made the melting go so fast, that it sounded like it was raining hard, but it wasn't actively precipitating.

This photo below is unretouched; I just cropped it. That's how blue the sky was this morn.

Don't these pictures just make you SO COLD?
Don't they make your fingers long for something WARM to put on them?!?
Well, have I got an idea for you! (Here comes the hard sell...)
Warm woolen finger puppets, tied up with string, these could be a few of your favorite things!
OK, they're not tied up with string.
But they ARE woolen.

Because the SUN was so cooperative today, and I could take photos, have just loaded 16 more finger puppets into my etsy shop:

• frog
• cat
• bear
• 3 businessmen
• 2 chefs/bakers
• elephant ballerina
• 3 Pugs
• 4 elves

So, check that out if you've a mind to, and a big THANKS to those who've already purchased stuff!

The images seen here are © Megan E. Jeffery, 2007. All rights reserved.

White Kitty: Mighty Hunter

In a never-ending attempt to bring you the latest, the greatest, the most up-to-date info on the animals that visit or live on my pricker-inundated (see them there, poking thru the railing?) property, here is one of the 3 (?) cats that make frequent rounds to my palatial estate.

White Kitty, as I call him (her?), was captured photographically (thru the window screen so as not to scare him away) in what was a RARE moment of repose. This cat is a Mouser of the First Order.

Whenever I see him, I say aloud, "White Kitty. Mighty Hunter."
When I see the Calico Kitty, I say, "Calico Kitty. Mighty Hunter."
And when I see the Gray Kitty, I say, "Gray Kitty. Mighty Hunter."

I say this because I admire and appreciate their skills and because I like to hear myself talk.

Often I have been rewarded visually when these cats, trotting off, pause to turn their heads to show me the fat rodent (bloated from eating the ball fringe off the lampshades in the basement?) hanging from their jaws.

Upon seeing this, I call after them, "There's more where that came from! Tell your friends!"

The only thing I don't like: when they drop their "meal" in the grass and I find it seconds before it's too late while lawn-mowing. Dat's icky.

Then I have to mark that area to remind myself, "Don't goosh into the dead thing."

Between avoiding dead things, avoiding feral poop, and avoiding the home of the Shoe-Dwelling Bee, mowing the lawn has become a real life game of Minesweeper.

Right Outside My Studio Window...

... someone is sitting on eggs.

Snap, Crackle, PLOP.

More News to report from Chicken Little Central...

 

Storms yesterday took the top chunk off of the tree you see here on the right. More toothpicks for me!

Fall Down. Go Boom.

Sometime during the rain storm last night, this wasp's nest fell from a tree on my property and crashed to the ground. At first I thought I was seeing a clump of snow on the ground, and wondered how in the world it could have survived all that rain and the mild temps we've been having of late.

Am glad it came down of its own volition, as I didn't want the wasps to return to their own personal Capistrano.

Am sad it came down because I was hoping to have this feature prominently in my own Cinco de Mayo festivities... Had a baseball bat all ready to whack the heck outta that thang. Who needs candy & coins raining down on you when you can be swarmed and summarily stung?

I like how the papery outer part of the nest broke away to reveal the inner layers of this construct. I never knew these things were designed around the spiral blueprint.

Spirals & Hexagons = Architecture in Nature.

Christmas-y Arty Stuff!

Run, don't walk (OK, hop if you must), to your nearest newsstand to pick up the December 2006 issue of Romantic Homes magazine. My friend, Ginny Joyner, is the artist whose gorgeous home is featured on the COVER and on pages 42-51! Have only shown you one spread to whet your appetite. (Click on image to see larger.)

Ginny painted this antique tub! And in the yellow & blue room, the platter on the second shelf is actually one of her paintings!

If you wish to have Ginny's art gracing YOUR own home, she will be appearing at the RISD Alumni Art Sale.

The sale will be on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9th, from 10am to 5pm at the Rhode Island Convention Center, 1 Sabin Street in Providence. (Admission is $5, free for children under 14 and current RISD students. For more info, call: 401. 454. 6618, or poke on the link above.)



Who's basking in the glow of reflected glory? Me, cuz I'll be exhibiting/selling my stuff alongside Ginny's (Booth #501). We've come up with a basic theme of "A British Christmas", so there will be lots of tea-oriented things.

I've been working on cozies -- of the tea and egg variety, as well as pillows and finger puppets. I think I will, "for-them-as-wants" (as we say in our family), wrap the finger puppets to look like Christmas crackers -- toilet paper tubes being saved, yep!

If this fog ever clears, I'll show ya what I've been working on! (And if it doesn't, you git nuthin'!) (Mean!)

'Appy's Birthday, Not Yours.

Here are some lovely things I was given for my birthday... Let's go over why they're perfect, shall we?

1. Dishtowels. (From Martha Stewart's kmart line ,7 in all)
2. Fruits.
3. Graphix.
4. Letterform.
5. Educational.

   

Here they are in my kitchen, above. Click on these thumbnails to see a larger image in a pop-up window. The hand sticker was on the back of the envelope from my sister Jane. Hee-hee.

       

More perfection above!

1. Perfect for its color & its softness (Lion brand micro-fiber in Raspberry.) I wore this cowl all day yesterday. It's that cozy. I wore it on my neck, on my head. It's that flexible. I drew the line at forcing it to become a tube top. It's not that flexible.
   
2. Perfect in its silliness & usefullness-- there WILL be li'l Santas who sport these yarns spun by mein schwester.
3. Perfection in: TOYS!!! Fingerpuppet? Ladybug fingerpuppet?? Red & White? From my uber-thoughtful niece, who calls me 'Appy, by way of explanation.
4. Polka-dot perfection!
5. Perfect in that it's a BOOK about creating SKETCHBOOKS for TEXTILE artists. Happy sigh... From my friend Emily.

Also got a bunch of cards, including one from a guy I dated six (?) years ago and whom I haven't seen in almost two years. The card reads, "Queen for a day! Happy Birthday,Your Highness."

Yeah. I still got It. ;-)

Where Did It Come From, Where Did It Go?

Every time I take my chenille bedspread out of the dryer, this is the amount of lint that is left behind (I've used the soap dispenser as a size-comparison-type thing):

I fully expect that one day, my bedspread will just ** vanish **.

(I realize that this post has nothing to do with anything art-related, but I DID Photoshop the photo. That counts, right?)