day 257

what to do with sticks?  make art, of course

day 256

i created a lot of pencil shavings to get this one made

day 255

i had fun sewing on the old screen door of the empty cabin next door, and loved it when i realized the red matched the tiny spot of paint next to the handle

day 254

the sealer on the deck made this water heart tricky to do!

day 253

a very small but quite labor-intensive quilled heart, using strips of paper from magazines

day 252

possibly my favorite of all....i was discouraged this day, feeling hopelessly uncreative.  i was moping outside reading the Hunger Games when my watch face caught the sunlight and i began playing with the circular reflection on my book.  as it crossed the center, the circle became a perfect heart.  now i had to jump up for my camera and recreate the whole thing, turning my book upside down, and ultimately turning the whole photo upside down to get a right-side-up heart.  a gift from God that day, just when i needed it, and my spirits were quite renewed!

day 251

such nice, bright, cooperative balloons!

day 250

thanks to this vintage spool of thread, this heart is cuter than it might have been

day 249

french knots.  simple!

day 248

a milkweed pod, split down the side.  the top picture is right after I cut it open, and the bottom picture is how it looked after 3 days when the seeds dried out and started floating away

day 247

a carefully carved pretzel at home in a spoonful of mustard

day 246

ah!  the best bread and butter ever at a favorite ann arbor, michigan restaurant

day 245

a friend taught me how to make these little paper links, and i managed to create a heart-shaped chain of them

day 244

on the road...a late night visit to the breakfast buffet at a hotel provided the salt and pepper to make today's heart!

day 243

almost midnight again....coat hanger to the rescue

day 242

silly putty, with thanks to Peanuts

day 241

a quarter-sized drop of paint, with a white paint carefully dropped inside

day 240

a fun experiment cutting and folding paper, using tabs and slits to stand it up and hold it all in place

day 239

a simple paper mobile

day 238

11:45 p.m. and no heart!  my husband brought me all of his ties and i arranged them so the ends formed a negative space heart - in the nick of time

day 237

silly miss millie and the pipe cleaner heart

day 236

lemon slices love a lemon drop martini, too

day 235

just a funny first attempt acrylic painting -    but i sort of like it!

day 234

styrofoam, acetate, and cranberry juice

day 233

an unexpected gift from a deceased dragonfly

day 232

paperclips can be so much more fun than....paperclips

day 231

it was tricky, but my cheerios were pretty cooperative

day 230

playing with my food.  again.

day 229

i sacrificed a perfectly good pillow case to get this stain made from bleach!

day 228

revisiting my childhood with a potato print

day 227

a little manipulation of a water droplet - i love how this one turned out

day 226

understandably appealing only to carnivores

+

day 225

loved this one!  i had been thinking of this for a long time and it finally came to be.  it was a happy surprise that my daughter (right) and her friend have hair exactly the same length!  i love the straight vs. curly!

day 224

ok, so the bruise was just a start, but with a little eye shadow  you would swear it really was heart-shaped!

day 223

it was a "what am i going to do?!" night .... and, predictably, the inspiration was there

day 222

one length of ribbon and two beads...

day 221

i don't know why there are random "v"s cut into our curbs, but they do make a nice start to a heart

day 220

     confession:  i do love my occasional     Meal of Happiness.  french fry love.

day 219

     Pizza trying to be a heart.  It's a stretch (but it was tasty).

day 218

after spotting a promising-looking bush outside a local restaurant, I crept over on an early sunday morning with my clippers - my daughter as an accomplice - and (feeling quite the mischief-maker) with a few snips transformed it ....... i hope diners are pleasantly surprised