Yay, Hollyhocks!

Visited my mom the other day, her garden is marvelous and she gifted me with a TON of hollyhock stalks.

Red, pink, white, singles, doubles...after popping the seed pods off the stalks, I was left with this:

About half a shopping bagful! She says at the end of the season I can have more since she just cuts them down and tosses them. I plan of spreading them along the chain link fence in the front yard along with some ornamental sunflowers.

Also, this year's Chickam chicks have come into lay!

Eggs on top are a couple of Brahma/Giant Cochin eggs for comparison, the three on the bottom are from the chicks. The two small ones are about the size of pigeon eggs and are likely from the d'Uccles, don't know who laid the other one.

Lastly, more origami! A few Little Green Men, my very own creation.

For these guys I really like the oval eye put on sideways the best...more monster-y.

Also some diamonds, this fold incorporates two pieces of paper and for some reason I am among the many who had trouble finessing them together. It took some practice and discovery of a specific technique, but finally they worked, yay!

One of the local churches had it's huge annual rummage sale recently and I scored some vintage 60's-70's-80's wrapping paper which I'm now folding with. Most of it is OK but one is a very pretty pink and gold 60's paper which is a bit delicate and will only work for simple folds that don't take a bunch of handling. That rummage sale was amazing and I'm looking forward to it again next year!