Gifts from the Sea...WOYWW #164

The sea seems to have such a wonderful calming effect on the soul.  I just returned from a very relaxing trip to the Texas coast with several old high school friends. In relaxing and strolling along the beach we found some real gifts from the sea.  Great things like beach glass, shells and bits of petrified coral. My friend Sharon suggested we implement an idea she saw on Becky Shander's blog using our found objects to make a keepsake necklace.

Sharon stitched a tiny tulle bag for each person to use as a "pendant" to showcase her found objects.  We used bits of ribbon and beads to further embellish our creations. Each keepsake necklace turned out fabulous and each was very unique. Now we all have our tiny memories from our trip to the sea all stitched up and worn around our neck to remind us of our very relaxing girlfriend trip.  To see more great projects and what others might have on their work desks, please hop over to Julia's blog by clicking HERE!

Handmade Greeting Cards

Thought I'd show you a couple of my recent handmade greeting cards.

Vintage sheet music usually pops up in most of my cards as well as Starbucks coffee sleeves.  Snippets of the sleeve add texture to anything...even a mixed media piece.

Be sure to stop by and see all the lovely pink things HERE , On Beverly's blog.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and Happy Pink Saturday to you.

Blue Monday - Big Blue West Texas Skies

Happy Blue Monday folks!  Today I decided to share a few more pictures from my fabulous trip to the mountains and desert of West Texas south of Marfa. The skies in Texas are big and bright but even bigger and brighter in West Texas. Traveling down the gravel road by 4-wheel drive vehicle, we came upon this abandoned "milk truck"!  Perhaps vacated by "Creepy Clem" and his gang many years ago. Once again the artists jump out to take pictures all the while mindful of the danger that might lurk in and around the forboding truck! Check out the verbiage on the side of the truck!!!  Yikes!  What could that mean?

The name of our room!

We stayed in these cool adobe type buildings.  Ours had a greenish-blue door!

Cool early morning shadows of three artists posing!

One always wants to wear boots when out hiking in the desert.  You might come upon a rattlesnake warming up for the day like we did early one morning while exploring around the creek bed.  He was served up on the grill that evening, his skin and rattles destined for some wonderful artistic creations.  Hope you enjoyed a peek at what my art retreat was all about!
(sketches to follow in another post.)
Have a great week and stop by and visit Sally HERE to see more Blue Monday things.

Pink Tissue Paper Roses

Happy Pink Saturday to y'all!

Roses made from pink tissue paper and nestled in a tulle ribbon on top of a white gift wrapped box to present as a baby gift!  Pretty simple to make by just starting to twist and roll the folded piece of tissue!  Enjoy!

Hop on over and see more beautiful pink things HERE!

Have a great weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the special guys in your life!

Chinati Hot Springs Resort

Recently I traveled to the western part of Texas with some of my sweet friends in the Taylor Artist Guild. (The purpose of our adventure was to sketch, paint, create and inspire one another.  Which we indeed achieved! ) 

 We drove west through Alpine and Marfa and then south through Pinto Canyon, the Cuesta del Burro and Chinati Mountains to a very remote part of the state near the Mexican border. Above you will see a view of the resort as the sunrises behind the camera. The hazy mountain range in the distance is in Mexico...about 7 miles away.

 Here you see a pic of a rusted out old truck that was abandoned in the desert.

 We encountered it on our way down the 45 minute stretch of gravel road from Marfa.  Rusty truck, plus 5 artists, equals a photo op in the making!

This lovely spring fed hot tub awaited the weary artists.  The healing waters of the hot springs are said to contain minerals that include lithium! Yay!  It's no wonder we were happy the entire time we were at this magical oasis! 

OK...I guess you are wondering what in the heck this is a photo!  But, you guessed right...the dump pile tumbling into a ravine and dating back from probably the 1970's.  Earlier refuse from the resort was hauled away.  But this mixed media artist still found several great things to use in my creations!

More on Marfa and the desert to come!  Have a great weekend!

Fresh Produce

The garden is producing an abundance of wonderful things and I am cooking and canning as fast as I can!  The zucchini is doing especially great this year.
Here is a recipe for you to try that calls for sliced zucchini.

Fried Squash
Wash and slice squash in rings.
Dry mixture
3 C flour
1 C biscuit mix
2T salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt

Wet Mixture
1 egg, beaten
1 pint buttermilk
1/2 C ice water
1 T oregano

Dip slices in the dry mixture, then in the wet mixture, then back in the dry mixture!  Fry in hot oil.  Delicious!  Enjoy!

And finally, a picture of the wonderful Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Orange Zest Glaze!

Aged to Perfection

This great junk is certainly aged to perfection.  Fritz and Frieda discarded these things about 65 years ago and they have been buried in a pasture all this time.  I am putting it to very good use on a piece I am submitting to our local Artist Guild show titled "All Things Trees".  A picture will follow in an upcoming post. Do good things and keep creating on this glorious Wednesday!  Check out some great things on Julia's blog....HEREhttp://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/!