random photos

just some random photos from the last week's activities...

last Sunday, I met one of my friends (Jessica, also a co-worker) at 'As You Wish' for an afternoon of crafty artmaking. This store is one of those place where you can paint your own pottery and get it fired; they also recently added glass fusing to their 'menu' which is what we did. You pay a flat fee for the workspace, time, and colored glass, and pay separately for your glass 'base' (they have sizes from coasters up to a 12 in. platter), then pay for it to be fired in the kiln. You make whatever design you want, leave it with them to fire, then you pick it up when it's done. It was a really fun time!! They provided safety glasses, a cutter, snipping pliers thingamajigs, gloves, etc. and we provided the creativity. 

Here's my design, in progress- I did some abstract (easier than realistic!) cacti; an ocotillo with two prickly pear, sandy desert, and some clouds. It was harder to come up with a design than I thought it would be, but in the end, I liked my result. They provided boxes with pieces in all different colors, and you can cut whatever shape you want-- they also provide containers of 'frit' which is basically ground up glass, like glitter. That's what I used for the sand. The larger pieces are glued in place with good old Elmer's, and the frit is held in place with- wait for it- hair spray!!  That keeps the pieces in place till it's fired, when the layers of glass get fused together with the heat.

 Our rope cholla, with the first couple blooming flowers. There's many more to come-- it's just loaded with buds! The bees were happy about the new flowers, and were quite busy.

 The prickly pear is going to go crazy with flowers, too-- the bulgy bits you can see across the top of each pad are all flower buds!! It's also going crazy with new plant growth, too-- I'll need to prune some of the new pads off before they get too much bigger, to keep it under control.

A cute baby birdy in amongst bougainvillea blossoms. (do you like that alliteration?) This was taken at the Tempe Marketplace mall, outside the 'As You Wish' store... this mall has a lot of really pretty outdoor spaces with flower plantings, fountains, fire pits, and tables and chairs for relaxing. (they also have misting systems for the summer, thank goodness!)

 hibiscus (?) flower- also at the mall

 baby birdy's mama, coming to feed him. She didn't appreciate me hanging out there, so I left them alone after I got a halfways decent photo.

 talk about random, this one is definitely it! I just liked the swirly rainbow-colored design on this vending machine. (maybe I'll use this idea somehow in a scrapbook or art journal page someday.) 

 a couple more 'totally random' things: first is this bike rack design, also from the mall. Second is the fact that the other day I accidentally shut Ariel in the pantry for the entire day! LOL!! I looked for her before I left for work, but couldn't find her-- I figured she was upstairs looking out the window, but she popped right out of the door when I opened it to get the dog food in the afternoon-- darn her, she's quick! I don't know how she snuck in there without me seeing. (and she's quiet; she didn't meow at all, even when I was calling her! Luckily, she didn't destroy the place while she was stuck inside all day.)

 more totally random: just a shot of what can fit in my Fit. We unfortunately just had to get rid of our chest freezer- it finally gave up the ghost after 10 years of use and five moves... :(  Luckily, the local recycle place was having a free bulk hazardous waste dropoff, so we took it there yesterday to get rid of it. 

 the first prickly pear blossom-- when I first moved here, all the bright flower colors took a bit of getting used to, but I've since come to realize that they fit in with all the bright sunshine we have here. Paler colors would just be 'washed out' visually in all that bright light.

Look, our backyard is a putting green! Not really, but it does look as good as one- Tom spent a few hours today out in the hot sun (the high today was 100+) mowing and edging the grass for the first time. He mowed it down a bit farther than usual, to get rid of as much of last season's dead growth as possible. The dogs are still trying to find some leftover grass stems to eat, though!! sadly, no salad for them today.

Butters checks out my finished glass piece... I'm not sure whether she likes it or not; she'd probably like it better if it had cat food on it! I really like how it turned out! I don't think it's going to be used for anything though, except to decorate the kitchen (once I figure out how to hang it, that is).  

A Sunday Drive (aka: let's see where this road goes!)

caution: very picture-heavy post ahead! (click on any of them to view larger.)


We've been living in Maricopa for years now, but never had occasion to drive west out of town... so, a couple weeks ago we decided it was time to see what was out there! Turns out, what was out there was sort of interesting! If you like that sort of activity, that is... which we both do, on occasion. 

Hwy 238 heads west and ends at the town of Gila Bend, about 40 miles away. Gila Bend is a sort of 'way-station' where you can pick up Interstate 8, if you're heading to San Diego. But, it's interesting in its own right (I confess, I did 'Google' it before we headed out, just to make sure there was something there worth seeing!)

Before we got to Gila Bend, we passed through some very pretty open desert and mountains... The photo above is a Saguaro cactus next to its 'nurse tree' that I spotted along the highway. (The saguaro is protected by the tree as it grows, then eventually outgrows its shade and shelter.) We actually stopped at a trailhead for the 'Sonoran Desert National Monument', an area consisting of almost 500,000 acres of desert landscape run by the Bureau of Land Management. We certainly weren't wearing the proper clothes for hiking, but I would love to go back there and explore (a little, anyway). 

So- Gila Bend was founded in the 1870s, and is named for a nearby bend in the Gila River (surprised? lol!). It's near the site of an ancient Hohokam village that was visited by Spanish priests and colonists as early as 1699 (it still boggles my mind that things out here are that old!), one of them being Juan Bautista de Anza, who traveled through this area on his way to settle San Francisco. Now, the town's population is around 2000, although it looks like there might have been more to it at one time, since it's right along historic stagecoach routes and right next to the transcontinental railroad route.

These photos (the Stout's Hotel sign, as well as the ones above and below), are from hotels in town. Stout's Hotel was built in the early 1900s, and according to the information posted, was a popular stop for actors from California on their way to Tucson to film Western movies at the Old Tucson movie studios. The other hotel and restaurant's design is quintessential mid-century modern, isn't it??  

I love the sign!!  We went into the 'Space Age' restaurant to check it out, but didn't stay long. From info on the internet, it seems the motel was built in 1962, and the restaurant burned to the ground in 1998 but was rebuilt shortly after. Apparently the interior was a lot more kitchy and funky before they rebuilt it; plus, the reviews I read of the menu were just so-so, with ordinary-sounding food.

So, this is where we ate, instead! Sofia's Mexican Food, a bit farther along the main drag through town. Not much to look at from the inside, but wait till you see pics of the food!! We got lunch and an appetizer... and, we ended up having enough food for lunch the next day, too. 

We decided to get a quesadilla as an appetizer- we had no idea it would be as large as a pizza! (it was tasty, but we did need to save room for our entrees.)

Tom's Carnitas chimichanga-- very tasty as well. There were a couple fast food restaurants in town, and there were actually people at those places, but I really can't fathom why someone would want to eat Taco Bell or Burger King when they could get this instead! 

My combo plate with two carne asada tacos and a shredded beef tamale. Again, tasty!! (I remember, though, when I lived in Illinois, I thought Taco Bell was what Mexican food was like-- boy, was I wrong!)

This is a bit of the restaurant interior. (apparently,  the owner Sofia lives in Phoenix, which sort of bummed me out-- if we were at her restaurant, I wanted her to work there, or at least visit the place while we were there!)

And then, of course, we had to stop at the 'World Famous' Gila Bend Gift Shop. Didn't actually buy anything, but there were a couple photo ops, like this one of Tom standing next to the gigantic Gila Monster on the front wall. (it could have been ours for only $600, too- lol!)

The backyard of the shop was full of iron sculptures and yard art (mostly made in Mexico, I believe). I loved this goofy stagecoach wagon train of ants!! Sadly, the gift shop is for sale, along with its entire inventory, for only $175,000. The whole town had the somewhat 'abandoned' feeling of the small town in the movie Cars-- it was 'passed by' when the interstate was built. With a number of empty businesses and run-down buildings on the main drag, Gila Bend seemed to also have been 'passed by' since most automobile traffic probably bypasses the town entirely nowadays by traveling on the interstate (unless someone wants to stop at McDonald's or the gas station, that is).

The train still goes through Gila Bend, but now that the automobile has overtaken the train for personal travel, it looks like it's mostly freight trains on their way through to somewhere else. We walked along the tracks for a bit, right behind the Space Age Lodge motel... 

I got a couple nice photo ops, with the water tower, some abandoned gondola cars, and the train that came through as we were walking along the tracks- the engineer even gave a few extra whistle blasts for us as he went by!

an 'artsy-type' photo of the abandoned gondola car-- although it looks positively ancient, the date on it was 1995, I think-- apparently a lot of travel take a toll! (I look pretty bad after traveling for a long time, too- lol!!)

a shot of statues at a roadside shrine along the highway... 

and one last shot of the desert landscape near the Sonoran Desert Monument. (I recommend clicking on this one to view it larger, for sure.) The ocotillos were just amazingly gorgeous along this stretch of road; this photograph reminds me of a vintage picture postcard! 

If you got this far, thanks for reading, and for coming along with me on our Sunday drive mini road trip!

AZ spring flowers- a couple snapshots

not the best photos, but wanted to get a couple snapshot of spring blooms in our backyard flowers to show my Mom-- here you go!

one of our aloe plants- it's very reminiscent of how hostas bloom, to me. 

(notice the group of pups around the main plant? yeah, I think we'll have to keep an eye on this one, for sure!)

 a close-up of the flowers- it looks like only a few of them are actually blooming at any one time, and they bloom from the bottom (again, very reminiscent of a hosta) We have seen the hummingbirds at them, although I think I'd have to sit for hours to actually get a photo of it.

a web photo close-up of the aloe flowers 

 a poor photo of our backyard ocotillo- the gray canes against a brown wall doesn't photograph too well! (fyi, I did some funky editing with the photo, too...) if you look up at the top near the top text, the small orange dots are actually the flower clusters, at the top of the canes. 

here, I was trying to get a close-up of the flower clusters- kind of hard to do, considering they're 7 or 8 feet up!! Like the aloe, these are also small, tubular flowers that the hummers drink from. (I can't imagine they get too much from any one flower, though!)

this photo I found on the internet is a bit lot better: web photo of ocotillo with bee

so yes, there are flowers in the desert-- you just have to look a bit harder for them!

in the works...

so, here's a few random things that have been in the works:


1) My scrapping room is finally evolving into its (hopefully) final form. It's about time, too, since we've lived here for, oh, over two years now- LOL! I've never been very happy with the arrangement of the desks or the amount of light on the work spaces, and I've moved the furniture around at least 3 times, but I think I'm finally close to getting it how I like it. (I used to do this when I was little, too; I'd totally rearrange my bedroom at least once or twice a year- remember that, Mom?)  


Anyway, back to my current issue: I usually end up working in this room late into the evening, so decent light is a must! I have one decent drafting-type light on the main desk, but the only light the other work surface (which is our old kitchen table; how's that for re-purposing?) received was from one of those clip-type lights you can buy for around $5 at WalMart. Not exactly good lighting for actually seeing what you're doing! (and, since the desk was usually piled full of junk stuff when I wanted to use it, I needed another work surface for actually working at.) Tom just installed track lighting in his music room (lighting left over from our first apartment), and he suggested getting the same thing for my crafting space- that way, I can direct the light wherever I want it: brilliant!! (Of course, the room now needs to be cleaned, since the better lighting shows just how messy it actually is- please disregard the mess for now, and focus on the lighting!)

(once I get the shelves re-arranged, I'll take some close-up pics of the items on them to show you...
I have a pretty eclectic collection of stuff up there.

2) A couple new scrapbook pages, with more on the way. I recently signed up for a workshop on the scrapbooking site Two Peas in a Bucket, and have finally gotten back into the groove of scrapping. It's odd; my scrapping mojo comes and goes, and when it goes, it takes me quite a while to find it again. But for now it's back, and I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts! The class is The Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking, a 5-chapter course on scrapbooking taught by Shimelle Laine, with a humorous nod to Douglas Adams' classic book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. (which I need to read again, so I can get all the 'in' jokes that I think she's added into the class content.) The course is chock-full of handouts, ideas, videos, a private message board, 42 example scrapbook layouts, and tons of information, and so far I've made two layouts with ideas for plenty more! Here's my first two, both using some pretty old pictures from my pile of unscrapped photos:

Both layouts are about the flowers and flower garden I used to have back in Illinois. I spent alot of time gardening, but that was in a different climate, and before we had 5 pets and a house to take care of! 

(and before we lived in a desert- lol!) 

3) not so random, but spring is definitely in the works here in AZ! The high temps have been in the low 80s, the hummingbirds are extra-busy, and there are more hints of green appearing in the backyard grass. (the dogs are trying their darndest to find the greenest shoots to graze on... apparently they're confused and think they're sheep, rather than sheepdogs?!?) I guess they like a bit of salad with their dinner now and then- haha!


4) another random thing in the works for me isn't quite so fun: this Wednesday, I'm going to the endodontist to have a root canal re-done... re-peated... whatever the correct word is for that process-- Not fun!! But, neither is having an infected tooth, so I know it's best to get it fixed sooner rather than later, before it becomes more serious. 


5) a more-fun thing I have in the works is some cute Easter cards: I have the idea; I have the supplies; I just need to put those ingredients together and make them. (once I pick up all the crap straighten my desk, that is.)


6) one more fun thing in the works is a weekend scrapbooking retreat in May at the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage, over National Scrapbooking Day weekend- it's the cottage's one-year anniversary (already!), and they're having special stuff for the weekend scrappers: door prizes, dinner provided, and other assorted goodies. Since they were instrumental in getting me back into scrapping again, how can I pass that up? (answer: I can't!) So, I hope my mojo stays around until at least then-- or at least, it better not go very far, so I can find it again by May!