Canning label designs for you!

Here is a whole page of fun black and white canning labels I've illustrated and designed for you to use this canning season - please visit this link to download a printable pdf of labels - four designs to pick from, each design includes a side label as well as a round lid label. let me know how you like them, take pics and send them my way, I'd love to see what you do with them.

idle - illustration friday

illustration friday's word of the week is "idle"
this is one of my sister's favorite sayings...



what is it they say about idle hands?

poppy garden

shadowbox spring day

the work days always seem most fulfilling to me - waiting for the weather to warm sufficiently, patience i have not.

the manure is raked thoroughly through the garden, waiting for the veggies to be transplanted...the beds are watered...the lavender is coming back of its own accord. the native strawberries are flowering - so much life and growing going on everywhere.


you know it is spring in vermont when the violets and trilliums have popped.


i love making violet sugar and sugared violets this time of year. we have many violet species, purple, white, yellow, and combinations thereof. the baby violet leaves are great salad greens.



Trillium erectum are pictured here, a native VT purple varietal. sad to not see any of the white Trillium grandiflorum, or the painted trilliums on the land so far, but i'll be happy with what i have. it is so exciting to see everything coming to life once again.

i'll be taking a walk to a favorite hiding spot of native white bleeding hearts and jack in the pulpits today or tomorrow....pictures to come if they are around!

rigged up snap peas

well, they are nicely on their way to the ceiling of my kitchen island...wish them luck!

NEW designs on cafepress!

I've been working on these designs for a month or so now - starting with my dear sister's request of a gardening tshirt. Most are combinations of my illustration and text - Take a gander over at my place on cafepress, I'd love to know your thoughts!

springing forth!

amazing what a few days can do...




snap peas going wild!!

seedlings!

In the midst of the very snowy past few days, I took it upon myself to start up some seedlings. Just a little wheatgrass and some snap peas(thanks to Jenna on the snap pea idea!) to give me something to tend until I can go whole hog in another month or so with the cold frame and garden sowing...or maybe it is just to spite the seemingly infinite winter we're having up here.

The snap peas are soaked and planted, but will take a while to see them pop.
I started & kept the wheatgrass on paper towel under cloches for a few days until they started getting a bit too big for their britches - they have been in these little pots for two days, isnt it amazing how fast they grow up? I can't wait to see a full bed of it soon enough.

Lavender is up next ...what a finicky seed they are, but the flowers soon make me forget all the trials!