February Garden 2011 II: SunnysideLOCAL

I have already spoken about my garden this month, but since I missed last month, I thought I would double up. This time, I am going to introduce my neighbor, Mindy’s garden. Mindy and her friend Jane (also my friend) have started a nursery called SunnysideLOCAL.  They are a licensed nursery and certified farmers market grower located in Redlands, California.  Mindy and Jane share a similar philosophy about food:  As much as possible, eat sustainably grown food that is raised locally and tastes great.  All of their edible plants are grown from organic seeds sown in excellent organic potting mix.  Their growing fruit includes a variety of citrus, peaches (white and yellow), Nectarines (white and yellow), Black Mission figs, Wonderful pomegranates, strawberries (grown for jam stock), blueberries and melons.  Insecticides are never used and weed killing is done with an OMRI approved orange oil based herbicide.  They have a stand, stocked daily with their locally grown fruits, vegetables, and plants, as well as jams and jellies made from their own fruits. They can also be found at our local Saturday farmers market. For more on SunnysideLOCAL visit www.sunnysidelocal.com:

And here are some photos from their stand and nursery:

Bird A Week Challenge: Week 6//52

I have come across many talented mixed media artists on my journey through the OWOH event.  So, for this week, I decided to make the “Queen of Bling”, a mixed media magpie trinket box (magpies are known to like shiny objects).  I purchased a plain oval paper box, and embellished it with scrap paper, butterfly stickers, rhinestones, and rickrack. I then topped it with a nest decorated with silk flowers, and more bling. The magpie is made of  paperclay, and painted with acrylics. She has onyx bead eyes, and wears a vintage pearl necklace.  I had a lot of fun cutting, pasting, sticking, sculpting, painting, etc.  I’m quite pleased with how it all came out:

For the blog hop list of artists, or if you want to join the challenge:

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Drawing Lab 2011: Week 6 Shading Techniques

For this week, our assignment was to draw a pencil sketch using shading techniques. The hardest part of this lab was choosing what to draw. I decided to draw a pencil that I had readily on hand. I’m quite pleased with my efforts – I just wouldn’t mind having some assignments that involve color for a change: