weapon of choice

the rat bat
Originally uploaded by lomokev.

Imagine thinking you have a rat in your hair as you sleep. Imagine waking up and thinking it was only a dream. Imagine finding out it wasn't a dream.

I thought I dreamt a rat played in my hair and then stole my orange earplugs. Last night I found out it really happened.

I hear a noise about 2 a.m. I turned on the light. I saw a rat scurry along the east wall, turn and run under my bed. I squealed like the proverbial elephant in the cartoons. My mom got a shoe and rapped it against the wall. The rat ran out. We don't know where it went. I cautiously lifted the bedclothes and peered under the bed. There were my two earplugs, neatly in place and now Gnawed into useless orange bits.

I had to sleep with all the lights on.

Get me a bat.

I'mOVER HERE now!

Come visit me at my new version of Fifi's Graffiti.

I'm still working on the site so things may be dusty for awhile.
(achooo!)
see, I'm still breathing that construction-site dust!

hot time in the ol' town

It's finally feeling like summer. It hasn't rained in almost a week (was beginning to think I lived in Seattle again!) and the temperature is inching up towards 100 degrees. It's mighty late for summer to just be starting.

Yesterday was one of those fine days that makes me happy to be outdoors. The ground had dried enough so the mowers were able to cut down much of the prairie grasses that border I75 from here to Allen. I had the windows rolled down and just inhaled the sweet smell while the wind whipped my face. A convertible would've been nice. I didn't need the radio. The sound of the highway was all my ears wanted for the 45-minute trip to work. Only one minor slow-down where the poor sandblasters, covered head to toe in their work get-up, were prettying up the low concrete walls of the freeway divider; otherwise it was clear sailing at 60 per. What more could a girl want?

hard worker

The body is a strange and wonderful thing, but when it gets tired the brain gets confused over its conflicting messages. The thunder rolled through this morning, and my brain dimly perceived that it was a good thing to continue sleeping. I did. Later, my bladder urgently prodded my brain, insisting it attend to that bodily function. The brain demurred, or was it the rest of the body? "Don't move," someone crooned seductively. "Get up!" asserted the bladder. "No, sleep on," purred my gentle friend. "Get UP!" shouted the bladder. I listened to this argument for some time in a semi-amused semi-comatose state.

Finally I got up.

pair o'pears

I took my camera out yesterday but it started pouring down rain about five minutes later so here's about all I got. We thought we had a Bradford Pear tree outside the back door; imagine our surprise to find real pears growing on it. The squirrels (or other critters) got most of them so there are only about five left on the thinnest, most precarious branches. These two are the largest. They are 2 1/2 - 3 inches long and hang almost at eye level so they smack us in the head when going down the back steps. Don't know what kind of pears they are yet.

fight corporate domination

I've been in the dumps lately because I'm so tired. Yesterday I realized (again!) it's no good having the attitude of "I'm so tired, my brain's so numb, I can't do anything." I knew I'd better snap out of it. Today is Day One of my new attitude. I'm trying to get back to my old routine as much as possible, thumbing my nose at tiredness. It's a fight every day.

I did this page in my art journal a few weeks back. I was experimenting with layering rubber stamps & it was the first time I attached tags to a piece (at least I think it was). It was a premonition of how I knew I was going to be feeling after a few weeks of long hours and unfortunately it came true.

altered signal

Last week there was an extra-bad backup on the freeway so I exited ASAP and took the "back roads" to work. Along the way I spotted this little character on a corner. I didn't have my camera but I retraced my route a few days ago and captured its likeness. Three good lessons learned: 1) a blocked road can mean opportunity elsewhere; 2) always carry your camera; 3) take an alternate route on purpose.

flower hydrant

I know I've been neglecting the blog. I'm working long hours and my brain is mushy. I have trouble making decisions. Sometimes I've been able to keep up a journal during the summertime crunch at work, but I'm more tired this year. I think overtime is wearing thin.

The sun has been shining brightly for a few days now. Even though the rain has kept temperatures in the low 90s I'm hoping it will go away for a while.....two months would be good for me.

I like fire hydrants. Here's one in front of a dentist's office that someone turned into a garden ornament. Is this legal??

droopy

Was there a droopy dwarf in Snow White? Let's see: Grumpy, Happy, Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful & Doc, who am I missing? oh, I'll look it up later.

I feel droopy like this sunflower. We've had a couple of breaks from the rain, where we've gone almost 48 hours without moisture from the sky, so that perks me up a little, but I'm still getting used to my summer work schedule. My inner clock wants to wake up at 8 am but my body needs to sleep til about 10:30. Maybe I'll be adjusted by next week.

I had to put my art projects on hold as I switched gears to work on the bathroom again. Someday I'll finish it.....

I watched an old re-run of The Twilight Zone a few days ago and suddenly realized most of the episodes are about men. I'd never noticed that before. I'll have to keep that in mind if I watch it again.

beyond fashion?

"It's going to be beyond fashion." (quote from fashion mag.) Hmmmmm. If we think about just what that might really mean perhaps we don't need the fashion mags or anyone else telling us what to wear.

I experimented with some magazine clippings after looking at some of the faces Teesha Moore has made. Mine didn't turn out as well but I'll get the hang of it.

I was a little bit appalled at how similar the facial proportions were in photos of the same size. One set of eyes or lips easily replaced those in a number of other photos. It says a lot about the narrowness of the fashion industry's view of feminine beauty.

dreamlight

What I came up with for this week's prompt on Inspire Me Thursday, which was "Light."

Dreams and Vision are two recurring themes in my art so it wasn't a stretch to realize "light" is a part of that. This is the first full-page spread in my new homemade journal, made of watercolor paper bound with twisty-ties. I dug out my old set of acrylics to try something other than yellow and red as a background. I like this Phthalo Blue - who comes up with these names, anyway?

Studio Friday: Studio Summer Brunch

CHILL! is the motif for my summer snacks and also the cover of my new home-made journal. you can't see it well in the photo but there's a found beer bottle cap that says "chill" on the palm of the hand. I've got to fight that summer heat with cold stuff. My favorite snack is fresh mixed berries when I can get them with yogurt and poppy seeds on top. I also love "nutty buddy" frozen ice cream cones. In the meantime I drink a lot of lemonade or iced tea and maybe an occasional iced coffee. If I get a really big craving for cold coffee flavor I might make a "colorado bulldog". Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass, saturate with kahlua, and fill glass with ice cold diet coke. yummm.

Here's a friendly visitor with his snack of choice - a black-capped chickadee with sunflower seed.

altered book - kubla builds his dream dome

First spread, wherein Kubla decrees his will.....

I did this spread with a completely different background and ended up ripping out both pages and starting over. I saved a few elements and re-used them and this was the result. I had been trying to duplicate a cool background I saw in one of my art books and it flopped horribly. I really wish I could attend some workshops on altered books and/or collage. I found a class listed for this past spring at the Dallas Craft Guild and am crossing my fingers that it will be offered again in the fall. I get the feeling Dallas isn't really into this type of craft although I think it's one of the major scrapbooking markets.

It's still raining. I don't know where all this water is coming from. This is Texas, for cryin' out loud; it's supposed to be hot and sunny. I think the polar ice caps are falling on us.

turns and towers

A happy result of the wrong turn I took on Sunday was ending up on the street next to this water tower. I've had a project in mind to shoot a bunch of water towers in this area but haven't had a blue sky for a while as a background. When it's overcast the towers just fade into the background. I've tried shooting when the sky is dark with clouds and those haven't come out too well, either.

I can see this tower from the freeway, but had not tried to find its exact location, so this was a doubly good find. I had to enhance the sky in Photoshop but was glad to get the shot. This tower is in the city of Richardson.

altered book beginnings

Sometimes it pays to get lost. You think you're somewhere and then you think you're not. Then you know you're not. It can make you nuts, you know? Or it can make you change the way you look at things. That's what happened when I took a wrong turn yesterday.

I started work on my first "real" altered book a few weeks ago but have been hesitant to post anything for fear I'd put myself under so much pressure I would run out of ideas. So I've procrastinated with the few ideas I have and have found that NOT proceeding with them is worse than proceeding and failing. I've already ripped out one page and started over on it with no real damage done.

Anyway, the book is inspired by the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge was addicted to laudanum, a form of opium, and he said he imagined the poem during an opium reverie. The poem is a lovely collection of uneven meter, mismatched rhyme and confusion; and I expect my book will be the same. It should be a fun trip.

Equanimity - or lack thereof

It rained hard again last night. A year ago we were beginning to be desperate for rain; now we complain about it. "The lakes are full," we say. "Stop, already!!"

We humans can't seem to be happy with things. The weather, our possessions, our selves. We want things to be different.

One of the traits Buddhists aspire to is Equanimity, which I interpret as being accepting of any circumstance you find yourself in. Yesterday while sitting on the freeway for almost two hours I realized a traffic jam was a mighty test of Equanimity. At the first stoppage, a wreck on the High Five interchange, I was irritated. At the second stoppage, a tractor-trailer rig stalled in the second lane, I was equable. I rolled down the windows even though the air was hot and muggy because I didn't want to overtax my car's engine idling with the AC on. I found a radio station playing really old country music from the 50's. I let people cut in front of me from both left and right lanes. I thought I had achieved equanimity. At the third stoppage, another stalled car in the 3rd lane, I got desperate. The radio went to commercials and I switched it off. I began to will the car in front of me to "move........move.........move" to no avail. Alas, my brief experience with Equanimity was gone.

And today I wish the rain would stop for a while.

why did the turtle cross the road?

I rescued a turtle on Sunday. I spotted it crossing the road about four blocks from the building where I work. It was huge! It was headed toward the parking lot of a large apartment complex, so I put it in the car and when I got to work I released it in a field next to our building, which is near a large pond.

A few minutes later I was sloshing through the water-logged turf with my co-worker, who had volunteered to take the turtle home and settle it in his "atrium". We almost couldn't find the critter; it was traveling at such a high rate of speed it had almost traversed the whole field.

The turtle is a Red-eared slider, an aquatic turtle common to these parts. It was 9 1/2 inches long and almost 8 inches wide. I don't know what it was doing so far away from a large body of water. Of course, with all the rain we've had lately, it wouldn't be wanting for mud puddles along its way.

My co-worker went to PetSmart for some turtle food and found them selling these same turtles as pets. They offered to examine the turtle for any health problems and to determine its age and sex. That'll be exciting. My guess was that it was a male at least 5 years old. I feel like it's "my" turtle, too, even though it seems to be well cared for in its new home. Here's a photo of it with two of its caretakers.

Its name is Gamara, after the Japanese "monster" who defends against an evil alien.
Here's a trailer for Gamara the Brave, the twelfth and most recent incarnation of the transformed box turtle. Personally, I don't think Gamara's face looks nearly as cute or as menacing as a real turtle.

collage mosaics

I finally got the 3D items glued to my pages for the "Around the World Chunky Swap" on Flickr. This was a really fun project but I got stuck at the end. It was as if I didn't want the fun to end. I put the pages aside, and before I knew it two weeks had gone by and I'd lost my previous enthusiasm. I'm hoping that finishing the project and getting these in the mail will set me back on the road to creativity.

the blahs

I haven't been able to get into a creative groove this week. Things are gearing up at work for the summer crush and I've been spending most of my time at home ripping out the three layers of linoleum covering the bathroom floor. Dare I hope that we're past the half-way point on its renovation? The physical labor is hard on my back and I'm stiff most of the time. Walking hasn't helped much lately. Today I'm not going to work!!!!

I worked all week on the the first full spread of my altered book and yesterday, when I thought it would be finished, I realized I hated how it turned out. I ripped out the pages and saved the bits I like so I can try again. At least I still have plenty of pages to work with.

I found another unusual spider yesterday. It's a Texan Golden Lynx Spider. Look at those spiky hairs on its legs. It's a hunter and harmless to humans. I used to be terrified of spiders, but I think I must like them, now. I can't get over the variety of species I'm finding in McKinney.

my zoological alter ego kicks in

It's got a stinky name, but this pretty little bug is a good guy to have in your garden....maybe almost as good as ladybugs. I saw a tiny spot of red (less than 1/8 inch) moving among decomposing leaves and clods of mud and was able to get a few shots before I lost it. It's called Euthyrhynchus floridanus, or Florida Predatory Stink Bug, and it's one stink bug that feeds on plant pests rather than the plants. This is the nymph phase; the adults are metallic blue with orange spots. I'll have to be on the lookout for them.

It was 88 degrees when I got off work at 10pm last night. One good thing about living 30 miles north of Dallas is that it's just a tiny bit cooler; it was 83 when I got home. Now I know summer's here. I'll be shifting to my summer work schedule next week; 3pm to 1am until at least Sept. 1. I'm hoping my co-worker who usually takes the graveyard shift will do so again this year, as we used to take nightly walks to spy on the local wildlife, and to take advantage of slightly cooler temperatures for exercising. My face feels sunburned when I take my morning walks, now, even though I wear a brimmed hat. I'll probably be talking about the heat all summer; it seems to be a "hot" topic of conversation for everyone.

I'm also finally starting to work on an altered book project. I bought this book almost two years ago and never knew what to do with it. I've recently been inspired, but I'm not going to destroy it the way I originally planned.