Let it Snow!!!

It's been snowing here for a couple of days, but most of it is melting as fast as it comes down.  Roads are dry, so my sis and I went thrift store shopping today.  I was in a snowy mood for sure!  Found this cute photo frame:

and this metal photo frame:

and this metal sleigh:

and this candle ring

came home and started taking the frames and the candle ring apart and reassembling them on the sleigh on top of the snowmen that were there.  You can see the metal showman from the frame on the lower right and the plastic snowmen to the left of him:

the other metal tree to the left.  I painted the entire sleigh with Cool Pool Blue Ranger dabber.  OK, that dabber is 6 years old and the paint inside is still good! I think that's pretty amazing.

I put the greenery around the bottom, added a ribbon, stickled the background, the greenery with crystal stickles.

It's got great depth.  I love all the shadows as well as the detail….

So much better than the original sleigh.  And the colors are updated.  I'm going to let it dry overnight and then hang it outside by my front door in the morning.

Recycled art - something that I love doing.  All 4 items totaled $8.00.  Love the thrift stores around here!!!

Very fun "snow" class

Well, this little village we moved to just doesn't get much snow.  Here it is Thanksgiving week and I'm running around outside with just a lightweight jacket on.  And no sign of freezing weather yet.  But they keep telling me it's coming, so I took a class a few days ago at Stamp of Excellence - the best stamp store in all of Colorado!!!  Well worth the trip to Canon City!

This definitely got me in the mood for snow!

It's a legal sized envelope with a bag of hot chocolate inside.  The hat is a label die.  Is this just too cute or what???

 And a tag made using gift wrap?  How clever!  The square snowman is a piece of ribbon.

 A clear plastic ornament altered

My laptop died.  So there's one more tag we made by embossing a tag made from a soda can and then inking and sanding it.  Turned out cute, but I will have to re-photo it.  Off to Denver tomorrow to see if I can find someone to repair my laptop.  (aka - a reason to go shopping!!!)

Judy's classes are always a ton of fun and I'm not sure which is better - these projects, or the healing power of great laughter!!!  Check out her calendar for upcoming fun events!!!

Something's gonna snap!!!

Susan's husband, Tony, predicted 8 - 14" of snow. Kerry predicted 4". Both were wrong!!! The snow sitting on top of my back rail measures at 16" right now......and you know some has already blown off!!!

This is a "red oak" and the limbs always go straight up - they don't branch out at all. Well, it had not lost it's leaves yet and the weight of the snow has made them branch out for certain. And no one ever even notices the swag lights on the deck - which are catching snw as well. But I think this photo shows how deep the snow on the deck floor is - half way up to the top of the rail!

If the red oak doesn't snap, then the towering oak on the right side of the house surely will.....it's almost covering the jacuzzi. Now, note the depth of the snow on the jacuzzi lid, even while it's been covered by the branches of the tree. Oh, and I went out at 7 am and knocked all the snow off both trees, so this is just what we've added since this morning!!!

These are the awning rails - only about 2" wide, if that....and look at the snow perched on top. You can also see that it is still coming down. Sigh!

It really is quite pretty. Pretty deep. Pretty white. Pretty cold. Pretty annoying as I can't even sweep a path for the puppies to go potty!

And it's not even Halloween...it's our FOURTH snow already....I think it's going to be one of those winters!!! If this keeps up and the trees don't snap.....I just might!!! LOL!!!

It really snowed yesterday

This is a view of Pikes Peak - from about an hour away.....so if I can see the snow this well....that means there's about 5 feet on the top!!!

It snowed down to about 7000 feet. Really early this year! REALLY early! I am just not ready for it and not looking forward to our usual Friday snow!

So on our drive to Canon City yesterday, we pulled over and got out. This was way lower than any 7000 feet....this was down about 5000 feet.....and 2 - 3" in spots still on the ground at noon!!!

Of course, immediately after I snapped this photo and turned to head back to the car.....Shelly pelted me with the snow that was in her hands!

Sometimes, it's just hard to let the child inside you grow up!

Thank goodness for that!!!

How to cool down!

This is pretty funny. My cousins, Gary & Carol, live in Scottsdale AZ, and they flew up to Denver "to cool down"!

So, I decided to drive them up to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park.....to where there is STILL snow!!!

It's a gorgeous drive any day.....but if you are 62, did you know you can get a lifetime pass to all of the National Parks for just $10? Gary got his this week!!! And I do think their future vacation plans will include a few more National Parks!

It's been a cold, wet summer here in Colorado and we still have "snow fields" up high. Now - everywhere else, if snow stays on the ground year round, it's called a "glacier". But here - no- they are just snow fields!

We got to the top, above timber line, where there is nothing but timber and wind. About 40 degrees. The wind chill factor probably brought it down to about 30. Carol finally admitted she was cool!

And all this, just about an hours drive from where I live. Not too bad, huh?

If you take the drive, stop in Estes park at the taffy place. They've been pulling taffy since at least 1965 - the first time dad brought us out here on vacation. It hasn't changed a bit....and it still tastes just as good!

Steampunk Bling!

OK - I just had to try this out. Now, you can google "steampunk" and decide for yourself where it came from and what it means....but I am going to give it my own definition.

Steampunk is recycling parts from previously used items that moved....such as watches, clocks, fans...and you take them apart and reassemble them onto a new background into a new shape. So my background is a heart made out of layers of Friendly Plastic Pellets....and I'm using watch parts, micro washers, jewelry parts, crystals, and chains.....to create a piece that just makes my creative spirit want to move. I added the "bling" because I love using crystals and think it just makes steampunk a little more feminine.

It's all about movement! And I just absolutely love, love, love how this turned out!!!



and on a different background:




There's a bit of depth and I twisted 2 colors together:



Hey San Diego - want this as a class????

So I know, I'm supposed to be working with paper and diecuts and inks this week.....but I tell you....Friendly Plastic is just calling out my name and I can't let go. I have so many ideas and had to quickly put this one together as well.....more steampunk bling under glass:



Remember the snow??? It's still here! Thought I'd show you just how unhappy our little puppies are.....they just don't like the snow especially when it's deeper than they are!




And my back doesn't like shoveling all that snow either. Gives me an excuse to just sit and play a little while longer!

What a day!

Did you watch the news today and see that we got hammered with snow? It's not a joke! I had 15" of fresh powder on top of the jacuzzi about 5 pm. What the camera didn't pick up were the gadzillion tiny flakes coming down.....and it's still coming down tonight!  The airport and all the major roads have been shut down....even the malls (gasp)!!!



I skyped Kerry and showed him what's going on here. He decided to cancel his flight home tomorrow and I don't really blame him. He'll be coming in Monday now. So that means the "cat's" away a little bit longer.....and this mouse is gonna play a little harder!

Now, with 15" of the white stuff on the ground....and our little chihuahuas are not even 8" tall (the little one is not even 5" tall), there is no way they were even going to attempt to step out the back door. OK - I couldn't even get the screen door to open out.....that's how heavy this snow is! So the pups and I are bound to get cabin fever in a couple of days!!!

Sweet Susan emailed and asked if I had enough food (ok, I could walk to the store from here if I really needed to!) and Kathy offered to drive over (which of course I declared she was nuts!) But see, what better family than this? Oh, and Linda and I have been skyping off and on all day long - it's like having her right here. (OK, Linda, be thankful I didn't take a snapshot of you today! LOLOL!!!)

I had these "family" elements left over and decided to turn this into my "creative family".  B&W photos and lots of stuff going on with the background and papers

There are pockets that open up, there are file folders to stick notes down into, there are clocks with spinners on them......


And there are folders that fold down.  Yep, another class.  We're going to be using the color wheel to make our colored paper work with black and white photos.  I'll do a color photo class as well....but I really seem to get a ton of requests for B&W photos....and today was my day to play with them.  And I'm going to teach my students how to take any sentiment.....and "fix" it so they can use it.  Yep, here the word "family" was turned into "my creative family" and I write about how my artistic friends are just as close to me as my family is.

For this layout, I'll again use the color wheel to match scraps for background matting and show how to tell a story no matter what the embellishment says.  This is my dad.  And it says "Family established".  Well - he did establish this family and while he's been gone a number of years now, I still see glimpses of him in each of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  It's like he never left.

Years ago, Jim Croce wrote a song titled "Photographs & Memories".  One of the lines was this:

Photographs and memories

All the love you gave to me

Somehow it just can't be true

That's all I've left of you.

I am so thankful for photographs and memories, for whiteout blizzards, for time to play, for my family and my family of friends, and for Kerry who can entertain me while he's a thousand miles away.

Snow in August!

August 15, 2008, driving east on I-70, coming down Vail pass looking towards Copper Mountain. Now, in order for it to look that white from the road, there's probably a foot of snow or more on the top. Not just a dusting of snow....a major storm!



I stopped at Dillon Resevoir and took this shot looking back to the west.



Driving east from Silverthorne towards Eisenhower tunnel. Again, a shocking amount of fresh powder for the middle of the summer! I guess I don't understand "global warming" at all!




Approaching the west side of the tunnel:



I have to ask myself....is this the result of cloud seeding? Are we, as humans, changing the weather? Colorado is a very dry state and we do need the moisture....but snow in August? This much snow? When it freezes, leaves turn and drop. This part of Colorado may see an early fall.

Well, I just wanted to get current with last weeks photos! Tomorrow I'm off to demo at the convention in Colorado Springs. I'll be there the next 2 days. And then on Monday, I leave for San Diego. I have all the class kits done, all my supplies packed, my clothes are even packed! Everything I need to demo this weekend is ready to go! But I still have 2 projects I'd like to finish before I leave Monday afternoon! Wonder what the chances of that are going to be? Stay tuned!

Redefining the words 'adventure' and 'journey"

You can write about the journey all you want, and you can talk up the adventure as much as you can, but very few people ever know the true meaning of those 2 words!! Here we are with 3 big trucks, 2 double ride ATVs and a single, getting ready to unlaod. We had driven an hour north of Dotsero (ok, about 3 1/2 hours west of Denver) to get to our destination, nearly 10,000 feet up. OK, not really "destination" because this is just the beginning of our ride!



You have to go there to understand the raw beauty of what you see. Untouched nature. This is a burn area that is growing back. All of the timbers have fallen to the ground and new growth is coming up. Probably 5 - 6 generations before this will be a forest again. But the lake is just pristine! Fresh water from melted snow - about as ice cold as you can get! See the snow up on the peaks? That's where we're headed!



And that's me behind the goggles, under the hat with snow clutched in my hands. Pretty amazing to have this much snow this late in the year, this low down.



And beetle kill. What survived the fires is now being eaten and killed by pine beetles. It is truly sad to see the hillsides turn completely brown.



Another pile of snow. Note the pine tree in the foreground - it's 5' tall. So you can see there's still a good depth of snow left.



I'm on the ATV sitting behind Kerry, taking photos as we ride. Colleen & Roland are ahead of us, Steve is behind us. It was pretty rocky to say the least.



Lots of water standing where it's running across the trail = lots of mosquitos!



What would have been a trickle a year ago is a flash flood this year!



And loads of mud. Well, what fun is an ATV ride without a little mud???



That was Saturday. Today is Monday and I'm STILL sitting on the heating pad! LOLOL! I told the guys - I'm going to be 57 in 3 months. This body has done me good all these years. I think now it's time for me to treat it right. No more rugged rides. I'll be happy to go along if the trail is smooth for the most part, but when you come home with 2 dozen more bruises than you left with - it's time to pull in the reigns and travel the path a little slower!

Adventure: an undertaking of a hazardous nature. Well, we only had a near roll-over 3 times. More than my share of adventure!!!

Journey: the act of traveling from one place to another. We traveled from 10,000 ft to 12,000 ft, 12 miles in 3 hours, so that tells you it was quite rugged, quite slow going. We said the wild flowers are bigger than we have ever seen them. We threw snowballs in July. Five siblings and in-laws, taking care of each other, making sure no one fell too far behind or got too far ahead, watching out for one another along the trail.

If you think your life has been an adventurous journey, come to Colorado!!!