Eat Drink & Be Merry!

As you may have noticed, when I share one of my books I also tend to make a video so you can virtually page through it and come as close as I can offer of the book experience.

Well, I gave you a glimpse of the food pyramid book in my global hunger post, from a couple of days ago, but didn't want to take away from the information and message by posting a video there - so here's the full version of

EAT DRING & BE MERRY!

I created this book as a part of a series, this being the first, in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

(You may remember having seen another of the pieces from that series in this earlier post.)

I tried to include all types of diet choices,

from

to

or

We humans tend to find a way to go extreme, one way or another, don't we?! 

 

In which case, we are tempted to look for that magic fix - quick and easy...

In all things balance is usually best - though I admit,

for many, my vegan choices are extreme :)

So let's do our best,

enjoy our food, and have some fun!

heh heh heh!

Lynne's Book!

The other day I excitedly opened the package that arrived from Lynne Hoppe,

which I knew contained her book for our collaboration.  

I opened slowly, savoring what greeted my eyes -

like having creamy rich dark chocolate melting in my mouth :) 

There were a couple of extra treats wrapped and tucked along side the book.

One of Lynne's new paper clay brick people - so charming,

you can hardly believe, a beautifully painted paper tag, and

a very cool lava rock heart, wrapped in a sparkly painted

paper doily,which has been further transformed

and I'm sure you will see reappear,

at some point along the way.

These new treasures have already found a               

home in my studio on my collection table,      

among my other objects of inspiration.  

          

Now, on to the book.

I spent a little time playing on the covers today.

Here you see the before, with Lynne's layer alone,

 and after, with my layer added.  Who knows how

many more times we'll add to these covers!

Lynne hasn't received my book yet - I've been a bit delinquent on delivery.

Sorry Lynne - it'll be there soon, I promise!

♥

     

Front cover

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Back cover

Global Hunger

  

In a world of such abundance...

• 963 million people across the world are hungry, more than 500 million people are living in "absolute poverty" and more than 15 million children die of hunger every year. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger related causes - that's one child every five seconds. Far more children live with undernutrition than die from it. For infants and young children, the effects of chronic malnutrition in the early years of life are largely irreversible.

• The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving. Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness.* 

• Even in the United States, 46 percent of African-American children and 49 percent of Latino children are considered chronically hungry. According to Bread for the World, 11.7 million children in U.S. households have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger, and these numbers are rising.

BloggersUnite is hosting another event, calling all bloggers to join together

in raising awareness on a single issue, and ways to bring Hope to it,

and this April 29th the issue is Global Hunger 

According to the United Nations World Food Program, and others, primary causes for hunger include poverty, war, lack of access (poor infrastructure, roads, etc), over population, and even natural disasters. It seems like another insurmountable issue, but there are ways that we can help begin to make a contribution for change, both locally and globally.

Ways you can help easily:

• To donate food at no cost but a 30 seconds of your time, visit the Hunger Site daily. (While you're there you will see, for 2 minutes more of your time you can also click for donating to causes supporting literacy, animal rescue, children's healthcare, breast cancer research, etc- I just click on down the line and in a couple minutes time I've made donations to six causes I care about!) You can take the extra step by adding a link to your blog, and inviting others to click - get a gadget here.

• Tell congress to take a stand against global hunger by signing this petition.

• If you can afford to make a financial contribution, my favorite U.S organization is Feeding America.  Every week they assist nearly 4 million hungry people in the U.S. You can find your local food bank from their site, or contribute to the national organization and they will funnel the funds to the greatest need.  Visit their Action Center and see what else you can do.  Local food banks are desperately in need right now - every can, every penny helps and is appreciated.

          

Ten Things You Can Do Today to help End World Hunger from Heifer International

1. Feed your mind. Visit one of Heifer International’s learning centers to experience ways that you can make a difference.

2. Get busy. Volunteer for local or national organizations that fight world hunger and poverty. Nonprofit groups are often the strongest voice for the hungry.

3. Give. Charitable, alternative gift giving can directly support anti-hunger and sustainability efforts

4. Buy “fair”. Fair trade products ensure farmers and craftspeople in developing countries receive an adequate price for products and services and help them better support their families.

5. Go organic. Organic farming is environmentally friendly and provides a sound agricultural alternative.

6. Go and see. Join a Heifer Study Tour, where you can interact with people around the globe, learn about their communities, their lives and their struggles. You will return reinvigorated in your commitment to end hunger.

7. Bring Your Commitment home. Shop at your local farmers market and support small farmers. The food is fresher, and your dollars help those living in your community.

8. Use the Power of the Pen. Write your State and U.S. Senators and representatives to let them know that world hunger is a political issue and one of your top priorities

9. Be an Ambassador. Get your church, social group, family or civic club to help in the fight against hunger. Grassroots efforts make a dramatic difference in the lives of hungry families, as well as provide a strong voice of representation in governments.

10. Pass on the Gift. Share your knowledge with your children and encourage them to get involved in the quest to end hunger. Ensure your commitment to ending hunger will burn in the next generation.

This is just a beginning glimpse at all the information available on the topic of world hunger, it's causes and effects.

Fulfilling hunger is the most basic need we have as living beings

and everyone has the right to have that need met.

The images above are all taken from a book I did titled Eat Drink & Be Merry.

It's enclosed within a 'food pyramid' and is a collection of pages

collaged with thoughts about our most basic needs -

food and water and the many varied ways we choose to eat

(when we have such a luxury).

          

click on images for closer view

                        

April 27

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April 26

The heat is on!  Eight years ago my husband and I moved across country, returning to the east after a long eight year experiment with living on the western side of the United States, in Arizona.  We arrived in April, to wilting 90 degree steamy temperatures and I wondered is this what we left Arizona for?!?  We hit those temps again, breaking this day's past record by ten degrees.  I'm surprised every spring when it happens at some point, but happen it does!  We'll be back in the 60's again by Wednesday, thankfully - I'm in no rush for closing curtains to summer's sun...

click on images for closer view

          

April 25

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Earth Day, Earth Life, Earth Love

It's Earth Day, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite resources and practices that have helped me to "green" my life.  We all know plastics are a major culprit to landfill contribution, oceanic pollution, and toxins in our environment - including our own bodies.  A few ways I've reduced my plastic usage include:

•  I no longer using plastic bags when shopping.  My absolute favorite shopping bags are the EnviroSax. They come 5 bags in a little pouch, have fun designs, are light weight, super strong, and very roomy.  They have an Earth Day special going on today, if you buy a set from a couple designs, you get a single bag for free.  A single bag folds up tiny, so I keep one in my purse at all times.  (I found them on sale at another site here for 10% off.)

•  I use only compostable garbage bags.  They biodegrade in a couple months, faster if exposed to light.  This I can vouch for as we had a bag of small ones out of it's box sitting on a counter in our mud room which we use for picking up dog waste.  The bags left out exposed to sunlight began to fall apart - just crumbled into dust!  They are stronger than the bags we used to get from Seventh Generation, made from recycled plastic - and they have no plastic in them.  I get them from Lets Go Green Biz which has a number of other eco products to choose from, including biodegradable *plastic* silverware, cups and plates for your next picnic!
  

•  Believe it or not, tooth brushes are a major contributor to landfill/ocean trash.  You can help reduce that by using Preserve toothbrushes.  They are made from recycled plastic and you are provided with prepaid envelopes so that you can return your used toothbrushes for recycling.  They can be ordered online, or found at places like  Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and many other stores.  The Ultra Soft are truly gentle on the gums :)
  

•  We have replaced all of our water bottles with stainless steel.  There are so many styles to choose from now, but my favorite has a stainless steel lid, as well.  I got them on Amazon but I did have to order the cap separately - at the time they were offering a deal if you bought them together.  Typically the bottles all come with plastic lids, which seems to somewhat defeat the purpose of avoiding plastic exposure for health concerns, but I did find one that comes with it, here.  

•  I love this inovative use of water bottles turned into inexpensive building materials, at Earth Architecture.

•  As an artist, I reuse all take out, margarine, soy yogurt, and other plastic containers for my paint mixing and other processes, along with styrofoam trays, jars, etc.  However, I try to buy products that utilize as little packaging as possible.
  

    

     Plastic is but one facet of the waste problems we have, of course.  Other ways I try to reduce my carbon foot print include driving a hybrid; recycling compulsively; reducing water waste (by filling containers as water warms up, to water plants with, use for paintbrush cleaning, etc, instead of just letting it go down the drain); guiding water run off from our home to areas of our yard for watering; rain censor to watering system automatically keeps watering turned off if it is or has rained; replacing light bulbs with LED and compact fluorescent - but slowly switching mainly to LED which are lower consumption, last longer, and have no mercury in them (but are more expensive still); replaced shower heads with eco friendly Evolve shower heads which is low flow and lets you know when the shower has warmed up and is ready for you to hop in; buy locally as much as possible; turn off lights constantly, annoying my husband endlessly; unplug the unnecessary; eat vegan which has much less impact on the environment (the amount of land used to grow crops to feed livestock is 10 times that needed to grow crops for human consumption, not to mention runoff, methane, deforestation, water use, etc.)

     Interested in figuring out your own household's Carbon Footprint?  You can calculate it here!  There are so many ways to be more conscious of your purchasing power and how each choice we make impacts our world.  These are just a few of my attempts at making my ripple slightly less impacting.  What are yours?

April 21

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April 20

Simple need for color and pattern :)

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this and that

I've had questions from newer visitors here about where my art is - is it in a book, or what, so I thought I'd give you all an update on the ever expanding journal.  All the journal spreads you have seen pictured on my blog are held within the bulk of this book.  There was a time when it closed and had a nice hard cover, but it has long since shed the confines of such containment.  Not long ago I went through the entire book to count just how many pages were still blank and available for journaling and counted 98, so I think I still have about 90 to go.  There are a few pages that barely cling to the binding anymore, and one set that has broken free and is simply tucked in there.  I imagine I will create a fabric cover that wraps around the book to hold it all together, rather than try to *bind* it in any traditional sense.

I'm sure my regular visitors have noticed that I haven't been posting daily, as had been my past practice, so wanted to let you know my hands just haven't been able to work as hard, so I'm needing to be a little less productive than in the past.

          

click on images for closer view

ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ𐐝ᕳᕲ

This is the latest spread I did in my collaborative book with Lynne.  I'm just about set to send it off to her, and she has let me know that hers is already on it's way here!  Check out her recent pages here!