In praise of DIY - Outdoor furniture

These pieces, a glider bench, glider chair, small table, and chaise lounges, were all made with hand tools (some electric) and materials from the local hardware store.  The cushions for the chaise lounges were made with regular pillows.  All click to enlarge.

 

A young woman who helped spark a revolution!

 

26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz of Egypt was featured in the New York Times yesterday.  On January 18th she recorded this video and uploaded it to YouTube and Facebook where it quickly went viral.  It called for her fellow citizens to join her in protest in Tahrir Square on January 25th. 

“As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope.”

Thinking of the people of Egypt

 

  

Van Gogh Pie Charts by Arthur Buxton

(click to enlarge slightly)

It says: "28 van Gogh paintings visualized as pie charts showing the five most common colours in each as a percentage.  Can you tell which one's which?"

Art meets science and makes beautiful children.  Would love to see more!  Artist Arthur Buxton is having a show at The Arts House in Bristol with a reception on Friday the 18th of February. 

Knit the Dr. Who Scarf

 Jodi's comment on the knitting post a few days ago reminded me of an awesome Xmas gift she made a few years back for one proud geek we both know....a Dr. Who scarf.  Above is actor Tom Baker in the original scarf and below is Jodi's scarf.  A website devoted to the history of this iconic scarf, complete with free knitting instructions, can be found at doctorwhoscarf.com.

Where you can buy William Morris wallpaper

 Willow

Charles Rupert Designs and Historic Style.  An older post about Wm Morris wallpaper is here (you can also search blog using "wallpaper" for additional posts or click on "wallpaper" in tag cloud).

Chrysanthemum

 Daisy

 Vine

Larkspur

Wild Tulip

Marigold

Barrier island walk

back at the Chat 'N' Chill...

Deciphering the Knitting Code

I like to knit, especially small cute items for little kids that can be finished in my lifetime---the hardest part is always deciphering the direction codes in the knitting patterns....in such cases, a knitting guru (thanks Deb!) or the internet comes in handy. The pattern for the hats above can be found here.

Here are some more adorable patterns I'd like to try from Morehouse Farm (that are also sold as kits).

 hedgehog mittens

 pagoda hat (imagine this in lots of crazy colors)

 penguin mittens

add an iceberg hat!

confetti hat

Winter bean bouquet

Found tree beans make a bouquet inspired by Al Moudira visit. 

BBC's Desperate Romantics

Millais, Rossetti, Hunt, and "Fred"

After two marathon nights of viewing, regrettably I can give only a mixed review of BBC's six episode mini-series about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Desperate Romantics.  It started off great, focusing on the friendship of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and a fourth fictionalized friend Fred along with their love interests, Lizzie Siddal, Fanny Cornforth, Effie Gray, and Annie Miller.  All of these characters were brilliantly realized and acted, offering convincing portrayals of our favorite bohemian bad-boys and their gals (as well as the sexually repressed, if not downright perverted Ruskin).  Rossetti in particular, portrayed by Aidan Turner, was mesmerizing....who couldn't fall for this charming roue´?  I hope we see him again soon.

 Lizzie posing as Ophelia in tub

But then episode 5....oh woe is me...introduced William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and Jane Burden.  Ugh!  Could these actors have been any less convincing in their roles!?!  Morris was played as a simpering, stuttering buffoon who at one point, quite literally, impales himself in the back of his hand with a fork while seemingly jizzing in his pants.  Seriously, there is not one moment in the portrayal of Morris by this actor where even a glimmer of the man's genius and creatively is allowed to shine.  Jane, the most stunning of the "stunners", who history anointed the embodiment of pre-Raphaelite ideals of beauty, is played by a nondescript woman with bad skin.  I can't even find "in-character" photographs of these actors on the web to show you---testament to how quickly everyone, even the actors, wanted to forget about them?  Did the director make any effort at all to think about these "minor" characters?   Masterpiece Theater and BBC, isn't it time for a real mini-series about the life of the great one?

Rossetti and Ruskin

Hunt posing in front of the hideous "Scapegoat" (one gal's opinion).

Zeus's thunderbolts of antimatter!

 Image credit: Joe Dwyer/Florida Inst. of Technology

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, designed to search for antimatter in the farthest reaches of the solar system, has recently detected beams of antimatter launched by thunderstorms right here in our backyards!!!  Apparently, thunderheads act like enormous particle accelerators emitting not only gamma-ray flashes (magenta in above pic) which scientists knew about, but also newly discovered jets of particle beams (yellow) and antimatter (green).  This is going on tens to hundreds of kilometers above our heads!

Watch the Gamma Ray/antimatter burst in all its full-screen exploding beauty by clicking here (really, the antimatter look like little worms trying to escape).

Steven Cummer, an atmospheric electricity researcher from Duke University, to the BBC:

"I think this is one of the most exciting discoveries in the geosciences in quite a long time - the idea that any planet has thunderstorms that can create antimatter and then launch it into space in narrow beams that can be detected by orbiting spacecraft to me sounds like something straight out of science fiction."

Anne, you knew this all along didn't you?  And does this mean we didn't really need the nine billion dollar Large Hadron Collider after all?   Thanks Steve P. for the "heads up"!

Devastating Beauty, Abstraction of Destruction

Agent Orange, Canadys, SC , 2009, Coal ash waste at electricity generation station, 50 x 70 in.

Ectoplasm, Geismar, LA, 2005
Phospho-gypsum waste at a fertilizer manufacturing plant
30 x 40 in.

 

 Untitled, Saint James, LA, 2010
Waste from fertilizer manufacture
50 x 70 in 

These incredible photographs, shot from the air over Louisiana and South Carolina, are just a few of the ones J. Henry Fair, artist, conservationist, eco-warrior, and friend, is showing at an exhibit opening this week at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Manhattan. You may also remember Henry's work from the post about James Hansen's protest of mountaintop coal mining in West Virginia.  More of the exhibit photographs can be viewed at the gallery link above---they must be incredibly powerful experienced first-hand.  Here is a link to a video of Henry talking about this work that was published by Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Underfoot at Topkapi Palace

 a beautiful drain

 a mysterious drain

 recycled pavement