Great White Shark On the Loose!

I received this from the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
"After careful consideration and planning, we removed the white shark from the Outer Bay exhibit early this morning and released her in the open waters just outside Monterey Bay at 5:45 a.m.Two factors led to this decision. First, the shark was rapidly approaching a maximum size and weight at which she could be safely removed, transported and released with full confidence that she would thrive. Second, aquarists observed a marked change in her behavior over the past week of what they considered to be active hunting of other exhibit animals and they became substantially more concerned about the well-being of the other fishes. She was not released because of any injury or health problem. At the time of her release, she was 6'-4" long and weighed 162 pounds. That means she grew more than a foot in length and gained 100 pounds in her six months on exhibit. She was healthy and strong when she swam away from the boat. "

I saw this shark on exhibit, we went right away when it was announced they had one in Monterey. She was tremendous, and so different than the other sharks. But I could sense her agitation, this is a creature not meant to be pent-up for long. I hope that they do not start trying to capture great whites just because the museum attendance went up by 30% since she was on exhibit. Sharks hold a deep resonance in many cultures around the world and represent the primal hunter that is within all of us, never resting, always on the prowl, looking for the next kill, never able to relax or have many friends. I'm glad that she was with humans for a bit, so that we could learn more about great whites, but I'm very glad that they've released her back into mama ocean once more.

Sunset Sedona

Ok, ok, two more pictures. Of sunset in Sedona. Ahhh, beauty, serenity, peace.

High up Schnebly Hill Road is Carousel rock, Marc took this from there at sunset. The glimmering stuff is rainwater caught in depressions in the rock catching the last light from the setting sun.

My brother Vince going for the money shot at sunset. Don't you just want to eat up that buttery rock, it looks so soft and yummy. I gotta dye something that colour I think!

Not enough Sedona yet?

Health update, no pneumonia, just severe bronchitis, so while I'm recuperating, time to bore you with more vacation pictures, hee hee.
Several of you asked for more pictures from Sedona, so here are some more for you, with my family in them just because I love them so much.


Mom and I by Oak Creek, this red rock is so smooth and beautiful, worn by the river. We were walking in a hailstorm by the way, very interesting to do that, luckily the hail wasn't too big. The river was milky and grey from the ongoing rainstorms.

Alex the mighty and tall. He loved hiking with his SF Giants hat and waterbackpack, oh and his grandparents too. Grandpa bought a book about cactuses which he studied up on and became the trip expert on cactuses. I think we saw about 15 different kinds, maybe more than that. They have a lot of neat structures for holding and delivering the spines.

Zach the beautiful and mysterious supermodel. Don't tell him I posted this one ok? He decided he liked Sedona after all, especially the food and the fun rock scrambling.

Marc (aka Mr.TieDye) at the top of the canyon, note the snow in the background, nice hat honey! He survived an encounter with a prickly pear cactus (fell off his bike!), still finding some spines coming out a week later, yeeouch.

My "Little" Brother Vince and his most Wonderful girlfriend Carolyn on top of Submarine Rock. Vince took us out there in his 4WD toyota 4runner, wooohoo is that ever fun bouncing and crashing around, haven't done that in ages, he was running circles around the jeeps for hire tours. Vince was taking photos with his good camera and tripod, can't wait to see his pics! Carolyn got Zach back on his bike again with her good-natured encouragement, he's been scared too since his accident in the summer when he broke his wrist. Good job Carolyn, Zach's on wheels again.

My mom and Dad in full-on hiking gear. They had fun watching the grandkids scramble wayway up high on Bell Rock. I'm so glad that they got us all together in Sedona, it was such a great place for a family vacation.

One Out of 300

I'll share just one out of the 300 pictures we took. This is my best picture ...maybe even ever I think. Could be on a calendar or something. Dear son Zach says he wants to sell our pictures to the hotel to use for publicity, I predict he'll be making $$ off of technology somehow someway soon.
The thing I was surprised by was how my eyes couldn't adjust to Sedona. Everywhere I looked everything was soooo different. The redness of the rocks. The abrupt change in the landscape, mesa, forest, desert, redrocks, boomboomboom in a row. And the sky, either so blue it looked fake (maybe because of the contrast between orange/red and blue?), or dramatic with evil black storm clouds. I was impressed by that, because I've been a lot of places in the world, and this was a place that was so much different that it kept me off balance visually the whole time I was there. Or maybe it was just the exciting aftereffects of too much coldmeds?
I'm most bummed about not getting to SMELL Sedona. That is one of my favoritest things to do when I go somewhere new, is to smell it. No chance with the damnable headcold from Hades. Especially since we had rain and hail and snow and sun and there were so many places I could tell just smelled wonderful. Pout. Guess I'll just have to go back when my schnozz is working properly, right?

Sedona Returned

That's right, I'm back! Don't feel like it though. Was sick almost the entire trip. Headcold turned into chestcold. Off to doctor today to see if it is pneumonia or not (eeek not again).So, from what I saw, Sedona is absolutely eyepopping gorgeous and wonderful. Especially since the most fabulous Dara lives there. She showed us around the stupa that her sangha has been building, and it was a very powerful spot.
And lucky her, it is literally right in her backyard. The cool thing I noticed was that the shape of the stupa was echoed in the cliff top above it. Like it is a natural one already there saying, "yes this is the right place".

More on Sedona-ness

Didn't see any javelinas in Dara's yard (thank goodness!!), but I did admire her beautiful purple cactus. Didn't know there was such a thing, thought they were just green or grey, but nope, this was truly lavender to purple! Anyways, I just have to say when you get to know Dara on the internet, you are getting to know the real Dara, she is the real deal. And she is the BEST hugger in the world.

There it is, the purple! cactus at Dara's house.

See the natural stupa up there in the background? From left to right those smiling faces are Dara, Kerris, Adrienne, and Me! So lovely to get together in real life with internet friends. There is always more to say and share and it makes it more REAL to actually be with these awesome people who mean so much in my life. I say Hooray and Huzzah for the internet.

Sedona Bound

So, I'm off to Sedona, AZ for the week. With the whole fandamily (as Cherie always says). Should be fun, hopefully! It will be about 20 hours in the car. I went to the library and got the Harry Potter #5 on CD, which is comprised of 23 CD's! Yikes! So we'll have no shortage of entertainment.
And I'm so looking forward to meeting up with the fabulous Dara in person. As well as Kerris and Adrienne who are coming from Tucson. Yay!
This travel loving Sagittarius has been dying to get outta town and GO somewhere. But that means I gotta get off this computer and go finish packing. Since we're leaving in 4 hours. eek! Hope to be able to check in if we can find some WIFI in Sedona.

Gravity's Rainbow

Blue

Purple and Red

Red and Purple

My Straight and Narrow entry. "Gravity's Rainbow".

The Remainder of One Image Cards

More One Image Cards, I got them all done and sent out. This one had the frame with three faces as the stamped image.

Eye See You was the One Image

One Image was the swirly doodad

One image was the Satellite dish. Words are "Begin Receiving messages in your DNA."

Domino Girl was the One Image

This one came almost "done" with the paper, and the dressmaker form stamped.

One image was the eye stamp. I think this is one of my fave cards that I did in this swap.

This one was really hard for some reason. The image of the girl was printed on the card and seemed so perfect on its own, I didn't want to mess it up! The words are"I didn't do it."

Should have posted this one Yesterday in honor of St. Patrick's day and all. This one came with the celtic knot circle, and the card was green. I got really creative with adding texture, handmade paper, fabric scraps.

Jump into Art. Art stamp was the One Image.

One image was the Passion girl.

Marge adds it all up. One image was the row of numbers 1-0

Night and day. One image was the equatorial diagram on the left.

Couldn't jump her way out of a paper bag. One image was the paper bag. I used correct-tape for the stripes in the background.

Relax! The one image was the jester mask.One the left is courdoroy I glued on.

Let it Roll. One image was the ball with stars.

See the Evidence for yourself. The one image was the eye stamp.

Speak in Color, one image was the Art Deco Girl.

Greeting the Sun. One image was the woman.

Tara and Buddha in the sky. One image was the Buddha stamp.

One image was the woodcut tree stamp on the left.

Just make a wish! One image was the art deco ornament.
I'm really glad I did this swap, thanks RedDog Scott for organizing it!

Swamp Angels Done!

Some of my Swamp Angels along with the ones I've gotten from the Mavs. Pretty nice mix, huh? I think I have four more coming from this swamp. Will make a nice size quilt since the blocks are 12.5"

A blue angel (heehee)

Orange Angel just for Marie

Weirdo Angel, which is of course my favorite!

Pale Angel, the really light fabric makes the block look so different. That's what I love about block quilts, seeing how the patterns change as different fabrics are used.

Yet Another Tarot Deck I Just Gotta Get!

DebR at her blog, Red Shoe Ramblings will know just what I am talking about here, the obsession to collect even more tarot decks. We both participated in the Tarot Art Quilt Project a few years ago, and have been steadily buying up new tarot decks and enabling each other in this expensive pursuit.
So, when I started out with the tarot quilt group, 5 years ago, we were all sharing online tarot decks that we ran across and someone said, oooh go look at this collage deck: Full Moon Dreams by Lunaea Weatherstone. A life-changing and wonderful result is that I've been happily studying and learning with Lunaea ever since.

Anyways! Finally finally finally Lunaea is offering a printed deck for sale. Yay! And Hooray! So go check it out and tell her I sent you *grin*.

I'm working on my own collage deck and quilt deck. But those will take me a while to complete at the rate I am going! But you can go check them out in their partially done state.

A new one that is intriguing is The Housewive's Tarot has great 50's imagery that I love.
And in case you're interested here are some of my recent acquisitions:
The limited edition majors only deck by Joanna Powell Colbert lucious, absolutely lucious.
The Artist's Inner Vision deck a collaborative deck, with amazing imagery.
The Triple Goddess Tarot By Isha Lerner & Mara Friedman & Tara McKinney, beautifully illustrated and a great book, this deck has 26 major arcana cards and 7 chakra cards. Very unique to have a card for the chakras.

Ok, enough with the Tarot Talk! (for now anyways).

Angels in the Swamp

Swamp Angel blocks I've received so far from the QuiltMavericks, plus three that I finally finally made. Why was I procrastinating? Well, I made the mistake of reading the Alex Anderson book, Simply Stars, and got intimidated with her perfectness. Not something I aspire to, perfectness, but I admit it that woman does intimidate me. I mean, sheesh, she has a TV show, and many books, and I saw her quilts up close at the Marin Needle Arts Guild show, and they are indeed, perfect. It is actually an easy block(pshew) and that is what I'm working on today, getting those done and mailed out to my Mav friends. This is going to be a pretty quilt when the other's are all included. 12.5" blocks really make a big quilt top quickly don't they?

CQFA Row Round Robin 2

The second CQFA round robin that I've received. Hey, I'm caught up, what a nice feeling! Interesting colors to work with blues, white, burgundy, browns, and she included fabrics too, but I used lots out of my stash that coordinated.The owner's is on the right, second person in middle, mine is the circleish thingies on the left. Kind of a wonky bullseye block.

And since as you all know, I can't throw anything away! Here are the leftovers from cutting out the circley centers. I put WonderUnder on them, and son Zachary arranged them for me.

Calendar Choke

Well, I didn't get the calendar pieces done yet for the Quilting Arts Magazine calendar challenge. Sigh. Oh well, next year. BUT I do like how these are turning out. Maybe they will be appropriate for another show or something this year.

Mom's Sewing Basket, these are all scraps directly from my mom's sewing basket, which she passed on to me a couple years ago. There's velvet, upholstery fabric, polished cotton, flannel, satin, cordoury and a ruffle from something that was probably mine when I was a kid.

Utopia Calendar, almost done beading. Hard thing with beading...knowing when to STOP.