Today starts a new week and a new color theme for Shades of Inspiration.

PINK!!!!

I try to make each day a theme - pink in the garden, pink decor, pink architecture.... but I just didn't feel like it today. So here's a hodge podge of pink.

This is a painted truck that sits in a field off Highway 395 on the way to Reno. I've driven this road hundreds of times and I still have to look for this truck and have a quick smile as I woosh by it.

One of my favorite tea cups, although in this particular shot I'm using it as a coffee cup. I bought it at one of my favorite Susanville shops, La Belle Maison. It was supposed to be part of a set but some of the pieces broke and so they sold each remaining cup and saucer pair for $5 and single unmatched cups or saucers for $3. Lucky "break" for me. The spoon is from the shop as well, I think it was $2.

Someone left a flower on the grave of two sisters in Susanville's pioneer cemetery. A flu epidemic swept through the area in the late 1800's and there are many, many children's graves from that time period. It makes one thankful for the advances of modern medicine. We may over use it at times, but there's no mistaking it's power to save lives that would have been lost in days gone by.

I love this tea pot, found it at a junk shop in Sweet Home, Oregon. The tea cup was a Ross Department Store find. I used to collect these flower fairies. The cats have knocked over and broken a few. They're packed away at the moment until I can think of a more cat safe location for them.

What with the California fires and smoke, the heat, the stomach bug we were all passing around, kids and family all home visiting, I haven't had much time to blog this week. I'll throw up a quick Shades of Inspiration for the last theme day for blue. And then it's off to Reno to take the last visitor to the airport. I'm not looking forward to the two hundred mile round trip or the cost of gas for said trip but at least I'll get to spend time in an air conditioned car. With my son, that part is nice too.

These are all images taken around the back garden and shed.

A blue skyscape inside an old garden cart.

A blue gazing ball hiding behind a garden candle. (sadly, cats or cold broke the ball this spring, I have to get a new one)

An old handle from a child's shovel.

We might see blue on this garden bug killer guy but hopefully the bugs don't see him coming.

The blue Shades of Inspiration photos are only up for the rest of today. Tomorrow starts a new theme - pink.

Although my regular viewers (all six of them!) have seen some of these photos before, I thought they worked well for a little travel blues montage for Shades of Inspiration.

Doctor Who can't be far away! - Edinburgh, Scotland

A floating hat in the Stravinksy Fountain - near Centre Pompidou, Paris

Not floating boats in a harbor - Conwy, Wales

A fantasical scene (I shudder at what my cats would do to this display if I attempted something like this in my home. Could I hope that mischevious, Froud looking elf could keep them out of the window?) - Glastonbury, England

There was actual art making in the house yesterday. We pulled out the crayons for granddaughter Joli but some of us older girls did most of the drawing.

Here's Elena with her picture - I love her red fairy in a tall grass forest.

I started out making a labyrinth but somewhere along the way it turned into a flower.

Joli spent most of her time pointing to where she wanted someone to draw something on her paper and then asking "Whassah?" twenty six times. And using a glue stick....

....as a giant tube of chapstick.

Shades of Inspiration - Blue - Day 2

We didn't know when we took this photo it would be our last visit to our lovely local tea room. We came back from vacation to find it had closed it's doors. Weep.

Another blue photo from the tea room.

A wee blue fairy in the lamb's ear.

For more Shades of Inspiration photos, click here.
For more adorable wee folk in the garden, check out today's Beach Treasure.

It's Monday so that means a new color challenge for Shades of Inspiration. This week is...

BLUE

Blue is a tricky color for me as I love it as an accent but have trouble with certain shades of it as a decorating color. Of course what can one say bad about blue in the garden or blue skies or a sparkling blue lake? Nothing!

Here are some blues I photographed in April in Giverny, France.

I decided to add some random fun white from my photo files for today's Shades of Inspiration. No theme except that all the photos make me smile.





Over on Beach Treasure today you can follow me around the Saturday morning Farmer's Market.

Today I did an entire post on La Madeleine (Madeleine Church in Paris) over on Beach Treasure. All the photos were also perfect for this week's color theme of white/cream theme for the Shades of Inspiration Challenge. So, I'm gonna save myself a little time but make you work a little bit today. Click on over to Beach Treasure to see the rest of the beautiful photographs.

To pique your interest, here is one of my favorites.

Garden whites

Look! My turtle seed sprouted!

Poor kitty must have used up all nine lives.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's......

Plant stakes - a gift from my mom. I haven't gotten them in the ground yet.

For more Shades of Inspiration photos check here.

Shades of Inspiration again today. I just realized I only have a few days left before visitors arrive, so I gotta get off this machine and get to crackin' the whip on that damn housecleaning fairy. She's really gotten lazy of late. If she doesn't get her rear in gear pretty soon I might have no choice but to do the work myself. Sheesh.

A trio of readers

keys to my.... uhm.... cottage in the French countryside. Yes. That's it.

The ocean sings to me, even when it's far away.

A poem made out of refrigerator magnets my husband created for me to discover.

I was going to take some photos of my most recent craft store and thrift shop treasures, but then I got distracted. A friend who I haven't seen since mid March called and said "Let's do lunch!" and y'know, a girl has to have her priorities. So, maybe I'll get those treasures photographed tomorrow. However, I was inspired to wander around the house and yard yesterday, camera in hand, in search of shades of white for Shades of Inspiration.

A quiet seat in the garden


A boneyard...er, I mean a yard bone. That is, a bone in the yard.

Critter and clippers

A basket of beach treasure

And speaking of Beach Treasure, if you'd like a brighter view of the world, today I've posted some more color drenched photos there.

Today starts a new color for Shades of Inspiration - white/cream. I looked through my photos last night in anticipation and discovered that most of the images that would work for this week were on the .... odd, macabre, creepy, weird side. Hmmmm. What does that say about me? Probably nothing that people who know me well don't already know - that I have an odd, macabre, creepy, weird side. But for some of you, who may not know me so well, let's not frighten you away just yet. We'll work up to those later in the week and start out with some pretty and innocuous flower photos.




Fireworks in the night garden



Stars in the day garden



Seed fairies readying for flight.

You can see these in a larger format, as well as other participants photos by going here.

Oops, I missed a day, then another day, then another... been busy and out of town and dealing with a sinus infection and smoke from a fire and ....

but, I'll slip in here with one more Shades of Inspiration green before the week is over.

The sun setting through the backyard grape arbor.

More grapes on the fence.

Today is the last day to go to the Flickr group and see all the green photos. They'll be erased tonight. I'm not sure why we have to take the different colors done each week, but that's the hostess Sadie's decision. Monday will start a new color - creams and whites. I'm excited about this noncolor week, I bet there is going to be some wonderful images.

I've also got to post about some other things going on around here - craft and fabric runs to the big city and ... well, I'll save it for the next post.

For now, I'll leave you with a song. All week because of this green theme I've had this old song stuck in my head. I was a huge John Denver fan in the days. I hope today finds you in a Cool and Green and Shady mood.

Another Green day - ah, man, now I'm gonna have to go put on one of their CD's.



We like turtles in this family, so I couldn't resist snapping this shot while strolling near a famous public market. I won't tell you the name of the city but I'll give you a clue.....



Can you guess the city now?

Check out more photos from Shades of Inspiration participants.

Today's Shades of Inspiration - Green. Boy, this Challenge sure helps me find a topic for this blog each day. Seeing as I'm still not finding any studio time. If things keep going on without a change, eventually my studio will look like this first photo -

A ruined room inside the ancient (obviously) city wall in Conwy, Wales.

And a bit west, a colorful street in Caernarfon, Wales. We kept hearing periodic shouting, simultaneously, but from all over the town. We figured out that it was the final playoff for the English Cup and the cheers were coming from pubs on every street. Nearby Liverpool won that year.

Sadie's I Saw Red Challenge was so much fun that she's turned it into an ongoing color challenge called Shades of Inspiration. You can read about the challenge on Sadie's blog here. And you can join the Challenge on this Flickr group.

The new color is GREEN. Here's my first photo.

Climbing Green - in a museum courtyard just off Place de Vosges - Paris