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Friday, August 29, 2008

A Beautiful Slip of the Camera.

Sometimes I work so hard to take the "best possible" photos ... that I neglect to see the beauty in my photographic "mistakes". This became clear to me when I was searching out a photo for today's blog post. I simply wanted to announce the winner of the "Name This Photo Giveaway" ... and to find a photo that would somehow connect to the giveaway photo:

I must have deleted a hundred "ho-hum" photos from my hard drive in the process of searching out a photo that would fit today's intended agenda. Then I saw this one:

And it spoke to me in a new way. I was just about to delete it when I noticed that it held some unexpected and unintended beauty. This photo was a total accident ... it was a slip of the camera ... and with a few Photoshop fixes ... I have come to love it. So, I will try to remember that beautiful, captivating images cannot always be captured by strict adherence to method and process ... sometimes they just happen ... and they are all the more beautiful because of it. (That goes for SO much else in our lives, doesn't it?).

Anyhow, I am not certain how that thought ties into the announcement of the winning title for the giveaway contest ... but without further ado ... here is the moment that some of you have been waiting for ... the winning title of the toy boat photo is ... "Ti Bato Yo" submitted by Chapter Two Manmi . The title is in Creole and translates to "Little Boats" (it is pronounced "Tsee BAH-toe Yoh."). I just love it.

So, Thank You K! And I look forward to sending you a reward for your submission.

All the title offerings were great ... and I hope to do this again. You guys are so much fun :) Thank you for participating.

Enjoy your weekend ... with all its beautiful "mistakes" ... Talk to ya on Monday.

Love,
Jodi

P.S. My husband just told me that he finds the bubble photo "creepy" and "a little spooky". Hmm. Everyone's a critic!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Indoor Pond.

When I began this "unschooling" adventure with my son ... which essentially began the moment he came home to me ... (see You Are Your Child's First Teacher) ... I thought of all sorts of ways that we could keep wonder, creativity and opportunities for self-learning within our home. We keep lots of musical instruments, books, blocks, puzzles, rocks, seashells, crayons, and oh so much more ... scattered in baskets throughout our home. But something was missing ... we needed a habitat ... something where we could house living things ... and watch them for a little while before setting them free and replacing them with another local pond find. So, we searched yard sales and found this $1 aquarium. Auntie found some aquarium goodies at another yard sale for $1. Voila! ... throw in some pond water and plants, a few pond snails and we created an instant indoor pond for viewing the occassional frog, turtle, or fish that we capture from our "outdoor" pond.

You might wonder how my three-year-old is able to part with these creatures after we watch them for a while ... Well, at this age it is fairly simple ... you just tell them that the frog/fish/mermaid really misses their Mommy and Daddy and so we have to put them back where their parents can find them. Isaac totally gets that, and would never want to keep a creature from its Mommy.

Anyway, friends of ours have started their own "unschooling observatory river tanks" as well. Their tanks were also yard sale finds ... and are currently housing several river fish.

This is such an inexpensive and fun learning experience. No filters or other tank gadgets. Just a tank, some river/pond water and fauna & a bubbling do-dad thingy (for circulating the water). You can feed your fish with commercial fish flakes (as my friends do) or you can just keep replenishing the water and animals so that feeding isn't necessary (what we do).

Let us know if you give this a try.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Jodi

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Fun With a Frog : A Story Told in Pictures:






Love,
Jodi

P.S. Any last minute submissions to my photo giveaway? I will be posting a winner on Friday. Thank you.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Halloween? Already?

Well, sort of. I am trying to stay ahead of the holidays a bit regarding my offerings on Etsy. I have sewn up some Halloween garlands ... looking forward to our favorite holiday ... and have already posted them in my shop.

Here are a few - with more to come:


Oh yes, and I couldn't resist another Pirate banner:

I have some upcoming Thanksgiving, Space Shuttle, and Alien themed banners, too. And if you'd like something made especially for you, please let me know :)

Love,

Jodi

Monday, August 25, 2008

American Folk Festival.


The three of us attended the American Folk Festival this Sunday, despite the fact that both Daddy and Isaac were very grumpy (thus making Momma equally grumpy by end of day). We did manage to squeeze in some fun in between though ... and even enjoyed some unexpected Haitian music.

Grumpiness aside ... we are ever so thankful that these sorts of events take place here in Bangor. To see some of my photos from the day, please click here.
Love,
Jodi

Shiny gold squares....

Here is another similar design that I made together with the brown and blue square cards....I wanted to point out in this post that all the cards can be used either horizontally or vertically since there are no wordings made inside it.....so you are free to choose which angle you like as the design I made looks good vertically or horizontally :). One card I decorated with buttons on it and the other I replaced it with decorations of smaller squares of yellow paper.....both have small orange flowers decorated on the beige squares.....I love the colour contrast of the beige and orange paper...really pops out. :) Both comes with a handmade beige envelope.

MBL073


MBL073b

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Exploring Maine : Day 5 : Corinna Squirrel

This post is such a cheat! And a couple days late to boot. We spent the last day of our vacation cleaning out the old homestead. Nothing very exciting about that. But I do have a story to tell. See this sweet little squirrel ...

... well he has full reign over the old chicken coop now that it is uninhabited. He has even taken over the birdhouses. Seriously. Isaac and I watched as he exited the chicken coop, climbed onto the roof of the garage and performed Spiderman-like acrobatics in order to climb up into this old abandoned birdhouse without touching the ground or falling. I then had the pleasure of taking several photos of him as he just sunbathed from the birdhouse entryway.


But then, I got this bright idea to get closer to him and offer him some food from my hands. He sniffed it a bit ... and within seconds bounded out of the birdhouse and lept straight at me ... a brief attack ... then he ran off into the bushes. I screamed so loud that Halis came running from within the house. Isaac was standing there as it happened ... and after my initial shock, he and I got a big laugh out of it. Silly squirrel thinks he owns the place now.

No harm done. No tetanus shots needed. Just some surface scratches and a funny tale to tell.

Love,
Jodi

Blue squares....

Blue squares! hehehe! Finally I could make them now....I have wanted to use those blue squares for quite sometime now but couldn't get the right blue tone card stock that I needed....but now I can! :D Below, there are 2 designs I did with similar layouts, one with buttons decorated on it and the other I decorated with a bunch of paper punch out patterns of leaves. I love them both! :) Both are of sized A6 and both have no wordings on the inside.....it can be a card for any occasion and you can write on your personal wishes inside. Both comes with a soft blue handmade envelope.


MBL072

MBL072b

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Some more brown squares....

I got here a card design that looks similar to the card design I made recently. That was a design made on a bigger sized card unlike this new one I did that is on a A6 sized card. Since many have requested that I make the button designed cards on a smaller card size, so I decided to make some this way............I designed it a bit differently by pasting a couple of small sized ribbons lined up with the straight line paper strips on each sides. The card is left blank on the inside for writing on personal wishes and it comes with a beige handmade envelope. But you can request for wordings to be printed out and pasted on the inside of the card too....no problem at all :).


MBL071

Friday, August 22, 2008

Baby's Crib....

A sweet baby crib for a sweet baby girl! :) This is my first attempt to make a paper baby crib....I used a shiny silver paper with light texture for it. I poked the paper to create a thread line pattern on the crib using a sharp needle. Wish I had a better tool to do that....well, I will think of something hehehe..... I didn't put any wordings on the front or the inside of the card.....it can be anything you like...can be custom made for you! The card has a soft pink paper insert on the inside of the card for writing on personal wishes to the proud parents and the card also comes with a soft pink handmade envelope.

NB002


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Exploring Maine : Day 4 : Home

Is it cheating if I say that we stayed home for today's vacation day so that we could "explore" our yard? Well, to clarify, we didn't actually "explore" ... rather, we "rearranged". More to the point ... Halis rearranged by using my Dad's new toy to move some earth and trees in our backyard.

We now have fewer trees in an area that we are planning to use for either gardening or goat keeping. We are unsure which yet. All we know is that we had to down some trees either way as there were some critters who liked to hide in that little grove of trees --- and my Mom was too afraid that the bears and coyotes might hide in there while Isaac was playing nearby. I think she was being a tad paranoid ... but she is the Queen around here, and I am merely the Princess.

But being a Princess has its privileges, and I was able to talk her into letting me keep a few tall birch trees for shade ... ya know, to put a bench or something underneath. Or to shade the possible spring goats. She agreed.


So, basically, we explored the possibilities of our yard today. I took a few photographs of wildflowers while Isaac chased the chickens around. The weather was great. And sometimes home is the best vacation destination.

Enjoy your day...
Love,
Jodi

Marine theme....

I couldn't be happier today....feelin' groovy :). This is because I finally managed to figure out how to design this marine themed birthday card for my dear customer. This card is indeed very very special....made for a very very special person too. This card design was really very challenging for me to do, especially since I started out as a card maker who only likes to make cards with flower motifs hehehe! If you look closely at the design here....most of the subjects (the anchor, compass, sea shells, starfish, sail boat and that red and white float, not sure what it is actually called hehehe) that I decorated on the card are exclusively made by hand.....all of them I had to hand drawn, hand cut and even did a little crochet work! The crochet chain is for the anchor....I needed some string for it that looks like chains, so I figured that it would be a good idea. Except for the buttons of course! I bought those and just pasted them on the card accordingly heheehe! I really love the idea of putting motifs in frames....so that I can simply place all the motifs I want and not have to worry about how to arrange them altogether on one page. Plus I love squares! :D This card comes with a soft blue handmade envelope and a soft blue paper insert on the inside of the card for writing on personal wishes. I really hope the person receiving this card would love this card as much as I do..... :)

HB022

Dolphin!

I am really excited to post this cute card today.....it's an order I got from my customer....she loved the owl design I made much earlier and wanted a similar design with a dolphin or a whale in the frame....so I decided a dolphin would be cute! :) The dolphin was drawn on a thick gray paper from a dolphin template I made myself and hand cut using a craft knife. I love the plastic wobbly eye! It moves when you shake it hehehe! It's so cute! I also decorated around the frame with paper shells and fishes that I hand drawn and hand cut myself. The card comes with a beige handmade envelope....and has a blue paper insert inside it for writing on personal wishes. This is a special card for a very special person. I hope that special person is thrilled to receive it! :)


HB021

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Exploring Maine : Day 3 : Bog Walk and City Forest

Perhaps I should have called this series "Exploring the Bangor Area", because it seems that we have no intention of going anywhere else this vacation week. When I chose to move to Maine, I did specifically want to move to Bangor. It's just taken me 11 years to do so ( I have lived about an hour outside of Bangor for the past 11 years). Now that we are finally here for good - we have whole new eyes for the place. I think because it took us so long to get here, we are just now able to fully appreciate all the area has to offer.
Daddy suggested a walk through the City Forest as well as a trip around the Bog Boardwalk. Our new house actually sits on some of the acreage that is attached to the bog, so essentially, Daddy suggested that we check out our own backyard - literally. I had other ideas in mind, but Halis is very into the "exploring" thing lately ... I am very into my new camera ... and Isaac is very into looking for trolls and fairies ... so its all good.
I had no idea what a "bog walk" was ... but apparently it is a wooden boardwalk that takes you through (above really) a lush, thriving, bog-ish body of water ... full of incredible foliage, berries, and wildlife. I really need to learn more about this natural habitat so that I can adequately explain the wonder of it to my unschooled son ... and not call it a "bog-ish body of water"... especially since we live directly in front of it. That will come later ...

Anyway, during this walk, I couldn't help but to think of a local television news piece regarding the recent increased sightings of black bears in the City Forest/Bog. The news anchor expressed concern about the increased sightings, stating that several patrons of the park were frightened by the animals. This tickles me greatly ... first because black bears are relatively harmless and second because the reason those bears are making appearances in the area is because my parents feed them (remember that I live on my parents land). My parents are very much against bear baiting (when hunters feed bears in the same area for long enough to make the bears comfortable and then shoot them when bear season opens) ... so they do a little "bear baiting" of their own ... and bait them into a safe zone. I love it.

We didn't see any bears though. But we did find some very cool streams for throwing rocks into. And several benches for resting a while to tell some tall tales about the fairies, trolls and other magical creatures that dwell in our city forest.

Another great day in our favorite little city... the home of The Senior League World Series ... the American Folk Festival ... Stephen King ... and the best sub shop in the United States ... among many other things.

Are you enjoying the wonders of your little space in the universe? We hope so ... and we'd like to here about it.

Love,

Jodi

Enjoying Maine : Day 2 : Cascade Park Trails

I thought I knew Bangor well enough. I was wrong. There are so many spaces here that I have not yet explored. Isaac and I have been to Cascade Park before, but we never knew that there were walking/running/biking trails that surround the park. We thought the waterfalls were the main attraction. It turns out there is so much more to the park then we first noticed.

See, when we bring Daddy with us - to the places that we have previously enjoyed - he will find new and exciting ways to better enjoy the place because Daddy is an explorer. I think it comes with his testosterone.

My favorite part of the trails were the spaces that felt very remote ... the wooded spaces ...

the spaces were one might imagine fairies resting under mushrooms come nightfall.

But mostly I love enjoying the three of us together - exploring new territory - right in our own "backyard". Vacations don't necessarily require plane flights or camping gear. Sometimes they can be thoroughly enjoyed right from home.

Hoping you enjoy your home ...

Love,

Jodi

Monday, August 18, 2008

Enjoying Maine : Day 1 : Fishing

I chose Maine ... and Halis followed ... then my parents. I just love it here. Sometimes I think I might prefer the Northwest ... but New England seems to have a permanent grip on me. And I never tire of exploring it. There is just so much to see, do and enjoy here ... most of which involves nature and simplicity (my faves).

Halis took vacation this week, so we fully intend to do some more exploring ... and Day 1 started with fishing in Pushaw Lake. No fish were caught, but we enjoyed the sweet summer breezes, the boating and the company.

And Daddy even performed some "popcorn-in-the-mouth" tricks for us ...

... sometimes with mixed results :)
Good times.
Love,
Jodi