Keep Your Bags Packed

Expedia so kindly offered to look after good rates on flights for me to Austin, TX. But I apparently cannot go until 9/6/2020.

This is a screen shot of the email they sent me tonight. I did not alter the dates in the boxes for my departure or return. Are there no flights until September in 12 years? Darn. I think I have a dentist appointment I can’t miss that week.

Sweet Treat Pink & Purple Double Sided Art Collage Pendant

This glass and metal pendant is double sided. One side has juicy pink and purple paper hand stitched together with silvery thread. The pink side has purple handwriting rubber stamped over tissue paper. The purple part is inked and wrinkled wax paper.

The other side has a dark plum background with a lighter shaded piece of paper running down the center. Tiny black paper dots adorn the strip.

In short, this is quite simple and elegant but perfect for everyday wear as well.

Click the image to read more about it at my Etsy shop.

I've noticed that many artists who make soldered collage pendants don't do much finishing work to the solder. They leave it flocked and rough. I sand and polish all my solder by hand so it shines like a mirror. This takes a lot of extra time and it shows in a quality, finished piece of art jewelry. My prices reflect that extra work.

Up and Down the Water Goes

This fountain is located in Town Lake Park in Austin, TX. My friend, Joolie, took me there to see the water and climb the hill for a great view of downtown.

This fountain immediately became my favorite feature in the park. Bursts of water pop up out of the concrete in a spiral pattern. The sound of the water splashing soothes me for some reason. I could sit and listen for hours.

Kids run through to get cooled off from the Texas heat. It wasn’t too hot when we visited but kids were still running though it. I really wanted to dart in and out of the waterfalls, but I would have gotten chilly and we had other places to visit after our trip to the park. I now regret not doing this. Next visit I will.

This animation came from setting my camera to burst mode and taking a series of rapid-fire shots. There are 17 photographs in the animation. I added the same 17 frames to the end and reversed them so it appears the fountain goes back down. It is also looped. The animation was done in Photoshop CS2. That is a really cool tool! Learning new things is something I really enjoy. I hope to keep bringing you more fun animations!

Dinner Deliciousness

I found this Deluxe, Divine Chicken Divan recipe on Foodnetwork.com about a year ago. I don’t know about you but no 30-minute-meal ever takes me 30 minutes. I’m more of a 45-60 minute-meal girl. But this one is so delicious it’s worth all the work.

We like mushrooms in my house so I add two packages of sliced brown mushrooms to this recipe and it works out really well. My hunny gobbles this meal up so fast I wonder why I worked so hard to make it. But his gobbling is a compliment. We both oooh and mmmmmmmm all through eating it every time I make it.

I suppose if I could eyeball measurements and had minions to zest lemons for me it would take 30 minutes to make. Alas, it’s just me and measuring cups in my kitchen. But my hunny did make the substituted broccoli tonight and that shaved off some time. Broccoli works just fine for the asparagus part and is better for our budget.

I highly recommend that you try it just once. It’s so wonderful that you could make it for a dinner party. The rice is so lemony. I used thyme my hunny grew for me in our kitchen herb garden. Really, you should go try it now!

There and Back Again

My trip to Texas was so much fun that I want to return immediately. It was so good to see my best friend of 21 years and all her friends and family. Thank you, Joolie and Eric, for a splendid week I really needed.

Joolie and I met in middle school in Plano, TX. Then my family moved in 1989 because of my father’s job. We stay in touch constantly. Both of us travel to visit each other at least every 2 years. To travel to be there for her wedding was divine. She has married a wonderful guy named Eric. We both have “Erik/Erics”! Joolie is the most talented writer I know and is funnier than 10 comedians put together. She is also an artist who likes to make lino prints too. We sometimes get the chance to do that together. But not this trip. This was The Wedding Trip.

We ran wedding errands, ate Mexican food, drank margaritas, and ate more food. We like fun and food. This was interspersed with family arriving from in and out of state, laughing so much my face still hurts, and hanging out with friends. Austin is a fantastic place to live, although I am afraid to drive there. But I want to move there. Texas still feels like home to me. Joolie’s friends and family feel like my own.

click me for more pictures!!

The wedding was sublime. I am socially awkward and I had fun so there is something to that. I was a bridesmaid. Since the ceremony lasted all of five minutes I did not get a chance to cry. Tears welled up but had no time to fall. We were all up and back in seven minutes. Make no delay for partying!

Small world coincidence: one of Joolie’s family friends from Plano has ties to where I live in Rochester, NY. She keeps in touch with our news so we commiserated about the downfall of the Ferry and jobs in general. Then she asked our last names. Mine rang no bell, but my sister’s married name did. Valerie is a Schaubroeck, of the world-famous House of Guitars (to which I would include a link but they are too cool to even have a website). This woman knows that family well and named off a bunch of my sister’s in-laws! We laughed so much about it. Very cool!

And now I am home, and it is cold and snowy. Ho-hum. But I have more stories and pictures to show and tell over the next few days. Stay tuned.