Sassafras Mosaic

Last year I started experimenting with tearing up my watercolors and leafprints and arranging them to look like a tile mosaic and with the help of Mod podge ( I Love Modpodge) put it all on prepainted canvas.

This is my homemade paper quilt with plants that I made about a year ago. I had wanted to do this for years and finally did it. Now want to make a huge one. I have taught papermaking for years in various environmental education and recreational settings , so I have lots and lots of various colored paper squares from over the years.

mud for everyone

I came across yet another amazing Strawbale/cob related blog while looking for images of cob ovens. Amazing pictures that really go into detail to enable anyone looking to build up from the ground using earth and bamboo as well as a plethora of other sustainable living inspirations.

I am still searching for a place to build my strawbale octagon and will!

www.dayonedesign.blogspot.com
Thank You to Erica Ann for your blog!

Collage Inspiration Central

Thank you to Patty and her blog "Magpie's Nest". She introduced me to http://www.photofunia.com where I made this stamp collage in a mattter of seconds and it's all free. As for her blog ( as a collage artist) I could spend weeks on her site and never be bored. Soooooooo much inspiration and linkage to more and more. Check out:

www.bitze.wordpress.com

for more.

Thanks Patty!

www.photofunia.com

Here's a great new (to me) site for altering your photos...all FREE!!!

http://www.photofunia.com/

Happy Winter Solstice and Full Moon

12/21/10

Merriam Webster Online

Eddy from the Middle English (Scots) ydy,probably from Old Norse "itha"1.a: a current of water or air running contrary to the main current;especially : a circular current:2: a contrary or circular current (as thought or policy)

This is the original of my baby...future rolling tiny home.

I am still working on restoring it and hope to take it back west this spring.

A woman that I knew in college died in her sleep this week. I had been reconnected with her, like several other friends from 30 years ago-via Facebook. I barely knew this woman in college but we had exchanged a few thoughts and then all of a sudden her comment messages (to an automatic horoscope she has linked to her fb page) started indicating that she should
" rest in peace."
First of all that is a shocker to read on Facebook but it also revealed alot to me about who we (I) have become via these computers.
I wanted answers and I wanted them now. I searched her name and kept going over pictures to see if I could remember her a little more. Finally I found a picture of her, and as if a buzzer went off in my head, I remembered her sarcastic humor and her close friends in an instant.
But I wanted more. I wanted to be able to click on a website and see who she had become.
A webcam into her life (only a few hundred miles to the south of where I am now).
Webcam, really? Well we have become so desynthesized via television and computers that we seem to expect this. Facebook has made me want to see and know more about people I lost touch with years ago. But is this healthy? Our facebook pages seem to have a life of their own .
I truly do appreciate being reconnected with folks who were an important part of my growth but at times it just makes me more alone and more lonely. Perhaps it is time for me to take a break and go back outside.
Rest in Peace , Connie, wherever you are.

Some potato print solstice cards from the past for all of the fans of my potato prints.

Happy Solstice!

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

Hummingbird Flees

Annie B. Siemer SFSP 2010

Watercolor Leaf print

I am still actively seeking a landowner who will rent-to-own (lease option) me an acre or two to build a tiny strawbale octagon... www.mayapplestrawbale.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Jodi Boas!

mama redwood baby burl

for treefrawg

It's funny how our memories put events into place in our psyche.

This spot is monumental for me. If you know me ask me about it.

My Mom is a real trooper.

This is the trunk of the oldest Sycamore tree I know. I would have seen this enormous trunk as a very small child growing up in the St. Stephan's parish in Columbus, Ohio where I grew up. Back in the day we had picnics under this tree and it had more trunk. I love the characteristic puzzle like white bark. I took my Mom to church there this a.m. for a mass for my little brother Patrick, who would have been 45 today.

If you dedicate yourself to service, the doors will open.
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan Alchemical Wisdom

I haven't really used my blog for the potential it has as a writing tool for quite a while. Alot of my energy as a writer goes into the hardback journal and the rest fizzles out onto facebook.

When I think about what exactly I would write about if given the chance to do it for months (and be supported financially) for it, I tend to lean toward what would make the greatest impact.

I think this must be a Libra cell within me that resists writing for the sake of writing. I t must stand for something , do some great justice.

Hmm, should I write about the years hiking and teaching in the woods with kids of all ages? Did I learn anything beyond that I love being outside always? Did I learn alot from those kids? You betcha. But I learned " things that is in all of our guts". We all have these needs. Some are mere Thneeds, as Dr. Suess says, Things that you think that you need". We all need food and water and air to survive. We are all better off with shelter and love as well.

Should I write about the plant world or the feeling I get when I am around animals? Should I write and tell everyone that I know to drop everything, go buy enough seeds to feed you for an entire year and do everything in your means to make sure that they sprout and thrive this spring. That you can save those efforts in jars and containers . Save those seeds. Be concerned with nothing more than feeding those around you.

Another great Lloyd Kahn blog, but then again they all are. I love this sign, had to share.

Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life reveals just the opposite: that letting go is the real path to freedom.
Sogyal Rinpoche Glimpse After Glimpse

it's kinda hard to see in this photo but this is the first

Rainbow I've ever seen with multiple bands of a day-glo pink color...

Happy Dias de los Muertos

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein