Monday Mood Board: Duck

This morning we had a stray duck on the fence in the garden. She was sitting there for quite a while and did not care that Peggy and I were in the garden too. It was as if she was thinking, let me have a look what those people and that doggy are always doing there in that garden ..... To honor this friendly visitor, here some cute ducks from our European Street Team sellers on Etsy !

For more monday moodboards see Estella and Esther's blog.

1. SnowStitched
2. Pepponi
3. HamjArt
4. sabahnur

And a picture of our own visiting duck:

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

Living along the Schlei fjord and among fields which had grain in summer, we have sometimes problems with rats.... And now with the cold, they come very close to the house and one has definitely found a warm shelter under the roof above my bedroom, which we do not like so much. So we talk a lot these days about rats and how to get rid of them. This is not easy. As a biologist hubby does not want poison because they die a terrible death. So we first tried a kind of big mouse-trap with peanut butter; however, the peanut butter was gone and there was blood on the trap, which itself was meters away from the spot we put it. Hubby did not like this at all, saying it could have been something else as a rat too and it is there now in the cold bleeding. So, yesterday he bought a live rat catcher box. That one is standing now on the spot and when we catch something else as a rat it will be freed again, and when it is a rat, hubby will kill it himself and give it a very fast painless death (remember, he is a biologist).
So today's flickr favourites are all about rats .....

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Rat - Ratte, 2. squeaky + marvin, 3. Glass Lantern Slide: "Love in a Nutshell." [Go Back Two Photos To Start The Story], 4. Man Rides a Rat Michoacan

Button Wednesday : Oktoberfest

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog. It would be great if you could do the same; make your Wednesday a button day too. Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here via Mister Linky at the end of this post.



Last week the Oktoberfest in Germany ended, so I thought I will do a Button Wednesday around the Oktoberfest. As an unknowing and straightforward Dutchie I do this in October and not in September, as I never understood why the Oktoberfest was held in September..... On Wikipedia I read that the first Oktoberfest occurred in Munich, on October 12, 1810; so they had it right once :)
I digged into my buttons and made a selection of real Bavarian specimens, starting with the Dachshund.

The first three buttons are from metal, showing a man in traditional outfit with a goat (maybe more Swiss than Bavarian....), a rucksack and a ram's head. They are followed by two real horn buttons, a lederhosen and one with Edelweiss. The last button in that row is a typical Bavarian glass heart. Then three fake horn ones, with Edelweiss, flowers and stag antlers. Can it go more kitschy ?


!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tidbits : Garden Animals

A short update about the animal life in my garden.
I saw a stunning green insect who was definitely sunning on my towel; looked it up in my insect book and found out it's called a Heteroptera bug in English, wants in Dutch and Wanzen in German.


When I was picking berries, the earth next to me was suddenly moving; a mole was coming out of it. He must have been very deaf because he kept on digging when I was standing there. I even shouted to hubby to bring me the camera, what he did, but then finally the mole felt something and speeded away in his hole. So this is afterall all I could get from him. I had never seen a live mole above the earth before.....
And lastly some hot love on the garden pavement.

Button Wednesday : Artist Lisa Kokin

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY again on my blog. It would be great if you could do the same; make a your Wednesday a button day too. Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here via Mister Linky at the end of this post.

Passage
Buttons and mixed media, imitation sinew, waxed linen, chicken wire; 41 X 29-1/2, 2004.

This Wednesday Button Day is dedicated to the button art from artist Lisa Konin. Her parents were upholsterers and her earliest memories are of playing in their shop with piles of vinyl and foam rubber. She has sewn since she was a child and the stitch plays a major role in her work, so it was natural to join the buttons together to form a reconstructed family portrait. What began as a memorial to her father soon expanded to lots of family portraits, past and present, humans and animals.
Rescue
Buttons, imitation sinew, chicken wire, 15-1/2 x 9-1/2 x 9, 2004

She says: "My work has always had an obsessive quality and this body of work is no exception. Every button is stitched to its neighbor to form a low-tech pixilated composition. Up close each piece is an abstract melange of colors and shapes; the further back one stands the more decipherable the image becomes. This interplay between abstraction and representation intrigues me. It is as though I am painting with buttons, building my palette as I go along, adding and subtracting until the interplay of colors and forms coalesces into a coherent image."
Most Likely to Recede
Buttons and mixed media, imitation sinew, 31 x 31, 2004




!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

My flickr favourites of today are about animals I would love to hug and cuddle !!!!
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Red Rabbit Pin, 2. blue bird, 3. Socks Dog, 4. Marcy the Christmas Sock Mouse!

Tidbits : My Elk

A few weeks ago I won a fairy tale game on Heli's blog; it was quite a surprise because I never win anything (lol). And the biggest surprise was that I could choose an animal from her shop HeliS on Etsy. That was a difficult task, because all Heli's animals are gorgeous; finally I chose the elk as being a real trophy to have that hanging on your wall. Today it got its proud space on my wall above my PC next to the cute dog print of Myrte from Mirthquake on Etsy and the waterlily painting of my friend Betty. He looks pretty proud up there ! And maybe he will get company from some fellow animals very soon .....

Buttons : Animals

I did an Etsy search for buttons with all kinds of animals: mammals, insects, amphibia, fish, birds, pets, etc. Found some terrific specimens. Have fun looking through them !

1. ceramic turtle from AcquadelleDonne
2. fabric sheep from mwendas
3. ceramic blackbird (pie) from siennaorlando
4. polymer clay bee from shandyscandy
5. beaded ladybug from thelonebeader
6. plastic giraffes from SpareButton
7. wood painted owl from stardogstudio
8. ceramic cat from MixedMediaByZehner
9. ceramic dragonfly from ButtonBliss
10. polymer clay mice from TinyArk
11. bronze clay dog from SRNdesigns
12. embroidered turtles from Beetastic
13. lampwork glass bird from belvedere
14. resin birds from buttonsbyrobin
15. ceramic fish from muddymuse
16. ceramic frogs from SandhraLee