Day 175:  I created a sphere out of cardboard and brown packing paper, in hopes of having a structure to go underneath the lids.  (As mentioned in my last post).

Day 176: I spent nine hours this day gluing lids all over the cardboard sphere.  Part of why it took so long was that I scratched each lid with a razor blade knife to create a more adhesive surface.  I also glued smaller lids inside the bigger lids (and tore apart the half sphere I made before and all the glue stuck to those lids).  I am lucky that my daughter is spending time with her grandma in Colorado, and that both of my friends that I had planned on spending time with this day canceled on me.  I really wanted to make this in time to photograph it and submit it to a recycled art show here in Taos.  I got it in at the very last possible moment, but it wouldn't have been possible if I didn't spend an entire day with it!  I have just a few more additions I want to make. 

Day 172:  There is a coffee shop here in Taos called Elevation, that has some of the best coffe in Taos, not so much because of the particular bean, but because they are masters of the espresso machine.  So they were already my heros really, crazy about coffee as I am, but I found out recently that they have been saving lids off of milk jugs, cream, honey, juice, etc.  They had two large tubs of them, and being "recycle girl," of course I wanted to take those babies home.  So my project for today was to create and photograph a sea of lids in my bathtub.  I had that "this is so crazy I'm cracking up over it" kind of moment as I was taking these pictures, because really, I have never seen so many lids in my life.  Isn't it odd that I want and love them?

Day 173:  I had this idea in my head for using my lids, I wanted to make a sphere, with little lids glued inside larger lids.  This was my first attempt, trying to sew them together.  It was working okay, but it was just too much work, so I gave up on this method.

Day 174:  My second attempt at creating the sphere.  I love how this was turning out, problem is, the hot glue I was using to hold it all together wasn't strong enough, and as I was picking it up and trying to move it, it started coming apart.  Rats.

Day 166:  I decorated another lid.   This one is very simple, but I have to admit that when making something every day, some projects simply must be simple.  (And some sentences are surely sometimes tongue twisters.)  I like this one because I so often feel like a busy bee, always buzzing around or building beautiful things.  This is a Dr. Seuss illustration, whose crazy rhyming stories I've always loved.

Day 167 and 168: I worked on my receipt bowl once again, and this time I think it feels complete.  I added 115 more receipts, for a total of 335.  This time almost all of my receipts came from one person, my friend Nicole, who had several years of receipts saved up. I didn't even use up all of them. It is interesting the things receipts reveal about a person.    

Day 169:  I took another bunch of little boxes and added to what I made on Day 146.  Since I have been doing recycled projects every day, nothing is sweeter than when someone thinks of me and holds onto some recycled materials for me.  It makes me feel so loved.  So, thank you Sara, for saving the boxes for me!  The insides of these were white, whereas the ones before were brown, which makes really adds to the design. 

Day 170: I took a children's book and painted it black.  I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this.  I want to add to it more, either covering it up with collages, or somehow turning it into an art piece.  For now, it is just a black book. 

Day 171: I made another paper rose, using paper from the physics book. I found a pattern online that I like a lot for a simple, but beautiful rose.  I feel like I could sit down and make a whole bouquet of these, whereas the rose I made earlier was extremely complicated.  Here is a link for where I found the directions.  Try it out!  stacycohen.blogspot.com/2010/08/prima-layout-and-paper-rose-flower.html

Day 163: I made another zipper flower, this one my most elaborate yet.  I made it into a barrette.  It took quite a long time compared to the other flowers I've made, but I think it was worth it.  It turned out very cool.  I finally found a bunch of zippers at a thrift store, and the thing I love about them is that you can see evidence of stitches where they used to be sewn onto something, so I know that they are truly re-used. 

Day 164: I was housesitting on this day and had only brought a limited amount of things to create with.  I had a magazine so I made a little collage.  This is far from being a piece of art, I see it more as a reflection of my life and the kind of experiences that are important to me, just a little something to connect me to and rekindle some of my dreams and desires.  In many ways it was also a break from creating something that was intented to be artistic, I just let myself relax today and just cut and glue pictures, without much care for the results, other then letting the pictures bring forward an emotional response.

Day 165: Using the same magazine, but more focused on the outcome, I decorated another lid.  I love doing these mini collages.  In some ways they are also a break from the highly labor intensive projects I often get myself into.  I find that I always need a few days of these simpler projects after I do a project that takes over my life temporarily.

Day 158:  I found this eye at a thrift store, I'm not sure what it was from, but I liked it.  It blinks!!!! I glued a zipper around it and turned it into a pin.

Day 159 and 160: I added onto my receipt bowl.  This time I added 100 more receipts, for a total of 220 altogether.  A few of my friends gave me receipts for this, but my friend Steve was exceptionally thoughtful and saved me receipts when he was in Colorado, knowing that I would be coming up there for the festival.  Not many of my friends here in Taos save me things that I am collecting (but thanks SOOOOO much to those of you that do), so I think it was sweet that he thought of me, being a whole state away. 

Day 161 and 162:  I made an art piece using squares of cardboard that were all about 8" by 8".   This was very fun to make and I got so into it that I was up until one in the morning both days (or nights, rather).  It was good that I had a couple of days off and could sleep in!  The picture of it turned out like crap though.  I quickly took it as I was leaving the house, so I'll probably retake it and replace it with a better version.  Sometimes it's hard to take an inside picture when the light is all funky. 

Day 153:  My friend Kyoko also gave me some old books, most of which had damaged pages, either colored on or torn.  I took one of the smaller children's books, removed all of the pages and added new blank pages to it.  Now it is a cute little journal/sketchbook with a very unique cover.

Day 154 and 155:  I took another of the books that I was given, a thick physics book, and cut out a rectangle from every page in order to make a book that is secretly a storage place.  This turned out to be much more difficult that I thought it would be.  It's hard to keep the book from slanting the farther in you get and if it slants then the pages don't match up exactly.  If you don't turn the pages, it's hard to reach down through all the ones you have cut in order to cut the next page.  The first day I got to page 310, before giving up and going to bed.  The next day, I finished off the remaining 725 pages, starting with a fresh blade in my razor blade knife, so it went a little faster.  It ended up having sides that slope in and out, and I haven't glued the pages together yet, so it is still unfinished.  Despite that, I like how it turned out. 

Day 156:  So now I have a bunch of physics book scraps to use up, so I made a hanging sphere with a few of them.  I made this with one of the kids I get paid to hang out with (lucky me!)  His name is Aiden and he is 9 years old (doesn't he look proud?)  He decided to hang it over his bed. 

Day 157:  Mazi and I spent the day at the Colorado Renaissance Festival with a couple of my friends and their two children.  Before I left for home, I thought ahead about what project to bring with.  I was overly ambitious in thinking that I could come back to the hotel room after the festival and make an elaborate project.  I brought a stack of the physics book pages and thought that I would make a bunch of mini lotus flowers, enough to hang from several strings to make a mobile that would look like a beautiful shower of flowers.  After walking around all day tightened up in a bodice, riding elephants and camels, cheering for knights and belly dancers, being awed by hypnotists and fire breathers, and drinking too much beer and too little water, all I could possibly manage when I got back to the hotel room were a handful of flowers.  These were fun to make, though, because my friends Jeremy and Laural were reading some of the pages of the physics book, which were all a bunch of half sentences and we were laughing about how they are much more interesting to read than to listen to someone else read.  The kids were all crowded around watching me make them, and one of them asked me to show them how.  So I started acting like I was on an instructional TV show, and Mazi chimed in with commercials here and there, and the "audience" kept commenting on what I was saying and I kept responding to comments, and we had some good laughs over this.

Day 151:  A friend of mine named Kyoko gave me a bunch of stuffed animals to recycle.  I had never thought about making anything from stuffed animals until she came up with the idea, so this project exists because of her.  My daughter Mazi loved this idea too and helped to design and name this critter.  This one is made of pieces from a stuffed lion, teddy bear, and a little pink dog.  Mazi decided that all my critters should be called "Boogles."  This boogle is named "Snuffles."  This was definitely one of the most fun projects yet.  I like the idea of making more boogles to give away as birthday presents rather than going out and buying new toys. 

Day 152:  I made some smaller zipper flowers and turned them into rings.  I am crazy about these and want to make a bunch to sell.  I put both of these out in the store and already sold one.  This was very exciting for me!

Day 149:  I cut more cardboard tubes and glued them all together.  It is becoming a room divider that has a wavy, organic feel.  It is going to take a lot more tubes in order for it to be tall enough to not just trip over, and there is NO WAY that I'm covering this one with little pieces of paper, but maybe I'll paint it when I'm through.

Day 150: I took a pair of shoes that were starting to look brown where they were once white and I painted them.  I first painted them with a layer of fabric adhesive, then with silver acrylic paint mixed with textile medium, then sprayed them with acrylic sealer.  I love my "new" shoes!

Day 142:  I have been feeling so much more motivated again and have had an engaging week of making things.  I don't have the internet at home, so I'm always online at coffee shops.  This week I've been so busy with work, that I just couldn't make it out to update my blog!  So here it goes.  For day 142, I made a candle holder out of an Arizona iced tea can.  I was at a friend's house when I saw this can standing empty on her table showing off all of its beautiful colors.  The air was full of wonderful exclamations when I first laid eyes on it.

Day 144 and 145: I took a pair of baggy pants that I never wore, cut about 2 inches off of each side, the bottom, and the top, then sewed it all up.  This took so long because I sewed it all by hand.  I'm mostly happy with them, but still have to add a button, and do something different with the bottom of the legs.  I don't really like how that part looks.

Day 146: I attended Pecha Kucha Night here in Taos.  This is an event that started in Japan and now takes place in 421 cities around the world. (I hope I got that number right).  People who are involved in some sort of creative endeavor get up and talk about what it is they do, using a very specific form of presenting.  They get to show 20 pictures and talk for 20 seconds about each one.  So it is very condensed, to the point, deep with meaning and rich with imagery. I felt very inspired to create after attending this event, and who knows, maybe I'll get up and present next time.  Here is a link to their site: pecha-kucha.org  After getting home I made this.  I took a bunch of tiny boxes that some little solar flashlights (for the store) came in, cut them into thirds and glued them together in a pattern.  I would love to make this bigger, to fill an entire window.

Day 147: I have been working on my table a little bit here and there, but I got so involved in it today, that it became my project for the day.  I spent several hours gluing more paper all over it.  I am really starting to love how it looks and to believe that I might actually finish it.

Day 148:  I started another cardboard tube project.  So far I've just sawed a bunch of pieces and have begun to arrange them.  It's gonna be sweet.