cute pet photo interlude

me, totally zonked out on the couch, covered in cats.

 (This photo is from early January-- I was extra-tired from staying up for New Year's, I guess-- lol!)

Prescott, totally zonked out on the couch, a couple days later.

pet pics--

even with all the bird and craft photos, you didn't think I wouldn't post any pet photos now, did you?? I don't take too many of them (not when they're awake, anyway) since they aren't all that keen on posing for me.

Bisbee and Ariel, just hanging out.

Zola barely sits still at all, so she won't pose nice, for sure!

Krista won't pose, either! :D

Butters, though, now- she poses.

And so does Prescott! 

12 x 12 SB page: 'snuggling'

I did do some scrapping recently (well, in December, anyway)... I found a store in the East Valley that holds a 12-hour crop once a month, so in December, I hauled [some of] my stuff there for the day, and had a great time! (I apologize for the crappy lighting in these photos- I took the pictures after I got back, in the evening, so they're not all that bright.)

This is a one-page layout using some photos Tom took of a rare occurrence: Ariel and Butters, actually being nice to each other, and snuggling together in front of the window! I think most of the pages I made that day were cat oriented, and mostly in a pink color scheme... when you get on a roll you have to stick with it, I guess.

a couple detail photos-- I used a few sequins for accenting the embellishments.

This heart had pre-printed faux-stitching on the edge: a good, easy way to get an extra detail! This page went together pretty quickly, until I realized I should have looked at the paper a bit more closely before I started. Most 12 x 12 scrapbook paper has a 1/2 inch 'branding strip' on the edge that has the manufacturer info on. On this piece of paper it was there too, but the reverse side (the pink I used for the background) was all the same color. Sooo, I actually made my page 12 x 12.5 inches! Thankfully, the page design wasn't compromised too much by having to trim that 1/2 inch off the edge. 

Vocabulary word of the day: hangry.

han-gry (han-gree) adj.  A state of anger and irritability caused by lack of food. Hunger causing a negative change in emotional state.  
(definition taken from the Urban Dictionary.)

See below for example.

Pic 1:  Fixing the kitty dinner; everyone mills around waiting.

Pic 2:  Butters bops Ariel on the head.

Butters gets 'hangry' when she doesn't get to eat on time!! 
(it's pretty funny to watch.)

random photo catch-up

yup, we're still here! We had a pretty low-key holiday that was spent mostly at home, with Christmas day spent at the home of some very close friends. I didn't really take many photos over last few weeks, but here's a few random ones:

Holiday flowers: Christmas cactus and Amaryllis

A couple weeks ago, I went to the local grocery store to pick up something food-related, and came back home with these! I entered the store through the greenhouse section- what can I say? LOL! These flowers remind me of the holidays growing up, because Mom and Grandma would both have their houses full of amaryllis (what's the plural for that, anyway?) and Christmas cacti during the winter. The white Christmas cactus is going gangbusters, while the magenta one, being smaller (it's the one on the left that's hard to see), has only got one flower open right now... the only word to use for the amaryllis is amazing!! There are two flower stalks: the first one has six (!) flower buds, and it looks like all six of them will actually bloom! Hopefully they'll all last, and I can keep them alive through the summer. (I'm not sure if my Midwestern-raised green thumb is up to the task here in the desert.)

Holiday dogs! L-R: Prescott, Bisbee, Krista

 One of the Christmas presents we gave to the dogs (and ourselves) was taking all three of them to the groomers... don't they look pretty?!? It's a big job with a long-haired dog (way too big for us to want to tackle it on a regular basis), and the groomers definitely earn their money! (by the way, Tom is off-camera holding up a treat- that's why they're all sitting so attentively. They don't sit still on command for more than about 1 1/2 seconds, otherwise- lol!)

winterizing in the AZ desert!!

We've actually had a freeze warning in effect for the last couple days, so we had to 'winterize' a few of our plants- the Styrofoam cups protect the growing tips of the cactus arms from getting frostbit. It looks goofy, but it works! This is our night-blooming cereus, which is doing really well, so I don't want it to get frostbitten.

Winterizing method 2- this method doesn't work on cactus, lol!
The plant under here is a natal plum, a low-growing evergreen
shrub native to South Africa: click here to see a photo of it

Mom was asking me recently what winter in AZ is like, and if we really notice a difference. Besides the obvious temperature changes (it does get down to freezing occasionally at night, and every once in a great while- like every 5-10 years- there might be a visible snowflake or two falling somewhere in the Valley), there are some other differences. There are some deciduous trees that lose their leaves; the quality of the light and sunshine is much weaker (it's still lots better than having gray skies for months on end, though); it gets dark much too soon for my taste; and it rains occasionally (not like a monsoon storm, but a wet, damp, cold rain).  

One other way I know it's winter is when I'm running the water inside the house- the water takes forever to get warm or hot when you run it! LOL!! It's an odd thing, but there's a good reason for this: since the ground doesn't freeze here, our water pipes are buried very shallow underneath the ground. Because of this, the water never actually gets bona-fide 'cold' during the summer, and it also takes much longer to heat up during the winter. 

Afternoon-sun-basking kitties

One other way I know it's winter is that the cats get a lot friendlier, both with us and with each other. They get very 'cat-like' and hang out in the sun, or curl up on any blanket or afghan that looks comfortable. (including right on top of us, if we're sitting still!) They would never do this in the middle of the summer (not that they could sit in the sun even if they wanted to, since we have the sunscreens up to block the light). 

So, now it's on to 2013- both Tom and I are sort of glad to have 2012 over with, actually... what with my two surgeries and a cancer diagnosis, a cat illness and surgery, and a mysterious dog sickness (he's finally back to normal, thankfully), 2012 wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs, and we're not sorry to see it gone. Here's looking forward to a year of better health and good things to come, for all of us! 

(except for those pesky New Year's resolutions, one of which is for me to clean up my craft room: we were watching a Hoarders television show marathon over the holidays, and some of it was hitting a bit too close to home for comfort-- lol!)

weekend recap, in pictures- Art Journaling, and more!

At last, some art! My art-making goes in cycles along with my other interests, so during the last couple months while I was heavy into estate sales and Goodwill shopping, I hadn't done any art journaling. I changed that this past weekend, taking three classes at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale (my favorite store!) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kelly Kilmer was in town (yay!) and taught three really fun classes- two on Friday, and one that went over the course of both Saturday and Sunday. Selected pics from the weekend, below:

My workspace, before getting started: the only time
it would look that neat all weekend- lol!

random helicopter, hovering outside the store at dusk...

There was an art show going on along the canal just north of the store, and according to the newspaper, there was some sort of an art installation involving solar lights floating in the canal that were going to light up as it got dark... I'm guessing that's what the helicopter was monitoring. (either that, or someone fell into the canal, which does happen, sometimes, unfortunately.)

A very pretty sunset on Friday night.

right outside the front of the store: photo shoot!

Outside the store, there's a large fountain with horse statues... very picturesque, and tourists always stop there to have their photo taken. When we first saw these photo-takers, our first thought was 'wedding' but after seeing the girl's beautiful blue and purple dress, we decided 'quinceanera' was more likely. (Quinceanera is a Latin American tradition when girls turn fifteen, sort of like a debutante's coming out party.) 

a shot of the entire fountain right outside the store...
always surrounded by flowers, it is a very pretty spot!

geranium on fire...

Just kidding, not on fire... but I thought this photo turned out kinda cool. This is the un-edited photo; the fiery effect is from the sunlight shining through the petals.

Geranium in shade. (these geraniums were really pretty,
but they needed some deadheading to continue their bloom--
I wanted to get out there and do some gardening! lol!!)

here's my corner of the table during the weekend.
I had sort of 'walled' myself into my seat with all
of my stuff; it was a bit of an obstacle course! 

Page spread in progress, Sunday. The right-hand page has a wash of
white acrylic paint over the entire page to tone down the
colors, then I painted in the girl's dress and hair with watercolors.

The spreads above and below are from the book we made in class on Saturday and continued working in on Sunday. Kelly goes to a lot of trouble to always develop new class material, different techniques, and new and different book formats, and this weekend was no exception. The small book we made on Friday has all sorts of different-folding flaps and pages, and this book has a unique binding stitch. For this book, we also used watercolor and acrylic paint in new and different ways.

another page in the same journal, also with washes of watercolor
paint over the patterned paper, focal image, and decorative tape.
Different materials 'take up' or resist the paint differently,
depending on their finishes, which makes for interesting results.

This past weekend was also the Phoenix area 3-Day for the Cure walk... I saw walkers briefly in Chandler on Saturday morning before I headed to Scottsdale, and on Sunday, their route brought them right past the store-- how cool is that?!?

a couple of people getting set up for their cheering
section, to cheer on the walkers as they went past.

Another member of the same cheering section- this group was
all dressed as 'fractured fairies.' I love this fairy's floofy petticoats! 

An action shot of some of the walkers, taken as I drove past on
my way home after class. (I think this woman even has a walking
cast on her leg-- but she's still doing the 3-Day; how cool is that!) 

Seeing all the preparations, hearing all the cheering and honking as the walkers went past, and seeing the walkers themselves got me to remembering what a great experience it was to be part of this event-- now I'm sort of thinking about doing it again sometime in the next couple years.

Sunday afternoon on the patio

Ariel, stretching up to watch a butterfly that landed on the chili
ristra outside the patio- I love how she's on her tiptoes!!
I think she was being careful not to scare it away (which didn't work).

A photo of both journals-- it was too bright to get good
photos of them yesterday afternoon, but I'll take some soon
so I can post them. The little flippy book is so much fun, and
they're both really nice sizes to work in.

More photos to come, but I wanted to show you what my weekend looked like! I had a great time with Kelly, Debbie, and all my classmates. It was nice to get my hands dirty with paint and glue again after such a long time, and I'm looking forward to working in both these books. I'm also definitely looking forward to Kelly coming back again for more journaling fun in February!!

random photo catchup--

just some photos to catch up on the last couple weeks of my surgery recovery, and  some additional ones taken since I started back to work:

 this is a beautiful 'get-well' flower arrangement sent from the folks at Tom's office: an assortment of flowers in gorgeous pinks and purples, displayed in a pink and white teacup and saucer. The photo above was taken when a ray of sunshine came through the window just right and spotlit it-- gorgeous!

 the photo above is the same flowers, edited with a 1960s-ish type of color filter, just as an experiment. (I think I like the naturally-lit photo better, actually.)

 While I was recovering from the second surgery, I didn't feel up to any 'really serious' art-making sessions, but I did eventually feel good enough to have a lot of fun with one of my most recent coloring obsessions- a $4 (gotta love those 50% off coupons!) student-grade pan watercolor set from Michael's. It was a really good choice, actually: enough colors that I don't have to mix my own, and simple enough that I could easily create some colored art-journal page backgrounds without needing too much in the way of supplies- just paper, water, brushes, and paper towels.

another great recent purchase was this 5x7 inch notebook (only $5!!) that I picked up at a local art store... I wanted something to mess around in with my new watercolor paints, and this is a smaller size than the two previous journals I had worked in, which looked interesting to me. 

So, just to recap: $4 watercolor paints + $5 spiral-bound notebook + $2.50 for a set of 3 brushes = countless hours of creative fun: priceless! (In the next couple posts, I'll show you some of the pages from this new journal, along with more pages from one of my earlier journals.)

 Random photo of Ariel: she likes to snuggle right up to the window-- so she can prop herself up, upside-down, I guess? But, apparently, the light was too bright for her, here?!? she's a crazy kitty!! 

Just a shot of a random outdoor temperature from a couple weeks ago- summer is finally here! 

and since summer temps are here, so are the dust storms. I got to drive home through this one (last Wednesday, my first day back to work). It's really sort of eerie to see them approaching like this... it was also sort of weird to see the local television channel helicopter hovering out in front of it, shooting footage for the nightly news!

Driving through one of these storms is sort of like driving through a snowstorm; visibility is greatly reduced. (And, unfortunately, there were just enough raindrops to wreak havoc on my freshly-washed car: insert frowny face here.)

Yesterday afternoon, I hauled my spray inks, stencils, paints, etc. out onto the patio... 100+ F temps makes for really quick paint-drying times! 

and lastly, a photo from Tuesday afternoon, when we had rainclouds and rainbows (but sadly, no rain). The rainbow was huge, and we could see the whole arc in our backyard; if you look closely, you can even see a second rainbow (which we could see better in real life).

a bit of random...

At one point yesterday (while we were outside viewing the transit of Venus across the sun), Tom decided to get something from the garage to rest the binoculars on, in hopes of getting a steadier view for photo-taking. While he was gone, I shot a picture of the tree branches above me. (the original of that shot is the second picture below.) 

This Polaroid-type photo is those tree branches, after processing with about 5 or 6 different editing options in Picasa. I have no idea how many, actually, or what they all were, but I think it turned out way cool! (It reminds me of a fabric design, sort of...)

again, below is the original photo-- (I really think the edited one is much more interesting!)

the next photos are a couple random cat pics... first is Ariel, just 'hanging around' the kitchen. Literally. I have no idea why she likes to drape herself over the kitchen chairs like this, but she does it quite often, and in this photo that Tom took, she's actually got her eyes shut, so she must be comfortable?!? (or else she's narcoleptic, and can fall asleep anywhere... wait, every cat can do that, right? haha!!)

Of course, I can't leave Butters out of this now, can I?? (gotta give the kitties equal time on the blog!) Butters wasn't herself a couple weeks ago... not being very friendly, not sleeping with us on the bed, not very active. She's back to normal now, though! (I think it was because she finally got rid of a couple hairballs... icky, I know, but it's part of life as a cat owner, unfortunately.) She spends her evenings either curled up on a kitchen chair, or hanging out on the back of the loveseat like she is below. Either way, it's so she can have a direct view out to the backyard, and any possible bird / stray cat / lizard action.

For something even more random, how about this next pic?? Over Memorial Day weekend, when I was doing my journal-page-painting on the patio, Tom and I got to talking about how sunny it was outside... somehow, the conversation turned to the fact that I'd never done (or even seen) the 'light-something-on-fire-using-the-sun-and-a-magnifying-glass' thing, so Tom proceeded to demonstrate it for me:

awww, isn't that sweet?? lol!! It's going in my journal! (it really was cool, and really, I never had seen it before. and no, we didn't do it on any ants.)

random...

just a few random pictures (and thoughts) 

for your viewing pleasure:

I love this dog!! (I love all our pets, but 
this look gets me every time.) 

Tomorrow we will be going to see some of this:

The 22nd annual World Hoop Dancing Championship, 

at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. (these pics were taken the 

previous time we went, a couple years ago) 

I wonder if this little guy will be performing again?? Hopefully he'll enjoy himself a little more this time...  :)

The artistry and intricacy of what these dancers can do with such a simple thing as a hoop is just amazing! 

Tom and I are enjoying this show, now that it's finally 

back on the air.  Timothy Olyphant, mobsters, complicated family relationships and criminal activity... what more could you want?? :D

^^^ this cat (Ariel) 

is lucky she has nine lives! She has already jumped/fallen from the upstairs hallway overlook once (approx. 10 foot drop), and yesterday she took a header (purposefully, we think) from the upstairs hallway down into the stairwell (almost the full 2 story height). Thankfully she doesn't seem to be concussed (although sometimes it's hard to tell, with her... just kidding; she's fine- but exasperating!)