Do You Pretend?

Do you pretend? I do! I pretend sometimes, so I don't have to face the facts. I hope we all do this and I'm not just some kind of weirdo... oh wait, I forgot, I AM some kind of weirdo and I like me this way. :)

But back to pretending, here is my confession - starting in July every year, when our summer finally arrives, I pretend that it's always going to be summer. I completely deny every little thought that summer actually has a beginning and ending. I've really become quite good at this game, despite the "fact" that where I live, summer is very, very short.

I go barefoot every day:

I go kayaking as often as possible:

I visit wonderful county fairs:

I travel far, far from home:

And I'm very sure that the flowers outside are going to look and smell this pretty forever and ever:

However, when on August 21st I find that I have to close every window in the house and turn off the fan at 6PM, and I notice that the sun has just about set at 7:15PM instead of 9PM... I don't sweat it (pun intended)... LOL, I just go put on some warm footwear:

and maybe a jacket, too:

Then I wait until the morrow, because when the sun warms us up again, I know I'll be kicking off that footwear, stripping off the jacket and whistling a happy tune - and once again I'll be pretending that summer is never going to end.

Wordless Wednesday

Pelicans at Lake Davis, California

The Thunderstorms of Life

The forecast calls for thunderstorms every day for the next week! The trouble with thunderstorms is when they're IN your life, not when they are outside the door. It seems like there are an awful lot of thunderstorms in my life for the past year or so - many more than I would have taken on if it had been my choice. It's very wearing when they won't go away, and you can't move away from them, either.

Here's a thunderstorm that was threatening and beautiful but passed away soon enough. This photo taken at the end of July above Silver Lake in California. I thought you'd enjoy seeing it. :)

Before & After, or: Phlox to the Rescue

We live on a hill, a big hill, and trying to keep the hill where it is has been a daunting task, one that my husband, in particular, has been working on for many years. And so, little by little, we win the the battle.

This is a photo of the driveway and house which is a "Before-Before" photo to show the driveway as it once was. (Click on photos to see larger).

The cliff over the side of the driveway is one of those spots where the hill erodes constantly. In order to allow the stuff that falls to collect someplace other than right on the driveway, he built the curbs (with a lot of help from our son and grandson), put in the gravel, and then built this small rock wall:

This summer, the approach to the house has been beautiful, due to the addition of some pink Phlox - I wish this photo showed how bright it actually is:

Here is a close-up photo of the Phlox. Isn't it pretty?

Wordless Wednesday

Click on the photo to see the lovely artsy details of this carnival ride.

Mid State Fair, Paso Robles, California - July 2012

Sizzling Rice Cane in Polymer Clay

I spent some time working on a CraftEdu class by Donna Kato called "Sizzling Rice Cane". Neat name! It was lots of fun to make this cane, it took some precision to get it right, then I kind of over-reduced it at the end. Still, I wanted to share my photos because I see this as a very verstatile cane and can imagine it taking on many personalities.

The first part, getting the "rice" to the right shape and then getting it into the pretty-much-exact center of a square of black clay, was the hardest. Definitely a time to go slow and make sure everything is just right before proceeding. (Click on photo to enlarge).

Then I added some more black.. this step decides how close together the rice kernels will be in the finished cane.

After combining eight kernels, the cane looked like this:

And finally, the cane with 16 kernels is below. As I said, I over-reduced it a bit and that made it go slightly wonky, but for a first try I'm pretty happy with it.

I will be sure to share whatever I use this cane for here at a later date. My thanks to Donna Kato for sharing this techinique with the polymer clay community. If you would like to make this cane yourself, you can go to CraftEdu.com by clicking on this link for the Sizzling Rice Cane. Have fun, and be sure to share your results!

Wordless Wednesday

Out the front door - Monday July, 23, 2012