cha-cha-cha

So last weekend was the party to celebrate our little birthday princess debi!

I was allowed to have a personal photo taken with her...

and the rest of the time we were forced to stand around her like this while others fetched her food and cocktails...

this is what happened if we tried to leave our positions...

we eventually got enough wine in her to sneak away though...see how relieved we look?

more relieved...

giddy with joy...

she was further mollified by being showered with lovely gifts...

it looks like mergs & i are in a chick fight here, but i think we are actually dancing...sad...lol!

the acolytes at rest...lolol!

ha

ppyhappy birfday deb! the party was fantastic!

It's a place to hang our cowls...

So last weekend we went to hike a cave in Flagstaff and some of the husbands were allowed to join us-I knew it would be a mistake, and I was right...Because some people coughcoughpattycoughcough were SURE there would be bathrooms at the site, and there were actually zero bathrooms, some people were forced to pee in the woods...and some people coughcoughjeffcoughcough took pictures of them peeing in the woods...this is my Britney Spears going postal on the paprazzi pose...










Jeff took this group pic shortly after the woods pix...can you tell that we're all still a little annoyed with him? lolol!!!























But since Jeff looks like the Michael Keaton Batman, we were soon mollified

























the cave entrance was pretty much straight down and there were huge rocks to get around on the way down...I'm still sporting a bruise on my hip the size of my hand as well as several other various and sundry bruises and scrapes...

"This is torture, at its most bizarre and terrible" to quote Adam West Batman...






















so..."To the Batcave!"

ok, promise i'll stop now, lol!

and this is what the cave looked like inside...lololol!




















It was pretty cool on the inside of the cave once we got past the boulders-the floor of the cave was either really smooth and slick or really rough and uneven...I would definitely suggest something besides trail runners for foot gear if you're thinking of going...

















Ha! Everyone's a comedian lol!



























and there were many many jokes by my group made along the lines of "look, EVEN Carlene has to duck" har-de-har!
















So after an hour or so of being a mile underground with no light at all, seeing daylight up ahead was a goooood thing, lol!

The cave web site states that "it can be very dark one mile from the nearest light source."

It CAN be? Like is it sometimes NOT? lol!

straight up again over the "extremely steep, narrow and rocky terrain" to get out...



















I was soooo hungry when we were done! I gave Jeff orders to find a picturesque roadside diner...and MKBatman obliged!!!

"When you get a little older, you'll see how easy it is to become lured by the female of the species"

LOL last one, sorry couldn't resist!!!











I was soooo happy to get to eat, I even forgave Jeff for taking pix of me peeing! And I'm sure you'll be seeing the pix on the internet soon, wonder if I'll get royalties?... lolol!

Holy Batcave, peace out & happytrails!

'a thousand mystic excellencies and virtues'...

On Saturday Becky and I made another pilgramage to Mystic Paper to help them celebrate their 5 year anniversary-go Mystic lol!

It was tons of fun and there were lots & lots of people there...got to see so cute Ranger Mike again and finally got to meet his partner in crime the adorable Leslie as well










they had a booth at the Vendors Fair in the scary scary haunted room next door to Mystic...

Wonder who rudely left their to-go cup on their table? oh yeah, it was moi...sorry...















love this shrine by Leslie...




















and this collage by Mike...

















and had to wear my 'cowboy junkie' shirt for Kim
who is ALL about cowboys, lol!

Her bracelet went perfect with my outfit, but she wouldn't give it to me no matter how much I whined...very selfish of her dontcha think?














and I don't remember WHY we were messing with Jennifer here, but I do know she deserved it, lolol!

Thanx girls it was tons of fun, congrats and here's to many more years of Mystic!

hasta la vista babies

So last weekend some of us met up at uber-trendy Sapporo in Scottsdale
for Linz going away dinner...

We had a great time (pear-tini's, yum!) and it was great seeing everyone again, but SOOO sad she's moving!!!

so instead of having our twice-a-month s-n-b dates, I'll just fly out there a few times a year for a marathon session!

Cant believe how much the twinzes have grown since our June b-days! I'm gonna miss them too and wonder how big they'll be next time I see 'em?

Good Luck Moreno's!!!

Miss June

This year Stampington Inc. has come out with gorgeous new wall calendars for 2010 and my work is included in two of them-I am Miss June & Miss January lol-if you'd like one leave a comment here by Friday and I'll draw 2 winners next week...

happytrails!

let us continue as we are, and surely we will arrive separately at our mutual conclusion

Went to a surprise birthday party for my friend Linda last week-end at Monti's (yum!)

It was tons of fun and great to see everyone again!

can't wait to get together with you & go out with Dwan and her peeps, call me asap!

Happy happy b-day Linda, and remember, we'll always have McDonalds, lolol!

Hiked Pima this morning-still pretty hot for hiking, but am signed up for the Phoenix 4 in November, so need to get a lot of practice in between now & then...

Also have the Komen 5k and the jdrf event in October and the Iron Girl 10K sometime in November I think...

Dang, I'm tired just thinking about it, think I'll go mix myself a cocktail and rest!

happytrails!

the cut and dried has no place in liquid

so since i'm too lazy to blog myself, thought i'd just mooch off my friends and share their blog links that feature moi, lol!
first Sam dishes the dirt about what REALLY goes on at our stitch-n-bitch sessions, lol!

Then me & Jenny are kickin' it (hahahahaha!) in this youtube video we did...

happytrails my sweets, mwah!

'we have lingered in the chambers of the sea'

back in the center of burning hel-wait I mean AZ after our 2 weeks at the ocean-fyi, the ocean is better, lol!

mostly just hung out at the beach, i'm not the girl to waste beach time!

Dane tried to teach me to skim board again...didn't take again, lol!

I was persuaded to leave the beach long enough to go to Del Mar and watch the ponies-Greg doubled his money-on lucky #7 natch!

full moon while we were there, Dane got some awesome pix...

also went on our champagne brunch cruise again-of course there would be a itty-bitty boat called the Cheyenne, lol!

Was lotsa fun, but not as much fun as last year when I partied with the Marine wives...hey grrrlz missed u!!!

Captain Bob was a riot, and even managed to drive the boat in between being entertaining, lol! I personally think it's always a good idea to make friends with the Captain, could possibly give me an edge in case the ship sinks, savvy? lol!

Dane's friend Allison hung out with us too...she SOOO cute, idk why she likes Dane, lol! mwah Allie!

still trying to adjust to post-beach life my peeps, will be getting back to u all asap-

uber Posh

so I took a break from the beach the other day to go visit the super accomplished and oh so posh Jenny at the Somerset Mother Ship on Tuesday...soooo fun! got to visit with Jana & Johanna too, hey grrrlz!

Took a bunch of behind the scenes pix of

'S & Co. Inc.' that I'll share later (too bad of a case of 'beach-brain' right now, lol)

brought Jenny a couple things for the next issue of Art Quilt Studio, I hear they're not in my 'usual color palette', hmmm, interesting, lol!

and we shot a little video, lol, will link when it's on utube, should be a hoot! but in the meantime, had to show you all Jenny's shooooze

OK, first of all, shoes like these are why I nick-named her Posh to begin with, natch!

Also found out that she is at LEAST one degree of separation closer to Cesar than I am (curses!) and if he sees her in this shoes...well, that's all I'm gonna say about that!

in the meantime, go here or here for an inkling of our past adventures, lol!

mwah babies, and happytrails!

we've got a vision, now lets have some fun

me & dane been hangin out,

and we all been having lots of fun! got to cali on saturday and have been beachin' it big time ever since-we r sandy, sunburnt and feelin the vibe, lol!

goin to have lunch with Jenny and see the Somerset grrrlz tomorrow, more fun!

will check back in soon, mwah!

gone like yesterday

done with a g and gone with a d-

heading to Cali in the morning for beach week, will try to keep up with emails & blogs from there, but no promises, lol!

happytrails!

equus

Lawrence! Hey buddy!















So, you doin' good today?




















That's awesome pal!

















So you mind if I ask you a question?


















Why the long face Lawrence?

lololololol!!!

here, hold this one

so I believe i've mentioned me, Sam & Linz

get together a few times a month for a

'stitch-n' bitch' session...

it's a big joke that Linz hands one of the twins to me or Sam & says, 'here, hold this one', lol! and we actually seem to end up with that baby most of the day somehow!
so turns out it was Sams turn with 'my little Honey B' this time...

and I mostly hung out with 'my little darlin' T' this time...yeah, cuz they didn't have enough nick-names, I had to give 'em a couple more, lol!

so this is ONE of the reasons I don't get much stitching done now that the twinlets are older...they are too too fun to play with now that they're more 'inter-active', lol!

fyi, my hair looked much less 'homeless' when i got there honest, lol! it's the babies pulling it and drooling on it I think that makes it look like that lol!

see, this is why my hair looks like that...was making little darlin' T laugh sooooo hard with it, was hilarious!!!

I'll show y'all more of what we get up to at 'S-n-B' another time, lol!

peace out peeps, mwah!!!!!

some people's kids

so a couple weeks ago we were at Bunco, and someone took this pic of us...
so my girlfriend (who shall remain nameless so I can save her some tiny bit of shame)
had the pic open on her computer getting ready to send it to us...she left the room for a sec, and when she got back, the photo had been, um altered by her 16 year old son...







omg, lololol I laughed so hard!...I'm still gonna kick his ass though, ha! Good thing he's been one of my faves since he was 3...also the fact he's got a Prince Harry thing going on helps his case some, but still he must be punished dontcha think?

ciao babies

young Theo

The big dude on the left is my cousin Theo...we call him young Theo...











it's fun to mess with young Theo...














really, really fun...



















like by taking his picture a billion times when he's just trying to relax with his CLC















after a couple snorts of CLC, young Theo got pissed at me (can u imagine???) and took my camera so he could bug me by taking pictures of me...






nice job dumbass, it's not even a picture, lololol!



p.s good luck at Frontier Days buddy!

one more day

still pining pining pining away for Big Wyo...

so anyway, lol! 4th of July was awesome, party at Dads...my nephew Reece musta set off 243 thousand firecrackers and stuff...my ears are still ringing, lol!

had SOOOO much fun with my most adorable and sweet step-mom and my fave cuz from OK...

me & my bro Chad made his son Kade cry, and then we laughed lol!....we're mean, it's just the way we roll, lol!...just kidding, it is seriously NOT that hard to make Kade cry, you can't hardly help it, he's just like his daddy, lol!

threw some horse shoes...way funner to play than to watch...kinda like golf, lol!

nice follow through Chee, lol!

honestly, this was was possibly the only time I looked at Kade that he didn't cry...maybe cuz I had my camera in front of my face...Kade doesn't really DO eye contact, lol...wow, SO weird that a Federer doesn't dig doing emotions, lol!!!

lots of 'cowboy philosophising' goes on at these parties as well...lots of reasons why it was NOT their fault they broke the barrier, or missed their loop, or bucked off, lololol!
more cowboy pix coming soon...kim, u OWE me, lol!

the first man that comes along that can read latin is welcome to rob me

back in AZ after being home for 10 days...

lotsa rain in the area, so it's super green...little too much rain for the hay though...

got to spend time with my family and the ponies

and take in the scenery and the wildlife...saw antelope, deer and a big bull elk...

got to ride a bunch...dang I miss it!

wish it was 2 or 4 or 3 days ago...

dang, i'm homesick!

ps, cowboy pix coming soon kim ;)

outta here-part 2

After staying up waaaay too late the night before, the next day we got up early and headed out for our hike...gorgeous weather and scenery...we found an older guy who was more than happy to take pix of us-proving that you can still be hot at our age, you just have to choose your audience wisely, LOL!














We hiked somewhere between 5 and 80 miles, depending on who was counting, lol!

(p.s. Some People, I know we went around the lake TWICE, Nancy W and I were counting! ha!)












after the hike we stopped in town and did some shopping, I looked mahvelous darling!


Stopped at the grocery store on the way home for more provisions-coughcoughwinecoughcough...














then Patty treated us to a spa day...Thanx Patty!


then we had to have another fashion show, cuz who doesn't love a giant denim shirt? lol!









Nancy bought us all these cute glasses to commemorate the weekend...I am not usually allowed to have actual glassware, and promptly broke mine, natch!









then we on-line dated for a while...again quite shocking and embarassing to a simple country girl like me...dang, people just feel very free to say ANY thing apparently!
Stayed up way too late again, then got up the next morning and headed home...


Speaking of home...headed to Big Wyo for 10 days tomorrow morning...see ya' all in a couple weeks, and happytrails!

I said to my reflection lets get out of this place

So a couple weeks ago we had a little girls weekend up at a friends cabin in the high country...so nice to get outta the heat!!!












here's a glimpse of the 'cabin' from the road...it's pretty much a dump, and the 7 of us had to share 3 bathrooms...yeah, we were roughing it for sure, lol!












as soon as we got settled we took a little hike around the hood...some people went the full 2 miles, but I kinda cheated... I figured I didn't really need the excercise after my tots and orange cremeslush from our Sonic stop, lol!

then of course we had to eat again after our walk...lots of chick food and beverages consumed over the weekend, lol!







While we were on our walk, we saw a house under construction so we had to go check it out, natch!
I don't know wth this room was supposed to be, but it had this stage, maybe a very very exclusive 'gentlemans club', lol which promted Tam to treat us to a pole dance...I gave her a five, she earned it...














and I'm not even gonna tell you what Patty is talking about here, I'll just tell you that I was completely shocked and embarassed, lol!













So here's the thing about me-I always start out looking like a normal person on our little adventures...


















but I rapidly disintegrate to this literally every time, I can't seem to control myself I just keep grabbing random items of clothing and putting them on so I end up looking like a bag lady, lol!

just thought you'd wanna know just in case you ever have to travel with me, lol!
Back tomorrow with part 2!

Surfin' USA

Daisy was waiting impatiently for her turn on the board while I was trying to drown poor little Pearl...











if you can get the 'surfboard' under the diving board just right, Daisy will totally jump off the diving board and surf across the pool-
















missed the jump, it happens fast, lol! But dang, it's cute!



















and then it was this homeless looking hippie dudes turn (aka Dane!)

















and he lands it!



















sweet! I wanna learn to do this so bad, I've tried a million times and can't ever land it, but with great junk comes great responsibilty, so I gotta be careful I don't hurt myself, lol!!!

peace out y'all, have a great weekend!

ya'll step back so a girl might could get started...

had an excellent weekend at Casa Unruly! Went out to happy hour Friday night to celebrate another June birthday...go Gemini's!

a good time was had by all, ;)

and see, I do occasionally get to wear something that isn't hiking/running gear or boys shorts with their weird giant zippers, lol!

after we left the bar, my buddy Ron took me on a ride on his new bike...it is Sah-weeet! Who needs a sissy bar when I've got you to hold onto Easy Rider? LOL! Look, he's trying to hit me before we even started!

then on Sunday, Tiny Pearl got to swim for the first time...there's only one place in the pool where little dogs can get out on their own, so I make all the Yorkies learn where that is just in case they ever fall in and I'm not there...

Daisy took the water right away when she was a pup, and we can't keep her out of the pool now...Tiny Pearl, not so much...



















have you ever seen a more pitiful little drowned rat creature in your whole life? I think the water is just too cold for her, she has like zero body fat...hopefully she learned how to get out just in case cuz I feel too mean to put her in again!

more pool pix to come, peace out for now!

Grand Canyon Redux

just when you thought it was over, there's more, lol...because SOME people are very tardy sharing their photos, tsk-tsk!

since it's been sooooo long ago, I don't remember what we're doing here, but I do recall that we were hilarious! ;)

this was actually a really fun bar, I wanted to stay longer but was over-ruled lol! probly just as well, har!

run forrest run! I don't know wth I was thinking, shoulda been saving my energy for the hike...

I believe this is where some people were making fun of the boys shorts I bought at Old Navy for the hike...they were pretty stupid, but they had lots of pockets for my stuff, and I could wear them over my tights...actually I coulda worn another pair of pants under them as well, lol! Here's a question...why is the zipper soooo long on mens pants? It took me 10 freaking minutes to zip them!

so now that I have all the pix, I could totally print them out and finish my hiking scrapbook, except I ran out of pages...I went to buy another album and they stopped making them, yikes! SO if anyone has a 12 x 6 wire bound kraft colored album they wanna sell me I would be sooo happy! :)

ciao!

gonna drink Bacardi like it's my birfday...

The twinlets and I share a kind-of birthday...we're all born on lucky number 7!

So today the girls turned 6 months old...and I turned...um, substantially older than that!

The lovely Moreno family stopped by to wish me a happy b-day and we had a little photo session...

I don't know about the twins, but I've been having a great time celebrating my b-day, will check back in a couple days with a run down of all the celebrations! thanx to all for all the happy b-day wishes, I really appreciate it & happytrails!

Grand Canyon Adventure Part 5

AKA-I Cried a Watermelon...(that one's for you Hernandez!)

So when last we left off, our intrepid heroine had been to Plateau Point and saw the Colorado, and was heading back towards the rim and civilization...and food, and showers, and womens clothing, and most importantly, NOT HIKING, lol!

It was a relief to see the trees and green grass at Indian Gardens...

It was getting pretty hot by now, the stream and the shade were awesome...I did manage to make it across the creek without falling in...can you imagine wet shoes for the hike up? Yikes!

If I recall correctly, this was the last happy moment I had for the next few hours, lol!

uh yeah, wish someone coulda got this memo to me a little sooner, har!

Although I will say that at one point I asked my hiker grrrlz to please just give me their extra supplies, as I really felt like I could make a nice little life for myself living at the bottom of the canyon...there were moments when that seemed preferable to hiking anymore, lol!

Not nearly as fun hiking up as it was hiking down! Next time I want to stay the night at Phantom Ranch and have some beers, a steak and a nights rest before I head back to the top!

And we were so much better prepared and in shape than many of the people we passed...there were people in sandals with one measly water bottle from about the 5 mile mark and above...they had NO idea what they were in for, no wonder there are so many rescues there every year!

So, not so many pix on the uphill hike, just concentrating on getting outta there! Those last 3 miles were brutal!

But guess what? I DID make it out alive! :) And I wanted to share with you all how sweaty and gross I was...You're Welcome! I'm just sad that you can't really see in greater detail the full beauty that was mine...

I literally had mud caked on me from all the dust mixed with sweat, it was lovely!

So had a little spit bath and jumped into the cars to head home...

We stopped in Flagstaff for gas and went to Wendy's for burgers and fries...I am not a fast food fan, but can I just tell you that Wendy's hamburger was the most delicious thing I have EVER eaten in my life! LOL!

Got back home tired, sunburnt, dirty, smelly and with super sore calf muscles (who knew? I woulda though anything besides calf muscles!) and my back totally out, but it was worth it! happytrails! ;)

no boys allowed!

Had a stitch-n-bitch session with Linz & Sam

a couple days ago...can't believe how big the twinses are getting!

Here's one of 'em...

and here's the other one! OK, I all of a sudden couldn't tell them apart when I put their pix up, LOL! I'm 90% certain the one on top is Boston and this one is Teagan...Linz?

What a bad Auntie I am! ;)

We had a little birfday party for Linz...

and Sam made us a delicious salad and a creme puff dessert...YUM!!!!!

We watched The Wedding Date and died over how hot Dermot Mulroney is...

Auntie Sam gettin' some baby love!

Now that the twinses are a little bigger and can entertain themselves for a few minutes, we are all actually getting some stitching done! Sam finished a piece she was working on and Linz and I made some headway on our projects too!

So let's review-We had a little party, ate salads and creme puffs for lunch, played with babies, watched a chick-flick and sewed...

I'm thinkin' it was pretty much an estrogen ocean up in that joint, lol!

Grand Canyon Adventure Part 4

When I left off, we were just heading out from Indian Gardens to Plateau Point to see the Colorado River...After a mile and 1/2 hike through scrubby desert, we got our first glimpse of the Colorado...










and when we went to the lookout, guess who was waiting for me? Yup, Quoth the Raven, see him there at the point of the rail? Told ya' he followed me the whole time, lol!










Another album cover perhaps? LOL!
It was starting to get hot, so the breeze felt really good...













I was having my doubts while we were hiking here, but I was really glad that we went out to Plateau and saw the river, it was totally gorgeous!


















then we turned around and headed back towards Indian Garden and the rim...It was at this point that my calf muscles starting aching, and I was realizing that I had over 6 miles and 3,160 feet to hike back UP...
What will happen? Do our intrepid heroines make it out alive???

stay tuned....

Wildflower Folio

Some of my Wildflower Folio project is featured in the current issue of Somerset Life-I thought I'd show you a few more of the pieces here...

















I used a variety of vintage papers, stamps, photos and photo album pages with some faux vintage images, transparencies, tags, stickers, rubber stamps, and even some sugar packets and a temporary tattoo...


This is the prairie grass panel...












and bound it all together with the pressed wildflowers on styrene using beeswax...


this is the lupine panel...














and along with cinquefoil, of course Prarie Rose Henderson belongs in the rose family!

















my sugar sage panel...lots & lots of sage in Wyoming...


















lots of beautiful-but deadly to cattle-larkspur as well...

I'm working on making a class sample using a combination of my Wildflower Folio and my Born Again mobile for a class I'm teaching at Mystic this summer...stayed tuned for more details, and have a great week!

happytrails!

Grand Canyon Adventure Part 3

OK, so I thought this hiking stuff was supposed to be good for you? Definitely not so pretty for the feet! My wicking socks work so well that they also wick all the moisture out of my feet, giving my ashy feet...I didn't realize someone with as white of skin as me could get ashy, LOL! Also lost my second toe toe-nail from all the down-hill even though I trimmed them down as far as I could...oh the tribulations of a pro athlete, LOL!






So when last I left off we were at the 3 mile rest house heading towards Indian Gardens...

the pic doesn't do it justice, but you can see the moon over the rim of the canyon a little bit...it was so cool IRL!

We're almost to Indian Gardens here, we must all be smiling in anticipation of eating our PBJ's, LOL! (For some reason, this pic reminds me of an album cover...)

It's starting to get a little warmer, and there's more vegetation, not as scrubby looking...

and for those of you who asked-yes, I am the shortest one, it's not just a trick of the camera, I really am that 'sawed off' as Carl would say, lol!

When we got to Indian Gardens, Quoth the raven was waiting for me! Not only waiting, but seriously vogue-ing for me!

We had a little rest here and ate...I don't dig PBJ's at all, but I have to tell you, that PBJ was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten! Also stripped off some of my layers of clothes...even tho my tights were a great fashion statement, HAR! And can I just tell you how heavy those tights and thermal shirt were in my Camelbak? Um, at least 10 pounds!

We started out at 6860 feet above sea level, and in approximately 4.7 miles of hiking, we're now at 3800 feet above sea level, a pretty steep drop, around 700 feet per mile...

Heading out about another 1 & 1/2 miles to Plateau Point...it looked pretty grim and "deserty" at this point, I was hoping the extra miles was gonna be worth it!

Do I make it out of the Grand Canyon? Do I get pecked to death by ravens? How will it all end? Stay tuned...

Busy Week...

Lots going on last week, here's a few of the highlights...

Went to lunch and shopping for a good friends birthday last week...I just happened to glance over at the cart the 3 of us were sharing, and it cracked me up-crammed to overflowing with junk...good junk though, lol!










Tiny Pearl went to the vet for her 6 month shots...she has most of her adult teeth and weighs a whopping 3.5 pounds...the vet doesn't think she'll get a whole lot bigger, yikes!
She looks so cute in her little pink carrier, AKA Pearl Prison...

Also went to the chiropracter and had an adjustment for the first time ever...more on this later, but let me just say for now that it was like the heavens parted and a choir of angels sang when he adjusted my back...I'm a believer!

Cutie Sam posted a video she did for school about composting featuring moi on her blog, I think she did an amazing job and love that my grrrrlz are in it!






Took a soldering class at Mystic on Saturday...I wasn't positive that I'd really like soldering, but I looooorve it! It is so super fun and I can't wait to get a chunk of time to just practice, I've got a ton of ideas of stuff I want to make! These are the little charms I made in class...

We also celebrated Dane's birthday this week...my little girl is growing up, LOL!

He turned 19...I just don't get how that is possible, since I'm only 25 myself!

Stay tuned for another installment of the

Grand Canyon Adventure coming soon!

Peace out, happytrails, and have a great week!

ahh...ahh...ahhchihuly!

Bless you! On Sunday we went with our friends Gene & Debi to the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanic Gardens...me, Greg & Debi were all sick with colds...Gene was fine until we got there, then his allergies kicked in, so all 4 of us sniffed and sneezed and coughed our way through the garden...I'm sure everyone thought we had swine flu!


These gorgeous lime green yucca things are placed as you walk into the garden...










and this crazy piece is right at the entrance...it is HUGE and amazing! One of the docents told us that they received 750 crates of glass and set up a circus tent in one of the parking lots to prep it and put it together before it was installed in the garden...















Here's the 3 of them diligently reading their guide books and being good little rule followers...













or so they thought...the sign says "Please do not sit or climb on wall" HA!!!












Thought this boat filled with fishing-lure reminiscent pieces was very cool...













Here's me & Deb reading about how the leaf trees nurture baby cacti...the baby cacti have a much better chance at survival under a leaf tree as it provides shade, shelter and protection. BUT, as the cactus grows, it develops lots of shallow roots just under the soil, and soaks up all the moisture before it can get to the roots of the leaf tree, thereby literally sucking the life out of the leaf tree...

Debi said "Just like being a mother" HA!!! We were cracking up over that one, truer words were never spoken! Good one Deb!

We learned that the reason creosote bushes smell so good and the actual creosote product smells so bad (as I was wondering about here) is because the creosote product is actually made out of coal tar...why it's called creosote at all then remains a mystery...

I totally want this spider-y thing for my backyard...

We also learned that while some of the pieces were made especially for this exhibit, many of the pieces already existed, and Chihuly spends some time at each venue, then decides what he wants for the look and feel of each locale and re-designs the existing pieces to acheive his vision. All the major glass pieces in the Bellagio in Vegas are by him as well, and he exhibits around the country at different venues regularly.

This may have been my favorite piece...the pic doesn't do it justice, but these colors together were spectacular...

It was an amazing exhibit, if you ever get the chance to go see his work, do!

I'm just glad I'm not in charge of packing it, HAR!!!

peace out & happytrails!