Art in the Park

Here are a few photos I'm sending in with an application for an art show this summer. I'd love to send more but they only want four per media... and since I'm a multi-media type woman... or perhaps a little ADD... it looks like a lot of photos. Quite a few of my friends are at this show, so I believe it will be a lot of fun!

Sorry, they are completely in random order, I'm on my way out the door here shortly to see what I can do about this monster "to do list."

Happy Creating!

(And for heaven's sake put a little color in it!!!)

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt, one big square

I'm making progress on the Freedom Quilt! 

The blocks for this part are made, now to sew them together!

Careful not to get them out of order!

and...

Voila!

It's not too serious, 

It has good contrast,

All my favorite colors are in it.

I'm lovin it!

HAPPY creating,

-Carmen Rose

Birthday Week

I was going through some photos and realized that I never finished posting about my birthday week. 

So I'm playing catch up today.  These are from the day I turned forty mumble!  ;-)

The guys at work couldn't find the birthday candles so they lit the match and stuck it in the cupcakes, 

silly boys!   Then they sang to me... well... two of the three sang while I kicked my boss in the shins... 

he apparently thought they were doing just fine without him.  LOL!  

They are so fun!  And those cupcakes were actually pretty good!

Then I spent the afternoon with the guys from the wood turning club and they started 

showing me how to turn wood.

A big big lathe... and really long handled tools.  

They feel so good in your hand, perfectly balanced!

The big saw thingi, good for cutting the basic shape out of a big chunk of tree.  

What did I do with the chainsaw photos?  Oh well. 

These three sang "Happy Birthday" to me and sent me home with that bottle of Shiraz Dennis is holding. 

Served it later with a wonderful dinner, it was delicious!

The master checking the student's progress.

Keep at it.  Yes, it's time consuming but so cool!

And then they sang Happy Birthday to me again!  

This time with the Swiss guy on the left, who gave it a great twist!  

It was one of my all time favorite birthdays!  

My guys just made it so fun, thanks boys!!!

Now who is going to loan me their lathe so I can learn this new art media?

Trees around here are NOT SAFE!

LOL!

Using ANY excuse to celebrate,

(and make a mess with wood shavings!)

-Carmen Rose

A Forest Bird Never Wants a Cage

A little time out to recharge those batteries!  How about a walk in the woods on a slightly warmer winter day?

I finally found an antique car I can afford!   And nobody cares if I scratch it! 
One of my day jobs involves working around beautifully restored old cars, the pampered darlings. 

It was such a beautiful day here, the views just about took my breath away!

It's like a car lot...

Or maybe a "Car Little..." since there isn't much left of these old girls.

A lovely hike, good for heart and soul!

Happy Trails!

-Carmen Rose

Birthday Week Adventures

I had one of the most delightful birthday weeks EVER! I'll tell ya, I highly recommend turning forty mumble with some excellent friends!  I spent some time with my friend and her family who live near DC.



The food was amazing!  We feasted (this doesn't include eating out where I must have forgot my brain because I don't have photos of the restaurant food!  O Bother!!)

I enjoyed her creativity a great deal, aren't these little jello bugs the cutest thing ever?! She made the jello in an egg carton! =)

We had a lovely time at an art museum in DC, I took a few photos of my favorite things.

Sometimes it was the words more than the artwork:

Or a quote included as part of an exhibit:

This one just fascinated me!  I just LOVED it SO MUCH!

And a huge installation of the map of the US.  This is just before I set off the "You are too close to the artwork" detector thingi.  Oopsy!  It was cool, there were so many screens and each state had video on a loop that had to do with that state specifically.  It was a fascinating piece.

And we had to get a photo of me with all the Steelers stuff (this trip was the week before the super bowl) because my friends are raving Packers fans! 

Which is a good thing, because the Packers won! And what a great game it was!  

I loved my adventure, I have the best friends a forty mumble woman could ever hope for!

 And while I was there she taught me the art of Kumihimo ~ ancient Japanese braiding. 

Now THAT is fun!

And who doesn't need another new art media?

LOL!

Happy Trails to you,

-Carmen Rose

Time of my LIFE!

I have never been on a zip line though I've seen photos of a number of my friends who did the zip line canopy tour in Costa Rica.  And I really want to do that some day.  So when a friend of mine mentioned she'd be in the area and they were going on a zip line canopy tour, and invited me... I GOT EXCITED!

I couldn't decide which gadget to take.  The phone that takes fuzzy photos if I'm jittery (and I was sure I WOULD BE jittery) or the old unreliable camera that I wouldn't mind loosing. 

My hostess, one of my very best friends in college.  I haven't seen her in approximately 17 or 18 years. 

We started the course with a little training session and some fun little obstacle course type things. 

Jody was getting ready to fly, that's me behind the guide in yellow.

Two of the best guides ever, these two were amazing.  We were laughing the whole time!

Me on top of the world.  I was terrified but they didn't give us time to stop and think about anything, just move, move, move.  And it was SO exhilarating! 

This just goes to show that there was never a serious moment, the whole time.  He was a RIOT!

That's me showing good form.  I'm not spinning, which means I'm doing a good job steering.  That hand in the air is ready to brake if I started coming into one of the bases too quickly.  And I won't tell you how  many times I was yelled at for doing it wrong but it didn't matter.  Your body has instincts that aren't consistant with good flying form.  So... I did learn how to do it and I was pretty pleased with myself!

That's me flying.  I can't begin to describe what a rush that is!

They called this one "The Step of Faith."  I figured that each time I'd stepped into thin air up there in the sky I was making a step of faith.  I was up there on that platform in the sky, and I stepped off that platform like it was the most natural thing in the world.  Did the falling and the landing quite nicely.  Actually, they thought it would be fun to dangle me while the guy at the bottom spun me.  I was laughing so hard I could barely yell "Hey, don't mess with the white girl!"

View from the top.  When I look at this photo I can almost feel that platform swaying under my feet and the wind in my hair and that exhilaration feeling I had up there.  I still can't believe I did it, I was certainly scared.  But it was SO MUCH FUN!

One of these days I'm going to do that canopy tour in Costa Rica!

If you ever get the chance to take a zip line tour, do it!

Living full tilt and loving very moment,

-Carmen Rose