Icy Roads Take Me Home

 When I took our truck in to be serviced a week or so ago, I left pretty early in the morning--which meant I'd have plenty of time to run errands after the routine maintenance was completed.  It also meant that snow was still abundant on the passing scenery, as shown in this photo:

This concept--snow--is like the parks/vegitation of the east for an Arizona desert rat like me.   (and I know the snow in these pictures is nothing for you easterners...a little piddly snow, very blah.  But see! this is NEVER snowy.  This is DESERT.  These are scrubby desert plants.  See how spokey they are, and probably prickly too, waiting to jab you when you walk by them.  That is how desert plants are, I tell you.)

Icy roads, however, aren't so much a novelty as...well, a new experience that borders on nightmarish.  And I ran into (or rather, drove along) some icy roads that day too.  The closer I got to my destination, the icier the road became.  I felt the tires lose traction a few times, but I drove nice and slow, like everyone else and eventually made it to my desitnation unharmed--albiet later than I'd hoped.

What was odd to me, and maybe you've found yourself in a similar situation, was that I didn't really have any option other than to keep driving along the road even though I didn't know how the heck to drive the Right Way on ice.  So did that make me a hazard on the road?  I think at least, a little--yes.  I was alert, doing my best to avoid really slick looking patches, driving slowly--but the thought haunted me that I could possibly make a novice's mistake that could do some serious damage.

I wonder what other people do in situations like that?  And isn't driving one of those activities that forces these kind of situations on us almost regularly?  It's really not uncommon to be driving along and encounter something hazardous and/or unexpected and/or that we've never dealt with before.  It's usually weather related, but not always.

I guess I'm thinking about my obligations to be prepared to handle those kinds of situations beforehand...but...and this occured to me during the icy stretch of road...even if you know what you're supposed to do, will you really do that in the moment of crisis?  Especially if you've never had the chance/opportunity to try it before?

In conclusion: driving is a sort of nerve wracking thing at times.  Also, even if you're an Arizona driver who never plans on seeing snow, ice, torrential rain, fog, hail, etc., let along drive in them, it still behooves you to learn how to drive in those conditions because You Never Know.

Carving my Own Stamps

For a while now, I've been looking into printmaking.  After reading a few books on the subject (thanks to my wonderful public library system), I took the plunge a few weeks ago and made my first stamps.

They're a little rough looking, yes?
They work really well considering they're made out of cardboard and fun foam.  All you do is draw a design onto the foam, then cut it out (with regular old craft scissors, or a craft knife...but why risk dismemberment?  Use the scissors.)  Then if you were supa smart, you bought pre-stickyized fun foam, and all you have to do is peel off the backing.  If not, you can use glue to stick those bad boys to the cardboard. 

Get out your fabric paints and use a foam brush to put some paint on them and...

Maybe you'll be smarter about your color selection on the paints than I was. 


BUT THAT DIDN'T INVOLVE CARVING! and the title PROMISED carving. 
I'm getting there...

I picked up some carving tools and blocks at Jerry's Artarama in Tempe, AZ.  And can I put a plug in for that store right now?!  Their prices are fantastic. 

(side note and another plug: there's a great little ethnic food store in the same shopping center.  The woman working there when we popped in said she was Somalian.  And we think she caters.  AND! they have beautiful floor length skirts for sale too...)

Printmaking.  Right.  I bought some supplies from Jerry's, and my mom graciously provided some as well.

These are the results:

That was my very first attempt at carving a stamp.  I free hand drew the design and just started cutting.   I used colored pencils to make it pretty after I'd stamped it.

And here's attempt two...I carved a large art eraser this time...I love the red and yellow colors on the finished product.

In conclusion:
1. I've already sliced my finger with the carving tools--but only ONCE! (which, for most workplaces is ONE TIME TOO MANY.  But not here.  This workplace is forgiving.)

2. I don't have enough things to carve--fun foam may have to be my method of choice because it's cheaper than carving blocks...but blocks are so much more fulfilling.  And dangerous (see 1).

3. My crap craft room is in the middle of spring pseudo cleaning (aka I can't/won't/don't know how to to put everything away).  Therefore, the floor is relatively inaccessible...maybe a good thing since I still need to vacuum up that broken glass in the corner....  so I'm not in a good position to produce more stamps and carvings right now.

That means you should be looking forward to some PICTURES instead.  (because my laptop can travel out of the craft room into wide open (and clean) spaces).  

hasta luego amigos!  Let me know what you think about the stamps. Are you going to try it too?
-Lu

Urban Coyote: The Real Pictures

In my haste to provide my best photos for the last post, I omitted one really important photo--the proof that the coyote was indeed a city dweller.   (thanks jendoop for pointing that out).  Here's the proof:  

See the coyote in the orange circle?  See the sprawling city of Tempe behind him?  And the cars wizzing past on the freeway?  Poor, sad, little City Slicker coyote.  The little patch of desert he and I are in is a city park--it just looks all barren and isolated because desert parks aren't usually nicely landscaped like Real city parks are.  Which is why us Arizona kids get to the Eastern states and flip out.  Because it's like a storybook come to life!

And that leads to the other picture--the cool shot of my siblings on the top of the rocky hill--yeah, in reality, it was a pathetic little hill, but I like having nice looking photos, so I tried to make this one look all cool by shooting from the base of the hill up, thus removing the city and pathetic-ness of the hill from the picture.

The orange circle shows you approximately where I crouched to take the photo, and the fuchsia oval shows more of the city off in the distance.    I like my end photo much, much better. 

--Lu

Urban Coyote

We spotted this guy at Papago Park just a few miles from ASU campus:

 

In  Tempe there's a fantastic museum run by the Arizona Historical Society, and behind the museum there is a nature trail type thing--and it was while on that path that we saw the coyote just a little ways from us.  He didn't seem to mind us being on his territory at all.  

This just goes to show that you don't need to be out in the boonies to have a wildlife moment.

 

--Lu

Piano for Old People (and a few thoughts on trying to stay true to what you believe)

When I was younger my mom put me in piano lessons, and like my violin lessons, I only half- heartedly tried to do well, an attitude I regret a little now.  But! Not to be held back by my lack of enthusiasm in the past, I've decided now is as good a time as any to rally my energies.  So I've picked a few songs and practiced as many times a week as I can.  To encourage myself, I set up this prize: If I practice at least 15 mins. three times a week for two months, I can buy any one piece of sheet music I want at the end of the second month.

I realize that is a meager amount of practice time--but I'm going from no practice time to practice time, so I thought slow and steady (and realistic) was best.  I'm proud to say, though, that I've practiced much more than a mere 45 mins a week almost every week so far.  The piano is addicting, I tell you.

As part of my deal with myself, I've been practicing a hymn or two from church, so my newly developing skilz don't go to waste when it comes to serving in church.  So when I saw this sheet music in this month's youth magazine (from church) I took it with me to see if I liked the song.


I love the song, or rather, the message of the song.  You'll notice that it starts out with music from the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints--and that was one of the selling points for me.  I love the idea that anyone who is trying to live a moral code of values is engaged in a struggle not unlike our pioneer anscestors--though our conflict is more subtle in nature, it takes the same kind of dedication, fortitude, will-power and faith.

And anyone who has tried to live a code of values different from the norm knows what I mean when I say it is a struggle or conflict.  It isn't easy to be the only person at a social gathering, or at work, or anywhere, really, who believes something different from everyone else.  Especially when the thing you believe puts you in the position of having to say what you believe (which almost always means a high likelihood of  being ridiculed, or having to defend yourself---or at the very least having to find a way to tactfully remove yourself from the situation).  It certainly isn't a comfortable place to find yourself in.

So, I think the message of this song is a perfect rally cry for youth everywhere who are trying to hold true to their moral beliefs.  Actually, it's also a perfect rally cry even for this one older person who is trying to learn to play the piano.

The Christmas Wreath that wouldn't die

How I went from lazy-still-have-my-Christmas-decoration-up-in-February

to fully-decorated-for-Valentine's-Day-neener-neener

 

(yeah, that's a homemade wreath with a big ol' branch sticking off the side, and yes, I just cut some hearts out of cardstock and wired them onto the wreath.  It was easy peasy.  Even though it's a little ghetto...)

--Lu

Scrabble Frames

I'm gonna be on the lookout for scrabble games at the thrift store from now on.

 

image from diyideas 

(unrelated side note: a small piece of green fun foam is hiding beneath my alt key.  great.)