Bugs and Butterflies

Pheromone

Christopher Marley is an artist who takes his inspiration (literally) from nature. I love the colors and shapes of the butterflies and urchins he uses in his photos. I would love to put them in some sort of desk workspace, like this Ikea one, for an interesting conversation starter as well as a bit of color.

Winter Sunshine

Pheromone

BHG

I saw an article in Better Homes and Gardens on indoor Orchids and they have become my latest obsession. I never realized such gorgeous flowers could grow indoors in a climate like Ohio's. What better way to spice up the winter blues?

Back to Black

Bazzarium

Design

Who doesn't love classic black and white? I know I just said how much I like bright vibrant color, but black against white gives clean lines and a wow factor in itself.

True Colors

BedZine

Tsuga Studios



Wikipedia

I never liked white and grey in decorating until I saw how much they made vibrant colors pop. I think I've fallen in love with colors of all sorts and I hope to incorporate it into my decorating.

Winter Wonderland

Almost a month since my last post. I've been caught up in the Holidays and the return to school which was promptly followed by snowstorms which turned campus into a Wonderland.

Image Shack

It's Holiday Time

After a long day of shopping and a visit to one of the best food stores in Cincinnati, Jungle Jim's, Perry and I headed home with pizza supplies, almond peanut butter, a cart full of wine, and a bag of chestnuts. Our mission: roasting chestnuts over an open fire.
We started a big fire in the downstairs fireplace and got our chestnuts ready. To cook chestnuts you must first cut an X into them with a knife, we used a pocket knife. The chestnuts expand in heat, so it not cut first they will literally explode.
Next find a pan with a decently long handle that you can put in the fire. Place the chestnuts in the pan and cover, we covered them with aluminum foil since our pan didn't have a lid. Place on top of the fire. Make sure you check them and stir around every 5 minutes for so. We forgot this step and our chestnuts ended up black on the bottom.
After about 20 minutes the chestnuts will have expended and will be soft to eat. Remove from fire and let cool for a few minutes. Remove shell and sprinkle with salt and enjoy! Chestnuts are delicious when warm and taste a lot like starchy potatoes.

Progress

So I got butterfly templates off line and printed them out, all approximately the same size. I'm starting with three and seeing how it goes from there. Then I got magazine pictures I wanted to use for the colors, mine are blue/green based. In order to stabilize it I cut up a cereal box to fit each butterfly.
Then I used spray adhesive (I would recommend rubber cement but I was out at the time) and glued the butterflies to one side of the box and the pictures to the other side.
So then all thats left to do is the time consuming part of cutting everything out with a matt knife.
This is my progress so far. I woke up this morning with my arms sore from pressing so hard on the knife, but more is to come!