(UPDATE this set is now available for $5.98.  Just click on the first picture and it will take you to the store)  This kit will be out later this week or early next week and will sell for $5.98 for a digital downloadable clip art kit you’ll be able to find at www.daisiecompany.com.  I was looking through my art archives today and found a painting that I did about 4 years ago when I first moved to my mountain home and was experiencing my very first spring here.  Being born and raised in San Diego, California, I had never experienced a cold-weather climate and the sudden explosion of spring.  San Diego spring’s just lazily roll out one type of flower group at a time, starting around early March and since there’s very little that hibernates over the winter you almost barely notice.

Well… the wonder of going out into my yard each morning and discovering a dozen types of bulbs popping up all over the yard, lilacs putting out their buds, and the beautiful new green of oak leaves as they begin to open was a tremendous delight.  This set of two paintings, "Butterfly Garden" and "Garden pond" came out of my imagination of what I would love my garden to look like — I have to admit I’ve never quite gotten there!

The painting with the hedged in hidden garden and fountain was inspired by the garden outside of my room when I stayed in South Africa to write and illustrate a series of six books.  Christian Art Publications brought me in to work with their wonderful team and every afternoon and evening I looked out upon a huge fountain and manicured gardens of a victorian era home that had become a guest house facility.  Though my trip was in October, in the southern hemisphere they were just experiencing the beginning stirrings of spring and the change that occurred in the two weeks I was there was amazing.

This kit includes 5, 4" x 6" painting portions that can be used to make greeting card fronts.  There are four backgrounds and extremely detailed images of an arched rose-covered bench, a wooden garden bench and two fountains that have been clipped out of the artwork so that you can use them as individual elements in your crafting.

I hope that if you are feeling blue from the long, loooooong winter many of you have been experiencing that this beautiful blue butterfly garden will bring a little cheer into your days.

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Song 4:15-16  You are a garden fountain, a well of  Flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.  Awake, north wind,  and come, south wind!  Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad.  Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. NIV

PRAYER:  Lord, sometimes I feel like a dried up, end-of-winter garden.  All is dead and cold and I wonder if there will ever be new life in my heart again.  Today is one of those days.  Come blow on my garden with the warm winds of your love and cause my heart to spring to life once again. 

Bring the seed that you have hidden in my heart to life and let me bloom again for your pleasure.  Help me to remember that you are pictured in the  word as my lover, and I am to become your bride — remind me that it is not service you desire but love and relationship.  Make of me a fruitful garden that bring you delight.  AMEN