Summertime 2014 Photography Scavenger Hunt #18

Hello, hello!
Listening to the rain pattering on the roof of our motorhome on this first day of the long Labor Day weekend. We've finally gotten a chance to get away for a little holiday/vacation, just the two of us (and Tip, the dog). Spending a relaxing five days at the Echo Island Ranch just outside Coalville with Clare's sister, brother, and sister-in-law. And because the campground is located on the Weber River, I thought that of course there would be a waterfall to fulfill #18 in Rinda's Photography Scavenger Hunt. And so there is!

It actually is a man-made falls but it takes water and re-circulates it from the river and looks quite natural. The flora all around is what grows naturally along the river too as you can see in this picture of yours truly.

That's the Weber River in the background. 

We're having a lovely time even though at the moment it is raining. No worries. We are snug and dry in our home on wheels!

Ta for now!

Sunday Zoom In Zoom Out

Sunday Hello!

I thought I'd join in with Helena's meme, Zoom In Zoom Out, for Week 34, after seeing what I saw (and photographed) this afternoon. I was sitting out in the sunshine finishing up the book Pearl by Mary Gordon when I glanced up and saw this swallowtail on the butterfly bush (appropriate):

I went into the house and grabbed my proper camera (as opposed to my IPhone) and snapped away. Above is the zoom out and below are a couple zoom in's!

You will notice that this very beautiful creature is sporting an imperfection; that is, a tear in its wing, which of course I didn't notice until I zoomed in. It didn't seem to impede its flight from bloom to bloom. I found this to be a wonderfully delightful way to spend 20 minutes or so. Thanks, Helena, for providing a platform for sharing photographic wonders!

Laters and have a wonderful week!

Additions to 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

Summer is still upon us and a HOT one it's been! Today when I got back in the car after spending a couple hours at the office, the temp read 105 degrees! Of course, I realize (as my sweet husband pointed out) that the car had been sitting in the sun but, yikes! Anyhow, I hurried home to the AC and a tall, cool glass of water . . .

I've managed to get three more photos for the Scavenger Hunt and this evening plan on getting at least one more, maybe two when we go to the first-of-the-season Tooele High School football game. In the meantime, here are three photos of #19 on the list, a public garden:

As you can see, this is the Master Garden; it is in front of the Tooele Health and Utah State University Extension Service building on Main Street. Local Master gardeners planned and planted it and although it's just one short sidewalk worth, it is quite lovely.

New day - Saturday, 16 August. Right as I added the above photos last night, my laptop decided to shut down and update! Gotta' love Microsoft! Anyhoo . . . by the time we got back from the game, I was more in the mood to get in my jammies and settle down with a wee bowl of ice cream and my latest read. 

The football game was really just a sort of practice, show-the-community-what-we've-got deal. It's an informal game called the Purple and White (Tooele High School colors) and pits all four grades (Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Varsity Seniors) against each other. Half were dressed in their white uniforms and the other half in purple and/or black. Our grandson is a Junior this year playing on the Junior and Varsity team; hence our attendance. Not only did I want to go to see my grandson (what self-respecting grandparent would not! :) ) but I thought perhaps I could get a picture of the mascot (white buffalo) and even the band "parading" on the field at half-time to fulfill #'s 12 and 14 for the Photo Scavenger Hunt. Well, firstly, as noted above, it was not really an official game so there were no cheerleaders or mascot running around and secondly, there was no half-time so no band, no parade, no dancing girls . . .! My granddaughter tried to foist this picture of she and her brother taken the 23rd of March on me for the mascot but I cannot cheat! (I am showing it here though because it is pretty darn cute!)

Ty is such a good brother; he dressed in the Tooele Buff costume so McKenna could use this photo as part of her campaign for Student Body Officer (which she won). Here are a couple photos I took last night at the football field just so you know I made an attempt!

Okay, so on to the other photos taken for the Hunt. 

#6 - An urban street scene. Taken Wednesday, the 13th, in Sugarhouse, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

#6-02 - An urban street scene. Taken same day looking south down State Street, Salt Lake City.

#20 - A bus with a picture painted on the sides. This photo is of a Utah Transit Authority (UTA) bus in downtown Salt Lake City. The quite obvious signage is advertising a gambling hotspot 100 miles southwest on the Nevada State border.

You will notice that all three of these photos also feature #17 on the list, a lamp post! So did the public garden photos above, but I am not going to split hairs.

So, with five weeks and two days left until the Autumn Equinox, I have four photos left to find: #12, a mascot; #14, a parade; #15, a juggler; and, #18, a waterfall. Since I am pretty certain that I'll never find a juggler (although one never knows!), I spotted this today: Alternative B, a bird house!

Clever, no?!

A couple days ago, I holed up in my messy craft area and produced a scrapbook layout using a photo taken back in May. I've been quite inspired of late by a couple You Tubers who do fabulous scrapbook process videos - like I don't have anything else to do! Anyhow, one of them, Gretchen at Stamping Rooster, uses lots of fun mixed media and her general style appeals to me. I was not real brave but I did use a paint dabber over a 'stencil' which was the negative space of flowers I fussy cut from this Studio Calico paper. I also did some layering which is more new-to-me and dotted around sequins and enamel dots. Here is the result:

There's a little black pennant missing in the upper right hand corner; it appears to have fallen off when I was wrangling the page about to photograph! It's on there now though, nice and stuck down. This was fun to do and I've got a couple other pages in the works.

Time for gathering up the laundry and putting together a fruit salad for tonight's meal. 

Ta!

Month of July in Numbers

I'm joining in with Julie Kirk again this month (last official MinN was April's! Argh!) for Month in Numbers. This month was looong (31 days!) and HOT and full of plenty of activities and happenings.

# of IPhone photos taken and added to Collect calendar = 59. Some of the days there were as many as five to record and only two days with zero.

We celebrated Independence Day, the 4th, quietly with a picnicky sort of meal and watching the fireworks at the high school football field (four blocks east of us here on Vine) from our backyard. Didn't go to the parade in the morning - this would've been a great opportunity to fulfill #14 on the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt - because it was already 95 degrees at 9:00 a.m. when it started and we were just plain too lazy!

This is not a terribly good picture of the fireworks but you kind of get the idea . . .

# of books read in July = 3 plus reading Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother. This is on my IPad Kindle and so I pick it up only occasionally. An aside here - I really don't like reading from the screen but when I can't find a book I really want to read at the city library, I resort to Kindle books. About this book: I don't like Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott, very much but that dislike surely comes from a 21st century prejudice.

# of photos found for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt = 14 of 21. (Today, the 1st of August, I added another!) See posts here, here, and here. 

# of postcards sent for Sian's Pile of Postcards Swap = 6 - 4 to the UK, one to Canada, and one to New York State. 

# of postcards received for said Swap = 8; 5 from the UK (Helena sent a return card - thank you so much!), one from France, and 2 from Tennessee (an extra one from Barbara!). Absolutely loved doing this and now have new (and very talented!) friends from all over.

This is the postcard I received from Alexa just yesterday, the 31st.

Doing this swap reminds me of when I was young and had "penpals" that I found through comic books, particularly Katy Keene. . . and that's a story for another day :).

# of family birthdays celebrated = 5. Granddaughter-in-law DaviJo's 27th on the 13th; Daughter-in-law Crystal's 42nd on the 18th; Great-granddaughter Aubrey's 8th on the 21st; Granddaughter Jessica's 21st on the 22nd; and, my sister Delta's 61st on the 24th! Girls ruled this month! I called my sister in Silverado, California on her birthday and we had a lovely 45+ minute chat. Just don't get to gab like that often enough!

# of days triple digit temperatures = 5 according to the weather service but it sure seems like more! 

# of miles driven to Panguitch (Utah) for the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo at the Triple C Arena = 228 in 4 hours.

This is a picture of our truck and three-horse trailer driven by our two grandsons (one driving, one entertaining no doubt!) on the road south to Panguitch. My husband and I and our dog are behind them in the motor home. . . well, until we got to the turnoff after losing sight of them on Interstate 15! Grampa got a tad irritated and had me text them that "even though the speed limit was 80 mph on the freeway, doesn't mean you go that fast . . . you are hauling horses, not hauling ass!" Oh dear! 

We arrived safely Tuesday, the 15th, and spent the next three full days rodeoing. Actually, me and Grampa [is that right? or should it be "Grampa and I?"] provided food and bed and the grandboys did the rodeoing!

# of performances/slack attended at said rodeo = 5. Grandson Ty did 3 events (tie-down, steer wrestling, and team roping) and Grandson Tee did 2 events (steer wrestling and team roping). They are team roping partners - Ty heads and Tee heels. In order to qualify for Friday's "short go" or top 10 in each event, each had to catch/get a time in two of the previous two days rodeos. I won't bore you with the details but will cut to the chase and tell you that Tee placed 2nd in the short go steer wrestling and earned a nice, shiny buckle and Ty ended up 3rd in the short go tie down and All-Around Cowboy for the whole rodeo! Woohoo! Here he is with his 3rd place buckle and very large All-Around buckle:

And here are my favorite three cowboys after all was said and done:

On that note, I just wanted to add # of times I've weeded the flower beds = INFINITE! With recent summer rainstorms I've got more of a Garden of Weed'n than flower garden! Wish I could let the 11 steers loose and instruct them in what to eat and what not to eat. But of course, there's the problem of . . . well, you know! And, they might wander down the street and get into traffic . . . 

'Nuf said.

Pile of Postcards and a New Crafty Pursuit

Hi Hi!
Just want to post an update of how my pile is growing for Sian's Pile of Postcards Swap. It's been fun indeed going out to the postbox and pulling out a card from a new friend! Four postcards so far (two from Tennessee :) - thanks Barbara!) and I feel like three new "penpals!" I rather regret not putting my blog and/or email address on the six cards I sent out like these gals did for me but, oh well! I've communicated with these three and bookmarked their blogs as favorites just because I can . . . haha!

[Postman left yet another postcard in the box - hurray! Thanks to Julia for adding to the pile!]

 

Two from the UK and as mentioned above, two from Tennessee. Ooh! I think I want to go to the Loveless Cafe just to gaze at the walls! Of course, the food has appeal too - hehe! Of course, I've always wanted to visit the UK; closest I've been was a layover at Shannon Airport, Ireland on the return flight from a Mediterranean cruise back in 2008. Anyhow, thanks to Sian for organizing this swap! 

Last Wednesday, the 23rd, my friend and I went into a Stampin'Up! Blendabilities class put on by our demonstrator extraordinaire, Wendy Knowles. Ah, yes, another crafty pursuit to add to the long list! These new pens by SU are right up my alley since they are all matched up in sets of three. I tried Copics but found them a bit too labor intensive for my particular abilities and artistic ambitions. Here's a peek at what I've played with so far. Wendy stamped out the blooms and butterfly for us and then we played with the markers. 

I'm looking forward to doing some more playing with other images. Has anyone else tried these? And what do you like/dislike about them?

Getting ready to compile my month in numbers; July was a full one and I'm pretty certain that there are a few number stories to tell.

Bye, bye!

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2014: Three Quarters of the Way Through!

Yup! Fourteen photos found for Rinda's Challenge. Last week (as in 15 to 19 July) we were in the southern part of the state, the city (I use the term very loosely!) of Panguitch for a rodeo; anyway, those four days provided quite a few opportunities to scavenge photos for the list. Panguitch is very much a tourist town because of its proximity to "Color Country," including both Bryce and Zion National Parks. So, although I suppose we could've been considered tourists, I was on the lookout for real tourists, and while in the local market (Joe's Main Street Market) ran into this group:

You'll have to take my word for it that they were a group of young tourists from France - I asked them, of course, if I could snap their picture (in my best pseudo-French!), and they were happy to oblige. When we got to the checkout and joked with the cashier about it being busy in the summer, she said, "Yes, and you are some of the first people to speak English so far today!" there you go, #4 - a group of tourists! 

Next up, #5 - a rack of postcards. Actually, I snapped two racks of postcards (again, while in Panguitch since finding postcards in Tooele was tough - see this post). The first was just inside the door of Joe's Main Street Market:

The second was in a funky little "un-tiques" store, Cowboy Collectibles. It had this rack of "vintage" postcards which I had a hard time resisting. . . I'm a sucker for old-timey papery stuff!

I actually wanted to snap up the rack too as I could see it in my craft room! hehe!

#9 - A bakery. Also on Main Street Panguitch. I really wanted to go inside but when I got these pictures, it was closed for the day. 

One other find while in Panguitch was #21 - A photograph of you with something representing the season. Although I eat ice cream in any season 8), I don't generally eat it outside an ice cream parlor; that, I think, can be considered something representing the season. Also, I seldom wear sunglasses except in the summer when it is very bright; and, after seeing myself in this photo, I [will] never wear sleeveless tops! 'Nuf said about that.

Tip, the dog, looks ready for an ice cream too!

Okay, so back home again and I captured four more photos for the hunt. Like Julie in her quest for finding #3 - birds on a wire, I had some difficulty too (although I was not as creative in looking about!). However, there are alot of wires in our neighborhood, but when I was looking, the birds weren't landed! Until, Saturday morning while relaxing with a cup of coffee on the patio I spied . . . this:

Yes, the foreground bird on a pipe is representative of the birds on the wire in the distance - doves. They are as plentiful as pigeons in the city. In fact, our Colorado blue spruce trees are dove condominiums! This next photo is of two birds on wires above a chokecherry bush just up the street a ways. These birds, starlings, are also very plentiful in these parts. 

Next up, #8 - a tattoo on a person. At first I was thinking this one might be tough to fulfill as, although there are plenty of tattooed persons to be seen, none of them are known by me well enough to photograph . . . until, our granddaughter and her fellow came out for an evening visit. They indulged me by showing off their tattoos; very enlightening for this old gramma!

What a cutie this girl is - I love her dearly! Thanks for being so cooperative my dear!

#1 - A sign welcoming people to your home town. This photo is the welcome sign on the north end of town. I can't remember what the sister city thing is about and I'm too lazy to find out right now - hahaha! I will photograph the sign on the south end of town next time I'm out there. It, I think, has info about when the town was established, maybe population and elevation. For now, there's this:

Then there's #16 - A sign in a language other than English. This is a billboard out by the railroad tracks on the west end of town. It is sponsored by the AdCouncil and the US Forest Service and the literal translation from Spanish is, "In your home to the forest in less than 90 minutes."

[Ack! I just ran out to close the windows on my car because a surprise thunder storm is passing through; am soaking wet.]

Even though I've already posted a photo of a sunrise (#13), I think this one taken last Friday, the 25th, is clearly a SUNRISE.

I've got seven to go, and I'm thinking that finding #15 - a juggler, is going to present the biggest challenge. Maybe I'll make a special trip to Cedar City for the Utah Shakespeare Festival; there's bound to be a juggler or two there! haha!

Here it is almost the end of July. What a summer we've had thus far!

Laters!

More Summertime Photos Hunted Down

Hello, hello!
Saturday morning, hot outside, cool inside. Breakfast eaten, dishes done, load of laundry wishy-washing away. Go wash the truck, pick up stuff at Home Depot, move slowly. . .
I have two more photos to add to the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt  and here they are!

#2 - Garden Gnome. These little "people" kind of creep me out generally speaking but my next door neighbor loves them! So, I steeled myself and snapped a picture of hers; all in the name of fulfilling an item on the list!

#11 - A horn. At first I thought, "How can one photograph a sound?" but then, duh, I re-thought and here ya' go! These five players did a ragtime number aside from the whole band's performance. Marvelous!

Okay, six down, 15 to go! This is pretty darn fun!

This last week I got around to (finally!) the May 2014 Studio Calico Scrapbook kit and made this layout commemorating our 28 year wedding anniversary. Really like the gold rub-ons and wish there were a whole lot more . . . hehe!

P.S. The black button thingys are magnets holding the page to a magnetic frame - not part of the layout.

So, I think that's all I can muster for today.

Laters!

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2014 - Beginnings

Hello!
Here again with a few words about another challenge I've taken on . . . thanks to Julie's Month in Numbers where she noted that she'd gotten seven of 21 photos for this challenge.  When I went here and saw the list, I thought how fun and "should be easy!" Well, I've gotten four so far and now find my mind is dodging here and there trying to figure out how to get them all! Rinda's list is truly a CHALLENGE but I'm game. Here's the list:

SCAVENGER HUNT LIST

1. A sign welcoming people to your home town (or a nearby town)
2. A garden gnome
3. Birds on a wire
4. A group of tourists
5. A rack of post cards
6. An urban street scene
7. A rural landscape
8. A tattoo on a person
9. A bakery
10. A photo bomb (someone found lurking in the background of photo; the lurker may have intended to disrupt the picture or may be doing it unintentionally, but the background lurker is a surprise to the photographer)
11. A horn
12. A mascot
13. A sunrise
14. A parade
15. A juggler
16. A sign in a language other than English
17. A lamp post
18. A water fall
19. A public garden
20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.
21. A photograph of you with something representing the season (recognizing that the season will be Winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere). Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for anything on the list, except for Item #21:
Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp

Alternative B: A bird house

Okay, so here are those four:

#7 A rural landscape. This photo was taken at 7:15 a.m. (MDT) on June 18. It is the landscape we look at every day from our backyard. Of course, now (and, in fact, by the end of the day June 18th) the snow is melted. Note the seagull (Utah's state bird if you can imagine!) winging its way to the County Landfill probably! haha!

#10 - A photo bomb. I was taking this picture of the library to add to my Collect calendar and thought I was good when, boom, this reading patron blew out of the door! This was quite unintended on my part but a good one to use to check off the list!

#13 - A sunrise. This photo was taken at 6:30 a.m., July 2nd. the sun is just striking the tops of the trees as it peaks over the Oquirrh Mtns to the east. This I suppose, could also be considered a rural landscape as it is the same view as #7 above. But, since I took it at a time when I'm not usually up and about, and the rainbirds are still on (farmers must turn them off by 7 a.m.), I'm counting this as a sunrise! What do you think? Okay?

#17 - A lamp post. There it is to the left here at Veteran's Memorial Park in downtown Tooele on July 4th.

Alrighty then! Thanks, Rinda, for this fun summertime activity. It beats setting up a lemonade stand on the front lawn!

In other news . . . our two high school rodeo-ing grandsons arrived back last night from Winnemucca, Nevada and the Silver State International Rodeo, loaded down with great memories and accolades for super performances. They did especially well steer wrestling, both of them making the "short" round yesterday morning. Grandson Ty came away with this championship saddle for best average of the three rounds during the week. Woohoo, Ty!

Last year grandson Tee won the championship saddle at the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo. It seems we're getting quite a collection of leather! We'll be heading down there on the 16th again this year. 

That's it for now! A-hunting for photos I go!

Ta!

Summer Coming and Going . . .

I must say that the days are rolling along at a rapid pace around here. Summer solstice came and went and now it's close to the BIG summer holiday for us in the US of A! The weather is appropriately HOT, the best time to do stuff outside being early morning (like before 8 when the sun peeks over the Oquirrh Mtns to the east) and evening (after 8 when the sky starts changing to oranges and pinks as the sun sets over the Great Salt Lake to the west)! Last night I went out about 8:30 to do the chores, since my poor overworked husband was still out working. As I drove the four wheeler across the pasture after turning on the rainbirds I had to stop and watch the sky change - so amazing - and within five minutes it was just a memory (and the water was overflowing in the steer's trough . . .). Wished at the time, that I had had my camera, or my IPhone with me to capture it!
Speaking of capturing - mid-June I bought the Collect app for IPhone and am having fun with it, snapping ordinary sort of stuff during the day. Here is a screenshot of June:

You can see that up until the 14th, there is nada and a few days in between. Some of the days there are up to three pictures (the app allows for adding multiple snaps per day). For instance, on the 26th, Sally texted a couple photos she took; here's how they look in Collect:

I love that she caught these and forwarded them on for our viewing pleasure! So typical of everyday life in Tooele. . . who said it couldn't be a "ride up" window?!

So, I've joined in with Sian Fair and her Pile of Postcards Exchange. What a great idea . . . it seems as though our new world has very much gotten away from sending postcards, much less letters and I totally agree with Sian that getting something besides junk mail in the post box is a real joy! Because we aren't traveling very far from home this month, I went downtown to buy up some Tooele-unique postcards for the six folks that I'll be sending to. Interestingly enough (or maybe not!), the only place I could find postcards was at the Best Western Inn Tooele which I guess makes sense but the local Walgreen's didn't have any! Back in the day, pretty much every little store had a twirly rack of postcards near the check-out but obviously, times have a-changed! Here's what I have, along with global and domestic stamps, ready to post:

I actually bought 12 and so may post the extras to friends and family who don't hear from me very often (yes, I'm as guilty as the next guy for not even emailing!). Funny that the postage came to more than the cards! No worries, though as the thought of getting something in the mail is so worth every penny (or dollar, as the case may be in global postage)!

I should be doing a wrap-up of my month in numbers for Julie at Notes on Paper; however, my note taking was not good for May or June and (as seen by the Collect calendar) neither was my picture taking! I am going to comment on her June MinN because it makes me smile and laugh and she needs to know that I love to catch up. I also like to peek in on the other MinN participants and add my comments occasionally.

Back in April and the first of May my friend and I did the Utah Paper Crafting Shop Hop 2014 (see this post). We had purchased 12-slot shadow boxes at Hobby Lobby with the intention of filling it with the photos we took on the Hop; well, on Wednesday, June 27th, we had a play date and did just that!

We used papers from the Simple Stories DIY Boutique 6X6 paper pad (which we picked up at one of the shops on the hop) and then embellished with wood veneer, punches, enamel dots, etc. Fun, fun! I still need to journal on the last card about the miles we drove, the $$ we spent, etc., etc. The cool thing is that each little card has a magnetic strip on the back so they can be changed out if we are so inclined to make other little cards!

While I'm on the subject of crafting little doodads, the Pink Daisy, one of our local scrapbook stores (in Holladay actually) has designed these fun little interchangeable shadow box kits/classes (this is the September one). I had purchased the Bright Birthday one for myself and the July one for my friend Heather (whose birthday is July 4!) and was so inspired while doing it that I took the Simple Stories Cat Insta Squares and Pieces Snap pack, backed it with a 12X12 black and white polkadot paper and made up this for Heather and her black cat, Coal:

I really love how it turned out! Love playing with paper and stuff and am not sure why I don't do more . . .

One last note before I wrap it up here for today and get some ironing done (see, that's a reason I don't do more crafting! haha!). Yesterday afternoon I let Chester, the cat, out after his nap and when I was stirring up some banana bread, I looked out the window and saw this:

At least eight little birds (probably more down below) in the Colorado blue spruce tree chirping their little hearts out at this:

Chester, right below the branches casually surveying all he owns (and occasionally gazing up, how cats do, to ensure that the birds were in their rightful places). Cracked me up! He's looking a bit skinny these days as he's shed great globs of hair for the summer. He'll puff out again in a couple months!

Laters!