bee creative

thinking about travel

I've been working a bit on my re-do of the scrapbooks/journals.  Thinking a lot about travel.  What we learn from it.  The environmental impact of it.  Whether we honor where we are from enough, whether we explore our own homes enough? 

"About a memorable building we will often say 'you had to be there,' which is just another way of saying that the experience of the place, it's presence, simply couldn't be translated into words and signs and information; the Here of it can't be communicated There."  Michael Pollan, from A Place of my Own.

Inspire Me Thursday- Peeling paint

A reminder for myself.

creative blocks

You know it's time to go to bed when you can't remember where you hid the thread from the cat and things start falling on your head. 

what if I traveled this road

Sunrise this morning, looking across the field as I walked down the road to work.   Cold, frosty, foggy, with the promise of sunshine.  Here's another road I've been traveling:    

What if a bumper sticker was  sewn on to a piece of fabric?  What if I printed out a project I did last year on to canvas and sewed that on to fabric?  What if the legs of a pair of worn jeans were used for a base fabric and then the fabric was made into a bag?  It could be my "say something" bag. 

I want more bumper stickers. 

turning the lights off

I'm learning to live in the shadows.  It's a quiet place....  A place where being creative and being sustainable can intersect. Electric usage is up from last month, but less than last year.   Someday I'm going to get around to painting this chair. 

when the sun comes out

It's time to work in the garden!

breakfast made with local ingredients for Inspire Me Thursday

Spinach from the garden (cold frame) + local eggs ('cause what else would you eat spinach with for breakfast, well potatoes) + apples (from the garden, got to use them up!) + local cheese = yummy local inspired breakfast. 

intersections and risk taking

A couple months ago I found a link to a slide show that Sabrina Ward Harrison had made.  It made me curious about her books, so I checked Brave on the Rocks out from the library.  Within the first couple pages there was something to consider. She writes questions if going to Italy alone was "bold enough" to be an adventure.  I sat at the bus stop smiling because spending four hours alone in Venice Italy was as bold as I could get.  It's all a matter of perspective I think.  What is bold for one, is not bold for another.  That's the way it should be.   

Brave on the Rocks made me think of risking taking.  Of my comfort level for risks.  When faced with an intersection, do I take the road I know or the one that is a mystery? 

The easy answer is in the area of creativity.  I like those unknown roads.  I don't need to have a plan when I start and, in fact, prefer not to. What's the worst that can happen?  Starting over?  Trying again? But there are other types of risks where I'm hesitant.  I might be able to talk myself into flying to Europe by myself someday.  Or hop in a car and just drive across country (I'm not considering environmental impact here).  Or maybe not.

Here's another intersection:  I'm working on redoing my scrap books and journals, what do I keep and what do I let go? In what format do I want to keep the things I'm saving? 

fuse-Inspire Me Thursday

I was very excited by this prompt.  First I thought, I can finish up some of my fused glass projects.  Then I thought, I'll fuse some fabric.  Then I thought, I'll do both!  And then, I decided I really needed to just finish things in progress-which would be the glass.

The bottom two are going to be pins, the green is a hair clip and the star piece is an ornament.

The glass is a combination of old window glass, glass scraps given to my mom, plus a bit of purchased glass.  Some of the glass I assembled, some my mom did.  She then fired (fused!) the glass.  Other than the hair clip, I've stacked two pieces of glass together and glued them to create the layers.  I like the way glass looks combined.  It creates a conversation. 

The star piece includes a little metal star that I glued on.  It's from a harmony ball my brother gave me years ago. 

The bird is a photo that I took, altered on the computer, printed and then glued to the back of a piece of glass. 

From the stash of trash:  glass and metal (including the little piece in the star ornament. 

an elephant for Inspire Me Thursday

I'm a little late on this one, but I wanted to respond to this prompt and finally had a chance to do so.  I loosely followed directions from Sock and Glove by Miyako Kanamori.  The socks are some of my hand knit socks that sadly acquired holes in the heels.  The elephant has a nice squishy feeling.  I did a little needle felting for the eyes. 

From the stash of trash:  socks and stuffing from an old pillow.