Chasing a toad

While doing yardwork this afternoon, I apparently annoyed a toad, so then I chased him for a little while.

Disclaimer: please bear with the commercial above, how can I resist possibly making some change off a toad movie...


I'm attempting to eradicate the crabgrass and grow new "turf." We'll see. I made a makeshift aerator to assist in this task:





It's made out of a messed up garden tool, a board, drilled in bolts and stuff.





Sorry to realize just now I forgot to move this little green guy before aerating. Maybe he escaped?

Meanwhile, flowers are doing bloomingly:


Poppy


Lily of the Valley


Strawberry flowers

Where Are You, #733?

The other week I watched the 1000 Journals movie (now available on Netflix). I remember when I heard the book had come out and the film existed, but then I totally forgot about it.

I got involved with 1000journals, back in the old days when I was joining all sorts of random and to-be-stalled projects on nervousness.org. Those were the days when I was first getting an inkling how the internet could lead you in all these directions, and possibly even result in inspiration to do and make things in "real life."

I like seeing how one idea, site, fad... ends up morphing into so many other things. Now there's the 1001 Journals Project, which is apparently an offshoot made of personal journals of a possibly infinite number, going out in much the same way the 1000 Journals did.

* * *

So, part of a big question of the film was: what has happened to all of the 1000 journals besides the ones that someguy has received back or tracked down?

And I, in particular, wonder Where are You, #733?

Here's #733



For some reason I was on a mermaid kick at the time.

Journal #733 was one that I received in 2002, after it first traveled to Texas and I think France. I'm feeling some nostalgia and weirdness thinking back to those days. I had the book and some friends added some great one-of-a-kind stuff to it and then I think I got antsy and pestery for a bit, and then I sent it on.

Last seen in Hollywood, and the last tracking entry states "it was stolen in the spirit of..."

* * *

And... NEW, in Patches-approved linkage:
Babushka Jewellery Design recently posted a cute Kitsy kitsy post on cat related items, and included us.

Patches sends her love

full size here

Patches Shows Her Skills

Slightly bigger version here.

Patches shared her flip book expertise with the readers of the etsy storque in this article.

gnarly Carrots, plus the return of Charlie and Cubby

I think I discovered the reason not to plant carrots too close to each other.



And I think this is a rare instance where the term "gnarly" is entirely appropriate.



Sadly parted.


The greens mix together well without any developmental issues.
This mass may include any of the following: fennel, arugula, spinach, mustard, lettuces, carrot tops, swiss chard, oregano, basil, rosemary.


And I'm finally reunited with my favorite Russian stop motion characters: Charlie and Cubby. I have a videotape of their adventures that I stumbled upon some years ago before the dawn of the internet. The rest of their adventures have always been a mystery, but thanks to YouTube maybe I can catch up on some of their doings.


Russian:







Surprise! Japanese dub:

Strawberry Kids

Quite a while ago, I posted a photo of Strawberry Boy under the title Naked Strawberry, because he had no clothes.

Now he has clothes, and his friend Strawberry Girl is out and about as well. Maybe there will be more Strawberry Kids, but only time will tell. These two are now residing in the Toys and Doodads section of my shop.

I attempted to make a stop motion with these two, and I think it would have been pretty cute, but unfortunately it came out all pixelated and funky. The weird thing is - one single frame was clear, and I have no idea why. Nevertheless, I put in on YouTube. I think I'm just going to have to do the digital movie thing as a trial and error work in progress. Once I figure out what I'm doing maybe I'll do remakes or an epic or something.

flip books & clean fingernails

I attempted to make another movie with my camera but I ended up having to reshoot a few times due to lighting, technical bloopers and my previously dirty fingernails.  It's certainly a step up from my last (needle felting) episode, but there's much improvement to be had.  I need a voice disguiser thingy so I can do dialogue in upcoming movies.  Or not.  The whole audio portion of anything is a challenge to be sure.

So, now I have 6 flip books in my shop, to sell individually and also in sets, and I'd like to make more and more.

I'm wondering who invented needle felting

So,
I'm wondering who invented needle felting. Because it's a very strange craft. It's tiring, not to mention semi dangerous and the product is often rotund. For those uninitiated in the process, you basically take some loose (wool) fiber and stick it a million times with a long sharp needle that has holes in it. The fibers jam together and you can make a shape after stabbing it many more millions of times. I made some sort of felted plant-life out of the green wool roving m. gave me. (Thanks, m.) It's another piece to stick some how onto that violin.

Today I tried two new things: besides the felting, I tried the much heralded flip animation function on my digital camera. I made a little movie. There's no sound though. This is a test run for what might be an on going series starring none other than this little fellow below. In this movie "pilfered needle felting," our hero has come across this small felted item (mentioned above) and has decided to take it home. Excuse the low production quality. I plan to kick it up a notch next time.






image hosting by flickr

from the past

Last night I watched Portrait of Jennie.

Next time I'm unable to work on projects, have writer's block, or something of that nature, I hope that a strange person from the past will come be my muse and inspiration.

It's odd that I saw that movie, because just previously I had watched part of Somewhere in Time which for some reason I can't stop watching even though I've seen it a million times and we joke about the agonizingly slow scenes of Christopher Reeves staring into space. As far as time travel goes, I think the self hypnosis sort of technique used in Somewhere in Time is intriguing because you'd actually be able to do it without having a lot of scientific gadgets, flux capacitors or mail order catalogs. Well, if it worked, that is.