Monday, November 30, 2009

Sooooo Beautiful

It's almost impossible to explain my feelings of gratitude and wonder toward my ability to see and hear as I go about my life.
To me, everything around me is a photo in action.

While in Skagway, Alaska, I took this photo while making my way back to the cruise ship!
As I was walking, I "saw" this as a photo in my mind before I took the photo! It's always a challenge--will my photos show the beauty I see in my mind. What do you think?

Sunday, November 29, 2009

My wreath

Well, how do you like it? It's not what I had planned but . . . I'm happy how it turned out because my favorite color is purple, so it can't be all bad, right?

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Best Laid Plans

of mice and men! Have you ever heard that phrase? I'm sure you have--maybe when you were in high school, you have to read John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men"!
The phrase, though, is from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse" written in 1785.

See all the stuff in the photo?
My friend, Lisa P., said she was going to make a flower wreath and showed me the flowers she had made--totally cute! We were at Michaels at the time and the more I thought about her making a flower wreath, the more I wanted to make one too.
So while at Michaels, I picked out various spools of ribbon and some purple-ish bead picks.

I looked at this as a challenge to see who could make the cuter wreath! I love challenges!!!!

I went home and picked out some papers (all papers used are from The Angel Company), and proceeded to make some flowers.
I used several different punches, stickled each flower, sponged all their edges (I don't like white edges), and used a bone folder to "round" all the petals. I then picked several flowers of various sizes and inserted a flower brad to hold them all together!
LOTS OF WORK!

I painted my wreath base and then tied the ribbons around the base. Once I had all ribbons tied, I started to lay the flowers I had made and thought, "oh my gosh, this looks like doodoo!"
In my mind I had thought the flowers would go with the ribbons but they didn't!

Now what?
Well, I wrapped some white/purple-ish fibers around the wreath (kinda in between the ribbons) to tone down some of the color and tried some other flowers I had made. Nope. Still looked like doodoo!

I decided to just add the purple-ish bead picks and call it a day! You can see Lisa's wreaths on her blog. I think she won the challenge for sure! I LOVE both her wreaths!

I plan on making another wreath, using the paper flowers I already made. Wish me luck!
Oh, check back tomorrow to see my finished wreath (the one with no paper flowers)!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes!

Or out of your hand! Zip is smokin'!!!!!!!!!
Yellowstone is full of geysers! From a distance, it looks like smoke from a fire doesn't it?
About a thousand known geysers exist worldwide, roughly half of which are in Yellowstone. That's a lot of geysers!!!!!
Hot Hot Hot!!!!!

Just imagine, walking by this pool of hot water, hearing the bubbling of the water, feeling the heat hit your skin, and then losing your balance and falling in! Ouch! That's what happens to lobsters and that's why I won't eat them! Poor little lobsters!
Sooooo, question--what is the best known geyser in Yellowstone?

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Grin and Bear It!

What a place!
We got to see a grizzly bear!!! It didn't matter that it was in a zoo-like setting either!
We got to see a grizzly bear!!!!!!!! The Discovery Center is located in West Yellowstone and offers visitors a chance to experience the world of grizzly bears and gray wolves. All the animals at the Center are unable to survive in the wild.
While we were watching the bears, we witnessed two of them fighting. One bear started to chase another bear. We thought they were just playing around but NO!!!! The bear being chased stopped and there was a face-off (lots of growling, snarling, mouths open, paws waving), it was unreal. I got it all on video too!
The bear being chased hurt its paw on a rock while running. We found out later, that it needed medical care and had to be separated from all the other bears! Poor little bear!
Grizzly bears are HUGE!
The Center is home to grizzly bears from as far away as Alaska and as close as Yellowstone. Each bear has something in common--they came here after becoming nuisance bears or orphaned cubs of nuisance bears.
What's a nuisance bear you ask?
A nuisance bear is a bear who has learned to obtain food from people, damage property in search of food or become aggressive toward people and are usually killed. Instead of being destroyed, the eight bears that reside at the Center were rescued and are now ambassadors for their counterparts in the wild.
We totally enjoyed our visit to Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

So Squirrelly!!!!

Is this little guy cute or what?
It's a mantled ground squirrel, a small chipmunk-like squirrel.
I spotted him while we were walking around looking at geysers! I couldn't believe my luck! Wildlife!!!! Yea!!!!
Sooooooooo cute too!
Yellowstone is a photographer's dream that's for sure!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Riding in Style!

I would NEVER in a million years ever be accused of being a "motorcycle mama"! I am so NOT into motorcyles! BUT if I ever did ride a motorcycle, this would be my idea of "riding in style" that's for sure! I love the color of the motorcycle and LOVE the fur seats!

Yes, I know--it's not politically correct to use and/or wear real fur and I agree! I'm not for killing animals just for the fun of it!
I would like to think the furry animal skins now adorning these seats were taken only after a loooong and meaningful life--please don't bust my bubble okay?!