soozphotoz

Snow Squart

snow squart dreams
of a white Christmas
(and snowdays!)

*****

I know I got a little carried away with the twinkle brushes...but it was fun :-)

Sea Squart

Ian of Living with mr. fleas has been posting squarts. So I decided to make one myself. Check out his blog for the rules, his squarts (my favorite), and inspiration. Squartku:

seaside stroll
toes shovel wet sand
ouch! a shell!

the burning feather

Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope. ~Edith Wharton

I haven't posted a quote for some time and feather quotes aren't easy to come by....but this one I liked. My other option was the dialog from the movie Bandits. The feather in the photo above was not burning..at least, not yet. I did manage to catch it on fire and the first thing I thought of was the movie Bandits...the second thing was how awful burning feathers smell!

I ate dinner at my desk for no particular reason and as I stared at the bookshelf, I thought I'd break my boredom by taking a few experimental shots.

autumn 05 revisited

Thanks to SB Poet's Blue Poetry Thursday post, I discovered the Flickr mosaic tool. I was inspired by Endment to take a look at last year's Autumn photos and used them in my first mosaic. These are super easy to create...you can find the site HERE.

As a completely unrelated side note: This morning's traffic on the Capital Beltway was delayed, which in itself is not unusual. However, it took me 3 and a half hours (instead of the normal 45-50 minutes) to get to my destination this morning. By the time that I arrived at my meeting, my car tank was empty, but my own was quite full. I had heard repeatedly on the radio that the eight lane beltway was closed in both directions but I was frankly too impatient to continue listening, so I opted to listen to relaxing stress-reducing CDs instead.

It wasn't until this evening that I read about the cause of the "delay." Police had received a call that a vehicle was parked on the southbound loop and appeared to have two sleeping people inside. As the police tried to get their attention, the people continued to feign being asleep. Becoming suspicious, people checked out the liscence plates and found the car to be stolen....a new twist on the The Sleepover Bandits. The standoff lasted for well over an hour and a half and was finally resolved when "a team of troopers and police dogs approached the sedan, wrestled the two people out of the car and dragged them across several lanes of asphalt, cuffing their hands behind their backs." (Washington Post) I've heard rumors that the car was inoperable because it had run out of gas.

At first I was quick to harshly judge these two inconsiderate, intelligence-challenged thieves. Then halfway through the meeting I attended yesterday, I struggled to keep my eyes open...I think now that perhaps they weren't feigning sleep after all. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation so intolerable that the only sensible reaction is to just shut down. Granted, they inconvienced hundreads of innocent commuters but I wonder how many of my fellow beltway hostages, like me, weren't just a little grateful for the valid excuse to just sit, relax and listen to music. I'll take my mini-vacations almost any way I can get them ;-)

Wardrobe Refashion

      

I've never believed in banning books. Not until recently that is....on Saturday I purchased Generation T - 108 ways to transform a T-shirt. Since browsing through the book Saturday evening, I have not been safe with a pair of scissors in my hands...neither have any Ts in the house. And so far, the 3 Ts that I re-designed, Edward Scissorhands style, never even came within 50 feet of a sewing machine or needle! I simply sliced, slit, and tied (little pieces of torn fabric scraps)...now I am certainly NOT saying that these recycled Ts look like anything that I would pay for but I've been having loads of fun. In fact, I am taking the first step and admitting that I may have a problem...

This morning I really did not want to iron anything. So I rummaged through my closet and found a pair of pants actually on a hanger...true, they looked as though they belonged in my son's closet when he was in high school (black chino type, wide wide legs which I turn up 10x, kinda wrinkly). They would have to do...now for a top. Ah ha! A black T that I wore maybe once because it came almost to my knees. Not anymore...

The time I spent cutting off the bands along the neckline, sleeves, and too-long bottom was probably twice as long as it would have taken me to iron...but that wasn't the point. I was creating! After the T trim, I poked holes through each shoulder and tied little bows with yellow and white stripes torn fabric scraps. They matched the design on the back, sort of.  I justified my Eliott Bay Bookstore T-shirt because it just might promote reading....or encourage kids to find new words for "ugly."

When I stopped for coffee, the possibility that this was perhaps not such a good idea starting creeping in. It was one thing to sneak into school in a pair of jeans...it was quite another to sneak in wearing a hacked up T shirt that would not have even made it for callbacks to the chorus of Flashdance. I drove the 1.5 miles back home, pulled off the T shirt, and changed the ribbons to black and white little ties. Much better. Off I went to school.

It's one thing to post a mediocre poem or fuzzy photo. It's quite another to wear a creative failure. People Kids might stare, or worse, snicker. But they didn't. No one did. No one referred to the shirt at all. Whew...I blended. And trust me, that's not easy for an adult in a middle school. I think I may have written this once already but... In my first year of teaching, I wore greenish eye shadow. A few of my eighth grade boys were so adamant about how awful it looked that I refuse to even try on any shade of green eyeshadow...ever.

Then this evening I was looking at a few blogs and Caroline has written about a project called Wardrobe Refashion - a project that involves recycling/redesigning what you already own and pledging to not buy any new clothing for a specific number of months. I am considering signing up the the 2 month plan but only because of the Undies Clause and I need a new bathing suit and think bathing suits fall under the same category.

This whole recycling concept has made me think more seriously about how my choices effect the environment. (Act locally, think globally.)   In Grist Plenty magazine, there was an article about wedding dresses made from old parachutes. The gown was very nicely designed in a non-Vera-Wang way. That may be asking too much of most brides but now that I think of it...my own wedding dress is just a few feet away...and the scissors are right within my grasp.............

Post Script: Today (the day after sporting my haute couture T) I am wearing a St. John knit suit (which I did buy "resale"!), Ferragamo pumps, and pearl studs...and  still did not iron. Did someone say "atonement?"

Studio Friday - Playtime!

The topic for this week's Studio Friday was Doodle...Playtime!

Meet my Meeting Doodle. When I am in a meeting that requires less than 100% of my attention (ie...ALL meetings) I often doodle (longing to be able to really draw.)  Most often I trace one hand and fill it in with shapes, text, or both.  But because I would be a little conspicuous pulling out my colored pencils, I am usually confined to B&W. This was so much fun that maybe in the future, if I know a meeting will be particularly torturous (ie...lengthy), I may be tempted to carry along just a small monochromatic collection.

PS -First I get the title wrong, then I realize that I didn't read the directions for this week's Studio Friday...I was supposed to create something with my mouth and although the left hand may look as though I did that, I did not. I am not a cheater, I am just a negligent reader (especially for a reading specialist/teacher...I will do better next time, really).

photo transfers

Yippeeee...I always wanted to try photo transfers but just wasn't sure how to do it. Jenny convinced me it was easy and with her excellent directions, I finally get it! I experimented all afternoon yesterday with different photo papers and materials to transfer on to.I now must decide how I'm going to use these things in a mixed media format but even if I don't use them all, the process was crazy! Thanks, Jenny :-)

Now I am heading North to take photos....more later....................

Posterized Paint

All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites. ~Marc Chagall

button button

Just another experiment with PS brushes.

Playground Fun

At lunchtime I took a brief walk with my "old" digital to the nearby park today. The playground equipment seemed so deserted and unwelcoming...then I saw the WARNING signs... shot them...and later, I played with them a litlte...well, a lot I guess.