Salon Day

The last time I went to get a haircut was, um, a few months ago. Yeah, I'm not one to fuss, for sure. I told her to leave it long, just trim it up so it's all one length, so when it gets hot I can pull it all into a pony. She did exactly that, and I was okay with it for a while.

I hate it now. Yeah, a pony it is, since it's hot and muggy now every single day, but it looks really severe and I feel, well, frumpy.

So today I'm going back in for a ... I'm so scared I can hardly write the word...PERM!!! And layers, all over, a medium long shag of curls. Ha ha ha, I think I'm going to look like someone else! Isn't that funny? I have this vision of full, curly, sexy hair that will accentuate my eyes and cheekbones.

Yeah, right. It'll still be me peeking out from those curls. But that's me, I may be totally scared, and I'll go ahead and do it anyway. Wish me luck!

Adobe Photoshop

We have considered buying Adobe Photoshop for our business, an advertising agency, so that we can do a fair amount of the designing of ads, logos, & brochures ourselves.

In fact, this morning one of our clients asked us to create a logo for his business, something more up to date than what he already has.

After looking online at the different levels of Adobe, and not knowing the differences, I thought I'd put the question out here to you! Do you have, or have you worked with, Adobe Photoshop? Do you like it? What are some of your issues? Have a suggestion for a different software that you think would be better for this application?

I've gone to youtube and watched a couple of tutorials for making logos with it, and of course it probably looks much easier than it is. I'd love to hear what you think!

First Monsoon Storm

We got our first monsoon storm tonight. Sheets of rain, brilliant flashes of lightening, and immediately after, explosions of thunder! Oh, I LOVE IT! We all knew when it struck directly overhead that it could be a problem, and a second later, it was. No power.

That doesn't happen very often, since we are on the same power grid as the fire station a quarter mile away. But I am prepared if another storm winds it's way through our neighborhood this evening.

I swear, I feel so fortunate to live where I do. Hubby is in Utah this weekend, dealing with family issues and his step-mother's 80th birthday, and we felt that it was just too expensive for me to go along right now. I have no fear of thunderstorms. In fact, good or bad, I absolutely love them! However, I was not prepared tonight. He usually takes care of getting us set up in this situation. A quick run to the garage for flashlights and back-up batteries settled the issue. But the really wonderful thing was...our incredible neighbors, on both sides, called my cell phone to make sure I was okay. How sweet was that???

I haven't seen "my dog" in hours!
I know where to find her though. In her cave, under the bed. She HATES thunder. The mere hint of a grumbling, she's gone. Willy, on the other hand,

hears nothing...sees nothing...

On the Way to Ramsey Canyon

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we took a ride up into the canyon to take some pictures to try the HDR effect on them. On the way up we passed a yard that had 3 or 4 old wagons in it. Makes me curious as to where they got them, and how they got them in the yard!










Once at the top of Ramsey Canyon Road, there is Ramsey Canyon Inn, which is a wonderful B & B if you're ever in the area! The Inn is also home to the wild turkeys that I've posted about before. Today was no exception...

Can you see him picking something out of the lawn?

Friday Shoot Out - Rainbow

This week's theme, colors of the rainbow, is from Debby at the Pink Birdhouse. What a great idea!

These colors are everywhere right now. I love rainbows, and we get many of them here. I am so fortunate that my front yard faces west, and the back east. I get sunrise & sunset, and when there's any moisture, I usually get a great view of the rainbows!

MY TURN, MY TURN!

Ever since Dan at Wood & Pixels Narratives explained about HDR photos, we have been obsessed! Did you catch the "we"? Yes, Hubby is hooked too! I can see us calmly walking down the hall, with the camera under our shirt, pretending that we're just going to wash dishes or something, so we get our, okay, I get my hands on the camera too. Ha!

We have had a blast, and know that we have a long way to go to even come anywhere near Dan's photos, or Simply Heather's photos. Thanks so much to you both for being so willing to share information!


We went to the canyon yesterday afternoon to try some shots with lots of contrast. He got a fantastic photo that I'll post tomorrow. Yeah, it'll be a fight for the camera!!!

Warning...Snake picture below!

Here's what I've been messin' with the last few days:

Weird lookin' huh? Well, I think I told you our new neighbors have taught us to play Mexican Train, a domino game. So that you can keep your dominos to yourself, they need a place to stand up!

Our neighbors had trays exactly like this that they bought from a woman for $5 apiece. I thought...I could do that. Easy peasy. And it was, it is, however, the amount of time involed is more than I originally anticipated!

I'm on my 4th one. I think I need 6, in case you're coming over to play!

Just because it wasn’t right, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
It doesn’t mean there’s not weighty disappointment.
It doesn’t mean there’s not painful heartache.
It doesn’t mean there are not a million what ifs.
It just means it wasn’t right.
Not this time around.

Mosaic Monday

I am missing them !

Father's Day

Did anybody ever have Ward Cleever for a father? Anyone? Ever? I used to think that everyone else’s family was like that TV show, Leave it to Beaver. Honestly, I did. Because mine was SO not like that, I was afraid to let anyone know. I mean, let’s face it, you never know what goes on behind closed doors.

But even knowing what I know today, that most parents are just people trying to do their best (and sometimes failing), I hope that there is still that desire to strive to be a great example for our children.

Here are wishes for a wonderful day to all those Dads that are still trying to get it right!

Saturday Leftovers

Here are some other shots taken around town...

Not exactly sure what this sign is supposed to be telling us? OMG! Look out! Oh. Too late.

It's hard to see, but those are lions on the gate.

This is Arizona, desert, vultures...

We get incredible amounts of mail everyday.

Horseshoes tossed around the backyard.

Taken outside of a Department of Economic Security building. Not sure what they are, but they're metal! Some kind of communication something or other.

Metal yard art is very popular around here. Maybe because it is so hot, and we get so much rain in the summer, you don't have to worry about them.

Of course I have fish in the desert!

In the evenings, this is a nice place to sit and admire the mountain.

This courtyard is full of birds since the feeders are out here.

This great metal statue stands out in front of Vinney's Pizza. Cool huh?

Friday Shoot Out

METAL!
I was so happy when I learned that the subject this week was metal! Driving around town, I took quite a few pictures of interesting metal things, but I've been patiently waiting for just the right time to show you this work of art!

It's attached along a very large wall on the front of our public library.

The first time I saw it, I was enthralled. It speaks to my imagination through books.

Check out the details.

Fantastic!

I will be posting the rest of my shoot out pics over the next couple of days, but I felt that this was special enough to show alone. Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm almost finished with my book, but I wanted to share another couple of sentences from Belong to Me that I enjoyed.


"Whenever Dev sat back there, he could totally see the point of becoming a millionaire. Even the dragonflies seemed better than your typical dragonflies, stitching through the air on their miniature stained-glass-window wings."

Tucson

We went to Tucson yesterday morning to get our Dyson Animal repaired. With two incredibly hairy, and shedding dogs, we can't go more than a few days without vacuuming. So we set off about 7:30 a.m., vacuum in the back of the truck, and the long ice chest in the back seat.

We were really looking forward to it, mostly because we weren't going up there for a doctor's appointment. The vacuum repair shop said they could probably repair in the same day since we had to drive 75 miles. Yes, an hour and a half to repair the vacuum. That's at 75 mph, which is the speed limit on Hwy 10! Evidently, no one in our little town has a contract with Dyson. When we called locally, they said, "Oh, you paid a lot of money for that machine!" Well, yes we did. A lot! However, as I mentioned before, we are a hair factory here. I swear, there was a time I thought of spinning that dog hair into yarn and creating sweaters! I went as far as to picture two dog prints on a label!

So first thing this morning we passed the border patrol check point.

Sometimes, if you're in a hurry to, like, get to the airport, if there is any traffic, and I say that kind of in jest, this is annoying, but I have to tell you, we are happy to have the border patrol working diligently to stop these crazy coyotes! We have so many really awful accidents on our highways because of them. Recently, we had a bad one that killed 5 people, and severely hurt many others, because there were 27, yes, TWENTY-SEVEN humans stacked like firewood into a Ford Excursion, that flipped on the highway, sprawling people over a very large area. I could go on and on about this...but I won't.

We passed by the Pima Air Museum. Hundreds of planes, lined up on one side of the street, and plane parts on the other. In our five years here in AZ, we've never gone to the museum, but it is on our list of things to do.

Look, not even 9 a.m. and it's 85*

The place where we took the vacuum was incredibly nice enough to have the vacuum repaired on the spot and we had the rest of the day to putz in Tucson.

Here's another place that tops our to do list. Never been there. When it's 100* in Tucson, it's in the high 70's up on the mountain. Maybe this summer, camping!

We went to lunch at a place called Feast. Kind of reminded me of a small restaurant in San Francisco, with some brick walls and teeny little lights strung around the room on a wire that wound it's way from one side to the other. The lunch was fabulous! An herbed chicken salad on a bed of lettuce with sweet potatoes and nuts. I had the most tender calamari that was cooked with chiles and sweet corn. We walked out totally sated & doggie bag in hand.

Off to my happy place: Joann Fabrics!

Why, oh, why can't we have one in our town? What really struck me about being in there was, of course, all the FABRIC!, but also how happy I felt to be in there. And it wasn't just me. Everywhere I looked, women were smiling at one another...no, it's okay, you go ahead...looking into each other's carts, "Oh that's really beautiful, isn't it?" So it's alot of people's happy place.

A shot of the Catalina Mountains,

I wish I could show you how these change colors throughout the day and into evening they'll turn all shades of purple. Gorgeous.

We also "did" our usual Costco & Trader Joes shopping, and a stop at Camping World for some tire covers for the building on wheels.

It's always good to get home after a trip to the big city. Home to our doggies that are always overjoyed to see us, and us them!

Backyard Beauties

From Collages

Sunday Morning

On the deck last night, storm building.


This morning, a new day.

Cooling Off

I love when the wild bunnies feel comfortable enough to "just be" in my yard.

I keep a large saucer of water under the Red Tip bush in the front yard, outside my office window. Every afternoon the birds and bunnies come to refresh themselves.