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? 

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. 

Of washing, possums and packaging

Gotta love the rain when it has totally refilled our tank after a long dry summer. We thought we might have to buy in a tanker of water.. but employing some measures meant it just held on. Next summer we will start at the beginning of the season with the baby bath in the shower to catch all the water, which then goes on the lawns and flower gardens, instead of leaving it until it becomes an issue.
Lucky there's plenty of water as daughter has sent home her duvet and mink blanket to wash, as she doesn't have the facilities. This time I'm wise, and instead of leaning over the bath to do it, I got right in - in grape pressing style.

Look what's guarding our fruit trees, and I don't mean the wee gnome

We have had such problems here with possums eating the tops out of our young fruit trees, so when a friend told us that apparently calendular planted around the foot of the tree deters them we were ready to give anything a try.
Seems to have worked so far, keeping fingers crossed. 

Seemed like a good day to make a huge pot of bacon hock soup today. When I started to open up the bacon hock I found that firstly it was vacuum packed, but after that the supermarket had put it on a styrofoam tray and plastic wrapped it - why?? The first packaging was sealed and perfectly acceptable. Looks like another email to the supermarket. They probably see me coming and groan, but I feel the need to remind them that we really don't want that - and I'm sure I don't just speak for myself.

Big pot of soup just waiting to happen.

Today I had a good journaling idea. I had picked up a bereavement thanks card, with the photo and dates of birth and death. You know the ones - you just don't feel you want to throw them out, but where do you put them? I am dedicating a journal page to those family members, with the cut out photos and dates.

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!