Watercolor Heart Cards - 1

I completed all the cards that I started in my watercolor workshop, then mailed most of them in February. Due to being sick in December and January, I didn't send my usual batch of Christmas cards. So I sent those friends Valentines instead.

All of the painting was done on watercolor paper that was cut to size. I adhered the painting to the front of card blanks. On some, I added sentiments. I let the hearts speak for themselves on other cards. Inside, I wrote a little poem. I was able to use all materials from my stash -- even postage stamps!

Over the next weeks, I'll share all 28 watercolor heart cards that I finished. Here are the first four:

#1

#2

#3

#4

These cards are a good first attempt with watercolor. I'm quite pleased with most of them. Even the oddball paintings aren't complete duds, so I feel good about sharing them.

Quilted Heart #15

Here's the next heart in the series

This fabric has a rosebud print on a white background. I tried this extra wide red tulle floral ribbon with glitter hearts. The ribbon came with a wired edge, but I removed the wire for this purpose. I doubled up the heart buttons with a large white button topped with very small red button. It's an interesting proportion. I used lace for the hanger. The front is sewn to the back back using red floss and a buttonhole stitch.

Ready to go out into the wild!

Colorful Umbrellas

Another puzzle to lift my spirits on a gloomy day.

This one even came with four extra pieces! Yep. They're all duplicates.

A good 350 piece puzzle to put together while watching Hallmark romance movies.

Eugene Park Tour: Cascadia Covered Bridge

On the ride home from Cascadia park, we took a narrow road instead of heading right to the highway. The homes here were very modest and sat right on the edge of the road. There were signs everywhere that they didn't want anyone to use their driveways to turn around. It wasn't a good place to get lost!

Thankfully, we found a picturesque covered bridge to cross the river and return to the main road. What a treat!

This part of Oregon has 54 covered bridges. Jodie and I have been to several of them. It was good to discover one of them with Dale, too. 

Here's a view of the bridge from the 'highway side' after we crossed it.

There is rumor to be a geocache hiding quite near this spot. Our GPS couldn't find us that afternoon, so we were unable to locate the cache. That's another good reason to return to the Cascadia area for a short hike and relaxing lunch among the trees.

Quilted Heart #14

I tried a couple new ideas when making heart #14.

Starting at the top, there's a small white heart button, topped with a red sequins flower. The flower sequins used a pearl bead as its center. I used a white picot-edged satin ribbon for the hanger and a simple running stitch to sew the front of the heart to the back.

I used a double row of  white "pearl" stickers. Although they did stick to the fabric on their own, I decided to sew them down as well. 

Then I decided to add a bit of embroidery to the print. I started by outlining this small red heart.

I emphasized the wavy lines of the red and blue heart with running stitches.

I added French Knots to the center of each tiny pink heart.

Ready to go out into the wild!

Autumn Vignettes

I went to department store for the first time in months. I was all eyes and "wow"s. Such abundance! Full shelves. So much inventory! So much color!

I've remained in semi-pandemic mode because I seem to take so long to recover from getting sick these days. I've been avoiding getting sick by avoiding indoor places with lots of people.

Anyway ... while at the store I went to the toy department and found this:

A single box with twelve puzzles. Four with 500 pieces. Four with 300 pieces. Four with 150 pieces. Something for every level of concentration!

All of the puzzles are autumn vignettes. So, lots of color and lots of pumpkins for me!

Now, the puzzles are by Cardinal. I'm not certain, but I think I've bought puzzles by that company at Dollar Tree. If so, these may not be very high quality puzzles. Twelve puzzles for $10 might also be a clue. I haven't opened the box yet, so I don't know. 

Even if the puzzle quality isn't the greatest, the photographs and scenes are great. I'll find my way to hours of entertainment.

These are my favorite images of the bunch. Pumpkins and pumpkin muffins.

Putting these together will put me well on my way to my goal of constructing 23 jigsaw puzzles in 2023.

Eugene Park Tour: Cascadia County Park

A couple months ago, Dale and I went for a country ride to clear our heads and get some fresh air. We'd been cooped up in the house with a virus, and needed some distance vision. 

Dale spotted this state park on the map, east of Sweet Home, about 1-1/4 hours northeast of Eugene. So even though we still didn't have much energy, we were ready for a Tuesday Travels outing.

Once past Sweet Home, we travelled up the Santiam River on a tree-lined highway. We made our first stop at a roadside pull-out where we followed the sound of water to this watershed. It was peaceful and beautiful beside the rushing water.

Further down the road we stopped at this visitor center. It had been raining, so the deck was slippery. I nearly landed on my butt.

Among other information about the fishing, camping, and hiking that are available at Cascadia park, is this wall of hand-painted tiles depicting some of the wildflowers in the area.

The highlight, of course, was the view of the lake surrounded by mountains. Looking upriver:

Looking west, toward the dam:

I believe we even found a geocache at the end of the parking lot.

Driving a bit further east took us to the entrance of Cascadia County Park. We drove around a little bit on the paved roads, but didn't get out of the car. Things looked fairly buttoned up for the winter season, so we'll need to explore more on a return trip. I hear there's wonderful picnic areas, good paths down to a swimming hole, a lot of hiking, places to fish, and a waterfall called Lower Soda Falls at the northernmost point of the park.

But, wow! We live in such pretty country with tall, tall trees!

Quilted Heart #13

For  my 13th heart I've returned to the red print fabric. This time I'm emphasizing the yellow in the print rather than the green. I wanted this heart to evoke Spring rather than #8 that emphasized the green, giving that heart an aura of Christmas.

This time with the red print fabric, I sewed a yellow ribbon down the middle. I also used the yellow ribbon for hanger. I added a white lace bow, an adorable yellow flower button, and a puffy white heart button. I used a buttonhole stitch around the edge to sew the heart front to the back.

Ready to go out into the wild!

Cards for the Kids

Whoops! I had our granddaughters' Valentine gifts all ready to be packed up, then realized I hadn't bought/made the actual Valentine card. So I whipped these out in about 10 minutes. Luckily, I have a lot of stickers on hand to make it easy.

Annie is our owl lover, so I started by putting this sticker on the front.

Inside I added puffy hearts and gem dots. Lastly, I added the words.

For Melody, I didn't have any appropriate cat stickers. So she got a mirrored pink heart on the outside of her Valentine.

Inside, I used more puffy hearts and gems, then added the words.

Papa and I signed the cards before we tucked them into the Valentine box. We goofed by a day, though. So the Grands got to celebrate Valentine's Day two days in a row. 

Via videochat, Papa and I got to watch our sweet girls open their gifts of candy, necklaces, sweet smelling soap, and jigsaw puzzles [we must start them early!]. 

The only things missing were the hugs.

Quilted Heart #12

I'm so pleased with this Quilted Heart! I took a chance doing something I've never tried before - sewing stringed sequins. Any other time I've utilized this supply while crafting, I've always used glue.

I used a fabric with a white background and miniature heart and flower print. The red sequins heart surrounds a puffy red heart button. It's got a red satin ribbon hanging loop, a pinked edge, and the front is sewn to the back with backstitch to give it a thicker outline.

Ready to go out into the wild!

Eugene Park Tour: Elijah Bristow State Park

Here's a little #Throwback Thursday ...

Last November on one of our #TuesdayTravels, Dale and I headed out for a longer-than-usual drive over to Elijah Bristow State Park. This park is located on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, southeast of Eugene. It was named for one of the first pioneer settlers in Lane County.

The park has nearly 850 acres of scattered meadows, woodlands and wetlands along with lots of picnic areas. There are also a lot of horse trails.

The day we got there, much of the place was closed for the season. So we drove around the paved roads and saw signs for intriguing places like Lost Creek, Beaver Pond and Channel Lake. 

We managed to find one geocache in a picnic area. Then we went for a short hike near the wildlife viewing platform

where we caught a glimpse of this river through the autumn foliage.

The trail was nice, wide, and well marked - for and by horses. We had to watch our step!

On the way out of the park, we even glimpsed a horse and rider near the entrance.

This state park is another area to explore more thoroughly in the future. Going on this Eugene Park Tour continues to be a welcome activity. We're seeing places new to us, and gathering ideas of where we might return to get even more in touch with Oregon.

Quilted Heart #11

I kept this heart simple. I altered the hanger a bit by sewing the ribbon to the front, rather than sandwiching it between the heart layers. Then I sewed on the small red button.

I gave the sequins flower a center of three red beads

It's ready to be released into the wild!