One (WO)Man's Treasures ...

(click image for original event details)

How does one decide which is trash and which is treasure?

I'm fairly certain it's all a matter of perspective ... so, these are the treasures that I chose:

Stump Pass State Park (FL) Part 1

(Click above for original blog post dated 2.10.08)

Soul Journal - Days 7, 8 & 9 ... Plus a Charmed Sneak Peak

(Click above for original blog post dated 9.04.08)

... and no, this one is not a reference to cranes ...

&

An Earlier Retrospective ... of sorts

(Click above for original blog post dated 11.11.08)

Thank you for stopping by to see what I unearthed! I hope you enjoyed your visit.

I'm off to do some treasure hunting myself ... if you happen to see the girl with the cheesy ear-to-ear grin looking a bit giddy it's probably me. :)

(Click above to be directed to Seth's post ing of crazy good treasure hunting

A special note of thanks to Seth for his terrific idea!!

Another Step Closer ... plus Beachy Keen!

Somehow I missed taking pictures after getting the little charmies painted black ... ah well. Once black I felt like they were missing something ...

POLKA DOTS!

yep, that's right ... first I tried using ye ole standard tiny round paint brush, but it was rough going, so I flipped it around and used the butt of the brush ... mucho betterer. Here's a close up of the front and back:

Next step ... gloss. High gloss. I think that'll do the trick.

Next up ... photo's from Monday's treck out to the beach. I thought there would be neat things due to the recent storms & only wish I had planned tide timing better ... I thought I was going at low tide, but it seemed pretty high to me ... then again, that could be due to Ike.

--- click on the below pictures (any picture for that matter) to see a larger version ---

this crab carcass looked like it had been planted there and posed like that ... I just really like the way it's splayed and its colors against the color of the sand and shells ... take a closer look at the postion of the front claws ... what does it look like to you?

then I came across this bit of ocean vegetation ... the color of it was amazingly rich and deep. Plus, the little hitch-hiker was pretty cool, too.

The most surprising find was a handful of urchins scattered here and there. I have never seen any urchins on my beach visits, so this was a rare treat ... I couldn't help but snap a few shots and take a closer look:

and then I thought to roll it over (with a shell, of course) and discovered this little critter was still alive ... I don't know the proper thing to do when you come across a beached urchin ... are you supposed to leave them there to get eaten by birds or dried out? or put them back in the ocean? since I didn't have a naturalist handy, I did what felt right & returned him to the gulf (along with three of the four others I came across - the fourth was unquestionably lifeless, so I brought it home with me ...).

It was a gorgeous day and there weren't many people out, which is always a bonus.

What kind of fun things have you been up to?

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.