Grey Crowned Crane - actionsampled

this crane seemed equally interested in me and what I was doing as I was it and what it was doing....

Grey Crowned Crane as shot with Lomography Actionsampler 35mm film camera 12/2015

Animal friends

Some of the animal friends around my home recently.....

 Awwwwww... my sweet little rat friend who turns 2 this week! Look at his tiny hand and my giant hand! And his giant ears! And crazy whiskers! He's such a sweet little friend who's been showing his age a bit. Sometimes he'll actually sit still for a couple of minutes now to get scratched a bit on his neck, head and back.

 This little guy appeared right outside of my living room window a few weeks ago. That weekend he kept coming back over and over again, sometimes just hanging out in this tree. I'm not sure if it's the same one or not, but this evening a little humming bird was back, hanging out in the same spot. I'm always keeping my ears open for their little "chirp chirp" sound now!

If I had a yard, I would so enjoy watching the wildlife come by! Maybe one day.....

no such thing

copics and sakura pens on 11x14 mixed media paper.

A long a slow and tedious process working from the foreground background w/o sketching, abstract nature, done (maybe not), happy, bird reference guide, John Audubon excellent hunter. I don't know, make it up yourself. thanks for visiting this place (which place?)

Union Sparrows

While wandering around Union Station, I decided to stop outside and sit on one of the benches in the courtyard for a bit. Moments after I started digging in my bags, I realized I was surrounded by house sparrows. These guys seem to be well trained by visitors to Union Station to beg and be cute. I took advantage of their tameness and shot some photos of these guys (ok, mostly girls!)

3 little birds

3 little birds, cut from the same bird shape and collaged with different ideas; nearly all collage paper from a single magazine. bright, all human hair, black and white, with brads for wings, so the wings are positionable

Bird Floor Cushion

A few weeks ago, I came across the tutorial for this floor cushion from livingwithpunks. I had a pile of old couch cushions I kept in the corner as floor cushions, but this seemed like a nicer way to achieve the same thing. Plus, it's a chance to sew something new. It was on my mental list of things to do! Before I could start though, I needed some supplies.

For Black Friday this year, I once again went down to the Los Angeles Fashion District to explore it's wonders during a weekday. Black Friday isn't a big part of shopping there, although a few shops, like Michael Levine, had some discounted fabrics, it's mostly that some shops aren't open on the weekends, so it pays to visit on a weekday and the Friday after Christmas is the only non-holiday type day I have off of work every year. (I realize I should make a post about the Fashion District in general, because it's pretty awesome for crafty/sewing types!...one day!) I picked up some odds and ends there that I needed to finish projects, like elastics of all sorts and cording to finish off the floor cushion. I also managed to go to Joann's yesterday and came across this awesome canvas-type bird fabric in the Red Tag section. I immediately wanted to find some use for it and realized the floor cushion was a great candidate. (I think I might also have enough left over to make a couple bike seat covers as well!)


So last night I dug through my fabric stash and decided I liked the idea of making a floor cushion that was reminiscent of a tree stump with birds on the top and bottom. I managed to find a fuzzy green and brown corduroy scraps from a thrift store grab bag to finish off the tree stump look. I pretty much followed the tutorial, cutting out a 22 inch circle for my more adult bottom, cut ~11 inch sides and I didn't include the handle. I also didn't bother to pin anything together... because that's how I do things some of the time.

Overall, I really like it! I filled it with the insides of the old couch cushions as well as some leftover foam from recovering my kitchen chairs. I think if I had bought specific filling for it, it maybe would have looked a little less lumpy. Also, my circle sewing skills obviously aren't perfected yet. Despite those things though, it looks pretty cute, does what I wanted, allowed me to use an awesome fabric, adds more nature imagery to my urban-y apartment, used up some scraps and cost me less than $10 in materials to make. Sounds like a successful project to me!

bird & sun lino print

bird lino print I started a few weeks ago and finished up this week. I still need to get a hang of the ink application and paper, but I still like some of the results

bird mask

bird mask - sewn  from various fabrics and scraps

crow necklace

crow head necklace hand sculpted and painted.