Growing ! Growing ! Growing !

Hello Again, First of all I just wanted to let you know that I put some of my Holloween items in the mamapress Holloween Catalog & I'm offering 10 % off any item in my Etsy Shop from now until 11-1-11 just put in the coupon code (mamapress1) durning checkout when prompted. Mamapress did a fantastic job with her Holloween Catalog a must to go on over & check it out ! http://www.mama-press.blogspot.com/

    Now down to how much my Gourd Garden has grown ! You really need to have wide open spaces when growing gourds, they vine & vine & send out runners forever! They are growing right across the top rail of my 6 foot fence in my back yard & has attached it self all up & down that 6 foot fence ! Take a look !

Climbing up & down the fence

Yes thats my dog Kaiden on gourd watch !

It seems like everyday when we go out in the morning to gaze at our gourd garden we find a couple of more gouards that we didn't see the morning before. My husband looks around through the big leaves ! We found so far about 6 large bushel gourds in one aera !



my husband checking through the leaves

bushel gourd

We kept on watching this vine growing out in the driveway where my husband is putting up a garage & low and behold it turns out it is a very healthy gourd vine with 6 martin gourds growing on it & they are growing through a large pile of  Rocks ! Yes Rocks ! but they are growing GREAT ! Heres a look !

one of the mating gourds growing in the stone pile !



stone pile with a gourd garden growing in it !



Very healthy !

So I guess if they are healthy plants they will grow just about anywhere !
Let me know what ya think of my gourd garden ! Love to hear from you !

Tools Of My Trade !



Gourd Tool Kit

 Hi Everybody, Hope y'all are doing GREAT ! I know I'm always talking about how my gourd garden is  growing & growing & it's doing Super Fantastic right now, but I thought you might be interested in the tools I use for my gourd crafting !






Gourd Saw



Gourd Drill



Gourd Sander

I bought the Gourd Tool Kit about 10 or 12 years ago & it still works Great !  Does just about everything I need them to do ! You can buy the whole kit or just buy them seperatly.  I also use a hole saw to make the hole in the birdhouse gourds, After I cut the holes or cut the gourd & need to clean the inside I have a tool I use for that also , there are a couple of different kinds but I use this one the most,

Gourd Scrapper

Gourds are a Great canvas to paint on. After you clean them from all the mold , some have the most beautiful natural color that you really don't want to paint over the whole gourd, maybe just a flower or 2 then put a clear coat over them & they are just beautiful! I have one I'm working on now like that so I will post pictures as I go.

There are many many gourd sites that you  can go to & it mostly depends on what your looking for here is a few sites that I really like - http://www.thecaningshop.com/  - http://www.welburngourdfarm.com/  http://www.americangourdsociety.com/  & here in Tennessee http://www.tennesseegourdsociety.com/  check them out theres great information on each of them.



Busy ! Busy ! Busy ! Panting that is ?

la lakers basketball players

Never a dull moment !  Not in my woekshop, I've been busy painting . I had 2 more orders to fill. one of them being from a return customer , thank you very much ,she odered a couple of special request items which I love to do. I have also been painting a special request from an organization in Los Angles Calif who is putting on an event & having a guest speaker from the L.A.Lakers & asked me if I would donate some of my gourd  basketball players  to put in the gift bags. They had gotten ahold of me through my Etsy Shop !

votives

 


oil lamp


I've also started painting on some glass itens. I painted some frosted glass votive cups with an assortment of colorful daisys. I painbted  4 small hanging oil lamps, the lamps are 4 different colors with a colorful boquet of daisies,

baby boy keepsake box

I just seem to have my foot in the door with all kinds of new ventures we have been working on . I started doing baby keepsake boxes, I did one for our grandson & we now have 2 new granddaughters sooooo.... heres a picture of one I did for our grandson, I decided that if anybody sees them and would like to special order a certain theme I can do that so the workshop is open to any special orders or suggestions.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/In-My-Painted-Garden/170385616339261

I think he was gaurding the gourds or was he ??



 

This is my dog Kaiden he looks like hes guarding my gourd garden " Good Boy "




Or was he ?

 Since gourds are my main painating canvas having my gourd garden doing great is a plus for me !  So yea I go out to my garden every day and check to see how many more babies I can find , And yes to see how big the  martin & chinese bottle & apples  grew over night ! It is just amazing that every day there is a bunch of new ones you missed cuz they already look a couple of weeks old !  Guess what I found a bushel gourd it almost hit me in the face ! it was slightly behind a big leaf but hes probablly about 10 inchs tall & 10 inches around ( rough guess ) take a look !  In ! But I'm Lovin It ! I took lots of pictures of all the baby gourds, so you can see the difference.I'm going to be posting some of the new items I;ve been working on so check back! A BIG shout out  & Thank you to The Craft Show & all the Fantastic people who like my In My Painted Garden  Facebook page I'm up to 190 "likes" !!



Bushel Gourd





baby martins



baby bottles



front of the pen



bottle gourd

side of pen

baby apples

bunches of baby bottles !

I Can't Believe My Eyes !!

  



And the winner is !!!!!!



The Football Player About 4 in tall

 Well first of all a Big Thank You to all who came by and "liked" my page on facebook ! I hope you did look at my photos of what I love to do & I hope they inspire you & I hope you enjoyed yourself ! A Giant shout Thank You  & Congrats to Bobbi Hensley , she wanted to win a small ornament football team player for her father & she sent 19 people to my page, Heres a pic of one of my little guys like she won, hers is being painted  right now & done by wed. Then he;s on his way !   I invite you all to please stop by my etsy shop & stop in at my facebook page & "like" me. From time to time I will run some more contests & giveaways so check back often. I will also be runniing 10 % off coupon code sales soon !

http://www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

Come play the Game !

Ok heres the game/contest post the link to my " In My Painted Garden " facebook page to your facebook page & "like" it &  ( if you have already "liked" my page Great you can still win ! ) then  ask your friends to check out my page & if they "like" my page to post that you or your shop sent them, The person/shop that has sent the most "likes"to my page wins a small ornament football player of your choice completely Free ! I will pay the S&H !  Handpainted just for you ! You will be notified tomorrow ! Also in turn I will "like" everybody that "likes" my page !  Contest runs until 10 p.m. Central time July 20th 2011 !