Sweetest of the Flowers

"Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming
In the fragrant vernal days
Is the lily of the valley
With its soft, retiring ways."

~ Paul Laurence Dunbar ~

Tags above are 3.2" x 5.2"
and in the printable sheet below 2.5" x 4".

Round graphics above are 4".
In the printable sheet below they are 2.5". 

So excited to offer a pennant/banner for the first time!
The pennant is approx. 7" x 7.5". I decreased the size to 3.7" x 3.8"
and fit 10 to a sheet for the instant printable banner, below.

Here are the free graphics &
sources used in my artwork:

*TuckDB*
1908 lily of the valley
Lily of the valley bouquet

*The Vintage Moth*
"Royal Beauty Waltzes"

The sheet music used in the pennant/banner
is from my personal collection, c. 1940.


Thank you for stopping by today!

The Sweet Lily

"No flower amid the garden fairer grows
Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale,
The queen of flowers."

~ John Keats ~


5"x7" graphic

Printable with 3.5"x5" cards and approx. 2"x3" tags.

Printable 8.5"x11" stationery and
printable sheet of 4 notepapers, 4"x5."

Here are the free graphics &
sources used in my artwork:

*TuckDB*
1904 lily-of-the valley 

Lily-of-the valley bouquet
"Ida" lily-of-the valley

*The Graphics Fairy*
Torn paper texture
Vanilla apothecary label

*Old Design Shop*
Aged paper texture

*Lilac & Lavender*
"Antiqued" lined paper


Thank you
for stopping by!

Homegrown Sunshine

This morning, after seeing my daughter off on the school bus, I remained standing by our kitchen window. My thoughts drifted to what I would've seen here only a few short months ago: a seemingly infinite expanse of white fields. Today, the only white I see is in the blossoming crabapple tree and petals of a few scattered daffodils. There is green, beautiful green everywhere, but it didn't get there without a little gray... and as I look up, yes, here it is again. Here comes the rain.

I usually don't mind rainy days. After our long winter, I'm downright grateful for it instead of snow or sleet. Still, this morning I couldn't help but yearn for the sunshine and blue skies we had just yesterday.

"Whatcha thinkin' about, Mom?" was followed by a big hug and kiss. A little boy now stood by my side, and we looked out through the rain streaked window. He sighed and offered some 7 year old wisdom, because he obviously could see I needed a dose. "Mom, you know we can't have all sunshine, even though it's pretty nice. We've got to have rainy days too. They're not so bad... come on, I know! Let's read some books!"

So that's what we did. We spent the morning hours reading all kinds of books in "Daddy's chair." The gray clouds and rain outside lost their power.  We chose to make our own sunshine:

Suppose you're dressed for walking,

And the rain comes pouring down, 

Will it clear off any sooner

Because you scold and frown? 

And wouldn't it be nicer

For you to smile than pout,

And so make sunshine in the house

When there is none without?

~ Phoebe Cary

Our local weather forecast is rain and thunderstorms all week, and that's to be expected. It's the end of April, after all. My prediction is of a slightly different sort:
a week of sunshine, of the homegrown variety.