Saturday Pink Shadow

Pink Saturday

Latitudinal Attitudinal

Northern Latitudes

"People in the North call such a boat a kay

ak ...." these words from an old storybook fit perfectly with my Alaskan Pale Ale beer label and "made in alaska" bottle cap ....

This hanging art piece is entirely re-used materials: a canned pineapple lid, beer bottle label, beer bottle cap, electrician wire, an old storybook, cereal box cardboard and beads - but I guess the beads don't qualify (as recycling) - along with the fishing line and glue. Today's theme over at Theme Thursday is something (anything) nautical or beachy. And yes, there are beaches in Alaska - even surfing!

Southern Latitudes

... and here we have the southern latitudes represented by my Dad. He e-mailed this picture to me last week and I love the colors and composition. Oh, to be in short sleeves on a sunny day!

Ash Tree

charcoal and ink

Wordless T 2Day

wordless on 2sday

Garden Fairy

Here she is decked out in all her recycling splendor .... the only name I could think of was Matilda. Maybe I was thinking of Heath Ledger's daughter's name .... or I saw someone's comment on the blogs recently about the Australian fires and a National Day of Mourning (Waltzing Matilda - the aussie national song). My mind tends to dwell on topics such as these .... but my hands are wanting to create things of hope and of spring.

.... and maybe I'm a slumdog at heart with the beauty I see in discarded objects.

And about Slumdog - I have come around in my view of the movie. (See earlier post here.) Maybe it is what songwriter A.R.Rahman said on Oscar night, "All my life I've had to choose between love and hate. I chose love and here I stand." That really IS the message of the movie. I am also encouraged to learn the Director Danny Boyle has started an education fund for the child actors in the movie as well as a fund benefiting the slum children of Mumbai. I hope it's all true.

Rocks

I made this 3 years ago when my kitty Mr. Silly died. I always called him "kitty witty." Do you see my wellies poking in the side and bottom of the photo?

Our fish (named Slicky) died today and rather than a "burial at sea," he has gotten a special marker as well. All thanks to Linda and Rosie's challenge this week "Rock n'Roll" or Altered Rocks. Slicky was a four year old betta fish and beloved pet - yes it's true!

... we kept him (Slicky) by the front door (inside of course), because the chinese say that is good luck (we need all the luck we can get these days ;) .... so I made this more outdoorsy fish to keep by the front door (outside.)

Silver Halide

silver halide

(a haiku)

heart of gold captured

on silver halide paper

the search is over

*silver halide - wikipedia

(see this week's creativity prompt "silver" on Inspire Me Thursday)

Stitched Labels

Theme Thursday's theme this week is "labels" .... and Inspiration Flirtation (a new challenge spot) is "stitches." I thought I'd combine the 2 challenges with this project. I'm a recycle nut and one of my favorite things to save is labels. My favorites come from specialty brew beer bottles - like this label from Kona Brewing Co.'s Longboard Island Lager. And of course I save the bottle caps too. This is a pouch for my iPod nano. I used the main label for the front, the bottleneck label for the back and I turned the cap into a button. The fabric is a swatch of decorator fabric friended to me some months back from Jean at Bluebirds. 

.... and in the spirit of Aloha, here's a little altered photo of my "recycled" indoor palm (rescued from a neighbors garbage can 2 years ago.) He was left for dead with only one leaf left on him. Now he's lush and beautiful and breathing aloha into my favorite room in the house ....

It's All There in Black and White

"2 Minutes a Day"

I'm calling this zentangle "2 minutes a day" because that's how much daylight we are gaining now - yay!

Lost Orca

This one is from my "7 Lost Orca" series. I'm posting it again because there has been a sighting of 2 new orca calves (L112 and J44) in Puget Sound. There is a suspected loss of a 31 year old male however. He is L57 or "Faith." The calves aren't given a regular name until they've survived a year. I found a fabulous blog (Orcinus) that keeps up with our local orca news.

T on 2 - 2/17

white tea and zen

I have a little quiet time today after a busy 4-day weekend for the kids. I love to do a zentangle to unwind, so I'll be having my white tea, a white chocolate from my stash and my blank zentangle paper with a brand new sharpie. 

It's week 4 on the disintegration project now. I'm so bad with numbers I don't know if it means 4 weeks are over with or we're coming into the 4th week now (calendar math) .... but the pages are having a little zen experience of their own: becoming one with the leaves. 

leaf zen

... these are branches from the maple tree that shelters the disintegration project. I'm noticing the leaf buds emerging. You can't tell from the picture, but the leaf buds are as red as the autumn leaves are on this tree. I wonder why?

 ... and here's a little grape hyacinth poking it's head up out of the earth. I haven't seen the snowdrops come up yet, so this little guy is the winner of this year's race for spring.

No progress on the knitting - argh - my back is giving me fits and sitting and knitting doesn't help. Oh well. 

I WILL be starting a second blog - ooglebloops and J&Z commented on that earlier. I must be "daft" as Larry would say (see lumilyon). But, hey - it's been a year of red wagon (in March) and I think I get bored or something. I'll keep y'all posted on the progress of that .... 

Enjoy your Tuesday - and maybe even try a zentangle - just for fun :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine From My Dad

As my oldest daughter said, "It's so simple and so not simple at the same time."

My Dad is a true artist - isn't it beautiful?!!

Lace

lace

(a haiku)

kitchen lace watching

tree and branch quietly sleeping

wake branch! wake green leaf!

(See this week's creativity prompt "lace" on Inspire Me Thursday)

One Powerful Hour/Theme Thursday

ATC

The challenge today on One Powerful Hour is "Love (fill in the blank)."  The idea of the One Powerful Hour Challenge is to see what you can come up with in one hour using their prompt. I chose "Love Triangle," thinking of the famous literary love triangles like Darcy, Wickham and Elizabeth Bennett. Or Heathcliff, Cathy and Edgar Linton.

The challenge today on Theme Thursday is "Game Pieces." I chose face cards (hearts of course) - which is one of my favorite things to alter. I love the graphics on the face cards.

I am currently reading an old english novel (The Mayor of Casterbridge) that is filled with love triangles - there's Mr. Henchard, Mr. Newson and Susan. Then there's Lucetta, Susan and Mr. Henchard. There's also Mr. Farfrae, Mr. Henchard and Lucetta. And Lucetta, Elizabeth Jane and Mr. Farfrae. I'm not even 3/4's through the book yet. It reads like a Puccini opera and is hugely entertaining. Life is so complex in books like that - oy vay! It makes me really appreciate the simplicity of my own life :)

Of Tarts

This is a two sided atc (this picture is of 2 so you can see both sides at once).  I used a playing card for my atc base which I distressed by sanding, gessoing, painting, inking, scribbling  and otherwise abusing ...... The images are stamped (the Alice in Wonderland stamps are from Stamp Francisco).

T 2 Day

Snowy Pages

The Disintegration Project is beautiful today under a frosty lace coating of snow and ice. It's very quiet and peaceful to go out there and check on it from time to time. Thank you Seth for coming up with this project idea. It's like the difference between fast food and slow food. This one is slow. I'm usually rushing through things and cranking them out (don't look to closely at my knitting job - it is riddled with mistakes).

This lingering snow and cold has me pretending to be in another latitude today. Today's tea? Passion Fruit Iced Tea. 

Passion Flower                                           Passion Fruit Iced Tea               

  

Knitting (a summer top)

Milagros Heart

The ABAA challenge this week is Milagros Hearts.  I made this milagros heart using my favorite metal - an old pie tin. Milagros refers to a tinwork technique in Mexico. Frequently the hearts will have flames which signifies the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sometimes they have wings - I'm not too sure what that means - but it always reminds me of the movie Castaway. I love doing these metal pieces in the round - which is so easy when you start with a pie tin. You just do repeating patterns around and around. There's something very meditative about it. Anyway, I was meditating on: Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you ...... so my heart ended up with flames because I was thinking about the love of Jesus.

And this is one of my Great Grandmother's wineglasses. The love is flowing :)

Fold

fold 

(a haiku)

this folded laundry

waiting silently for me

i will ignore it

(See this week's creativity prompt "fold" on Inspire Me Thursday)

My Movie Update

This was my bag packed and ready to go to the movies on Tuesday, but as I had to p.s. on that blog post, we had a mix-up with the movie times. So today was actually the movie day. Some of you guys wanted to hear back about 1) what am I knitting, and 2) how was the movie?

I'm knitting a cotton/linen tee for summer :) ... so far I haven't had to frog any of it, but I'm only about 7 inches up from the bottom hem. We'll see how it goes. That yummy color is called desert turquoise.

The movie was Slumdog Millionaire, which I saw with my Dad. I had my eyes closed 2 minutes into the movie and was crying in 5 minutes. I almost left the theater to sit out in the lobby several times, but was assured by Dad several times that "It's going to get better," and "It will all work out in the end." That's what kind of movie it was. It was a roller coaster emotionally, but I rode it out with someone who knew the ending from the beginning. If you watch by immersion (like me) you'd better go with someone who has seen it or you won't make it all the way through. 

If you don't want any hints about the movie - don't read the rest of this post. 

I felt worked over and in some ways manipulated by a story that in the end did come out "all right." Life does NOT come out all right for billions (yes Billions) of children "living" in slums and garbage dumps for eons. The only reason this movie will win an Oscar is because it was in some way uplifting. What was the uplift? Things turn out o.k. ...... I don't believe that is reality. So we Americans will shower praise and awards on a movie that portrays a nightmarish life with a happy and romantic ending. I think it's weird that we could walk out of the theater and somehow "feel good." I felt horrible. I feel horrible. But I am glad I saw it, as draining as it was. Can I explain that? No. Maybe for the same reason Kite Runner and 1000 Splendid Suns are beautiful books. It's a messed up planet ... and I haven't seen 99.99 percent of it .....

Feel free to leave comments with your honest opinions .... you may really disagree with me .... and I like that.

Love Letter

Another re-use/recycle piece. I think it's what I really get excited about. Anyway, this features ALL castoff and found objects (except for the gesso and glue). Materials: page from an old book, corrugated cardboard, coke can (that was in the street as litter - I didn't even buy or drink the coke), beer bottle cap (I did have that - but it was a long time ago - I save the caps), old stamp, carpet tacks (from DH's workbench), metal duct tape (also from DH's workbench), thread from my sewing box, and gesso.

... and this is my grandmother's candy dish. It all goes together somehow - either the colors or the rayed lines - whatever ......

Sealed With a Kiss

This 4X4 is for today's Wednesday Stamper challenge, "Kiss Kiss."

Materials used: butterfly gift wrap, page from an old book, gesso, inked edges, stamped words, vintage collage image, velveteen ric-rac, ribbon slide, vintage silver glitter, sharpie pen, anodized wire, miniature clothespins. 

This will be available in my Etsy Shop.

I tried photographing today's piece in the garden, but couldn't quite find the right spot. But in my search, I found this amazing sight. My tree rose on the back deck is in this terracotta pot which has a vibrant green moss growing on it. It's completely peeling away from the surface with some beautiful effects. I love the colors - and I love it that this same color combo is in today's "Sealed With a Kiss" piece.

T on 2 - T 2 go

I'm taking my T 2 go this 2 .... I'm headed off to the early bird Tuesday special at the movies with my Dad. Tuesday at 10:30 it's only 5 bucks We're going to see Slumdog Millionaire - which he has already seen. He's certain I'll Love it. I'm not so certain, so I'm packing my knitting along just in case I have to sit out the sad parts in the lobby. I'm a notorious eyecloser and walker out of the roomer when a movie gets too sad. Oh, I forgot the tissues ... I'll throw those in my bag as well.

*** just a little postscript here: the movie theater had a scheduling change, and we'll be seeing Slumdog Millionaire on Friday. I'll let you know how it was. I ended up having my tea in Barnes and Noble with Dad and his magazines, Nana and a fun little personality test she found and myself with my knitting bag and a new book I picked up. I'll add it to my Library Shelf in the sidebar***

And here's the current state of affairs with my take on the "Disintegration Project" (see The Altered Page for more info) after one week of midwinter. The biggest change has been the curling up of the pages and some rust appearing around the nails. The Santa Maria Novella fragrance is as strong as ever. It maybe be the cool damp air.