The Butterfly Garden Boutique

In attempt to stave off the weekly  Sunday blues, and because it was somewhat cooler and drier than it had been, I attempted to go for a walk along the Canal, between the Sagamore Bridge and Scusset on August 19th.  Unfortunately that particular part was uncomfortably hot with no breeze at all, so I cut the walk short.

Christmas Tree Shop.  The old fashioned windmill is at the shop, the modern windmill is way behind it, on Otis AFB.

It's ragweed season now.

I decided to leave and go to see the Butterflies of Cape Cod  (f/k/a The Butterfly Garden Boutique) in Bournedale. I checked my wallet to make sure I had enough money for the admission.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about....it was only $1.00.  Yes that's right, ONE DOLLAR.  I highly recommend this place.  It's easy to find, very peaceful and the price is right.

Their butterfly house is quite small but filled with pretty flying jewels.  They have a revolving exhibit and I missed the lunar moths last month.  They have swallowtails getting ready to hatch!  This day there were mostly monarchs.

They like to eat rotting bananas.  I remembered that from the butterfly garden in Victoria, BC.

This caterpillar looks like he's hugging the stem.  "I love you, leafy stem!"

I treated myself to a pressie.  There were 2 small baskets of these and I had a hard time choosing one because. of all the different colour selections.  They are made by women in Guatemala and the money earned goes towards their village co-op.  And a steal at only $9.95 for the work that goes into them.

The proprietor told me they are looking for local artists to sell butterfly themed items in their gift shop.  I raced home and dumped out my charm stash to see what I had.  I found 6 large charms and 3 small ones.  I made necklaces and bracelets out of them.

I went back up to her shop a few days later and she agreed to carry my stuff there on consignment! I'm so excited!!  Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday

Ivy growing on a fishing pole, shaped like bow & arrow

De Todo Un Poco

Determined to make stuff with all the supplies I keep finding in my boxes, I ended up have a 'little bit of everything' day of crafting.  

Decorated a bottle with glass blobbies and some fibre.

This was a small brown bottle that had a black plastic lid.  It wasn't going to be any good for glass painting so I covered it with fibre and put paper and crystals on the lid, then added a turtle charm.

While waiting for glue to dry, I found the kirigami paper and instructions and gave it another shot.

After about a half dozen tries over the past week, I finally made a bead and jumpring bracelet I saw on Pinterest.

The craft that took the longest was a Sharpie tie dye technique I was dying to try.  I found this plain canvas bag with my stuff and I also unearthed all the coloured Sharpies I bought back in WA.

I have way more colours than this...but I was gonna start with these and see how it went.

The direction I followed online said to make a design in about the size of a quarter.  I used a whole bunch of colours.

Next you drip rubbing alcohol on the ink and wait for it to spread.  I didn't have a dropper so I used a straw and it was hard to control the alcohol.  Then one whole side totally refused to spread, not even when I tried to add more ink and alcohol.

Had the best luck with these colours.

The reason I started with this canvas bag instead of a tshirt, is that it was actually a Sharpie brand bag that probably was a free gift in the box with all the coloured markers.  

The finished bag, which I tumbled dry in the dryer to set the ink.  

Blue Moon

I hope everyone (who had clear weather) had a chance to see the Blue Moon on the night of August 31.  It was the second full moon of the month, and that doesn't happen very often.  It's not actually a blue-coloured moon though.  I probably should have driven over to the Canal or Scusset Beach for the moonrise but I was already in my jammies and relaxing at home with the squeeze, so I braved the mosquitoes in my front yard to shoot from there.  The sun had just set, so the moon came up huge and bright orange!

I took about 12 pictures, in the hope of nailing a good shot.  This is the first one as it emerged through the trees.

I accidentally shook the tripod when taking this one, and the shutter was open way too long.  Drat.

Was more careful about the tripod, but the shutter is still open too long.  I set it on 'bulb' for more control.

Took about a half dozen of these where it's not zoomed in.

Then I finally got the shot I was looking for.

And one more for safety.

There won't be another Blue Moon till 2015.

Teeny Crafts

It's amazing the vast quantity of craft supplies I have unearthed out of my boxes over the last few months.  Stuff I picked up here and there to use in the off chance that I ever actually had the time to make crafts nonstop.  

I've had these little bottles for a long time but was never sure what to do with them.  I had thought about beading them but never got around to it because I'm not patient enough for peyote stitch and seed beads.  I gave that up, for the most part, many years ago as it's time consuming.  So instead I used the glass painting kit I got a few months ago on massive markdown to make 'stained glass' designs.  The paint isn't that easy to work with and it's hard to get good and even colour without showing the brush strokes.  The first 5 have the gold paint-resist outlining for the sections.  The one on the far right is made with dots of paint all over it.  There is one more that I didn't photograph because it's not coming out quite the way I'd envisioned and I want to figure out a way to salvage it before posting it.

I also found these 4 tiny metal frames that I'd spent $1 for at Ben Franklin back in WA.  I added some crystals to them.

When I finished up some of the 'end of day' beads, I had 2 plastic boxes leftover so out came the paint pens so I could draw designs on them.

Please ignore my claws.