Day 137: I finished the bottom half of the box.

Day 138:   I made a necklace out of a zipper that had once been part of an item of clothing. 

Day 139: I made another zipper flower, this time attaching a pin on the back so that my purse could wear it.  This was really fun to make because I was out listening to music on the plaza with my friends Jeremy and Laurel and my new friend Steve.  Jeremy and Laurel's kids (both boys) were so fascinated with my zipper flowers, they were watching me sew and saying cute things like, "I like to sew too," and "Can I wear your necklace?"  

Day 140 and 141: I spent two days cutting out circles to add to my tree.  I have no idea how many I've cut out this time, about 1000?  I had some help from those sweet boys who liked my zipper flowers cause I was hanging out at their house.  (This was after they spun me around and around on a porch swingy chair).  I also had some help from my friend Steve (who is visiting from Austin and is a blast to be around).  At this little get together I also gathered receipts from everyone to add to my receipt bowl.  So I'm very excited about the productiveness of these two days, even though it's not that interesting, I'm sure, to see another picture of a bunch of cardboard circles.

 Day 134: Hard day, needed some love, so I cut out some paper hearts, taped them to a string and put them accross my mirror.  I think it did make me feel better.

Day 135: I have been feeling a slump in my motivation the past couple of weeks, and although it comes and goes, it's been around a little more often then I've noticed before.  I know that when I'm getting attention for what I'm doing it motivates me, like when I was featured on Noah Scalin's site and my followers, pageviews and comments went up.  Then there are days where it seems like there are hardly any new pageviews and I feel like, does anyone notice, does anyone care?  This is a good thing for me to experience because it is also a mirror for how I'm constantly in relationships (that don't end up lasting) because I don't know how to feel like I have value when I'm not getting attention.  The real reason I'm in relationship with this yearly project (I'm finding) is to cultivate my own sense of value in myself and in doing the things I enjoy whether or not someone is paying attention.  But then, both yesterday and today have been overflowing with affrimations and love, from people I run into giving me things like film canisters and corks, to people coming into the store just to stay how much they've enjoyed and appreciated my blog.  It's good to be able to take that all in when it's there, but to be able to know that giving to myself the attention and time to create everyday is the most important part of this.  From within, from without, the truth is, there is "love galore" in my life.

Day 136: I found this cool shaped box in a thrift store, but it was terribly ugly other than it's shape.  I tore off the fabric and started covering it with scraps of paper.  All I finished was the lid. I felt fantastically motivated and immersed in my creative process as I made this (YAY!!!!!). 

Day 131:  I added the rest of the toilet paper and paper towel tubes to the wall art piece I was making.  I'm liking it, but it needs to be even bigger.  There is a spot over my living room window where I want to hang it. I also pictured this growing into a pair of wings, not really to be worn but just to stand in front of for a photograph, but then, what would I do with them after?  Hang them from my ceiling? (So often my ideas get bigger and bigger).

Day 132: This is from a package that came in the mail from this cool company that makes stuff out of trash (wallets and belts and such), and I loved their package so much that I wanted to make something out of it.  I covered the outside with clear tape and the inside with duct tape, now it just needs a strap. Kinda a cool little purse, huh?

Day 133: I love Frieda Kahlo's art.  She is one of the most inspiring artists ever. I love how her art seems to come straight from her subconscious, without hidrances.  I try to be like that, just allowing whatever bubbles up from within me to take form, without questioning it a whole lot. Here is my "Ode to Frieda" in a lid:

Day 128: I decorated another lid which will be filled with resin and made into a magnet as soon as I have enough of them for another resin pour.  I absolutely love making these mini collages. 

Day 129: I was in Albuquerque when I made this project.  I was hanging out in a hotel with my mom, my two nieces and my daughter after a day of waterslides and yummy milkshakes (at the Route 66 cafe).  The only things I had to make a project out of were a pair of chopsticks and a magazine (and the jar of glue that I now take everywhere I go).  So I covered the chopsticks with scraps of paper.  They are kinda interesting.  I guess I could use them in my hair, but they remind me of alien atennae. 

Day 130:  I added to my bowl I'm making out of receipts (see days 111-112).  I added 60 more receipts, many of which were not my own (thanks to my mom and my friend Nicole!)  That's 123 receipts all together now.  My neice Ayden and my daughter Mazi  helped to roll them into circles.  With help, it still took several hours to complete this new part.  It's actually starting to look like a bowl now!

Day 131: I made this sculptural wall hanging from toilet paper tubes, letting the natural curl of the pieces help to define the shape.  I had more that I wanted to add on, but I was soooooo tired last night.  I barely made it through this project, and was feeling before I made it that I was really losing the motivation and energy to keep going (I had a I-can't-believe-I'm-not-even-half-way-through-the-year-can-I-possibly-keep-going???? moment), but I did it!!!!

Day 125: A friend of mine gave me this circluar box (thanks, Rachel!!!!)  I liked the bow on it, but I decided it would be more fun to take it off and decorate the lid too.  In my box of "things I save," I came accross a poem by Forough Farrokhzad, an Iranian poet who lived from 1935-1967.  It was a printout from a world literature class that I took a few years ago.  Well, this woman ended up being one of my favorite poets, and this poem that I pasted on this box, is one of my all time favorite poems.  It's called "Window."

Day 126: Near the shop where I work, there is a yummy noodle stand run by my friend Marshall (it's called "Great Noodles.")  I had some of his noodles in a cute little take out box, and I was curious if I would be able to wash it off and decorate it, turning it into a little gift box.  The washing it off part was a success.  I pulled it apart to wash it, and although the paper became a little saturated in a few spots despite the coating, it dried out well and didn't smell like food.  Covering it with paper was the unsucessful part.  The paper was too thick and I used torn scraps of it, which I coated with mod podge, making the whole thing just too thick and too pliable for a gift box.  I think it could work to just use one bigger scrap of thinner paper, maybe I'll try it again sometime.  Anyhow, this is one of the projects that I wish I wasn't posting a picture of (it really doesn't do justice to the fantastic-ness of Marshall's noodles either) , but oh well, here it is...

Day 127:  My mom and my niece are in town for a week.  My niece, Ayden, who is 16, helped me with this project.  It was really fun to spend time with her in this way.  We each drew pieces of this tree branch and taped it all together on my bedroom wall.  This is just the beginning of something awesome.  We still have to add leaves and flowers.  The brown paper is packing material from boxes that were shipped to the store.

Day 122:  Since I have been making so much stuff, I have been increasingly aware of all the stuff that I have that I don't really need or want (in order to make space for all the new).  I've been looking through my closet at all the stuff I don't wear, but happen to be attached to for some reason, thinking maybe I'll suddenly start wanting to wear some of this stuff?  So I've been making myself just clear it out.  It feels good to get past the point of hanging on and just let go! I also have to admit that some of my clothing transformations I don't end up wearing all that much, maybe because they become so decorated and sometimes I just want to wear something simple.  So, I transformed a shirt that I had stopped liking by just cutting it up a little.  I cut off the end of the sleeves, let down the hemmed up edge on the bottom, and cut away the neck line.  The result is a shirt that is extremely comfortable and no longer constrictive feeling.  I also like how I look in this color (even though I don't consider myself to be photogenic, but maybe it's weird for most of us to see ourselves in a photograph). 

Day 123: There is a beautiful cardboard butterfly project on the "cut out and keep" website that inspired this.  I mostly just wanted to try out the technique and see how easy it was (or not) to cut designs into the cardboard and peal away the unwanted pieces, before doing a more elaborate design.  It was fairly easy to do, and it was fun, so I will definitely revisit this technique again.

Day 124:  For my project this day, I covered one of my paintings that I wasn't that into with pieces of torn journal pages.  I used glue that was watered down (with a squirt of black paint added) to attach the pieces.  I wanted it to have a messy look, but tried to be as careful as possible to not get too much of the black paint on the front of the paper.  I didn't want to obscure the words completely.  So I was trying to be clean and careful and loving the resulting mess.  My plan for this is to actually add more layers of other types of paper on top, this is only the base layer for whatever this piece will become.  I am rather fond of it at this point though, so I'm gonna let it stay like this for a while.  (This was another one of those projects that completely consumed me and kept me up till one in the morning, whoops!)

Day 118: Searching my house for something to make, I came upon a stack of egg cartons.  Right away I pictured a funny little hat, with bumps all over it.  So I went for it.  I had to do a little cutting and sewing to get the right shape.  (Egg cartons sew well together.)  Then I sewed on a couple of ties.  When I was a kid, I always thought that by the time the year 2000 came around, everyone would be wearing silver robotic space-age kinda clothing.  This hat, or helmet perhaps, might go well with that type of clothing.  Or maybe it is a grotesque insect hood.  Either way, it's a cute, funny little article of clothing that I will probably only wear on Halloween, or maybe I'll throw a dress up party, just for an excuse to wear it.

Day 119:  Back when my daughter was learning her ABC's, I made flashcards for her out of index cards.  Since she outgrew them, I've decorated a few of them.  I think of them as similar to those inspirational tarot cards that are out there, but they are just meant to give you something to think about, reflect on for a moment.  I made one for my project this day. 

Day 120:  I decorated the bark of the tree I made on days 105-107, before heading off to an overnight camping trip with my daughter's 4th grade class.  For that reason, I kept it simple.  I glued on circles cut from corrugated cardboard.

Day 121: I covered up a painting that I didn't much like with scraps of cardboard, torn journal pieces, and tiny little scraps of magazine pages.  This was very fun, and I'm quite happy with the result.