Nasturia-damus: Prophet of the Angiosperms

Please CLICK ON THIS IMAGE to see the lovely detail.

Inspired by the research studies, involving this all-knowing flower, of my facebook friend, Judy Gosnell.

The writings of the mystic Nostradamus have traveled down through the centuries. Yet, how many have heard of the ancient prophecies of the great Nasturia-damus, prophet-queen of the Angiosperms?

Uncovered only recently by a trowel-wielding self-taught historian in a garden bed near you, these fragments of ancient wisdom speak to the ages.

Compare for yourself, only a few of the AMAZING SIMILARITIES between the quatrains of the prophets Nostradamus and Nasturia-damus.

(Nostradamus) Sitting alone at night in secret study; 
it is placed on the brass tripod. 
A slight flame comes out of the void, and 
makes true that which should not be believed in vain.

(Nasturia-damus) Sitting alone at night, beneath the bedroom window; they are planted in the great, sacred urn. A green shoot springs forth from the void, and makes true the belief in the cycle of life.

(Nostradamus) The wand in the hand is placed in the middle of the tripod’s legs. 
With water he sprinkles both the hem of his garment and his foot. 
A voice, fear: he trembles in his robes. 
Divine splendor; the God sits near.

(Nasturia-damus) The hose in the hand is placed in the middle of the urn. With water, she sprinkles both the base of the planter and her feet. A voice, fear: she trembles at the mud about her feet. Divine irritation: how will she get her shoes dry in time for the party?

(Nostradamus) When the litters are overturned by the whirlwind 
and faces are covered by cloaks, 
the new republic will be troubled by its people. 
At this time the reds and the whites will rule wrongly.

(Nasturia-damus) When the compost is overturned, into the middle of the newly seeded garden bed, and seeds are covered by clods, new plants will germinate. At this time the oranges and the greens will rule wisely and well.

(Nostradamus) At night they will think they have seen the sun, when they see the half pig man: Noise, screams, battles seen fought in the skies. The brute beasts will be heard to speak.

(Nasturia-damus) The brute beasts, that sleep beneath the peach and orange blossoms, shall cavort and call beneath the bedroom window of the house of the king and queen pig, in the hour of dawn, until the snoring boars are awakened and forced, bleary eyed, into the kitchen to find a can opener and can of cat food.

Daisy's Duds (Printable Luggage Tag)

The most classic of the compositae flower, daises are a charmingly homey little flower. Not at all particular about their environment, they seem to like lovely, moist, compost-rich areas, but are happy to grow around here even in my heavy, patches of adobe soil. I particularly like finding them in a big stretch of park grass. My husband, a grass-mower from way back, assures me that he does not find them desirable.

I've never had the patience to attempt a daisy-chain, though I admire anyone who can sit for that long and not mind all the stems that slit too far back.

Does everybody know that 'Daisy' is one of the nicknames for 'Margaret'? Of course the french version of Margaret is Marguerite, and 'marguerite' is the french word for daisy. Here are the other nicknames I know- Meg, Meggie, Maggie, Madge, Rita, Gretta. I think I missed one or two. The challenge with using the spanish version of Margaret to name your daughter is that it's 'Margarita'. And that sounds like something I order with a burrito and fritas.

I created this tag to adorn a golden robe I sewed for my daughter. The wonderful vintage luggage tag background I used for this project is a free public download from the HauntingVisionsStock site. Thank you D-O-H!

I used Photoshop CS4 to transform one of my daisy photos.

Nopalitos

Please click on the picture below to see the beautiful details

Time Travel: A Primer, Lesson 2, Goin' for Baroque

~Please CLICK on this image to see the beautiful details~

The reason this gal is sitting down and her fella is standing, is because his clothes are a LOT more comfortable than hers. Breathing must have been really fun in that corset. Not to mention the probable height of her heels. They likely didn't make walking all that easy. Those corsets were so great for women's health :-) My Euro ancestress'ess likely didn't have to worry about that, because they were probably hanging out in the scullery or doing the laundry.

It looks like the well-dressed swell is playing a lute. The piece of music I included in this piece was written for Mozart for a keyboard, I'm sure this musical couple were influenced by it, though. His lady friend is apparently doing the singing, she has a little book on her lap.

I found this old pin at an antique shop yard sale. It's marked "Limoges" on the back, so I guess it is, though the original design is quite naive, not at all like the elegant china that is associated with Limoges. The little picture had a fair amount of missing bits and places where somebody tried to paint over some of the big scratches. When you play around with a piece this much, it takes you back to the first person that owned it. Wouldn't it be dandy to imagine that Rosine gave it to her sister Martha for her birthday? (For more about Martha and Rosine, see my blog entries for May 26 and May 27 ).

It looks like this little token of sisterly affection has been well loved over the years. The catch wasn't working any more. Clearly Martha wore it a lot. Maybe she was an amateur musician, like me and that's why her sister picked out the musical setting. Did she and Rosine play simple, parlor music like I do? Did they laugh at the artfully posed couple's outfits and compare the damsels torturous undergarments to their own modern and up to date health corsets?

It was a lot of fun cleaning up Martha's pin, then taking it from a blotchy little painting into a blurry landscape style, and, finally, securing it's place in time with a collage, using Photoshop CS4.

Fine Fruit:Quilt Block, Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

This entry won FOURTH PLACE in the Silicon Valley fusionwearsv contest!

This garage on Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, is where the story that transformed the agricultural Santa Clara Valley into today’s technological Silicon Valley began. When Bill and Dave built their first oscillator in this garage, my husband's family lived just a few blocks away. My father-in-law remembered the area of that time, as a land of cherry orchards. In 1938, my own family was involved in the information technology of the day, as telegraphers. As Silicon Valley grew my family's information skill set evolved with it. My father, sister and myself were computer programmers.

I enjoyed biking over to photograph the restored HP garage that represents an important foundation of the Silicon Valley. I used Photoshop CS4 to alter that and other digital photos I’ve taken, to create my own 1938 vintage-style fruit crate label, honoring the birth of the Silicon Valley. All images are my own. I loved being able to honor the history of the valley by using the technology that it represents.

Tumbling Chips: Quilt within a Quilt Block , Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

I'm much taken by the spirit of modern day style, versus a vintage design. Here I was inspired by the much-loved 'tumbling blocks' quilt block, to create my own modern-day variation of silicon chips gone wild. These chips dance right out of their tidly-bordered frame. The well-behaved, neatly balanced background checkerboard of chips, is outraged by their bolder colleagues non-standard behavior.

Another one of my original designs for the Silicon Valley fusion wearsv contest.

I used Photoshop CS4 shapes, filters, drawing tools and line art tools, to compose a picture of a silicon chip, inspired by a real-world photograph.

Transformations: Quilt Block , Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

Some of the most beautiful aspects of writing code is the speedy multiplication and transformation of data. The programmer may start with one element, as I did here, with a picture I created representing one silicon chip. From there she goes on to replicate, concatenate and transform that one element into a thing of beauty.

I used Photoshop CS4 to draw one silicon chip. I duplicated that one chip many times to create a quilt background. I filtered that one background many times and then cut windows through each filtered transformation.

Please CLICK ON THIS IMAGE to see the nice detail in the design

Voting in the Silicon Valley Quilt Design Contest is on through June 11'th, 2010

Follow this link to VOTE