Day trippin...

Now picture this...

One Mini

Two people

Three Dogs

One or so hour drive

Two hour best time ever hike

Four heart shaped rocks

Five butterflies following me

One wasp (no stings)

Two cactus needles on Maximus face (ouch)

One Great Day!

 

 

Stephanie Lee On-line class

My on-line class is done, but I get to have access for the next several months.  Loved this class and got some great ideas and learned some pretty cool chain making.  This is the third class I've taken with her and it's great inspiration in the right direction to make it my own.

 

 

Stephaine Lee
http://stephanielee.typepad.com/stephanie_lee_studios/

Studio time...having way too much fun here

Here's a peek at what I'm making.  I'm making jewelry pieces and I have so many ideas my head is about to explode!  I had to make a trip to Home Depot to purchase a grinder cuz my hands were so tired from using a file to smooth out the edges.  Love Love Love the grinder! 

On Monday I made a trip to Flagstaff (more on that later) and was so excited to stop in Thunderbird Supply.  I bought metal, wire, tweezers, polishing cloth, liver of sulphur and oh by the way that shit smells awful!  But I'm excited to try out a new way of patina-ing my pieces. 

Today I'm etching more metal to use as background pieces or additional adornments.  A timely process but great results.  I'm having fun using all my tools that were collecting dust... haha.  A circle metal cutter, a dapping tool, and new metal stamp.  Last night my soldering iron went kappoop...it's sparked and then there was a little smoke and then a smell!  Yikes, Tom keeps telling to get a fire extinguisher for the studio, he may be right!  All's well, but need a new soldering iron  :(  That damn glitchy monkey is back!  Think positive, right.  I'm having way too much fun to worry about a broken soldering iron.

 

 

Aunt Viola

Tom's Aunt Viola passed away yesterday.  She was 88 years old.  She was full of smiles and energy.  I always loved seeing her & she was the most welcoming person to the huge Arens family.  Her & Tom always enjoyed visiting with each other. 

Rest in peace Aunt Viola, we will miss you.

 

Leaving Denver

In a small plane!  It was a long walk in DIA to the end of Terminal A and I mean the end, down the steps to the tarmac level.  Walked up to the plane, wild.  I did this before but forgot how small the planes are.

There were maybe eight passengers.  Three woman sat near me and when I say near me, I mean near me...they were quite friendly with each other, but not at all with me.  Kinda sucked, so I said a prayer and closed my eyes pretending I had wings and I could fly.  Before I knew it , I was home with my sisters.

While in Denver....

You have to experience the Rocky Mountains!  My friends, Kevin & Amy asked me what I wanted to do while I was visiting.  I asked if all possible could we go to the mountains so I could see the trees.  I miss tall trees living in Arizona.  They were nice enough to take me on a scenic drive through the mountains.  The fall colors were just beginning.  The weather was sunny and perfect.  Notice Amy's scarf?  We both found the coolest scarves and decided we'll share them.  Wear them for a bit and then exchange with each other.  We all met in college nearly 30 years ago and have kept in touch over the years.  I kept telling them they're our new bestest friends.  Love them!

While in Denver

Headed to Boulder for a street fair/beerfest.  Check out these garden planter/table bowl, so organic.  I remember having a recipe to make something similar to these...might have to hunt for it.

I found my recipe .... I think it will work... I'll let you know.  In the meantime, feel free to try it out yourself.

Hypertufa Mix

Polypropylene fibers have been added to this  mix to help reduce shrinkage cracks and to add tensile strength.  If you use a 1 gallon container as your “part” measurement, 1/3 cup of fibers, lightly packed, straight out of the bag, is recommended.  Separate the fibers before adding them to the mix or they will remain in clumps.

1 part cement

1 ½ parts peat moss*

1 ½ parts perlite*

Polypropylene fibers

Water

*Plain potting soil, without fertilizers, can be substituted for the peat moss/perlite combination.

Neat bird houses

We walked into this cool hardware shop along Broadway in Denver and they had this paper packaging stand....loved it!  Not for Sale!!!  I would love to have it, maybe have to start a hunt for one.

My sister, Melinda is always looking for a cash register and I saw this one at another antique shop...this shop was expensive overall.  This was nearly $900.

They had so many cool garden items, but like I said it was so expensive.  Might be the reason for so many things.

Chain samples

Look what I got done today.  This is the start of something really good.

New Look...hummm

Made some changes to the blog.  Not sure if I'm done, though.  I do need to update the title photo.  I'll work on a collage style photo.

Inspiration coming my way

Taking a on-line class ... making chains for jewelry.  Loving it, so I'm gonna spend the afternoon in my studio making chain. 

Blog overhaul?

I want to overhaul the look of my blog....but I really don't know what I'm doing.  Just spent a few minutes reviewing some options in templates, fonts, text colors, margin widths, etc.  I want to be able to links posts together get photos to look uniform, etc....but I need to research how to do this before I feel confident enough to improve the look and function of my blog.  I would also like to know how come I rarely get comments. Anyways, I have so many things to post and feeling of "where do I begin".  I think I'm just tired from all the busy-ness of the past several months.  October is here, finally.  Cooler weather is also here, finally.  No major projects, finally.  Just fun stuff, finally.
Maybe...
overhaul blog
make jewelry
sewing
walking, again
more photos

Team Tinajera

I'm in Nebraska with my family for a family event...my baby sister's wedding reception.   We've corralled Team Tinajera together and tomorrow or should I say later today we're meeting for brunch and then heading to the venue to decorate!  It's going to be so much fun.  Teal and silver, but no balloons...helium shortage!  But we'll make the best of with streamers and stuff.
So blog please excuse me for ignoring you this past week.  :)

It's been a busy time around here

Tomorrow we're having our annual margarita, fajita & corona party.  We've been so dang busy getting everything ready.  It's after midnight and I'm exhausted with a back ache.  Tom is exhausted with allergy symptoms which he insist is a head cold.  We've been outdoors a lot, mowing, moving the final piles of gravel and dirt and potting up plants...all in windy conditions throughout the week...I say allergies.  Whatever it is he needs to feel better.  I'm really excited about the party and getting the chance to see our friends and of course have a frozen margarita or two or three....
I promise to post some of the things we've been working on.  I need an assistant on weeks like this...haha.  Btw, I finished my large painting and also finished a second piece.  Right now I'm working on a piece of jewelry to wear for the party...let's hope I don't run out of time. 
Check in again next week and I'll promise to update the blog.  Have a great weekend.

Check this out...more day trippin

Okay, this was the side of a building.  When I first drove passed it I thought wow that's a lot of street signs and how clever to recycle them as wall covering stuff.  I went back by to take a photo and noticed it had an actual design, numbers.  19122012   what the hell does that mean?  19  12  20  12 ??  1912  2012?  Must mean something, right?  It was pretty cool.  I may need to use this as a background in a photo shoot.  I like the 55 mp signs and I like how they used the curve arrows in the #2's.  Very clever.

Day trippin

After lunch with my friend, Kathy she drove passed this house.  I asked her to back up and let me take a closer look.  See the HUGE URN?   Of course you do...it's HUGE!  It's as tall as the house.  As you take a closer look at the details of this yard you will see a number of different size urns...everywhere.  Even on the house it's hard to see but there are two green and I mean green urns attached to the wall on shelves.  Also the two big urns at the corners of the house have three tier toparies with huge artifical flower arrangements.  Amazing

 

 

On the edge of the yard is  the blue-est  of blue angel statues.  I'm telling you this yard and all it's yard ornaments was over the top craziness.  On the other hand, I applaud their boldness!