Eugene Park Tour: Irwin Park

Though I've not been documenting it on my blog lately, Dale and I have continued to visit area parks. Irwin Park is one we stumbled upon at the end of May. While looking for a different park less than a mile from our home, we made a turn down the wrong street and found ourselves at the back end of this neighborhood park.

Since we were there, we decided to take a look around. This is a good sized park - nearly 8 acres. It's got a picnic shelter

next to a playground under tall, sheltering trees.

The play equipment is good for toddlers

and elementary kids

There's a ball field and a half court basketball area along with more picnic tables scattered around the park, a performance space and a bit of public art.

Toward the back of the park where we parked is a gravel walking path that connects to the nearby neighborhood houses.

There are so many park gems in this town. It's a happy day when we discover another.

Saturday Market Flowers

Besides beautiful purple veggies, I noticed quite a number of purple flowers.

This flower crown is my favorite.

Kenny bought some sunflowers for Jodie. See that purple?

Hyssop (I think?)

Asters (I think?)

Lobelia (I think?)

Don't mind me. I like looking at flowers and don't much care what their names are. But I do know...

Petunias

and more Petunias

Ah, yes. The Summer of P continues.

Saturday Market

This morning Dale and I joined Jodie and Kenny at the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene. This is the first time we've gone there since moving to Oregon. It's packed with colorful and festive and aromatic eye candy.

Since it's the Summer of P, I focused on the beautiful purple vegetables.

Onions

and onions

and more organic onions

Garlic

and kohlrabi

and  cabbage.

And the most vibrate pile of pink and purple potatoes

If I hadn't focused on purple, I'd have been overwhelmed. That's a lot of humanity roaming in a relatively small space! I so enjoyed myself and hope to take part more often.

The Reveal

My daughter Jodie rang the silver bell with the correct answer on her first guess. I was making a 25th wedding anniversary card. Ta-Da! 

The front

The inside

Here are some of the highlights. (A little pun there. I used so many shiny surfaces that this card was difficult to photograph).

I made lots of use of a embossed silver gift bag for the background to many of the elements and three of the hearts.

I embossed white card stock with two different designs for the front of the card. The "25" is made of gem stickers.

The pink heart has silver glitter flowers. The paper was a scrap I squirreled away from an old birthday card.

The leaf springs were die cut from an iridescent piece of wrapping paper. They're quite delicate. The lines above and below the "Happy Anniversary" are made from 1/8" black tape.

I stamped and signed the back of the card, adding one more silver heart. Then I lined the envelope with more of the silver gift bag paper.

Time to pop it in the mail!

Thrift Haul

My friend Karen and I spent a couple hours together at a thrift store yesterday. I had two things in mind that I was keeping my eyes open for, but those were not to be found. I did, however, score some nice objects -- nothing that I NEEDED, but some nice finds none-the-less. Check out this haul!

When I go thrifting, I can't resist all the pretty glassware. Most of the time I don't allow myself to purchase any because I have plenty. But this vase is special. This detailed tulip relief pattern is on both the front and back of this octagonal vase. The overall size is approx 8.5" wide x 5" tall x 4.5" deep. It's a gorgeous shape that should work well on our rectangular coffee table. The sticker on the bottom says that it's 24% lead crystal from the Czech Republic. And yes, it does ring when I plink it with my finger. Gorgeous. It was something like $5 or $7.50. Incredible.

Next, I found a "lady of the evening." It's been a while since I've increased the inventory of my beaded handbags. This one is in decent shape on the outside, but quite stained (with crayons ... and rust) on the inside. It's also missing it's chain handle. However, it's fully beaded on both the front and the back with rows of vertical bugle beads alternating with spirals of seed beads. On the bottom, strings of seed beads are woven in a delicate pattern. This handbag was made in Hong Kong and priced at $8.99, but I got an additional 30% percent off.

Then I found some fabric. The blue-with-white-stars appears to be about a fat quarter of cotton quilting fabric. It has nice body. The purple fabrics were bundled together in a plastic bag. When I unpacked them, I learned they are taffeta. I was assuming they were a cotton/poly blend. Now I'll have to be creative in how I use them. I love the purple combination of solids and prints.  (Ooo! Summer of "P" purple fabrics!)

Then some hearts found me! The stamp is a good size, about 3.5" across at the widest part. I'm pretty sure I have an identical stamp that is stained red. This one has never been used and was about 35 cents.

Then I found three rolls of ribbon. The "It's a Girl" ribbon is 3/8" wide. The spool is partially used. The Other two rolls are unopened. They're both 5/8" wide and 3 yards. If new, they'd be $2 a pop. I purchased them for about 35 cents each.

Then I found a jackpot of heart-shaped buttons! All of these were squished into a 2" x 2" baggie. There are also 4 thimbles. The two little ones look like they could have been pieces from a Monopoly game. The large thimbles each have a unique design. Seems like I've accidentally gathered quite a collections of old thimbles.

The last thing I picked up was an unopened package of college-ruled notebook paper for 45 cents. Always useful.

My entire haul cost less than $30. On ebay, that same vase is listed at $60!

Gosh, it had been years since I got to rummage around a thrift store like that. Karen got a great haul, too, including her favorite finds - books! Now that I have another thrifting buddy, we can do more exploring together in Eugene's many thrift shops. Whoo-hoo!

Half-Way Day

Hey! We're now half way through 2023. Here's what I've been up to as I continue to work toward my 2023 goals. I'm having a spectacular year! I've shared most of this on my blog over the last six months, but this recap looks impressive - even to me!

Word of the Year: Flow

I take #phonefreefridays to give myself time and space to get into flow. I do this about every-other week. It's working well.


2023 Objective: Bring more FUN into my life

I finally feel like the pandemic is really over, so I've been getting out and about more. I have more creative juices flowing now than I did for the last three years combined. I'm more light-hearted and take situations less seriously. That makes space for fun.


2023 Creative Goal: Go on another Creative Journey with photography.

• I've created a customized box for my photo backgrounds
• I figured out an easy set-up for great lighting with my lightbox
• I learned to take photos with my new wi-fi digital microscope
• I've read four books by photographers to learn from the techniques they use

 
23 Goals in 2023:
To keep it simple, I planned to visit 23 more parks

Dale and I have visited 15 parks so far. I still have photos from three or four more parks to edit and talk about here on the blog.

To make it complicated, I've completed many of my alternate goals:

1. Created and sent more than 23 watercolor greeting cards (34 cards altogether)
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Found my first 23 geocaches ... then found over 100 more! I've hit two milestones, my 600th cache and my 700th geocache find.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Watched all the movies in my Hulu queue.
4. Watched more than 23 movies and TV series (61 so far!)
5. Deleted more than 23 podcast subscriptions (I had far too many to keep up with)
6. Same with YouTube subscriptions
7. Finished my Advance Directive (Will and Trust are next).
8. Got a bicycle
9. Sold our garden fountain and started setting up our patio in a way that works better for us. We're about to host our FIRST post-pandemic family gathering there.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Planted some strawberries, zucchini, and Swiss chard.
11. Wrote in my Gratitude Journal for 23 days (my ability to find gratitude was abysmal last year). After the 23, I went on to write nearly 100 more.
12. Have had 8 / 23 crafternoons with daughters and friends
13. Completed 6 / 23 crafts that I had in my stash for years.
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. Made over 23 Quilted Hearts and placed them in the wild for strangers to find as a nice/comforting surprise
    
    
    
    
    
15. Made more than 23 beaded Christmas ornaments
    
    
    
    
    
16. I've given away 12 / 23 items I no longer need
17. Read/Listened 23 books
    
    
    
    
    
    What will the second half of 2023 bring?
    
    I'm just about spraining my arm patting myself on the back so much.  
    😉

The Set-up

On to my next project! Can you guess what it might be? I pulled these elements from my stash: 

Big Shot, embossing folders, paper punch, dies, gift bags, doilies, decorative paper scraps, cardstock, and gemstone stickers.

After I made the design, I prepared the component pieces.

I'll put it all together in the next few days and have a show-and-tell.

Pop! - Part 4

A Plant Poke it is!

The finished piece is approximately 3 inches square. With perforated plastic, it's possible to cut straight lines quite close to the stitching with good results - including sharp points at the bottom. 

I cut the perforated plastic another three inches above the stitching, so was able to fold it over at the top. Then I sewed up the sides with an overcast stitch. This created a pocket. I kept the back shorter than the front so that no backing would be visible behind the points.

For the pokey bits, I inserted two 11-1/2 inch wooden skewers into the pocket. This keeps the stitching stable when poked into the dirt at the base of the plant.

Here's the finished plant poke in place in our entryway - all dressed up for the 4th of July celebration.

I do believe that's the first time I've ever made a plant poke. What a fun, fast project.