September 7-13, 2021 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90's, sunny and smoky.

Fresh out of the kiln. I made this bowl using the puddles I made. It came out very colorful. there is clear glass over the puddles so they are 3D looking. It is 12 x 2 1/4 inches. 

The puddle bowl and the dot bowl together. I watched this duck in Spring Creek while I was waiting for my massage today.

Sunset was kind of smoke and jet trails tonight. I received 10 lbs. of Florida long leaf pine needles today!!

A few pendants I beveled and polished. 4 of them have ravens in them. We met our friend Jeff and his friends for drinks at Broken Stave brewery. They have the best stout called Latte that kicked me pretty well. It was fun to see people.

We all went out for dinner after our beer. Good food and fun people.  Sat we went to the farmers market to get some ripe tomatoes. We came home with these. They taste soooo good.  

These cool acorns are about an inch across. I swear that these are the last batch of puddles I will make this year. I had a broken masterpiece that had three layers of color, so I sandwiched a couple brighter pieces of it and voila- puddles. I love these, they are all different.

I am dying pine needles for my winter basket making. How could I not dye some chocolate? I set some more pieces of glass in resin for basket centers. Still need to grind down the edges and drill holes around them. 

The view from the deck at dinner tonight. When I stopped at my favorite pine tree to collect a few needles, I was surprised with a motherlode of needles. There was a big wind storm this am and it blew all the dead needles out for me. I filled the back seat of my car with bags of needles. These are long ponderosa needles I collect for the classes I teach. Now I just have to bundle them. 

It was cloudy and muggy when I went biking today. Later we got a few good thunderstorms and lots of rain. White asters on the bike trail.

Horse poop in the middle of the bike path. John is protesting  this with the park service. They don't see it as a problem. I sure find it a problem when I come flying around the corner on my bike and hope not to hit this. It is much more of a problem where the trail is much narrower. Ranger Rick told John that his bike trail rangers are monitoring this. . . Perhaps they could monitor it with a shovel. Some fall colors over the Poudre river. 

John saved the day. The power went out in my studio. John found a bad GFI and replaced it and I now have power and lights again. Thanks John. 

August 4-6, 2021 fort Collins, Colorado

 In the 80's and sunny.

This stinkhorn mushroom, Phallus inpudicus, grew up by our shed today. The slime on top, which has the spores, smells like carrion and flies eat it and disperse the spores. The top photo is when it first came up with the slime. The second photo a few hours later it is a couple inches taller and the slime is dried out. I have never seen on here in Colorado before. They live on the decomposed wood products, here the mulch. I started this plate with the colorful puddles. It is in firing now. 

This side will be the back of it. 

Low light on the bike path and river this evening.

Fall flowers on the bike path. The path seems to follow the curves of the river.

The grass seed heads along the bike path are waist to shoulder deep. Sunset from our deck during dinner.

Road side advice written on a pillow by the street. If you hear a voice within you say "you can't paint" Then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh. My color pallet of pine needles that  I dyed for use in baskets once we get back on the road. 

Boy do I know how to have fun. I ground the edges of the resin I set the glass in for basket centers in the 95 degree hot sun this afternoon. I was covered with white dust.  Basket centers set in resin on the left. They just need holes drilled around them to stitch to.  I was not going to make any more jewelry, But I got sucked into making a bunch of small post earrings. They are so cute. On the lower right is more puddles that I made. 

I opened the kiln to this beautiful sight. They all fused together. The bottom side  will become the top. It is in the kiln rght  now fire polished. Then it will be slumped into a mold.  

I also made these beveled polished pieces this afternoon. Two of the  new grinding/polish discs that I bought were scrathing the glass instead of polishing it, so the company replaced them ad the new ones look great, I made fresh ripe peach crostini with goat cheese ad basil for dessert tonight. These are all that are left, John says for breakfast tomorrow. 

I was shorting these pants for John and he added the rainforest camo coat and buff.  I would loose John completely if he were in the woods in this outfit. He would be invisible. Sunset on my bike ride. 

Same sunset over a lake by the bike path. John cooked lime cilantro shrimp tonight for dinner. Excellent. 

 

August 30-September 3 , 2021 Fort Collins, Colorado

 

New basket centers in hardening resin. They are now cut apart awaiting grinding of the sides and holes drilled around the outside. Puddle pendants. I think I have made enough.

Puddle earrings. More earrings waiting to have findings glued on, then ear wires attached and then put on cards. The puddles earrings are time consuming. They are fired 3 to 4 times. They are all different so I have to try to match them up in pairs that at least go together. The gluing is a pain in the bum. I hold the little finding with tweezers, spread glue on it, then pick up tiny, slippery glass pieces and apply the finding and glue. I end up getting glue all over my hands and the earrings, and everything else. Pretty soon everything is sticking together. It is an exercise in patience. But sure come out cute. 

The river is really low. This is a shot of the water park. And a photo farther up river. We have a new fire west of town and have smoke and colorful clouds again. 

Above the diversion dam there is a little more water. Cattails and golden asters. 

Pre sunset with smoky clouds over McMurry pond. I went to Denver today and visited Katy. My jewelry is spread out on her table so she can choose some. I may have enough made. Nice to see her.

Katy and her sister Becca who is visiting from Tennessee in Katy's flower garden. A pre sunset shot with the smoky clouds from the Costco parking lot. The sun drops below the smoke and clouds at actual sunset and there is no sunset. 

The latest batch of earrings. The cards are 1 1/2 x 2 inches to give you an idea what size the earrings are. Katy gave us this lovely gift wrapped bottle of wine from the Winery at the Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City. We had it with our appetizers in the rain on our deck.  We had the rest of dinner inside. The wine was great.

We started the day with brunch with John and Mandy at the Rainbow Restaurant. We were all celebrating. It is midway between John and my birthday and John and Mandy just got their rental house rented and their plans for their mountain house approved.  The food was good and it was fun to see them. My friend Katie came up from Denver for a glass cutting lesson. She has plans to make 12 stepping stones. This is one of a palm she and her friend started, and she finished the cutting.

Katie is working on making a decorative brick for her yard- it is next to the box of glass scraps. I was able to get rid of that overflowing box of scraps by giving them to Katie. Katie took John and I to lunch at Coopersmiths afterwards. 

Sunset along the bike path. There was a more normal amount  of water in the river.