The New York Blue Jay

Image by Rick Leche Photographer via Flickr

Whilst we, my New York family and I, sat calmly in the lounge, some playing video games, others watching, we heard a loud thud; a bird had crashed head on into the large glass panes of the front window. We raced to see if it was still there, it was; the bird was unconscious and hanging from a branch by one foot. Filled with pity and a little fear, I grabbed a towel and, under the supervision and encouragements of my beautiful stepsisters and husband, gently lowered the bird to the floor, allowing it to recuperate from it's collision. It flew away not too long after, avoiding an enthousiastic photoshoot. I sure hope it's ok.


The stunned bird was a gorgeous Blue Jay (Cianocitta cristata). Blue Jays are common birds that are present throughout the year from Central to Eastern North America. If their flashy blue, black and white colouration didn't give them away,  this large songbird's booming jeer should help you pin point them quite easily (click here to listen). They genereally produce their calls when perched and are silent in flight.

Image by awrose via Flickr

Interestingly enough, the only pigment present on the Blue Jay's feathers is melanin, which make up the dark brown/black patterns on the tail, wings and the collar. The blue is caused by how light scatters or refracts through feather's barbs. This explains why on days when the sun is hidden behind a thick veil of clouds, Blue Jays appear more greyish that on beautiful sunny days.
Speaking of feathers, Blue Jays, perform anting, a practice by which a bird uses ants or subtances created by ants for preening (tidying their feathers) during moutling. Apparently, some individuals have been observed tripping over their owns tails whilst zealously trying to apply the ants to hard to reach feathers. (Now that I would love to see!)

Male and female Blue Jays are practically identical, they can be told apart by keen observers from their behaviour during mating season. The male can be observed feeding the female either in their newly built nest or on a nearby branch, this is refered to as courtship feeding. A practice also observed in humans, if you are lucky.

I have had the utmost pleasure extracting Blue Jays from mist nets, at the McGill's Bird Observatory. There is nothing quite like holding a live wild bird. If I had known at the time, I may have kept a stash of acorns in my pocket as it is their favorite snack. However, I was quite busy trying to untangle their tongue (yes, you read right) and feet from the net without braking anything in the process - they thrash around so vigorously.

Image via Wikipedia

Blue Jays are not known for migrating, actually, we know very little about their wintering habits. Sometimes they migrate south, others they don't. Nevertheless, I very much like seeing them add a touch of colour to the slumbering winter landscape.




For more information on this beautiful bird and others, check out Hinterland's Who's Who.

Thanksgiving Turkey

         It's happy thanksgiving for all except for turkeys. As we enjoy the Macy's thanksgiving parade and the arrival of Santa Claus, I can not help but feel sad for all the turkeys out there that will be slaughtered and roasted for tradition. As if to strenghten my dietairy resolve, on my trip to down to New York, I caught glimps of a rafter of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from the train window. Due to a combination of surprize and being in a train zipping down the tracks, I missed a great photo oppportunity, oh well. There were four individuals, I'm guessing 3 females and one male, pecking around in a field. They looked a lot like this picture I found on wikipedia.

The two easily identifiable males on this picture are displaying, they don't always walk around all puffed up like this. Turkey's like lions, live in territorial groups of many females and generally one sometimes two males, called rafters (vs pride of lions).

Turkeys are a staple item of Thanksgiving dinner for the last two centuries, before then food was harder to come by and families were happy to celebrate with whatever fowl they could get. Thanksgiving is a North American celebration and disputably first took place in Plymouth where both Pilgrims and Indians joined together and feasted for three days thanking God for allowing them to survive through the winter and their first succesful harvest. Apparently, turkey became the fowl of choice after Queen Elizabeth's declared Rost Goose as St-Michael's Day offical meal. Michaelmas in Britain became associated with Thanksgiving in the States. So why don't we eat roast goose at thanksgiving? Turkey was more abundant and simpler to catch than goose in the New World.

Wild turkeys, contrairly to their domesticated counterparts, are quite agile flyers. They can be found from  the south of Canada to the south of Mexico. Over the years, they have been extirpated from various regions such as New Hampshire and Quebec due to over hunting and habitat loss. Thanks to hunting laws and habitat protection they are slowly making a come back. I am glad to announce that I have seen them pecking around the Eastern Townships (Quebec) these past few years.

Turkey is a good source of protein and is naturally low in fat. It's also loaded with zinc, iron, phosphorous, potassium and vitamin B. If your counting your calories, white meat is less fat and calorie rich than the darker meat.

On that note, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Take care!

Alien Gnome Bandits

                                                                                     by Fred Conlon

«There is something terribly, wonderfully wrong here. Two opened jawed aliens are tromping off with your helpless, hapless garden gnome.»

This simply made my day and I felt compelled to share it with the world. I discovered this recycled garden sculpture in the wonderfully entertaining Skymall magazine along side many other hysterical and generally useless objects. Kudos to the artist that makes these with recylced and found metal.

Take care!

Virginia Creeper

Virginia Creeper

Parthenocissus quinqefolium

My favorite vine, especially in Fall because of it's beautiful colour.

It is characterised by a palmately compound leaves composed of five leaflets, hence the latin quinqefolium - five leaves. However, younger vines may have smaller numbers. In the case of the specimen below, there are four. The leaflets are dentate (toothed edges) distinguishing this vine from poison ivy whether all five leaflets are there or not.

The Virginia Creeper produces clusters of small dark purple berries in late summer to early fall. These are not to be eaten. Although the taste should discourage you from eating more than one. The oxalic acid contained in the berries may be toxic to mammals, but these berries are a good source of food for birds during the winter months. So in addition to bringing a beautiful colour to your yard in fall, it may also attract some birds.

This woody vine is native to central and eastern North America. It grows in dense wooded areas but also along road sides and frequently up brick houses.

Take care!

Hurricane crafts - folded paper and jean skirts

This week, mother nature granted me the experience of living through a small hurricane. How exciting! The ocean sends waves of towering rage crashing down onto the beach, trees are whipped about like giant blades of grass, roads become rivers, windows shake, walls creak, and I remain inside, safe and warm, witness to nature's destructive powers. I'm told that we were lucky, the hurricane did not cause too much damage - in my little world at least. In our building, it broke a couple windows in the glass covered passage to the parking lot forcing management to seal it up for our protection and soaked a staircase and a couple flats leaving a foul smell. Poor Petester's car got flooded and we have yet to find out if it will survive this ordeal. Roads were closed and so were schools. Some people lost their houses to the ocean, my heart goes out to them. Nevertheless, once my hubby was safely home, the stormy weather and the discovery of Threadbanger.com put me in a creative DIY frenzy.

As my darling love settled into a comfortable position for chimera destruction (a.k.a Resistance 2, a video game), I transformed the lounge into a magazine recycling factory. You see, I love magazines, I can't settle for the online versions, I must have a tangible copy. Although I have restricted my purchases to the essentials, stock pile them, and then recycle them when the time comes, I wanted to find other uses for the glossy pages.

So far, I have found and tested three.

No. 1 - Zigzag bangles

These are lots of fun to make. (You can also use chip bags but I don't eat much of those.) I've figured out two sizes, the small as seen above, and a larger single bangle. Both are available in various colours at my etsy shop if you wish to have one of your own.

No. 2 - Paper Flowers

 

We got this beautiful gold tipped tulip vase for our wedding, it proudly showcased my birthday flowers while they lasted but without them it seemed lonely. These flowers were made with 3" circles cut from magazine pages based on a tutorial I found here. After making 16 of them, I tried the snowflake technique to allow for light to pass through the flowers and found that allowed me to use pages that had images that I didn't like as much since it removed the emphasis on the paper letting the form shine through. The stems we're supposed to be made from planting wire and plant tape but because of the hurricane, I was unable to raid the local craft store so I used pipe cleaners instead - it's alright but it's not perfect.

No. 3 - Envelopes

Why not? Surprisingly it was harder to design a template than I thought.  I hope the post office will accept them.

One paper cut too many led me to my next project. This was by far the most important project of the day and the one I am most proud of:  my newly recycled Hurricane Jean Skirt. I started with an old pair of bermuda jean shorts that I hadn't worn all summer.

 

And with the help of a Thread Banger tutorial (that you can find here), I turned it into a wonderful jean skirt. The project took me about 4-5 hours to complete from seam ripping to the finishing details. I will definetly be modifying more jeans, it wasn't that hard and the result is a fantastic skirt.

 That evening, hubby, my new skirt and I curled up on the couch and watched Jaws thankful to still have electricity. What an amazing day.


Take care!

Buying a Field Guide

I recently went looking for a tree identification field guide that covers all North America, it took me so long to decide that my poor husband became quite aggravated and retired grumpily to the comic book section and read an entire comic. This is a grave state of affairs so for the sake of all supportive spouses out there, here is my Top 10 list of things to look for in a field guide. 

1. Size : It's not a reference manual, it's a field guide. I like to be able to slip it in into my back pocket or easily conceal it in my purse. (You would be surprised what else I keep handy.)
2. Drawings vs Pictures: I prefer drawings since they better represent the essence of the species instead of individual characteristics. It is also possible to draw important identification details that are not always visible in a picture.
3. Range Maps: Super important, especially if the guide covers a large area (e.g. North America). I prefer them to be on the same page instead of at the back. Who likes additional page flipping anyway?
4. Common and Latin Names: A good field guide should have both and that's that. 
5. A good written description: The description should include specific characteristics such as size, gender distinction, age distinctions, habitat preference, etc.. I also enjoy the additional knowledge of whether the species is edible (mostly for plants) or venomous .
   
6. Built in Ruler: Size sometimes determines the species, nothing better that having a handy ruler you can't loose. (Less important for bird identification since it's mostly done at a distance.)
   
7. Identification Markers: Arrows on the illustration pinpointing specific things to look for (e.g. distinctive markings or coloration).
8. Glossary: (or informative introduction to the field) Sometimes scientific words make no sense.
9. Index: Preferably with both latin and common names.
10. Intuitive Organization: The species must be organized in a way that makes it easy for you to find what your looking for. It depends on the depth of your knowledge on the subject and there are a wide range of options out there ( e.g. by colour, by approximate size, by habitat, taxonomically, etc.).

 It's not always possible to find the perfect guide for all topics, sometimes the choice is quite limited. But when the options seem endless, knowing your preferences helps narrow down your search.

Here are three of my favorite field guides :

Peterson First Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America (The Peterson Field Guide Series)

5/10
:) Gorgeous Drawings                                  :( No latin names
:) Identification Markers                               :( No ruler
:) Perfect size                                               :( No range maps                       

Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)

:) 9/10                                                         :( No identification markers

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition

8/10
:) Depiction of adult                       :( No identification markers
(male and female) and juvenile plumage                                       
:) Range maps                               :( Knowledge of bird taxonomy required for navigation




During my technical degree we were basically brainwashed into swearing by Peterson field guides, now I find that other publications meet my needs better. I'd love to know what you're favorite field guide is why. Do you swear loyalty to a particular publisher? Is your top ten similar to mine? Let me know!

Take care!

New look on the Climate Change Campaign

While reading through my favorite blogs, I came across this random environmental post by Yes and Yes. I felt the need to post it on my blog as well. This video is a public outreach strategy by the 350 group.
Their message is that we must reduce the quantity of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from 390ppm to 350ppm. This number comes to us from climate specialists and apparently is the upper limit of CO2 there can be in the atmosphere without repercussions on the global climate. They are looking for support in order to press the point of climate change and green house gas emissions during the United Nations meeting taking place in Copenhagen during December of this year. Their website is very interactive and you can easily spread the word through links to facebook, twitter and youtube, just to name a few. They put some information about the cause but very little individual actions one can take to reduce CO2 emissions on a daily basis. But individual action is not their aim, they want to influence corporations and governments to do something about it. I signed their online petition and you can too by clicking here.

Unfortunately I missed the International Day of Climat Action which was October 24th, I was unaware of it's existence. I'll know for next year.

Sock Monster

My posts as of late have been scientific of nature and the upcoming posts promise to be similar. I felt it was the time to interject another recycled craft project. The world seems to have been struck with the cute japanese-style stuffed toys craze, from the Ugly Dolls to stray sock monsters. Well, I have not been spared from this affliction. The only thing between me and my own army of these cute toys, is my husband who refuses to purchase something so useless and that I could make myself.  So I did.

I guess I would characterize it as some kind of bunny like creature. It's cute and scary all at once - fascinating; it sleeps in the lounge. Anyway, it was very simple to make, all you need is :

• 1 sock (preferably with a distinct heel colour)
• Stuffing material
• Black and pink thread
• Sewing needle and thimble
• Scissors
• Chopsticks (optional)
  

Step 1: Cut down the middle of the toes to about 1 inch above the heel and sew the front and the back of the sock together along to cut creating two bunny ears. Cut off the elastic band.

Step 2: Stuff the bunny. Use chopsticks to stuff the ears, it makes it easier. Make sure you add sufficient stuffing in the heel to make it stick out a bit. Play with the stuffing to give your little monster the desired shape.

Step 3: Sew up the bottom. I used a simple running-stitch all around the opening, pulled it together and added three stitches to keep it together before tying a knot and cutting the excess thread.

Step 4: Sew on a face.  You can use extra-pieces of fabric to make the different parts of the face like the Ugly Dolls but I went with embroidery. It was easier at the time. I added rosy cheeks with a coloured pencil.

Voilà! You have your very own monster like cute stuffed recycled toy. There are endless possibilities out there and this was the first of my stuffed toys attempts, I'll hopefully improve over time. On that note, thanks for reading.

Take care!

Recommended Book :

Cover via Amazon

Stray Sock Sewing, Too: More Super-Cute Sock Softies to Make and Love

Post-Halloween Sugar Rush & Garter Snakes

Halloween was spent in New York this year; my Wolf, DMoon, Petester and myself got all dressed up 80s popstar style, trick-or-treated and sung by the roaring flames of a bonfire. It was magical, it was epic, it was cold.

As November rolled around, we groaned our way out of bed and into the forest for an adventure. Boys being boys, they brought along a pellet riffle. Why? To shoot at stuff. I don't think I'll ever completely understand boys, but I digress. We wandered through the forest, the boys targeting signs and painted trees, whilst I chose to silently pray we didn't come across a squirrel or anything else that could be considered a moving target.

We climbed up a pile of boulders and there, sunning itself on a sunlight rock, a common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis). Unfortunately, my trigger happy boys made it dissapear before I could catch or 

snap a picture of it. This snake is native to North America and is the most widely distributed snake we have. It can be found coast to coast from as south as Florida to the northern latitudes of the James Bay, Canada.
Garter snakes are known for the stripped pattern along their body, generally yellow and black but this is quite variable. The individual we caught a glimps of had orange strippes and was between 1-1.5ft long, it was a small garter snake since their average size is between 3-4ft.

How about some interesting facts. Garter snakes are not toxic to humans although they may release a foul-smelling liquid is you handle them too much. This species is ovoviviparous, a sweet word meaning that they give birth to live, wiggling, young - as opposed to laying eggs like most reptiles. Its diurnal, meaning it's out and about during the day. Last but not least, in addition to worms and amphibians (e.g. frogs and salamanders), they also like to munch on fish, rodents and small birds. How impressive would that be, to see a snake catch a bird.

I kept my eyes peeled for other garter snakes, but to no avail. I did however see skunk cabbages, a huge spider, jelly mold, a beech tree grove, a giant oak leaf and a mysterious red-berry plant. I'll tell you more about these sightings another time, along with some pictures and more fun facts.

Just as our forest ramble ended, so must this post for I must get on with the dishes. I end with our last encounter, another tribe of rambling humans. The alpha male of this tribe approached DMoon, who was carrying the riffle at the time, inquiring after the weapon. Musing over the possibility of shooting some squirrels, he asked if we had shot something to which I responded, "Not while I'm around". The alpha male, turned swiftly in my direction, gave me a once over and said, "You must be one of those Naturalists right?". Having never put much thought towards the question, this identification, although said in a condescending manor, turned out to be true. I am a Naturalist, a person that studied Natural History or a wildlife enthusiast. I guess this is what this blog is all about, the ramblings of a Naturalist. Thank you sir, who ever you are.

Take care!

Purple Carrots & Fairy Smoke part 2

Image by pfly via Flickr

This is part two of my posts about the inspiration behind the title of this blog; the first was a plant I liked to eat, the second, well, it's also a plant, one with an awesome name, an incredible look and an even more intriguing life story. (What can I say, I
 love plants.)
 
Fairy smoke, Indian Pipe and Ghost plant are just a few of the name by which Monotropa uniflora is known. Although it does not have chlorophyll, the photosynthetic pigment that give plants their green colour, M. uniflora is a plant and not a mushroom. It's in Ericaceae family, cousin to the the well known and loved cranberry and blueberry. It's a parasite. Instead of getting it's energy from the sun an making it's own food, it attaches itself to certain mycorrhizal fungi (mushrooms that have a symbotic relationship with plants, in this case, generally trees) and steals their food. This allows the plant to grow in the dark understory of dense and humid forests.

This plant is incredible. I've seen them in Quebec and now in Virginia Beach. They are widespread in forests across North America except in the very cold and arid areas. I've mostly seen them close to with beech trees at the end of summer and autumn which makes sense since these are the best times for mushrooms to grow. 

Keep an eye out for these eerie beauties next time you find yourself in the forest, but contrarily to its juicy cousins, they are not edible so just look, don't bite.

Eerie Beauty by Bedford Audubon

Take care!

Purple Carrots & Fairy Smoke

Considering this blog has been around for a week now, I thought it would be a good time to explain the seemingly random title. Although it may appear otherwise, I actually put some thought into it. After the initial disappointment of discovering that Inquisitive Mind had already been used multiple times, I picked myself up and with the help of my video game absorbed husband, opted to use two of my favorite things: Purple Carrots & Fairy Smoke. (I never said the thought process was a long one.)

Purple Carrots or Purple haze is a variety of carrot that is both esthetically pleasing and enjoyable to eat. I discovered them while working as a camp counselor for the Youth Gardens (or Jardins Jeunes) program of the Montreal Botanical Gardens. This amazing program teaches kids from the age of 6 to 15 how to grow their own food by giving them a piece of land and organic vegetables. Not to mention brilliant counsellors and a loads of vegetables for only 15$/summer. One of the vegetables they grow is purple carrots. They're a hit with the kids (and everybody else I might add). You can't find them everywhere, I had never seen them in a store before until I read a post by Supayana who found them in a Montreal store. I got really excited.

These carrots have a beautiful purple exterior that extends to the core which is orange, this coloration makes them a beautiful addition to any meal. I find them slightly sweeter and softer than the traditional orange variety making them my absolute favorite snack. These carrots may be news to me but they have been cultivated in Afghanistan and other eastern countries for hundreds if not thousands of years. This is me, just spreading the love. Have you eaten purple carrots? Let me know what you think and I'd love to try any cool purple recipes you've discovered.

Take care!

Horseshoe Crab

Atlantic Horseshoe Crab

Limulus polyphemus

      For the past couple months, hubby and I have been living it up on Beachstreet U.S.A,Virginia Beach - consider it an extended honeymoon courtesy of the U.S. Navy.  Originally from Montreal, imagine the culture shock moving from bustling city to beach getaway. Do not weep for me, I adapted quite rapidly to this new way of life. Besides frequent visits to Oceanfront yoga (there is nothing like gazing out towards the ocean in warrior II), my favorite activity is taking a walk along the beach. If we're lucky we can see all sorts of things from pods of dolphins to flocks of pelicans not to mention crabs, clams, mites and what not. I'm ecstatic to see all these creatures that I have studied in books or out of glass jars filled with formaldehyde.

     Connecting with the David Attenborough within in, I will calmly but enthousiastically tell you all about my latest sighting, the horseshoe crab. It's a living fossil. They have been around since the Triassic and haven't changed much since then. They are more closely related to spiders than they are to crabs, even though their name indicates otherwise. My favorite word associated to this species is the telson, the scientific name for it's tail.

Physically the male and female look the same. You can tell them apart by size, the female is larger, and by looking at the end of the first leg, males have boxing glove like claspers to allow them to hold onto the female when mating. The first one I found was propably a female because of the absence of claspers. It's genitalia and gills where missing so I'm guessing they were eaten, most probably by a seagull or some other scavenger. I've been watching Bones a lot lately, it's influenced the way I look at the world. If I wasn't so squirmish about blood and death, I'd like to be a forensic scientist, determining cause of death, age and sex and what not. I'll stick to non-human or anything non-fleshy, that leaves me things with exosqueletons and plants.  Let's continue.

I found two other horseshoe crab remains a little further down the beach. From the size difference (and wishful thinking), I might have found a female and a male but neither of them had legs, well there wasn't much left of the bigger one actually, so I can't be sure. I was excited, it's the biggest one I've ever seen. I sketched my estimate of the size in the sand. They are proportional creatures, the head or prosoma is generally the same length as the abdomen or opisthosoma and the telson tail is generally the length of the body. They can grow to 60cm (24") tail included, the female being 25-30 percent bigger. The big one I found was probably over 45cm (3 times the length of my pen).

Interesting fact about horseshoe crabs, their blood is blue. Instead of having iron based blood like humans, they have copper-based blood.When the blood is oxygenated it turns blue when it's not it's colourless. Their mouth is located under their bodies between the legs, they have nine eyes and light sensitive organs along their tail.  Speaking of their tail or telson, they use it to swim but also to flip themselves over if they get stuck on their back, that's one up on the turtle.

I found someone that likes horseshoe crabs so much he got a scientific tattoo of one on his back to proove it. Check it out for yourself by clicking here.

I'll simply express my admiration by keeping a look out for horsehoe crabs along the beach and maybe, just maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll get to see a live one. Fingers crossed.

Take care!

Fall Colours

     There is nothing quite like a tranquil walk through the forest on a crisp autumn day, but do not be fooled by this seemingly peaceful landscape; the forest and it's inhabitants are busy readying themselves for the harsh winter to come. Squirrels and resident birds are feverishly stashing cones and seeds, flocks or migrants are flying over head towards their distant wintering grounds and even the trees, behind their towering silence, are diligently preparing themselves for their winter slumber.

     The beautiful greens that served the trees so well over the summer months capturing light to produce nourishing sugars and release oxygen, are slowly being degraded as day length shortens and temperature drops, revealing other hidden pigments. Carotenes and xanthophylls replace the dying chlorophyll with brilliant bursts of oranges and yellows. Anthocyanins preciously stored away in the vacuoles of the lead cells can finally display their fiery reds.

      While the leaves are busy putting on a flamboyant show, the tree is slowly producing a layer of celles at the base of the leaf petiole. Once the layer is complete, the leaf will dance upon the wind for a moment before returning to the ground from which it came, leaving as only proof, a slight scar upon the branch from which it grew.

       The tree had no other choice than to release its beautiful fall foliage as the hardship of northern winters do not allow them to keep such delicate structures. The snow would weigh down on the leaves until they are torn off or the branches collapse under their combined weight. Instead, the tree has stored energy in small buds that shall open up to full green splendour when the warm temperatures return. All broad-leaved trees in northern regions shed their leaves in fall. Some may keep their leaves longer, like the majestic oak whose brown leaves may persist well into the winter and even until next growth. In warmer climates, even broad-leaved trees can be evergreen, as they do not suffer from such cruel seasonal changes.

    A dedicated observer will have no doubt noticed that not all trees shed their green leaves and that time has shaped these photosynthetic structures into resistant needles that persist throughout the winter: they are evergreens, conifer trees. Their strategy is different; by keeping their leaves, they can profit from the sun's bountiful presence for a longer period of time before the bitter cold stops photosynthetic activity.

    When all that is left are naked branches stretching out as if to tickle the clouds, urging them to release their snowy blanket, the seasoned walker smiles knowingly amongst the silent trees and chirping chickadees; this is not the end, this is but an interlude of rest before the frenzy of spring. Soon this barren brown land shall turn a sparkling white and a whole new world will be waiting to be explored.

Written about a typical autumn day in Montreal, an attempt at lyrical science, posted out of nostalgia.

Take care!

 

Yellow Garden Spider

Yellow Garden Spider

Argiope aurantia Lucas

My friend and I spotted this beautiful spider in the First Landing National park of Virginia Beach. Although the scale is not apparent on this picture, the body (cephalothorax and abdomen only) was between 1.5 to 2". It was huge! It built it's enormous web (about 2 feet) among the tall grasses of the marsh. It hung there, in the middle, gently swaying in the wind. We watched it for a while amazed by the size and the brilliance of the colour pattern before continuing on our way. We came back a couple days later and it was still there.

Image via Wikipedia

After some research, I determined that our spider was a female mainly because of it's size and the time of year. According to the University of Arkansas Arthropod museum, males rarely reach a 1/4" and stop building webs once they've reached maturity, allocating their time to finding a mate. Astonishingly, the female eats her web and builds a new one everyday, generally at the same spot. I thought it would take her much longer to build such a colossal web that she wouldn't want to waste the energy on rebuilding it. This is a common practice amongst web spinning spiders; they regain some protein and ensure that the web is always sticky. I learn something everyday. Garden Spiders make spiral orb webs with special non-sticky or noncapture parts called stabilimentum, plural is stabilimenta. (The white zigzaging thread in the picture.) They are highly visible, some say it's to prevent birds from flying through, destroying the webs, or to help with camouflage. It has been shown to reduce capture rates.  You can't see any on my picture so that could mean that this particular spider was hungry and chose to increase it's chances to catch it's dinner.

Speaking of dinner, you can watch this intense video of a Garden Spider dominating a velvet ant. Click Here. The shear wrapping speed is mind boggling never mind that the velvet ant, wingless female of the Mutillidae family, possess a hard core stinger that gave it the facetious nickname cow killer. I tip my hat to you beautiful Garden Spider, live long and prosper.

On that note, if you live in the east coast of North America, keep a look out for this amazing being in your neighborhood.

Lounging around Tank top

After writing all about the dress form I just made, I felt compelled to share my latest creation or to be exact, alteration. It all began with another trip to the local thrift store. I found this funky 80s-tastic pink streaked T-shirt with the most adorable pink fish on the right shoulder blade. I had to give it a new life.

After sitting in my project box for many weeks, I came up with this cute and comfy tank top. Here's my preliminary sketch I made and then based my alterations on. The dotted lines indicate where I cut the T-shirt.

This design is a blend of my two favorite tops. I love the curved bottom because it conceals your bum, perfect for leggings and yoga pants. The wide straps and deep neckline allow for total comfort.


This project took me only 15 minutes since it requires no sewing. If you want to make one for yourself, all you need is :

• 1 Fitted T-shirt
• Scissors
• Marking pen
• Tape measure (to help keep everything even)

Follow my sketch or design your own. Have fun!

Look at the little fish swimming across my back! ------------------------------------------------------------------------>


My next project is a stylish racer back tank top. Hope this inspires you to look through your closet and give a second life to your clothes.

Take care!

Duct tape Dressmaker's Dummy

I must confess, I love working with duct tape. I believe you can fix almost everything with a bit of this sticky miracle. It's a wonderful product, water resistant, very sticky, easy to tear but also very strong. I recently watched the Mythbuster team use duct tape to build a potato launcher, a canon, a sail boat and even suspend a car in midair. If you have 5 minutes, type up Duct tape Costumes in Google or click here to see amazing works of duct tape art. I posted a picture of a beautiful duct tape rose to give you an idea. Goes to show, I'm not the only person crazy about duct tape. Imagine my excitement when I discovered my next project. 

In addition to playing with duck tape, I also enjoy making my own clothes.  However, this process required many trips to and from the mirror or asking my relatively uninterested but supportive husband to place pins dangerously close to my body. I concluded that to make the necessary tweaks and tucks to my creations easier and painless, I needed a dressmaker's dummy or dress form. So I dragged my dear hubby to the four corners of the city on a crazy goose hunt, all in vain. I could never find one that fit my budget and my shape. Discouraged, I was taken to a book store - they always cheer me up. As I browsed away my sorrow, I stumbled across the Stitch Lounge Girls' Subversive Seamster. A wonderful book that teaches you to" transform thrift store threads into street couture" and to make your own duct tape dress form. BINGO! My joie de vivre completly restored, we raced off in search of the materials. At this point, I was still unaware of the wide assortment of colours available, so my happiness grew 10 fold when I found I could purchase my favorite colour.

Here's the list of material you need to make your own perfectly shaped dress form:

• 1 Close fitting T-shirt
• 4 Rolls of duct tape
• Plastic wrap or extra material (plastic shopping bags will do)
  
• Scissors
• 1 Willing and patient friend
• 2.5-3 hrs to spare
• A good movie or back to back to back episodes of your favorite show
• Stuffing material
• Stand (standing lamp base, microphone stand, artificial tree pot and broom stick)
  

The book offers descriptive steps and helpful illustrations.  I made some modifications to the technique so here is how I broke it down.

Step 1 : Preparation
Go to the bathroom, you're in this for at least 2hrs. Make sure the room you are in is at a comfortable temperature, tie your hair up and out of the way, then strip down to your underwear and put on the selected T-shirt. (Note: you will never see this t-shirt again.) The sleeves of the t-shirt should cover a little more than half your bicep and the bottom should reach mid-thigh. Supplement any missing length with either plastic rap or extra material. From this point forward, try and stay as still as you can as your friend wraps you. I suggest keeping your feet two fists apart which will help you with your balance.


Step 2 :  Begin wrapping
Place strips horizontally starting from the bottom and working your way up to the bra-line. Be careful to overlap each strip and I suggest using strips no longer than your forearm.

Step 3 : Bust

In order to accurately represent your bust size, use short strips and arrange them in a flower-like pattern on each breast - each strip being one petal. Make sure each strip is long enough to extend from the nipple to the contour of the breast. Once this is done, crisscross two strips of duct tape, one from each shoulder ending at the waist and crossing in the middle of your chest. Then make vertical shoulder straps from where you ended the flower covering the region between the neckline to the sleeve seam. Don't forget to cover the back entirely, you can use smaller vertical strips to connect the shoulders to the horizontal wrapping.

Step 4 : Arms and neck

Hold your arms at a 45-degree angle to make sure that, in due time, you can fit garments underneath. Begging where your bra strap would be and extend the strip vertically down your arm until about one inch above the mid-bicep line. Continue all around to make the sleeves. Add a second layer of duck tape horizontally this time. Once both arms are done, create a duct tape turtleneck by taping horizontal strips until you are a couple inches high making sure to avoid stray hairs. 

Step 5 : Finishing touches
Don't despair you're almost done. Using long vertical strips, add a second coat from the bra-line to the bottom, making them as smooth as possible. Ask your friend to step back from their work of art and give it a once-over and cover any remaining t-shirt spots. At this time, mark the location of your belly button and any other liked or disliked markings on dress form. This will help you when you're creating your new fashion collection.

Step 6 : Extraction

With a pair of scissors, not your best sewing scissors though, have your friend carefully cut up the center of your back, along the spine, expertly avoiding skin and underwear. Remove yourself slowly from your double, put your clothes back on and sit down. I felt like I had lost some bones in the process and had to curl up into child pose to recover. Wimp, maybe, but a wimp with her own perfectly adjusted dress form.

Step 7 : Stuffing
Close up the seam with duct tape and stuff your dummy. The authors of the Subversive Seamster suggest using batting but I went with a mix of torn up newspapers and packing peanuts I had around the house and it worked just fine. Close up neck and arm holes with more duct tape flowers. Before closing up the bottom, insert your stand, measure the height from your belly button to the floor and use that measure to secure the dummy at the right height using the marked belly button as a reference point. Thank your friend profusely and if it is their desire, help them make their own.

The book then goes on to show you cool ways of transforming thrift store finds into trendy clothes. My favorite is the bat wing top made from a sheet and an elastic belt. If you are interested in modifying clothes, I strongly suggest that you purchase the Subversive Seamster. I strongly suggest Amazon since you can find it for 4$ less than in bookstores.  Let me know how it works out and feel free to send me pictures of your creations (emilieDwolf{at}gmail{dot}com).




Take care!