Where has summer gone? It still feels like summer today. By Tuesday, it will rain and snow will fall at 6000'. I want to share with you my summer visual calendars. Go here to see how I create each month's spread. 
What I will miss about summer- vacation time spent with friends and family, the warmth of the sun, the long days, picked flowers from the garden, the colors of the season and the slow pace of each day.
Hope you had a wonderful summer, too.
We sketched this morning at Luscher Farm and it felt so good to be outdoors, to enjoy the sunshine and feel autumn in the air.
More dahlias- a favorite fall flower along with nasturtiums. Nasturtiums make me think of my grandfather. When he retired, he ran a small dairy farm in the Willamette Valley near Gervais. Nasturtiums were his favorite flower. Every time I see them in bloom I think of him.
The community garden is one of my favorite sketching sites, one full of nature's bounty.
Today, our Portland Artist Group played with symbols created from our names and different writing tools using Sumi ink and colored with pastels. One of our members took a workshop from a local calligrapher, Rebecca Wild. I enjoyed working with inspiration from our group members and Paul Klee with ink and pastels. My favorite created name symbols-
Dahlias come a close second to being my favorite flower- just behind roses. One of the best parts of summer is enjoying the flowers and fresh produce at Justy's. I picked this bucket of dahlias today and purchased his organic tomatoes, green beans and Italian prunes.
He's open from early June to late October. When I first met him, he'd sell me dahlia tubers for my garden out of burlap bags in the barn- each marked with a photo to identify its name and color. Now he has a large store and a growing family business.
The dahlia and sunflower fields always amaze me with their beauty.
About ten years ago, my first artistic endeavors led me to beading. The colors and textures of the beads and all the infinite combinations drew me into making jewelry. My grandmother taught me how to crochet. Now I can't stop combining the two with wire.
Check here for my first post on crocheting with beads and wire. Here are a few examples of necklaces and earrings that I've made recently.
The earrings coordinate with the necklaces. We all need a little bling in our lives.