Blog entry

Make It a Handmade Mothers Day - Week 5

Another week of the Mother’s Day Countdown 2020 has come and gone - Week 5 already!!!  Hosted by Julie and Harry of Blue Morning Expressions on their Blu Print blog, Thirty-three unique handmade items were shared from 11 artists.  Each one will make a memorable gift for Mom on Mother’s Day.  Since Mother's Day will be here before you know it, this is the perfect time to start thinking about and buying a gift(s) for your Mom (and, perhaps, for yourself).  Browse all the wonderful handmade shares for Week 5, visit the shops of the artists featured and buy your Mom a beautiful gift that was handmade from the heart.

Shades of Purple - Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday

Up until the 1850’s, the color purple was most often associated with nobility.  Cyrus, a Persian king, wore a purple tunic, adopting it as his royal uniform. Some Roman emperors even forbade their citizens from wearing purple clothing - under penalty of death. During the Byzantine Empire, rulers wore long purple robes, used purple ink to sign their orders, and their children were described as being “born in the purple.”  Why? The reason was that a pound of purple wool cost more than most people earned in a year! The color purple was produced from a species of rare sea snail, centered in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. It took as many as 250,000 of the snails, which produced a purple staining mucus, to yield just one ounce of usable dye. After the fall of the Byzantine empire in the 15th century, the upper class monopoly of purple fabric waned - but it was still expensive.  It wasn’t until the 1850’s with the creation of the first synthetic dyes that the color purple became more widely available.  

I, for one, am glad that the color purple is now easily attainable.  With that in mind, this week’s edition of the Three for Thursday blog is titled “Shades of Purple.”  Three items from three handmade artists are featured. The artists are: Cathy of Crafting Memories; Roxanne of watercolorsNmore; and me, Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs.  I hope you enjoy all the different shades of purple found in the beauties shared.

An Artisan Handmade Christmas - Gift Ideas - Week 6

It’s hard to imagine that we’re half-way finished with the twelve week Countdown to Christmas 2019!  Yikes, that means Christmas is bearing down on us and will soon be here! According to the ever ticking Christmas clock, there are only 56 days until Jolly Ol’ Santa and his merry band of reindeer arrive once again.  Now is the perfect time to start your holiday shopping and the Countdown is the perfect place! Remember this motto: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN! And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE!

Flowers for Your Ears - Handmade Floral Earrings by Shadow Dog Designs

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”

Claude Monet

I totally agree with Monet.  There are a lot of things I can give up in life, but flowers are not one of them.  To plant a seed or seedlings into the ground . . . and then a miracle happens. Sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly, the plant grows and flowers emerge.  I have been redesigning flower beds here at our house using a wide range of water wise plants: knipofia (called “mango popsicle’ - truly well named), several salvias in several colors, a fabulous penstemon; Russian sage, Texas red yucca, gauras and many colors of the workhorse of the desert garden, the glorious lantana.  Every plant I chose has to benefit bees, butterflies and/or hummingbirds. I have seen bees and butterflies on the flowers, but the hummingbirds seems to prefer the feeder and the mimosa tree, which is blooming right now. Several times a day, I go out and just look, and am always filled with a sense of wonder and awe at the sheer beauty at what is happening.