Last Fling of the Summer

These are out of sequence, but I wanted to have one picture showing that the firewood I tried to pick up was "too much attached"!

Fly fisherman, Ed and his gear, which includes a custom made fish net that my son Paul and I gave Ed for Xmas last year.

Well, Ed and Jabez (dog) and I went camping this weekend for one last fling of the summer. Ed needed to get in some premium float tube time. This photo was to show the lake we stayed near, and the many mountain ranges behind it.

Jabez and I wandered the hillsides exploring. There are many tall, bare trees where we go camping, and also many mossy covered trees.


The fall colors were out, as well as the usual summer annuals, mostly lupine.

There is a dragonfly in the center of this shot, but I was really interested in the pattern of light in the water.

Here is Jabez content. She had at least 5 walks a day!

This is what one looks like after fly fishing!

The danger of mistaking a cooking aid for bug repellant is shown here. After a while we just got used to saying things like, "Are the eggs sticking to the pan? Just put a little bug spray on it!

We were on top of the world. We were at the crests of all the mountains. It was a beautiful weekend.

The lake, as viewed from our camp spot.

I am getting pieces ready for the 1000 Springs art festival the last weekend in September. The process starts with making slabs of clay and texturing them. Then shapes are cut from patterns that are made from plastic containers.


The cut shapes are made three dimensional by joining the sides. For these conical shapes, a circle was cut, then in half. Joining the sides gives the pieces strength to stand up. In this position the pieces can dry a little before putting two pieces together.


When the pieces are pretty firm, but not quite "leather hard," I cut a hole in the top and bottom of each piece, and I adjust the top and bottom where it was cut, to make it level so the pieces will stack straight.

When the pieces are dry, they are loaded into the kiln. The purple flower you see is a white clay that has a lavender underglaze on it.


These pieces have been bisque fired already. The final phase is glazing the pieces and putting them in the kiln for the final fire. Then the pieces will be packed up and set up at the art fest in September!

Corn Tomato Salsa

This is a recipe that I found in the newspaper. It is a recipe for corn and tomato salsa and is really good. I hope you can click on the image to see it better. If you don't have a grill going, you can by pass the roasting of the corn and tomatoes. What I did is cut the corn off the cob, and stir it in a skillet with olive oil. Then I added the other ingredients. I used scallions instead of an onion.

My mom was here for April and Zach's wedding, and we made choke cherry jam. It was good! Today I made a very small batch of apricot, pineapple, cantalope jam. I put all the fruit in the food processor and added about 3.5 cups of sugar, because I had about 5 cups of blended fruit. It is so good! I hope you are inspired!

Chinook: Information from Answers.com

Chinook: Information from Answers.com

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We just watched the movie "The truth about cats and dogs" We thought the dog looked just like Jabez, only 20 lbs heavier/bigger. We went on line to find a breed like Jabez. Here is what we found!

This summer flower has tiny purple blossoms and wide thick leaves. I'm not sure what it is called but it reminds me of a lavender straw flower, but those are actually much different.
Yes, you can see one moon vine (weed) blossom. Nothing kills those!


Summer flowers in the perennial garden -bove, Gloriosa daisies
below hardy hibiscus



What is faster than a hummingbird? watch the video and imagine a hummingbird trying to feed on the trumpet vine. We sat outside and watched the high, dark clouds in the sky two nights ago. We have been having hot dry weather with heat lightening. There are several grass fires around as a result of lightening strikes.

Jabez is my camera shy dog. It is hard to get a picture of her!

Bathroom done, Wedding done, Web site done!

4th of July weekend was family time. Paul came to scope out the wedding venue for good photo ops. In these pics, Cooper (the exceptional grand child) woke from a nap but didn't seem finished with it. So Dad rocked him for a little longer.


Turns out that Cooper broke out in a fine rash a couple days after they went home. So he wasn't feeling his best when he was here.


You remember the bathroom project that had the deadline of July 27 (wedding date)? Well, here is the finished product. The first image is the floor. The floor is small and I wanted to show off the feature tiles. This is what we came up with. Outlined the 20" floor tiles with the detail tiles. Looks great!


The next wonderful transformation is the tub surround. I am very happy with the end product! We have shelves, 13" tiles set vertical/horizontal with a band of vertically set smaller tiles and featuring the detail tiles. It is beautiful!


The vanity has a marble top, three drawers and the little shelves on the side. I didn't want a large boxy vanity. It makes it appear that the bathroom is larger than it is. The base board is 4"x13" tiles (not shown). All this done to accomodate out of town guests for the wedding.

The wedding went of with out a hitch, thanks to many volunteers. No kidding, there were at least 40 volunteers that helped to pull this event off. More pictures on that next blog!
Finally, the www.tmbceramics.com web site is up and running. take a look, it is wonderful!

Another Remodel Project

4.5 weeks until the wedding. The colors are olive, champagne, and ivory. The bride will carry red roses. This is one of the bridesmaid's dresses.

These tiles are feature pieces that will be worked into the design of larger tiles to finish the tub surround and the floor. We are sprucing up the bathroom and also painting the doors in the hallway since we expect company for the wedding. Our future Son-in-law, Zach Heim, will do the construction and the tile work. His specialty is tile.


The bathtub was Harvest Gold. Remember that? I painted it white 8 years ago, and finally it is time redo the whole bathroom. This tub is white. The new sink will be white also and the counter top of the vanity will be a yellow-cream stone. It looks like a sedimentary stone material.


This is a new vanity for our bathroom. Zach removed the old tub, and vanity/sink and patched the walls, filled the holes, and re-textured. I always tell my family that I'm not a painter, but they still ask me to do it. I painted the room. When I was done I realized that the color is the same as my bedroom!
I hope on the next post that I will be giving you my new web address. It is almost ready!