spice rack

Our kitchen is very small. Our spice use is very large. We love beautiful organization. Here is the result!

We made the holder from scrap wood and the canisters were scavenged at the Axman, our local reuse store. With a little epoxy, magnets and some labels, voila! Our spice rack was up and on the cheap.

We have metal cabinets so we recessed rare earth magnets in the spice rack and glued them in place. The spice racks go up and come down with a satisfying thwak. The lids are glued into the wood but the jars twist off.

belt/sash

I bought a dress online a few months ago. The model was probably a size 0 and it looked great on her. But it looked like a mumu on me. I hardly wore it. It needed a belt.

Stores didn't have a belt that would work well. I found one eventually but it was an XL. First I'm not a size 0 and then I'm not an XL. This dress was giving me a run for my money.

So I just made one. Yes, just. I just finished. I see a few ends to tidy up, but here's my attempt at photographing it. I made a sash belt... part sash, and part belt. Asymetrical on purpose and with two purple buttons. I'm crabby because my machine was making it very difficult today to make a buttonhole; they're they ugliest buttonholes I've ever made. 

It'll do, and I like it too! I think it looks a lot better when you can see the whole dress but it's just me in the house these days, so these self shots will have to do.

found object frog

I went on a hike today at Tamarack Nature Reserve just north of the cities. At the trailhead, I found this huge frog sculpture made out of scrap plastic and metal melted and welded together. 

We live by this steam plant. I've always felt visually and sculpturally intrigued by it. It makes me really happy and playful-like. I just love the colors, and how the boxes overlap and connect. I love the twirly silver whateverit'scalled smoke stack thing. I really love the yellow platform by the blue section. It's got a pre-school sensibility. 

Today I finally photographed it.

tessellations

In ninth grade, I had an obsession with tessellations, which was probably the only moment in my educational history I can say I understood anything mathematical. I painted an entire wall in my bedroom with a giant wave tessellation pattern in aqua and royal blue. If only I'd kept a photo...

I found some amazing paper tessellation sculptures today. Here's the link to them all. Here's an image of one!

I would love to learn how to make these.

another brain image

Oh, I just love these. Everytime I find a new one I am shocked again. This is my favorite so far. It is "a supercomputer simulation of the microcircuitry found within a column from the neocortex of the rat brain."

brainstem!

This is from the same person/s who did the image in the previous post I made.
This one won 1st place in an international digital imaging competition.
It's so amazing...

neurons

Art and science combine to identify individual brain neurons.

paint

Today I painted one kitchen chair "sun" yellow and my steamer trunk "apple-a-day" red.

Laurie's been wanting one chair in the house that is yellow. Whoever feels sad can sit in the yellow chair, she says.

The steamer trunk is big and old. My mother bought it for me as a kid for a toy chest. Now it's so red, so so so red, I can hardly stand myself. I'll stock it with art supplies after we move this Friday.

24 flavors of... soft serve

I now live in the Midwest. I think I am the only one amazed by this. I hear they might have one dairy-free option.

I took this photo this morning and I just love it.

mask 5

I've just started a new wall sculpture that will take a while to complete. Some of the pieces for it turned themselves into a mask tonight.



This image is here just to show the levitation of my beak:

mask 4

Isn't this a morph?

This image was on nytmes.com and I'd been wondering how it was taken when I saw an explanation for it. So simple.

Update: About the Photograph
Many readers have commented on the stunning image by Nicole Bengiveno in this post, so we asked her to explain how she got the shot. Her answer:
I went to a kitchen supply store and found a clear plastic measuring container large enough to fit my camera. I laid down at the edge of the pool with the pre-focused camera inside the container, reaching down and firing as the camera was bobbing up and down in the water. It was a makeshift thing. It’s part of the fun for me — figuring out ways to shoot something different.

Polaroids

Laurie took these funny Polaroids with a funny old camera she found. I loved them. Does anyone else see Jesus? Or The Beatles?

rendering

This is a beef rendering facility outside of Greeley, CO. The red shape kind of freaks me out.

Best place to blow your money in NV

This is a perfect example of how many little towns in NV have one convenient place to blow your money. Under one roof you can get scantily-clad women, booze and slot machines. Lathrop Wells, NV, provided the first one after leaving Death Valley, CA.

I just loved the color and have never seen a place like this before or since that was so... pink. I love the way it contrasts with the light blue sky.

orange and green

fluttering Post-its

Jackson Pollock

You can be Jackson Pollock. Go see.

I sent this link to Laurie (how many?) years ago. I bet I scored major 'cool friend' points when I did that. *wink*

bush sniffing quickie

I love lilacs. I love them so much that for the ten days or so that they are blooming in Minnesota I stop at almost every lilac bush and sniff it.

Here's a quickie tag made with lilacs.