If You Hate to Throw Old Photos Away - Ideas.

I've just been sorting a box of old photos that I have had since the pre-digital age.
Among them were photos that were terrible - you know the ones - arty shots that didn't work, boring ones you took as a tourist, photos with your ex in them...but I have trouble throwing them out.
Yesterday I scrutinized them with an artists eye to see if there was anything I could salvage from them...and this is what I came up with....

A  mosaic of cut up photos on a theme

First up I cut several summer photos into squares (uneven of course, I don't do straight lines). They became a mosaic. What I noticed was that each little square became an artwork in itself. I have put them into the upcycled book that I nabbed to make into an art journal. Every so often it has a quote, and these blue half pages, which are a great feature.

Next I cut out anything redeemable in a photo - such as the next two pictures. 

A lizard we saw in Australia - now an interesting feature in my art journal

My daughter in a tinsel wig when she was little - released from a bad photo

Sometimes there is a feature that can be enhanced - like these belly dancers. Using a blade to scratch away the background highlights them and makes it arty.

Scrape away the distracting background

I drew on this really old, faded photo of the Sydney Opera House with a fine tip permanent ink pen, then cut it out. Now it's interesting.

Once I started I kept thinking of more things I wanted to do with the large pile of would-be rubbish photos. I'll take some before photos next time, I was just too engrossed to remember to do it this time.
Anyone else got good ideas to share for using up those photos? 

Plastic Free July, Books as Art

After some consideration I have decided to sign on for Plastic Free July. I was deliberating over it because I thought it might make me feel like a failure, as I know at this point we are struggling to not buy some plastic. However there are different levels that one can commit to, and although we are in between those levels, I told Katie and Derek that I have committed to it and asked them to do what they can.

Today (1st of July) I have been to the beach picking up plastic, which I will keep til the month end, then weigh it in to see how well I can offset what comes in, and what we throw away. 
If you want to join in - take a look at this site http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/

The first thing to come through the mail today (first day of plastic free) is my order of two new plastic saxophone reeds.

However, these will last up to two years each (at $45 each!!),
as opposed to the usual biodegradable reeds, which each come in a plastic holder with foil wrapper and a box, and only last a couple of months each.

Using Books In Art
I have discovered that some people really get upset with people cutting/tearing/sawing up books to create artworks. (I will no longer give my mother-in-law any of my collaged cards). I buy discarded books especially for this purpose, and well, at least they are then enjoyed again. 
I saw this on my facebook page and was interested in how many for and against comments it provoked.  
  

   

  This is a sculpture by Susanna Hesselberg called "When My Father Died It Was Like A Whole Library Had Burned Down"  go to the link here at this is collosal.com

I just love books - whatever way they come.

Pottering...tomatillos

Just getting over a bug here, so I think it is a perfect excuse to potter about. I had a go at making these paper feathers that I had seen on Pinterest, which would look quite nice as an addition to a gift wrap. It was a first attempt, so could improve on that I'd say. That is an old shoelace sandwiched between two old book pages.

I spent yesterday mending (I get all my daughter's mending to do too), and made a collage in one of my art journals, just for the fun of it. 

two things that i love...

Seeds
It's that time of the year here - seed planting time. I'm just about to start and am all excited because I found some purple tomatillo seeds. I have never tasted one of these, and they are not common here, but I have been reading about them and think they should thrive here. They should be a plant that keeps on giving if they are anything like their relatives the Cape Gooseberries (which I don't like the taste of), which grow like weeds here. They are meant to be good in salsa and in place of tomatoes in many recipes. 

purple tomatillo

I've been finding all kinds of great advice in this book that I came across in our library - Koanga Garden Guide

The Koanga Institute is a New Zealand charitable trust dedicated to saving heritage trees and seeds. Kay Baxter - the author and founder is a living treasure herself for what she has done for our world. 
I'm definitely going to order this book to keep. The Koanga Institute is also where I order a lot of my heritage seeds from.
One of the things I discovered was that I should pick out the tips of my broad beans once they were flowering, to put more energy into bean growing, and that the tips are edible in stir fries - so now I can vouch for that too.

harvesting broad bean tips for the stir fry

We are so lucky here - the broad bean flowers were abundant with bees. 

Messing About In The Sudio

My studio is a shambles - and generally I like it that way. One day I will include a photo. I haven't been getting out there enough, what with making everything from scratch, sax practice and life in general, so yesterday I just decided to get out there and muck around.
Derek had brought home this big coffee tin - which turned out to be cardboard, to see if I could upcycle it, so here is my take on that.

Packaging awaiting upcycling

The coffee tin, with some vintage wallpaper and an old shank button (shank removed)

The other bits of packaging I'm turning into (hopefully) something more interesting too.

Art Journals
I love my collection of art journals, into which anything goes; snippets I collect from anywhere, watercolours of places I visit, quotes, websites, my list of books I've read.They would be one of the first things I'd grab if the house was burning, and they live right next to my bed.
Apart from the first one, they are all upcycled books. I work on them in no particular order, just finding a space and jumping in, so they are not in chronological order. When I first start a new book I don't like how it feels - until I start adding layers and it becomes thick and well handled.
 An important part for me is the cover. I have just done the cover of my latest book, which I picked up in a junk shop. It was an album of handmade paper with an ugly cover which I paid $1 for.

Front cover -snippet says "there are no hard and fast rules"

I have painted it black and collaged it with images that reflect a bit of myself in some way, then finished it with a coat of artists varnish. Funny thing, after adding a spanner picture, today I found one on the road - in the middle of nowhere- when I was out on my bike this morning. What are the chances of that?

Found

 

Back cover -"Dance like no  every one's watching

  The back cover image is a photo I took of some belly dancers years ago. It wasn't a great photo, but by scratching out the background with a blade it brings the main element into focus. "Dance like no everyone is watching" means give the performance of your life.

Being a journal lover, I have to admit to loving glue sticks. Unfortunately they come with a little bit of glue and a lot of plastic. I have googled how to make your own glue stick, and come up with a couple of (dubious looking) recipes I might try. Then I thought - hey, we didn't have glue sticks when I was young, my Mum used to make up a bit of wallpaper paste in a pot - and we always had one around.

Recycled jar and hair colouring brush that was waiting to be reused.

 So, I still had a half used pack of wallpaper glue powder, and used approx 1 teaspoon per 100mls...and there we have it, cheaper, and only a little plastic bag that will make up 2.5 litres of glue.
Now I just have to convince Derek and Katie that it's a good swap, and that's not going to be easy, they are both glue stick devotees.

I learned a new word today - thought I would share it.

Ukulele Art, Salsa

A while back I posted a shot of my altered recipe book, that I have turned from a dated microwave book into a personalized recipe collection. At that stage I hadn't altered the cover, but now here it is...a collaged front cover.

Altered cookbook cover - collage. The little caption reads "Femineering at it's finest"

I love my altered book now - it feels so fat and handcrafted with its glued in recipes, and some other random stuff. When it's filled up I'm going to add an index which will make it easier to use.

Altered Ukulele
While I am on the subject of altered things...here is a ukulele that I decorated as a gift for Derek a while back. I picked up two preloved ukes, both the same and gave one a Kiwiana twist. The cut out images are glued on with Modpodge, then I Modpodged over them to seal. Little paua shell tabs added to the ends of the strings.

Kiwiana decorated ukulele

Salsa

No, not the dance. 
I didn't like salsa on my cornchips, but that was before I went all slow living and vowed to not buy any more premade dips etc from the supermarket.
I have just made a recipe from Annabel Langbein's "Simple Pleasures" cookbook. It is called 
                                   Pico de Gallo
2 large tomatoes cut into 1cm dice
2 Tablespoons of very finely diced spring onion or red onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp finely chopped red or green chilli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
a pinch of sugar to taste
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

Mix all ingredients except the coriander leaves in a bowl and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop.
When ready to serve, taste and adjust the seasonings. Stir in the coriander leaves and serve with chicken, meat or a bowl of tortilla chips.

Pico de Gallo (salsa) - minus the coriander because it was raining hard out.

I just love how "slow food" produces much tastier food than what we had got used to. So worth it.

Of Healthy Noodles, Seeds, n More

Six Minute Noodles
This is Wendyl Nissen's version of 2 minute noodles, which although it takes 4 minutes longer, is not full of fat or too much salt or MSG or the other additives. It tastes pretty good too.

1 cake of Highmark Egg Noodles fine cut.
These take 6 minutes to cook in the microwave per cake.

Sauce
1/2 cup of low salt soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of chilli sauce
1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil

Keep the sauce in a bottle in the fridge. Wendyl Nissen says add 2 tablespoons to cooked noodles - but I found 3 teaspoons was enough.

Growing Our Own Mulch

banana grown from seed - ready to plant out

We can't seem to get enough mulch at this time of the year without resorting to buying it - and it is essential here.
We think we have solved the problem. The ornamental banana palm that we took out after it had flowered has provided us with hundreds of new plants which we are going to make a jungle out of over the soakage field. At present that is covered in thigh high kikuyu, so we hope the bananas will crowd this out, whilst growing quickly and providing lots of vegetation to mulch.

Seeds
I've had really good success with growing seeds that I have saved. It has given me heaps to give away, mainly of parsley, basil, hanging basket flowers, coleus, pumpkins, lettuce, sunflowers, rengarenga lilies and calendular.

First sunflower out today - grown from saved seed.

I'm about to replant the asian greens that went to seed before I knew what to do with them too.
From now on I will be trying to buy only heritage seeds that I can save productive seeds from, as opposed to hybrid seeds that are sterile.

Unusual Goings On
The other day I heard voices across the valley and the sound of tools clanging and a weedeater in the bush. Having read that police are expecting cannabis growers to be busy planting now I was alert to this possibility, so was covertly checking them out with the zoom on my camera, but could see nothing. 
A little later I heard vehicles leaving so zipped out and got a photo......note the hives on the back of the truck.....not so illegal after all haha.

No wonder we have a lot of bees around here.

So Cool
We love old books here. Derek collects 'em, I use 'em for art - but not his books. So I just love this - sorry can't credit it to the artist as I found it un named.

Village of Books

Altered Books

My mother was ahead of her time. She was a Greenie before it was popular. We used to think it was just her Scots ancestry, but frugality and green lifestyles go hand in hand.
Mum had a collection of altered books, our old school exercise books were filled with art and craft clippings, hand written patterns and drawings that she used in her own crafts. They were well thumbed.
Now I have my own altered book journals that I love to bits. I store all my inspirations in them, so if I have a day when I don't have a plan, I just dip in and find something. All the websites and blogs and books I've read about and one day want to check out..my green recipes for cleaning..dreams..art ideas and much more. They would be one of the first things I would grab if the house caught on fire.

My current journal is an old diary, which had not been used, titled Women Who Dare, populated by some pretty amazing women - mostly American, and whom I had never heard of. Some of it I have painted or glues pages over as a base for my journalling, but some, like the one inserted I have left untouched. I hope you can read it - Deborah Sampson in the 1700's impersonated a man and went to war - and removed a bullet from her own leg - phew!

The Library like no other

IF YOU HAVE A GARDEN AND A LIBRARY, YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED - Cicero

I have both! And they make me feel wealthy.
My family laugh at me, calling the library in town my second home. I'm not a big fiction reader, but use the library to soak up images and ideas that keep me creative and positive.
Some of my favourites have been
 The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, in which the author leaves a legacy to his young children after he is diagnosed with a terminal illness. 
Floating Gold - the History of Ambergris by Christopher Kemp - I always wanted to know...fascinating if you are a beachcomber like me.
No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. Wow this guy is so dedicated to reducing waste - such an inspiration, even if we start to do a fraction of what they managed we would make a difference, collectively. 

I like to keep a record of what I have read - otherwise when I try to remember titles and names they have gone. So, I have dedicated some pages in my journals - which are altered books by the way - to my bookshelf. It's good to look back on occasionally and remember them.

library page - Anne's journal