PFFFFFT!

This all started out innocently enough, really it did. What bad could possibly come from a topic such as a raspberry?

Raspberries
From the Fresh Produce Group of the US

Don't they just look wonderful? Nice and yummy?

Then we learned about a very "basic" computer, the Raspberry Pi. The latest is the size of a business card and has 1G of RAM. Basic, they say!

Raspberry Logo by
Adafruit UK

Then we thought of blowing raspberries. You know? The sound Edith Ann used to make on Laugh In? Sure, you know the one! It has an official name now, that's called a "zerbert," not to be confused with sherbet. Really.

Lily Tomlin as
Edith Ann

Then we tried to bring it back around as the Zentangle world has it's Bronx Cheer. The raspberry is supposed to cover up mistakes. I never quite understood that, as it seems to bring attention to where there must've been a boo-boo in an art form that supposedly has no mistakes. Huh?

The Official Instructions for a
Bronx Cheer
Copyright, Zentangle.com

Still looks scrumptious.
And that's the truth. Pffffft.
So send in your raspberries to 1xeritas@gmail.com and we'll get them posted.

Week 58--Zipper

The week's word was zipper. We thought the idea was pretty straightforward. Then Freebird sent in her beadwork: she found an arachnid that weaves a zipper-like web!

Is that cool or what? Mother Nature can surely surprise us, can't she?

That's the offerings this week. Be sure to check out the artist's blog! Until next time....

Zip It!

Have you closed a zipper today? On a pair of jeans, perhaps, or a purse?

We have too many sleeping bags that have yards of zipper closures....there are Zip-loc baggies that hold our potato chips (otherwise known as "crisps.") and sandwiches for lunch.

Otherwise, we have buttons and hooks and Velcro to hold things together.

But if you're Dr. Evil:

Which quickly brings us to:

Or something like this:

However you perceive a zipper, show us your twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2 PM, Tuesday, May 30, 2017 and we'll share them with the world!

Week 57--Garden

Life is wonderful when you attack it with gusto and a fair amount of humor. This week's entries are a case study in wonderful.

From Arkansas, Freebird sent this offering in her trademark beads. She wrote:

Happy belated Mothers day, hope yours was a good one.  I chilled out and beaded me a garden! But I went different (as always) for this weeks theme.  I am not a flower garden kinda person.  I don't mind flowers, they are pretty but if I don't get flowers for Mother's day or my birthday it does not bother me.  Because I have an uncanny ability to kill any plant by looking at it!  At least it seems that way.  LOL  

So for this week's theme I decided to think of a big-sized garden.  The Garden State.  New Jersey! You can thank hockey for giving me the idea!  I was watching a game and the announcer commented on the fact that The New Jersey Devils were from the Garden state! 

We find that hilarious as we are from the Garden State. New Jersey has two personalities, North, near New York City and South, near Philadelphia. The Jersey Devils are based out of Newark, which is in North Jersey. Being from South Jersey, we grew up on the Philadelphia Flyers, particularly the Broad Street Bullies--Bobby Clark and Bernie Parent--that won the Stanley Cup in the Seventies. You see, we're hockey fans, too! And it's the Stanley Cup playoffs right now!

Our offering is intended to be humorous. If I'm getting blamed for something that has shared responsibility, I say, "Here, Have an apple." This modern Eve has an apple on an Apple.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the garden entries. Be sure to check out the artists' blogs and perhaps? Try your hand at the TwobyTwo!
Until next time....

I'd Like to be With You

While working on the inspiration for this week's idea, we've been humming along with the Beatles' song about an underwater garden...

The Octopus's Garden
Interpreted by the Lone Beader

Oh, the fantastic artwork we found on the subject of gardens of all varieties!
There is the original garden:

And some trouble over an apple. This one was painted by Thomas Cole in 1828 and resides at the MFA, Boston.

There was a "Secret Garden," filmed in black and white in 1949. This is a publicity photo for the Toronto Film Festival:

There are indoor gardens created for a week or two while the IDEA of anything actually growing is just a figment of one's imagination:

From the Chelsea Flower Show.

And some lovely quilted permanent gardens:

Ah, the mind reels with scrumptious colours and ideas!
Show us your "garden" twinchies! Send them to:
1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM, Arizona Time, Tuesday, May 16, 2017 along with blog links or notes and we'll post them later the same day. Join in the fun!

Week 56--Ocean

This week's prompt was big, big as the ocean. How to squeeze such a large area into two inches? Let's see!

Freebird sent a mermaid!  She writes,

I tried to make it look like she is floating in the water.  I also tried to make the water look like it is moving.  ( I don't think that came out how I wanted it but still! LOL).

Our official response was taken from our walls. The signature reads 1978. It's really a large needlepoint painting that I must've done when I had the patience for such things!

And THAT'S how you squeeze the ocean into four-square inches!

Thanks for visiting! Be sure to check out the artists' blogs and perhaps, try your own hand at the twinchies!

Until next time....

Big Blue Marble

Ever watch Seinfeld? There's one episode where George gets to pretend to be a marine biologist and saves a whale. You know the one? Go here for his closing monologue. Hilarious.

This time of year is focused on saving whales and saving the planet. We learned in the primary grades that Earth is three-quarters water, which means we need to take care of all that water for the health of everything and everyone on the planet.

Earth Day Flag
Created from image by Apollo 17 Space Mission

A friend of ours, Ron Watkins, is an underwater photographer and through his images brings that message home.

He just won an award for this image he calls, "One in a Million:"

One in a Million
Jellyfish in Alaska
Photograph by Ron E. Watkins

Isn't that cool? It's worth the while to see all the award-winning photographs for The Atlantic's 2017 Underwater Photography of the Year, so check it out!

These are Ron's own words on his craft, from a 2012 interview:

Life is short so make the most of it. I have been fortunate to pursue my passions and experience some wonderful places in my life. Another one of my passions is preserving the ocean and all of its inhabitants. I use my art to increase awareness of the reefs and marine life. The oceans support a diverse and important marine ecosystem which humans depend on. 

I hope that by people seeing my images, they will take more of an interest in the conservation of this fragile natural resource. 

If you're more of a tangly person, check out Laura Harms' art blog challenge this week and see why she calls Earth, "Amanda." Perhaps, combine these two challenges? 

There's plenty of inspiration available for this week's twinchie. Oh, yeah, the word is, "ocean."

Send your "ocean" via email to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Arizona Time, Tuesday, May 2, 2017 along with blog links and/or notes and we'll post them later the same day. Please join the fun and share the word!

Week 55--Key

The word this week was, "key." Are you like us and have a can of keys to cars and houses that you haven't owned in a lifetime? NO? We thought everybody did!

Freebird sent this beaded artwork of filigree keys, isn't it delightful? What wondrous doors they must open!

Our official response is a collage:

I guess you'll just have to visit the artists' blogs to see what they had in mind in creating these mini artworks! Be sure to do that or even better, try your hand at this twinchie challenge!

Until next time....

Key Words

You can have the keys to the city or the keys to success, You can have the key to someone's heart or tap your heartfelt thoughts on a keyboard. You need keys to open a house or start a car and you probably carry around a set on a key chain full of little gadgets or toys.
What do you have keys to? What can you open with your keys? What do you think of with this week's word of "key?"
Show us your key twinchies and we'll show them to the world! Send images of your artwork to:
1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Arizona Time, Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

Week 54--Coin

Alas, nothing is moving quickly nor smoothly in twinchie-land. But here we are with this week's contribution to the cause using the prompt of "coin."

Freebird sent in the pattern she will be using for her project, a big pot of gold!

That's a LOT of coins!

Our official response is a photograph with a phrase that was coined over 2,000 years ago! It still rings true, doesn't it?

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the blogs of the participating artists to see what all they've been up to and perhaps? Try your hand at the TwobyTwo!
Until next time....

To Coin a Phrase

Just as there are two sides to every coin, there are more than just one way to work with "coin." You can toss a coin in a fountain (and if you do it right at the right place, you'll return to Italy, though we've never been. How can you re-turn to someplace you've never been before?), have a coin in your pocket (and a song written about it by Chrissie Hyne) or you can coin a phrase, which really means to invent a new one rather than using an old cliche, which is how the saying is more often used.

Coins used to be made of precious metals and really worth something. Even penny candy now costs a dime (or more)! Hard to do a load of wash at the laundermat without a pocket full of quarters. Coins come in all shapes, sizes and materials. I have an ancient Roman coin about the size of a shirt button made of glass; hard to tell if it's really worth anything other than being really cool.

But most of all, if you hand over a pair of pennies or some really great ideas, then you've given your two cents-worth. And we just love anything to do with two!

So send in your best ideas for "coin" twinchies! Deliver your images to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Arizona Time/Pacific Daylight, April 4, 2017 and we'll post them later the same day!

Week 53--Alphabet

Welcome to year three of the TwobyTwobyTuesday twinchie challenge! Woohoo!

This week the word is "alphabet." The contributions were made utilizing the English characters and we have to wonder what they might look like in a different language.

Freebird sent this in with this explanation:

One of my favorite hockey players is called "Soup"  since his last name is Campbell.  Not only is it a great take on the theme, but I thought this was fitting lol (me and my hockey!)!

And so do we!

Ours was a simple design, the "a" is for "alphabet"

Thanks for checking out the twinchies! Be sure to visit the artists' blogs to see what they're up to. 
Until next time....

Easy as A-B-C!

If it weren't for letters, we wouldn't have words and without words, well how would you put a blog together?! Words are shortcuts to identification and communication, made up of letters of the alphabet. And alphabet is the word of the day!
Depending on where you live your alphabet will have different characters than the 26 English characters. Did you notice that there are 26 bi-weekly twinchie challenges and they're all start with a different letter? We have to wonder how different they are in a different language!
Show us your alphabets!
Send your contributions to: 1xeritas@gmail.com!

Week 52--Peppermint

WOW! It's two whole years of twinchies!

The word of the week is peppermint.

This is how we interpreted it:

You can check out this blog to see what's going on here.
Thank you for visiting. I apologize for the bumps in the road of late. If you check out the link above you'll get most of the story. Please come back! Next week is the start of year Three of the TwobyTwo.

As Refreshing as a Peppermint Patty

Mention peppermint and the mind may conjure images of cool little breath mints or perhaps? Wind-in-your-hair refreshment of Yorkshire Peppermint Patties? Or Charlie Brown's friend, Peppermint Patty? Holiday peppermint sticks or even better, icy mojitos on a hot summer day?

Show us what peppermint looks like to you!

Week 51--Lion

This is the place where artworks for the word, "lion" will go.

We Ain't Lyin'

That is the most garbled heading I think I've ever come up with--truly butchering the English language. But I think you catch our drift--we are not lions, "Lion" being the word-of-the-week.
We love the big cats and on the bucket list of trips is an African safari to see them up close. The nearest we can get until then are the cats at the zoo.

Henry, 1996-2014
Henry Vilas Zoo, Wisconsin

We did have a close encounter with a mountain lion in very suburban Anthem while driving the parkway one night. It was much bigger than we had thought and we were glad that a) we were securely ensconced in our automobile and b) we didn't meet by accident.

Here's a familiar lion:

And here's one we remember from childhood:

And who doesn't recognize this guy:

Love the bow!

Show us your lion twinchies! Send images of your two-inch creations to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, February 21, 2017 along with your links and notes and we'll post them later the same day. Thanks for participating and spreading the word!

Week 50--News

Not much news to report, just some great art entries for the week.

From Arkansas, Freebird sent her graphic of a newspaper front page in beads:

Our official response is a collage:

Be sure to check out the artists' blogs to see what they have to say about their artwork!
Let them know you saw it here. Maybe you'll want to join in on the fun?

Until next time....

What is black and white...

And "red" all over?

Remember that joke? There were many answers but the one we're looking for is, "The Newspaper."

Do you remember actually getting your news in print form? When the newspaper had the stock reports and classified advertisements? When it was only colorful with the Sunday funnies?

Were you like we were, and ONLY read the Sunday funnies? It seems as that's a really good idea, as consuming news is bad for your health. Read the news article here. (Oh! We love the irony of that! That someone wrote a news article about how news articles are bad for your health!)

Even the New York Times, which has always advertised that it has all the news fit to print, doesn't print EVERyTHIng! And anymore, most news comes by way of the internet.

Still, some news is better than others, like finding out you won the lottery or the birth of a child. And depending on your religious affiliation, there is the gospel truth, or REALLY GOOD NEWS.

SO show us your "news" twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com along with notes of inspiration or blog links. The deadline is 2PM Arizona time, Tuesday, February 7, 2017; we'll post them later the same day.

Week 49--Fortune

The celebration of the beginning of the Chinese New Year is this coming weekend, which was the inspiration for this week's prompt. It's not possible to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant without finishing up with a cookie, cracking it open to find the fortune tucked inside. Here in the States, anyway.

Freebird made this with her signature beads:

We have to agree! She was brave to tackle writing in beads, it's very tricky.

Our official response:

It's a certain spokes-gecko. If you have 15 minutes, you could save up to 15  percent!

Be sure to check out the artists' blogs and tell them you saw them here!
Until next time....

As Luck would have it

If you are fortunate, you are lucky. If you have a fortune, you are wealthy in the material sense or you're reading a magazine that you hope will get you there.
If you find yourself in Fortune, you could be in Arkansas, California, Newfoundland or the Philippines.
Or you could be a soldier of Fortune, an adventurer with your own magazine, (with what seems like a lot of weapons involved). Did you know that the boat on a second trip to deliver more Pilgrims to the Plymouth Colony in 1621 was called "Fortune?" Neither did I (and it's history is not very fortunate).
Perhaps you just opened your Chinese cookie. Now we're getting somewhere.

Next week and for a couple more weeks is the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycles, so it's a movable holiday (this year starting January 27 or 28 depending on where on the planet you live) and involves a lot of noise-making and fireworks.
And with any luck, fortune cookies!
Have some fun with your art and show us your "fortune" twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, January 23, 2017 and we'll post them later the same day. Share with us any insight into the inspiration and blog links. And share the fun!

Week 48--Happy

Apologies all around for my tardiness. Sometimes life can be...everything. We'll keep it at that and remain upbeat. Particularly since the word of the week is/was, "Happy!"

Freebird sent hers in on time. From Arkansas, USA we have:

And our not very timely nor original contribution to the cause:

Be sure to check out the artist blogs and to visit again next time!

Happy New Year!

We're yet just a couple days into 2017. The year is full of promise and excitement from this vantage point. Why not start off happy?

We can put on a happy face

You can exude happiness

You can even buy happiness

We're more of a coffee and donuts kind of happy, but you get the idea.

This is what someone named Jennifer Smith thinks happiness looks like

What do YOU think "happy" looks like? Show us your happy twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM January 9, 2017 along with whatever notes of inspiration and blog links you'd like to share. We'll post them later the same day.
As always, all mediums are welcome, check out "The Rules" page if you need to. We look forward to your submissions! And Happy New Year!