colors of life

I used to a series on the Illustration Friday blog called "The Artist's Palette." Each week I posted an illustration that I loved with the colors pulled out to see how it was constructed, hue-wise. It was a small exercise in noticing an element that might otherwise be overlooked. I've been thinking about that lately and wondered why I don't do something similar here, but with attention paid to the colors that make up my daily life. After all, normal life is just a part of "my art" as my illustration work. It's all the same. So with that in mind... Here is the first of hopefully many. I love these subtle colors of early spring.

Last weekend it felt like spring so we got started on some of the gardening projects in our barren yard. I have big dreams of a lush, plant-filled yard with flowers and vegetables, paths, fairy gardens and little secret nooks to sit and read. But for now it's mostly a big expanse of grass.

We have to start small. So last weekend we built compost bins out of pallets, hauled leaves out that we left composting over the winter (worked beautifully to prep the soil for some plants), and had a little on-going bonfire to take care of the sticks that had dropped over the winter.

Felt so good to be outside for two days straight working with our hands. Veda loved it too and was a muddy mess pretty much all weekend. We all were.