it's random photo time, courtesy of my iPhone camera

I have found out that having an iPhone camera means 'random' really is random in terms of the content, when I get them onto my computer and look through them-- lol! Here's a sampling (and of course, click for a larger photo):

taken at work, 8/7/15. 
Cute little lizard that found its way into the building hallway.
(I let him go outside in the flower bed)

taken on my way home from work, 8/14/15.

The photo above shows something we've often wondered, but now I have photographic evidence-- we have always wondered whether the storms go around the town, because it very rarely rains at our house. The clouds show storms to the east and west of town, but right in front of me, right over the town?? No clouds!!! HA! We were right! (okay, it does rain sometimes, but not nearly as often as its seems to other places.)

Yum!! grocery store display, 8/18/15

The appearance of the Hatch chiles mean that fall is coming soon... (eventually).

Hatch chiles are grown in Hatch, New Mexico, and are wonderful when roasted, peeled, and added to all sorts of dishes... the aroma coming from this display was heavenly! I did buy some, and grilled them yesterday. After grilling them, you 'sweat' them for a few minutes in a covered dish... then you peel off the charred skin and scrape out the seeds, and they're ready to use in cooking. We grilled out burgers, and the roasted chiles were a tasty burger topping. (unfortunately, I did the peeling / handling without gloves, and my hands were burning even after washing them a number of times, lol!) 

But, to have chiles on hand for topping a cheese crisp, a burger, or to add extra flavor to a grilled chicken breast? I'll do it! (but not until after buying some gloves, lol!)

apple chicken salad, 8/26/15

This pic is of a new recipe that I will definitely be making again-- made with my newest kitchen toy, a spiralizer. The recipe was originally for tuna, but since I don't like tuna, I changed it around to use grilled chicken with romaine lettuce, a spiral-cut Granny Smith apple, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries, held together with a dressing that included mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice. It tasted as good as it looked!

geez-- looking at the next photo, you'd think that the only thing I take pictures of is food, lol! But the camera on my phone is useful for when I'm out shopping...

German whole-grain mustard, 8/29/15

I actually saw this mustard when I was out shopping for scrapbook supplies, if you believe that! Well, sort of-- one of the places I hit up for SB deals is Tuesday Morning, which is a close-out sort of store; you can sometimes find good deals. They also have kitchenware, home decor items, linens, and some gourmet foods. I sent a picture of it to Tom to ask if he thought he might like to try it.  (I did buy the mustard, and it is very tasty!)

But wait! I have been doing some scrapbooking and crafting too, though--

SB layout in process, 8/24/15

I have found that my phone camera is useful for scrapbooking, too-- I take pictures of photo placement and paper choices. I've found that looking at them on the phone gives a bit of a different perspective, and it helps me to make decisions. This photo placement picture is also helpful for me to remember for later, since I haven't finished this layout yet. (but I will, soon!)

distant storm, 8/31/15

Another phone weather pic from my commute home. Even after ten years, I am still fascinated by how far you can see out here in the desert, and especially when you can see a rainstorm off in the distance; it's just cool!

Next post: scrapping and card crafting!!  
(probably with a dose of randomness in there, too... lol!)

hey, I'm still here!! (random pics)

Mom: I do have pics of the great horned owls that we've seen- they're still on my camera; I'll get to them in a day or so!!

sb page (for posting online; I've posted this one on the blog before)

our Christmas ornament tradition continues:
the hand-painted ornament we bought in Hawaii

Prescott and Bisbee opening one of their presents

a small Christmas vignette from my collection: this year
Mom sent me the medium tree and the smaller snowman

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!!

mellow...

The new painkillers make kitty mellow!! lol! She's not quite focusing, here... she took the medicine- or more accurately, I gave her the (apparently very icky-tasting) medicine about an hour before I took this photo. I suppose I shouldn't think it's amusing, but it's kinda funny.

Her surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday. Hopefully after that, she will be able to pee without pain again. (and do it in the litterbox!)

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween from the AZ desert! 

a Halloween treat from my sister Judy-
a cute cupcake paper owl and brooms
made using Twizzlers and SB paper.
(I think she's been looking at Pinterest for craft ideas- lol!!)

my jack o lantern. using the stem as a nose is more difficult
than it looks-- I have a newly found appreciation
for people who do pumpkin carving professionally!

Tom's jack o lantern, all happy to see Halloween
finally here. (little does he know, he's only going to last
a day or two in this high 80s heat!) 

random photos--

yup, I'm still here-- just haven't been taking very many photos lately! Here's a couple from the last few weeks...

Butters, soaking up some sun on the patio.

It's gotten a bit cooler out, now that fall is here-- we can finally leave the sliding glass door open so that we (and the pets) can relax on the patio and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. When I lived in the Midwest, I would wait forever (it seemed, like it, anyway) for spring to arrive so I could enjoy the outdoors... now here in Arizona, I wait for fall, for the same reason!

random self-portrait-- do you know how difficult it is to get a
decent picture of the back of your own head? it's hard to do!

I've been letting my hair grow out now for most of the summer (not a smart time to grow your hair out here in AZ, but I had to go through the summer with longer hair sometime, I guess). This photo was from a few weeks ago; I think I took it because it's finally long enough to pull back with a clip (so I can get it out of my face- and off my neck- if I need to). And, bonus: even with how thick and heavy my hair is, the curl is staying! My goal is for it to be to the middle of my back; we'll see how much longer that takes... I'd love to be able to braid it, eventually. (Mom, do you remember braiding my hair when I was little?? I seem to remember you'd pull it really tight- lol!)

Butters, waiting for a belly skritch...

This picture is from just yesterday; Butters looks  slightly goofy here because she just got a bit of a haircut, so now she can air out her belly! The haircut wasn't by choice, exactly, but I had to take her to the specialty vet on Friday for an ultrasound, and they needed to shave her belly to perform the test (she did really good during the ultrasound, too- they didn't have to sedate her at all). She's been having some health problems for quite a while now; she's been losing weight, and also has been peeing on the floor (which we've come to learn is the universal cat signal for 'hey, something's wrong here because it hurts to use the litter box') for a couple months, so we've been trying to figure out what's going on. 

We thought it might have been kidney disease (which is what Pandora had), but the blood tests really didn't show that. The ultrasound showed it pretty clearly, though; she has bladder stones, which is a 'concretion' of sandy grit made up of of minerals and crystals, that moves around and is scratching the inside of her bladder-- no wonder it hurts her to pee! Now, we just have to wait to find out when she can have surgery to remove it, and what changes (if any) we'll have to make to her diet to avoid a recurrence.

I went estate sale-ing this past Saturday (hit a thrift store, too), and found some more cool things-- I'll post pictures soon!

random recent photos

A few more random photos from our Labor Day weekend lunch at El Encanto restaurant in Cave Creek:

James Brown (Duck): profile

James Brown (Duck): preening

and a couple pics for comparison's sake:

James Brown (singer)
Photo by Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images,
from rollingstone.com

James Brown (singer)
photo from starmedia.com

I'm guessing James Brown the singer needed some hair products to help his style along, but I think James Brown Duck comes by his pouf totally naturally.
(as seen here: Animal Oddities, Discovery channel blog) 


and, now for a complete change of pace:

turtle yoga #1

turtle yoga #2

:D  thanks for scrolling to the bottom!

random photos- color!!

just some random photos I don't think I ever posted on here before (click on any of the photos to view them larger):

AZ State Fair (Nov 2011)

AZ Balloon Festival Nov 2011, self portrait (that's me in the middle)

wall mural, Sofia's Mexican Food Gila Bend, AZ (April 2012)

the Copper Chopper, custom-built for the AZ Centennial.
At the AZ Balloon Festival (Nov. 2011)

crazy quilt square, AZ State Fail exhibit (Nov. 2011)

fyi, I did some color-processing on all the photos, except for the motorcycle and the crazy quilt square-- they were already quite colorful and didn't need any assistance!