Day 155: owl

I saw this idea through Pinterest, and given my ever-growing collection of toilet paper rolls, as well as my love for owls, I had to make one.

I had hoped to be back on track with 365-day countdown by the end of January, but, alas, I have not gotten that far. Having started on August 13, today should be Day 172, so I still have some catching up to do.

My goal for February: do a letter of the alphabet each day. Since there are 29 days in February this year (Leap Year!), and only 26 letters in the English alphabet, I'll do a letter each day except for Groundhog Day, Lincoln's Birthday, and Leap Day. There aren't any other major holidays in February, right? Nope, I don't think so! Hopefully I can do an additional project on some days also, and work toward getting caught up. That's my goal, anyway - we'll see if it actually happens!

153 - 154: dirt and a flying pig

"Play in the dirt. Go outside and create something in or with the first patch of dirt you can find."

sage leaves and a tuft of thyme in my now-mostly-dead herb garden.

"Make something impossible. Can you trick the eyes into believing they're seeing something that they're not?"

a flying pig?! that's impossible!

Day 151 - 152: linocuts

I did some linocuts today.

leaf.

sprout.

Day 147 - 150: eggshell, egg, photo

"Work with or be inspired by an eggshell."

flower (or star?) made from eggshell pieces.

i planted tiny seeds in an eggshell half.

That idea led to more egg-related inspiration:

fried egg.

"have an eggceptional day."

And...some photography:

sunbeam.

Day 146 - travel poster

"Make a passport, travel poster, monetary unit, or other item for a fictional country or another planet."

I made this terrible, terrible flyer to advertise for Pluto. "Pluto - no longer a planet, but still a DESTINATION!" Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to save the Word doc as a JPEG, so I had to take a photo of it on the computer screen with my phone. Let's hear it for the "word art" function on MS Word to make things ultra tacky looking. Maybe I should print some of these and put them up in shops around town.

Day 145 - word from objects

"Make a word out of objects in your environment or with letters found in natural formations outside."

Day 141 - 144: fruit, instrument, makeup, chickpeas!

Day 141
on a similar theme from yesterday, with a flower made from fruit:

banana flower

Day 142: (from the book), "Make a working musical instrument. It doesn't have to look, sound, or work like any existing musical instruments!"

this makes a pretty cool percussion instrument.

Day 143: "Use makeup - yours, borrowed, everyday or costume."

Day 144:
I made this for dinner. It's called "chickpea-of-the-sea salad". Like tuna salad, but made from chickpeas instead! I adapted this recipe, which i found through Pinterest. I had it on a sandwich, and it was quite tasty!

chickpea of the sea.

Here is how I made it:

1 can of chickpeas - drain, rinse, and mash with potato masher (or fork)
1/4 cup miracle whip (there was no mayo in the fridge!)
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
about 1/2 of a sheet of nori seaweed
a handful of parsley flakes
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 green onion, sliced
a couple shakes of cayenne pepper
stir it all together, spread it on a slice of bread, and enjoy!

Day 140 - orange peel

pinwheel?

Day 138 - 139

Day 138:

marshmallow flower.

Day 139:

dogwood flower made from wire.

Day 135 - 137: mug, canister, fabric softener

Day 135:
I've had this mug sitting around for quite a while. It's just blank, except for an image of a key and the word, "discover." So, I decided to write a quote on the other side, which was naked.

man cannot discover new oceans...

...unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. (andre gide)

Day 136:
I transformed an empty tea canister.

before.

after.

Day 137:
I made fabric softener, and a label for the bottle. This way I won't have to look up the recipe every time I need to make a refill.

Day 133 - 134: soup and page-keeper

Day 133:
Here is a felt page-keeper. I snagged the idea from here, via Pinterest.

page-keeper.

Day134:

17-bean (and veggie) soup.

Day 129 - 132: fingerprints, toilet paper tubes, clay bird, and felt

Day 129: "Use fingerprints/thumbprints to create an image or portrait."

fingerprint flower.

Day 130: "Work only with toilet paper tubes and/or paper towel tubes today."

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and have had it in the back of my mind. So, I made it today. Maybe I will spray-paint it sometime and hang it on a wall.

Day 131: "Use the world of birds as your inspiration."

Here is another one that I saw on Pinterest one time and really liked. The tutorial is from here.

little bird, made from clay.

when it dries it will be an ornament of some kind.

Day 132: Just something I saw and liked. I followed the pattern found here.

blue felt flower.

Day 128 - blackbird

This was another idea I had for yesterday's theme for a project based on a song.

blackbird singing in the dead of night.

Inspired by the Beatles song, "Blackbird."

There is so much lovely symbolism in this song.

"Take these broken wings and learn to fly

all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise...

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

you were only waiting for this moment to be free."

Day 127 - love is revolutionary

From the book: "Pick a piece of music you love (or hate) and use it as the inspiration for today's piece."

I could have had a million ideas for this one. Music speaks to me in a significant way. I already did a project using song lyrics, back on Day 82. Today, I had a couple of pretty concrete ideas.

Here is what I came up with:

love is revolutionary. made from cardboard, black sharpie, and red fine-tip sharpie.

The song I was thinking of is actually the Muse song, "Resistance." I haven't listened to that album in a while, and for some reason, I was thinking it used the word "revolution". Oh well.  I do like that song a lot. I like the imagery in it which reminds me of the characters from George Orwell's 1984.

This project was also inspired in part by this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

Real, neighborly love is revolutionary. Approaching a fellow human being, whether a stranger, a family member, a close friend, or even an enemy, from a place of love, is so much more difficult than responding in self-defence, which can manifest itself as anger, manipulation, back-stabbing, verbal or physical violence, etc. But, love is the better way. The way that breaks down walls of hostility. The way that can lead to restoration. This is something that I think I will be working toward for my whole life. I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Some things that have helped to shape my thinking in this way:

the Catholic Worker movement

C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves

a sermon series on "faith, hope, and love" at Jacob's Well Church during the autumn of 2011

learning about Ghandi's philosophy of nonviolence

some writings of Aung San Suu Kyi

the life and teachings of Jesus

I had another idea for today's project as well, but wasn't able to finish it tonight. I'll save that one for another day.

Day 125 and 126 - wire and winter scene

Word from wire:

grow.

And, one from the book: "Make something in a box."

winter wonderland.

Day 124 - leaves on wood

From the book: "Make something out of wood."

grow.

A piece of wood that I salvaged from my office; ribbon; fabric. 

Leaves.

Day 123 - needle-felting

I made a little needle-felted robin...

he's just a little guy!

Day 122 - postcard

For Day 114, I was supposed to alter a postcard. I didn't really do that, since I was working with a ridiculous vintage postcard (follow this link and scroll down). However, I got a postcard in the mail yesterday, which sparked some inspiration.

i got this postcard in the mail.

i made it look like this.