Welcome to SW Florida ... or a Study in Clouds

I can't believe that it's been a week since I have written. It isn't for a lack of things to report, but for having too much going on ... I simply haven't been able to slow my mind down. Part of it is being preoccupied with these two incredible magazines:

(You can click on the covers to purchase them on-line)

Of course I had to run out and buy Art Doll Quarterly as there is an article by magnificent Monica Magness of Girl Gone Thread Wild on our beloved Love Squared (have you bought your raffle tickets, yet???). The article was really lovely and the photographs beautiful.

Not only that, but the cover article is on one of my favorite artists - Vanessa Valencia from A Fanciful Twist. Once I had read it cover to cover (and back and forth again and again and again) I raced out to the bookstore to pick up one of the last two copies of Artful Blogging - Vanessa is featured in Artful Blogging, too ... along with a number of brilliant other artists (that I am chomping at the bit to visit) ... if you haven't had the chance to check them out, I do think it's worth your while. :)

Last Monday Don and I ran away from home for a couple of hours (critter had a date with rockin-awesome Grandma). We went to Stump Pass. It was HOT and muggy, so we weren't there for our usual 4 hours, but definitely long enough for Don to catch (and release) a few fish and for me to find some cool rocks, sharks teeth and some pretty cool cloud shots. Believe it or not, the next three photo's were taken from the same spot.

This first one is facing the gulf - look how lovely the water was:

I turned around and took these next two:

Can you believe those clouds rolling in?

This one was taken just up the beach (on the way back to the auto) within just a few minutes of the first three:

and then this one was just simply a lucky capture:

I wish I had captured the prehistoric looking crane with just the sandy background so you could see how amazing these crazy birds are, but I have to admit that I love that I captured it just as it was taking flight. You can click on any of the images to see a larger version of the photo.

I have also been working on some artsy stuff, too. I don't have photo's to share, but might be able to get some before I go back to work on Tuesday. OK, I have taken a long enough break - I'm working on a brochure for my friend Deirdre ... she's been way more than patient, so I need to work the kinks out and send over a proof to her.