California Academy of Sciences

TRIP ~ DAY 2

The second day of my winter trip.  My daughter & her boyfriend took me to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.  What an amazing place.  We could have spent the entire day there.

First up African Penguins . . .

 The keeper, hosing down their living quarters.

It was fun to watch them interact with her!

 Fronds distributed to the birds.

Some grabbed them.

Some did not.

 

Penguin carrying frond into cave.

Are they food? 

Nesting material?

Art supplies?

We never figured it out, but had fun watching!

Seahorse railing.

It keeps visitors from falling into the albino alligator pool.

Bugs, Butterflies, Sea Creatures.

The words are not the creatures' names, but human -- adopt a creature, support the Academy -- just like those who's names are above each metal seahorse.

Frog on plant.

You can see I did not pay attention to names and classification.  The shapes, the colors, the composition - that I paid attention to!

Sea Anemone.

My camera supplied this color.

COOL!

Jelly Fish

A light source supplied a rainbow of color.

This jelly is translucent white.  They are in a circular tank because they move with the current and if their tank is square or rectangular, they would all end up stuck in the corners.

Don't you love learning new things?

I was so enthralled I sometimes forgot to take photos.  My daughter kept reading signs and telling me cool info.  It was a marvel.  And we didn't even see the planetarium or rain forest!  If you're in San Francisco, do visit.  It is worth the price, really!

Its All About Me

To see Natasha's post and the other participants, CLICK here!

When I signed up for this blog party, I had no idea what I would do. I just knew it would be good to do something for me.

Then my local scrapbooking store sent an email telling me about a day long crafting event called "Stamptoberfest." The projects looked terrific, and I signed up, realizing it was the perfect "all about me" day! For more about fun activities, check out {creative chick headquarters} These are some of the wonderful ladies behind the day.

My schedule.

It was a great day. There were 5 teachers/5 classes. The students were divided into groups and went from one table to the next.


There were signs for each station, but I'm afraid this is the only one I snapped. Once we got going it was fast & intense and I was just glad to keep up.

My Tin Woman


We used plastic templates and rubbed the metal over them to add designs, then sand papered it to bring out the details. Because each class section was just 45 minutes, the teachers did a lot of prep work, including covering the legs with dictionary pages & painting the boots, arms, wings.


This is Erin & Melissa M.
Melissa taught my next class. We made a very wonderful pin out of a stamped image and swarovski crystals. You notice there is no photo? I gave the pin to my daughter and forgot to take a snap. I'm pretty sure she likes it, as it is a paisley shape and autumnal colors.
I loved how it turned out.

Erin took lots of photos of the day, staffed the register & rang the bell to keep us all on track.
She teaches at Colorful Creations for other events.


I always thought making charms was difficult. You had to solder and probably burn yourself (I have worked with glue guns and know about burns) and maybe have 2-handed coordination (I'm so awfully right handed).
NOT SO!

We got 3 kits for charms. We had time to make 2 and the one above is awaiting me.

These are the charms we made.
I learned how to use distress stamp pads to color tags & how to put these charm pieces together (no soldering needed). The teachers are so creative. The little charm on the left has tiny beads, starfish & shell shaking around. The fishnet was a great touch.


The next class was twice the time so we could make a tag book.

My finished book

I'll tell you a secret. The metal pieces the ribbon is strung thru are one of those mothers of invention things. I made a mess punching the holes and ripped the cover. Those metal pieces were part of the kit, I string & glued them and viola, no tears showing!

Inside of Tag Book.

Tags in a row.


No drawing required!
This was all done with stamps, watercolor pens & brush.


Thank you Natasha for hosting this lovely party. I had such a good time at my day of art. I learned lots of new techniques. I discovered my ArtBin is useless for holding supplies at this kind of event, and if I can swing it, I want to get a better camera for Silver Bella. Who would guess so much great knowledge would come out of planning a day all about me?

New York, New York

I had a fabulous time in Manhattan last week. My friend, Amy R. and I met up at her mother's apartment for a few days. The timing was perfect, it was the week she could go and the week of the New York Gift Show.

Almost 20 years ago, when I was part of a gift/antiques shop cooperative, I used to go the the California Gift Show every 6 months. I would buy things for my shop space and also for myself. Back then, Beckman's Handcraft was a show-within-a-show, with wonderful handcrafted items and supplies. I used to decorate all sorts of things with dried and silk flowers so it was fun both to buy and get ideas! One of the vendors was Elaine Seamans for At-Choo. She made these wonderful pins which I sold in the shop, but also kept one for myself.

Imagine my delight to find her at the New York gift show! I had just gone through my files and found her old catalog. Amy and I were walking down the aisle and discovered this amazing image:

Two beautiful black-clad goth girls standing in Elaine's almost all white booth!

They were all kind enough to let me take their photo. After they had conducted their business, I reintroduced myself to Elaine, who is on the right in the photo. We talked and caught up. Her handmade items continue to be beautiful. Her online shop has items from a year ago, but you can always request a current catalog.

On the way to the gift show the second day I made a detour here:

Tinsel Trading Company!
I discovered them at the Vintage Textile and Fashion Show at the beginning of Brimfield, where Marcia Ceppos, the owner, had a booth. I knew the store would be a treasure trove of fabulous ribbon and trim. And it was! I was able to get a few things to use in my Silver Bella swaps.

I had already been to Tinsel Trading's booth at the gift show. It really was the only booth I knew I wanted to visit. As it turned out, Wendy Addison has designed a line of glittery treasures for Tinsel Trading. Her Theatre of Dreams seems such a magical place. I hope to visit it one of these days!

Wendy & me.

When I walked into the booth, there she was. It was such a delight to meet her! I tried not to gush, but I'm not sure I was successful. Even now when I write this I get this silly grin on my face thinking of meeting her. She is really sweet and friendly and I felt very welcome.

I was also able to place an order and am looking forward to getting a box full of glittery stars and wands and ornaments to shine in my shop.

Manhattan is a fabulous place. I love to walk there. My walk back from the Javits Center took me to The HighLine, New York's first elevated park.

What used to be a crumbling elevated railroad trestle is now a green walking park.


This was my view from the park.


Sedum


Hydrangea and Cone Flower, I think.


I love the juxtaposition of the flowers, fence and unique architecture.
Out of camera range was a canoodling couple.


And now from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Instead of taking the train from Boston to NY and back, I took the Fung Wah bus. It is a very cheap alternative that goes between Chinatowns in a number of cities.

The bus trips were uneventful. The emergency exit was not needed. But oh so cool that it's posted in both English and Chinese.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever language it is in.

Summer Camp

It's summer.
Time for campfires, arts & crafts and swim lessons.

I'm off to deliver my daughter to summer camp.
It has been a yearly destination since she was 6 and her big brother was 9.

Now she's the waterfront director and this is her view most of the day!

She and the head lifeguard met at this camp when they were 9. They attended high school together. Her friend's not going to camp this summer. It's going to be different this year!


While my girl is administering swim tests. I'm gonna stay in the area and antique. For the past 3 years, she's gotten herself to camp, so I haven't driven down. But this summer I'm looking forward to seeing some favorite shops and finding new ones. It's an adventure. And I do so love a road trip!

Fun in the Sun

I am having such a fun time! I'm down in San Diego visiting with friends from PTA. We lived here during the kids' elementary and middle school years. It is warm and green and I love seeing my friends again. I can't believe it's been 4 years since I was last here.

I've also realized I need to get into the habit of taking more pictures. I spent the day on Coronado Island and there is not a single picture of that wonderful place or the friend I spent it with. Guess I'll just have to go back and take pictures.

Tomorrow I'm antiquing with another friend. I'll remember to take more pictures.