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Showing posts from November, 2011

Reptile Shows - A New Experience

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Have you ever been to a Reptile Show?   If you Google ‘reptile shows’ with your hometown’s name, you might be surprised how many are near you.   I’ve now been to my third one.   And each time I’ve seen and learned so much about both nature and people.   The first one was in Tucson AZ and I had no idea what to expect...maybe snakes crawling and lizards leaping and weird people.   Once I actually took a deep breath, paid my admission and walked into the large hall, my fears got lost in my amazement of the variety of animals I saw.    The chameleons were multi-colored and safely caged in habitats of branches and greenery.   Chameleon The poisonous Dart Frogs were brightly colored and hopping around the trickling water in their humid terrariums.    (These have toxic skins for their own protection).   Snakes of many patterns and varieties were in containers and carefully monitored.    Young Green Tree Python  I fell in love with baby bearded dragons as they stacked on top of each o

How to Make Handmade Tin Foil Ornaments

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A friend called and wanted help organizing a holiday sale for about 10 artists (I’m included) and the group wanted to have a Christmas tree decorated with each artists’ handmade ornaments.   I thought, “Great, another project! But why not?”   Several days later my ornaments are ready with directions so you can make some too!   It was such fun and did not take much time!   They could   also be insets in boxes, gift tags, book covers and more.   A great stress reliever too! Materials:   cardboard, tin foil, 2” wide silver electrical tape, a blunt tool (could be a medium ball point pen), a punch, acrylic paint, paper towel, brush, water, latex gloves, silver thread  Materials Needed  1.          Select cardboard (from backs of notebooks, inserts from packing, lightweight cardboard boxes) or heavy cardstock will work.   Remember you have to be able to cut it but you don’t want it so flexible it bends too easily.    2.        Select some shapes – circles, squares, triangles, rectangles

In This Season of Thanksgiving

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       I Share My Gratitude and thankfulness for:                 A loving family – All my life I have been loved and have loved My Two Brothers and Me Peter, who loves me, accepts me and allows me space to be me. High standards and high expectations Knowing if I did not meet those standards, I would still be loved. Learning that ‘good enough’ sometimes is ‘good enough’                  The understanding that I am responsible for my own happiness.                  Amazing friends who are fun, loving, compassionate and expect the same from me.                 The ability to explore my creativity.                   My home in a lovely city and diverse state in America                 Ravens that swoop through the pine trees                  Lakes and mountains, deserts and oceans, sunrises and sunsets and all the in between                 Good health                 Laughter                 Music                 And so much more!                 Thank you for being part of my world!

Artist’s Holiday Season

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I’m new to Prescott and the artist’s world here.   I’m new to craft shows, art shows and holiday shows.   Every venue is an adventure…… Prescott’s 5 th Annual Victorian Holiday Sale, my first event, had a good track record and I was excited.   Peter made 4 pegboard panels (2’ x 4’), hinged 2 panels together and I covered them with glittery black fabric.   The jewelry looks really good on them and I control the amount of space they require by angling them.   My stack of cards and books, my hatpins, and my tall cone tree covered with my silk flowers were ready.   The tall cone tree is made of wire with lots of spaces where I can hang things. I was going for height instead of width in my display, a good thing because upon arrival to set up, there was very little room.   This was a new location for the sale and the room was smaller than expected.   Before the evening was over, everyone had a space …or two.   My tall cone tree was on a table across the room from me; I shared a 6’ table wi

Wood Ducks – Spellbinding Eye Candy!

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It is getting cooler in Prescott and ducks are flying in from the Arctic area (too cold with no food there!)    So Peter and I went birding to see how many ducks and what kinds were arriving.   Today we saw Mallards, Shovelers, Canvasbacks, Ring - Necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, American Wigeons, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads and one Green - winged Teal.   Then I spotted the eye candy!   Three Wood Ducks swimming in a man-made waterfall area at the entrance to a housing development – a place one would not expect to find them since they like secluded areas like wooded swamps.   The one male and two females caused us to stop the car, get our binoculars and just stand there looking!   The colors on the females were blended so that the blues slid into the greens and browns and then the blue green on their heads caught the sunlight.   It was such a rich color that I just wanted to touch. There was a delicate white pattern around their eyes and an elegant shape to their heads. The male coloring is

Talking with Pictures

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It seems that man has always wanted to express himself with drawings.   Early man often used stones to peck on rocks as well as paint to leave his messages.   He recorded ceremonies, hunts, dreams, maps, animals and daily life.   Just to clarify the terms: ‘pictograph’ is anything depicted on a stone surface – carved, pecked or painted. ‘Petroglyph’ is the technical word for anything carved or pecked.   I’ve always been fascinated by pictographs.  And I take photographs of the images whenever I am fortunate to find them. Hopi, Pueblo, Paiute Navajo and Anasazi have left drawings on rocks all over the Southwest.     It is great to live in this area of pictorial wealth!   I just came across William Michael Stokes and William Lee Stokes book “Messages on Stone – Selections of Native Western Rock Art “.   The images are divided into types – Apparel and Adornment, Birds, The Corn Maidens, Design, etc.   Great little book for kids and adults! It is pretty easy to find a real pictograph, matc

An Unkindness of Ravens

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Often when I sit at my workspace I look out the window and see several big black ravens (each about 24-25” long) swooping between the tall pine trees.   I feel like I’m in the middle of a sci-fi movie by Stephen King or Alfred Hitchcock! Sometimes the Ravens huddle in trees or on the ground.   Other times they will be alone or with their mate.  Today there were 15 of them (an unkindness of Ravens) foraging at the corner where our street intersects another.     Evenings bring the ‘raven patrol’ where they fly and land in their favorite trees.   Quite a site!   Once in a while, one will come to the feeder and grab a peanut! They communicate with each other using an amazing variety of calls that range from a low gurgling croak to harsh grating sounds and shrill alarm calls that can be heard a mile away.  The Common Raven has a very thick bill, shaggy throat and a wedge-shaped tail.   This member of the crow family is incredibly aerobatic, tumbling and rolling, in mid air.   Many scienti

Exploring Tuzigoot!

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Arizona has many beautiful parks and this one is found near Camp Verde AZ.   It is one of 380 parks in the National Park System.   Tuzigoot is an Apache word for crooked water.   This prehistoric community was built between 1125 and 1400 and sits on the summit of a long ridge 120 feet above the Verde Valley.   In some places the original buildings were 2 stories high and there were 77 ground floor rooms.   There were about 50 people settling here in the 1100’s and that apparently doubled in the 1200’s.   The Southern Sinagua people lived by farming corn, beans, squash and cotton using canal irrigation.   We don’t really know why the people left their homes – perhaps overpopulation, disease, conflicts or weather pattern changes.     What we do know is that they were fine artisans and made stone tools – knives, axes, and hammers.    Their pottery was generally undecorated and often coated with a red or black color that was highly polished.   They made bone awls and needles, woven cotto