When my husband found us the perfect house in Oct 2000, the gardens were lovely. The previous owner was retired and spent 6 hours every day in her garden. The year after we moved, a severe frost took out many of the plants. Looking back, I suppose it was a good thing because it was a bit too formal for my tastes and I could make it more whimsical.

I wanted to add some character to the garden but every home improvement store I visited had the exact same items. BORING items. So I looked online and discovered I could make them myself.

Working in cement seemed a bit like cooking so I got a 5 gallon bucket, a long wooden spoon and a container to measure water. Bought some molds online and went to work. Three years later, I was still using my bucket and spoon method, but also making my own molds. So many people liked my garden art that they bought it as soon as it was made.

Then I saw some pieces in mosaics and learned how to do that. Again, most of my pieces were orders or sold upon completion. While I could work during the day in my studio at the office (I own an environmental firm), I couldn't work with glass at home with my dogs.

That's how I got in to working with paper. Scrap paper, cupcake liners, old book pages, music sheets, cereal boxes, you name it and I'll work with it. And while I thought it would be safer around my doxies, turns out one of them loves to shred paper so I wait til they go to bed to work on things at home.

As an environmental consultant, it made sense to start using recycled materials in some of our pieces. My business partner and husband are willing participants at the recycling centers to bring back items while dropping off others. You should see visitor's eyes light up when they see all the wine and champagne bottles in my garage. They also don't believe it when I tell them I -re-use them in garden art and that I didn't drink them myself.

After making several things and putting them on shelves, my husband proclaimed that it was like tribbles and more were arriving every day and while they were lovely, I could no longer keep them as pets so they must find good homes.

Hence, my Etsy shop was born. My loss is your gain.

PS After 13 years, I still don't have any pieces in MY garden. I'm hoping for this year.