Not Enough Time and Far Too Many Things

I'm still trying to figure this one out. Both Cooper and Emily were sound asleep when I wandered over with the camera and only opened their eyes when the heard the camera making noises. How in the world Emily got where she was is just beyond my comprehension. Silly little pill.

I've got lots of new work done but have been struggling lately with the camera and in trying to get good pictures lately.
I've been attempting to get one good spot set up (permanently) for all my picture taking and nothing I do seems to be working. Needless to say it's led to some very frustrating times.

I would LOVE to see a shot of your set up if you are so inclined to share...please!

Pierre and Simone. Named after my rescue Hamsters that I have totally fallen in love with! Don't you just love their little berets?

Clairee, named after the third Hamster. She's just a little darling. Both the hamster and this adorable little bird.

Little Stevie.

This is Palmer who decided that the "normal" party hats weren't for him and decided to don a pine tree for a hat instead. This little guy has gone to his new home in Barcelona Spain.

I wonder if he'll learn a new language.

This is Wallace.

Last but not least. My mobile home. I combined the big eyed birds with the chubby houses. I feel like a genetic engineer, hehe.

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On a really really happy note, I got a new (to me) jacuzzi for the back yard yesterday and it just now dawned on me that I missed a great photographic opportunity in NOT taking a picture of the GIANT crane that came to my house to move it...dangit!

My neighbor is moving and decided to sell me her jacuzzi as she couldn't take it with her. It's a 6 person jacuzzi so it wasn't something we could just lift up and move, hence the giant sized crane.

I'm just waiting for cooler weather so we can run the electricity needed to run it up through the attic and over to it.

I. simply. can't. wait!

A Small Offering Today and Emily

I see that I have again let time wander away from me but at least I was "semi" productive this time, hehe.
I've been working on getting some illustrations fit for buttons and pocket mirrors for, hopefully, a small craft fair coming up that I may or may not be involved in. Well shoot, let's be totally ambiguous about this shall we.

I love this happy little guy.

Finally got some small 1 inch buttons done in the bird folk. I've got some really neat things planned for more of these guys too.

Now let's go a little darker shall we, after all Halloween is just right around the corner and we all know how much I love the dark side of things.

Not so bad you say. It's just an antatomical heart.

Well, it seems as though George here has been wearing it on his sleeve looking for the woman of his dreams.

Fred was found wandering around the park looking for a snack. Unfortunately only this will do.

That's right, brains! And yours looks mighty tasty!

Loudly proclaim your love of the undead. You know you want to!

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Now let's discuss one small reason I've been so lax lately. The kitten. She was supposed to go elsewhere but has totally managed to worm her way in here tighter than a drum. And not with just me. With even the most hardcore disbelievers around.

When she's not snuggling up to the guinea pigs, (that's right, you heard correctly) this is where she is more often than not. Curled right up next to Cooper on Cooper's bed.

No, they aren't comfortable in the least. This is now officially Emily... and she is a pill.

Oh and stay tuned. I have lots of works in progress coming up VERY soon, hehe.

Ye Olde High School Re-Union and the trip to get there

I see by my last entry that I have been very bad about updates here. I'm thinking that my picture overload this time might in some small way make up for some lost time...I hope.

I have just returned home from a little excursion into the wilds of Wyoming where I decided to go to attend my High School re-union. I've found that it's certainly true, you can't go back home.

So much has changed yet nothing has changed.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I had planned to or even wanted to. It's funny how you get so caught up in things that after you leave an area that's when you remember your camera!

A really quick stop in Cedar City (sorry Kelly) and I thought these hanging flower baskets were so beautiful I had to snap a quick picture. Mind you, I'm in my car hanging out the window. The locals must have thought I was crazy. No, the car wasn't in motion at the time.

I stopped for some food somewhere along the road after traveling for miles in what I assumed was a wind driven dust cloud, which was certainly true in some areas, but this was for hours. It almost looked like fog or maybe like it was going to snow.

Found out later that there were some pretty serious fires around the Salt Lake City airport and the rough winds were certainly not helping matters.

I don't think it took them long to get them under control though I never heard more about them.

This shot was taken at 6 in the evening and yes, that is the sun.

This shot of some unknown, to me, lake on the way from Salt Lake City to Evanston Wyoming. I've driven this route a number of times while living in Wyoming and I don't remember this lake being there. Funny how memory works.

Beautiful but nasty looking thorns. I found these growing along the banks of the lake. I love the purple color.

Beautiful mountain just along the side of I-80. Had to stop and take this shot.

You know you're in Wyoming when you see signs like this. Friday night excitement!

For the life of me I can't remember the name of this place but I worked here for a couple of months in the summer between my Junior and Senior years when my parents moved from Mountain View to Evanston.

They had a piano bar and everything.

I saw a semi truck hauling just one of the blades for these things. I was as long as the trailer hauling it. Just huge! I love these things but on some level I just can't explain they completely freaked me out. There were so many of them and my years of reading Stephen King made me aware that sooner or later they were going to come to life and start walking around the valley wreaking all kinds of havoc...*shudder*

These were located on all the bluffs just outside Fort Bridger. Can't imagine what this cost them to do but I applaud them for all the effort!

It's like they are just patiently awaiting orders.

Finally got to see the inside of our old High School. Was it always this small?

We were the Mountain View Buffaloes. Who seriously thought that the color combination purple and white was anything but royal? Looked really weird on my Letterman's jacket though.

Our mascot. An actual stuffed buffalo head. Poor guy didn't run across the plains fast enough...apparently.
My locker is in this bunch but I couldn't remember the exact locker to save myself. I definitely don't remember being this short.

This was the day we decided to have an outdoor, in the park, dyed in the wool picnic. I think the high temperature this day was about 65. When I left home the low temperature was about 92.

Yes, I was very cold this day.

These are the wonderful little cabins I stayed in while I was there. They were so awesome.

In leaving town after all the festivities were over I managed to catch this little bit of graffiti. So unlike anything Wyoming normally has to offer. Makes me wonder if they know something we don't...hmmm.

Gratuitous cow shot.

Actually there was a story behind me taking their picture. It was out in the middle of nowhere just down from some railroad tracks tucked in a place no on goes to. I spotted a bunch of old cars on the hill below the train tracks. A lot of them were rusted out, missing doors, engines and in general disarray. There were a couple of really old buildings and tons of rusty "things". Oh how I wanted to stop and poke around said rusty cast away things.

There was a dirt road that led from the highway under an old concrete bridge hidden away from the highway and past these two cows. Once I got to that spot where no one could see me or my truck I started to have a feeling like I had seen this part in a horror movie somewhere. You know the one where you talk to the person on the screen, asking them could they be so stupid as to wander into a place like that just knowing something bad was going to happen.

You could see it, why couldn't they.

My arms broke out in goose flesh and I put my car into reverse and got out of there, leaving all manner of fabulously cool rusty things behind me.

As if to confirm my fears here's a great shot of the Devil's Slide.

Not too far from those pesky cows.

I Needed a Fresh New Avatar So...

I've been using a version of this guy as an avatar wherever I go but wanted a newer fresher color. Plus I wanted to make some new canvas paintings. I admit to getting a bit on a roll with it.Yes, fresh new colors indeed.

I think this guy is right up my alley. Very reminiscent of Maddie and Margo not to mention Hannah and her two daughters.

These are all done on 4"x4" stretched canvas and will be going into the shop as soon as I get proper photos of them.

I'm also wondering if these aren't truly reminiscent of the photos one would find in your High School yearbook?

I don't suppose this has anything to do with my re-union coming up in a couple short weeks?

Nah.

A Trio of Big Eyed Birds and New Chubby Houses!

In celebration of all the baby birds that have landed them selves into my life and, let's face it, my heart, I decided to do a tribute piece to them with this trio of birds. Hannah and babies Edith and Agatha.

Edith is the shy one always hanging around her Momma while Agatha can't wait to spread her wings and fly off to new places.

A new village of chubby houses. The sun wasn't co-operating very well with me and this picture looks a tad washed out. I am so looking into better options.

A couple of my favorites.

Love the little heart shaped flowers!

Hmmm, wondering what else I can get into today...

A Grand Desert Tortoise

Over the weekend I got to help re home this little old (looking) man. He is estimated to be about 5-8 years old and is a desert tortoise.I totally fell in love with this guy and believe me if I had my yard set up for a tortoise I would have kept him here! Who knew they had such personality and charisma. And carrot chomping abilities, hehe.

He was very focused on that carrot!

In all his glory. Although he looks rather huge he's only about 8-10 inches long.

One of those faces you just can't help but adore!

Having a little snack and loving those leafy greens.

I promise in my next post to have some pictures of some actual artwork. Apparently nature has taken over both my life and this blog but I do solemnly promise!

Beautiful Garden Flowers and Bug Porn!

A very lovely profusion of wild flowersYes, there are way too many flowers crammed into that tiny little space. You see on a whim a few years ago I decided to buy a large bag of mixed wild flowers seeds and being the lazy bum that I am decided it was far too difficult to actually plant them.

Into the refrigerator they went where they languished for several years...tsk tsk tsk.

I decided I was tired of moving them around in there and I did have this now empty space in the planter in the front of my house and with my Mothers warning that they would probably be no good and not grow I happily started sprinkling seeds in my planter.

Now I know that you aren't supposed to put that many in one spot but this was a bare patch and my Mom did say they probably wouldn't grow AND I was tired of looking at the bag in the fridge anyway. Sooo, I dumped the whole bag in there, hehe.

I walk out there everyday to see what new kind of flower is sprouting. I just can't get over how happy this crowded little patch makes me.

This one just showed up and so far is the only one like it. LOVE him!

Daisies or small sunflowers. Who knows, I had promptly thrown away my bag and have NO idea what I planted.

Such a lovely happy flower.

I was digging through some weeds and the process startled both me and this praying mantis. He is beautiful but he really kinda freaked me out a bit. He kept "glaring" at me and swiveling his head around to look at me.
This picture is blurry but says it all. He was not happy with me at all. *shudder*

This is a lovely wild lantana plant that just 'showed' up one day growing right next to the wild pomegranate tree that showed up right before it.

I love this flower!

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Just a warning, bug porn ahead!

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I've marked this particular pomegranate as I'm sooo not eating it! Hehe.

I wish my picture had come out just a hair less fuzzy. Aren't those markings beautiful!

No, I have no idea what they actually are. Hope they aren't stink bugs though...