The pen has been busy again lately. Below are a couple of recent pieces of 'found poetry' and some altered anatomy pages.

 

developing foetus brain

The nervous system- now an alien being

We have a winner!!

Thanks to all of you that entered my little found poetry challenge, and that voted too.

We have a clear winner, and that is ATI!! Congrats Ati. I am on holiday at the moment so i will get on with my side of the bargain this week. Can't promise a timeline, but it will get done :)

Found Poetry challenge - time to vote

I received some lovely entries, so time for you to read and decide.
Please vote in the comments below. Each poem will have a number, so  please note that in the comments. :)   
I have to say, I know a couple of these people personally, and these poems are deeply personal, which makes them all the more special for me to receive them. 
Thank you all for participating .
XX
Jo

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poem 1 - Ati

go with me to the light
finding ourselves in nature
put me in your heart
for two special reasons
my life and soul were driven into love
and that, I hope, shall give me peace

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Poem 2 - SC

contemplate my life,

o curious life.

I knew not my heart:

eyes blind.

But see my heart flourish!

Be satisfied, not grieved...

Eyes sparkling, I love.

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Poem 3 - Deb

A parting soul flies to the sun.

This realm left mourning;

    bold, cureless wounds.

no strength.... no air.... no father.

Now breathe!

             ~pause~

                                   remember.

                                                      Love!

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Poem 4 - Lianne

His bones cry 'go with me',
speak what the world should be;
Virtue, soul, great love in all, that grace and hope will teach.
Imagine now my naked heart shall be so ruled by peace

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

poem 5 - Leslie

Far beyond mistrust

I'll give my heart.

Woe , grief, pity are fatal-

my heart shall be valiant.

Away! Flying with grasped hands,

I love!

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Please go and vote in the comments !!

ps. It's ok to vote for yourself :)

the poetry flows.....

I have already received some amazing pieces.

I have updated the email too, as the one I posted some people were having trouble with. So email to         playcentrejo(at)gmail(dot)com

If anyone out there knows how I can add a poll (for voting ) to my blog, I would love some PD on that :)

XX

Found poetry challenge and giveaway

It has been such a long time since I have done a giveaway, but here we go, time for some fun, but you have a role to play in this. It's not a free ride. Your entry will be your words..... 

Thou hath love. 
Shall we part?
No!
We fly and seek Heaven
Our sorrows wither.

I have been working on some new zentangle pieces utilising pages from Shakespeare's complete works. You can see more examples of what I have done here.

Desperate honesty hides my oath,
my beloved friend.
Let time deliver her design.
What knowledge would your spirit need
for flight?

So, what I was thinking was, I would post a couple of  'virgin' pages, and you could come up with your own found poetry. We will do a bit of a vote, or maybe a random draw, and I will then add the art to your own Found Poetry page, and mail it to you. 

What do you think about that?

worthy lady,
impose your pleasure
to thou ignorant valentine.
My soul loved thy heart,
and would desire
thy company.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

You will need to upload the following pages from this post (permission granted), find your "poetry" - and I am very loose about the poetry - it doesnt need to rhyme (mine dont), just words that , in your mind, make some kind of sense. You can underline, circle, black out redundant words, whatever you like.
Once complete, email the file back to me, and I will post all the entries here in one post  (permission assumed). You can post to your own blog if you have one.
It would be useful if you could send me your poetry written out as you intend it to be read, with punctuation etc.

email your found poetry to playcentrejo(at)gmail(dot)com
If for some reason you cant download your favourite page, email me and I will send to you :) just let me know which page number you would like.
I am going to  set a deadline of 31st March to have your pieces back to me, and then we will post and decide.... I do hope some of you will participate.

 I have spirit.
I know peace.
Pity is a burden to endure.
Silence and truths serve all I have.
My intergrity
leaves me naked.
Farewell...

I have listed some Valentine (or anytime is good for love!!) cards on Etsy and Felt (NZ). If you fancy ordering please do so quickly as I am taking a little trip over the ditch to Melbourne  for 1-6 Feb, and posting to US/International will be cutting it really fine if I post when I get back. Inconvenient, but SO EXCITING!! My first proper trip overseas.

Anyways, here's the goods

Heart on a String

Bleeding Heart

ETSY 
FELT  

the Mammoth Gingerbread House Mission : Complete!!! (pic heavy)

Quite a day. At least 7.4 kilos of candy consumed. approx 1.7 kg made it onto a house!!

MISSION COMPLETE!!!

Mammouth Gingerbread House Mission 2011

So, in my effort to take out the 'best parent of the year award' this year (just invented by me as I think I am in with a chance this year) , and because we have a whole week to kill between school finishing and Christmas, I though I would make each of my children (and random others) individual Gingerbread houses to decorate. MAD, I know. I have NEVER done these before, so it is not like I am building on prior knowledge and just diversifying , I am just going for it.

Phase 1.1 - the dough making, successful

Phase 1.2 - chilling - successful

Phase 2.1 - rolling cutting and baking - reasonably successful

phase 3.1 - assembeling-ultimately successful - I had one redo as I dropped the icing contraption on one, and I did need to 'whittle' away little bits here and there to get a good fit. Note to self, do do the trim check when pieces are straight out of the oven and still warm enough to do this easily, carving with a short sharp knife is not desirable on very hard gingerbread!

Phase 4.1  - commences tomorrow - watch this space for the hot, sugary, mess that results from this.

Anyone want 3 kids for a sleepover tomorrow??

2011 Ornament mission

Several years ago , you will recall, I started the "hand made ornament" tradition. So of course, I feel like I can't give it up now. As the years have gone on, I must admit, my designs have gotten simpler and easier to achieve. This years had to be particularly achievable, as it is already December!! and I haven't even thought about what to do.
You can see previous years offerings on my flickr page.

A quick whizz through Craft Gossip, and I had several ideas. I also flicked through previous journals and had quite a few ideas in there. Here is what I started with

you can find a tutorial here .This was just super easy to do. I intended to add another bead, and a "name tag" hanging from the bottom.

These fitted all the requirements, but I really wasnt 100% satisfied. Back to the net, and Craft Gossip to the rescue again!

Aren't these just the cutest thing you ever did see?? These are pretty tiny, just over 2.5" long. I am going to put a  little candy cane, or maybe a Hersheys kiss or something in each one. I have at least 20 of these to make.....I made these 2 last night, and time allowing, they may get a little more bling.
You can tell how outvof practise my needle skills are. Some of these I have seen have gorgeous , intricate, knotted blanket stitches around them. Instructions said whip stitch, and that is where I left it. They still need some kind of hanging loop.
Tutorial ,and pattern templates can be found here. The first template printed out really big, so I just reduced the size until the were teeny tiny, and elf like.