Button Gardens

Over the past year, various big-hearted benefactors have bestowed upon me beautiful, bountiful, bushels of buttons! The accumulated result of which has kept me knee-deep in buttony goodness for the last several days.

Joy of joys,

my button jars runneth over!

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Amidst the frosty chill and wintery winds,

button gardens bloom.

In defiance of gray, button gardens bloom!

Naturally, faced with such an abundance of button-embodied delight, I had to share. This week's offerings are chock full of the little treasures.

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May all your button jars,

whatever they may hold,

be overflowing.

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100th Post and a Giveaway

Here it is, my 100th post!

It seems to be traditional here in Blogland to do something special commemorating this triple digit,

so I guess a giveaway is in order.

Truthfully, I've been putting off posting because I just didn't know what on Earth to offer, but now it's settled. Drum roll please. . . .

. . .

One lucky winner will receive a

kinda-quirky-oh-so-folky bird ornament,

like this one here:

This particular bird is in the arms of an angel at present, but he has an identical cousin awaiting a loving home. He's just a little guy at 5 1/2 inches, and he promises to only eat twice his weight in birdseed everyday. So if you'd like me to send you your very own folky birdy friend just leave me a comment. If you want me to enter you a second time, link to this post on your blog as well and let me know.

I'm thinking I'll pick the winner on New Year's Day.

What fun! I love giving away stuff!

Ready! Get set! Go!

Now STOP. I've drawn a winner.

Monochromatic Winter Daze

There is a decided lack of color in the studio these Wintery daze.

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The soft barely-blues of the sky meet the moody dark gray sea. (With a smile and a bit of mischief, of course.)Sometimes a tiny bit of cold winter sky peaks through. Winter Blooms.

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The Pacific Northwest has a way of diluting even the brightest of hues. I like the foggy days; they make the world seem smaller and softer.

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Today I am delighted to have survived our trip home through the first snowstorm of the season. Over the river and through the woods, and over a couple of mountain ranges, and through some more woods we traveled along today, inching our way home before the weather got truly inhospitable. We were off visiting our dear friends, celebrating the 13th birthday of our little faux-nephew Holden. Sometimes Life give us friends that become family, and we are truly blessed in that department.

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And now my children are attempting (successfully I might add)

to sled on a half-inch of the cold white stuff.

Joy of joys, our new place has a

Perfect Hill!

Wishing all your Winter lands are Wonders

and all your hills are perfect!

New York City and Fishy Goats

What do a fishy sweet-faced freak and a

mitten-handed blue-horned goat have in common?

They're both hanging out at my house this week!

(Alright, as far as riddles go that one was pretty lame.)

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. . .

We've been so crazy busy around here at The Cart that I haven't had much time to play. Things are starting to settle down now (knock on wood, quick!), and we're very much looking forward to business as usual. And usual around here often includes person-faced fishies co-mingling with bipedal barnyard cohorts.

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One reason we've been so busy is because we've been preparing six new pieces for our very first gallery show. (Wheee!) It'll be any time now in NYC in Chelsea at KicoKids. We're supposed to be showing with a couple more artists.

You can call 212-675-kico

for more info if you're in New York City and want to stop by. We're kinda sad that we won't get to be there in person, but we're a long way from NYC (both literally and figuratively). Dylan has several cousins there though, so we're hoping one or more of them will snap some pictures for us.

. In the meantime, here are some pictures

for the rest of us.

I wanted to go with a storytime theme.

So I did.

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Here is Miss Muffet.

She has abandoned her tuffet for the time being

and is being unwillingly accompanied

by a rather enthusiastic spider.

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Here is Goldilocks and her three bears.

I'm sure you know their names.

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Then comes Little Red with her wolfy companion.

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. Red's not very scared.

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Mary and her little lamb come next.

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And last but not least, Alice is accompanied by a mischievous cat and a little white rabbit in need of some time management skills. .

And here they are all together.

It's a family portrait of sorts.

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Cheers to quirky family portraits!