Penguin-Wars by ~Mad-Hatter-LCarol on deviantART
With a family full of Star Wars enthusiasts and a personal appreciation of the Penguins of Madagascar…I so love this fan art!
Tags: penguins
So, like many folks out there, we recently saw the last Harry Potter movie and loved it! We’re all big fans of the books and movies. Of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit at the Pacific Science Center last fall that featured actual props, models and costumes from the films. Our favorite parts of the exhibit: the lovely costumes from the ball in the fourth movie, the Quidditch team uniforms, and the little details like the Marauder’s Map and the various wands.
Have you visited the Harry Potter store over at Zazzle.com yet? It includes hundreds of different items featuring a wide assortment of photographs and artwork from all 8 movies. They’ve created some fantastic artwork on binders, poster, iPhone cases, t-shirts, mugs, greeting cards and more. We’ve included some of the cool items we’ve found recently (and added to our wish lists!):
Tags: Harry Potter
Our little pandas love to build sandcastles
Here’s one of my new designs that celebrates one of our favorite summertime activities: building sandcastles! Our little panda friends have their buckets, shovels, sand, and shells and their little sandcastles look fantastic.
I have two versions of the design:
- boy panda wearing a green and orange bathing suit and carrying a blue and yellow bucket
- girl panda wearing a red polka-dotted bikini and red hair bow and carrying a bright pink and yellow bucket
I’ve created lots of fun items in my PandaPlaza shop at Zazzle.com with these cute pandas building sandcastles. All of the Zazzle items are customizable so personalize with your child’s name or maybe the name of the beach where you enjoy building sandcastles! Here are a few of my favorites:
Tags: pandas
Street Embroidery - heart, anchor and crown in Hamburg, Germany
So Miss Cross Stitch (her blog) is traveling around Germany and the rest of Europe creating amazing street art using embroidery. She scouts for the perfect surface (benches, railings, etc.) and creates a design using colorful rope that fits in with the location.
Usually, folks stop to watch and admire. Sadly, sometimes she isn’t allowed to finish her creation. Other times, the project is removed soon after creation. And sometimes, like in the photo on the left, the creation lives on for a long time (in this case more than a year!).
Check out her blog to see photos of her projects (the blog is in German but each entry is also translated into English if you scroll down a bit).
Captured on Film: Braving the Falls
Twenty years ago during the summer of 1991, a friend and I drove across Canada from Michigan to Niagara Falls. I still remember how impressed we were with the cleanliness and variety of offerings at the rest areas along the highway and how friendly were all the locals. The falls were, of course, quite breathtaking and an amazing site. We visited the base of the falls on the Maid of the Mist boats but I couldn’t resist experiencing the falls from the top in my trusty barrel! I wasn’t frightened at all.
Summer is right around the corner and we’re eager to start seeing lovely, graceful dragonflies flying around our garden. Mosquitoes aren’t as problematic here in Seattle as they are in other areas of the country but we’re most appreciative of the local dragonflies who keep down the population of mosquitoes and other insects. I was interested to learn recently that dragonflies are very important in the Japanese culture. They represent courage and strength and many boys are named “Tanbo” (meaning dragonfly) in their honor.
I’ve always loved to see dragonflies in art. They are often featured in Chinese and Japanese art as well as in art from the Art Nouveau period (at the turn of the 20th century). Thought I’d share some of my favorite art pieces I’ve found.
The Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) recently announced the results of its attitude and usage survey on the spending and crafting habits of U.S. households. Crocheting ranked #3 behind Scrapbooking and Drawing (#1). Knitting came in at number 9. See the report here>> I found it interesting that knitting was so low on the list when it seems like knitting is so trendy right now.
Personally I find that I crochet more often than I knit, but I suspect that’s primarily because knitting hurts my wrists more than crochet does. I have so many in-progress projects in both media so I’m pleased to see that I’m not the only one who loves both crafts!
In honor of all my fellow crocheters out there, I found these great crochet designs over at Zazzle.
Tags: crochet