On this day three years, we adopted our kitty Smudge from the Atlanta Humane Society. Full of energy and personality, she is one fun fur kid. I have lots of interesting photos of Smudge, but here is one of my favorites from a few months ago. Happy Smudge Day!
The morning light with shadows from the shrub outside really amped up the beauty of the butterfly art on my office wall. The mixed media piece was created by my artist friend Kimberly McGuiness. The three-dimensional lavender butterflies came from Wayfair.
Here is a video of my completed entry for the Volume 14 Sketchbook Project. Shortly after making the video, I shipped this labor of love off to the Brooklyn Art Library to added to their permanent exhibit. I got a confirmation email from the library that my sketchbook, Vanessa’s Book of Fantastical Butterflies, can be found on the shelves of the physical library with call number 360.16-4. Soon, it will be digitized and available in their online library.
Click here to see the full video:
The art tools I used to create my sketchbook are Micron black pens and Sharpie highlighters.
Over 43,000 sketchbooks are included on display at the Brooklyn Art Library — one of the largest collections of sketchbooks in the world. Find out how you can participate in this global art project.
Even though I’ve lived in Georgia since 1981, I had never noticed a Paper Bush until this winter. What a beauty! Here is a photo of one of the golden yellow blooms taken on my walk today. I have to say the blooms look even better on a bright sunny, blue-sky kind of day like we’re having today.
After a couple of my Facebook friends told me what kind of plant this was, I did a Google search and found this article from Southern Living magazine.
Here is a bit from that article:
“Native to China, paper bush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) gets its name from its bark, which is used in Asia to make high-quality paper. . . . Plant connoisseurs knew about paper bush, but it didn’t grab much attention until nurserymen planting displays for winter garden shows discovered that it was just about the easiest shrub to force into early bloom indoors. Thousands of winter-weary gardeners spied it, dropped their dentures in dismay, and coveted like they’ve never coveted before. A star was born.”
For comparison, the photo with just the white pods showing was taken in mid December when I first wondered what kind of shrub this was.
Then I took the photo with a few yellow flowers popping out a few weeks ago, on Jan 24th. An added bonus is that it smells great!
Fun to learn something new to appreciate — especially when it’s a plant that blooms before spring officially gets here.
vanessalowry.com 