For years, Innisfil artist Denise Ruby told a story with every watercolour. Now she’s telling the story of the town, her family, and her rural neighbourhood in garden stones.

This weekend, Ruby hosts her annual studio open house. Along with watercolour pieces adorning the walls of her century farmhouse, she has a garden shed where she smashes, gathers and creates the mosaic stones.

“It’s the story of our life here, the last 21 years, of the kids growing up,” she says of this weekend’s journey into her past.

The stones blend pieces of her family’s story, even integrate a tapestry by her grandmother, her son’s marbles, her daughter’s hairclips and unicorns, into pieces that offer a sense of the past.

“Every stone tells a story or has a theme,” she said, adding the old Stroud bottle dump, located in a forest behind her home has offered up an array of treasures.

“Some of the plates are very historic because they tell of a time in our history in Stroud,” she explains, pointing out pieces of harnesses as well as other settlers’ artifacts.

As well as in her neighbourhood, Ruby digs up treasures in second-hand and charity stores. She has collected and created a stone that celebrates Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.

“When I find something very unusual at the Goodwill or Salvation Army, I get very excited. One day, I was dancing down the aisle with a black ceramic rose, and an older lady said, ‘It doesn’t take much to make you happy.’ I said, ‘no, it doesn’t’.”

In her explorations, she found two old Innisfil mugs –which featured the town’s crest along with a rudimentary map. Those pieces are now key features in two stones – one that she’s donating to Innisfil, the other to the local historical society.