Still more cool trash!

More colorful stuff for my Sketchbook Project:

Green junk!

Yellow junk!

Brown & blue junk!

Pink & red junk!

Every color junk!

I can't wait to start playing around with my treasures.

Really cool trash

I'm excited to be part of the 2010 Sketchbook Project (see here for more details).  There were tons of categories to sign up for; I chose "I'm a Scavenger" because, well, I'm a scavenger.  I love finding oddball bits and bobs on the ground, on the beach, in my junk mail pile...

My sketchbook is due back at Sketchbook Headquarters at the end of the year, so my plan (and it's working perfectly) was to gather up a big bag of scavenged treasures during the summer and then work on my journal in the fall. 

Curious about what I'd amassed so far, I emptied out my bag o' goodies and found I really had collected some cool stuff to work with.  Given my obsession with sorting art supplies by color, here's a sampling of what I've collected so far:

A new obsession...SECURITY ENVELOPES!  They are so cool inside.  They almost make getting bills fun...almost.

Now I know the first question you're going to ask is, "Hmm, if you're supposed to put your payment into these envelopes and mail them, and you have so many unmailed envelopes, just how many unpaid bills do you have?"  Never fear, Gentle Readers, one gets many more requests for payment than one actually owes (suspicious "charities", magazine renewals, "If you act now" credit card offers...) so one may accumulate a healthy pile of security envelopes without ruining one's credit score.

Here's an assortment of snippets of brochures, junk mail, catalogues, used label detritus, an old bookmark and burst balloons:

A disassembled greeting card and root beer carton along with a velvet watch band, fake credit card, gift tag and empty matchbook:

More security envelopes...isn't the variation in design amazing?  My favorite is the 4th from the right that looks like little penguins. 

Inserts from a pair of gloves, airtight aluminum seal from a big can of peanuts, cording from an old tote bag:

More cool stuff tomorrow...

Volunteer Park

I recently breezed through the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park for the first time in a LONG time.  I say "breezed" because it was 7 minutes until closing time and the place is NOT small.  Here's a little sample of the outside of the building and its environs, including a lily pad pond.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way these panels are printed to look like birds are casting shadows on them:

Okay, I'm making this up but this door must have been at least 30 feet tall, at least!  At least!

I'd like to say that the blurriness in this photograph was part of an intentional artsy look, but I think I just moved my camera trying to capture the fish:

Proof of above theory...no fish = no blurriness

Blurry = fish

Perfect Pairs: Traveling

A kiddie "car" at a playground

Converging railroad tracks in Kirkland

Perfect Pairs: Don't Belong

The small balcony in my work building

A marina

Perfect Pairs: Yaba Ding Dings

Remember this post about why pottery shards are called Yaba Ding Dings?  Well, here's a perfect pair of them:

Yellow pottery shards found on Washington beaches

150-year-old transferware pottery shard found on St. Eustatius

Urban texture

Perfect Pairs: Faux Monet

Single flower in a park

View from a small bridge on a campus

Lisa + Cindy = McGyver

My old, old garbage disposal began leaking like a sieve.  I tried slapping plumber's epoxy over the hole, but when the diverted water started coming out by the electrical cord I realized it would be better to fork over money for a new one rather than, say...GET ELECTROCUTED.

Luckily for me, a coworker gave me a gently used replacement unit...so as long as I could take out the old one and put in the new one, this little adventure wouldn't cost me a dime.

Taking the old one out was easy-peasy.  Putting the new one in THEORETICALLY would be easy (the fittings were the same) but trying to hoist the heavy little bugger up in the tight undersink space AND turn the fitting at the top proved too much for me to do alone.

Enter my dear friend Lisa Hilderbrand who came over today to help me plan my backyard garden, lovingly known as the "jungle slope from hell."  For about an hour she walked around, making mental notes and saying things like, "We'll put 3 australopithicus northwesticus right there and how about a row of gianticus juniperiatium along here".  When she was finished we came inside for a beverage and I showed her the gaping hole in my sink. 

"If I had a little help," I started out hopefully, "I probably wouldn't have to hire a plumber."

Lisa gamely got down in front of the sink and surveyed the scene. I suggested a team approach.  I would lay down in the cabinet with my head directly under the big gaping hole and push the big heavy disposal unit up against the retaining collar which she would quickly move into a locked position.  My thinking was that I could bench press more weight straight up than I could at a weird angle.

And while that may be true in theory, in actuality it was a really bad idea.  For one, I didn't exactly fit in the small cabinet.  Second, the human body is not built to lay with the head and shoulders inside a cabinet and the remaining body 6 inches lower on the floor.  And third, it occurred to me that more than one Darwin award had been posthumously given to someone who offed themselves by dropping something really heavy onto their face in a confined space. 

After a few minutes of struggling, I extricated myself.  Lisa said, "It's too heavy to hold, let's put in on this box for support."  So we layered a wooden cutting board on top of a cardboard box...which helped but was still about 2 inches too low.

Then Lisa had the brilliant idea of using LEVERAGE rather than brute strength.  "Give me a 2x4," she crisply ordered, much like a surgeon requesting a scalpel.  Having at least one of EVERYTHING in my house, I was able to smartly grab a board that was about 8 feet long which she wedged between the cutting board and the disposal unit.

We pushed down on the long end and sure enough, the disposal unit moved up and it came SO CLOSE...but unlike horseshoes and hand grenades, merely close was not going to be good enough.

"How about the jack in my car?" I asked.

"Is it hydraulic?" Lisa wanted to know.  Lisa is not afraid of big, noisy tools.

"Hydraulic?" I thought. "What else does that woman have in her trunk?"  But I merely said, "Uh, no...it's...you know...one of those little crank-it-up-a-millimeter-at-a-time kinds."

"Well, let's try it."

So we did...

And we kept cranking, higher and higher, until it was wedged firmly against the metal collar.

And then we were able to twist the little retaining gizmo into place and voila...it worked! Look, ma...NO HANDS! 

We were so damn McGyver we could hardly stand ourselves!

And then I did what I always do when I figure out a little challenge like this.  I look for other "nails" to proudly hit with my new "hammer".  "What else do you think we could use my car jack for?" I asked Lisa.

"Holding up a sofa or chair when a leg breaks," came immediately to Lisa's mind.

I glanced around my house; sadly, no hoisting opportunities presented themselves.  All of my couch legs were intact...and everything else in the house seemed to be at the right height. 

No worries, though...it can't be long before something else breaks and when it does I know my inner McGyver (and probably my friend Lisa) will save the day. 

Funky Urban Greenery

Oddball graffiti, murals and signs around town:

On a railroad car:

On a bank:

In front of a business:

And what is the deal with this hooded cat-monster?  I see it all over the place.

Wall near abandoned railroad tracks:

Perfect Pairs: Blue & White

Planter on main street on Vashon Island

Statue on side of St. John's Catholic church

Eco Wrapping

I made a pair of earrings for a friend recently and didn't have a small gift box for them.  I did however have about 2 million corrugated cardboard coffee holders from my 2 million drive through trips through the Giant-Coffee-Franchise-That-Shall-Remain-Nameless-But-Is-Very-Well-Known-In-Seattle-Whose-Name-Has-Something-To-Do-With-Moby-Dick.  I keep meaning to do something really, really clever and eco-heroic with them...meanwhile they made the perfect little cushy container for the earrings.

And any moment I'm going to be struck with inspiration on what to do with the other 1,999,999 of the little suckers.

Georgetown Earthtones

Captured this king of the forest:

Captured this little golden purrbox who didn't want to be captured:

Wasn't hard to capture this raku pot:

...or this metal flower:

...or this cast cross planted in a section of terra cotta pipe:

...or this uncommonly dark little plant:

It WAS hard to capture the dewdrops on a spider's web: