Florida Gardens and travels

The roses here in Florida are loving life and prove you can grow roses in sandy soil! The one pictured above is Frankly Scarlet from Jackson and Perkins. The gardens left on the tags so we didn't have to guess. A wonderful floribunda that blooms and blooms and the flowers have a rich red color. The nights here are chilly, but it warms up in the day quite nice. I had on my jacket when I took these pictures. (I believe I might be the only one in Florida wearing a down jacket at night.)





Our favorite place to buy vegetables and fruit along the road. The prices are wonderful. The grapefruits are delicious, oranges are dirt cheap and so sweet. They have to load most of the produce back up at night and store it safely away from the frosts.




The bismarck palms are the shabbiest grey color. I love how the threads from the palm leaves stand out in the sunshine. These can take a frost which they've had here the past few nights.




Santa was spotted in a store carrying a surfboard and sunglasses. His shirt said, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Dude." His beard had a frost or two. I'll post more pictures when I can download and resize easily.

Anthropologie Dress- Merry Christmas

Sir Salty is a good egg collector, but doesn't always want give up the eggs. A little snow on the ground and an anthropologie dress make the day even merrier! How many eggs did you use for your holiday treats and Christmas day breakfast? My daughter made the best breakfast this morning. Cream brulee french toast......lots of eggs and heavy cream, oh my, but they were delicious.




So many beautiful flowers to choose from for the holidays. This bouquet had asian lilies, peruvian lilies and mums. Loved the color combination.

Really the best part of Christmas is being with your family and counting your blessings. I have many to count. Thank you bloggers for stopping in to visit and for all of your lovely blogs as well. I see and read many beautiful things daily that touch my heart. May your holidays be warm, cheery and filled with family.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours,
Candylei and Sir Salty

Art Dolls Alice Mixed Media Sculpture

Alice in Wonderland so short and sweet with her pet rabbit handsculpted by myself. They were hand sculpted, hand painted, hand antiqued and hand varnished. I love working with clay even though I'm new at it. I really never dreamt I could make sculpture but it's not much different from painting. You just turn the clay around and around and work as you go. This is my version of Alice so small and sweet. It is up for sale on etsy.

Recycle Wearable Art Clothes

Recycle those denim jeans into wearable art sculpture. All credit goes to Gary Harvey for this creation. He used 41, yes 41 pairs of jeans to create this gown. I love how he used darker shades for each tier of the ruffled gown. This is the first "denim gown" I have ever seen. You would never be at a loss for pocket room.

Alice in Wonderland Party Planner Art Banner

THE PARTY PLANNER

I'm feeling like a party planner myself. We like fluffing up our nests for parties and Alice wants her party to be fun as well. She has cut a bunny banner to hang. Do you see the woodland evergreen rabbit topiaries in the background. It's been said they come to life for tea parties.

A mixture of papers, paint and graphite pencil were used to make this original mixed media piece. I am offering a print of it on etsy. It is soft and sweet with a dreamy quality about it and the background stirs up more imaginations. Imagination is very healthy when it comes to creating art.

The countdown is on and I wonder if I have enough pieces to sell and all of the other worries people have when they show their art. It definitely makes one pick up the pace from a slow stroll to a mad dash. Yes, I feel like the white rabbit! I have the calendar memorized every day of the week, this week, number and day!

Print for sale on etsy.

Frida Kahlo Snowman Sculpture Snow Art Painting

Frida Kahlo loved animals and birds like we do. A little girl made a Frida Kahlo Snowman or Snow Girl. She used shiny river rocks for her eyes and sticks for eyebrows and liner, a cranberry mouth (so cute) and she used some cranberry juice for her cheeks and a carrot for her nose. An apple for a red flower and she made Frida as a Tree! (You would remember I had started Frida as Tree series of paintings and I wanted to add some new ones.) The little girl is in my head and
is me as I haven't completely grown up.

Frida Snow Sculpture is also a great bird feeder and the wee girl has put apples on her "branches" for food and places for weary birds to rest. The blue birds love it.

We've only had spits of snow flurries every day. I can't wait for snow to try some snow sculptures!

Painting is 4 by 4-inches and for sale on etsy.

Designer Paper Dresses for Dolls?

I've been working with paper mache lately. It's a love hate relationship that teeter totters back and forth during my day. I love the rough bumpy texture most of all.

The dislikes are mainly one: It takes a few plus days to dry. Patience is required.

But it is forgiving medium. You can add on after it's dried. If you are antiquing there are all sorts of crevices for the antiquing gel to find. It is lightweight! It adheres to almost anything. You have to love it before and after the few days you dislike it.

Today on Crescendoh.com Christine, a dollmaker, pointed us to Isabelle de Borchgrave a Belguim artist. Do click on the link to see some pictures on google of her dresses. She is into every medium there is and excels at all she puts her artistic mind and hands to. Her paper dresses are mouth dropping. You can add fabric to paper mache, but to make a paper dress to go with the dolls is such a fantastic idea. More on this at a later post. For now I must worry about the hands and feet.

The above photograph is the creation that Isabelle de Borchgrave and Rita Brown made of Jackie Kennedy's gown that is an exact paper reproduction. Amazing. (Can you imagine the patience these two ladies have?)

*The best part is that Isabelle is coming to the United States. She has a number of books on amazon.com. Best of all a pop up book! Her website is here. You can buy books directly from her website. For up to the minute information about her work and visits she is on facebook
here.

Westie Dog Morning Hair

The other morning Sir Salty (our westie doggy boy) had quite the hairdo. I was so amused I had to get the camera. He is asking, "Is it morning already?" Getting up in the dark is always harder to do in the winter months. Then I realized that my hair probably didn't look much better, but at least you could see my eyes.

Funny thing about our westie. In the summer he wakes us up every morning. With the birds chirping and singing he can hardly wait to get outside. Now he's like a teenager..."I'll get up after a bit."