One last flower hanging on for another beautiful day.
Nice vine growing through the bench in my back garden.

More rusty “gear curtain” fun on my back porch…
this time from the other side with fun shadows bouncing off the walls!

Love the juxtaposition of natural & industrial. Golden leaves & rusty grids.

I love the “curtain” of rusty gears that hangs on my back porch.
And it looked even cooler with this morning’s clouded sunrise!

Clouded skies. Rusty pulley. Climbing mandevilla vine.
The perfect silhouette combination on my back porch.

My friends Gerry & Rosene not only have a wonderful garden… but they also have some wonderful collections. And, we have very similar tastes. When we’re together at a flea market it’s a race to see who can sang that cool piece of rust the fastest!!! Luckily there’s always plenty of rust to go around!!! Well here’s one of their collections hanging on a long arbor with climbing hydrangea plants. Beautiful.

One of the highlights of spending the Fourth of July in downstate Illinois is the charming “Norman Rockwell” quality of it all. Including corn dogs, lemon shake-ups, flea markets and vintage car shows. I’m not so much into the old cars… but I am REALLY into the beautiful colors and rusted patina on this beauty from 1939!!! Seventy-six years of rust… beautiful!!!

It was an early morning Evanston artist trade… a stamped cake plate stand for some rusty spirals. I already had a collection started, so I was thrilled to get more!!! They’re now in my dining room “growing” in the corner behind the radiator!

Thank you Joanie Drizin of Girly Steel for making my “curl collection” grow!!!

A half hour until we “officially” open…
and I’ve already made my first artist trade!!!
One less cake plate & more rusty metal coming home!!!
Thank you Joanie from Girly Steel.

So I stepped out onto my back porch again today. Still frozen.
But I was struck with the beauty of the icicles & shadows as they played across the brick wall. While I was a bit confused by the frozen waterfall covering a patch of brick wall?! How did THAT get there???

And what was making all of the cool shadows on the wall, you may ask?
My favorite curtain of rusty metal things, cogs & cowbells! Welcome to my back porch!