Not in Texas Anymore

So we were driving down the road and stopped when we spotted this near the side of the road:

And later, this:



Obviously, I was nowhere near home. Steve and I took a cruise to Alaska in late August, and we saw these bears on a day we rented a car and drove to the Yukon Territory in Canada. Nothing but beautiful scenery hour after hour, and five unexpected black bears along the way.

Speaking of unexpected, who knew that in the midst of all the lushness, lakes, and waterfalls we'd come across "World's Smallest Desert," originally covered by a glacial lake:

This was one day of our three-week trip, and I'm not usually one to take landscape shots, but the scenery was so beautiful I had to try to capture some of it. Of course the pictures don't compare to being there, but I just had to keep snapping. The cruise was excellent, and we also explored the interior for ten days after that. Here are a few shots. First, Mt. McKinley from Denali Park on what we heard was "the clearest viewing day all season."

"Glacier landing" near Mt. McKinley

Speaking of glaciers, I have to post at least a couple of my hundreds of shots of the many glaciers we saw on the cruise and afterwards.



The Roadhouse in Talkeetna, where we spent a night and enjoyed sourdough wildberry pancakes after our flight.

Did I mention the gorgeous scenery? By the time we arrived in Denali National Park, fall had arrived.


And we saw lots of moose, a few grizzlies, caribou, dall sheep, a wolf,and other critters in Denali. This was a particularly large bull moose we saw.

I'll try to post more later. I haven't even mentioned the beautful flowers we saw throughout the trip. Hanging baskets and planters with larger flower blossoms than I've ever seen, such as here, for starters:

Alaska is beautiful!

Aren't Zebra Zneat?

I love looking at their coats, especially when they are not chomping on my car door! My sister and her two younger kids visited a couple of weeks ago, so one day we headed to Glen Rose to the Wild Animal Park and had some up-close and personal moments with the wild, yet docile animals--from the safety of the car, of course.

I learned from my previous trip there to keep the bag of food out of reach of the giraffe's tongue.

The faces of these emus are more than a little freaky looking, especially when they're moving towards your own face.


OK, now back to the zebras...

A month goes by ...

Now that I've reached the milestone of a month without a post, I feel I really should post SOMETHING! All's pretty much the same around here, but we're into the heat and humidity that will plague the North Texas area till September or so. Earlier this month I spent some time in Santa Maria, CA, visiting my 85-year old aunt, seen here in our latest squishy-face photo. I always enjoy spending time with her, and sharing her daily menu of (along with other foods) asparagus, fresh strawberries, and jelly bellies (yum, yum, and yum!). Beauty salon day meant an excursion to San Luis Obispo, one of my favorite towns in the area. One of the shops there had some beautiful flowers in their planter box.
Here is her neighbor Ken, man of a thousand short-sleeved shirts! This is some of the overflow in his garage.





And a couple of my friends had birthdays this month. Happy Birthday April and Donna! Here we all are (minus me) at April's 50th:

The Weekend, Inside and Out

So another weekend has come and almost gone. Parts of it resembled last weekend, starting with the beautiful weather. Friday I did a little treasure hunting at an estate sale. I made several selections from a box of vintage baby clothes, but put them back after convincing myself I most likely would never alter them. However, I was unable to convince myself that I didn't need three pairs of baby shoes. At $1 a pair, how could I leave them behind? After much poking around, I left with a small bag of stuff, satisfied. Saturday I went to the Cottonwood Art Festival and couldn't resist buying a beautiful raku vase. The colors grabbed me and wouldn't let go. From there I rushed to the Midnight Stampers annual Birthday Bash. The organizers really outdid themselves being loyal to the flower theme--from the food to the games (yes, we always play party games). The eleven of us spent a good bit of the afternoon laughing, mostly at ourselves!

Today we went on a bike ride to new lands. When eventually we were welcomed to a small town whose location was fuzzy to me, I hoped we'd make it home before dark. I have to admit I wasn't exactly sure where I was for most of the trip! I was making most of the turning decisions, but when it came time to head back, I didn't have a clue. Fortunately I had a navigationally adept person with me who had no trouble getting us back to Point A. I was reminded today that it's honeysuckle season. They lined a good portion of the Allen trail we were on--the scent is unmistakable. Go find some and enjoy!

I wonder why the public was invited to keep out of this field?

And how was your weekend?

Artfest Pictures, Finally

Finally, here are some more of my Artfest pictures. Michael Jon Peterson taught "Spun Cotton Animals," and here is his finished product (mine isn't done). About 10 minutes into the class, one of the women raised her hand: "Can I just say something? You're adorable!" No argument there.

Here's Donna with her Walter, the apparently (after much discussion) dead starfish.

My second class was with Nina Bagley. Here she is with the sample of our book project in the foreground. We learned various ways to make encased frames for small objects. Next is a picture of one of my bookcovers with a frame containing items I collected at the Ft. Worden beach. I forgot to take a picture of my third teacher, Katie Kendrick, for the class "Creating Collaged Faces." Here's the face I made, which we've decided does indeed look like April when she's nodded off. Next is a picture of Peggy's tiles made in Laurie Mika's class. And I had to take pictures of some of the "wallpaper people" made in Anahata Katkin's class. They were very cool in person. You wouldn't know it from my pictures, but there were about 575 attendees, probably 98% female, at Artfest. I should have taken a photo in the airplane hangar on vendor night--I'm sure we were all there!

Here is Sherrie with her ladybug transporta-tion and attached accommo-dations.

Lastly is Suzanne, object of my raffle winner envy, with her prize of Teesha Moore's succulent fabric journal.

Perfect, Parts I and II

Everyone reading this probably knows I love avocados, so you won't be surprised that I wanted to document the joyous sight that greeted me this morning--a perfect avocado! And I will even share my secret family recipe for enjoying this lovely fruit: Lightly toast your favorite (preferably non-white) bread, spread on a little mayo, pile on some sliced/mashed avocado, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Perfect!

Spring Art Festivals

From late April through May, nearly every weekend you can find an art festival somewhere in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. This weekend was Southlake's Art in the Square and next weekend is the Cottonwood Art Festival. So it is a delightful time of year here, where you can mingle with lots of art AND still enjoy being outdoors doing it. My friend Denise and I originally intended to spend just a short time at the Southlake event, but Friday was such a beautiful day, the setting was so nice, and there was so much art to admire (and perhaps purchase) that we didn't leave till after 9. Today Steve and I took advantage of another fine weather day by going for a bike ride, where I took these pictures of a patch of wildflowers.

Yes, Steve loves to have his picture taken.

Sunday Art Fun

This past Sunday one of my art groups met at my house, and as usual we had a very fun afternoon talking, eating, and sharing art. Here's a picture of the trades made on the theme "Dots and Spots." Starting with the polymer clay pendant clockwise is the work of Denise, Traci, Lisa, Jeannie, Anne, Donna G., and Patti. I love all my new goodies, which look even better in person!

I demo'd a hand quilting method I learned from Teesha Moore, who learned it from Susan Shie. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of everyone's squares, so here are a few of mine, whose use is TBD--perhaps something pink? On the left is a box I made for my friend using this technique. Along with the eye candy seen during several hours at the Main Street Art Festival in Ft. Worth Friday afternoon (and a couple of small jewelry purchases), it was a great weekend. AND I have lots of food left from the meeting to get me through the week. Fortunately some friends are coming over to help me with that, because it includes things like cream puffs and carrot cake, and I hate to think how fast I would devour them on my own!

Artfest Trust

If someone you didn't know (me) handed you a

neon green wristband, would you immediately put it on, no questions asked? At Artfest you would! Here is a picture of "Club 202," sporting our direct-from-the-Art-Asylum wristbands. Although another dorm was our first choice, we seem to have ended up at the right one, and although not all my classes were my first choices, they seem to have been the right ones too, and I'm so glad I was in each one. My teachers--Michael Jon Peterson, Nina Bagley, and Katie Kendrick--were fantastic and more . That's Joan, me, April, Donna, and Peggy in the second picture. The Artfestees were wonderful, and I just wish it wasn't all over so quickly. I can't say enough good things about the experience and atmosphere. Those who have been know, and the memories will linger here in the "real world."

What Have I Done?

Gee, it sure is easy to set up a blog. I was thinking about it, wondering if this name was available, and 1-2-3, before I know it they tell me I've created a blog ready for posting! So post I must! I leave for Artfest in two days and still have a lot to do, such as getting my suitcase out of the garage. Since creating a blog was not even on my list, I will just post a picture of my Artfest trades (actually related to the theme--Forest Walk) made using my fun felting machine, and then decide if I will tell anyone about my blog (of course I will).