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Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year, 2008

Atop the Arc de Triomphe,
with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Jan 1, 1972


Tulierres Gardens, Paris France

Dec 31, 1971.

I spent the weekend at my Mother's house. We went through her photo albums and I relocated two pictures that were taken New Year's Eve 1971 in Paris . I am no longer married to Larry, and in fact he died in 2003, but that was on HELLACIOUS New Years weekend. We danced down the middle of the Champs Eleysee (??) with a magnum of champagne! Parisians definitely know how to celebrate the new year.




My christmas cactus is in full bloom.






Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas

I have had a very low key Christmas this year. I intentionally withdrew from "Commericialized Christmas" and made charitable contributions in my families names (with a few gifts for my nieces). I got all of my obligations fulfilled without setting foot in a mall! (My sister is the shopper in our family and makes up for my mother and I...).

I worked Christmas eve to let my co-workers have the day off with their families. It was a very low key day, as almost no one was there, so work was not that bad.

Since I had to work and could not go to my Mother's house, I was able to attend the Christmas Eve service at my church First Unitarian of Albuquerque. I assisted with the Children's service at 6:30 (I was the head candlelighter in charge of about 20 little candle lighters!). The Children's service was charming and chaotic, as only a church full of children can be! The adult candlelight service was very nice, and much less chaotic.

Then this morning I dragged myself out of bed to go to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge to see the birds. If you get there before dawn, when the sun comes up, the birds, en masse, take off. It is very thrilling, and they fly almost overhead.


I discovered that bird pictures MUST be taken with a telephoto lens, but here are three that will give you an idea of what it is like.

A huge flock of snow geese taking flight just after sunrise.



Believe it or not, the small black speck in the top of the tree is an Eagle!




Three Wise Cranes? Taken from my car.

I saw four eagles, three deer, lots of ducks, geese and sandhill cranes.

Now to finish off this day, I will attend a Christmas potluck at church.


Sunday, December 23, 2007

In the spirit of the season, here is some a beautiful renditon of Pachabel's Canon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGrhzCgy_bg

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Three things

Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts asked for you to send in a picture of something homemade that you had made for Xmas. I sent in a picture of the collage that I made for my friend Marion, and it is on the Quilting Arts blog. (Of course it is on my blog too, but this is almost like being published.)

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I hid out at home today and found this great story in some of my genealogy stuff:
Grandma’s Apron


When I was a little child, grandma’s garments made little impression on me. Her apron was a big affair of dark printed cotton, slow to soil, and edged around with bias tape. It’s uses were limitless.
The apron made a “basket” when she gathered eggs from the hen house late in the afternoon. If there were fluffy, yellow chicks to be carried to the back porch during the sudden cold spell, they made the trip peeping contentedly in Grandma’s apron.
When those same little darlings grew into henhood and liked to peck and scratch among Grandma’s flowers, she merely flapped her apron at them and they ran squawking to the chicken yard. And I can see her yet, tossing cracked corn to the hungry flock form her apron.
Lots of chips and kindling were needed to start fires in the big ivory colored cook stove in Grandma’s kitchen. Sure she carried them in her apron. Vegetables and fruits, too-lettuce, radishes, peas, string beans, carrots, apples, peaches, all found their way to the kitchen in Grandma’s carryall.
While things were cooking, it was a handy holder for removing hot pans from the stove. IF the men working in the field weren’t too far away, the apron waved aloft was the signal to “come to dinner”. At threshing or company time, when the long dining room table was crowded with hungry folk, Grandma hovered about passing aromatic dishes and flipping the big apron at pesky flies. When Grandma came to visit the apron stood ready to dry childish tears. IF the little ones were shy, it made a good hiding place in case a stranger appeared unexpectedly.
The apron was used countless time to stroke a perspiring brow as Grandma bent over the hot woodstove or hoed the garden under a blistering sun. In chilly weather, Grandma wrapped the friendly garment around her arms while she hurried on an outside errand or lingered at the door with a departing guest. Hastily and a bit shyly, it dusted tables and chairs if company was sighted coming down the lane. And in the evening when the day’s work was done, Grandma shed her garment of many uses and draped it over the canary’s cage.
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I got a strange call from my son today. I was expecting that he would receive his christmas present today. He did get the box,but the present was for a friend in Florida. I had them in identical boxes, and just put the wrong address on the boxes. She and my son have had "issues" in the past. so it may have been a freudian slip! Anyway, he was very puzzled over why I had sent what I did! Can't say much more or the secrets will be out!
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Snow may descend, so I don't know if I will make it to my Mother's house this weekend, may have to postpone until next weekend. Either earley or late, Christmas is still Christmas!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Sue's scalloped corn

I took a dish to our "Non-denominational Seasonal" pot luck today. It was from a Weatherford family reunion, and I loved the way it tasted. Somehow, it got put away, and I found it the other day (I have not been a Weatherford since 1999, so that shows you how long it has been rattling around). Anyway I found it and decided to take it today. It was a great hit, so I am posting the recipe here.

It was given to my by Donna Enger.

Sue’s Scalloped Corn

1 Can Corn, undrained
1 Can Corn, cream style undrained
2 eggs
1 Box Jiffy Yellow Corn Bread Mix
1 Stick Butter (melted)
8 ounces of Sour Cream (I did not have sour cream so I used cream cheese instead)
2 cups shredded cheese of your choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix the first six ingredients together with 1 cup of the cheese
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, the remove and top with remaining cheese (for the potluck I did not top with cheese until I got it to work)
Bake for another 30* minutes

*(to take this to our potluck I only put the casserole back in for 15 minutes, let it cool and then spooned it into my crock pot. When I got to the office I put the cheese on top and turned the crock pot on low until lunch time!)

The funny thing about it is that I copied it onto the back of a family tree for the Weatherford's! So I was able to flesh out that limb of my family tree without contacting my ex-husband! Winner times two!

Christmas Tree and Christmas Cactus

This is the closest my furry aliens (a.k.a. Fuzzy Bucket and Baby Cakes) will allow me to have. This is in my studio, so note the iron, covered server and sewing machine). I love the fairy lights and may leave them up all year round.
I am so excited! I have had this Christmas Cactus for years ( I just CANNOT trash a living plant, have to wait until it dies!) and it has never bloomed. And now that I have moved it into the jungle window (see above) it has buds on almost every branch! It looks like it is going to be pink.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas


I have started a revolt against "Commercialized Christmas"! I have decided that only kids under 12 are going to get Christmas presents from me this yerar (well, there are few exceptions and they are not getting purchased gifts...). I just finished capes for my nieces, black with the hoods lined in pink with silver stars! They should love them, as they are both very DRAMA QUEENish! The photo above shows my latest creations, left: Goddess of the Frozen North, middle St. Frigidita, right, St. Floridita. Fun and easy to make from Sardine tins!

I am also making my christmas cards this year.


Saturday, December 01, 2007

December Countdown for Free Downloads

Go to this site and get a download of images after you put a link on your site! 25 days of downloads, you can't beat that.

http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Friday, November 30, 2007

My soul is painted RED

For those of you who know me, this will not come as a shock! Click on the link below to find out what color your soul is!

http://www.quiztron.com/tests/color_is_soul_painte_quiz_23687.htm

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Vacation, Tailgating and Snow

David will be glad there is snow....
I went on vacation this past week. I drove to Dallas to attend the annual Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys game. My son and the Cowboy's fans he tailgates with have an annual tradational Thanksgiving dinner at the stadium. It was COLD, but they really rough it with a 32" HD TV, great food and drink and very good friends. As you can tell, silver and blue are the colors of the day.

David and I (very cold). You can see the top of the dome of Texas Stadium in the background.








That is the remains of the dessert table in the foreground,

and the porta-potty line in the background. David is in the white shirt.



Jello shots



Dan, Chris and David
















Turkey dinner



More Jello shots








Dan with Video






Lighting the turkey fryer












David with the HD TV in his van





Rowdy the smallest Cowboy fan



Setting up the flag, the Cowboys cover is in the background





































Sunday, November 04, 2007

Baby Present


Here is a wall hanging I made for a baby shower on Tuesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

This is for baby Earley!
Quote reads: Babies are bits of stardust blown from the hand of God. Lucky the woman who has felt the pangs of birth, for she has held a star.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Amazing Cat/Bird Video

While wandering around the web, found this. I am still not able to embed videos. YOu would think that I was a IT professional or something! ;(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qO25P4r1o8

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Well, I am back. My foot is still not healed, and I am in a walking boot, which is the one that I had first, but without the pressure bandage. Still hurts, but it is better, I guess.

I had an ARTFUL Sunday at my house today. 5 friends (two artists and three non artists) all joined me for a pot luck lunch and ART!. We worked on NOTAN ( or as Jane Dunnewold calls them Expanded Squares). We had a great time and everyone (even the non-artists) came up with some fantastic designs!







































Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Wow. What happened to September???


Small Cast for 10 days, then.....

The BIG cast for 4 weeks. (Found out how hard it is to take a picture of your own calf!



I have been out of commission with a stress fracture in my left foot, see pics above and just have not felt like posting.
Guess that I am coming out of it and will post more frequently.

Since I am not able to stand for any amount of time, I have not been able to do
much fiber or art work. And since I am not going to exercise class or
doing my walking, I have all of this extra time!

My helper at work gave me the url for a genealogy website
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
(it is an LDS website, but has free software!)
Anyway, I have become completely hooked on the whole
process. They make it easy, as the software puts all the
people in the correct positions, and there is so much information
available from the internet that it makes it really easy!
Not very artistic, but what can you do?

I have also been doing digital collage, which I am not very good at yet,
but getting better. I should concentrate on that instead of genealogy.












































































































































































































































Saturday, September 22, 2007

Stress Fracture


I have spent the day lazing around, as I have a stress fracture on my left 3rd metatarsal (sp?). Last weekend I read all the books, watched movies and so today I was bored.
I did discover a new art outlet:
Lots of intersting interviews and it has kept me pretty entertained for most of the day. Just audio, but still pretty interesting.
I had an Artful Sunday planned for tomorrow, pot luck lunch and then several hours of art making with 7 or 8 friends, but since I am dragging buns, I had to postpone. That is probably the worst thing of this whole situation.
I go back to the ortho on Tuesday and will get the latest Xrays and etc. Hope it is better by then!


Monday, September 17, 2007

Spell with Flickr

http://metaatem.net/words
Check out this site... I could not get the html to post, but it is a neat site that takes words and uses flickr images of letters to spell out your word.
Pretty neat!













Tuesday, September 11, 2007

More Furry Aliens




The furry aliens that I leave with are soooo cute. They are not usually in this close proximity, as they have different areas of the house that they rule over, but since this was the first evening it was cool enough to have the windows open, they were both sitting in the window! Baby Cakes is the Maine Coon (who is not as chunky as she appears) and Fuzzy Bucket is the black shorthair. They keep life interesting.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Wow, where did August go?

I did not realize that it had been so long since I posted.
Came home early today and decided to hang around and do some art rather than taking off for my Mother's. I will leave in the AM and stay until Monday afternoon.
Here is what I have been doing today

Altoid Tin Altered for Ashely's Birthday (metal piece says "..my wish for you")

This is a bead embroidery that I started in a class with Mary Tafoya. It is on top of an altoid tin, and will be used for my treasures. The goddess is off of a necklace that I wore for many years.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Photoshop



I have been playing around with Photoshop brushes, and am getting better at it. I have very rarely seen such a user unfriendly program, and I struggle with it. I have taken classes and have several excellent books Photoshop 7 Fast and Easy and 50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques (both of which I recommend highly). Anyway, http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/ is also a great source of inspiration.


I was just playing around with this, but I can see a future series in there!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

How observant are you?

http://www.oldjoeblack.0nyx.com/thinktst.htm

Try taking this test about how observant you are. I got 16, but I guessed at a LOT of them. And got some wrong that I thought I was right on!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Tree spirit workshop

Just finished a great workshop with Ruth Carraway. She has Tree Spirit Studio on top of a mountain east of Albuquerque. Took a four wheel drive vehicle to get there, but the ambience was great. I made a dragon and my friend Marion made a wood sprite. Here are some views of my dragon, which has pine cone scales and a face on his tail!

Friday, August 03, 2007

This is part of my continuing series named "Hedonist". This is a fused piece that may end up as four separate pieces, or may be a four patch wall hanging. I will have to see how it works out.
These are still works in progress and use some fantastic fabric from Lonnie Rossi. I have had these fabrics for at least a year and a half, and could not stand to cut into them. These fabrics are layered, subtle and very rich looking, which speaks Hedonist to me.