Hi everyone! Happy weekend! I am in Flagstaff, AZ tonight. We had a great time in Santa Fe, the Tinkertown Museum northeast of Albequerque this morning and in Flagstaff this afternoon. We are stopping in Williams, AZ for breakfast and to hopefully meet up with one of Kent's best friends and we should be home early tomorrow evening. I've had a great trip with my family. Sunday we have some family plans for the Rose Bowl Flea Market and a concert series in the park near our house. I should be back "at it" Monday! Can't wait to visit you all and see what you've been up to!
(I have a few more pix to share but I will wait until next week)
Jul 10, 2009
Jul 7, 2009
More trip pix
Hi everybody! It's been nice having my family with me on this trip to Missouri and it's been doubly nice to have my dad feeling pretty good. The only trouble is, it leaves me very little time to blog and keep caught up.
We are on our way home now. In fact, we're in Amarillo again. But, today we are taking a side trip up to Santa Fe, NM since I've never been. We should get home Saturday. Here are some pictures from the last few days.
Lauren fishing at Hammon's Camp on White River in the Ozarks. We all fished but we don't want you to see our fat white bodies holding our miniscule fish. If the fish were bigger we would've looked better I think, but the trip was a highlight of the trip. Everybody caught several little fish standing in that cool clear stream and we had a great picnic lunch.
My dad - doesn't he look good? It's pretty amazing to me all that he has been through in the last 6 months. He doesn't feel like he has much strength and has absolutely no appetite but he kept up with most everything going on.
We are on our way home now. In fact, we're in Amarillo again. But, today we are taking a side trip up to Santa Fe, NM since I've never been. We should get home Saturday. Here are some pictures from the last few days.
Lauren fishing at Hammon's Camp on White River in the Ozarks. We all fished but we don't want you to see our fat white bodies holding our miniscule fish. If the fish were bigger we would've looked better I think, but the trip was a highlight of the trip. Everybody caught several little fish standing in that cool clear stream and we had a great picnic lunch.
My dad - doesn't he look good? It's pretty amazing to me all that he has been through in the last 6 months. He doesn't feel like he has much strength and has absolutely no appetite but he kept up with most everything going on.
My Kent just loves tractors. He would like to be a farmer just so he can drive a tractor. We arranged with a friend of my dad's for Kent to go move some hay bales - he was in heaven. Oh, we are sad, sad city folks aren't we?
Of course I had to work in a few antique store stops. I haven't bought much, an old set of encyclopedias, some snapshots, an old flyswatter, and some other ephemera.
One of our usual outings on a trip to Missouri includes eating at Lambert's in Ozark, MO. They throw their hot fresh rolls at you, literally. I'm not sure why that is so fun, but my family just eats that up, also literally.
The roll thrower.
The men in our family must always make a trip to Bass Pro Shop. It is a huge sporting goods store that is put together with the extravagance of a Las Vegas casino or Disneyland theme park. Even the bathrooms are spectacular.
While the men looked at boring fishing tackle and archery stuff, Lauren tried on all of the camouflage sportswear and then posed with anything that stood still. Our friend Jolene would be proud of Lauren's shopping antics show.
I will leave you for today. I feel so badly being behind on everyone else, but I will savor a few good days of blog reading and commenting when I get home. I look so forward to it! Thank you for all of the fun comments you've kindly left on my boring vacay posts - you all are so nice to me!
The men in our family must always make a trip to Bass Pro Shop. It is a huge sporting goods store that is put together with the extravagance of a Las Vegas casino or Disneyland theme park. Even the bathrooms are spectacular.
While the men looked at boring fishing tackle and archery stuff, Lauren tried on all of the camouflage sportswear and then posed with anything that stood still. Our friend Jolene would be proud of Lauren's shopping antics show.
I will leave you for today. I feel so badly being behind on everyone else, but I will savor a few good days of blog reading and commenting when I get home. I look so forward to it! Thank you for all of the fun comments you've kindly left on my boring vacay posts - you all are so nice to me!
p.s. Becky - I waved to you at exit 108 yesterday! I think that was the right one. I want to know more about Roman Nose State Park in the middle of Oklahoma!
Jul 5, 2009
You might find this boring
I have been busy here in Missouri but with nothing that would be interesting to read about for most of my audience I'm afraid. We got here Thursday night. We haven't taken many pictures of our boring but busy adventures since getting here.
Around every 4th of July now, the park is home to many class reunions and following a parade on the Saturday closest to the 4th, everyone comes to the park for a bbq lunch. People literally come from all over the world to reunite with their friends and classmates. This has often astounded me. I graduated from a small town high school and have only been back once in 25 years. We've only had one reunion since then. But year after year, the Alumni of this high school gather together. This event is one of the main reasons we come time after time. The first couple of years we came to help trim, mow, and prepare the park as my dad seemed to always end up doing most of the work himself. Then others stepped up to help with those parts and we came to help my dad pick up, heat, and serve pulled pork sandwiches to the hundreds of people that gathered. We brought the bbq sauce bottles and pans and serving trays home every year and washed them. We emptied trash cans and cleaned tables and evesdropped on the stories and laughter that filled the park. It was such a great pleasure to be a little help in this annual event. This year, since my dad is not able to be as involved, our roles have changed. Others stepped in to arrange and serve the food. Caretakers have been hired to mow and clean the park and empty the trash cans. This year we came to help my dad enjoy it, knowing that we might need to keep him from doing too much or help him escape gracefully if he got too tired to stay. We set up tables and chairs and then took them down and that is all we did. We got off pretty easy workwise. My dad did leave a bit earlier than he used to and we stayed behind and it felt a bit strange and good at the same time, that he had done his job, it was taking care of itself now, he could enjoy and go home and rest. He had layed the ground work, he had started the job and now others see the vision and roll up their sleeves to keep it going. It struck me yesterday after he left, what a huge project he had helped to build out of just an idea. He helped build a gathering place like very few others, he helped build new traditions and helped everyone savor the old ones. As I write this, my husband is watching Field of Dreams and I was thinking that a few dedicated Alumni built a park too and people came and people will keep coming. It may seem a bit dramatic, but it is genuine. If you could see it, you would believe it.
Most of the last 16-17 years or so, we've come here to Mountain Grove for the 4th of July. I never lived in Mountain Grove but it is where my parents were from and we came here to visit my grandparents all of my life. My parents moved here the same year I graduated from college and got married. It is the epitemy of small town nostalgia complete with a town square, family owned restaurants and grocery stores, old houses, old buidlings, old trucks and old stories.
I don't know how many of you ever watched Andy Hardy movies, but I used to watch them every Sunday after church and before and after Sunday dinner growing up.
Mountain Grove has always reminded me of those Andy Hardy movies. Of course, I didn't see this little town in its hey day 40's but I've seen pictures and heard stories. My parents graduated from MGHS in 1946 and 47. It is not hard to see the charm of this place through their eyes and memories they share. The charm is still here, the spirit that made it in exceptional little town.
In 1991 or so, my dad was part of a group that arranged for a piece of land, not far from the town square or high school, to be donated to the Alumni of the high school. An old spring house, where farmers used to keep their milk cool when they came to town to sell it, was it's centerpiece. Around it, over the last few years, they have built a stone wall with the names of the all the graduates since around 1888. Tables and benches were donated, and shelters for picnic tables and bricks were sold to individuals to pave the center walkway. Two years ago my dad designed and helped build with the time and donations of many volunteers, a large shelter with an enclosed modern kitchen, storage, and restrooms. I have seen the park grow from that old spring house in the middle of a run down lot, until it has nearly reached the vision of the few loyal graduates that wanted to have a special place to gather and remember this most unique town and high school they grew up in.
Around every 4th of July now, the park is home to many class reunions and following a parade on the Saturday closest to the 4th, everyone comes to the park for a bbq lunch. People literally come from all over the world to reunite with their friends and classmates. This has often astounded me. I graduated from a small town high school and have only been back once in 25 years. We've only had one reunion since then. But year after year, the Alumni of this high school gather together. This event is one of the main reasons we come time after time. The first couple of years we came to help trim, mow, and prepare the park as my dad seemed to always end up doing most of the work himself. Then others stepped up to help with those parts and we came to help my dad pick up, heat, and serve pulled pork sandwiches to the hundreds of people that gathered. We brought the bbq sauce bottles and pans and serving trays home every year and washed them. We emptied trash cans and cleaned tables and evesdropped on the stories and laughter that filled the park. It was such a great pleasure to be a little help in this annual event. This year, since my dad is not able to be as involved, our roles have changed. Others stepped in to arrange and serve the food. Caretakers have been hired to mow and clean the park and empty the trash cans. This year we came to help my dad enjoy it, knowing that we might need to keep him from doing too much or help him escape gracefully if he got too tired to stay. We set up tables and chairs and then took them down and that is all we did. We got off pretty easy workwise. My dad did leave a bit earlier than he used to and we stayed behind and it felt a bit strange and good at the same time, that he had done his job, it was taking care of itself now, he could enjoy and go home and rest. He had layed the ground work, he had started the job and now others see the vision and roll up their sleeves to keep it going. It struck me yesterday after he left, what a huge project he had helped to build out of just an idea. He helped build a gathering place like very few others, he helped build new traditions and helped everyone savor the old ones. As I write this, my husband is watching Field of Dreams and I was thinking that a few dedicated Alumni built a park too and people came and people will keep coming. It may seem a bit dramatic, but it is genuine. If you could see it, you would believe it.
So, today, we went to my dad's church to help celebrate its 125th anniversary. It was a fun and special service. Tonight we went back for a Preacher's Quartet and a Bluegrass family group. It was very impressive and entertaining. We have two days left here with a couple of mini adventures planned that I will share later if they happen and we get any pictures.
I thought I'd show you a couple of pictures of my dad and his wife's house they had built not long before they got married 4 years ago. (you may remember that my mom died 13 years ago) It is such a lovely place to visit.
This was last February when I was here and built the snowlady I posted.
This was yesterday.
And now for a bit of sad news. Remember this picture from my last trip?
Well, when we passed by the building where it was, we found they were in the process of sandblasting it away. This is how it looks now. A tragedy.
Jul 1, 2009
"Monitoring well" in Amarillo, TX
Hi ya'all! We're 2/3 of the way to Missouri. We should get there tomorrow evening. I saw this rusty old meter cover in a parking lot at Joe and Aggie's Cafe and liked what it said. Joe and Aggie's was sort of, kind of, had some little something to do with the Pixar animated movie, Cars, as did several other things we see everytime we make this drive. You see, most of the drive from our house in SoCal to my Dad's in Missouri is along Route 66. You can read about the Route 66 attractions and how they were used in the movie here. You won't see Joe and Aggie's in this particular article, but we happened to eat there just after the movie crew did one year on their scout for background images. That year we took great lengths to see many of its older attractions before they disappeared. I'm so glad we did that because many more are gone every year we drive the Route.
If you ever make the drive, you will see many dinosaurs in Arizona and New Mexico. Most are friendly and affectionate as my Lauren discovered. (You didn't know you just wandered in for vacation pictures - poor things. The last ones are the best but I'm going in order here.)
Some are very big though.
We didn't stay in a Wigwam this time because they are a bit cramped. We have stayed in them before though. You can read about this particular Wigwam Motel here It is one of the last remaining Wigwam Motels in the world. This year we stayed next door and snuck over to take some pix.
The kids have made this drive so many times they've got it wired. They are fun to travel with and we have no "he's touching me" or "she's on my side" issues anymore. We play lots of trivia games, listen to music, listen to Kent sing at the top of his lungs, and be silly.
We have stopped a few times at one of the few places it is legal and welcomed to leave grafitti - the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo. It is, technically, a large interactive installation art work by Stanley Marsh III. You can read about Amarillo's Cadillac Ranch on the Roadside America website here. Basically, there are 8 Cacillacs buried nose in, sticking out of the ground, in the middle of a field, and covered with grafitti. (They can also be found in the Cars movie.)
Shawn leaving his mark. We just brought Sharpies, no spray paint.
Lauren looking all innocent.
Me and Lauren and Shawn sneaking in.
A close up of some of the grafitti. I plan to post more as texture layers on my flickr soon.
I had a picture with Kent in it but the rest of the people in the picture were not cooperating so I'll take one of him tomorrow. I promise he is here with us! I don't know when I'll get to post again, the next few days are going to be a bit busy. If I don't get back before the 4th, hope you have a great weekend with fireworks and picnics and watermelon and pie and bbq and fireflies and swimming and friends and family!
Jun 29, 2009
Just can't pull myself away . . .
I really have to get ready for my trip, but just woke up this morning and HAD to make one more piece. It says something when I would rather stay home and make art than go on "vacation". I wanted to leave a little something 4th of July-ish, sort of.
Dreaming Mona
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/29/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a Mona face from the public domain, a body from flickr's Okinawa Soba, legs and wings from the public domain and boots scanned from a magazine. The crown is from Becky Loyal's whymsicalmusings.etsy.com. The word dream is from flickr's Nancy Baumiller and the stars were purchased from a digital scrapbooking site. All of these pieces were printed in black and white, except the word dream, trimmed with scissors, hand-colored, and attached to a background made from layers from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', Joes Sistah, and anwphotography.
Also wanted to leave you a couple of free to use pictures. These are from the Library of Congress. Just left click to get the larger size and then download. Enjoy!
And lastly, I know you have probably been inundated with news about Michael Jackson. I grew up in the 70's so despite my concern over his seemingly very poor judgement in the last few years, I will always appreciate and be a fan of his incredible talent and what he has done for so many industries and people. Anyway, I had kind of forgotten about this video he made, and given what kind of art I make now, I have a whole new appreciation for the art of it. It is an amazing collage video so if you have a minute, I don't think you'll be disappointed. You'll have to turn off my playlist if you watch the video
Dreaming Mona
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/29/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a Mona face from the public domain, a body from flickr's Okinawa Soba, legs and wings from the public domain and boots scanned from a magazine. The crown is from Becky Loyal's whymsicalmusings.etsy.com. The word dream is from flickr's Nancy Baumiller and the stars were purchased from a digital scrapbooking site. All of these pieces were printed in black and white, except the word dream, trimmed with scissors, hand-colored, and attached to a background made from layers from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', Joes Sistah, and anwphotography.
Also wanted to leave you a couple of free to use pictures. These are from the Library of Congress. Just left click to get the larger size and then download. Enjoy!
And lastly, I know you have probably been inundated with news about Michael Jackson. I grew up in the 70's so despite my concern over his seemingly very poor judgement in the last few years, I will always appreciate and be a fan of his incredible talent and what he has done for so many industries and people. Anyway, I had kind of forgotten about this video he made, and given what kind of art I make now, I have a whole new appreciation for the art of it. It is an amazing collage video so if you have a minute, I don't think you'll be disappointed. You'll have to turn off my playlist if you watch the video
Music Videos by VideoCure
Jun 28, 2009
I'm off again . . .
I have one more day until I am off again and it will be full of chores and errands. We leave Tuesday for Missouri. We are driving this time and I look forward to that, but it involves a little more work. So, I'm not sure what other than chores I will get done Monday.
I'm also not sure that this piece below is done. I am tired and kind of half finished it. I'll look at it in a couple of weeks and see what else I want to do. For now . . . it, or its idea, is dedicated to Lumi of Lumilyon and Susan of Broken Heart Art who helped me open my eyes to parts of me I had long since shut away. Those things, even the scary and sad and hurt parts, need to be thought through every now and then to gain perspective. My eyes have been opened a bit, at least as far as seeing myself. So, thank you, you two, for a very meaningful few days.
Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/28/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from kumareeboo.etsy.com, a body from flickr's FatmaD, eyes from flickr's s11ver, boots scanned from a magazine and hats made from scrap. All were printed in black and white, trimmed with scissors, and hand-colored. These pieces were attached to a background made from pieces from flickr's Joes Sistah and borders by Sande Krieger.
Before I take off I want to show you some of the very special mail I've received lately. Melissa of Honey Girl Studio blog sent me a scrumptious matchbox set in a recent swap we were a part of. The matchbox contained 5 mini-ATC's, a silver seahorse charm and a tiny shell. All of this was just amazingly beautiful.
Melissa also sent me a pendant she made. On the front, Melissa captured a guardian angel for me with a little blue triangle up in the corner because she is so durn thoughtful and clever. The little blue triangle comes from this post of mine http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/somethings-in-my-cloud-mystery.html That is just about the coolest thing EVER!
This is the lovely back of the same pendant. Thank you Melissa! You are a sweetheart and a very talented artist and I love the pieces you sent me!
My friend, Verna Rosenblum of Bird Bee and Bloom blog, sent me two pieces too. You may remember she and I were going to trade bee fairies. Here was mine http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/2009/05/busy-as-bee-today.html Verna, being the super cool sweet human she is, sent an extra piece after I mentioned how much I loved her Egg Snatcher piece. She made one just for me! I love them both, Verna. They are spectacular! Thank you dear friend!
And last but not least, Janine Davies of Bits and Pieces blog, sent me this pendant and hand made card from the One World One Heart Event. They are beautiful and special and I appreciate them so much!
Okay, so my Etsy is closed down for a couple of weeks. I will be checking here off and on but the first and last few days will be mostly car, driving, stretching, motel-ing days and it may be a few days before I check back in. But I will and I will be checking on all of your blogs too as much as I can. After this trip, I should be home and working a good long time and I can't wait to really dive in!
It's almost July! Wow! Happy 4th of July everyone!
I'm also not sure that this piece below is done. I am tired and kind of half finished it. I'll look at it in a couple of weeks and see what else I want to do. For now . . . it, or its idea, is dedicated to Lumi of Lumilyon and Susan of Broken Heart Art who helped me open my eyes to parts of me I had long since shut away. Those things, even the scary and sad and hurt parts, need to be thought through every now and then to gain perspective. My eyes have been opened a bit, at least as far as seeing myself. So, thank you, you two, for a very meaningful few days.
Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/28/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from kumareeboo.etsy.com, a body from flickr's FatmaD, eyes from flickr's s11ver, boots scanned from a magazine and hats made from scrap. All were printed in black and white, trimmed with scissors, and hand-colored. These pieces were attached to a background made from pieces from flickr's Joes Sistah and borders by Sande Krieger.
Before I take off I want to show you some of the very special mail I've received lately. Melissa of Honey Girl Studio blog sent me a scrumptious matchbox set in a recent swap we were a part of. The matchbox contained 5 mini-ATC's, a silver seahorse charm and a tiny shell. All of this was just amazingly beautiful.
Melissa also sent me a pendant she made. On the front, Melissa captured a guardian angel for me with a little blue triangle up in the corner because she is so durn thoughtful and clever. The little blue triangle comes from this post of mine http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/somethings-in-my-cloud-mystery.html That is just about the coolest thing EVER!
This is the lovely back of the same pendant. Thank you Melissa! You are a sweetheart and a very talented artist and I love the pieces you sent me!
My friend, Verna Rosenblum of Bird Bee and Bloom blog, sent me two pieces too. You may remember she and I were going to trade bee fairies. Here was mine http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/2009/05/busy-as-bee-today.html Verna, being the super cool sweet human she is, sent an extra piece after I mentioned how much I loved her Egg Snatcher piece. She made one just for me! I love them both, Verna. They are spectacular! Thank you dear friend!
And last but not least, Janine Davies of Bits and Pieces blog, sent me this pendant and hand made card from the One World One Heart Event. They are beautiful and special and I appreciate them so much!
Okay, so my Etsy is closed down for a couple of weeks. I will be checking here off and on but the first and last few days will be mostly car, driving, stretching, motel-ing days and it may be a few days before I check back in. But I will and I will be checking on all of your blogs too as much as I can. After this trip, I should be home and working a good long time and I can't wait to really dive in!
It's almost July! Wow! Happy 4th of July everyone!
Jun 26, 2009
A summer Friday
The Giver
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/26/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from kumareeboo.etsy.com, wings from Dover clipart, legs from the public domain, a body from flickr's chicks57, arms from the public domain, and boots scanned from a magazine. All of these pieces were printed in black and white, trimmed with scissors, and hand-colored. The crown was made from scrap paper and the hearts were made from scanned objects, also printed and trimmed. The pieces were assembled and attached to a background made from layers from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', anwphotography, and Joes Sistah.
Here are its parts.
I am supposed to be cleaning and doing laundry. Am I? No, but I am off to do that now, I think, I hope. The kids are off doing their thing, the house is empty and hottish. I have a lot of chores I should be doing and I can't seem to pull myself away from work. I need to! Tomorrow we are going to Santa Barbara for the day to take some cool old stuff to Art from Scraps, a place that takes donations of all types of things for artists, teachers, and students to buy cheap for their art projects, and hang out with some good friends a bit. Then there are only two days until I head for my Dad's again! Wow, already!
I meant to scan some very lovely trades and gifts that I received in the mail but I will get to it later. I feel drained and hurried and want to do it right.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 6/26/09
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from kumareeboo.etsy.com, wings from Dover clipart, legs from the public domain, a body from flickr's chicks57, arms from the public domain, and boots scanned from a magazine. All of these pieces were printed in black and white, trimmed with scissors, and hand-colored. The crown was made from scrap paper and the hearts were made from scanned objects, also printed and trimmed. The pieces were assembled and attached to a background made from layers from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', anwphotography, and Joes Sistah.
Here are its parts.
I am supposed to be cleaning and doing laundry. Am I? No, but I am off to do that now, I think, I hope. The kids are off doing their thing, the house is empty and hottish. I have a lot of chores I should be doing and I can't seem to pull myself away from work. I need to! Tomorrow we are going to Santa Barbara for the day to take some cool old stuff to Art from Scraps, a place that takes donations of all types of things for artists, teachers, and students to buy cheap for their art projects, and hang out with some good friends a bit. Then there are only two days until I head for my Dad's again! Wow, already!
I meant to scan some very lovely trades and gifts that I received in the mail but I will get to it later. I feel drained and hurried and want to do it right.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
