Sam*E as Wall*E

how adorable is my grandson?   

my son and daughter-in-law are genius.

which way to the good stuff?

sammy baer collects treats .

sweet dreams, little waste allocation load lifter earth class.  

ox

joon

1.23.11 ... exploding art collage

i was introduced to this project when i returned to college the first time. it was 1987-ish and i was working on an elementary education degree. one of my classes was about the art of teaching art from K-8 and we made these wonderful notebooks - scrapbook style - with 100 art projects inside {if you wanted an A} so we'd have it as a resource. at the time, i thought it was a crazy idea and insane amount of busy work {i did have three young boys to mother} but that scrapbook is one of my favorite things and i love looking through it for inspiration. over the years i have made excellent use of it both when i taught and for myself and my family. it brings back many fond memories and i find the old fashioned look of the lesson copies - they're all typewritten with simple hand drawn illustrations - charming.

i used two of my favorite discarded children's books to create this piece. the scene slices were in my stash. i had cut up the book in a variety of ways, mostly different sized strips. today i happened to locate a couple that matched up and that inspired me to do an exploding scene if i could find enough that went together. i spent a very long time locating them, but enjoyed myself. we listened to pandora windham hill. quite pleasant. the background piece is from another book. i love how well they compliment one another. the serendipity factor is very high. and i love that.

the background is also collaged a bit, the end slices are not in synch with the main scene on purpose and i used the sticker glue since i had it handy. i made another small batch of stickers but they weren't done drying by the time i had to run outside for my usual catch-the-twilight, freeze-and-cross-my-fingers-that-a-few-photos-will-work. i hope you enjoy today's creation. have you ever done one of these? i think you'd like it. i know i will do more throughout the year. they are always so individually unique there's no way you could tire of the process or results. let me know if you try it. i'd like to see what you do.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon

1.19.11 ... mouseheart matchbook mini note pad

i've been wanting to make one of these for a long time and i was playing around punching out hearts today and got this idea when i spied this little vintage book mouse piece while i was looking for something else. this was fun. it measures about 3 1/2 inches square-ish and is filled with 12 sheets of recycled paper scraps. i added a piece of fabric on the back bottom to tone down the staple bump. the polka dot is tissue paper.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

and here are the photos i promised you last night:

hope you enjoy today's post. sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon

1.8.11 ... miniature house

i've had this idea in my head for a couple of days and here's my first attempt at something. not sure what. i was thinking of a pin. i would attach a pinback onto the reverse side. it is made out of recycled tyvek and fabrics. it's pretty cute for a spontaneous prototype. i think i'll try a few more permutations. who knows what will happen? certainly not me. but that's an important element if things are going to be the least bit fun.

i'm in the middle of another scrabble game so that's all for this evening. i hope you enjoyed today's post. sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon

1.7.11 ... scrabble

so today we wanted to play an old fashioned game of scrabble and we located the board but could not - and trust me, we went through everything - find the score booklet that's been going for years or the tiles and racks. but i found some in my craft bucket and we inventoried them and learned which were missing and dusty made some using tongue depressors and a few tools. can you believe these? awesome! then he said we need a bag and i made this one using a pajama pant leg which cracks me up. watched three episodes of west wing in a row and now i am late. ack!  so that's it for now.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon

THiNKiNG

Surprises Always In Store For Us All

As the shortest day

of the year approaches,

I seem to be spending most

of each day endlessly thinking.

It is a reflective time of year.

Isn't it interesting how that works?

I mean how the various times and

environments affect us and bring

about innate behaviors?

This has been an exceptional

year in many ways.

Four months later,

I am still basking in the glow of

our New York City Adventure.

So.  That happened.

Scout's had a greatly succesful year.

We started volunteering at the

thrift shop. 

Made new friends.

Began attending the 

homeschool Monday group.

Made new friends.

Started dance.

Made new friends.

After almost two years

here in Austin we are

beginning to feel like it might be home.

Ironically more so since what we

believed to be our sense 

of security dissolved and,

because of that,

we are now at yet another new address.

Lucky for us, we've

got a ridiculous amount of

experience at this particular 

transitional experience.

Even though the settling in process

is slow going - as always -

and despite the unknown landscape

ahead, we seem to find the 

positive much more often than

the negatives realistically allow.

So much for reality.

Which, lately, seems more 

and more unreal.

But that's another topic entirely.

No idea where any day leads, 

but I have a flood of potential

options {or dreams} 

swirling through my head.

Forever, or so it seems,

I have been wanting to pursue too many

creative avenues to list.

I feel like some of them

are about to happen.

Scout is such an inspiration.

I have no idea how many

incredible illustrations she has

completed this year.

She started back at dance

and theater after a three year hiatus.

Applied for two summer programs and

attended the Acting Conservatory in NYC.

Began her American Sign Language Course.

Joined in the Holiday Workshop Show.

Started making dinner one night a week.

And always a thoughtful and 

creative plan researching and

making a new recipe.  

She completed her NaNoWriMo

50,000 word novel.

She did this in the same month we moved!

Now she's about one third of the way

through her next challenge -

the SketchBook Project.

These are just off the top of my head 

with only a spot of morning coffee in my system.

I feel like I have not

accomplished much at all.

But I know I have.

That blog post will

be along soon.

For now, I want to keep thinking ahead.

About which one of my dream*thinks

I will begin pursuing today.

And make it happen.

What thinks are you dreaming of fulfilling?

ox

joon

It's a Great Day in Progress

As any of you who have looked at my posts have guessed, we are huge Craig Ferguson fans. I have something to send him, which I will include in my finished post. This is the envelope. Recycled. And from England ~ that tickles my funny bone. And I think it might give Craig a chuckle, too. Since I am re-using the envelope I am decorating it with one of my collages to cover the address. OK, I would do all this anyway, even if it didn't need it. The reverse side ~ the new front ~ also has this building/NYC/America theme, but, as you see, this is still in the working stage and none of this is set in place. So no photo of that side yet. This side will have a few changes and needs a couple of additions, but for the most part I am pretty happy with it. It is so cold, dreary and just plan wintry here today. It's actually snowing here in Austin. I guess that's quite a big deal. We moved here from New England so what do we know? :) Anyway, the weather convinced Scout and me that another batch of pretzels was in order. They came out just as lovely as the first batch. She has a picture of them on her TaD post: HERE along with a link to a little video we made spontaneously yesterday afternoon using my pony (iphone). It's here on my sidebar as well. She's singing One Song Glory from RENT. I hope you are all warm and dry and enjoying your evening. Until tomorrow....

:)

Posted via email from thing-a-day 2010

Pencil Box

A few months ago, I serendipitously matched up a toothpaste box with my colored pencils and have been surprised at how darn handy and perfect it turns out to be. I carry that thing all over the house. Yesterday I decided that if it's going to follow me around for a while it needs to become joonified. Naturally I have a story to tell.... Also, yesterday we received yet another piece of mail from Massachusetts, the entity, the commonwealth. We officially moved from there August 2008. We completed the required transition tasks ~ even speaking with real live people face to face. Yet the cities and state send mail piece after mail piece for things like income tax {huge booklet}, car registration {& taxes, of course} to our TEXAS ADDRESS. Someone had to have entered those address changes into their systems. Maybe I shouldn't get so annoyed but the knowledge that trees are dying over this incompetency makes me a bit nuts. How many more of these go out every year? I have to admit I am too often a glass is half empty gal. I don't want to be, but there you have it. I save a lot of paper and, at first, I was going to break my habit and throw this envelope into the recycling bin because of the negativity it brought to my environment. Then I thought: No. Instead I will transform it into something happy and positive. So here's what I did.

I made a photo record of the process. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is the original makeshift pencil box.

Here is the envelope after I decorated it with my favorite vintage and new stamps.

I wrapped it around the box and taped it inside. By the way, notice how a business envelope is an amazingly perfect pattern match for a toothpaste box. :) Here is the bottom.

Then I took sticker paper and measured pieces to fit the inside bottom and inside and out ends and put those pencils to work a bit. Put those in place and viola! Originally I planned to cover this with clear tape but I like it better this way. I can doodle on it.

Hope you all are warm, healthy and happy this evening.

It's a great day for America, everybody. Yes it is.

Posted via email from thing-a-day 2010