Ripe

During a weekend at home, on a evening walk with my Dad during the golden hour, we stopped to admire our neighbors blueberry garden. The ripening berries were in such a wide range of mint green to dusty rose to dark fuchsia and finally into a deep plum wine. Maybe I haven't taken the time to stop and really notice the colors blueberries go through from to make them the deep purple and blue they end up being when they are finally picked and eaten.

If you haven't been able to notice from my blog design, I love the cool color palette with lots of greens and purples. With the hint of coral and raspberry, these berries have all of my favorites.  I couldn't help but share these beautiful photos I captured when the light was perfect and right before a thunderstorm hit. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, as the indian summer approaches right before fall encroaches.  

Eastern Daddy Longleg

Crawling around a mint bush, leaf by leaf, he has such precise control of each individual leg, legs that are five times bigger then his body.  I found him after our non-stop rainstorm over the past week.  His tiny body, smaller than a dime, has an intricate pattern of brown, black, and cream, but it's the way this Eastern Daddy Longleg moves that I think makes them so graceful and delicate.  Each of his feet ends in a microscopic claw and this particular kind only live East of the Rocky Mountains.  As many adults don't survive until spring I was lucky to see him this time of year!   I hope this addition to my bug collection adds a little color to your rainy day.

Fancy Drink #3

With spring finally setting in, St. Patty's Day this weekend and Easter just around the corner, there's a lot of extra March festivities!   For this month of Cocktails and Mocktails, I wanted a cold beverage that I could share for any occasion and took inspiration from the color for this drink!  It's hard to find seasonal drinks (other than green beer) that are both green and delicious!  I also love adding fruit to my drinks, it makes them a little sweeter and a little prettier without much effort.  So for March's fancy drink I give to you a green goblin of sorts! Here's the:

Fizzy Kiwi Limeade

-----------------------------------------------------

Mocktail:

1 part margarita mix

1 part seltzer water (lemon-lime)

add a little sweetened lime juice

plus a few kiwi and lime slices  

option: add a green sugar rim to make it even fancier!

Make it a Cocktail:

Add tequila to make the limes feel sassy!

You can see January and February's fancy drinks here.

Dew Droplets

March can be such an indecisive month, never being able to know whether it should still be a cold winter or whether spring should be allowed to come early and begin to warm up the earth.  So there are days in March when it can be almost 70 and then ones like today, when its still only 30. But on a crisp, sunny morning this past weekend, most of the dew was gone for day but there were still a few holding tight to the daffodil leaves. In this moment of ephemeral beauty, I was able to capture the purest time of day and I was so excited with the way these photos turned out!  Spring is surely on its way, but until it's finally here to stay, I try to enjoy the warmest moments while I have them!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and warm week ahead!

Green Spider

HERE IT IS :: The final piece in my triptych of green bugs!!  For the new readers, (first off welcome! you are greatly appreciated!), I started these drawing as something unique that would match a specific color scheme and space in my living room.  But I put so much love in them that I spent a lot of time on each one.  They turned out so beautiful and I'm so excited to hang them up!  Now I just need to find frames for them!

This drawing is based off a Huntsman Spider (with slight color changes).  Their name is given from the fact they these spiders do not build webs, but rather hunt and forge for their prey instead.  Generally this includes insects and other invertebrates but they have been known for digesting small lizards and geckos!  I don't think I'd ever want to come across a Huntsman Spider but they sure can be pretty with their lime green coloring!

I hope you have enjoyed this drawing series since I had so much fun working on them.  You can check out the other drawing posts with the links below!  Also, prints of these drawing will soon be available in my Etsy shop, which will be opening soon (keep an eye out for the grand opening post with more exciting details!).  However if you're already in love with one then email me and I'll go ahead and put in your pre-order!

Luna Moth / Green Beetle / Other Artwork

Green June Bug

 

If you haven't had a chance to read my previous luna moth post, let me start by saying, this whole series was inspired because I couldn't find just the right piece of artwork to hang in my living room, so I just decided to make my own!  This green june bug drawing is the second in my three piece series inspired by, obviously, green bugs!  

The first was a delicate luna moth, so to contrast it with a similar color scheme but using a bolder palette, I choose the green june bug with its hard, metallic back.  I again used colored pencils, but didn't add a layer of chalk dusting in order to maintain the shiny effect the pencil coating leaves.

I hope you enjoy this latest drawing!  I've already started the third and final piece, which I'll be posting soon! Now all I have to do is find three pretty frames, I was thinking of a more simple designs, so I can finally hang them in my living room and see them all the time!

Luna Moth Post / Other Artwork

Christmas Tree Choices

We ventured out this weekend to pick out the annual Christmas Tree!  We choose one every year from the local church in Harrisburg, which is also where I attended preschool, so it has a special place in our hearts; plus we feel like our money is going back into the community instead of just adding to a profit!

While I was walking through the rows of options, just taking in the sweet aroma and enjoying the crisp winter air, I looked towards the bottom branches of a tree and noticed someone had left something behind!  Pieces of a snake skin were still clinging to the needles, and had manage to stay there all the way from the mountains!  Who knows how long it had been there, but it definitely traveled quite a ways from home!

So after a debate between three, we choose a little taller one that was full all the way around!  Dad had some help loading it up, and then we got to take it home and stand it in our decked out Christmas sunroom for the holidays!  Now we just have to decorate it!

Did you hear what Katydid?

          Spending some of the weekend home, Dad and I came across this vivid Katydid (or Tettigoniidae) on the window sill early this morning.  We spent half an hour playing with the camera and different focus points.  He was such a cool color with lots of geometrical details!  After taking probably a 150 pictures, these are my favorites! I hope you enjoy another addition to the bug collection!    (click to enlarge any of the photos to see ALL the details!)

Fun Facts:

• Katydids can be distinguished from grasshoppers by the length of their antennae, which can exceed the length of their body.
• There are over 225 species North America.
• Their eggs are oval shaped and laid in rows on a host plant.