Sisters are GOLDEN...

Jan and Chuck

A REAL bike rack!

Kayakers were riding the waves on the ice-pack swollen river!

Table Mountain with Castle Rock in the foreground

After a good nap, we headed out again for a stroll on the river walk in Golden, Colorado. The weather was lovely: warm and breezy. We walked close to three miles after our great dinner in the historic district of Golden, which was the capital of the Colorado Territory.

Table Mountain and Castle Rock overlook this quaint town. Afterwards we tried to see the Bison, but they were still hiding. At least we saw prairie dogs, more elk and NO rattlesnakes!

(more blog posts follow with more pictures)

Denver delights...

Barb in front of the Rocky Mountain National Park
and Continental Divide

Off on an early adventure today, we were seeking to see a herd of bison maintained by the City of Denver. They played hide and seek with us, and we only saw them at a distance. Meanwhile, we found a herd of elk grazing in the woods on one of our attempts to see bison.

A herd of elk lazing and grazing. Only 2 in this pic.

Al at Dinosaur Ridge

Five thousand years ago, a herd of dinosaurs were playing on the hillside when a flood took them to their deaths. Their path was preserved on this hillside and discovered in 1937.

God repented that he had made man and destroyed all living things with a flood. He began again with Noah's family. Yes, the account is absolutely true. The worldwide movement of mountains, rivers, land formations were shifted by the force of the one of a kind water force. The sediments of the rivers and newly formed fossil remains can be totally explained by the force of the water during God's flood.

The dark area is dinosaur fossil remains.

Good days can lead to Cold Stone Ice Cream treats! Yum!

After our drive we stopped for ice cream at Cold Stone. All's well that ends well, yes? Yummy!

Adventures in Colorado Springs...

The conference at Focus on the Family is what took us to Colorado Springs.
What a blessing it was!

Al with the Cog Train on Pike's Peak

We have never been this high elevation without an airplane!

The Garden of the Gods was donated to the city so everyone could enjoy them.

Al at the Balancing Rock

Al pushing the rock over! YIKES!

Condos in the rock! Interesting historical stop.

The common kitchen in the center of the units.

 Al visited Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak when he was a boy and his dad was stationed at Fort Carson in the early 50's. He remembered going up the mountain with his folks and always wanted to go back.

We have never been to Colorado in all our travels, so when we learned of the Pastors and Spouses conference there, we decided we would definitely visit the mountain again.

We rode the COG train to the top after the conference was over. The train traveled at a top speed of 8.5 mph and took an hour each way. The air is so thin we were getting dizzy. We took many pics from the ride and learned so much history of that mountain! What a delightful outing!

The Garden of the Gods was filled with interesting rock formations. Beautiful handiwork of God on display there!

The cliff dwellings are something I have always wanted to visit, so we stopped in for an hour and explored in the homes of the rock. We saw a common kitchen with shelves, loft bedrooms and brick and mortar walls that were perfectly level, per the people who studied these homes. It, too, was exciting to see. I'm so glad we went.

Al climbed into the "cleft of the ROCK"

As we explored the rock garden, Al discovered a cleft in a rock and climbed in it. Safe to the Rock that is higher... a safe place to be!

Family memories on Annapolis...

This photo is probably the last portrait of my family before my parents divorced. Bill appears to be a few months old so likely late 1960 or early 1961. The photo was taken in our living room on Annapolis Street. 

back row: Barb, 10(me); Mike,7; Vicki, 12

seated: Mom with Bill; Rosemary, 4; Dad

Angel for a day...

Ruth 1987

This week I found time to scan photos of Scott & Charity's wedding that my sister, Vicki, took. She gave them to me last fall. As I was laying around resting yesterday I decided to alter the photo settings from the poor scanning.

With a purple challenge for Scrap Girl's  High Noon Chat, I decided to do one of the wedding pages for Charity. After putting lots of wedding pics on the page, I discovered the sweet wings in my  stash and remembered this photo of Ruth was in the batch.

The journaling says, "We were able to get Ruth off her horse, Hawkeye, long enough to dress her up for her sister Charity's wedding."

The photo can be viewed at Scrap Girls here.

Doesn't Pearl look like her?

Illustrator Oriental Fan project done...

Oriental Fan project for Adobe Illustrated Class

Last quarter at college I took the beginner level of Adobe Illustrator. It was so much fun, that during the finals class and seeing the projects for the Intermediate class, I determined that I would take the class again this semester. On the way home after the finals were presented, I began to plan what projects I would create this quarter. This fan was one of them.

Now, nearing the end of this semester, the fan is finished and ready to present to the class during the finals on June 2. It was a work of love and learning.

The fabric is a tablecloth I bought when I was in China a few years ago. The pearls were made in Illustrator, and represent the pearls my husband bought me when we were in Beijing.

Art is so fulfilling for me... thank you for looking!

Missing my mom...

I just read a Facebook post about someone's "mama" being in heaven, and my tears began to flow...

My mom's been gone over 30 years and that wound can still be pricked in just a moment. I am missing talking with her every day, writing to her every week.... hearing from her every week.

Mom with Bill about 1962, in our front yard on Annapolis Street.

If you still have your mama, what time will you spend with her this week, while you can? [She knows you love her... but enough to spend more than a few minutes at a time with her?]

I am betting she misses your every day phone calls about nothing in particular!


She was one tough mama, and loved us more than her own life! She was a single mom working in a man's job at a factory to provide for us when Dad failed at it due to alcoholism. I miss her today...

April- feels good to scrap a bit!

It was fun to take a class in making paper flowers with Anna at Scrap Girls today. I actually found time to put a page together with the flowers! Thank you, Anna!

An amazing HONOR...

Today I learned I have been chosen Scrap Girls' MEMBER OF THE MONTH for April!

It's such an honor to be associated with such a friendly group of people in my life and art!

Here is a thread of the news announcement that I discovered as I was browsing earlier this morning.

Announcement


*** APR 16 NEWSLETTER story

THANK YOU, friends!

Ack! WEEDS!!

Now there are WEEDS... Gotta get out there soon! Hurry spring!

Al's birthday CELEBRATION...

Celebrating his birthday one day after Christmas has always been a challenge, but this year we invited Dr Ken Blue to preach on Al's birthday. Dr Blue is Al's best friend, and is dying of ALS. We were so thrilled he could help us make this birthday a memorable event.

Doodling day off...

Why do flowers show up when I doodle on Illustrator? 

Daffodils!

I am NOT SO PATIENTLY waiting for spring.

The other day's lesson in Illustrator prompted this idea for the daffodil. Ooh, so fun and I get to have flowers in my studio! Enjoy!

Summer Flowers! Blend and mesh project

I have ALWAYS wanted to do this... Now I now HOW!

This "feels" like WATERCOLOR painting when the colors blend and bleed! I get goosebumps!
THANK YOU Adobe Illustrator for helping me "paint" what I see in my head.

Spring in my studio...

I LOVE hydrangea flowers and always wanted to paint or draw them. Here is the start of something good in that direction. <3 this illustrator fun!

Flower Power!

Another zinnia in yellow... (sigh)... this has more petal variations and a different center.

Designing fun flowers

Pink Zinnia

A few have asked to see some of my designs. This flower is from playing (Ooops! I meant "working") this morning.

I am getting the feel with Illustrator and still learning some tricks, but this was a quick and easy design that I liked when done.

Graphically Speaking... I love Illustrator!

The assignment for our midterm was to create an image using a list of skills and tools we were taught during the first five chapters. Just about every tool gave me ideas for making flowers, so the garden idea began to form the first day.

The signs were needed to use text on paths, text masks and text with stretched points. The flowers almost all used the rotate and scaling tools. The daisies implemented the pathfinder intersect tool. The larger sign utilized the divide tool, and several other tools.

This was such a fun project to develop and organize. I enjoyed seeing the other student's projects at class tonight... all of them creative and inspiring. What a great class and the instructor really enjoys seeing our "lights" come on when we "get it".

What's next? Patterns and BRUSHES... I have some experience there, but it will be fun this week!

Illustration DRAWN: Bailey featured

Yes, I love Illustrator class at college.  Can you tell? 

My granddaughter received a new hat one Wednesday night at church. She was showing off her cuteness in the hat when someone added the mustache to her look. 

I needed to draw a sketch and remembered this cute photo that looked like a cartoon!

FUN!!

Truly a GIFT...

The big news for me in 2011 is that I will return to college after over 35 years!! I have some apprehensions, of course. The main apprehension is that I will not "miss" any critical information in the class.

I have only 20% of my hearing left. Although the hearing aids give me closer to normal hearing, I have lost much of the clarification and sound distinctions that are needed to form "words" that I am hearing. Many words sound too similar, and I cannot always "guess" what is being said.

For Christmas this year, my husband found an amazing gift for me. Truly, it's simply wonderful how helpful it will be in college! The PULSE Smart Pen is a mini-computer that will RECORD my notes in class WHILE recording the lecture in audio! When I return home, I will plug the pen into my laptop and will have a visual AND audio copy of the class session!

Now that extreme apprehension of "missing" vital information due to my severe hearing loss is MINIMIZED. You cannot imagine how much stress is lessened with the knowledge that I can REPEAT the information without asking over and over!

(BIG SIGH)... What a THOUGHTFUL GIFT! He knows me pretty good, huh?