Happy Friday- new work in my Uncorked and Polarity shops & a giveaway winner!

I made time -

(yes, I am "making time" now, please don't hate me, I still can't make a decent egg salad sandwich)

to get some new work into both shops this week including 2 new beaded lockets - a) another locket with the amazing Rachelle Levingston b) a new locket with the amazing (and patient) Caragh Buxton and c) a fishing fanatic keychain with the incredible watercolor artist (and Rachelle's dad) Richard Beck!

The winner of last week's giveaway for Mary's Granddaughter's wonderful moleskin journal as chosen by random.org is:
Min: 1 Max: 371 = 319! Carolyn McIntyre! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. My current giveaway is the last one for the summer when the internet gets lazy and I do, too - so don't miss entering this one!

I wrote a shop critique of a wonderful natural woodworking shop Earnest Efforts HERE that might have some info other makers can use.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine and laughter ...

(and kittens and puppies and bunnies and ... yes, I've gone soft, don't tell anyone)

xo all

Allowing the Still Point ... when to stop looking

Maybe this sounds familiar to you - once I have found what I am looking for on my computer - many times I can't stop looking.

and I am fairly certain this "can't stop looking" thing will only get us into trouble - the kind of trouble that starts with a carpal tunnel injury and ends with our arrest on charges of peeping tommery because we just "can't stop looking"

I continue to search for more and more information until I am satisfied (rarely) or overwhelmed or something else catches my ever-shortening attention span and I begin another search.

What happens when we fill ourselves with more and more information without allowing the "still point" - the time and the space to absorb what we learn?

I think as artists we instinctively need to grow through experience and not through this "looking" thing -

and I think we instinctively reach for a connection.

It's why so many of us have blogs and talk to other makers in an attempt to make this big old internet a smaller more connected place - a place where the stuff that is real gets separated from the stuff that is not real - the place where we absorb; the place with a still point.

I would bet that one day some neurologist will discover that far from making our children smarter - by plopping their diaper clad butts in front of a laptop at 3 years old - we are changing their neural makeup -

forcing their brains, in an effort to keep up with this speed of information, to grow in unintended ways, leaving other parts of the brain to languish -

maybe the parts that would have created something much more amazing than anything a computer can show us - and that something will maybe never get created because those brain cells, the ones that make us artists, the ones that make us human, the ones that lead us to form connections with other people never had a chance - they were overrun by the brain cells that multiplied faster than rabbits in an effort to 'keep up' ... maybe this is the real computer virus ...

(sorry to be a downer Dora or maybe a downer Dora the Explorer as my niece would say)

I hope everyone is making some plans to unplug this summer - it is the perfect time for it - maybe seeking out other ways to gather information besides Google would be a good place to start since Google gets me in trouble - searches are like potato chips to me now, I just want more and more ...

xo

(also the perfect time to eat healthier and get outdoors and away from our computers - in fact, this was driven home to me just last week when I came to the sad realization that I was getting winded trying to unclog the nozzle on my spray butter ... luckily I could Google the problem and get the damn thing working)

*stillness mixed media print by mae chevrette

LAST Giveaway Until Labor Day - one week only - Ophelia's Apothecary $35.00 Gift Certificate! CLOSED

WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED FRIDAY!

Ophelia's Apothecary is the wonderful little Kansas shop where all kinds of amazing potions and lotions and handmade aromatherapy products to nourish mind and body.

They have a wonderful assortment of amazing goodies and I think you will loove this shop.

This will be my last giveaway until fall and it's a short one so don't miss entering below!

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive a $35.00 Ophelia's Apothecary gift certificate!

HOW TO WIN:

It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact information below!

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:
Enter by midnight, Sunday, June 19th!Good Luck!

Upcycling Flea Market Finds for Your Garden or don't be afraid to mess with the old stuff

Last weekend was my favorite local flea - which was disappointing because it had alot more new junk than old junk this year but I did manage to find a couple nice oldies but goodies

including a boardwalk faucet (imagine how many sandy feet this baby has rinsed off), some vintage spools (I buy these once in a while for my display - they make great hangers), a Partridge Family lunchbox for only 15 bucks (a bargain and my daughter collects them) and these 3 amazing pinball games from the 30's that I had never seen before.

Sometimes these old finds seem too precious to actually use and maybe once in a while they are, but mostly things are made to be useful

(the same goes for people)

so don't hesitate to make some old thing into something else.

Adding some clear beads and fishing thread to the faucet (remove head, thread through, tie off the beads and trim thread) adds a little whimsy to a potted plant.

Winding some wire hangers around the spool

(I used a little fire to make this work, but you can totally do this without it)

to form wings and a dragonfly body and attach it to an old metal garden stake and you've got another upcycled garden doodad.

There are some gorgeous handmade gardening goodies on Etsy, too!

1. monkeys always look
2. simply pretty prints
3. blossom farm
4. glazed over
5. kat gallery
6. pumpkin ridge pottery

Chris and Kella Launch Suburban Camping Company! plus a little Seth on "shipping" which reminded me of their venture and Meditation part lll

Kella and Chris MacPhee have launched their amazing new business called Suburban Camping Company - operating in the NJ area at the moment - they bring the outdoor camping experience to any backyard and they make that experience amazing - "they offer the smell of burnt marshmallows, the feel of wet grass and the sound of storytelling"

I just love it!
Hubby and I are going to schedule the Tent for Two for our anniversary in August. It features a vintage-style tent set up in our backyard with a comfy bed and lots of old school camping props, drinks and even breakfast in bed - it is pure genius!

They have lots of family and kids packages including a wonderful little send off party for Harry Potter's final episode with cots and sleeping bags and an outdoor movie set-up - I'll post more on these later, but check out their site HERE!

(we will probably rent the movie, too - we have to decide which movie we want to watch on a gigantic outdoor screen - what is the best anniversary movie - probably something classic - maybe Kate Hepburn I love her)

Now I have really dropped the ball on this meditation series and I thought for certain week 3 (week 5 now) was the week these instructions talked about inward vs. outward meditation, but it turns out week 3 simply introduces the addition of 3 cleansing breaths

(which you must step outdoors to do - or at least stick your head out the window)

so after we have finished our meditation - in my case when my oven alarm sounds letting me know my time is up - we go outside and take 3 deep, slow cleansing breaths. This is a release and renewal step that helps with grounding. Even when things are really crazy we can always find time for this grounding step and something about deep breathing fresh air always helps me think straight. Next week our inward / outward focus with this thing gets introduced.

Seth's talk about "shipping" -

(what we do for a living is not 'be creative' what we do for a living is 'ship')

at the 99% conference is something makers will just love and reminded me of what Kella and Chris are doing with their new business! I think you will like it.


* breathe print at TwoPaperdollsShop

How Big is that Pig - stopping human antibiotic use in animals

Last week the NRDC filed suit (along with some other groups including the Union of Concerned Scientists) to force the FDA to do its job.

(which according to its website is to :

protect the public health by assuring that foods are safe, wholesome, sanitary and properly labeled; human and veterinary drugs, and vaccines and other biological products and medical devices intended for human use are safe and effective)

Even though the FDA has known for decades that giving human antibiotics to healthy animals can create monster bacteria that threaten human health they have done nothing.

(nada)

Antibiotics are obviously a good thing and have saved us from diseases that were once death sentence. But now, multi-drug resistant infections are on the rise at the same time the development of new antibiotics, due to cost constraints, are at an all-time low.

70% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are being wasted on healthy cows, pigs and chickens for things like growth promotion (!) creating drug-resistant superbugs that put everyone at risk.

We all know by now not to take and not to give our children unnecessary antibiotics and our doctors carefully weigh their options before prescribing them to us, but The National Academy of Sciences has stated:

"a decrease in the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine alone is not enough. Substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse of antimicrobials in animals and agriculture as well."

All 27 member states of the European Union have banned the use of important human antibiotics for growth promotion in animals. Hundreds of the world's leading consumer and public health agencies have demanded this practice come to an end.

Here is the petition we can sign to ask FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to ban the use of antibiotics in healthy animals. I can't believe after so many years we are still talking about this issue and nothing has been done- hopefully this lawsuit will have some real teeth in it.

Happy Friday- Gotta Love a Short Week!

The winner of last week's giveaway for Whimsy and Ink's personalized flask (chosen by random.org) is:
Min: 1 Max: 382 Result: 33- Cinders!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and a great big YIPPEE to Cinders!

A link to my post HERE on TeamEcoEtsy's blog giving a shop critique to wonderful organic "food for your skin" seller Natural Grace - I have a
great publicity tip
for makers in that post - you will want to check it out!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone- next week will include a funtastic upcycled tutorial and I will finally get back to my meditation series - tomorrow is my favorite local flea market - it is on the beach in Ocean Grove - if you are in NJ, it is a great one, but you have to get there early - we are bringing bagels for a beach picnic while the sellers set up.

(and by we I might mean me because it seems everyone else is working and Olive is much too neurotic to wander around in those kind of crowds without kicking back a couple martinis first and it is much too early for that - even for Olive)

Check out some new work in my Uncorked shop above ↑- 10% off any purchase in Uncorked thru 6/15 with the shopping code MARTINI.