Blog entry

Buy Artisan Handmade for Mothers Day 2023 - Week 5

Another week of the Countdown to Mother's Day 2023 has come and gone. Week 5, as all the weeks have been and will be, was hosted by Julie and Harry of Blue Morning Expressions on their Buy Handmade from Makers blog.  Thirty-three unique handmade / designed items were shared from eleven artists.  Many are one of a kind and each will make a memorable gift for Mom on her big day.  Since Mother's Day will be here before you know it, on May 14, this is the perfect time to thinking about and start 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.  For this year's Mother's Day:  PLEASE BUY HANDMADE and support small, indie businesses!

New Handmade Earrings and Necklaces - Shadow Dog Designs

The heat of summer has set in here in the Desert Southwest.  Which means planting more flowers in the flower beds is pretty much a done deal until the monsoon season sets in shortly (hopefully - we really need some rain!).  More time is being spent inside during the day until the temps cool down when the sun starts to set, so I'm making good use of the extra time inside creating and listing new jewelry.  And I'm looking further down the road to the Labor Day weekend when the Franciscan Festival of Fine Arts is being held - my first big show of the season and my favorite.  Five new pairs of earrings and two new necklaces have been recently added to my SHADOW DOG DESIGNS handmade jewelry shop.  I also added three older pieces to make an even ten.  If something catches your eye and you want to look at more photos or need more information, please either click the picture or the description under the pic to be taken to the item listing.  I hope you enjoy these new necklace sand earrings, all of which are one of a kind designs.

Miracle of a Single Flower - Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. – Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

Flowers are one of my favorite things.  I wander the yard several times each day, visiting all the flowers I’ve planted and feel at peace and happy (even when I see the leafcutter bee has been at work).  The types of flowers are varied.  Knockout roses, verbena, gold columbine, geraniums, hollyhocks, sunflowers, zinnias, larkspur and more have all been planted (some from seed, some from bought plants) and are in various stages of growing / blooming.  I'm also enjoying the mimosa tree which has just started to bloom with it's wispy pink flowers that are visited by countless pollinators and hummingbirds.  And the bottlebrush tree survived the deep freeze we had here this winter, and even though it lost some limbs, there are a few blooms on it!  Flowers are definiey miracles.

So, with all this blooming beauty (or blooms to be anticipated), I decided this week’s Artisan Handmade - Three for Thursday would be about flowers.  I’ve chosen three floral items from three handmade artists: notecards, baby items and jewelry.  The artists are:  Roxanne of watercolorsNmore; Pamela of MagdaleneKnits; and, me, Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs.  I hope you find joy in these picks!

Flower Gardening in the Desert

My husband and I have been living in our cosy little house in the Desert Southwest for 7 ½ years now, 5 years as renters and 2 ½  years as owners. As I always say, “The house is OK, but it’s the yard I love.” At the time we moved, we had three large dogs so needed a larger backyard, unlike most of the postage stamp size yards that seem so prevalent now.  We have only one large dog now and the backyard is his kingdom.