One More Bite?!!?

            Really? You want me to eat one more bite.???.Can't you see I'm nearly comatose?
                                             Just leave me alone and let me sleep!!!!


Seriously folks - hope you had just enough of everything for the Thanksgiving holiday - love, appreciation, sumptuous food, rest...and a peaceful Monday.  Peggy

Serious business.

Just so y'all don't think I sit around doing nothin' but writing up these blog posts, I felt it my obligation to show you that sometimes I do serious work, too. This photo was taken by skinfood Founder & CEO, Peggy Rowe, at our most recent board meeting in Hilton Head Island, SC ...

Pictured clockwise around table: Carlita, the red-eyed tree frog and representative for Skinfood Works, Inc., Carol S. Martinez, Creative Director, and Captain Jack Sparrow, Ocicat and user of the original skinfood.

One person's trash is another person's art - literally.

I'm an artist, so I spend time surfin' the 'net, looking at work by other artists. I love it. I love looking at what others have created from paint, canvas, glue, paper, metal, clay, cloth, whatever, and the kitchen sink. Like many other artists, it inspires me, intimidates me, and leaves me in awe more times than not. I love stumbling upon beautiful work made from non-traditional mediums. It's a level of creativity and originality that deeply moves me. 

In one of my recent strolls through the world wide web of visual delights most graciously provided by a world of artists I happened on the work of Nancy Martini, Eco Artist. Now, when you combine art + eco friendly, it's most certainly an A+ in my book. I particularly admired this piece ... 

    Be Thankful

   From the Collection: Lessons from the Dinner Table

Nancy calls her work "Upcycled Art". This collection explores societal relationships and environmental issues. Each piece is made form 95% reclaimed materials. Trash to art. We have way too much trash in this world but not nearly enough art ... not by a long shot.

In Nancy's words from an interview on her blog ...  

Nancy M: "Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials or products of better quality or higher environmental value. After being very frustrated by the amount of trash that Americans create, I realized that many of the materials in my recycle bin could be upcycled. I collected everyday food containers (soda bottles, plastic bags, plastic bottles, foil pie trays, etc.) and sorted them into jars of like objects. I didn't know what to do with them at first. I just stared at the huge piles collecting in my kitchen and thought a lot."

"In American we represent 5% of the world's population, however, we create 30% of the world's trash. If we were to fill a football stadium from the bottom to the top that is how much trash Americans create every day. I keep the image of 365 football stadiums in my mind all the time. I think upcycling is one of the ways that we can reduce our trash. Recycling should be considered as a last option before the trash bin. Recycling allows us to buy whatever we want and as much as we want because we can recycle it. Art is only one way to upcycle materials. All businesses could help the environment by rethinking the items in their recycle bin and seek opportunities to upcycle."


Nancy Martini's work impressed me. It 'speaks' to me in it's simplicity. It's elegant. It makes me want to go running into my own studio and paint and create from daylight 'til dark. I hope you wander over and visit her site, too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I also hope it sparks you to thinking about what you have around your own house you can upcycle, recycle, or reuse.

Namaste', y'all ...
Carol

Getting your grateful on ...

There are several blogs out there in the blog-o-sphere that I enjoy reading with my morning cup(s) of coffee. Today, one of them really peaked my interest in that the posting was for a Gratitude Challenge. I think we often forget, in these crazy busy lives we live, to stop and give up some gratitude. I think it's an important thing to do ... it can really give you a nice shot of feel-good in the middle of all that aforementioned crazy.

So here's the deal ...

Make an alphabetical list of the things you are grateful for. It's okay if you have extra items for your letters - that just means you got lots of little blessings goin' on!

Here's my list:

A = avocados, apple cobbler, air, acrylic paints, animals
B = bed, books, beaches, blackberries, blueberries, butterflies, blogs
C = coffee, computers, cats, canvases (for painting), cast iron skillets, cornbread
D = deer, doughnuts, dogs
E = ecosystem, energy, electricity
F = family, friends, food, flowers, frogs
G = gardens, green living, green
H = husband, home, health food store, heating
I = iPod, ice cubes, ink, internet
J = jokes, jam, jelly
K = knitting, kaleidoscopes
L = lakes, lemons, ladybugs
M = mountains, music, movies
N = nature, needles (sewing and knitting), neighbors (mine are great!)
O = oceans, oxygen
P = pancakes, pillows, plumbing, paper, pencils, paint brushes, peaches, purple
Q = quilts
R = rain, Ravelry.com (knitting and crochet website), refrigerators, raspberries, rivers
S = sparkles, sunshine, strawberries, socks, sweaters, scarves, skinfood
T = trees, tea, tomatoes, tangerines
U = umbrellas, universe
V = vegetables, veganism
W = windows, water, watercolor paints
X = Xantus hummbingbird
Y = yarn stores, yarn, yellow
Z = Zen, zippers

What's your list?

Namaste, y'all ...
Carol

Oysters and crafts and really big frogs ...

Festival time again! Yep, yep, yep ... the fun never ends! Remember Fredrico? Well, we got his cousin Carlita to come over and hang out with Peggy on the beach the other day. You know all the guys were checking out her long legs!

Carlita is going to stay with us until she gets a new place to live - and that could be with YOU!, provided you come see her at the Skinfood Works booth at the Hilton Head Oyster Festival this coming weekend and register to win this totally awesome red eyed tree frog ... and, of course, check out the original skinfood while you're there!

Hilton Head Oyster Festival at Shelter Cove Community Park, November 13-14, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Oysters and shrimp, beer and wine, live music, a kid’s zone, Holiday Craft Show and Silent Auction, NFL and college games on TV and more. Sponsored by South Carolina Bank & Trust and the Island Rec. Center. (843) 681-7273 or islandreccenter.org.

Play it again, Sam ...

In a recent internet search for a headboard for our bedroom I came across these two interesting things ... and you're right, they have nothing to do with headboards. I just thought they were very creative ways of recycling and wanted to share them with you.

Table made of magazines! at Natural Buy

Ottoman tub! at REcreate

Namaste, y'all ...
Carol

It all started with a pretty, white rock..

My story begins last March when the trees were still bare and the grass was still cold from the winter's chill. I had taken my babies Piper and Buddy (cocker spaniel and jack russel terrier) out to do their business. We strolled down to the edge of the property where my back yard then turns into the wooded abyss, now keep in mind I do live in town, in city limits and only a stone's throw from Main St so wooded may be a bit strong- let's say lots of trees and some brush.

 Ok, back to the story, my little darlings had done their business and as I was calling for them to come play, I noticed a bright flash of white and at first I thought it was an early spring flower but it wasn't it was a rock and so I tried to wedge it out of the ground but this little sucker was not moving. So, I did what anyone would do, got on my hands and knees and started to dig in the clay and dirt because now, I just wanted the rock and nothing was going to stop me not even the onset of rain and it did start to rain and the more it rain the harder I tried until finally it popped out of the ground as if something was underneath it and was pushing it to the top of the surface. Well I was just tickled and ready to go in with my treasure and then I noticed another flash of white to the right of me and then to the left and in front of me and essentially all around me. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, the more it rained the more these white rocks were blooming as if the rain was pushing them to the surface so that I could see them and rescue all of them.

My eyes could not believe what I was seeing, I ran Piper and Buddy back to the house and called for my husband, Scott to come look at the blooming of the rocks. He came outside and walked with me in the rain to the back yard and the more we dug in the mud and clay, the more white flashes we saw. But the beauty of it was not that my yard contained hundreds of white rocks but hundreds of snow quartz, a truly amazing site to see. They came in all sizes, from bite-size to loaf-bread size, and I even have some that ended up being the size of a laptop. It was a few hours of digging in the rain when my long suffering husband turned to me and said, "We're going to do what with these?" and I really didn't have an answer just yet because all I knew was I had a field of quartz and that had to good, right?

I spoke to many people over the next few weeks about my wonderful find and most of them said that the quartz was an indicator of gold and since McDowell County was once known for it's "Gold Rush" (http://www.mcdowellnc.org/video_gallery/) and veins of gold have been discovered running right through the city and the many mines spread all over the county have been mined for over a hundred years or more, I took this to mean that there is gold in these hills of mine. Ok well a very small hill and more like a downward slope but anyway I have the prospect of gold but I think I was and still am more fascinated with the prospect of having quartz in them hills.

Quartz has many qualities, it draws energy and holds energy and all my little "rocks" have made a protective boarder around my home, they have outlined my flower garden and they have brought so many creatures to my property that sometimes I feel like I live in Wild Kingdom. Keep in mind, I live in town and I mean downtown but with that being said, here are just a few animals that call "me casa su casa"....
We have the lovely red bird or cardinal- now that is not that unusual you would say but when you have on average 10 to 15 of these things hanging out, it freaks you out.

We have had a family of silver foxes.....

Screech Owls...

Red Foxes..

And did I mention the Mountain Lions?

Now the above pictures are not those from my property obviously and we are trying desperately to get the cameras up and the night vision rolling because when you have seen what we have seen, you kinda have to ask, "why?"  why here?, why our property? and all I can say is,  I blame it on the little white rock!

Blessings,

Rena Harp