Monday, March 17, 2014

Ostrich Races, Art Shows and Baseball

This week has been fun and interesting, as well as stressful and worrisome.  We started out the weekend by attending the Ostrich Festival in Chandler, AZ.  We really wanted to see the ostrich races at 5 pm, and then planned to stay to see Three Dog Night at 8:00.  Traffic and parking were a nightmare, and we got there right at 5:00.  We practically had to run through the crowd to get to the racetrack, only to find about 2000 people had beat us there, making it impossible to see!  I managed to get one picture by holding the camera over the crowd's heads and shooting blindly.





 We then grabbed a philly cheese steak and lemonade ($16.00!  no wonder they didn't post prices!).  I managed to kill some time playing around with different settings on the camera until Three Dog Night began their concert.


I called this one ghost riders!


I've heard of a cash cow, but never a cash monkey!





One afternoon we went to Scottsdale to watch the Cincinnati Reds play the Colorado Rockies.  The stadium was a lot like the Dayton Dragons field, and we had great seats, right behind home plate.  I get a little bored with baseball, but fortunately the home plate umpire had a nice butt, and the man next to me had an iPad.  I thought the only people that controlled their home with an iPad were the ones in the commercials, but he was showing me not only can he control the lights and temperature, but he can view his security cams, etc.


 $6 water???  Give me a break!
 Look!  Its Sponge Bob, Square Head!!




One afternoon we explored a Mesa city park, and the downtown district of Tempe, and had a nice lunch at a place called House of Tricks.

 Some cute signs in downtown Tempe

 Courtyard lunch at the House of Tricks
 Pretty flowers in Riverview Park
 A huge climbing tower in Riverview Park in Mesa

A pretty train stop in downtown Tempe

 The splash park at Riverview Park

More pretty flowers




Over the weekend we went to a fine art show in Scottsdale, and I can tell you, it was AMAZING!  By far the best art show we've been to on this trip.  The art was amazing, as was the location, with beautiful flowers and fountains and, gasp! green grass!  Haven't seen that in a while!

All made from BOTTLE CAPS!  Check out his work

 Check out www.eyecandybychelsea.com
A lot of her jewelry is made from cut up kids lunchboxes!

It was colorful!

Gorgeous flowers and fountains

This looks just like my mom's flower beds used to look!


I had foxglove growing in my garden at "home"



These kaleidoscopes by Henry Bergeson were AMAZING!!


Mushroom bounce house anyone?

 They had the cutest artsy playground for kids

 sculpture in the park

 pretty flowers everywhere!

 Those intricate designs are all seed beads!  Yowza!


Our librarian friends should appreciate this guys work.  I want
one of those "typewriters" bad!  Look closely at what they are made from!

And I didn't get a picture, but this guys' graphite pencil drawings look just like a photograph:



lunch in Scottsdale at a Mexican place with a cool ceiling

The art fest park bordered the Scottsdale library, so you know we went inside!


The entry to the children's area

The children's  room,

an entire book and magazine shop inside the library!  They don't
just throw their books into the recycling like the Dayton MetroLibrary does!


They even have stained glass windows in their library

A special area just for teens

I've been doing some artwork of my own - learning "scratchboard art".  It is white paper coated in clay and black ink and you create an image "scratching" away the black.  This was my first project:



This puppy was my second project, learning long hair and more complicated eyes:





My third project I wanted to do a Gamble Quail, so working from this photo:

I made this:


Its really fun - I think I will stick with it.  I've also been making some jewelry and taking in a few special orders from the guys in the lapidary class cutting their own local stones.

These are real quail - too fast to take a good picture!






On the way home from the art festival, we saw an eagle in a dead tree, fairly close to the road.  We quickly made a U-turn and found she (he?) had a nest nearby with two nearly grown babies!  So exciting, and my pictures turned out great!  I know what picture is getting printed onto canvas and will hang in my next living room!!






And as always, I keep snapping pictures of the gorgeous sunsets!




Lots of "stuff" going on with family and friends this week, so I have to go to be a 1/2 hour earlier just to say prayers for all the people on my prayer list!  Please keep us, and our son Jason, in your prayers!  Thanks