Fry Canyon-Day 4

These are the 'business hours' of the place we were trying to rent gear from in Moab. Fry Canyon is about a two hour drive Southwest of Moab. One of our Canyoneering guides (Jackson Hole Mountain Guides), Aimee Left to right: Dad, Aimee, Jim (other guide) We rappelled into this crack This water was 40 degrees. We did one 15 ft. swim and the rest was wading through waist deep water. You can see my dad in the background taking the temperature with his dive watch. Beautiful slot canyon! Fremont Indian ruins. Our guides had not previously been up there so later we had to scout a way to get to them. Hiking and exploring Me and Dad Scrambled up to the top of the canyon again This guy was looking for some water. This was the rappel down to the ruins. The rope we had was just long enough. Exploring the ruins This is just stacked rock...amazing it has stood for so long. A little color in the desert The climb back up from the ruins. You can't see them in the photo, but there were tiny Moki Steps at the very bottom that the Indians carved out to help them get up the canyon walls. It was really cool to use them. This is Newspaper Rock (petroglyph) outside Canyonlands National Park. 2000 years of Indian story-telling here. AMAZING. A pack of deer in Canyonlands just before sunset. It was challenging driving with them everywhere. Free range cows everywhere too. We had a face-off with one in the middle of the road. She won. Pin It

Slickrock, Hole in the Rock, La Sal Mtn. Loop-Day 3

Entrance to Slickrock mountain bike trail. Do not be fooled - this trail is EXTREMELY hard! This is another place we stumbled upon. It is a 5000 sq. ft. home built into a huge rock from the 1950's. This place is so quirky. You could take tours of the home but there was also a gift shop, general store, petting zoo, sculpture garden and a small cemetery. Ostrich and Emus Cactus Sculpture made up entirely of golf clubs La Sals up close (La Sal Loop) Moab from a distance Snow on the ground in the desert - WEIRD! Fins and things! Pin It

Arches National Park-Day 2

Pine Tree Arch Landscape Arch La Sals in the distance We stumbled upon a perfect wall for climbing Hangin out Hiking in the Devil's Garden My dad admiring the view This arch is no more Famous Delicate Arch - It was a 3 mile hike (about 600 ft. elevation gain) just to see this arch but it was worth it...very dramatic and iconic. That's me underneath it...gives you some perspective of the scale. Ute rock art dating back to A.D. 1650 - 1850 The Fiery Furnaces Balanced Rock Pin It

Moab, Utah-Day 1

These pics were taken on the drive in from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah. We had some travel delays that put us in later than we were expecting but none-the-less a beautiful trip. The scenic route followed the Colorado River for over 20 miles and in the distance you could see the La Sal mountain range. Pin It

Spring mix watercolor wedding invitation

This is for a bride who will be carrying a 'spring mix' bouquet and her bridesmaid's dresses are navy blue. Pin It

Tampa

So sweet! Worn out... Dusty at the dog beach My contribution to the girls' bathroom Pin It

Creeping Wisteria

We were just talking about how beautiful wisteria is and today it showed up, peeking over the fence in the backyard. Happy Spring! Pin It

March Madness!

Here's my bracket - so far, so good! Pin It

Bridesmaids' luncheon invitations

I haven't posted any new artwork in a while so here is my latest project. I watercolored this bouquet to tailor it to the bride's flowers and colors: Pink roses, green hydrangea and white stephanotis. The bride plans to carry these flowers tied in a green ribbon. The ribbon color came out strange in this photograph but in reality it is close to the dark green in the painting. The centers of the stephanotis flowers are embellished with pearls and each invitation is printed on cream linen paper and mounted on textured pink art paper. Pin It

First beautiful weekend of the year!

I was truly excited for such a warm and clear weekend after the snow and all the rain we have had! Saturday we spent the day outside at The Exceptional Foundation's chili cook-off and then on Sunday, Joel and I walked to Moss Rock and hiked around. We did a little bouldering, played with Dusty and even saw a fox in broad daylight (that may or may not have been rabid). We spent pretty much the entire day outside and it made me remember why I love spring and just being outdoors in general. It is such a natural mood enhancer and does wonders for the soul. Pin It

It snowed today!

View from the Bluff Our house! Downtown Birmingham Pin It

Girl with a pearl oyster

Tonight I had a great dinner with Joel, Ann and Mark at Lovoys. It was Joel's birthday meal and he wanted an appetizer of baked oysters, the house specialty. He only ordered a half dozen but they were huge! I sampled one and then he offered me another and I refused. He put another on my plate anyway and of course I began to eat it. Suddenly, I bit into something that wasn't at all edible. I tried to spit it out quietly and politely, not realizing what it was. A PEARL! It doesn't look like the kind you would wear on a necklace, mostly because it is misshapen and discolored but still a huge pearl! Tonight I read that pearls from edible oysters are not worth much especially after they are cooked (noticed the dark coloration) but either way I feel lucky. I could count the times I have had oysters on one hand. Pin It

2 of my favorite portraits

I did these in college and still have them laying around - thought I would post them. Bob is acrylic on collaged sheet music and Jerry is an etching print. Let me know if anyone wants one! Pin It

I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany

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There's nothing like old friends

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ABF Dinner

Last night was the 8th annual American Baseball Foundation Lead Off dinner at The Club. It was my second year to go and this time the guest speaker was Dale Murphy (pictured above). The dinner and the speeches were great but I didn't 'win' anything at the silent auction this year...very little Auburn stuff there! Pin It