Earthset via Artemis II

An Earthset, captured by the Artemis II crew from the Orion Integrity spacecraft during Monday’s flyby. Photo credit-NASA

Credit...I am deeply, powerfully moved by this image, shared from the crew of Artemis II just before they lost  communications while passing around the Moon's dark side. Earth Day came a little early this year.

The crew members observed a solar eclipse as they emerged from the other side of the moon.Credit...NASA

This solar eclipse picture is almost too much to comprehend really. That's the Moon blocking out the Sun in a way that we never get to experience on Earth. And yes, they still had to wear their cardboard eclipse glasses!

But to me, even more important, is what one of the astronauts said in their first words sent back to Houston Control when they regained communications with Houston Control:

 "We will always choose Earth," Christina Koch, a mission specialist on Artemis II, said once the crew members regained communications. "We will always choose each other."

Could there be a greater, more cosmically measured distance between those beautiful, inspiring words of humanity than those offered up almost simultaneously by our deranged madman president threatening that "a whole civilization will die tonight"? Here's hoping...and all prayers and good thoughts offered up that the Earth that the Artemis II crew eventually returns to does not include the aftermath of such a catastrophic event.

Don't Stand Still

Anything is fair game to get embellished in my studio if it holds still long enough. This is a bottle of hand lotion that had its very very sticky label removed by my son (during the "I Hate Labels" stage). It was bugging me every single time I touched it because of the stickiness. What do I have lying around to fix this? Oh yeah, fabric scraps. So now the lotion bottle isn't so awful to touch anymore, plus it looks kind of interesting too.

These are my Raw Materials these days. I have so much fabric now (probably too much), that I really am not buying much of it anymore, but I am using whatever interesting things come my way along with all that fabric stash.

You saw how the red ribbons got used in yesterday's post. When will the other items appear in something else that I create? Who knows, but I know that they will be likely candidates to grab and use, since they are sitting near the top of the pile on my worktable.

What pile you ask?

This pile!

What are you recycling or reusing these days?

Oh and Happy Earth Day!