Spring Cleaning, Spring Projects

It is vegetable garden season again, so for the next few weeks, I am going to go with one post a week here.  One thing is for certain, I am never bored!  In the midst of planting, I started some new sizes for my mini boxes, and I am once again working in color.  Here is a view of a whole pile of sides to be embellished:

I have also been doing some spring cleaning, and I came across two zip bags full of 2" puffballs that I made a few years ago, with little idea of the final result.

The pastel ones are decorated with my early efforts in hand stitching.  About two years ago, I took some of the pastel puffballs lined them up in a shallow, open fabric box.  They looked like a surreal box of chocolate candies, a tribute to my days as a candy maker.  I'd like to create some other oddball fabric sculptures with these crazy puffballs.  To start, I think I will try putting a few in my mini boxes.  I need to decide if I should stitch them in the boxes, or just set them in there, to be removed and replaced.  I have no functional use in mind for the puffball stuffed boxes, just something fun to have around.  Well, they do have a purpose, to make their owner smile.  We all need things in our lives who sole purpose is to make us smile.

Learning New Things

For some reason, I've decided that I don't have enough to do (not the case in reality), so I am taking a six week long calligraphy class.  I had the first session last week, and here is what I did in class:

Learning any new skill starts with the basics, and there is no getting around it.  It takes time to master anything.  As I have discussed here before, I have encountered many people who apparently want to master a skill instantly, so they don't bother trying anything new.  It just doesn't work that way.  The best things in life aren't downloaded.  Which reminds me, I have some lovely stitching going on a collage, I am off to continue these fly stitch vines and keep working on my stitching skills.