Lee National Denim Day is one of the country’s largest single-day fundraisers for breast cancer, benefiting the Women’s Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF).

Since its inception in 1996, Lee National Denim Day® has adhered to a simple philosophy: One day, One cause, One cure®. In 13 years, that philosophy has become a mantra for millions and has made an impact Lee Jeans never dreamed possible. It all started when several Lee Jeans employees realized that each of them, in one form or another, had been touched by breast cancer. An everyday conversation sparked an idea and led to the creation of Lee National Denim Day, which has become one of the largest single-day fundraisers nationwide for breast cancer. In its first year, Lee Jeans set a goal of raising $1 million on Lee National Denim Day. To do this, Lee Jeans invited companies to go casual for a cause, inviting employees to wear their jeans to work on Denim Day in exchange for a $5 contribution to the fight against breast cancer. The underlying concept behind the program was simple—by convincing enough people to take one small step, together they could reach an incredible goal.

The response to the inaugural Lee National Denim Day program was astounding. That year, more than 3,000 companies signed up to participate, raising $1.4 million dollars for the fight against breast cancer, setting the stage for what would become one of the most captivating social action campaigns in the country. Lee National Denim Day has raised more than $75 million in the last 13 years in the fight against breast cancer and unites nearly one million supporters nationwide each year.

You may have already seen the latest People Magazine’s ‘Most Beautiful’ issue, but if not – Christina Applegate will be returning as the 2009 Lee National Denim Day Ambassador! Christina was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2008, and is appearing in a new public service campaign that encourages people to wear their jeans on Friday, October 2, in exchange for a $5 donation to support crucial breast cancer research being funded by the Women’s Cancer Programs.

Visit www.denimday.com to learn more.

If you would like to be a part of my team, please let me know. If you would like to make an individual $5 donation, you can do that here: Leanne’s Team : Every Day is Denim Day. I’ve set a reasonable participation of 100 people donating just $5 each – so please help me reach that goal and share this with your friends!

Click here to e-mail this to up to 5 friends at a time:
http://intricateart.com/lee-national-denim-day-breast-cancer-fundraiser/email/

If you haven’t already, join the cause on Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/8116?m=3f1cca43

I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t been affected by cancer in one way or another. If this touches you in a personal way, please consider participating.

Put this button on your blog to help me reach my goal!
Link it to:
http://www.denimday.com/team_page.aspx?tid=233703Or just copy and paste this code:
<a href=”http://www.denimday.com/team_page.aspx?tid=233703″ target=”_blank”><img src=”http://intricateart.com/wp-content/uploads/leenationaldenimday.jpg” alt=”Lee National Denim Day” title=”Lee National Denim Day” border=”1″/></a>

Sunday morning, I wandered out to my studio to have a peek out at my bird feeders, and I got the privilege of witnessing the most beautiful relationship between a pair of Pine Siskins (who are, as many of you know, new guests on my feeders).

I rushed for my camera (5 steps away) and was able to capture their loving interaction and I am really excited to be able to share this with you! It warms my heart, and kinda makes me wish I were a bird.

First, the initial photo above. When I first saw them, they were eating together on my thistle sock. I snapped a couple dozen photos of them here until I got one that had them both looking up at the same time (without a blur, even). The rest of my photos are less about quality and more about the story.

After they left they left the thistle sock, they flew over to my patio table and hopped around together.

They moved from the table to the chair, and I started to wonder what they were talking about out there that they both looked up at (whatever it was) at the same time. I love this shot, it gives them that “old married couple” look!

Everywhere that one would go, the other quickly followed. They hopped around this planter for about 20 seconds before moving on.

The male was first to go to the next destination (there’s a bit of yellow in him, he’s on the left). The female quickly followed, and they gained balance and interacted for a few seconds.

Next stop, the next planter in the row. Again, with the “you go, I’ll follow” relationship. They stayed close to each other, that’s for sure!

Back to the table, I caught several shots of them hopping around the table and just loved their reflection on the pebbled glass. They picked at the bud that fell from our maple tree.

They went over to our little fire pit, where they hopped around on the domed lid and picked at more buds and things that were stuck in the screen.

I was in “awwwwe” the whole time, of course – this all took place within just a minute, maybe two. I’m not sure if they were just looking for bits and morsels to eat, or maybe looking for nesting material – whatever the case, this couple is really amazing and it was so interesting to watch them interact with each other!

This last set of photos is what brought a tear to my eye. They hopped down from the lid of my fire pit, and met on the rim.

And then they kissed. They both tilted their little heads to the right, opened their beaks ever so slightly, and kissed. They didn’t exchange anything, there were no supplies in their beaks that I could see, it was just this cute, intimate little moment between boy and girl bird, and OMG! Do you have a tissue?! *blows*

These last three photos were taken in burst mode, and though I missed their beaks actually connecting, you can still feel the love. Bird love. Pine Siskin style.

Welcome to my yard.

Don’t forget to enter to win a custom portrait in my weekly giveaway!

Today begins Week #21 of my 2009 weekly graphite portrait giveaway! Each week, one winner will be selected to receive one 5×7 graphite (pencil) drawing from their photograph.

Last week’s winner was Marie’s rescued Sheltie, Layla. Congratulations, Marie! Layla is adorable, and what a great moment to capture digitally AND as an original piece of art!

A note on framing for portrait winners: I recommend
Nielsen Bainbridge Archival Gallery Frames

available through Dick Blick. Sox & BJ (below) are framed using this frame:

Weekly Contest Announcement!

 

WEEK 21 : CALL FOR ENTRIES
Theme

: Open (pets, animals, people)

Deadline

: Friday, May 22, 2009 (around 5pm CST)

To Enter

: Leave a comment, include a link to your photo. For e-mail submissions,

leave a comment with your story

as your entry, attach your photo to an e-mail separately, and send to gallery *at* intricateart dot-com.

Note: *G* Rating only

Each Monday, I post the weekly Call for Entries along with the previous weeks completed portrait (above). I may change the subject theme each week, or leave the theme open, so please pay close attention to the details in each announcement.

Entries will be accepted through Friday afternoon around 5PM CST, at which time I will close comments and select one winner from the entries received. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday and post the completed portrait with the following week’s Giveaway announcement.

Qualified entries will include a valid e-mail address, and the comment should include one link to a photograph owned/taken by the entrant. If you do not have a place to upload photos to link one, you can e-mail it to gallery *at* intricateart dot-com. Your entry, however, should be included in the comment section below, with your story – should you choose to include one.

The Selection Process: In case you’re curious, I’ll share my little artsy process in selecting the winner. First – I do not read any entries at all during the week. I do not read them because I don’t want anyone’s entries to have any more time than any others to settle in my creative brain. At the end of the week, I close comments. When I sit down to go through all of the entries, I read the story first, and open the photo link in a new window. When I finish reading, I flip over to the photo and my initial reaction is what I go by.

If your entry is not chosen, you may enter again. I encourage you to include a short story with your entry.

Your challenge? To inspire me! Choose your photo wisely – I will select a winner based on how the photo and/or story moves me.

Good luck!!

 

Put this button on your blog to remind yourself to enter each week!
Link it to:
http://intricateart.com/browse/blog/getting-creative/graphite-portrait-giveaway/Or just copy and paste this code:
<a href=”http://intricateart.com/browse/blog/getting-creative/graphite-portrait-giveaway/”><img src=”http://intricateart.com/wp-content/uploads/leannewildermuth125.jpg” title=”Leanne Wildermuth, Artist by Nature” alt=”Weekly Portrait Giveaway” border=”1″/></a>Get the latest updates – Subscribe by Email!
Don’t want to wait? Commission your own 5×7 graphite custom portrait
for just $70.00 right here in my shop!
(Checkout using PayPal)

It’s not a Goldfinch – not a Song Sparrow, it’s a Pine Siskin! Thanks to Taba for helping me identify this bird that landed on my feeder yesterday and was NOT afraid of me one little bit. He enjoyed my thistle feeder for quite a while, and allowed me to fill up my other feeders in very close proximity while he ate.

He had me confused for sure – I knew it couldn’t be a female Goldfinch because of the speckled breast. Couldn’t be a Song Sparrow because of the yellow feathering. Then… what??? This sweet little Pine Siskin is a new bird to my feeders and I’m delighted to have him.

Enjoy!!

“Coming Soon” — tiger honey batik bearded iris.
Baboon bottom bearded iris
(I need to confirm this, it is more peach than pink – I think they sent me a different variety!)

Two fuchsia wave petunia bags flank my garage door. Full of blooms. Love!!!

Recently relocated allium – doing just fine!

Lollipop gerbera daisy. OH YEAH. Gorgeous. Hold still for your close up, Lol!

She’s a stunner!

One bloom remained on the plant, it’s doing just fine. :thumbsup:

And then, she had a wet iris competition:

oooooooooOOOooooo…

aaaaaHhhhhHhhhhh…

And the winner is…

On Mother’s Day, I offered my readers a free desktop wallpaper that I’d created from a photograph I took in my studio of a beautiful White Iris. (You can still download the 1024×768 if you haven’t already.)

Pete (of Shakey Pete) commented and said that his mother raised Iris, so my wallpaper triggered a fond memory of his mom, appropriate on Mother’s Day, I think. His comment made me think. I love comments like that, so thanks, Pete. You brought my daughter and I a little closer on Mother’s Day. I appreciate that.

There’s a story behind this White Iris, which I’ll get to here in a second, but Pete’s comment left me curious. What kind of flowers would my own children grow after I’m gone that will remind them of me, and why? I thought for sure that Catybug would say “Gerbera Daisies!” or even “Stargazer Lilies!” But no. That was not the case.

Now let me tell you a little story.

Last Wednesday, my children attended youth group – at two different churches. Catybug went with her girlfriend after school to attend youth at her church, and I dropped off my little Chickeymonkey at our church.

On the way home, I had to run an errand to pick up food for our guinea pig and bunny. I find the best food for them at Teske’s, our local pet and garden center. I also really, really enjoy visiting the parrots! So, as you could probably guess, I visited the parrots first.

Right. Why carry around loads of food if you just have to put it down to play with the critters? Common sense.

Without any regard to how much time had passed (Because apparently, I have an eternity to shop while I’m at a pet store. Time stands still while you’re making cooey and clicky noises to birds, don’tchyaknow.), I visited with the animals. Then there was an uncomfortable moment where I was forced to either pet the Eclectus or buy him, so I ran and hid in the corner of the store and sucked the thumb he nearly bit off.

I digress.

I picked up 10 pounds of food for the critters that DON’T bite me, and ohhhh my gosh – —- a new truckload of flowers? Did someone say they got more flowers? Ooooh I had to check out the garden center.

Now, rewind to earlier in the day. I’m talking to my dear, sweet friend Taba, and she’s telling me how she’s swooning over White Irises, and she really wants some. We’re talking about flowers, and I remind her of my Monkey Butt (aka Baboon Bottom) Batik Iris that I’ll actually get to see this year, and blabbity blab blab green thumb girl talk.

Okay, got all that? She wants the White Iris. She wants ALL Irises, really, all of them. All in her yard. Right now. Yea, yea, so do I.

Fast forward to me in the garden center, carrying around 10 pounds of smashed condensed timothy hay and corn flake chips. And then, then I spotted the Irises. The WHITE Irises.

I chose the one that was on the verge of blooming. I thought, I’m going to name her Taba (which I did) and next year, I’ll split it and send her some for her garden! Irises, for those unfamiliar, have a bulk of the root at ground level, so one big giant stem teeter tottered above the root in a 4″ square pot. They had braced it up with little green stakes, so I carefully pulled it out from behind a half dozen other random colored Irises, and with one hand wrapped around 10 pounds of critter food, I carefully balanced a teeter-tottering White Iris in my right hand.

And continued on in my search for anything else I might want to add to my garden.

20 minutes later, I found more stuff. Crud, I found more stuff. I’m looking around for a cart, for anything I can put stuff down on – but found nothing. My left bicep was beginning to throb from the weight of the critter food and obviously, if I wasn’t careful with my right hand, my Iris would topple.

I gently set it down, set the critter food down, and went on a search for a tray to put all of my finds in.

Of course, the critter food and the new (mexican heather) went into the tray, but the Iris, the Iris was special. I held everything else in my left hand, and the Iris in the right.

Careful…. carreeeeful….. I asked the checkout clerk if he had a tall brown bag to put the iris in, so it wouldn’t break. Together, we slid it down to the bottom of the bag. Aaaah. Safe. Wait – no – he didn’t know what color the pot was, so we had to reach down in there and pull it back out. Crap. We got it out – put it back in. Phew. Okay. Safe again.

I paid for everything and loaded everything carefully into the back seat of the car. I put the Iris against the back seat, and braced it in with the critter food.

Are you getting all of this carefulness? I could not and probably wasn’t EVER this careful with my own kids as newborns. But this Iris? I could. not. break.

On the drive home, I called Taba. I was so excited to share my fortune! WoohOOOO and I’m going to split it and mail it to you and wheee! We’ll have the same White Irises! YAYYYY what are friends for!! Splitting perennials, that’s what!

She asks what the official name of the Iris is, and I’m just about in my driveway, so I pull into my driveway, park in the garage, get out of the car, open the back door, grab ahold of the Very Special SUPER CAREFULLY HANDLED White Iris and pull it out of my car…..

And busted the stalk.

Yep. I did.

So, when my eldest daughter returned from youth group, I told her this story. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed s’more. She even cried. She almost spit her ice cream out her nose.

It makes sense to me, then, when I asked her what flower she’d plant to remember me by, she replied “White Irises.”

Glad to know I’ll be giving that girl chuckles from beyond the grave!

Today begins Week #20 of my 2009 weekly graphite portrait giveaway! Each week, one winner will be selected to receive one 5×7 graphite (pencil) drawing from their photograph.

Last week’s winner was Shannon’s Boston Terrier, Sir Reiko Suave. That look! That’s where the saying “puppy dog eyes” comes from. Love it. Thanks for sharing Reiko with me, Shannon!

A note on framing for portrait winners: I recommend
Nielsen Bainbridge Archival Gallery Frames

available through Dick Blick. Sox & BJ (below) are framed using this frame:

Weekly Contest Announcement!

 

WEEK 20 : CALL FOR ENTRIES
Theme

: Open (pets, animals, people)

Deadline

: Friday, May 15, 2009 (5pm CST)

To Enter

: Leave a comment, include a link to your photo. For e-mail submissions,

leave a comment with your story

as your entry, attach your photo to an e-mail separately, and send to gallery *at* intricateart dot-com.

Note: *G* Rating only

Each Monday, I post the weekly Call for Entries along with the previous weeks completed portrait (above). I may change the subject theme each week, or leave the theme open, so please pay close attention to the details in each announcement.

Entries will be accepted through Friday afternoon around 5PM CST, at which time I will close comments and select one winner from the entries received. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday and post the completed portrait with the following week’s Giveaway announcement.

Qualified entries will include a valid e-mail address, and the comment should include one link to a photograph owned/taken by the entrant. If you do not have a place to upload photos to link one, you can e-mail it to gallery *at* intricateart dot-com. Your entry, however, should be included in the comment section below, with your story – should you choose to include one.

The Selection Process: In case you’re curious, I’ll share my little artsy process in selecting the winner. First – I do not read any entries at all during the week. I do not read them because I don’t want anyone’s entries to have any more time than any others to settle in my creative brain. At the end of the week, I close comments. When I sit down to go through all of the entries, I read the story first, and open the photo link in a new window. When I finish reading, I flip over to the photo and my initial reaction is what I go by.

If your entry is not chosen, you may enter again. I encourage you to include a short story with your entry.

Your challenge? To inspire me! Choose your photo wisely – I will select a winner based on how the photo and/or story moves me.

Good luck!!

 

Put this button on your blog to remind yourself to enter each week!
Link it to:
http://intricateart.com/browse/blog/getting-creative/graphite-portrait-giveaway/Or just copy and paste this code:
<a href=”http://intricateart.com/browse/blog/getting-creative/graphite-portrait-giveaway/”><img src=”http://intricateart.com/wp-content/uploads/leannewildermuth125.jpg” title=”Leanne Wildermuth, Artist by Nature” alt=”Weekly Portrait Giveaway” border=”1″/></a>Get the latest updates – Subscribe by Email!
Don’t want to wait? Commission your own 5×7 graphite custom portrait
for just $70.00 right here in my shop!
(Checkout using PayPal)

Download 1024×768
 
I’ve captured my very first white Iris bloom (and named her Taba) on camera, and created a desktop wallpaper for you to download.
 
Just right click on the download link above, save to your computer, and enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Q: What do you call four male goldfinches on a line?
(continue reading for the answer)

The vegetable garden is in! I planted Eggplant, cucumber, green peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, bush beans and broccoli. I can’t wait to watch as it grows and starts producing veggies!! I just loved cutting fresh broccoli last summer and steaming it – there is nothing better, no store bought broccoli compares!

We were lucky, I guess, in that I really didn’t have to deal with many bugs at all in my garden. This may have been because I use Cutter backyard spray on our grass to keep the bugs at a minimum – the spray lasts about 4 weeks, so we can enjoy our yard without being bitten or pestered (much)!

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