A Garden in a Greeting Card

A perfect little garden pops up as you open this fun greeting card. The wheelbarrel is full and partially hidden gardens beckon beyond the arbor. The best part is that everything is orderly and there aren't any weeds to pull!

Beach Dog Westie

Everyone likes going to the beach! There is something invigorating about it. The seagulls and waves make the music. Here is westie enjoying the day. Still clean I might add and wearing a striped dog shirt.

This is a new 5 x 5-inch painting I listed for sale on ebay today. It could be yours. Check it out.

White House Lawns are for Luaus

Green lawns are to be used and they were used in a big way last Thursday at the White House. President Obama had a luau dinner for the US congress and their families. Look at the spread! I wonder if all of the guests got a tour of the new vegetable garden?

Double Winking Westie Dog Art Painting

It's like a westie festival this week at our house. I listed this new painting for sale today on ebay. Our Sir Salty is posing up a storm and loves to be praised for his hard work. Getting him to sit still for long is tricky.

This one is titled "Double Winking Westie" and this is the look I get when he is happy, and ever so slightly tired, he gives me the double wink! I love it. Check the auction here. There is such a painterly quality to painting alla prima, all in one sitting.

Hope your westies are happy, healthy and getting lots of play time!

Westie Dog Baseball Umpire Painting

Our westie loves any game that involves throwing, tossing or hitting balls. This spring he would sit out in the field by my son's red bat and large plastic ball. When we play he has his own rules sometimes. He runs with the bat, he runs with the ball. He runs with the glove. He laughs the whole game. We play in a field here in the country so that is why I painted it like this. Our westie boy, Sir Salty is the model. He looks very serious like most home-plate umpires.

View painting auction here!

I listed this painting today on ebay. It is 5 x 7-inches on canvas that is stretched over a wooden frame. The depth is 3/4-inches.

Check it out.

Summer Street Side Plantings

Even though it's hot, humid and pollutants from the cars are around these plants, look at what a cool composition and feel it gives the viewer. These green plantings always give a feeling of freshness and crispness even when we are a bit wilted ourselves! You forget you are in the city amongst skyscrapers and feel you have found a little green oasis.

The designer here used spirea, liriope, crepe myrtles, hostas, ornamental grasses and a few evergreens. None of these are hard to find in gardening nurseries...an added beauty. Plants and shrubs don't have to be rare and exotic to be beautiful.

We Shout for Sedums, Picolette and Autumn Charmer

Sedums are workaholics. They look great from March to November here. They are foliage plants that can take alot of neglect. They tank up on water and store it in their leaves (okay all plants do this, but sedums store alot of water in their fleshy leaves.)

Besides being survivors they also have a variety of leaf shapes and textures. And if that isn't enough they have different flower colors, too. Yes! Did I mention they can take alot of heat! Do not pass these up when you are shopping for perennials.

In the above photo on the far right is Autumn Charmer, a variegated variety with the same dusty red-rose flowers as Autumn Joy. To the left is the purple-gray Picolette sedum. Such a useful color in a perennial garden.

I want to add to my collection. We have some sunny, hot gravel areas, where these could stretch and shine. I have some in large pots that give a slightly tropical feel to the dining area outside.