EVERY INCHIE MONDAY APRIL 30, 2012

Yes, it's Inchie Monday again!

This week's theme is "twig"

Twigs are a very commonplace in our garden these days. We have had some consistently high winds buffeting the trees all around us.

This, too, is a familiar, and much loved scene during our spring:

twig

Thanks so much to you who have been thinking of DOTH over the past week. She is coming along very well after shoulder surgery last Monday. She is a real trooper and is proving just how much can actually be accomplished with one hand!



EVERY INCHIE MONDAY APRIL 22, 2012

This week's Inchie topic is "make-up"

With DOTH (daughter of the house) having shoulder surgery tomorrow, and with us having to head out to the hospital at 5:15am - yes, that early!  I needed to come up with something quick but creative. It was hard enough trying to be different, but I can pretty much guarantee that no-one else's inchie will look like this - unless I have a twin somewhere! 

I'm about two years old here, experimenting with my mother's powder compact (I started early, and I've needed it ever since!) And no, I won't tell you what year it was taken!

Here's the original photo, from a blog I posted in 2008 -- from which I cropped the above. It's probably a little clearer than just one inch of me.  Can't count the number of inch(i)es it takes to be me, these days -- just way too many!

There are a good number of really creative 'make-up' inchies here. So head on over - I am sure you will enjoy them. I am wishing more of you would join us in the Inchie Challenge - it is SO much fun!



Garden Parade

In spite of our low temperatures, all of nature has been duped into thinking it is spring, and there has been quite a parade running through our garden.

We finally decided, again, to put out the bird-feeder. It remains to be seen how long it will remain unmauled by the raccoons. I'm telling you - it is amazing how smart these critters are. The very first night, we forgot, at first, to bring it in till morning, and when DOTH went out at 10:00pm to fetch it, there was Rocky, rocking away at the feeder trying to knock it from its perch. They even come out in the daylight now and the big ones can be quite intimidating - but this one took off at the sight of DOTH.

(This is a photo from last year)

First to be sighted this year, were the Northern Flicker (that's Flicker, not Flickr, for you Inchie fans!)

They come every year in spring, just for a couple of sightings, so I am grateful to have caught them:

A beautiful bird, it can be up to 16" long, and belongs to the woodpecker family.
This is the female

This is the male - you see he has a 'moustache' on his cheek - the female doesn't.
Sorry for the photo quality - the birds were across the street on my neighbour's verge, and I was shooting through the living room window.

They always come as a couple (so sweet), and one digs for insects while the other one keeps watch.
Considering their size I think they could only be afraid of a hawk. When I went out on the patio first thing this morning there was a deathly silence - not a bird song in the air, which is very unusual and only happens when there is a hawk around, so perhaps the Flickers were very wise to keep a lookout!

The squirrels are a circus act if there ever was one!

OK - I am about to tear my hair out!  From this point on, blogger changes the orientation of every photo I try to post, regardless of its original orientation. I have even changed the orientation of the original, to compensate, and instead of posting either with that orientation or the original, it turns it in the absolute opposite direction!  I think blogger is getting back at me because I have opted for the old interface. I tried the new one and couldn't find anything!

So folks, that's it for now until I figure all this out!

To be continued, I hope!

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY - APRIL 15, 2012

FIRE!

 

I wanted to be a little different in my interpretation of "fire"

and this is how I feel about hot peppers - I can't eat them!

Head on over to the Inchie Flickr group for more great illustrations of this week's theme.



Another Art Form

My sister, ChrisJ, is quite an accomplished artist, and she uses many forms and mediums of art to express her creativity. When I went to her blog just now to pick up the link to post here, so that you can enjoy her art, I was amazed!  She has posted many since the last time I was there, and I am so impressed with her latest work.  You can find her art gallery here, but don't forget to come back here and see my latest attempt!!

So besides all her paintings and drawings and ATC's (Art Trading Cards), and along with Inchies and Twinchies (tiny art created on 1" or 2" square cards, she has now discovered Celtic Knots.

She recently posted her Celtic Knot creation and gave instructions as to how to create one for ourselves. She was once a teacher (once a teacher, always a teacher!), so her directions were very easy to follow.

This is her knot (if she has already added a more recent post to her blog you will need to go back to the one posted on April 10th). You can also discover there a bit of interesting information about the origin of Celtic Knots. Remember, a true Celtic Knot seems to have no beginning or end.

This is my first attempt based on her instructions:

Then I took a photocopy of it and decided to paint it so that you can't see the guidelines I used:

I am quite pleased with my first attempts.

It's amazing to see, if you google "Celtic Knots" just how many variations there are; some of them incredibly intricate and complicated.

I challenge my fellow bloggers to try the above knot - it isn't anywhere near as complicated as it looks, especially if you follow ChrisJ's simple, step-by-step instructions.

Once we have really got the hang of these knots, there is another art form coming up - stay tuned!!

EVERY MONDAY INCHIE, APRIL 9, 2012

This week's theme is 'blue'

I thought I would try a different orientation for my inch square of blue, this week.

You can also find lots of varieties of 'blue' here

I love to look back over the last few weeks of inchies, crafted by a talented group of people using all kinds of methods and means to fit the theme -- lots of fun!

EVERY MONDAY INCHIE - APRIL 2, 2012

After a few hours of frustration over the past couple of days, I am finally excited about this week's Inchie.

My initial try became a disaster, but then I had a brainwave. I don't have those too often, and you super-artists out there will probably think I've lost a few marbles, instead!

Before I actually joined the Inchie challenge I had to practice first, to see if I would be able to accomplish anything. Like my sister, ChrisJ, I am pending cataract surgery so trying to create something on a square inch of card seemed impossible. I won't show you my very first tries, but this one was about half a dozen later and I was quite pleased with it.

I called it "Secluded" and hoped that it might fit an upcoming Inchie theme one day.

So, in the midst of losing my marbles and tearing out my hair, I was looking through all my completed Inchies and saw that this one could have possibilities.

This week's theme is "river" and, after all, there is a river in front of those houses, but it needed to be highlighted.

So I went to open it up in MS Office Picture Manager to look at it more closely, and discovered that I have a Paint option that I had never noticed before.

So, please bear in mind that this is the very first time I have ever "painted" on computer (well, in reality, it's quite obvious!).

I simply took my original drawing and painted over it. Now that I have done it once and am getting the hang of the 'textures' and the tools, I am sure I could do a better job, but I just don't have the time or the inclination to do it over again.

I am not even sure if it is 'legal' to do this in the Inchie challenge, but, take it or leave it, this is it for this week!

River