5.21.11 ... recycled panel art

i was looking through a discarded peanuts collection book last week when i got this idea to make an accordion fold book out of it, but today i changed my mind and made a two sided panel art instead. the brown paper is salvaged from a vintage library book cover wrapper. here is the full panel side one ...

and here is side two ...

you can see the print on the book jacket liner.

i used colored pencil on the black and white comics.

and outlined each one with a different color that is used in the panels.

i love this message and think it applies to this project --- anything you see as art is art. have a beautiful sunday. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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5.4.11 ... mother's day cards

we worked on cards today and i have photos of mine which i will share on mother's day and not before! here is scout's card for a dear friend. i know she does not have interweb access so we are safe sharing this one before it arrives in her mailbox.

this 'mom' once told scout about her escapades grooming - as it were - her hair stylist to achieve a hair cut she feels is worthy. so scout couldn't resist this illustration choice. we had fun making our cards. it took us most of the day. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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4.7.11 ... pierre ... and cricket comes home

i continued working on my pierre project that i started on yesterday. stage two i suppose we can call this. i cut circles to make magnets and pins and i made a pile of extra pieces for another project. i love these images.

if i had a nickel for every time i read this story. such fun. this book is a discard from a school library so its condition is no longer viable in its original state. but look how much new life a potential piece of trash/recycling can have. and i am only beginning.

in other news, cricket came home for the evening in a trial experiment. she is a fighter. i cannot believe the will she has, given the critical condition she has been and continues to be in all week. she is very weak and has a long way to go but we are not giving up on her. here she is this afternoon with scout who was learning how to syringe feed her. we left her for the afternoon to complete her iv hydration and went back for her at closing time.

and here's what she and scoutie look like right now ...

how sweet is this? and, by the way, love my iphone. or as i call it, my pony. i hope we all get a good night's rest. but either way, we're all together and that's a happy night.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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3.17.11 ... joel mchale tribute

are you a community fan? we are. and i follow joel on the tweety too. so when i saw this in a magazine today, what else could i do but recycle him.

aren't these fun? i am going to put them in my joonbeam shop.

we're still not feeling over the weather here in our household. i understand we are not alone. i hope you all are well.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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3.14.11 ... display tower and einey's birthday

on wednesday i will be in a spring fair and i have been thinking and thinking of an easy and space saving way to display my items. it is quite a challenge because my table will be quite small. i came up with this wooden tower idea and when i was preparing to try it out i ran into the glitch that the one panel - which is actually the box top but becomes a side - needed to be fastened to the other piece. so i got out some trusty rubber brands and they worked great.

i never dreamed of using them for yet another purpose and look how great this will be. i originally thought of using little rolled up pieces of tape on the backs of the cards. but this is so much better. tomorrow i will make more cards and put my jewelry and pins on them. and voila' - i'll have a display tower. and recycled - just the way i like everything.

and i can utilize all four sides for my pins, jewelry and recycled corner bookmarks.

this view includes one of my favorite einstein quotes: imagination is more important than knowledge. and it's his birthday today. did you all celebrate by using your brains? do tell.

i'm still under the weather so this tower made me happy. now we'll see what else i come up with tomorrow. i wish i felt better but it will just have to be what it will be. i'm sure we'll enjoy the day regardless of my organizational status. time for one last cup of tea tonight.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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3.8.11 ... word collage buttons and apricot bars recipe

i made the word buttons today and i am really pleased with them. i want to list them when i am supposed to be saving them for the spring fair. !!!

i know i will be making more. these were quite a bit of work and time but oh so much fun.

i can't decide which ones i like best. i love the sing button because i made the plaid design. and the fell short cracks me up and i also added a wee design. but i could name a reason i love each one so i'll spare you, kind readers. if you have one that stands out to you i'd love to read your comment. working alone i often wonder if anyone shares my reaction.

decisions, decisions.... and now for a special treat ...

last night i made some apricot bars after i had posted for the evening so here is an iphoto - the best i could do at 10 PM - and my sis asked for the recipe so i am sharing it here for her and you all. they are so quick and delicious. we make this size which is half of the original recipe because we know we'd eat double if we made double. if you have a large family go for the 13 x 9 pan by all means. just double this recipe. come back and post a comment if you make them. i'd love to hear from you.

joon's apricot bars

1/2 c butter {always}{and we use unsalted} 

1/2 c sugar 

1 c flour {king arthur} 

1/4 t. soda 

1/2 t. salt 

3/4 c. coconut {bakers} 

9 oz. apricot jam {bon maman} 

1/4 c chopped pecans or almonds {we did not have any last night}

cream butter and sugar. add flour, soda and salt. add coconut. pat 3/4 of mixture into a 9 x 9 un-greased pan. {a pie plate works perfectly also.} i sprinkle a little flour on which prevents the dough from sticking to the fork or spatula and aids in spreading it evenly. spread with jam. mix nuts {if you can afford them!} into remaining 1/4 mixture. sprinkle on top of jam. bake at 350 for 30 minutes. heavenly.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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3.1.11 ... ladybugs 12 at the ladybug picnic

i couldn't resist making these recipe or idea note cards with the famous ladybug picnic bunch. i will add some designs around the edges tomorrow.

can you sing the song? if you'd like to have a sing-a-long here's a link for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8vUTm64h0

it just doesn't get any better. and scout wants me to add that bud luckey, who currently works at pixar and has a long history with animation in television, film and commercials, wrote and animated ladybugs' picnic, among other treasured sesame street shorts. you should check out his wiki page for some inspiring reading.

as for me, it's late and time to start pondering what my next project will be. maybe i'll look through my old sesame street book. it's a winner.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.21.11 ... little packaging fun . snoopy . gregory peck . home .

today we went on a trash/recycling collection walk about. we collected a total of 617 pieces of litter and recyclable trash in 50 minutes. this is part of my project snowflake. for every item sold in my etsy shops i pick up 13 pieces of litter. i had no idea i was doing so well! i am behind but we made great progress today. i need to clean up 490 more pieces to catch up with my sales. i started this challenge on march 17th, 2010. so far, evan, scout & i have picked up 1330 pieces of litter. it's a good feeling and the neighborhood looks that much neater. meanwhile ...i have four packages to get ready for the mail and these magnet and pin packaging cards are my creations to share for today.

as usual, i had fun with these. the snoopy pin is from a very old paperback book so the paper is very fragile. i folded & sewed it and added the piece of tagboard for extra stability. the 'home' set is on a bit of christmas card. i forgot to get a photo of the back but it has a pretty pale blue card stock with a heart tree stamp that turned out to be exactly the right size and shape.

i hope the recipient will enjoy the presentations. sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.20.11 ... pooh ephemera magnets

today i made pooh magnet batches. the papers are original, as always - these from a discarded 1942 copy of winnie the pooh and other stories. i named the sets. the one above is a hand colored embellished set named, simply: adventures with pooh

this one, also hand colored accents: april showers - pooh floats

this is one of a set {see group photo below for its mates} called: ho hum. it looks like rain.

this set: pooh thinks. therefore he is.

this is one of a set of five called: isn't it funny how a bear loves honey?

these will all be listed in my joonbeam etsy shop asap.

i fought with the sun today, once again. i did enjoy the process from start to finish, though. this took me most of the day. interruptions included, naturally.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.15.11 ... 1930 era greeting card magnets

i have a collection of very old - 1920s - 30s - greeting cards that my lovely and wonderful sister sent me. i have only used a few of them over the past year or so that i've had them because i find they don't lend themselves to reincarnation easily. at least i am finding them challenging. but today i made these magnets by piecing a few things together in creative ways. i think they came out pretty sweet.

i will list them in my joonbeam etsy shop. and... last but not least... the valentine cookies i promised to show you. they are so delicious.

and pretty, too, don't you think?

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.8.11 ... bracelet beginning

my back is on a rant and i am moving at half speed until that passes. i started on this bracelet project. here is an in-progress sneak preview and i look forward to completing phase II and sharing it with you. i hope you are all well, warm and happy tonight. ev made bread pudding with leftover homemade amish bread. amazing indeed.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.6.11 ... a treasury . a salvaged messenger bag . our sweet besos

here's something i haven't created in a l-o-n-g time.  i curated this treasury for my eco etsy team tuesday treasury entry.  it features members of our eco friendly team.  you can view the actual treasury and access any of these items and more here:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d4ee21ba3728eef0ca0dec6/eco-blue-valentine  ... i had fun with it.  i used to make them often.  i would like to return to creating them regularly.  

in other creative news... ev has this old messenger bag he loves but it has a corporate logo he wished was not on the front.  so i covered it with one of his favorite hawaiian fabric pieces.  i wasn't sure my sewing machine could sew through the thick plastic coated fabric but it did fine.  what turned out to be the bigger challenge was maneuvering the unwieldy bag.  it was not fun at all.  but i do love the result.  on the inside i used a double layer of tyvek and yes! paste to attach the patch and cover the logo reverse.  

and last, but never least, a look at my side kick, miss besos (kisses in spanish).  she follows me around and is quite insistent that i pay attention to her and not my silly projects, including photo time.  she's 12 and i love the little demanding girl.  isn't she beautiful?

mom, pleeeaaase pick me up.

hmmm....that doesn't seem to be working.  let's see....

thinking...thinking...i know there's got to be a way to get her to drop the camera and pick up the cat.  i just know it.

yes, good old determination ... stamina.  i have all the time in the world.  she'll find me irresistible soon enough.  when you got it, you got it.  and i have it.  yes, i do.

oh sure you know it . she won.  and that's fine by me.  

sweet dreams, everyone.  thanks for stopping by.   until tomorrow.  happiness to you. from me. with heart.   ox joon

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