January Showers Bring February Flowers

Yes, I know how it supposed to go but remember, this is the desert and we don't fool around with those season things.

It's been a tad rainy here lately and I knew it would mean earlier than normal flowers here and today I got to see this.

Followed closely by his brother.

Totally loving all the features on my camera that I keep figuring out.

It was an overcast day today and thinking it would be the perfect day to try and photograph these pinback buttons I inevitably ended up with too much glare on the shiny surfaces.

I do like the artsy feel of this shot though.

I'm learning...

Yay! Finally...More New Stuff and A Lesson Learned

Agatha just loves her crown and she thinks she looks so regal with it on.
Momma Maddie and baby Margo.


Some chubby little houses.
Okay, my lesson learned this week was an interesting one. I had these big chunks of packing foam and I was thinking how cool it would be to use said foam block, cut into cute little house shapes and then covered with paper mache.
Yeah! I'm definitely on to something here! I get to have a ready supply of foam blocks and I can cut them into interesting shapes.

When I get a project going I "usually" stick with it, wanting to get it done as I'm so excited by the prospects of it and with Celluclay all I have to do is pop it into the oven on a low temp to "bake" it and then I can easily move on to the next step.

I swear, it never even occured to me...

Totally my fault as I had initially made 13 of the little buggars.

Video from Youtube

How wonderful is this video. I just can't seem to get enough of it!

How To Celebrate a Birthday!

With a fantastic cupcake! So soft, creamy and utterably decadent!

And then making sure that you have lots more when the initial sugar rush dissipates!

It was a grand day made all the better by having a couple of these sugary confections. I almost think these were superior than a cake as I got to sample several different flavors and they were so yummy.

Tomorrow I'm just going to pretend than I'm not a year older...

The Beauty of The Desert

Last weekend I took the dogs up to Redrock for a little outdoor time. I love this time of year as it's not hot yet and even a little on the cool side. Yes, I know, it's only February but that's what happens when you live in the desert.

I arrived at the Redrock canyon loop in the afternoon and you can see by the shadows that the sun wasn't far off from setting. Still makes for a beautiful shot though and just look at all that beautiful blue sky! It just doesn't get any better.

We then drove over to the Calico Basin wash where we like to get out and walk around. I like to let the dogs run around and be dogs here. Poor little Egg (Pekingese) has a hard time keeping up with Cooper (Labrador) but he gives it his all. Of course evertime I tried to get a shot of the little buggars...well, suffice it to say, they didn't turn out well.

I took a shot of this desert beast rising from the dusty desert floor. Kind of reminds me of those "grab-oids" from the movie Tremors.

One of the almost daily reminders we get here is to stay out of desert washes, especially when it looks like rain. Water can come washing down from the mountain and it doesn't care who or what you are.
Case in point being this poor wheelbarrow.

It looks like we've got rain in our forecast for the next few days. I'll have to get back up there and see how the landscape has changed after nature is done this time.

Just a few of the many species of Catus that grow out here.

A Challenge Idea, A Finished Canvas and A Winner!

I was fairly busy yesterday in the studio which actually surprised me a little bit. I've been totally feeling the blahs lately and not feeling creative at all but I managed to work on 3 seperate projects and even finished this little guy. He makes me happy.


He's on a 6x6 stretched canvas. I've got a whole stack of them...blank...sitting there looking at me forlornly, wondering if I'm ever going to do anything with them and are now jealous of this one. So sad...

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Now about that challenge...
I really like the idea behind illustration friday, a lot. I know that I can go in and do a friday and skip a couple of fridays but I know that I would always feel that pressure, (from myself) to HAVE to do those fridays I was skipping and therefore not get anything at all done.

Besides, I feel that if I put myself "out there" in my blog I would have no choice but to participate in my own game...so to speak, hehe.

So, I was going to put it out there to come up with a word or a phrase or even a meaning for the first challenge but I'm thinking that being as today is the first day of a new month that I'll just go ahead and throw it out there and maybe give us all a 3 week time limit to get our project done.

Yeah, I think I like the sounds of that.

Okay, so I'm thinking that your project can be any size, any medium, any "thing" you want. You can have ANY interpretation that you decide is best suited for you and this project.

Let me know when you are done and I will either post it here or link to it...your choice. OR we could even start a Flickr group. We can decide on that later if need be. Ooh, or both! Hehe.

~ This months challenge shall be CENTER ~


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And now to announce the winner of little Miles. I did a drawing this morning via the random number generator and it came up with the number 22 which just happened to be A Smiling Girl!

Congrats A Smiling Girl, please contact me with your shipping address so I can get Miles ready for his journey to you.

I also want to thank everyone for coming to visit me on my grand 100th post and here's to 100 more!