Saturday 21 February 2009

paper dolls in progress....


Blessings everyone... )O(


I have been working on some paper doll designs for the la belle fleur journal...I thought only one would be lonely :)
I think one for every month or dream would be cool....

I am really enjoying this process...little creations..

I will be adding finished pics by the end of the week, please pop by - it would be great to leave a comment and let me know your feelings on them :)


love and light with big warm hugs

Trace x

Friday 20 February 2009

Mitochondrial Eve .....




Mitochondrial Eve


my notes:


I love to incorporate history, mythology etc within my creations...so I research alot ...

I need to create and via my findings I try to send a spiritual message through my work - it may not always be clear , but it is present...created by the procedure itself.......



I have an interest in the Picts (although not a great deal is known) I mention this because they followed Matrilineality

( a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors) ...

I feel a connection to the feminine, goddess and for a group of people to follow this method inspires me.



It was interesting that we discovered Mitochondrial Eve...and how far apart she was from y chromosomal Adam....we all derived from her...the female ... it makes sense the old ways of appreciation for the mother...the female deity...goddess....giver of life....the goddess statues unearthed....

We had forgotten the information over time...now it is beginning to re-earth....



Below is a scientific explanation of Mitochondrial Eve :



Mitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is defined as the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all currently living humans. Passed down from mother to offspring, her mitochondrial DNA is now found in all living humans: every mtDNA in every living person is derived from hers. Mitochondrial Eve is the female counterpart of Y-chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor, although they lived at different times.


She is believed to have lived about 140,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania.


All living humans can trace their ancestry back to the MRCA via at least one of their parents, but Mitochondrial Eve is defined via the maternal line.

Therefore, she necessarily lived at least as long, though likely much longer, ago than the MRCA of all humanity.
The existence of Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam does not imply the existence of a first couple.


They each may have lived within a large human population at a different time.


To find the Mitochondrial Eve of all living humans, one can start by tracing a line from every individual to his/her mother, then continue those lines from each of those mothers to their mothers and so on, effectively tracing a family tree backward in time based purely on mitochondrial lineages.


Going back through time these mitochondrial lineages will converge when two or more women have the same mother. The further back in time one goes, the fewer mitochondrial ancestors of living humans there will be.


Eventually only one is left, and this one is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of all

humans alive today, i.e. Mitochondrial Eve.


It is possible to draw the same matrilineal tree forward in time by starting with all human female contemporaries of Mitochondrial Eve.


Some of these women may have died childless. Others left only male children. For the rest who became mothers with at least one daughter, one can trace a line forward in time connecting them to their daughter(s).


As the forward lineages progress in time, more and more lineage lines become extinct, as the last female in a line dies childless or leaves no female children. Eventually, only one single lineage remains, which includes all mothers, and in the next generation, all people, and hence all people alive today.


Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor, not the MRCA of all humans. The MRCA's offspring have led to all living humans via sons and daughters, but Mitochondrial Eve must be traced only through female lineages, so she is estimated to have lived much longer ago than the MRCA (In genetics, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all organisms in the group are directly descended)


important note:


Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived about 140,000 years ago. Y-chromosomal Adam is estimated to have lived around 60,000 years ago.
love and light
trace x

A Reiki Healing Experiment....

Mer ka fa ka lish ma - reiki


Mitochondria are little organelles in our cells that provide the energy our bodies run on and other services. In humans Mitochonrdrial DNA is inherited from the Mother.
There are many diseases that can occur from defective mitochondria so why not give oneself a tune up and send a little Reiki love to the dear little (possible) symbiotes give us the spring in our step and puts vim in our vigor!


Ground
Shield
Invite your spirit guides & allies for assistance and supportSend Reiki and all other Divine energies that serve your highest good to every strand of your Mitochondrial DNA.
Use Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen and what other reiki symbols you feel drawn to.
If you are attuned to Shamballa Reiki use Mer Ka Fa Ka Lish Ma as well.
Send for a few minutes until you feel this work is done for that session.


Reground & thank your spirit helpers.
Exercise to heal your regular DNA here:DNA Healing: A Reiki Healing Experiment
namaste'
)O(

Heraldry...my families coat of arms...


My family Heraldry

(mums branch) Wolstenholme & McCartney (fathers branch)


The surname WOLSTENHOLME was a locational name

'of Wolstenholme'

a spot in Rochdale, County Lancashire.


First held a family seat from very ancient times before and after the norman conquest in 1066, in Wolstenholme, near Warrington in that shire.


Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. The name was derived from the old English word WULFSTAN and HOLMR literally meaning the dweller at the dry land in a fen.

Early records of the name mention Andrew de Wolstanesholm, documented in the year 1300 in Lancashire

The name has many variant spellings which include Wolstonholme, Woolstenhulme, Worstenholme, Wostenholm, Wusteman, Woosnam and Woosman.


The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884.

The arms are registered at Newtown, County Montgomery.


It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of coats of arms first became hereditary and it was not until the Crusades that Heraldry came into general use.


motto


in ardua virtus

meaning

virtue against difficulties


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Notible Wolstenholme names:

Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield


was a British peer. Before inheriting the earldom, he sat in the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire from 1837 until 1841.

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Monuments of the Wolstenholmes

Stanmore: The present church (dedicated to St. John) was built at the sole expence of Sir John Wolstenholme, Knt. on a piece of ground given by Mrs. Barbara Burnell, Sir Thomas Lake, and Mr. Robinson. It was consecrated by Bishop Laud, on the 16th of July 1632
From: 'Stanmore Magna'

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When searching for a coat of arms from countries other than England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, they are reffered to by different names, inGermany: Wappen, Familienwappen, Blasonierung, Heraldik, WappenschablonenNetherlands: Wapen, Wapenschid, Heraldiek, FamiliewapenSweden: Slaktvapen, Heraldik Denmark: FamilievabenPoland: Herby, Herb, Herbu, HerbarzFrance: ArmoiriesSpain: Heraldica de Apellidos, Escudo, Heraldaria


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Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms.


--------



Heraldry
Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound *harja-waldaz, "army commander


The word, in its most general sense, encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.



To most, though, heraldry is the practice of designing, displaying, describing, and recording coats of arms and badges. Historically, it has been variously described as "the shorthand of history" and "the floral border in the garden of history."



The origins of heraldry lie in the need to distinguish participants in combat when their faces were hidden by iron and steel helmets.


Eventually a formal system of rules developed into ever more complex forms of heraldry.

The system of blazoning arms that is used in English-speaking countries today was developed by the officers of arms in the Middle Ages. This includes a stylized description of the escutcheon (shield), the crest, and, if present, supporters, mottoes, and other insignia. Certain rules apply, such as the Rule of tincture.

Though heraldry is nearly 900 years old, it is still very much in use.

Many cities and towns in Europe and around the world still make use of arms. Personal heraldry, both legally protected and lawfully assumed, has continued to be used around the world. Heraldic societies exist to promote education and understanding about the subject.

At the time of the Norman conquest of England, heraldry in its essential sense of an inheritable emblem had not yet been developed. The knights in the Bayeux Tapestry carry shields, but there appears to have been no system of hereditary coats of arms.

By the middle of the 12th century, coats of arms were being inherited by the children of armigers (persons entitled to use a coat of arms) across Europe.

In the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, heraldry became a highly developed discipline, regulated by professional officers of arms. As its use in jousting became obsolete, coats of arms remained popular for visually identifying a person in other ways — impressed in sealing wax on documents, carved on family tombs, and flown as a banner on country homes.

Traditionally, as women did not go to war, they did not bear a shield, instead, women's coats of arms were shown on a lozenge—a rhombus standing on one of its acute corners. This continues true in much of the world, though some heraldic authorities, such as Scotland's, with its ovals for women's arms, make exceptions

colours

The names used in English blazon for the colors and metals come mainly from French and include Or (gold), Argent (white), Azure (blue), Gules (red), Sable (black), Vert (green), and Purpure (purple).

Mottoes

An armorial motto is a phrase or collection of words intended to describe the motivation or intention of the armigerous person or corporation.

Mottoes are generally changed at will and do not make up an integral part of the armorial achievement. Mottoes can typically be found on a scroll under the shield. In Scottish heraldry where the motto is granted as part of the blazon, it is usually shown on a scroll above the crest, and may not be changed at will. A motto may be in any language

Since arms pass from parents to offspring, and there are frequently more than one child per couple, it is necessary to distinguish the arms of siblings and extended family members from the original arms as passed on from eldest son to eldest son.



love and light
trace x

Chivalry....



Chivalry
Chivalry is a term relating to the medieval institution of knighthood.
It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and courtly love. Today, the terms chivalry and chivalrous are used to describe courteous behavior, especially that of men towards women.
The term originated in France in the late 10th century; based on the words for "knight" (French: chevalier), and "horse" (French: cheval).
The term chivalry is very commonly found in medieval chronicles, vernacular literature and other written records, but its meaning varies. It can refer to a company of mounted knights. It can mean the status of being a knight, either as an occupation or as a social class. In legal documents, references to lands held in chivalry imply a type of land tenure in which military service was owed, as in feudalism.
From the 12th century onward chivalry came to be understood as a moral, religious and social code of knightly conduct. The particulars of the code varied, but codes would emphasize the virtues of courage, honor, and service. Chivalry also came to refer to an idealization of the life and manners of the knight at home in his castle and with his court.
Medieval knights glorified and identified with the valor, tactics and ideals of ancient Romans.
The medieval knightly class was adept at the art of war, trained in fighting in armor, with horses, lances, swords and shields. Knights were taught to excel in the arms, to show courage, to be gallant, loyal and to swear off cowardice and baseness.
Related to chivalry was the practice of heraldry and its elaborate rules of displaying coats of arms. When not fighting, chivalric knights typically resided in a castle or fortified house, while some knights lived in the courts of kings, dukes and other great lords. The skills of the knight carried over to peacetime activities such as the hunt and tournament.
The tradition of the chivalric "knight in shining armor" can be traced back to the Arabs, with notable pre-Islamic figures like the Bedouin knight Antar The Lion (580 CE). He is believed to be the model of this tradition
Christianity had a modifying influence on the virtues of chivalry. The Peace and Truce of God in the 10th century was one such example, with limits placed on knights to protect and honor the weaker members of society and also help the church maintain peace. At the same time the church became more tolerant of war in the defense of faith.
ideas of chivalry were also further influenced by Saladin, who was viewed as a chivalrous knight by medieval Christian writers.
The relationship between knights and the nobility varied based on region. In France being dubbed a knight also bestowed noble status. In Germany and the Low Countries, knights and the nobility were distinctly different classes. In England, the relations between knights, nobles and land-owning gentry were complex.
definition:
"Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit or state of mind which disposes men to heroic actions, and keeps them conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral world."

“When a knight found a maiden who caught his eye it was customary for him to ask if he might be her champion.
Today, a champion is someone who bats over .400 or wins a wrestling match.
But, in that time to champion was to fight for or defend a person or cause.
If the lady accepted him as her champion she would present him with a token, such as a handkerchief. She may have chosen to drop the handkerchief, hoping the knight would retrieve it. If he did, he became her champion and he kept the token inside his armor.

“In that age of villains and ruffians, a maiden would derive protection from having a champion. The mere mention of his name, such as Sir William of Pembroke, would afford her a measure of safety. Anyone with any sense knew better than to harm a knight’s lady, because he would pursue them to defend her honor.”


from: everyday mommy

Romantic conceptualism....period 1750-1850


Introduction to Romanticism
Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art.
Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.

Historical Considerations
It is one of the curiosities of literary history that the strongholds of the Romantic Movement were England and Germany, not the countries of the romance languages themselves.
Thus it is from the historians of English and German literature that we inherit the convenient set of terminal dates for the Romantic period, beginning in 1798, the year of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge and of the composition of Hymns to the Night by Novalis, and ending in 1832, the year which marked the deaths of both Sir Walter Scott and Goethe.
However, as an international movement affecting all the arts, Romanticism begins at least in the 1770's and continues into the second half of the nineteenth century, later for American literature than for European, and later in some of the arts, like music and painting, than in literature.
This extended chronological spectrum (1770-1870) also permits recognition as Romantic the poetry of Robert Burns and William Blake in England, the early writings of Goethe and Schiller in Germany, and the great period of influence for Rousseau's writings throughout Europe.

The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution.
A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the very way we perceive the world. Some of its major precepts have survived into the twentieth century and still affect our contemporary period.

Imagination

The imagination was elevated to a position as the supreme faculty of the mind.
This contrasted distinctly with the traditional arguments for the supremacy of reason.
The Romantics tended to define and to present the imagination as our ultimate "shaping" or creative power, the approximate human equivalent of the creative powers of nature or even deity.
It is dynamic, an active, rather than passive power, with many functions. Imagination is the primary faculty for creating all art.
On a broader scale, it is also the faculty that helps humans to constitute reality, for (as Wordsworth suggested), we not only perceive the world around us, but also in part create it.
Uniting both reason and feeling
(Coleridge described it with the paradoxical phrase, "intellectual intuition"),
imagination is extolled as the ultimate synthesizing faculty, enabling humans to reconcile differences and opposites in the world of appearance.
The reconciliation of opposites is a central ideal for the Romantics.
Finally, imagination is inextricably bound up with the other two major concepts, for it is presumed to be the faculty which enables us to "read" nature as a system of symbols.

Nature
"Nature" meant many things to the Romantics. As suggested above, it was often presented as itself a work of art, constructed by a divine imagination, in emblematic language.
For example, throughout "Song of Myself," Whitman makes a practice of presenting commonplace items in nature--"ants," "heap'd stones," and "poke-weed"--as containing divine elements, and he refers to the "grass" as a natural "hieroglyphic," "the handkerchief of the Lord."
While particular perspectives with regard to nature varied considerably--nature as a healing power, nature as a source of subject and image, nature as a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization, including artificial language--
the prevailing views accorded nature the status of an organically unified whole.
It was viewed as "organic," rather than, as in the scientific or rationalist view, as a system of "mechanical" laws, for Romanticism displaced the rationalist view of the universe as a machine (e.g., the deistic image of a clock) with the analogue of an "organic" image, a living tree or mankind itself.
At the same time, Romantics gave greater attention both to describing natural phenomena accurately and to capturing "sensuous nuance"--and this is as true of Romantic landscape painting as of Romantic nature poetry.
Accuracy of observation, however, was not sought for its own sake. Romantic nature poetry is essentially a poetry of meditation.

Symbolism and Myth
Symbolism and myth were given great prominence in the Romantic conception of art.
In the Romantic view, symbols were the human aesthetic correlatives of nature's emblematic language.
They were valued too because they could simultaneously suggest many things, and were thus thought superior to the one-to-one communications of allegory.
Partly, it may have been the desire to express the "inexpressible"--the infinite--through the available resources of language that led to symbol at one level and myth (as symbolic narrative) at another.

Other Concepts: Emotion, Lyric Poetry, and the Self
Other aspects of Romanticism were intertwined with the above three concepts.
Emphasis on the activity of the imagination was accompanied by greater emphasis on the importance of intuition, instincts, and feelings, and Romantics generally called for greater attention to the emotions as a necessary supplement to purely logical reason.
When this emphasis was applied to the creation of poetry, a very important shift of focus occurred. Wordsworth's definition of all good poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" marks a turning point in literary history.
By locating the ultimate source of poetry in the individual artist, the tradition, stretching back to the ancients, of valuing art primarily for its ability to imitate human life (that is, for its mimetic qualities) was reversed.
In Romantic theory, art was valuable not so much as a mirror of the external world, but as a source of illumination of the world within.
Among other things, this led to a prominence for first-person lyric poetry never accorded it in any previous period.
The "poetic speaker" became less a persona and more the direct person of the poet. Wordsworth's Prelude and Whitman's "Song of Myself" are both paradigms of successful experiments to take the growth of the poet's mind (the development of self) as subject for an "epic" enterprise made up of lyric components. Confessional prose narratives such as Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and Chateaubriand's Rene (1801), as well as disguised autobiographical verse narratives such as Byron's Childe Harold (1818), are related phenomena.
The interior journey and the development of the self recurred everywhere as subject material for the Romantic artist. The artist-as-hero is a specifically Romantic type.
the Romantics were also fascinated with realms of existence that were...
natural and the supernatural..
The concept of the beautiful soul in an ugly body, as characterized in Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, is another variant of the paradoxical combination
Some critics have believed that the two identifiable movements that followed Romanticism--Symbolism and Realism--were separate developments of the opposites which Romanticism itself had managed, at its best, to unify and to reconcile.
simple terminology:
An early 19th century, pan-European movement in the arts and philosophy.
The term derives from the Romances of the Middle Ages, and refers to an idealization of reality.
In the late 18th century, it came to mean anti-Classical and represented a trend towards the picturesque and the Gothic, and a love of nostalgia, mystery and drama ...
By the early 19th century it had been broadened to include:
an enthusiasm for, and awe of, nature; a political support for liberty; an emphasis on the individual as a unique creative being; opposition to, and fear of, industrialization; an interest in the exotic and primitive; nationalism; and a dissatisfaction with life and a desire for new means of artistic expression.
This breadth of meaning has led to the definition of Romanticism as a 'feeling' and very little else.
I hope you feel enlightened
)O(
Trace x

quote by Ben Okri......


Magic realism

“Only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream.


You dwell in your own enchantment.


Life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery.


Even if you lose, or are defeated by things, your triumph will always be exemplary.


And if no one knows it, then there are places that do.


People like you enrich the dreams of the worlds, and it is dreams that create history.


People like you are unknowing transformers of things, protected by your own fairy-tale,


by love.”

Ben Okri

(Nigerian author who uses magic realism to convey the social & political chaos in his country - 1959)
What is magic realism?
Magic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting.
It has been widely used in relation to literature, art, and film.

As used today the term is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous: Matthew Strecher has defined magic realism as
"what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something "too strange to believe."
The term was initially used by German art critic Franz Roh to describe painting which demonstrated an altered reality
"Without thinking of the concept of magical realism, each writer gives expression to a reality he observes in the people.
magical realism is an attitude on the part of the characters in the novel toward the world,"
or toward nature "If you can explain it, then it's not magical realism."
In fantastic literature, in Borges for example, the writer creates new worlds, perhaps new planets.
By contrast, writers like García Márquez, who use magical realism, don't create new worlds, but suggest the magical in our world
"We are offered a new style that is thoroughly of this world, that celebrates the mundane. This new world of objects is still alien to the current idea of Realism.
It employs various techniques that endow all things with a deeper meaning and reveal mysteries that always threaten the secure tranquility of simple and ingenuous things.... it is a question of representing before our eyes, in an intuitive way, the fact, the interior figure, of the exterior world."
Magical realism, according to Roh, instead faithfully portrays the exterior of an object, and in doing so the spirit, or magic, of the object reveals itself.
the term
"magic realism"
in recent visual art has tended to refer to work which incorporates overtly fantastic elements
designated as "magic realist" artists
More recent "magic realism" has gone beyond mere "overtones" of the fantastic or surreal to depict a more frankly magical reality, with an increasingly tenuous anchoring in "everyday reality". Artists associated with this kind of magic realism include
Fantastic Realism
some combine techniques of the Old Masters with religious and esoteric symbolism
Romantic conceptualism
(also known as conceptual romanticism)
is a strand of conceptual art which seeks to place emotion and a sense of
'the hand of the author'
over the cold intellectualism of most conceptual art.
The movement has its roots in age old ideals of romanticism.
It draws on aspects of magic realism and cynical realism
Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe
It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.
It elevated folk art and custom to something noble, and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage
in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar and distant in modes more authentic than chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.
"Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism
"Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling."
Many intellectual historians have seen Romanticism as a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Whereas the thinkers of the Enlightenment emphasized the primacy of deductive reason, Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism.
The Scottish poet James Macpherson influenced the early development of Romanticism with the international success of his Ossian cycle of poems published in 1762, inspiring both Goethe and the young Walter Scott.
Romanticism in British literature developed in a different form slightly later, mostly associated with the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose co-authored book Lyrical Ballads (1798) sought to reject Augustan poetry in favour of more direct speech derived from folk traditions.
poet and painter William Blake is the most extreme example of the Romantic sensibility in Britain, epitomised by his claim “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.” Blake's artistic work is also strongly influenced by Medieval illuminated books. The painters J. M. W. Turner and John Constable are also generally associated with Romanticism. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats constitute another phase of Romanticism in Britain.
In the United States, romantic gothic literature made an early appearance with Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow 1820) and Rip Van Winkle (1819), followed from 1823 onwards by the Leatherstocking tales of James Fenimore Cooper, with their emphasis on heroic simplicity and their fervent landscape descriptions of an already-exotic mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages", similar to the philosophical theory of Rousseau, exemplified by Uncas, from The Last of the Mohicans
The European Romantic movement that took place in the late eighteenth century reached America in the early nineteenth century. American Romanticism was just as multifaceted and individualistic as it was in Europe
Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world is a source of goodness and human society a source of corruption
Romanticism became popular in American politics, philosophy and art. The movement appealed to the revolutionary spirit of America as well as to those longing to break free of the strict religious traditions of early settlement.
)O(

Thursday 19 February 2009

Kathryn Balint's Ultimate Altered Art....

Make-a-Fairy kit
is the perfect starter set for making altered-art style fairies for layouts or artist trading cards.Included are seven wings
(cut out of vintage newspaper, music and other vintage papers as well as a glittery set of wings); six antique photo cutouts of little children;
three hats; five crowns and a wand with a glittery star.

Make-a-Doll kit
includes everything you need to create an altered-style doll for layouts or artist trading cards.

The kit comes with three porcelain-style doll heads and a vintage baby doll. Also included are six sets of legs painted in black and white and four arms.

To make an arm for the other side of your doll, simply "mirror" the image using your graphics-editing program.

There are five dresses, cut from vintage papers, and a pleated newspaper fan that would great as a collar, skirt or headdress for your art doll.

The spiral journal, torn notebook paper and paperclip are for display purposes only and are not included. Check the rest of Kathryn Balint's Ultimate Altered Art collection for other pieces that will work well with this kit.


Download Fileside: 16 MB



store: https://www.kbandfriends.com/store/product.php?productid=16324&cat=281&page=1


Contact:
kathryn@kbandfriends.com


Retail Price:
$5.00

Other kits are available - I think they are wonderful!

love and light
)O(

my fur babies... ky ky (Kia)...Sacha & Geezer!


Wonderful Sacha..we rescued her when she was 8 mths old, she is now 4 :)
She does not look impressed at me taking the pic does she lol
My baby Geezer nearly 3.



My beautiful, & comfortable kia....I adore her! x

8 mths old


Our wonderful babies...believe it or not they are not a handful,
they each have their moments lol
They have such lovely personalities....we are the lucky ones!

Fairy jars by Lady Kara....

Fairy Jar...
Wow look at this wonderful creation... by Lady Kara
Available to buy
I just had to share with you her beautiful work!
love and light
trace x

update la belle fleur diary pages so far...

Photo transfers
The open door....
In progress page for la belle fleur diary
sorry for poor quality pics :(
but hopefully you get the idea :)
I basically want to create a page showing that doors can open..you never know what is around the corner in life...be positive x


Photo transfers of flowers in background and decoupage
beauty of flowers
I love flowers and dreamy blues/pinks, bet you could not tell lol


My completed sacred art/garden space pages...
I can see myself sitting there...smelling the lupins and roses....jotting away in journal...hmmm

love and light
Thank you for visiting x

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Spring garden decoration.....

mosaic garden sphere by katherine England
www.katherineengland.com/gotta_have_it.html
12" resin outdoor sphere




message stones
www.scenicgreenslandscaping.com/products.html


Cottage Garden Candle Holder



Garden Glory Candleholders


Butterfly Garden Totem Candle Holder



A-z butterfly plants.....

Designing a butterfly garden with butterfly attracting plants....

maintained by Colin Walls for his wife Linda..
(her website continues)...bless you x

http://www.butterflygarden.co.uk/index.html

Flowers & sunshine

Butterflies will stop to feed in your garden if you provide some nectar-rich flowers.
Butterflies fly on sunny days and they like plants in sunny, sheltered spots.
They prefer some flowers more than others.

Think of your garden as a restaurant for butterflies. What are the ingredients that will make them stop to take nectar here rather than the next garden?

Sunshine
The first essential is sunshine. You must place your butterfly plants in the warmest, sunniest spot. Observe which parts of your garden get sunshine for most of the day & plant there. Partially-shaded spots can be used too but most butterflies will only visit when the sun shines on that area.

Shelter
Butterflies prefer to feed on a plant in a sheltered location.
They do not like being buffeted by the wind.
Can you plant shrubs to minimise the effects of wind?
Overnight Accommodation
Grow shrubs and climbers to add "height" to the garden. Some butterflies will roost overnight in a good spot and they generally like to be well off the ground.
Hanging Baskets also work well.

Foodplants for caterpillars
Some wildlife enthusiasts go further and grow the foodplants of the caterpillars. Wildlife gardens on television, often have patches of long grass or meadow. Nettles are also popular as they are the larval foodplant of Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Red Admiral and Comma butterflies.

Balance
Grow nettles in pots to keep my suburban town garden looking neat and tidy.
You must find the right balance for you.
What do you want from your garden?
remember
a wildlife-friendly garden does not need to be wild
It can be just as neat and tidy as any other garden.



Choice of Plant for the type of soil

When designing your butterfly garden, find out whether your soil is acid or alkaline. Some plants are fussy about the acidity of the soil and will die if it is the wrong type for them. Check the plant label or the seed packet for information.

Shrubs
Shrubs are used to give structure to a new garden. The most important shrub for the butterfly-gardener is the Buddleia. Other good shrubs are Choisya, Ceanothus, Ceratostigma, Hebe and Lavender.
If you have a very big garden with acid soil, try Lacecap Hydrangea or Clethra.

Herbs
Lavender is classed as a herb. There are other herbs which are good butterfly plants: Hyssop, Chives, Thyme, Marjoram and Mint.

Fruit
Autumn-fruiting Raspberries and Blackberries provide nectar in September. Fallen fruit also appeals to the 'late' butterflies, who get 'drunk' on the fermented juices.

Annuals
Annuals are plants that do everything in one year. They are valuable for a new butterfly gardener because of their almost instant success. Candytuft and Virginian Stock seed are best sown directly in the ground every few weeks from March to May; neither flowers for long so repeated sowing of seed produces a succession of flowers.
French Marigolds and Strawflowers are half-hardy annuals. The seed is sown indoors and the plants are not placed outside until all danger of frost has passed, usually at the start of June.

Perennials
The flowering plants that exist over a number of years are called perennials. They usually 'die back' during the winter months. Sedum spectabile, Verbena bonariensis, Red Valerian, Sweet Rocket and Aubrieta are good butterfly-attracting perennials.
Heliotrope, Lobelia and Geranium are tender perennials, which means that they can last for more than one season but they are too tender to survive outside in the British winter; they are often grown like annuals.

Biennials
Great patience and planning is required for growing biennials, which are sown as seed one year and flower in the following one. These include some very useful butterfly plants: Forget-me-not, Honesty and Sweet Williams.

Wildflowers
Many of our cultivated flowering plants are related to some wild form of the same species. Generally, the butterflies prefer the wild form. Some make excellent garden plants such as Field Scabious.

Single flowers
Some cultivated garden plants, for example French Marigolds, come in both single and double-flowered forms. Generally, pick the plant that's nearer to the original wild plant - usually a single-flowered variety - as the plant breeders may have removed the scent or other feature that attracted the butterflies in the wild.

Height
When creating a border, place the taller plants at the back and shorter ones at the front. This means planning your garden design by placing Buddleia and other tall shrubs at the rear with the smaller shrubs, herbs and perennials in front to give a good 'structure'.
Verbena bonariensis is interesting. It is a tall, thin plant with narrow leaves
Don't forget to leave sufficient space for the plants to spread. When the shrubs and other perennials are young, you can fill the gaps with annuals.

Clumps
Although it's possible for a single plant to attract butterflies, you will have greater success if you put a clump of plants together. Try 3, 5 or 7 plants of one type together. You need a good splash of colour to attract a butterfly's attention.

For photographers
You can paint fences, walls and other garden structures in many exciting colours. However, bright blobs in the background of your butterfly photographs can ruin your pictures. Butterfly photography and bright paintwork do not mix; use dark brown or green preservative to make the fences blend into the background.

A little info: garden butterflies..............




Garden butterflies


You will not see 58 species of butterfly in your garden.

Most people know the Small White and Large White butterflies; these two species are regarded as pests by vegetable gardeners for they lay their eggs on cabbages and other garden plants.


The other 56 resident species lay their eggs on nettles, grasses and wildflowers and consequently are not a problem for gardeners.


Other white butterflies that visit a garden are the Green-veined White butterfly and in the Spring, the Orange Tip butterfly.
Probably the most noticable butterflies in the garden - after the White ones - are the members of the Nymphalidae family that are found feeding on Buddleia bushes :- Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Comma.


Conspicuous by their colour are the yellow butterflies: the Brimstone butterfly and the Clouded Yellow butterfly. Also readily noticed are the little blue butterflies: the Common Blue butterfly and the Holly Blue butterfly.


Some butterflies do not travel far from their local colony and require a particular habitat in which to live. Some are woodland species, some like chalk grassland, some live in marshy fenland, some belong to high moorland and some can be found in the sand dunes around the coastline. The Chalkhill Blue butterfly (like many of the blue butterflies) is one of the species found on chalk grassland for example.


If you live very close to a local colony of a particular butterfly, then clearly you have a chance of seeing that species in your garden. Some species will never be seen in your garden because it isn't their habitat.


Rare butterflies
The Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, Adonis Blue and Silver-studded Blue, Northern Brown Argus, Chequered Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper and Large Blue are rare butterflies. When you are trying to identify a butterfly, these ones are not likely candidates. It's not impossible that these would visit your garden but you do need to live in the right place!


Other resident british butterflies, like the Swallowtail and the Lulworth Skipper, may not be regarded as rare but are concentrated at specific locations.


Migrant butterflies
Some butterfly species are occasionally seen in the british isles but are not resident here: Pale Clouded Yellow, Berger's Clouded Yellow, Bath White, Long-tailed Blue, Short-tailed Blue, Camberwell Beauty, Large Tortoiseshell, Map, Queen of Spain Fritillary and Monarch.


Exotic butterflies
Butterfly farms around the UK hold some exotic butterfly species. Sometimes a butterfly escapes, so watch out if you are in the neighbourhood of one of these places.


Day-flying moths
Some of the day-flying Moths are often mistaken for butterflies too.




A-Z list of British Butterflies

A butterfly garden....

An altered photo...
Print choosen picture onto photo paper (cheap pound stores are great for photo paper)
Spray water onto photo and let dry
you can rub /scrape/paint areas to distress
I used a dotting tool to scrape wording above doors: past present and future -
kept dipping dotting tool into water for each letter to define
I then decoupaged a lady from newspaper and added wings - using golden gel medium.
I am using this for la belle fleur diary
I want to create a sacred space in my garden and there has to be butterflies that frequent -
so below I want to share with you the butterfly garden:
Britain has over 50 varieties of butterflies but unfortunately
these pretty creatures are becoming rare.
You don't need a lot of space in your garden, but with a little bit of knowledge and this list of plants you could turn your garden into a butterfly paradise.
Provide the butterflies with warmth (a sunny spot), shelter (shrubs and trees) and nectar and butterflies will start to use your garden to feed and maybe even breed.

Aubretia, Aubrieta 'Doctor Mules'; a carpet-forming plant that produces rich violet or blue flowers in May and June.

Sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis; deliciously scented plant that produces white, violet or purple flowers from May to August.

Red valerian, Centranthus ruber; a cottage garden plant that produces clusters of red flowers from mid-summer through to autumn. Great for dry soil.

Lavender, Lavandula; a familiar garden favourite, producing white, pink, blue or purple aromatic flowers during the summer months. Flowers and foliage are used for making pot-pourri.

Honesty, Lunaria annua; a tall plant with heart-shaped leaves and sweet-smelling pink or violet-purple flowers from April to June.

Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum; a plant that produces spiny flower-heads of pinkish purple from mid- to late summer.

Small scabious, Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue'; a long-flowering plant that produces lavender-blue flowers from late spring well into autumn.

Butterfly bush, Buddleja davidii; this plant produces cone-shaped clusters of tiny flowers in either purple, white, pink, or red. Irresistible to butterflies!

Golden rod, Solidago 'Goldenmosa'; a clump-forming border plant that produces feathery, golden flower-heads in late summer and early autumn.

Ivy, Hedera helix; an evergreen climbing vine that will provide winter nectar for the few remaining butterflies in your garden.
The Butterfly Website
is the world's oldest and largest website dedicated to butterflies and moths.
Butterfly gardening has become one of the most popular hobbies today. What could bring more joy than a beautiful butterfly fluttering around your garden?! Here are some tips to make your garden especially butterfly-friendly.
Your first step should be to find out which butterflies are in your area. You can do this by spending some time outdoors with your field guide to see which species are around.
Plant your butterfly garden in a sunny location (5-6 hours each day), but sheltered from the winds. Butterflies need the sun to warm themselves, but they won't want to feed in an area where they are constantly fighting the wind to stay on the plants.
It is also a good idea to place a few flat stones in your sunny location so the butterflies can take a break while warming up.
Butterflies need water just like we do. Keep a mud puddle damp in a sunny location, or fill a bucket with sand and enough water to make the sand moist.

PLEASE DO NOT USE PESTICIDES IN YOUR GARDEN!
Information about the 58 resident butterfly species in the UK
Butterflies use two different types of plants - those that provide nectar for the adults to eat (nectar plant), and those that provide food for their offspring (host plant).
It is best to find out which plant species are native to your area and plant those rather than exotic species.

Below a list of the more common butterflies with their host / nectar plants.

BUTTERFLY
CATERPILLAR HOST PLANT
BUTTERFLY NECTAR SOURCE

American Painted Lady
Everlasting, Daisy, Burdock
Aster, Dogbane, Goldenrod, Mallow, Privet, Vetch
American Snout
Hackberry
Aster, Dogbane, Dogwood, Goldenrod, Pepperbush
Anise Swallowtail
Queen Anne's Lace
Buddleia, Joe Pye Weed
Baltimore Checkerspot
Turtlehead, False Foxglove, Plantain
Milkweed, Viburnum, Wild Rose
Black Swallowtail
Parsley, Dill, Fennel
Aster, Buddleia, Joe Pye Weed, Alfalfa
Clouded Sulphur
Clover
Goldenrod, Grape Hyacinth, Marigold
Cloudless Sulphur
Cassia, Apple, Clover
Zinnia, Butterfly Bush, Cosmos, Cushion Mum
Comma
Elm, Hops, Nettle
Butterfly Bush, Dandelion
Common Buckeye
Snapdragon, Loosestrife
Carpetweed
Common Checkered Skipper
Mallow/Hollyhock
Shepherd's needles, Fleabane, Aster, Red Clover
Common Sulphur
Vetch
Aster, Dogbane, Goldenrod
Common Wood-nymph
Purpletop Grass
Purple Coneflower
Eastern Pygmy Blue
Glasswort
Salt Bush
Eastern Tailed Blue
Clover, Peas
Dogbane
Falcate Orangetip
Rock Cress, Mustard
Mustard, Strawberry, Chickweed, Violet
Giant Swallowtail
Citrus
Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Gorgone Checkerspot
Sunflower
Sunflower, Goldenrod
Gray Hairstreak
Mallow/Hollyhock, Clover, Alfalfa
Thistle, Ice Plant
Great Spangled Fritillary
Violet
Thiste, Black-eyed Susan, Milkweed, Ironweed
Greater Fritillary
Violet
Joe Pye Weed
Gulf Fritillary
Pentas, Passion-vine
Joe Pye Weed
Hackberry Emperor
Hackberry
Sap, Rotting fruit, Dung, Carrion
Little Glassywing
Purpletop Grass
Dogbane, Zinnia
Little Yellow
Cassia, Clover
Clover
Monarch
Milkweed
Dogbane, Buddleia
Mourning Cloak
Willow, Elm, Poplar, Birch, Nettle, Wild Rose
Butterfly Bush, Milkweed, Shasta Daisy, Dogbane
Orange Sulphur
Vetch. Alfalfa, Clover
Alfalfa, Aster, Clover, Verbena
Orange-barred Sulphur
Cassia
Many plants
Painted Lady
Thistle, Daisy, Mallow/Hollyhock, Burdock
Aster, Zinnia
Pearl Crescent
Aster
Dogbane
Pipevine Swallowtail
Dutchman's Pipe, Pipevine
Buddleia
Polydamus Swallowtail
Pipevine
Buddleia
Queen
Milkweed
Milkweed, Beggar-tick, Daisy
Question Mark
Hackberry, Elm, Nettle, Basswood
Aster, Milkweed, Sweet Pepperbush
Red Admiral
Nettle
Stonecrop, Clover, Aster, Dandelion, Goldenrod, Mallow
Red-spotted Purple
Black Cherry, Willow, Poplar
Privet, Poplar
Silver-spotted Skipper
Black Locust, Wisteria
Dogbane, Privet, Clover, Thistle, Winter Cress
Silvery Checkerspot
Sunflower
Cosmos, Blanket Flower, Marigold, Phlox, Zinnia
Sleepy Orange
Cassia, Clover
Blue Porter, Beggar Tick, Aster
Spicebush Swallowtail
Spicebush, Sassafras
Dogbane, Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Spring Azure
Dogwood, Viburnum, Blueberry, Spirea, Apple
Blackberry, Cherry, Dogwood, Forget-me-not, Holly
Tawny Emperor
Hackberry
Tree sap, Rotting fruit, Dung, Carrion
Tiger Swallowtail
Black Cherry, Birch, Poplar, Willow
Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Variegated Fritillary
Violet, Passion Vine
Joe Pye Weed
Viceroy
Willow, Poplar, Fruit Trees
Thistle, Beggar-tick, Goldenrod, Milkweed
Western Tailed Blue
Clover, Peas
Legumes
White Admiral
Birch, Willow, Poplar, Honeysuckle
Aphid Honeydew, Bramble Blossom
Zabulon Skipper
Purpletop Grass
Blackberry, Vetch, Milkweed, Buttonbush,Thistle
Zebra Longwing
Passion-vine
Verbena, Lantana, Shepard's Needle
Zebra Swallowtail
Pawpaw
Dogbane, Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia, Privet, Blueberry

Moon Protection for Amulets....



Moon Protection for Amulet Spell


Place a jewel, that you regularly carry on you, in a cup of spring water a day before the full moon.


The following day, on the evening of full moon, stir the water three times with your finger in a clockwise motion.


Take the cup in your hands and in a clockwise, stirring motion, move the cup in a clockwise, circular, stirring motion three times.


Then, repeat these words aloud:


Oh magical Light of the Moon,

Wrap me

Protect Me

Keep me from harm

so mote it be

Raise the cup towards the sky and drink the water.

Remove the jewel from the cup.

You must carry it on your person to the next full moon in order to ensure your protection. Repeat this ritual every month to benefit from its influence.



Magical Amulets
I believe anything can be used as an amulet..you choose for it will symbolise what feels right to you :)
Below are some more commonly known:
Acorn
Attracts the opposite gender, increases income, divinitory powers, and prosperity
Agate
Good luck, meditation, protection, health, purification
Amber
Balance, harmony, protection, psychic power
Amethyst
Power, peace, protection, spirituality, intelligence, luck, psychic power, true love
Ankh
An Egyptian amulet meaning life or soul. It symbolizes enduring life and grants the wearer one hundred thousand million years of life
Bell
An amulet used by primitive and Western people whose sound was intended to ward off the evil eye and dispel hostile spirits. In the Middle East bells were attached to the harness of horses and camels for the same purposes
Cat
Cat-shaped jewelry represents prophecy, luck, protections, and the granting of secret wishes
Chai
A symbol of life. Usually made from gold or silver. It supposedly grants the wearer longevity
Cross
Life and divine protection. The christians believed it to be a supreme amulet against all forces of evil. The sign of the cross was thought to cure illness and drive off demons.
Dragon
Dragon-shaped amulets offer love, happiness, and fertility, as well as balance
Eye of God
Amulet used to conteract the evil eye. Made of sticks and colored yarn by Huichol Indians of Mexico and attributed with power of protecting people, homes, and fields
Eye of Horus
Egyptian Eye of God made of gold, copper, silver, clay, faience, or wood and worn to acquire strength, vitality, and protection against the evil eye.
Four Leaf Clover
Good luck amulet. The four leaves going clockwise from the left side of the stem represents fame, wealth, love, and health
Heart
An amulet worn by many people around the world. It's a symbol of love and devotion. Ancient Egyptians thought the heart was the abode of the soul. In Europe a heard amulet was reputed to prevent heart disease
Hexagram
A figure of six lines forming a six pointed star. It is worn in many parts of the world as a protection against evil. A widely worn symbol of the Jewish faith called mogen David, shield or, popularly, star of David
Horn of Plenty
A contemporary amulet symbolizing prosperity, modeled on the legendary cornucopia overflowing with flowers and fruit
Horseshoe
A popular contemporary amulet nailed to barn doors for good luck
Jupiter
Brings honor and riches to the wearer
Knot
An amulet usually of knotted string or cord that was believed to hold the love of a sweetheart or ward off illness
Magic Triangle
Cabbalistic amulet based on the belief that by reducing the size of an inscription, line by line, and evil spirit could be eased out of the sufferer
Moon
Amulet worn in ancient and modern times to bring success in love and good fortune in travil. To assure good foftune it should be worn as a waxing, not a waning moon. That is, with the points to the left.
Nefer
An amulet worn by the Egyptians. It represents beauty and goodness. It probably is a form of the heart and windpipe, and was thought to bring youth and happiness. Very popular for making necklaces.
Pentagram
A five pointed star representing the five elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Also represents the figure of a human being. It is thought to protect the wearer from all kinds of evil spirits. Can also be used by magicians to control spirits. Should be worn with one point up.
Ra
Thought to give long life and strength
Star
Ward off evil or encourage good fortune
Sun
Said to bestow prosperity and friendship. Probably of Egyptian origin
Turtle
A tortoise-shaped charm provides courage, creativity, intelligence, spiritual protection, compassion, fertility, sexuality, and protection.
Venus
Grants love and appreciation of beauty