On my easel

Goodness, has it really been a week since I posted something?  How does that happen?  Where did the week go?  I know artists are supposed to be flaky but sometimes I think I take it to a new level ("What day is it?  Where am I?")
Here's the latest project I've started...I'm already about 4 days into these and I still have yet to open a single tube of paint.  I like oils and all, but all the prep work gets me down sometimes.  I'm glad I can turn to watercolors and digital work when I get too impatient.

These are printed canvases that I've mounted onto panels with help from a great article in a recent Daniel Smith catalog.  I couldn't find that article on the DS site but you can read it at the manufacturer's site under "feature article."  It came together nicely, but between letting the prints cure for a day, drying the mounted canvases under weights overnight, and waiting for each coat of acrylic medium (to seal the print) to dry, it takes some time.

I've been taking a lot of pictures of the magnolia trees behind our house as the buds slowly open and change.  I'm kind of obsessed with them right now--they're so weird looking with huge fat buds and the twigs grow at odd-looking angles.  When we first looked at this house last November, the seedpods looked like deer poop hanging in clusters and I had no idea what the trees were, having never had magnolias around before.  Magnolias evolved before bees (thanks, Wikipedia!) and everything about them just looks strange and slightly otherworldly to me.

I had a sudden whim to put together some little mossy terrariums.  Total cost: around $8 since most of the materials were free.  Maybe if I didn't have moss growing in quantity outside, it would be a little more difficult.
While collecting my mosses I found this wee little snail shell.  I saw an actual snail outside yesterday, and I coveted his house, but he's still in it so I'll have to wait for another empty one.