Two Bird...hmm make that Mules With One Stone

Our friend Mike from California is here house hunting for a couple of weeks. Besides being a very good friend he is also a very willing Mule :) This was one of those trips we knew he was making but we didn't know exactly when. Sooooo in my best Miss Scarlett--"I'll think about it tomorrow" behavior, I must now work like a mad women to get projects and gifts done, so he can post them for us when he returns to the Northern Lands :) I participated in a couple of "Pay it forward" challenges and thought it might be a good idea to get at least one done and on it's way. The Bloglandian friend I made this gift for is dreaming of doing a bit of redecorating this summer. Since they live in a land locked state they are dreaming/scheming of bringing the beach to them :)

I also noticed that Linda and Rosie of Awfully Big Art Adventure challenge for this month is to create a piece of art with beach debris.., ok shells, mermaid tears, you know beach debris. :) AHHHH HAAA my little "gray cells" said beach decor beach debris art work why I could kill two mules with... well you get the idea.

I thought I would make a wall hanging and this is what I came up with.

I needed something light but stiff for the back board. Here plywood is very expensive and chip board is almost never seen. Why??? Cuz we have those nasty critters-- termites. Our houses & buildings are made with bricks or cement blocks. I really didn't feel like running all over town trying to find the usual materials. We were in Office Max and I looked down and on the shelf were those cheap pressed material? clip boards. Perfect LW cut the clip off for me and I was on my way:)

I wanted to cover the front with something that would fit in with the whole beach, sand, sail, relaxed, thing. So I dyed a piece of cheese cloth with strong coffee and lightly sprayed it with stickum and then patted it onto the board. It has a nice loose relaxed look. Look below see that picture that's Mexican cheese cloth. Unlike the stuff up north this is more a 2ply kinda material. It's also quilted every inch or so and there really is no way to take the two pieces apart. But I'm quite happy with the way it looks and actually it's a lot easier to work with then the stuff up north.

I own exactly TWO art stamps (yep only two) one is a nice size bird nest with eggs. The other is this large collage type one with travel things and the profile of a woman's head. That's the one I used to stamp the back of the tags I was making. I was working towards the simple beautiful look of Sara Luggs' early art work. The only thing I place on the tags were the shells and mermaid tears.

I have these ever so tiny bottles, I filled one with sand from our beach and for the other I caught 2 even more tiny mermaid tears. Both bottles I sealed with wax and then used a bit of copper wire to wire them to the board. Ha finding copper wire for jewelry and art is a whole other story I'll have to share one of these days :)





Somewhere and I feel bad because I don't know who to attribute it to, I found this quote. It's such a sensuous, almost heart wrenching visual picture. But it came to mind when I had the stamp, shell, mermaid tears and starfish all together.

Then the last piece the finishing touch. On one of our beach days I stopped to write PARADISE ! in the wet sand just above the tide line. LW took a picture of it, and one of these days we'll get it worked into the banner for the blog. It really does define our lives now. But we are not fooled it is written on sand and threatened by the incoming tide. We don't waste our time with what the tide washed away yesterday nor do we worry what high tide might bring tomorrow. Today we make and live our paradise on the sand between the two tides

When you put all the pieces together this is what it looks like. I truly hope my Bloglandian friend will like this little piece of my beach. :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

PS. I might be a wee bit scarce for a few days, as my todo list keeps growing and the day Mike has left keep sliding by :( Also I still can't get Blogger to let me move pictures on my blog. So it's taking forever to get enties done :(

WOO HOO It's Mango Season!!! :)

Mango season starts around the last week of May the first week of June. There are huge mango orchards just outside of town and through out the whole state of Sinaloa. Mangoes, tomatoes and peppers are cash crops in the state. In and around town there are mango trees everywhere. They are in peoples yards, patios, open fields, parking strips, pots on roofs I mean every where. They are a great shade tree because the leaves are flat, broad and waxy. They can tolerate the draught conditions of the dry season we have here. They also hang on to their leaves all year long.

There are as many recipes for mangoes as there are trees :) Well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but you will find them in everything. They are great in salads when they are still a bit green, because they are crunchy and have a mild flavor that goes well with cucumbers. You know it's a bit like zucchini is up in the Northern Lands.

The three little ones in the picture at the beginning are from the huge tree in our neighbor's patio, parking area. Way back last winter I took a couple of pictures of tree tree in bloom. "member??? " The blossoms are not much for show and there really don't have much of a scent when blooming. See all those little blooms, they will each grow up to be a mango one day :)

I'm sorry but you will need to put your xray-megavision glasses on (thanks Blogspot) but if while you are squinting tip your head to the right, make a telescope with your fingers and right hand now if you look through you might be able to make out a bunch of green babies on the tree. There must be a bazillion on the tree this year. There's enough there for the whole city and then some. If the neighbor had gone up when they were budding out and thinned the tree there would be far fewer and those would be much bigger. But leaving them small is safer in the long run. When those guys let loose and gravity exerts it's force you have some mighty large missiles heading for the ground!!!

See there's one little ripe one, wonder if he thought there was a prize for being first??

Yesterday I looked out the window just as the neighbor and his son-in-law were headed up onto the garage roof with 5liter buckets to pick a few :) On one of the trips down with full buckets I asked if I could have a couple. They were at the perfect ripeness and they smelled Divine. Sure take a hand full. No no I can only use a couple. So I picked out 3 beautiful colored ones. A while later LW comes up to the sunroom to tell me the neighbor sent over a bag full of mangoes because surly the three I'd taken wasn't enough to do anything with. :)

Now certainly you would agree that these are truly magnificent specimens, even if they are on the miniature side!! How can any human ever hope to compete with Mother Nature to create anything as perfect and beautiful as these are??? I wish you could smell and taste these, life just doesn't get any better then tree ripened mangoes!!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

The other day LW and I were at Office Max. This is one of those stores where we have our own agendas and shopping lists. So at the door we "fan out" as my kids say when we are on a shopping mission :) I really didn't have anything on my list so I was doing the aisle cruise dance, in case they had gotten something in, I just had to have. As I rounded an aisle I looked up to see the Crayola Crayons display :)

I couldn't help myself, it stopped me dead in my tracks and the next thing I realized I was being drawn in like a moth to a flame. I don't know about you but there are certain things that the sight of will illicit all kinds of memories starting in childhood. Things that just seeing wrap you up in a warm fuzzy cocoon. Well seeing a new box of 48 or better yet 64 Crayola crayons (with the built in sharpener) is like that for me. Making art with crayons are some of the earliest creative memories I have. In fact when I think about it crayons were part of many events in my young life.

There was always shopping for school supplies and picking out first the Fat ones, then graduating to the box of twelve skinny ones. Oh but you knew you have arrived when the supply list called for a box of 24!! :)

Ahhhhhh but then there is the Bad Boys the box of 48 and the best of the best the OH MY Gosh box of 64!!!! Now those were what daydreams were made of. You knew if you asked for crayons for your birthday or Christmas you would for sure get the box of 48. But that didn't guarantee the coveted BOX. :(

We grew up the children of an Army dentist this meant we moved a lot. When it came time to plan the move or the long car trip for a vacation, Mum would let us each pick out a coloring book and crayons. Now we could have the box of 64 if the three of us would share.... oh yeah like that was EVER going to happen!!! So for trips we settled for the individual box of 24 :(

Then came the occasions in life that you could gage how undesirable they were by the box of crayons you were given. Tonsil out, braces on, vaccines for foreign countries, stitches, casts...... Unlike most kids, crayons (and coloring books) remained a part of my life as I grew into adulthood and are still a part of my Little Art Corner. :) I took a new box of the Bad Boys and a couple of coloring books, to college with me. When the stress of a paper got to be a bit much, out came the crayons and book. My daughter was 3 months old at her first Christmas and I made sure there was a box of the Big Fat ones under the tree for her. :) I'll bet you would find a box of at least the 24s among her things now :)

One of the first things I do when I get a new box home is pull all of them out and organize them by favorite colors and the ones most used. Yes well even those well adjusted people have certain eccentricities :) The browns are always first, funny it has always been that way. Then they are followed by the blues. When I was younger I use to say my favorite color was blue because if I said brown someone always felt compelled to tell me that brown was such a ugly color especially for a girl to like. When I told my Mum, she just gave me a huge hug and whispered "there are no ugly colors they are all beautiful" :)

Yellows and greens came next. These were always very important colors because how did you make the sun and grass without them??

Reds and oranges were used lots, they were just such happy colors!!

The pinks and purples were used much less, and to this day these are not colors I really spend a lot of time using. Each Spring I buy one piece of clothing that is pink. I tell myself that it really is a lovely color and I'll really enjoy wearing it. It hasn't worked yet and I'm 53, I'm thinking it's just not going to happen. As for purple, well the only time I ever wear purple is when there is a new bruise, where I ran into my desk corner :)

The last 3 colors to go in are the white, dark gray and black. The black is essential for drawing around the edges of the coloring book drawings. It still didn't see much use cuz it's much more fun to spill over the lines with color then it is to stay within the lines!!

SO back to the other day at Office Max. Just like the moths not being able to resist the flame, I reached out to that box of 48 Crayola Crayons and before I realized it they were bought and in the bag and we were out the door. But ohhhhhh there is nothing better then when you get your new box of Crayola Crayons home and carefully open the lid at the perforations to inhale deeply the "it can only belong to" smell of 48 brand new sharpened Crayola Crayons!!! All the warm fuzzy memories come rushing out, and you can't wait to start making "Sumsing" :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

PS. Happy Mother's Day!! It's Mother's Day in the Scandinavian part of Bloglandia!! :)

She Coughed, Sputtered and Died :(

Just like the cities up in "North Land" our water is provided via pipes from the municipal reservoir. We pay a monthly combined water/ sanitation bill not unlike up north. However there are a few things that are different here. Water is considered a life sustaining element, and therefore the city must provide you water.

A couple of interesting asides then I'll wander back to my story with a happy ending :) Besides having to provide water they also can't cut off your water for non payment. Yep you read right, if you don't pay your water bill you will continue to have water, as long as you don't move. The water account/bill stays with the house not the human. Because of that it's really important when you go to change residencies you check to see if there is an outstanding water bill attatched to the house you want to move to. Because if there is the city can and will refuse to turn the water back on until the outstanding bill is payed for. Never mind that it's not your bill and the bill is older then you are. If you want water you pay the bill. :) Since water is life sustainable the cost for city water/sewage must be a fee a majority of the community can afford to pay. That translates into the rates being very very inexpensive. Our H2O2/ sewage bill runs about $4 US a month. The downside to this cheap water is that the city never has enough money to do anything but the minimal amount of repair or updating. :( Sooooooo that is the number one reason why NO ONE drinks the water. The purification systems can't possibly keep up.

We also have a rather.. okay very inefficient pressurized delivery system. In fact getting water up high enough to turn a first floor shower on isn't always possible. Ahhhh but since this is a country that's motto is there is always a way. The solution is to use a small pump, to pump the water up onto your roof into a huge holding tank called a tinaco

Now the water is above shower head and waa-laa we have a shower. Some houses if you are really lucky have an in ground cistern so that the city water flows into your cistern, then your pump, pumps it to the roof where the tinacos store it. We are one of the lucky ones, so if our cistern and 2 tinacos are full of water, we would have water for close to 2 weeks. Longer with conservation. :) In a hurricane, tropical storm area this is a very good thing!!!!

We know it's time to fill the tinacos when we only get a dribble out of the tap. One of us walks out to the garage and flips the switch to turn the pump on and in 15-20 minutes we have full tinacos. The other morning LW went to turn on our poor, old, over worked pump and she coughed sputtered and died!!! But, but I need a shower....

Never fear LW gives the plumber a call who said he would be here at 4pm and sure enough he was here at 4pm. Takes a look at his patient, diagnosed it as the bearing were fried and need to be replaced and the pump rebuilt. He'd take the old girl home with him and rebuild her after dinner and by the way "I'll spiff her up with a coat of orange paint" he said :) He would be back in the morning to install her.

So okay I can go one day without a shower. Next morning there was Dr. Plumber with our reconstructed water pump. Yes I can be having a shower in no time, right?? Ahhhhh not quite. The old gal was straining at the bit ready to do the job she was created for. But when they turned her on the check valve in the cistern... yep it died. :( This is starting to look like the "all we have to do is replace the seat on the toilet, but before you are done every part has been replaced" kinda jobs. Not to worry the Dr Plumber says I'll go get a new one and come back at 2 today to install it.

Will I have to go another day without a shower?? Heck no 2pm came along with the new check valve. Our hero the plumber installed it and...... IT"S A MIRACLE!!!! Pattie got her shower!!!

Now you might ask "How much did this little service call cost"?? Well 2+ hours of service and rebuilt time. six trips (back and forth 3 times) new bearings, rebuilt pump new check valve. Oh yeah and a new paint job!! The bill came to $400 pesos (that's about $30 USD) Pattie's shower- priceless :)

Life in Paradise is back to normal. Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on what part of the world you are in ;)

A Few Finished Jewels and One Fat Knee

There are a few of you guys who are familiar with my Bloglandian Sister Lulu from Coastal Sisters. Well about 5ish weeks ago she, strained the ligaments under her knee and has been laid up since then :( Now I'm the first person to jump to the head of the line when a Bloglandian friend wants to share. BUT I draw the line when it comes to sharing pain!!

Last night while going down the stairs I could feel my right knee catch with a slight click. Hmmmm not good with these joints of mine. But the catching stopped and besides I wasn't going to let a little clicking keep me from going on our Saturday date night!! Hmmmmm in hind site might not have been the most prudent decision. I woke up at four this morning with the whispering call of the bathroom, stood up then nearly fell down. Dang if my right knee didn't hurt. Turned the bathroom light on and what did I discover?? A knee the size of a basket (okay a child size) ball!! :( Hmmmm could it be I strained the ligaments behind my knee?? Now where have I heard that before? Sooooooo LW has confined me to my little art corner, our bedroom and bathroom. It really is for my own good you know. There is no going to the Doctor option, not unless I'm finally ready to yell uncle and let the surgeon and gas passer have their way with me :( Yikes no not yet, if I behave myself it will heel enough to stave surgery for a bit longer :)

Since I have had my wings clipped, I spent the day finishing up a couple of pieces of jewelry I've been playing with. I have been saving little hearts for quite awhile now to make a heart charm bracelet. I finally had enough to hang a heart on every link

I made this bracelet with one of those "I wonder what it would look like" and just "how could I hook 2 separate strings of beads together without using any findings" experiments I'm really liking this one. It might never make it to the gift stash. :) Well maybe I should test drive it a bit to be sure all the bugs are worked out. ;)

Not really much to show for a whole day, but when you factor in a siesta and having lunch with Martha it'll pass. Oh and LW cooked for us since I couldn't meet Martha at our favorite cafe. His pasta with bolognase was nothing short of sublime!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

Confession and a Seed of an Idea...

Confession first. I have kinda been sucked into one of those all I want to do is make art kinda vortexes. You know what I'm talking about. There are all these ideas floating around in my head... "oh I can make that this way", and "what if I do that this way" and "gosh wouldn't that make the perfect..."

Courtesy of, lestladownunder.com

Makes me want to shut myself up in my Little Art Corner and make art to my heart's content. I mean who knows how long the vortex is going to hang around, or when it will decide to come back!! :) But I haven't been able to shut myself up in my Little Art Corner... cuz well you know there are all those dang things you have to do in one's day to day life :( Here's where the confession comes in. I've sorta been ignoring those day to day things: wash, cooking, Blog postings, you know anything I can say "Just let me finish this and then I'll get right to it"

I might be to "busy" to be sure that LW & I have clean "unmentionables" but I'm never to busy to pass on a piece of exciting news. Little Vanessa of Fanciful Twist has sent out her invitation for her annual Mad Tea Party... Woooo Hoooo!!! :) Be sure you head over to her little spot of Bloglandia and except her invitation. Give the invitation (down there) a press and it will take you there. All the madcap fun that she and the "Mad Hatter" can come up with is yours for the taking :) Just don't be trying to take the Mad Hatter's striped socks!!

Now for my little seed of an idea. Have you ever been part of a Round Robin??? Have you ever wanted to be??? Well I never have been part of a Round Robin and I sure have wanted to be!!! Soooooo I've been thinking maybe I'd just put a call out for one. Maybe a sorta Around the World Treasure Hunt, with treasure maps and hunting for clues in exotic places.

Hmmm have a bit more thinking to do... so maybe I'll let the idea peculate another day or so and then post the invitation. What do you think, anyone out there interested in an around the world trip hunting for clues to the location of good ol' Auntie Aggie's Last Will and Testament?? Well think about it and start looking for your old compass and knapsack. I'll post some details in a day or so. Oh and of course you wouldn't have to have a blog if you wanted to join in on the hunt :)

photo courtesy of Disney Studios

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

A Little Reminder

Sometimes I need to remind myself...

It is the sum of all the parts....

That the whole is created from.

When you put all the pieces together you find...

a portrait of a most remarkable and unique person!!

Your life is what you create, you are your actions :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)