First I Had to Move the Cats . . .

WHAT??!   You want US to move??

"WE were here first ...."

Well, I made them move anyway so I could take some pictures of my Brazilian dimensional embroidery -- a Work In Progress of one of my new designs (I'll post the finished project in a day or two...)

This is the Ruby Slipper Orchid (Millefiori #978). This design is stitched with Ciré and Frost, but I'm stitching another version using Lola and Iris.  I'll have the design as a class offering at our BDEIG seminar in June.

First, I found this pretty box at Michaels

The top of the box with the butterflies is 5" x 5", and I thought the orchid might be pretty there, stitched with Lola 405, 128 and Iris 215 -- a perfect match for the colors on the box. Here's how they look together:

Pay no attention to those turquoise blue blobs -- they happened when I dripped some water onto my fabric (see how easily those blue Marvy pen lines will wash out??)

Here's another picture to give you an idea of the size of the box (and how easy it is to get Cuthbert to move, *sigh*):

And here's a close-up of the orchid:

OH, Wait!! Flowers!!  Did I hear someone say, "Flowers"?
        Well, I went for a walk in my garden the other day and everything is starting to bloom and I just "happened" to have my camera with me.  Enjoy my flowers. I sure do!!

This is my tree peony, just now starting to load itself up with blossoms:

And this is a pink cosmos, one of my favorite flowers. They always smell like freshly washed clothing hanging outside on the clothesline in the sunshine (memories from my childhood, I think. My mom always had them in the garden).

Of course, it's not blooming yet. I bought this in a little 4" pot at the garden center. It was too pretty to not photograph.

This is my old-fashioned lilac (one of several that are all smashed together in my reasonably-sized garden, not too big, not too small). I transplanted it from behind some evergreens and it was SO happy it burst into bloom:

And these two pictures are yellow columbine that I planted a couple of weeks ago, just in time for the rain to really enjoy them.

I thought these Oriental Poppy Pods were interesting, and getting a good picture of them made me feel very artistic:

And there is always scilla, which blooms in blue and lavender and white. It always takes over my yard and I always try to pull it all out, but it's fun to leave just a little here and there to show this flower that it's nothing personal:

When I was at the garden center, I found this campanula (they are about 2' high now), but it wasn't open and I really didn't want a white one. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when it opened to PINK??

Of course, you know that I like birds, and I don't even mind bluejays (even scrub jays) because they are so pretty, but I have been known to adjust my attitude when the bing cherry trees start putting on fruit.  I have this little birdhouse (that probably would give any bird heart palpitations if it had to fly in there and make a nest). Since the birds weren't using it for any practical reason, I put it in the cherry tree.  I noticed last year that no bluejays came anywhere near.

I call it my "Bluejay Discourager".
      Hope you have enjoyed this stroll through the garden with me. I'll be back as soon as another thing blooms (which won't be long here in Oregon).

Rosalie