I ain't afraid . . .

. . . of no snakes! We recently had the pleasure of participating in the Snake Alley Art Fair held in Burlington, Iowa during their annual Steamboat Days celebration. Snake Alley is an actual street in Burlington, once recognized by Ripley's Believe it or Not as the "Crookedest Street in the World."

This lovely, historic community is located on the banks of the Mississippi River and is another of my favorite places to visit. The architecture is stately and the gardens are lush. It seems there's a beautiful view around every corner.

The place with, in my opinion, the best view is Martini's Grille. Don't miss it!

Camping with Denise at Lake Wissota, WI

Who says camping food isn't good? Mmm, spinach salad.

Camp

Forest trees

Forest flowers

Forest butterfly

Who has the time . . .

. . . to blog? I used to. Seems like facebook has ruined this for me. Not only don't I blog, but some of the other bloggers whose posts I enjoyed following have dropped out as well. Sad, because facebook is SO much less satisfying. A lame comment here, another one there, and I am certainly as guilty as anyone. Who cares that I'm doing laundry? Read my previous blog post and I'm sure you'll find it infinitely more interesting than anything I've ever posted on facebook.

Here's the part that really intrigues me: what the hell am I doing with my time? I don't have time to blog. I blame facebook. But what's really going on? As a jewelry artist wannabe, most of the blogs I've followed belong to, you guessed it, jewelry artists. Andrew Thornton, Jane Ann Wynn, Deryn Mentock, Melanie Brooks, Nina Bagley, to name a few. They're all on facebook and, consequently, none of them has time to blog anymore, right? WRONG. Not only do they create jewelry and/or components for sale, they teach. They travel. They have family obligations, pets to take care of. They sing, they dance, they eat, they sleep (probably not much). They post on facebook AND they BLOG! And they twitter! What am I doing wrong?

Here are links to the blogs of these fantastic artists. I hope you'll take a look. Maybe you'll be inspired to find time to do everything!

http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

http://www.wynnstudio.com/

http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/

http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com/blog

http://www.ornamental.typepad.com/

And did I mention that Deryn now teaches classes online? What a great value! She's a wonderful teacher and her online classes are both informative and fun. You don't have to travel, don't even have to get dressed. I'll be taking one soon and here's the link:

http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/jewelry_works/2011/05/boho-bliss-registration-its-on.html

Meanwhile, if you find yourself with extra time on your hands, could you please send it to me?

You are invited . . .

. . . to attend the annual Rhapsody In Bloom Art Festival at the Luthy Botanical Gardens located in Peoria, Illinois. The festival will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 25th & 26th. Take in the art, music and food in beautiful surroundings!

Spring Break 2011

Woo hoo! Spring break at Gulf Shores, AL with our friends the Kelly family and the VanTassels! After an overnight stop in Memphis, home of the BEST BBQ EVER, we headed to Gulf Shores. To get to our beach accommodations we had to take a ferry.

Here's what the GPS looks like when your car is at sea!

The beach was gorgeous, no evidence of an oil spill here!

Those aren't oil rigs out there.

They are collecting natural gas.

The water was mostly shallow close to the beach. Much safer for play.

Seems everyone enjoys the sand bar.

The only possible danger we encountered was a loose croc on the beach!

My BFFs, Blake and Taylor.

The Kellys

Another BFF.

And another.

We're one happy group!

Can't wait till next year!

Happy St. Patrick's Dog!

You just never know . . .

. . . what the universe has in store for you. It's supposed to be the last decent beach day of your visit, by normal peoples' standards anyway. So you carry your chair out the boardwalk and arrange it in the sand. You've got your towel, your book, the camera and a couple of beverages. You read a bit and then take a walk up and down the beach to pick up some shells. You settle back into your chair and decide to amuse yourself taking photos of the beggar who's hanging around waiting for a morsel to come his way.

You vaguely take notice of a couple of young women who've appeared up the beach with a handful of small children. Soon they are joined by another young mom with her son and his grandpa. Interesting . . . they're not dressed for the beach and they've brought no chairs, no towels, no coolers. They're just watching the water.

Your attention diverted by watching the humans, you don't notice this until it is right in front of you. A Coast Guard cutter. With a big gun. Cool!

Soon another Coast Guard vessel follows along behind the first.

Hey, wait a minute! What's this? Looks kinda military, eh?

Whoa! Isn't that -- why, yes it is! A submarine!

Do you believe how close they are to the beach?

Incredible, eh? A once-in-a-lifetime happening, I'm thinking. All because we decided to skip doing errands and go to the beach.

You can read more about it on the Military Sealift Command website. Oh, yeah -- the small group of women, kids and the grandpa? Their husbands, dads and son-in-law are on the sub.