With Great Sadness...

My dear Blossom has left the Art Farm.

2009 2 weeks old

2010 1 year

 The last photo a few days ago...after her annual shear

 Blossom and blossoms   spring 2013

that wonderful wool!

Free range friends

                                                                 Goodbye Friend
                                                                May you rest well <3 friend.="" my="" p="" sweet="">
Friends, with a great sadness I regret to inform you that Blossom has died. For all of you who have gotten to know me via my sheep, I trust that you know what a gaping hole she has left on the farm.
 She got kicked by her best friend, Magic, the white horse. She followed her everywhere, no fences needed, the pair roamed freely like elegant lawn decor.She never failed to make me smile, seeing her walk by my window, giving me friendly bleat as I rapped on the window or called out to her.Whenever I went out to feed she'd be there. When a car drove up to the house, she'd be there too. She was not your ordinary sheep. She was the incredible Lamb-dog we all (including husband) grew to love as much as I did.
 
Blossom was one in a million. A dream come true - a pet lamb! Although I could never replace her, I am heading to the lamb shed to see who else needs a mom.  I need it as much as they do. I've picked out a sweet little girl named Remy who I had planned to bring home as a companion for Blossom. Remy has that unusual air about her. All lamb with something else mixed in. A trusting friend. More on her soon.

Blossom is buried with our family pets around the box elder memory tree. We had to get a cowboy to come over with a big back hoe and dig a hole. I'm quite certain he was confused.

You may wonder, why a sheep? why so dramatic? Well, all i can tell you is that friends come in all shapes, color and fur.  A bond is a bond and love knows no boundaries.

 "The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak -Rumi
xoxo

Blossom & Dot

Sheep milady in my etsy store

hello, i'm cute

are you my mother?

Rosie and Blossom

sweet little miss Dot

Meet my new love, BLOSSOM.

I recently had a birthday, April 16th to be exact. I felt old . It was a miserable snowy day and nothing about it felt unusually special. A friend left a message about some bum lambs that needed mothering. I had a naughty warm feeling in my heart...and said YES without even telling my husband. Next thing I knew, I was at a lambing shed looking at 1000's of sheep and as many newborn babies. Mr. Field, being a hardened sheep farmer, still had a softness in his way which made the sad bits a little easier. Life and Death. The lessons of farmlife. At the far end of the barn was a little lean -to with warm orange lights and dozens of little wooly newborns and a super nice lady with a baby bottle. Knowing I was coming, she picked a hopeful one out for me....may I introduce....BLOSSOM.

I will be documenting Blossom's progress with a Flickr because, well, i'm slighty obssessed with her. I actually took 2, Dot a teeny little twin who never really had a chance to nurse in the wee frigid hours after birth, stole my heart with her floppy bunny ears and single black dot on her side. I slept with her by my side all wrapped in towels. I held her all day in my lap - a riduculous late spring snowstorm had us housebound. Rosie and I watched the Boy in the Blue Pajamas...a quiet deeply sad movie about the holocaust, while Dot lamely swallowed drops of sheep formula from a syringe. I put her down for a short bit when she peacefully slipped away.

Of course, we all wept.

On a happy note, Miss Blossom is well, blossoming! She is smarter than a puppy and I am totally in love.
The nice farmer said, "you just don't know...some just don't have the will to live"

Blessings Miss Dot.

xo milady

Bird Brain

Hello friends!

ART    One of my most favorite things about summer is the birds. The lovely little songbirds voices carrying me throught the day and leading me into night. It changes, you can tell, if you listen. The hoot owl deep in the dark.  The sketches are for fabric which will part of an amazing collaboration I am working on for my next art show in July.  "Sleeping with Nature"  in Telluride and part of Art & Architecture Weekend.

FARM   My farm is settling into itself without Blossom.  Who knew what an absence she would leave.
The only solace I can find is in planting flowers where I dare not before...Blossom was a free soul, frree to wander up to the house, sit on the porch, nap on the deck...no flowers were safe!
We did get 2 babies. Remy, my chosen little love, didn't want anything to do with me...ran away from me!
She was already a good 2 months old and didn't know me like Blossom did. So I chose 2 others because you know, a lamb will die from a broken heart if left alone...that night, one of them did indeed die. I couldn't take it...the one left over was so sweet and loved people..but there was a problem...he was now alone. I couldn't face the possibility so we made a decision to take him back - back to his friends, whose fates are unthinkable.  I won't post a pic of him - too heartbreaking - cos he was indeed ADORABLE.
Everything about him made me miss Blossom even more - how "trained" she actually was, how calm and loving she was, how special and irreplaceable she was.
He is happy with his people...about 8 other bums, the gang. We visit him and are working on finding homes.

ME  I have built a new website StephanieMorganRogers.com   with the thought of using Milady Productions as my shop.  The bones of the site will be live TODAY!. Please come and have a look! These matters take me a long time - since i'm distracted by birds and lambies and painting. :)
I decided to go for it and continue shaping it as I go...isn't that the way of life?

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves, are surrounded by things and creatures you love and love you and are doing what you love.

xoxo

S

Drawing Challenge : Blossom

Hello My Lovely Blossoms! Spring here means more snowstorms which means fickle internet. The sun has come out! So, here you go. enjoy and don't forget to smell the roses at all these lovely participants!
                              elisabeth ,patrice,ariane,citalli,woolf,rachel,fru mju,jasmin,hanna 
                                            any others? please let me know!

               
                                                               BLOSSOM
                                              
                                                                       elsa beskow

 

                                                                    jean jacques grandville

A little of me and a little of others...this week, i'm clearly enchanted by the wee folk who live in blossoms.
And don't forget my Blossom, coming up on 2 years old next month!

xo milady

Blossom 10 days old 008

Blossom 10 days old 008, originally uploaded by milady productions.

someone is really really comfortable indoors. oops. i feel a story bubbling up in my head. hmmmmm the unconventional lives of Pearl and Blossom. off to the sketchbook!

xo milady

She still loves me

Blossom finally got a haircut. It was a big deal finding someone with the proper shears for her overdue coat of wool. I thought she'd never hold still, would hate me for life for subjecting her to nicks and shaving trauma but instead she is happy. She still lets me play with her ears and scratch her bony head. We didn't even have to hold her down. The pigs got out and found her wool on the ground. They went CRAZY! Rolling and snurfing and coming up with wooly moutaches and beards dangling from their snouts. It was one of the most hilarious farm moments to date.

Blossom is the best Lamb dog a girl could ask for.

One drawback...the sheep part, she poops often & on the go and eats my flowers.

oh well.

xo milady

The Yearling

my little friend turned one today. one year ago she was born and one year ago tomorrow i would give her to myself for my birthday. this year, i am going back to the sheep farm to bottle feed this year's crop of motherless babes. i will try really hard not to bring them all home.
i am also going to visit some newborn miniature goats.
i never said i wouldn't bring home one of them.
besides, blossom could use a roomate.
remember this?
i love my weird life.

xo milady

Drawing Challenge: Letter

I have internet again. sort of. machinery took a hit from the latest wet spring snow storm

But, alas! here is my post for saturday's challenge hosted by the Belgian Beauty, Nadine.

An S  because it is so fun to draw

SMR my initials and logo

an inky alphabet

and an unknown duo of inky lettered loveliness

This week's theme is BLOSSOM

hosted by moi.

xo milady

The Christmas Lamb Dog

Blossom pretending to be the Christmas Goat in the Great Wood

(goat love) an adorable interlude

Yesterday's trip into the Great Wood

The Christmas Goat - Once upon a Blog (thanks for the inspiration Malin!)

Later today...Advent #3...still looking for the ONE.

xo milady

This White

not this white my property, can you see blossom?
my left foot

this white home collection its doing it again, snowing like crazy. i have design envy of all things white. looking to mix the rustic with lightness. this happens to me every year about this time. oh, how i need the blossoms of spring! you see, my house in way up in the mountains, made of stone and heavy timber.
colors and moods

fun idea
more inspiration

Finland!

Mrs Doolittle

Yesterday we went to our first "weigh in" for our 4-H pigs who are now 5 months old and WAY TOO BIG thank you very much. All the trucks and stock trailers line up, painful ear tags are shot into ears and distress is had by all breeds. The little goats being lead and yanked by their pint sized owners made me sad. My boys clung to my side and whipsered "they're being mean".

Back in april I mentioned about my struggle with this livestock venture. (just now getting a friendly nudge from miss Blossom :) I just can't seem to seperate the beast from the soul. Some experienced farm moms told me i'll get used to it.
I hope i never do.

Maybe in the dinosaur world i was a swamp thing that only ate plants or maybe i was a lamb or a cow who only ate grass. Maybe I wandered the Umbrian hills with the naked St Francis 800 years ago and talked to birds. Besides the whole vegetarian/carnivore discussion, i am most curious about the friends i see in animals. I LOVE ANIMALS. So, when i see a goat in distress or a pig in a panic i want to mother them into calmness, gain back the trust that makes us all friends. Its a pull i cannot deny.

A funny devout mom i know was giving me crap at the soccer field one day, saying how disgusting is it that i have a lamb. She now calls me Mrs. DOOLITTLE. I am flattered which was surely not the idea. The only thing i remember about being raised Catholic is the day we celebrated the animals. ( and my communion at which i secretly pretended to marry Adam as we walked down the aisle in our fancy wedding outfits) There was a big altar spilling with flowers and statues of little lambies and animals. It was the most glorious thing i had ever seen. Then, much later a friend told me of a cathedral in New York City she attended where she witnessed everything from a newt on a pillow to an elephant being lead down the aisle to the tune of harmonic angels in a grand procession of blessings. Oh how i would love to see that!!

Its pagan and christian, weird and wonderful but most importantly a ritual with pure intent - acknowledging that we all are blessed creatures - ALL OF US -from the slimey spotted to the coiffed, waxed and clothed. its the ALL ONE principle and it just feels right.

What do you think?? I'd love to hear.

http://www.stfrancisanimalblessing.com/

xo milady

little visitor

I thought i'd share a little bit about my day at the art farm. today is a perfectly crisp summer day, and a wee little visitor has been in my house all say. Yes, its real, that little birdie perched on my faux blossom branches in the living room. Isn't it sweeeeeet?

sooooooo excited about PikaPackage tomorrow!

xo milady

Drawing Challenge: Sheep

William Blake the visionary



My little Blossom



my field of dreams





vintage putz sheep - etsy

 


Sheep Boy available by request in my shop

 


Carl Larsson's home

Sheep. Ah yes, my sweet obsession.

what is it? why do i love thee so?

Its a piece in the puzzle.

The treasure hunt of my life.

The distinct by hazey memory of a life lived

in a Swedish Farmhouse

or handstitched art farm

with family and history

where all flock together

in peace

no matter fur , wool or feather.

say hello to the rest of the flock

Elisabeth

Rachel

Ariane

Nadine
Patrice
Jasmin

anyone else? please join us!