Indulge Your Shelf

With Ben's school year ending last Friday, we are in summer mode! The lilacs have already come and gone, but the state flower, the Columbine, is in full bloom.  I have them in many colors in my garden; with the hot, dry weather we have here it's best to try to be satisfied with what is native, I've found. As I spent most of the Spring sick in bed, I never got around to my usual spring cleaning so over the last few days, as my son sleeps until noon, I've been trying to work on that; I began with clearing off my crowded, side kitchen counter. I also did some re-arranging on the shelves which show off some of my favorite red-themed stuff...at the top of the above photo, my f un new greeting card from Julia , which I have mounted like a print; it proclaims, Her Royal Highness Queen Mum, which is a name I will answer to! I also got busy putting up my seasonal artwork, including this assemblage of the art collages I made at Birdsong Two. I started with this kit...

I finally hung my SING banner from the swap. I attached the pennants to a length of tea-dyed lace using tiny clothespins that I covered with coordinating paper and decorated with a mother-of-pearl button. The lace went behind the pennant, while a strip of seam binding went in front of each piece. I'm real happy with how it turned out! I put it up Tuesday, the same day as I got together with Rebecca to do a bit of crafting.  I couldn't resist making another bird collage like the one we did at Birdsong Two. Then, while I was at it, I made a bunch of tags, too! I just went a little nuts with scraps, ephemera, and a bit of trim, ribbon, lace and millinery flowers... I mostly stuck to the bird theme...   with a bit of Austen thrown in! It was very therapeutic.  I think I went a little overboard with this last one, though, don't you?! Did you notice how pretty the backdrop for my tags and collage is?  I am so happy with this lace p...