T'art

Burlap nests

I find a bird's nest fascinating. It is part shelter, part home and part architectural wonder.

I read, recently, that it takes birds about a week to build a nest.

If the first nest has been destroyed and the eggs are ready to be laid, birds have been known to build the entire nest in a day, themselves, instead of using conventional contractors who normally manage to squeeze the job out for weeks at a time.

These small nests were constructed using burlap from Indian rice bags from a local market.  I attach them to boxes for decoration.

DCC-Spring Challenge

Nothing says Spring more than birds and their nests.  Except if you live in the Rockie Mountains where nothing says Spring like a late-season blizzard.  For our Spring Challenge this month I found this plastic pencil bag at Michael's.  I handmade the nest out of rag-ribbon, added a few blue colored egg shaped beads, sewed a row of vintage buttons along the bottom and 3 Swarovski crystals on the bird's wing.  I love juxtaposing an inexpensive bag with handmade and vintage items.  Maybe because it shows both worlds can exist, comfortably, side by side.  With the return of the robins and the Irises starting to peek out, even in the Rockie Mountains, the promise of Spring cannot be too far behind.

Cool Giveaways!!!!!  

 There are several very cool Giveaways and prizes to be found on this blog hop...A Flip Pal....A new book entitled 'Vintage Impressions Jewelry', and a box of mystery items from a studio packed with the newest craft stuff....I told you what it is and now it is up to you to find the blogs in our DCC Group.

 

Post-Valentine post

Every year I make Valentines for family and friends.  My romance-jaded but good friend, Evelyn Wells, always requests an anti-Valentine. Then I suggested she let me handle the Valentines and she does the snarky and condescending.  Dang!  That's my part too!  She used to have angst-ridden girlfriend nailed...but lately I don't know...she's dating a lot...SHEESH!...so much for that Oscar.  I'd be interested to see how 'angst-ridden dork' pops up in my auto-correct.  Anyway, I think I have reached the apex of sweet-red-pink-ruffle-Valentine fluffiness and that next year I'm going to be a little more edgy.  Darts, fishing line, a phone book, and a handful of liability waivers.  Wasn't that a Tori Amos album?  I think my work here is done.

        

        

        






 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine rings for you or Pancho Villa

While in the midst of Valentine production, I took a few minutes to make tiny poly-satin hearts, add a scrap of ribbon, and a Maya Road burgundy flower and glue them onto a ring.  Bonnie Bruns at Bonne Noel helped fashion these lovelies and we made some to sell and many to give away. Her well-worn mahogany work table made an interesting backdrop for this photo.

Now, I mentioned that I gave several away and one of my friends told me this ring wouldn't look good on her finger.  So I was pleased to find out that a pawn shop in El Paso, Texas is selling the right index finger of Pancho Villa, one of the leading figures of the Mexican Revolution from 1910-1917, for $9,000.00.  Thus giving her more than one option to display this ring. 

I don't know where I'm going with this...

But they are really cute, festive, and darned easy to make.

DCC-The Best of CHA 2012

CraZy TACKz

       

 

One of the most ingenious, new products at CHA this year was CraZy TACKz.  It's one of those simple ideas that makes you think, "why hasn't someone done that before". CraZy TACKz is both a tack and a hook.  The beauty of this, is that you get two functions with every tack; you can hold items by tacking them and hang items with the hook.  They are easy to use, inexpensive, and reusable.  There are five different styles to use in just about any project you can think up.

CraZy TACKz Video

Check out their video for information  and down-loadable craft projects using paper, punches, glitter, wood surfaces, styrofoam, foam-core board, stickers, die-cuts, chipboard and more.

Valentine Westies

I rescued a West Highland Terrier, or Westie, named Sunny six years ago.  She was chained in a dark and dank cellar for two years.  I still find it hard to believe that someone could mistreat a dog that has brought so much love and affection to our daily lives.  Westies have to be one of the most cheerful and loyal breeds around.  Their image is used to advertise Milk Bones, Caesar Dog Food, and Target.  Bonnie Bruns( bonniebruns.typepad.com ) gave me a Limited Edition Die for Christmas and we made these Westies this week. We used scrap white paper for the body, taped two pieces together front and back, and laminated them.  All they need is a little velvet ribbon.  We made ten and packaged them in plastic sleeves.  They were donated to the local Westie Rescue Network to be sold to raise money for their organization.  The rest will end up in the Valentine boxes of the people who know her best.

Sunny

Sunny and best bud, Bella, Bonnie's black pug sleeping in Bella's bed.  Sunny and Bella aka Ying and Yang.

 

Hearts-A-Plenty Mini Mobiles

I've been making Valentines for the past couple of days and ended up with scraps too small to make anything with and too pretty to throw away.  I used Karen Burniston's Hearts-a-Plenty, 3-D, Pop-Up die to create these heart mini mobiles.  One of the reasons that the Pop-Up dies are so versatile is that you can make Pop-Up creations that come up off the page and also use the die for one dimensional cutting.  There are two different sizes of hearts on this die making it a great investment for this time of year.

 

Supplies: Hearts-a-Plenty Die by Karen Burniston, scraps of Valentine paper, ribbon.

Valentines Day Kick-Off

Valentines Day is my favorite holiday.  I love (no pun intended) so many of the components; red, pink, hearts, flowers, and candy.  Bonnie Bruns, my longtime creative pal, put together this lovely spread to kick off our 14 day frenzied Valentine making.  Complete with ketchup-she knows me so well.  I intend to post a project a day up to the 14th.

 

Sådan siger brilliant i Dansk? Mette Munk!

Sidste år havde jeg privilegiet at kunne gå Camino de Santiago i det nordlige Spanien. Det er en 500 mile tur og en af caminos største skatte at kunne dele rejsen med folk i mange nationaliteter fra hele verden. Det er hvordan jeg mødte Mette Munk og hendes søster, Dorthe, der er fra Danmark. Det var deres evne til at tale engelsk, tilladt os at dele vores daglige eventyr. Af alle mennesker jeg mødte i Spanien savnede jeg dem mest, når vi vendte tilbage til USA. Ugen før jul modtog jeg en pakke fra Mette indeholdende denne hat. Jeg var forbavset på design og i af hendes håndværk (unika), som jeg ved allerede, jeg ikke kan oversætte til Dansk. (Hun sælger dem til $45 USD og for dem, der er interesserede venligst email mig).

I den spanske by Azofra arrangeret min far en kommunale middag for alle pilgrimme. Vi gjorde en kylling suppe til 50 personer. Vi spørge ikke nogen til at bringe fødevarer til middagen, men vi snart indså, at alle havde overskriften til det lokale marked. Foruden gryderet havde vi salat, brød, melon, chokolade, blæksprutte med blæk og 16 flasker vin. 53 mennesker fra 9 lande viste til middag. Flere mennesker på min tabel taler ikke engelsk, men det gør ikke noget. I livet, undertiden, er smilende og passerer brød nok.

English translation:  How do you say brilliant in Danish? Mette Munk.
Last year I had the privilege of being able to walk the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. It is a 500 mile trip and one of the Camino's greatest treasures is being able to share the journey with people of many nationalities from all over the world.  That is how I met Mette Munk and her sister, Dorthe, who are from Denmark.  It was their ability to speak English that allowed us to share our daily adventures.  Of all the people I met in Spain I missed them the most when we returned to the USA.  The week before Christmas I received a package from Mette containing this hat.  I was astonished at the design and in awe of her craftsmanship, which I already know I cannot translate into Danish.  (She sells them for $45 USD and for those who are interested please email me).

At the Spanish town of Azofra my father arranged a communal dinner for all the pilgrims.  We made a chicken stew for 50 people.  We didn't ask anyone to bring food, however, we soon realized that everyone had headed to the local market.  In addition to the stew we had salad, bread, melon, chocolate, squid in ink, and 16 bottles of wine. 53 people from 9 countries showed up for dinner. Several people at my table didn't speak English but it didn't matter.  In life, sometimes, smiling and passing the bread is enough.

Have a great Average day!

I get really annoyed. Annoyed with the day everyone is having on Face book and Twitter.  "My day is great", "My day’s stupendous", “My day is unicorns filled with skittles singing Handel's Hallelujah chorus".  Does anyone have an average day anymore?  A day neither below the line nor above it, a day within 10% of the median, a day where you didn't win the lottery but the house didn't burn down either?  In our media-driven-sensationalized-everyone-is-a-star- and you don’t have to sit down after your 15 minutes of fame, have we done way with average? What was so bad about average anyway?  Today if you say someone or something is average it is almost an insult.  What is this? Youth soccer where everyone gets a trophy? 

The quantifying of our day is not a modern phenomenon.  It actually started in the 15^th century during the reign of Henry VIII’s second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn.  At the time it was fashionable to inquire after the health, and consequently the day, of anyone you met.  And not in the “Hi, How are you”? way, which has become a greeting not an inquiry.  But the asker really wanted to know and expected a detailed answer regarding you health.

Greeting: “How art thou”?

Answer: “Oh, my aching piles, I’ve got a fungus and an awkward rash, my Doctor wants to bleed me.  And don’t even talk to me about the leeches”!

This was shortened in the 1960’s to ‘Have a Nice Day’ and that came with a Smiley Face. And it was implied if you didn’t have a nice day you had somehow screwed up.  The only thing that it really benefitted was the greeting card industry because it spawned a lot of ways to say nothing.

If you didn’t have an average day how would you know if the day was great or crappy?  Slightly overcast in the mid-60.  I parked not particularly close nor far away.  These jeans don’t make my ass look either small or large.  I’ll have my steak medium, my eggs over moderate, and my pasta cooked lento moderetto.  Why does average have such a bad name?   I’m a big fan of Wednesday.  After all, it was named after ODIN, which rocks, because he’s half man and half god-and that ends up being the average of the two.  Also, Odin had one eye which is exactly 50% or the average of two eyes.

One way to measure how average your day was would be to use sigma.  Sigma is the symbol used to denote standard deviation in statistical analysis. The higher or lower the sigma value the farther away from the norm.  So, you can actually plot your day rather than relying on hyperbole, for example:

1-Sigma Day: basic Monday-Friday. 

2-Sigma Day: a day of skiing, holidays, finding a twenty dollar bill or unused gift card.

3-Sigma Day: a snow/blizzard day, no school or work and you sit on the couch in your PJ’s eating cinnamon rolls and watching countless episodes of “The Walking Dead”.

4-Sigma Day: a troupe full of Swedish bikini babes parachutes into your backyard or the 101^st Airborne Thong and Body Oil Review misses their drop zone by 14 miles and lands in your bathtub.

To banter around adjectives without knowing their real meaning is to trivialize the word.  A friend of mine had “a Fabulous DAY!!!!” Now the word, fabulous, comes from the root word ‘fable’ which is defined as: almost impossible to believe or incredible.  So your day was fabulous?  Really?  Your day was told about through legends and myths?  You fought a dragon? No shit?  That does fall outside the deviation.  I had another friend, on Face book, who complained that “his day sucked”.  Really?  Was it as bad as the Captain of the Italian cruise ship?  You know the one who got a tad too close to shore?  The only way it could have gotten worse for Captain Schettino, with the Port Authority screaming at him and people he was responsible for drowning all around, was if he was pelted with feces then burst into flames while he stepped from his dinghy directly into the Police van.  That’s a day on the outliers.  It’s a -4 Sigma Day.

The problem is the statistical average and your impression of average.  The difference is what you perceive as average versus what is reality.  If a person flipped a coin 999 times and it came up tails, most people would think that the 1000^th time they flipped the coin it would come up tails.  In reality the statistical average would still be 50% it would be tails and 50% it would be heads.  You may perceive your day as fabulous when in reality you still have a 50% chance of things turning out badly.

Life is really a bell curve. It gets more or less average the father away you get from the mean. And it is in the measurement that people get confused.  Being average is not so bad.  After all, the best part about being average is you have everywhere to go.