Another Altered Jar Art Project

This was a very simple and quick project, but the end result is quite stunning in my humble opinion.

All it took was a cork stopper, which I had saved after the jar it belonged to had broken, one single rose and a little baby's breath.

The rose is an artificial one, but you can also use a dried rose for this project. If you opt to do so, then don't forget to spray it hairspray before you put it in. This enhances the colors and keeps the petals from falling off.

Hot glue the rose in the middle of the cork and arrange the baby's breath around it. Make sure the view of both rose and other flowers is equally as pretty from every angle before gluing them in place.

Put a good amount of hot glue on the bottom of the cork and carefully place it in the middle of the bottom of the jar. Put the lid on and cover it with florist tape, if you so desire.

I braided some colorful string and glued that around the jar, but a ribbon and bow may be another option, although the bow may be a distraction. Just give it a try and see what works best.

I loved this project; it was a nice way to stop and smell the roses! :-)

The Art Of Sharing

While contemplating on which art, craft or hobby would be next to which I was going to dedicate my time, I realized that the list of crafts I brought to your attention had steadily been growing over the course of a couple of years. You may not be aware of it, but the amount of time invested is tremendous.

It was all enjoyable and more then worth it and since I have experiences with many of them I shared those in my posts. What I am missing though is your two cents. Your opinions, advice and experiences pertaining to a particular craft are invaluable and could be of great help to those considering taking up a hobby.

Even that statement is based upon my own experiences; I would have greatly benefited from reading all the available web hosting reviews when one of my previous web hosting services vanished in to thin air and I had to choose another one. It would have saved me lots of time, money, aggravation and frustration.

Therefore, don't think your opinion and advice would not matter; it does and it can have a very positive influence on someone else. It could prevent them from making the wrong choice and having to learn the hard way!

Maurits Escher's Economical Impact

Maurits Escher's work is famous, well liked and admired by many all over the world , including mathematicians and scientists.

Beside his woodcuts, paintings and drawings, he wrote several books and the house "Princessehof" in which Maurits was born and the Escher family was living in, is now a museum and a place for many exibitions of his works.

He became a Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau in 1955 and in 1985 the asteroid '4444 Escher' was named after him.

His works can be found on many posters, ties, T-shirts, puzzles, ceramics, sculptures, watches, pencils, memo cubes, addressbooks, diary's, mousepads, calendars and coloring pencils. Books written by and about the artist and DVDs with documentaries on his life are available as well.

The M.C. Escher Foundation which was founded in 1968 by Maurits Escher himself to preserve his works of art nowadays still organizes exhibitions, publishes books and films about Maurits' life and work. The ultimate goal however is, being able to establish a permanent M.C. Escher Museum and to get as much artwork back to the Netherlands as possible.

I hope they are able to accomplish both goals. It would be nice to have all his works in one place and I can't think of a better place to admire them then in the M.C. Escher Museum!

Find It Quick And Easy

Our youngest daughter has been moving from one abode to another. At one point they were even talking about moving to Birmingham, AL where relatives of our son in law are living, but they decided against that and stayed in the neighborhood.

It would have been quite a huge move and relocating from one city to another is almost like starting a new life. Suppose we suddenly decided to leave the Gulf Coast and live in Chicago, IL. There would be a lot more involved then just packing, moving and unpacking; we would have to find a new physician, dentist, Internet provider, etc.

I realized how often we search the Internet for a service, store or a business in our area. Even after having lived here for such a long time, we still don't know where to find what. I suspect that is the same for everyone no matter whether you live in Tulsa, OK or a city in Alaska.

It is a comfort knowing you can find any service available in the above cities on one site. I would definitely make use of them if I would need anything; it sure saves lots of time and effort!

Cute Art

This little project turned out rather well and I think it is so cute.

The miniature boat is not even an inch high and glued on to clear glass pebbles; the ones used for decoration in a fish bowl.

I used common grass seed flowers to mimic and give the appearance of sawgrass.

The 'beach' is created by lots of hot glue covering the bottom and immediately sprinkled with sand and the sun is a small orange sparkle glued on to the back. The birds are drawn next to it.

This entire scenery is created in a lid of a small box which can be set on shelf or a dresser, but it can also be hung on the wall because I secured a piece of string to the back.

I was surprised how well it did turn out and the more reason to simply try whatever idea you come up with. Maybe we should simply say:"Anchors Away"!

Funny, Creative and Helpful

I have seen the TV commercial of FreeScore.com on several occasions and found it highly amusing each time it came on. I did notice though that I was paying more attention to what was going on in the background then what was actually said.

Watching it twice in a row was the answer; the first time I focused on the hilarious situation in the background and the second time I focused on the spokesman. I am glad I did because the information conveyed in the commercial is extremely helpful and can prevent a lot of financial problems.

I usually let my husband worry about our finances, credit and other related topics, but I was curious how much I actually knew about credit scores and credit reports. I took the credit IQ quiz at the free credit score's site and was highly surprised to learn who all has access to our credit report.

No wonder that keeping up with our credit scores and credit reports is so important. I am glad there are sites like FreeScore.com offering free credit scores and reports along with excellent information, tips and advice on increasing our credit scores and how to protect our identity from theft.

I still find the TV commercial very funny and creative, but getting so much helpful information across in so little time is truly an art!

Optical Illusion Art III

I remember seeing an optical illusion when I was in elementary school. It consisted of three clowns, the back of each figure was on the right side and rounded. When placed next to each other on the table, it looked like the one on the right was the largest of them all. In reality, all three figures were completely identical in height, width and appearance.

Interesting, isn't it?
Take a look at these lines. Even though they are nothing but a few lines, your mind interprets these lines as being the capital E, but is it really that letter or do these lines simply resemble the outline of the E?





I enjoyed this one and practically broke my brains over it. Do you see the face? It has a mole next to its nose.

Can you read the word too?
Which word? Tilt your head to the right and you can see the word Liar. It is that word which is the profile of the face.



Yeah, things are not always what they seem; there may be more to it then what the eye can see! :-)

Encryption Art

My husband got a new flash drive for Christmas. He uses it for storage and transferring data for work. The USB drive he was using was nearing the end of its capabilities and one with more memory was needed.

I had wanted to give him a unique, personalized and artistic looking flash drive, but he pointed out that could be subject to theft. Hmmm, with all the information on the drive that could be disastrous, especially since no encrypt usb drive was used.

All the data on the drive may be useless to many people, but it is not worth taking the risk. It made me wonder if other businesses were aware of the fact that there is usb encryption software available and/or if they are even using it.

It is odd; so much money is spent on security cameras, firewalls and anti-virus software, but the smaller things, which present a much greater threat to a company, are often overlooked.

To encrypt external drives is no luxury and with excellent AES encryption provided by the USBCrypt software, your competitors are left empty handed!

Altered Jar Art. All Aboard!

I have several of these miniature trains. After having made one in a small jar, I thought it would be nice doing another one. This time I wanted to make it look a little more lifelike and made rails out of sticks on which I glued the train.

The rounded jar presented a problem concerning how to affix the tracks. I solved it by cutting a piece of construction paper to the desired length, making sure to cut a little more then twice the needed width.

The top of the paper on which the tracks went is exactly the width fitting the jar. Determining the middle of it, I folded the rest of the paper under and covered the bottom with double stick material and glued the train on top. To mimic the gravel under the tracks, I cut cardboard in to tiny pieces and glued it between and on the sides.

Once done, I pealed back the protective layer of the sticky stuff, carefully placed the creation in the jar and adhered it to the jar by sticking a pair of scissors in between the fold and pushing it down. A few pieces of artificial flowers complement the scenery.

All that was left doing was to put the lid back on and cover it with florist tape. Oh, I almost forgot; you can't see it in the photo, but I cut a piece of paper in the shape of a tunnel and attached that to the inside of the lid. Yeah, it does look like the train just came out of it.

I enjoyed this little project and am considering doing something similar, but on a larger scale. Those are my train of thoughts!

Enjoyable Visions

I had gotten all excited thinking about a little getaway to Myrtle Beach. The pleasant visions of sea, sun, beach, and all the other attractions and activities were only enhanced by the choice of luxurious resorts available at the http://www.myrtlebeachseasideresorts.com/ website.

Well, that vacation option had to go on the backburner for now; our car is starting to show signs of wear and tear and it needs replacing. It is no longer reliable to take long trips with and any kind of money we would pour in to it might turn out to be a bottomless pit.

Even though our vacation may be postponed, it is not off the table. I still would like to take advantage of one of the golf packages. I am sure I would enjoy both the outdoors and the sport and as soon as the car issue is resolved, my mind will go right back to spending some time at this destination.

It would be wise to bookmark the site www.myrtlebeachseasideresorts.com. That way, I will not have to go through the lengthy, time robbing and painstaking process of finding these wonderful resorts again; they will be right at my fingertips.

Hopefully next time I bring up the site, we can finally make reservations!

Maurits Escher's Work

Maurits Escher's work is very diverse and not just restricted to painting. As a young boy, his art teacher taught him to make linocuts. Maurits' earliest works were mainly linoleum cuts which were probably printed in one of his artist friend's' printing studio.

In 1917, Maurits and his friends developed a passion for literature and he started writing some of his own poems and essays. The following years, being rejected for the military, he made many drawings and started using woodcuts. During that time his work got acknowledged by the media and received many good reviews.

In 1921, Escher and his parents visited the Riviera and Italy and he made detailed drawings and sketches of cacti, olive trees and dramatic sights. He also started experimenting with subjects like mirror imaging, crystal shapes and spheres which influenced his later work.

His first print which sold in large numbers was a woodcut titled 'St. Francis'. He also did some sign work, lithographs and several commissioned prints. In 1924, his first exhibition was held in The Netherlands and many more would follow in the following years.

In 1936, his work took a turn to an entire new direction; works of impossible realities, plane-filling techniques, shapes, and transformations. He also tried a new technique which was called mezzotint in 1946 and he and a couple of other artists held a huge exhibition in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1949, showing off their work.

Escher was not shy of taking on unusual commissions like designing a tapestry for a weaver, ceiling decorations for Philips and other commissioned works during 1949/1950. At this point, he still was not very well known outside Europe.

Maurits established his name in the States with an exhibition in Washington during 1950 and even more in 1951 after two articles on him and his work which were published in Time and Life magazine.

Between 1956 and 1958, his work took off in the direction of mathematical and crystallographic aspects and infinity. One of his most famous works and good example of that is the never ending staircase 'Ascending and Descending'.

Several books were published by and about Maurits' work and life and his name became well known all over the globe. Up until today, his works still fascinate and are admire by many and I suspect that will be infinite, just like his work!

Artistic Curb Appeal

I finally got around to planting some more flowers in our front yard. We have two large planter boxes outside. No, they don't look like anything as fancy as the outdoor commercial planters you see at times. Ours consist of simple, wooden beams, forming a large square.

While weeding and digging holes for the plants, I noticed that several of the beams were rotting all the way through and started to show holes. That got me thinking about replacing them with large commercial planters to give our house and yard more curb appeal.

The problem is however, I have no idea what would go best with the appearance of our house and yard. No, that is not true; I would know. The real problem is that I would have a very difficult time picking from all those beautiful commercial planters; one is just as gorgeous as the other.

I like the idea of having a grouping of several different planters or even similar ones, but in different heights. Then again, focusing the attention on one commercial planter is an option as well. Sometimes, less is more.

I need to think about it some more. I just wished they would not make the choice so difficult!

Christmas Art

I know; it is probably a little bit early to be thinking about Christmas decorations. I do think however, that the best time making them, is whenever you have the inspiration.

Learning from my previous experiences; postponing often results in not doing it at all. Especially around that time, we are often way too busy with all the preparations and there simply is hardly any time for much crafting.

This decoration is crafted from a knitted garland, cut to the desired length and sewn together at the top and bottom. A little hook attached on top enables it to hang on the wall.

The decorations on the garland are made from small Styrofoam balls in which squares of fabric are pushed, covering the entire surface. Pins with a pearl top are cut to size with a pair of pliers and stuck in the middle of each square. The finished product is then hot glued on the garland.

A few artificial leaves are glued around the middle one and a bow on top of the others are the finishing touches. I happened to find a little, gold colored angel which I sewed on the bottom. All that is left to do, is wait for Christmas.

I can already hear the sleigh bells ring. Oh wait, that's the bell on the little angel!

My Beautiful Knockout Rose Bushes

This is a guest post by Margaret Yelson

I love roses. They are my all time favorite flower. That being said you can probably guess what I wanted the most of in my new flower garden. Once I had the thing all planned out I spent three whole days running around in my hometown trying to find the knockout rose bushes that I so desperately wanted. I was in despair after all this time searching because all that I could find was red or yellow and they were not in the best of health. I so wanted a flower garden full of beautiful blues, purples, pinks, and whites. I called up my mother to complain and she let me in on her secret. She had ordered all of her flowers online. I had not given this much thought and was not so sure that I liked the idea of not being able to see what I was paying for before I handed over my hard earned money. Nevertheless, I logged on to my hughs net satellite internet service and began searching. I was simply amazed at all of the variety that I found. Within two days I had every color of rose bush that I wanted delivered to my door. The plants were beautifully healthy and well taken care of. I wish I would have thought of this before I had wasted all of my time running all over town trying to find what I wanted. I would have saved myself a lot of headache and gas.

That was three months ago and now I have a beautiful flower garden staring back at me every time I look out of my kitchen window. The best part about it is that I spent very little time finding all of the beautiful plants that I wanted for my garden. It was all right there at my fingertips all along.

My Wreath Art

I was pretty sure I had taken pictures of some of the wreaths I had crafted, but I couldn't find them anywhere when I needed them. At last, I found them; they were still on the camera, duhhh!

Anyway, this is one of the wreaths I made recently. I love roses, but my favorites are the white ones. I love the contrast of the fragile, white petals and the deep, dark green of the stem and the leaves. To me, the beauty lies in its simplicity.

These artificial roses, in combination with the white Baby's Breath, are hot glued on a simple wreath. It consists of three, thin twines, wrought together, forming a circle and that's it.

Yeah, the basis of this wreath has been reused several times already. :-)

About Maurits Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher, also nicknamed "Mauk", was born on June 17th, 1898 in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. He was the youngest of three sons of George Arnold Escher who was a civil engineer and his second wife, Sara Gleichman.

Because of Maurits' health, the family moved to Zandvoort where he attended a special school due to his illness. In 1903 the family moved to Arnhem where Maurits attended primary and secondary school. He took carpentry and piano lessons from the age of seven until the age of thirteen.

His grades were not good and even though he was excellent in drawing, he failed his final exams and never officially graduated.

The family moved to Oosterbeek, Holland in 1917 and in 1918 Mauk started private lessons and studies in architecture at the Higher Technology School in Delft. He was rejected for military duty in 1919 as a result of his poor health.

Escher moved to Haarlem and began the study of "the graphic and decorative arts" in the fall of 1919 at the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He applied himself entirely to decorative arts and left school in 1922.

He started traveling to Italy and Spain and during one of his travels he met Jetta Umiker. The couple got married on June 12th, 1924 in Viareggio, Italy, bought a house which was still under construction in Frascati and finally moved in during October, 1925.

In June, 1926 their first son George was born and the little family purchased a larger home where their family grew with the birth of another son: Arthur, born on December 8th, 1928. They moved to Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland in August of 1935, then relocated In mid-1937 to Ukkel, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium, where their third son Jan was born on March 6th, 1938.

They remained there until 1941 and then moved to Baarn. Jetta never liked living in Baarn and she moved back to Switzerland in 1968, while Maurits stayed in Baarn until 1970. He then moved to a new apartment in a retirement home for artists; the Rosa Spier House in Laren, the Netherlands. His health had been declining and he already had undergone several surgeries.

His health kept on deteriorating and Maurits Escher died in Laren on March 27th, 1972 at the age of 73.

See also:
Maurits Escher's Work
Maurits Escher's Economical Impact

Lifting Art

Our storage building has been on the verge of bursting at the seams when a huge burden finally got lifted of its foundation yesterday. Our youngest daughter got almost all her furniture and the gazillion boxes of her belongings out of it.

That was not an easy task; some things were rather heavy and the only lift equipment available was her physical strength. In spite of having to move it from building to car in the already high temperature, she got the majority done.

Poor thing; I would not be surprised if she is sore all over. She sure could have used one of those lift trucks as can be purchased in and around Texas for the Material Handling Industry. It would have saved her so much time and effort and hauling all that stuff around would not have ended up being such a pain in the neck.

I think a jlg lift might have been too large, but a small forklift would have been ideal for this enterprise. It is much more enjoyable to get the job done without having to lift a finger; that is what the equipment is for.

We were thankful she had someone to help her the first day. No, it was not us; healthwise we both are under the weather. We supervised and I although I hate admitting it: I loved doing that! Grin.

Optical Illusion Art II

There is a huge amount of optical illusion art available; some are rather simple concerning forms and colors, but just as effective.

It is rather stunning seeing how the simplicity of this cylindrical tube is creating so much controversy when looking at it. Which way is it going? Do you see the opening on the left or the right?

Turn away for a second and look at it again; you may come to the conclusion that the opening is on the other side. Both are the case. That's why it is called an optical illusion. Grin.

This illusion was created by Geneticist Lionel S. Penrose and his son Roger. It is called 'The Eternal Staircase" and it sure is eternal; you can go up or down forever.

Your brain will acknowledge it as being three-dimensional, but it also recognizes that this structure does can not really exist.

You may have seen this illusion before. It became popular when Dutch artist Maurits Escher used it in several of his works and it has been used in video clips and other works of art on many other occasions.

Don't look too long at it; you will feel like you are going around in circles!

Optical Illusion Art

Even though it may seem like this has got little to nothing to do with crafts, hobbies or art, I tend to differ. Take this painting below for instance; it is a work of art by the Mexican painter Octavio Ocampo.

At first glance you see an old couple sitting in a room and looking at each other. Take a closer look: how many hidden images can you see?

To give you a pointer: the faces of this old couple are actual figures. I saw a few more, but haven't figured out yet how many hidden images there really are. I never got any further then five.

How about this one on the left? Don't read the word, but try to say the color of the word in which it is printed. To help you get started; the first word would be green.

What's wrong? Are you colorblind??? Grin. It is not an easy task to do, huh?

The reason why it is confusing is because the right side of your brain is the picture-side. It sees and recognizes the color and is trying to make you say it. In the mean time the left side of your brain, which is the word-side, is trying to make you say the real word as it is read.

It takes an extremely creative mind to come up with an optical illusion. When it is highly entertaining and people get a kick out of looking at it over and over again from different angles, then I would certainly call that an art!

See also:
Optical Illusion Art II
Optical Illusion Art III
Optical Illusion Art IV
Optical Illusion Art V
Optical Illusion Art VI
Optical Illusion Art VII
Optical Illusion Art VIII

Go West Young Man, and Ride BART

This guest post was wriiten by Ken Walker

One of the best road trips I ever took was when I drove from Atlanta to Oakland. It was summer, and my co-worker had received a scholarship to the University of California, at Berkley. She asked me to go with her. I had always wanted to go to California, so I said,"Heck yeah!"

A week later we were ready to go. I set the code on my alarm systems I got from http://www.allhomesecurity.com/, hopped in the car and we off. We rode west on Interstate 20. The big blue Texas sky hovered overhead and scrub-grass was all around us. It reminded me of the westerns I watched as a kid.

Late that night we got to New Mexico. I could hardly contain my excitement. My co-worker was great. I had good company, intelligent, fun conversations and beautiful scenery. I was in heaven.

The next day we headed into Arizona. We visited an old silver mine in southern Arizona and planned to have lunch in Phoenix. By the time we got to Phoenix it was blazing hot. We slowed down and looked around, but it was too hot to stop. We headed into the desert.

Once we got out of the desert we were in Palm Springs. The air was yellow so we kept on moving. Our first stop was Los Angeles. We drove around on Hollywood Boulevard and people watched for a while. We left L.A. near dusk and saw the glittering lights of the San Fernando Valley stretching out before us and a star filled sky above. It was fantastic.

On the fourth day we got to Oakland. We headed straight to the UC Berkley campus. I was stunned when I drove through the Haight/Ashbury district and saw blue-jean clad flower-wearing hippies selling tie-dyed clothing, and all types of silver, turquoise and obsidian jewelry. We had lunch at the Berkley Marina overlooking a bay. During the next few days we went to Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown, and rode the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). It was one of the best vacations I ever had. I will never forget it.

Cork Art - Materials and Equipment

I see no reason why you would restrict yourself to the round corks which are commonly used for bottles; there are several other shapes available which would even open up some more possibilities for crafting.

There is no need either in turning your house inside out trying to find corks; they can easily be ordered online and don't cost much.

I noticed there was a cork art community online which you can join and where you can find and interact with other cork artists. There are also books available with tips, hints and examples on cork craft.

I could not find any workshops, but I suspect those may be around as well. In case you like to look it up on the Internet then my advice is to do a search on 'cork art' and 'cork craft'. The latter will give you more results then the first.

Any other materials, just like the equipment, are totally dependant on what kind of project you have in mind; for a valance like this you would want a good, strong needle and string. Other projects may require the use of a glue gun.

Tooth picks lend themselves excellent for creating cute, little cork animals and the corks can even be painted in different colors. That would keep the young ones busy for a while.

And not only when it is pouring outside!

Copper Cookware Art

I love to combine practical application and art. A good example of that is displaying copper cookware in the kitchen.

I see no reason stowing away the warmth and the beauty of the copper behind closed doors and it is so much easier to get to them when needed.

On a few occasions I have seen copper molds hanging on a kitchen wall and it always gave me a feeling of home. I would love to hang several different ruffoni molds in our kitchen, even if they were just for display which they would be in my case.

I am not sure whether it would be feasible or not, but when we get around to remodeling our kitchen, I would like to have a pot rack hanging from the ceiling and fill it up with a gorgeous selection of pots and pans from the ruffoni copper cookware collection.

It would save storage space, makes it easy to get to, we cook in style, while at the same time we could show off these wonderful pieces of art.

If a hanging rack is not feasible then I will cook up something else!

Cork Art II

Cork art does not have to be as elaborate or intricate as shown in my previous post on this subject. Those are all ideas showing you all the options and possibilities of what all can be done with this material.

Even a simple composition and design, which does not require much artistic skills, results in a unique, interesting and fine piece of art. It is also an indication that this is a craft very suitable for children to practice as well.

In case you don't have any artistic aspirations whatsoever, this cork covered wall may spark some ideas for a Do-It-Yourself project.

I would not advice you to glue them directly on the wall; that would be a pain removing them when you would be bored with it. I don't see how this could ever get boring because it so lively and exquisite, but gluing the corks on panels and affixing those to the wall is probably best.

It is a good idea for a children's room; they won't hurt themselves when they would be bouncing of the walls!

Real Estate Art

Living at the Gulf coast is no fun these days; when the aftermath of the hurricanes is finally starting to clear up, the oil spill is threatening the beaches and the wildlife.

It will take years before the ecosystem would be back to normal and I would not be surprised if those with property along the coast are regretting it and want to bail out.

They are probably sick to their stomachs and no longer have a desire to live along the coast. I would not be surprised if they would be looking for Real Estate in Boston.

Since they had such a gorgeous home my suspicion would be that they would like to own something similar and would be leaning towards Boston Luxury Real Estate.

Boston and its surrounding area are rather large and it could be difficult locating what they have in mind. By engaging the Bushari Group Real Estate according to their specifications is found easily. That takes care of that problem!

It may present another dilemma though; the choice between buying one of the beautiful Boston Condos or to opt for one of the Boston Luxury Lofts. I am glad I don't have to make that choice; it would be a hard call.

I suspect that when it comes to living space, the Boston Lofts may come out on top. I may be wrong though and both condos and lofts may be equally as spacious.

There definitely is a lot of luxurious Boston Real Estate around and whether you are a buyer or a seller; with the customer orientated Bushari Group you know you would get state of the art service.