Yes! My very own Sharpie sandals!

Okay, you guys.  Remember my drab yellowed white canvas sandals?  Well, here's the glorious new life for them.  I have had so much fun coloring with my Tropical Sharpie set. 

I just don't want to stop and now am thinking of what else I can color on.  I can't wait until I can wear them next summer.  They definitely are much more fun than plain old white.  What do you think?

They show her "heart"

When I was looking at my favorite Facebook pages (my kids, of course) I came across a photo of our sweet Gracie Beth.  It brings tears to my eyes because it reflects exactly how she is.  She has such a tender heart and you can see that from this photo taken in NYC.  Thanks to her I have a well organized blog that actually looks attractive.  She took my designs and made them look the way I envisioned them.  You know how that is when you can see something in your mind but don't know how to present it and don't have the skills.

I just had to post this as it is one of the photos that makes me remember how much I loved raising this girl.

Green parrots taking shape

Baby steps.  That's what this painting has been-baby steps.  I feel like I can never just make a huge stride but at least I'm doing something and moving forward.  I like the idea of having the orange underpainting but might bring it more to a redish orange.  It would give it some difference from the background leaves.  Subtle differences that make each part of the painting stand out in it's own way. 

The next step in my painting of birds

So, here it is and it's not much to look at it but I'm still in the underpainting phase.  Unfortunately I just haven't had much time to work on it recently.  I got good news that I can go part time with my job in January.  I can hardly wait!   It's like my life has been almost on hold for the last 6 months.  It drives me crazy.

Preventing the encroachment of the mighty Weber River

As I said over a month ago we discovered this year that there was a terrible problem developing with the river next to our cabin.  We had such a ferocious spring run off that the river restructured itself and tossed around, willy nilly, huge trunks of trees and boulders.  It even created an island that never used to be there.  The worst of it to us is that it has increasingly gotten closer to our cabin and shrunk the space that we claimed as our own between the 2 (even though that part is public but no one could do anything with it).  If it kept up at this pace we would have had the river right next to our cabin.  Moving things around would have been a joke by ourselves.  Our neighbors were having the same problem.  So we all went in together and hired a heavy duty backhoe driver to move everything back to where it was before and shore up the banks with rocks. 

Saturday Chris and I drove up to see what had been done.  I'll tell you it was money well spent.  This guy did a fabulous job and I've taken pictures to prove it.  In the pics you can see the large pond that is down the path.  It's so cold up there that the pond has started to freeze over.  Chris tried to tease me and put his foot on the ice.  I wish I had had the camera on him when his leg punched through the ice into the freezing water.  Thank goodness he was on the shore.  I kept telling him I didn't want to have to go in and get him!

On the way home we drove by a farmer's field just outside of Peoa, Utah.  There are 3 buffalo that live there and they are so cute.  I just had to get out of the car and take their picture-especially after my story last week about our adventures with the buffalo in Washington.  Anyway, they were so dullsville and didn't care at all that I was close to them.  I was smart enough to stay on the other side of the fence but they didn't look at all that ferocious.  I know.  Buffaloes are very unpredictable and not to be trusted.  Did anyone see the youtube video about the man that has a buffalo as a pet?  It comes into the house and lays on a rug and watches t.v.  It's even housebroken!  Look it up for yourself.

One more thing.  I just have to add a picture of the gorgeous Thousand Peaks Ranch that we drive through on the way to and from our cabin.  A branch of the Weber River flows through there and it's probably about the best fly fishing any where around but it's totally out of bounds for anyone except whoever has a permit.  So, you drive by and your hands itch to just get a hold of a pole and experience fishing at it's best but it's not to be.  I just love the rust colored willows.  It's a paradise and we're so lucky to be able to go through there often during the year.

"Life is good award"

Well, I am so slow to put this on my blog but I knew I had to put a little thought into it.  Mooncat Farms has awarded me this and I'm very honored!  It is required that I pass it on to other worthy bloggers.  That I will do but after I answer the award questions first:

1.  If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; If you are not anonymous, do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

I like the way I have it now.  It's not in my nature to be anonymous.  You know how artists are "out there".

2.  Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side:

Oh, I am a little rebel.  My husband can attest to that.  I just refuse to go along with certain things that I feel are ridiculous.

3.  What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

Probably what everyone else my age sees:  that there are new wrinkles, etc. but I think I look pretty good for my age (I hate that sound of that...blaaaa).

4.  What is your favorite summer cold drink?

It's the same as my favorite drink all the time...Diet Coke.  Well, actually, I've changed that.  It's now Zevia.  Zevia is a natural cola without sulfuric acid to eat away your bones.  It also has some caffeine.  Yea!

5.  When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

Head down to my studio, eat lunch with friends, read, garden, walk outside, and work on my blog.

6.  Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life?  What is it?

Own my very own horse/horses.  I never have.  Finish my Art History degree.  I'm so close it hurts.

7.  When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?

I don't fit into any of these categories.  I was part of a group and we laughed ourselves silly.  I just had too much fun in school-especially junior high.

8.  If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life-what would you see?

Wow.  I can I pick?  Too many but I have to tell about something that gives me shear delight and it's part of one of those moments.  I remember laying out by my cousin's swimming pool in Santa Monica when I was a teenager all by myself.  I could hear the propeller type airplanes overhead.  Just the whole space in time together with the sun, the pool, the warmth and carefree day just gives me such a wonderful feeling.

9.  Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

Well, I would say I share "myself" a lot but not too much.  My daughter told me I better not write one of those tell all blogs that make people cringe.  So you won't get any cringe stories from me.  But you can't help but get a real sense of my personality by the tone in my blog.

10.  If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

I am a readaholic.  Does that tell you what I would pick?  I do like to talk to certain people but not for long because I have to talk to people nonstop for 8 hours everyday with my job.  I'm talked out most of the time.


My vote for some great blogs (and I know there are so many more out there!)

1.  Shoplet.com blog  (Okay, I know it's my daughter, Gracie's, work blog but you'll see that it IS a great one-never dull). 
2.  My Crappy Photography-great great photographic creativity.
3.  The Yard Art Game - sometimes a little spicy but it's such a guilty pleasure.
4.  Magnon's Meanderings - Wow!  I just love to hear about the countryside of France.
5.  Lemon Verbena Lady - get out in that garden and start planting-you can't help but be inspired!
6.  Urban Sketchers - well I don't think they know I exist but I don't care-it's so dang interesting!
7.  Josh Pincus is Crying - you know, anyone that tells all the cool stories about dead celebrities and illustrates it gets high points from me-it may be a little too spicy for some.

buffaloes-Old photos-dumb parents

I was looking at some wonderful photos that are on mycrappyphotography.blogspot.com of buffaloes.  Josh is such a great photographer.  It reminded me of something that happened in Sequim, Washington, many years ago-probably 17. Here is what I told Josh about our experience:

"We went to the Olympic Game Farm  in Sequim, Washington (right before you board the ferry to go to Victoria). It was great! Animals all out in the open wondering around. We bought a bunch of old hamburger buns and drove our van through the park with the doors open. Animals would get in the car to get the food. We saw a baby buffalo-so we called to it. Before we knew it an adult came up to the car and put it's head in the window and opened it's mouth for hamburger buns. We just started throwing them in and it was stacking them in it's throat. We were laughing so hard and it was slobbering all over the radio controls of the rental car (whoops). It was ridiculous that we did that because we realized later how dangerous it was. My husband watched on another occasion where some people tried to get one in a trailer and it smashed the whole thing. Then he told me how dumb we had been".

One thing about that place that really strikes me all these years later is that it really was not a safe place for just letting people drive through.  I mean-just look at the flimsy fence where the bears were.  But it was so fun.  The bears weren't just laying around.  You could see them fighting each other off in the distance.  It really was a wild animal type park.

So I thought I would post some of the old photos.  You can tell how long ago it was.  Gracie and Charlie still had white hair!  Charlie is 26 now and Gracie is 23.

The baby buffalo

But the photos of the buffalo's tongue is so grotesque.  I just had to show everyone.  I'm not kidding-it was so hilarious but it wouldn't have been if any one had been hurt.

 Lindsay, Gracie, Chelsie and Charlie at the Buchart Garden 

(Unreal lighting)

Dumb parents, right?

P. S.  If you want to be dumb you can still go there.  Here's the link Olympic Game Farm.  I can't believe it's still around!!!!!!