Swan Love

 

I want to begin by thanking Gillena, whose blog is Lunch Break, for hosting Art Journal Journey in April. I had planned to play more, but time got in the way.  For a first time host, she did an excellent job and we will definitely be inviting her to host again next year.

We now introduce a new host as we do each month.  This month our host is one of the administrators of Art Journal Journey, my dear friend Mia who can be found at Craftartista.  Mia's theme for May is Birds. 

I call this Swan Love.  I love swans, especially black swans, but these are commemorated on a postage stamp issued in 1997 by the United Stages Postal Service (USPS).  A bit of asemic writing sits behind the word "Love," while the two birds form a heart.

 

Detail of the postage stamp is below.

 

Have you heard that swans mate for life?  There are six distinct types of swans:  Mute, Trumpeter, Tundra, Whooper, Bewick’s, and Australian black swans.  Most stay monogamous for life.  However according to Birdfact:  

Swans in general are known as monogamous birds, with different species all exhibiting loyal and faithful bonds with their chosen mate. However, despite the formation of lifelong bonds, divorce and promiscuity are observed in a small percentage of pairings each year. 

Some widowed swans die of a broken heart, while others look for a new mate.  The primary reason for divorce is the inability to conceive/reproduce.

According to A-Z Animals, female swans are known as pens and male swans are known as cobs. 

Please remember we welcome art journal pages that meet the theme requirements, altered book pages, canvases, loose, or stand alone pages including fabric and digital art.  I (and the administrators) cannot leave comments on Facebook, TicTok, or Instagram entries.  We do not allow cards!!!  Period! We also don't allow tags, index cards, ATCs, or ATCoins, unless they are part of a journal page, and as much as we don't want to, will be forced to delete your entry.  Please remember if your blog is not in English, we ask that you translate it for us since the translation tool doesn't work on some blogs, including mine.  Finally, we do not allow back-links to any journal page published prior to the start date of this month's challenge. Hope to see you and your Birds inspired art soon at Art Journal Journey.

 

Thank you beyond belief for visiting today. Bleubeard and I would love to see you at Art Journal Journey with your own interpretation of Birds.

  

Ode to a tree

 

It has been a harrowing two days in my world.  First there was the golf ball sized hail that managed to do a lot of damage to the exterior and roof of my home.  There was also the torrential rain that didn't seem to stop.  Thankfully my basement didn't flood.  Then the tornado sirens went off.  Yes, a tornado was close by, but thankfully to the south of me.  Bleubeard headed to the basement, but Squiggles and I decided to watch the weather on my favorite local TV station instead.  While I was doing that, a streak of lightening hit very close to my house and knocked out the electricity.  I (and my neighbors) sat without any electricity for nearly two days until it could be restored.  Welcome to spring in Kansas!  At least you know why I haven't been around to visit.

Today I'm joining Gillena, whose blog is Lunch Break.  Her theme is Trees are Awesome, Aren't They?    

I call this Ode to a tree.  This is a mixed media entry with details below.

From left to right, I started with leftover vintage sheet music.  Next was a lovely lavender page that I messed up trying to stamp bunnies on it.  To hide my mistake, I added a piece of security envelope.  Then I stamped the tree on a piece of old book page.  I used another book page to stamp the leaf.  On the far right, I spent a lot of time dripping my handmade spray mists onto a sheet of cardstock, then messed up when I tried to stamp an image onto the piece.  When I added them all together, the failures were far less noticeable.

 

Thank you for joining Bleubeard and me for this final Art Journal Journey entry in April. 

 

 

 

 

T Stands For Various

 

 I nearly forgot today was T Tuesday.  I am spending the day with my friend Joseph who took a personal day from work.  We will be out and about, but will also be visiting The Spice Merchant.  I will be by to visit later tonight.

The last time I was at The Spice Merchant, I took this overall photo of various mugs.  There was no specific theme, although I did see a few that had hearts. 

 

Now it's your turn.  The rules are extremely simple.  Your drink related post may be anything from a photo of a glass, cup, or mug, to an actual drink.  You may choose to share a sketch or a digital, hybrid, or traditional page in your scrapbook, art journal, or altered book.  Maybe you'd prefer to share a tag, or wow us with your photography.  You might choose a postcard or decorated card.  Or perhaps you prefer to review a place you visited, a movie, or book.  It makes no difference as long as it's drink related.  And don't forget that the more unique and outside the box it is, the better we like it.  Please tie it back here, and please link only to your T post, not your entire blog.  When you link, Bleubeard, the T gang, and I will be by to visit.   Bleubeard would also like to remind you that your photos may be taken any time, even months ago, if you choose. 

 

 

Once were lost

 

They once were lost, but now they're found.  I'm talking about my lost files and folders.  I finally found them.  Because I'm often shaky, I transferred ALL my files and folders to a single folder.  

  However, as you can see, 

   they are now all back where they belong. 

 

The top image is a spread of Africa, the middle image is a spread of Cuba, both from my 7 Continents altered book, and the bottom image is a quiltlet made from fabric I dyed using various kitchen ingredients and sewed with variegated thread.

Thanks for visiting today.  Your visit is especially welcome and I am grateful you stopped by.  Bleubeard is, too! 

Can you hear me now?

 

I was hoping Blogger would be kind to me today, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  I will leave you a comment when Blogger sees fit. Until then, I still get "Failed to Publish."  Please understand, this is NOT my doing.

Thank you for visiting today.  This is a special day, as it is for the Earth.  It's also a culmination, where for 22 days beginning April 1, I attempted to show how to rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, re-invent, recover, restore, or repurpose something in order to save it from the trash. It all led up to Earth Day, or "bEARTHday" in my world.  Of course, I believe EVERY day should be Earth Day, because we must find a way to save our planet. 

 

As an aside, there is more to think about than just trash.  There are endangered species to consider.  Do any of you remember when the California condor was on the extreme endangered list?  It became extinct in the wild in 1987.  In 1982, only 23 condors survived world-wide. By 1987, all remaining wild condors were placed into a captive breeding program in an effort to save the species from extinction.  According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

Since 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild, the USFWS and its public and private partners have grown the total free-flying and captive population to more than 500 condors In 2004, the Recovery program reached an important milestone with the first successful chick hatched in the wild. In 2008, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity for the first time since the program began.   

Now it's time to help endangered porpoises. With fewer than 10 individuals believed to remain in the wild, the vaquita is one of the most critically endangered marine animals.  It is also known as the Gulf of California harbor porpoise, or cochito.  According to NOAA Fisheries:

Vaquitas have the smallest range of any whale, dolphin, or porpoise.  They only live in the northern part of the Gulf of California, an area that is rich in fish and shrimp.  Fishing is thus a major source of income for the people there, who almost exclusively use gillnets, but vaquitas can also become accidentally wrapped in the nets and drown.  Scientists agree that for vaquitas to survive in the wild, "gillnet" fishing, also known as Fishing Net Entanglements, must end within the vaquita habitat.

Perhaps we need legislation that actually works to save these endangered porpoises. 

As those of you who have been here all 22 days know, I have brought back a favorite post from the past from April 2015, 2016, and 2017.  Today is no different.  I am sharing part of a favorite post from April, 2017.  As you read from the title of today's post it is called  

Can you hear me now? 

 

For today's recycling entry

I started with a book cover given me by my friend Sally.

I added some gold infused tissue paper

I saved from a gift.

I used white PVA glue to adhere the tissue paper to the book cover.

While the glue was drying, I decided to create a new universal hole locator.  I began with a pad of post-it-notes and a steel ruler.

I measured down 2 mm from the top of the pad on two sides and drew lines.

I used those two lines as guides to create a single line across the width of the page.

I measured 2.5 mm from the left and right sides

and drew two perpendicular lines to meet the horizontal line.


I drew a small circle at the intersections of each line,

then wrote the words "left" and "right."  That was for your benefit, not mine.

The idea is, no matter what width

you are measuring, the hole locater will work perfectly by lining it up with either the left or right side of the piece.

Here is my completed assemblage with holes punched, but minus wires.

I'm really happy about the completed assemblage.

I'm including a few random shots for your enjoyment.

I need to adhere the "Hear Hear" a bit better, I see.  As an aside, it is left over from the deli paper I used a couple of days ago.

For this assemblage, I started with a book cover and some used tissue paper.  I deconstructed an old cordless phone and used the "motherboard" as the main assembly.  I added the speaker from the same phone, along with some beads and baubles I either assembled, or used to add interest to this assemblage.   For the hanger, I used a colorful deconstructed telephone wire.  I used a stencil to write all the words on the scrap deli paper.  Everything except the PVA glue has been recycled or repurposed today.

Thank you beyond belief for your continued support of my recycling efforts through the past 22 days.   And please have a glorious Earth Day everyone.  BTW, I won't be eating cake today.   Instead, I'm having a glazed doughnut.
 

 

T Stands For Coasters

 

At 3:52 p.m my time today, one comment was published.  I was overjoyed.  However, that joy was quickly dashed when, after publishing this post, I couldn't get another comment in the queue to publish.  When I tried to reinstall Firefox, I got the message that Firefox is up to date, and it wouldn't let me reinstall it.  I am once again sorry, but I seem to STILL be unable to publish my comments.

Welcome to another edition of T Stands For Tuesday.

Now it's time to recycle some felt.

I have several pieces of felt that were left over from previous projects.  Some of the pieces are quite small.

Using various objects to draw circles around, I cut five circles.

I cut two of the largest circle because the black circle is the one that will sit on a table.

I stacked the circles on top of each other and tried to match the center lines as equally as possible.

Did you think I would miss an opportunity to create something with my wonky sewing?  I began in the center and worked my way around the smallest circle.

Then I worked my way outward.

I used different variegated thread on the two sides.

It was time to see if this prototype design would work from a functional standpoint.

It seems to work fine with a cup

and a mug, too.  This is day 18 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday and I recycled bits and pieces of felt left over from other projects.

Now it's your turn.  The rules are extremely simple.  Your drink related post may be anything from a photo of a glass, cup, or mug, to an actual drink.  You may choose to share a sketch or a digital, hybrid, or traditional page in your scrapbook, art journal, or altered book.  Maybe you'd prefer to share a tag, or wow us with your photography.  You might choose a postcard or decorated card.  Or perhaps you prefer to review a place you visited, a movie, or book.  It makes no difference as long as it's drink related.  And don't forget that the more unique and outside the box it is, the better we like it.  Please tie it back here, and please link only to your T post, not your entire blog.  When you link, Bleubeard, the T gang, and I will be by to visit.   Bleubeard would also like to remind you that your photos may be taken any time, even months ago, if you choose.

 

This post was originally published in April, 2017.  For 2026, this is Day 21 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday.  Thank you for visiting today.  Your continued support has kept me going and I am extremely grateful.  Bleubeard is, too.

 

 

This is no April Fool's post

 

As I explained yesterday, "Failed to Publish" is still here.  I have a slew of comments in queue ready to be published.  I check at least three times every day in hopes my comments will be published.  Thank you for understanding.  You have NO idea how stressful this has become.  

I was surprised at how well received this post was when I first shared it back in 2017.  As you can tell from the title, I named it:

 This is no April Fool's post.

Today begins my first post leading up to bEARTHday, April 22.  And it's no April Fool's post either.

I've been hanging my sheets, towels, blankets and clothes on my clothes line every day because it was 80 F (~ 27 C) or higher for several days.  The winds were often over 40 to 50 mph, though, and once when I went out to get an afghan and a towel, they were twisted all over the line and one of the clothespins had come apart.

I tell you this because, not to be confused with a clothes peg of single wooden construction,

it doesn't matter if your clothespins are plastic, old, or new (as shown above left to right)

they all have the same construction.  And when they come apart, like they often do when the wind batters them, we often throw them away.  Now I have saved the wooden parts in the past, thinking I would use them for doll legs or picket fences in an assembly,

but I never thought to save this metal spring before.  Now I'm sure many of you with lots of grip could reassemble one of these clothespins, but as is often the case, one wooden side may be missing.  As I looked at this spring, I thought it looked a bit like an elaborate jump ring for a bead.

So I took it to the basement to see if I could find a bead that it might fit in.  I picked three.  My favorite was the one on the far right, but it was too wide for the metal spring.  Although I tried to spread the "jump ring," my fingers weren't strong enough and the angle was wrong when I tried to assemble it.  I will need to play around with the angle once I get my needle nose pliers, all of which are, for some strange reason, now on the main floor of my home.

I had absolutely no trouble getting the round polymer clay bead to fit in the jump ring spring.

Here it is ready for someone to wear.

Today was Day 1 of 22, where instead of sending this metal spring to the recycle bin, I turned it into a necklace.    I'm sure there will be more to come as my clothespins often come apart now that I'm hanging my laundry on the clothesline.

Thanks for visiting.  I am glad you joined me for this first day of April (no fooling).

Actually, this is Day 20 of 22 and I recycled a post from April 1, 2017.  If you aren't crazy about the metallic tech look, I suggest stringing the spring with a colorful ribbon.