Surreal..

Pencil. On paper. IN. SANE.


Credit:
All images from Paul Cadden 

Audra Mae..

Audra Mae is slowing swimming into my consciousness..

Sand Dancing..

Dh hauled me to the computer one day, and told me I had to see something...

This guy in New Zealand, who makes sand art..

Using a rake and a stick, and no other tools..

And comes out with this incredible art, in perfect scale and proportion..

He creates them at low tide, every week..

And watches them disappear again as the tide rolls in..

His nickname is the Sand Dancer, and honestly, seeing the graceful swirls, loops, and curves, I think it is extremely fitting..

Seriously, how the heck do you do THAT with a stick and a rake????

Or THAT without a giant calibrating tool of some sort??

He's been doing it 13 years or so, and has created over a thousand works of art. I hope he continues making many more.

You can see an awesome vid about him, by filmmaker Valerie Reid, here:

And read a cool interview with Valerie herself here. 

Credits:

1. Stan4dSteph 

2. {Amy_Jane} 

3. adiemus 

4, 9. My Healing Kitchen 

5. KobreGuide 

6. Impact Lab 

7, 8. curiousphotos

10.  Harriet and Spare Cat 

Hail, hail, all hail the rain..

This here? This is ice. From the sky. In Hawaii. In March, which is practically summer. In marble to golf ball sizes. I currently have frozen feet from walking in it trying to lay yoga mats and blankets over the windshields and the paint on the cars. At 6am. After waking from a dead sleep. You know, I live in Hawaii so I *don't* get frozen feet. Ever.

It was supposed to be a bumper crop of mangoes this year, too. The flowers and fruit were holding out against the winds for weeks. I guess they were actually supposed to DIE, so the hail came down and cleaned off the trees. Wah.

Make a much prettier magnetic pincushion..

I love the concept of magnetic pincushions...using them while sewing on the machine, I pull the pins out and throw them in the general direction of that ubiquitous blue donut thing without slowing down, and it grabs them from almost midair and keeps them safe from landing under my feet. I love it. Not so much, the blob of blue plastic in my sewing room.

So, I decided to make my own, using a little porcelain dish I loved. And cause I could, I took pictures while doing it, and you can make your own, too. I promise you, you'll love it SO much more! :D

Needed:

Dish you like, not too thick, otherwise the magnets can't hold well through it

Strong magnets..I got mine from eBay, but you can find similar at any decent craft supply store

Strong glue that will hold both surfaces..I used Gorilla Glue

First, spread your glue on the spot you want the magnet (or on the magnet itself...I had a slight curve to my surface, so I wanted to make sure it was well filled with the glue so it would hold)..

Decide how many magnets you need for your particular dish (I needed three stacked together to be strong enough...other dishes might need more or less...test your one out), gluing together layers if need be..

Attach to the dish (like I said, I needed to stack mine up...if you have a wider, flatter dish, you might need to spread them around a little, to cover the surface to make it workable)..

And if you have a glue like mine that needs to be held firmly together while drying, put a weight on the magnets to keep it together.

And that's it. You now have your gorgeous little magnetic pincushion, ready to hold those pins in place without having to stop and stab them in, or leaving piles next to the machine while you work, and then the next time you rotate the garment to sew another seam, you sweep the whole mess onto the floor. Gah. It's like having a superhero working next to you. Seriously. I am in love. Hope you love yours just as much. :D

Orange and purple and greens..

I was browsing through my Pinterest folder of colors..I noticed a trend...

Oranges, and purples, and greens...

I feel so predictable right now, lol...

Credits:

1. SunSurfer 

2. XenaBitesBack

3. WishFlowers 

4. BlackBirdExperience 

5. Desert-Dreamer 

6. SundayInBed 

7. AdorableLife 

8. Zsaj 

9. Tenneal 

Twisted..

Garnet briolettes and teeny, tiny peridots, all twisted up on silver hoops. Now dd wants me to make HER a pair...gonna have to be different colors, though..I never did get into the matchy-matchy..so not my thing. :p

Playing along at:

Moonrise..

I took a walk tonight, at moonrise..

Kids of Yesterday..

Currently extremely obsessed with this song..

Chinoiserie..

Loving these works by Kathe Fraga...the colors just make me happy..


Credit:

All images found via Kathe Fraga, who I found on Pinterest..

Breathtaking..

It's insane, her voice..

And if you are like me and can't get enough of it, try her taking on Lady Antebellum (accompanied by Hootie of Blowfish fame, and cheered on by Lady A themselves..)



..or kissing off her ex:



'Scuze me...gotta go hit replay again..


Edit: Good grief...all I see in the Google reader is blank space with ads and some text...is that what you all see, too?? When the heck did they change to that??

That looks...interesting..

It seems to be fig season here in Hawaii. I know this because I was handed a large bag of ripe right now figs, overflow from their tree that they couldn't keep up with. Since I seem to be the only one in the house who like fresh figs, I am now trying to come up with ways to use them up..which leads me to the next question...who the heck has heard of fig soup? Not as a dessert, either...as a main meal item. The people who gave them to me said they have been making it a lot, and that it was an Asian thing. I dunno...I can be adventurous in my palate, but my mind is boggling about this...has anyone had or heard of that before? 

And, what else can I do with these sitting on my counter in dire need of using up??

White Blank Page..

Still a massive fan of these guys..

(Holy macaroni, my last post was in MARCH!! I totally fell off the wagon!! Sorry, folks! Won't happen (much) again! :D )

Fantasy world..

Nearly died when I first saw Sveta Dorosheva's work over on DudeCraft...I just want to live in her world. Isn't she A-MAZ-ING???? You can find her here. SO worth a click over and seeing her pictures in their entirety...she is illustrating books, and by that I mean, the whole thing, text and all. A-MAZ-ING.

Credit:
Sveta Dorosheva