Rosehaven Cottage

Visualizing ~ Creating ~ Sharing

Those words represent the new theme for Rosehaven Cottage's Creative Studio blog. Now that I have the Rosehaven Cottage Art Gallery set up for showing my art and art photography, I have chosen to make my creative studio blog a place to share creations and creative insights with others.

To kick off this new focus, I am sharing a digital background that can be downloaded for free to use with digital scrapbooking and other fun Photoshop projects. I'll be doing this sort of thing quite frequently. You can keep up-to-date by checking the latest posts in the right-hand sidebar. It will always tell you the latest addition to the creative studio blog as well as the latest posts to Rosehaven Cottage's Kitchen. Or you can always subscribe to receive posts via email. Either way, I hope that we can have a lot of fun visualizing, creating, and sharing together.

Click the box above to follow me on Twitter

Now Showing at the Rosehaven Cottage Art Gallery

A collection of images of the waterbirds that I have had the honor of photographing.

The Debut of a Dream Come True

I am very excited to announce the opening of the Rosehaven Cottage Art Gallery!

One of my favorite things to do has always been to go to museums and art galleries--to walk quietly through the different annexes and soak in the entire atmosphere for a memorable experience. I have always dreamed of having my own art and photography gallery where I could hang my work so people could have a similar experience as I have had so many times. I've wanted it to be free admission with no time limits or restrictions. Well, since I'm not independently wealthy, I figured that it was only a pipe dream.

But as I've churned and searched for answers these past few weeks (or months) on what direction my creative path should take, the idea finally came to me that I could have my dream. Instead of limiting myself to a physical "brick and mortar" gallery that would only get visitors that could travel there, I could open my own online art gallery so anyone with internet access could visit my gallery--with free admission and without time limits.

The idea began to gel further as I envisioned being able to having gallery showings in "annexes", "rooms", and "galleries" the way my favorite display spaces have been laid out. Visitors could "walk" through the different areas of the gallery--each area featuring a different showing of work.

So the Rosehaven Cottage Art Gallery has now become a reality. The first showing, entitled "Mornings", is already up for your viewing pleasure. Please come over and browse. Stay a while if you can. I'd love to have you!

Click the box above to follow me on Twitter

It's "Giveaway Saturday" at Rosehaven Cottage!

As I said in my last post, I've been doing a lot of soul-searching this week about what direction I want my creative path to follow. Interestingly, everything finally "gelled" for me while Hubby and I were sitting in a movie theatre watching The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I'm dead serious!

I have come to the conclusion that I care more about sharing my creative work with those that will give it a good home than I do about making a buck. So I'm going to be implementing a lot of new and exciting things over the next few months into my blogs and website that will make that possible.

One thing that I can institute right away is what I'm going to call "Giveaway Saturday".

Every Saturday, I'm going to showcase a piece of my art or photography that I will be giving away based on a random drawing the following Saturday. Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered. Each person will only be counted once so duplicate comments won't help your odds (sorry). I will pay shipping to whomever wins the drawing. If you don't have an email link connected to the i.d. you use to leave the comment, then you'll have to check back the following Saturday to find out if you won and then contact me via email so I can get your postal address privately. If you do have an email link connected to the i.d. you use, then I will contact you off the blog as well as announce you as the winner. Basically, it's the standard blog giveaway rules that are out there in the "blog-o-sphere" already.

So...

This "Giveaway Saturday", I'm giving away a set of 3 signed photo notecards entitled "Vintage Roses" featuring my photography, digital art, and hand-cut paper art. Each notecard is signed and dated, ready to send and/or frame. The art photos are "mounted" on the notecards without adhesives in handcut decorative corners, so they are easily removed by you or the recipient for framing. The photo art is also signed and dated on a signature panel on the back so it retains a signature when removed from the card. Each card measures 5 1/2" square (with matching 6"x 6" white envelope). Each art photo without notecard measures 5" square.

Good luck to everyone and feel welcome to spread the word via email or links or however you choose--the more the merrier!

Click the box above to follow me on Twitter

Stop to Smell the Roses

The past couple of days have been full of a lot of deep soul-searching on my part. I think creative types go through this regularly, so I'm beginning to see that feeling the need to do this isn't really earth-shattering. Mainly, I'm just trying to determine the best way to enjoy my creativity, express it, and then share the resulting tangible works with others. It's a long, laborious process of disjointed thoughts that poor Hubby has had to listen to repeatedly for days. He has the patience of a saint.

I know of no better way to get some good thinking done, then to go out in the garden, pull some unwanted growing pests out, relocate some volunteers, and trim up the rosebushes. One of those rosebushes is the "Tahitian Sunset" rose (pictured above) that is only a couple of years old but is as big as some of the older roses. I've worked in the same area of the garden with it and its neighbors the past couple of afternoons and evenings--usually until the sun goes down, and I'm only gardening by the light of the solitary streetlamp that's kitty-corner from our home.

At those times, I have no other worry or care except to eradicate the bad and accentuate the good. That's probably a good rule of thumb to follow for the rest of life too. Yes, that and... make sure to stop to smell the roses--often.

Click the box above to follow me on Twitter

New Plants and More of the Spirit of Aloha in the Garden

Above: The "beach" of the pond where I already have touches of the spirit of Aloha
in the canna lilies and potted palms (squirrel-planted seedlings now in pots)

Yesterday, I was left with the instruction from Hubby that I should do something that "feeds my spirit". I thought long and hard about what to do to achieve that. Then I realized that I probably should go to WalMart and see if they had any of their planting pots at super-low discount prices like they always do in August. I knew I needed to buy bags of soil anyway, so it was a good excuse to go and "play" in WalMart's nursery center.

Although I usually prefer to buy my plants from local nurseries, WalMart is a great place for me to find inexpensive bagged soil, pots, and sometimes an interesting plant or two. I wasn't in a hurry, so I decided to slowly browse through their plants. Most looked very healthy (our WalMart's nursery center is very well managed), and I was intrigued by all the sub-tropicals they had in stock.

When I came upon a fairly mature plumeria (no blossoms on it yet), my heart leapt. I have a great love for Hawaii because I spent a semester of college on the North Shore of Oahu at BYU-Hawaii way back oh-so-many years ago. Plumeria is the quintessential Hawaiian plant. To be able to grow it in my own garden would be a dream come true. I carefully reviewed the tag. Interestingly, it is hardy to 30 degrees and if given a place outside of intense heat or intense cold, it will thrive in our climate! Hallelujah!

In my head, a garden design began to form for the corner where I've already planted the brugmansia--a garden design for a "Hawaii Garden". It already had a water feature with a red canna lily growing in it. It already had the tropical looking brugmansia and white oleander, it had the necessary shelter... it was perfect!

Then I browsed around the other sub-tropicals and settled on a new plant that I'd never seen before--a "Golden Shrimp Plant" (Pachystachys lutea). I also decided to finally buy two Bird-of-Paradise plants (one orange and the other a giant white with blue throats), as I've always wanted them in my garden.

I came home and started to work on getting the planters built out of recycle concrete blocks and rocks left over from my shed demolition. Once I had the planters constructed, I dumped the new bagged soil in each and then planted the new arrivals. The final step was to make sure each one was properly irrigated with the drip-mist system that waters the entire garden. Just one new connection needed to be made for the plumeria. The others were adequately watered by increasing the spray on an existing full circle sprayer for the brugmansia.

I am so pleased with the result. It is so tranquil in the "Hawaii Garden". Hubby and I sat out there as the sun went down last night simply enjoying the space. It is our own little piece of Hawaii and the spirit of Aloha in our own garden.