Happy Dancing on My Lanai Today

Bet you can't guess why.

It's not the avocado plants flourishing that is causing me to dance.  And, no, we haven't gotten them into the ground yet.  And now we're a little afraid to because the ground is so hot.

Nor are the beautiful blooms on our plumeria the cause of my extreme happiness...  Please note that I was barefoot when I grabbed my camera so all these were taken from the inside of the screened lanai looking out.  These wonderful digital cameras take a beautiful (?) image of the screen itself.  ;-)

No...those are good reasons that would normally be the source of my joy.

No, it is THIS>>>>

This is my new pineapple plant!!!!  The smaller, old green plant in front of the larger, healthy new green is the pineapple top we planted just before Christmas.  The new green is the plant that will produce a pineapple in about 18 more months!  I had stopped looking it because it was taking FOREVER to do anything. And I was afraid it was like waiting for water to boil.  The more I looked at it, the longer it seemed to take for anything to happen. But, low and behold, last week I noticed it for the first time.  It is growing like crazy now.  Must be the tropical weather we have had recently.  Hot and humid.  Pineapples love it hot and humid.  Mama Nature is providing that in spades right now.

So my plant is named Tim.

Because...

I bought it to use it as part of a table centerpiece last winter when author, Tim Dorsey, was a speaker for one of our library programs.  He was promoting his book, Pineapple Grenade.  Tim loved it.  I brought the pineapple home and when we cut it up a couple of weeks later, I got my husband to plant it for me because he is the one with a green thumb in this family.  Anything I plant, dies.  Even silk plants choke to death on dust.

Tim's new book is in hardcover, "The Riptide Ultra-Glide," the 16th book in his best selling series featuring a lovable serial killer named Serge Storms.  His books are fun to read and his talent as a speaker makes him the ultimate in what we look for in a library program.  Humorous and well-spoken, friendly and extremely approachable -- he is super.  Don't miss a chance to hear him if he is in your area.

I can't wait to tell my friend, Neila, all about Tim, the Pineapple.

Painting with Shaving Cream

While leafing through a back issue of Card Maker Magazine online awhile back, I ran across a painting technique to use for a background on a card.  I printed the article out and put it in my notebook of "ideas."  As promised in yesterday's blog entry, I dug it out and reread it.

The number one material required for the technique:  shaving cream.  Hmmmm.  We use electric shavers around here.  Thinking I might have to make a quick trip to the store, I asked my hubby if, by chance, he still had shaving cream anywhere in the house. Shows how observant I am.  He opened the medicine cabinet and showed it to me.  "I keep it around because every once in awhile, I like a close shave. I told you the other day I had bought refills for my Schick, remember?"  Well, uh, sure.  I remember that.....  I grabbed the shaving cream and headed for my studio, aka "art nook" because it only has two walls.

I read the label. "Menthol" -- guess it can't hurt the process, right?  It smells good, anyway.  I went to my liquid watercolor storage drawer and pulled them out.  The article called for "alcohol inks" but I decided to use drops of liquid watercolor because that is what I have in great supply and the bottles have eye droppers in each, making them easy to use.

I followed the directions and squirted a pile of the shaving cream on a Styrofoam plate.  My goodness, that menthol and soap smells so fresh and clean!

I picked out two shades of blue, a yellow, and an alizarin red and dropped two drops of each onto the fluffy white shaving cream.

I stirred it around with a knife.  This is about to get very messy so be sure to allow yourself enough room to work with this stuff.

I took a watercolor card and placed it face down in the colorful mess of  shaving cream.  I squished it around trying to be sure the whole card was covered.  The more colorful strip on the left still has the foam on it.  The right has been scraped clean using an old credit card or used gift card.  I also had a straight edge that I could use that really gave me a better grip.  I got this stuff all over me.  I even dropped the whole thing in my lap.

You may not be as clutzy as I am.  Because the paper plate was so unstable, I put the next batch on foam board.

The finished product is really pretty in a tie-dye sort of way.  I made another from this batch and also did a second batch using the larger flat surface of the foam core and it worked better.  I used green, yellow, and orange for that one.

The flatter surface was less of a challenge and I learned that I could take a spatula to lift the stuff and put it on my card.  Less messy and easier to manage.

After the card was dry, I picked out some mulberry paper , ribbon and embellishments to complete the card and bookmark.

I plan to work with the green one tomorrow while it rains cats and dogs around here and I'll post it in the next blog entry if we haven't floated away by then.

Media Hype -- Good or Bad?

Went to Facebook this morning to find it inundated with media links re the fact that "The Weather Channel" has added Tampa to the list of cities "most overdue" for a direct hit by a hurricane.  91 years since the last one and that has always been called the 1921 "Tarpon Springs Hurricane" because the direct hit was taken by our lovely little town and the surrounding citrus groves.  I am not sure who subtracted 1921 from 2013 and got "91" as the mathematical solution.

It has been 92 years since that hurricane season.  The population of the Greater Tampa Bay area has grown by 1,933%.  Tarpon Springs has grown from a population of 2,105 to 23,484 (2010 census), an increase of 1,016%.  In 1921 there 6 bridges throughout the region.  Today there are 23 -- and they are very heavily traveled.  There were few dwellings along the coast in 1921.  Today they are over developed.  Low elevations and limited exit routes increase our vulnerability. The 1921 storm is estimated to have been a Category 3 storm, driving much water in front of it.

NOAA has an excellent presentation of this information at this LINK.  I found the maps for storm surge particularly interesting as well as the discussion of the "human" element.  I also found it interesting that despite Tarpon having taken the direct hit, there were no pictures and very little mention of our city.

Should we experience a hurricane of that magnitude here in Tampa Bay area, I believe the death toll will be high.  And most of the death toll will be in Pinellas County, not Tampa.

Why?

Because I live among a lot of people who will not evacuate -- or who will wait until it is too late to evacuate. There are several reasons for this: 1)  it costs money to evacuate outside of the area and people do not want to go to a local school or other place where they cannot ride the storm out fairly comfortably; 2) it is human to deny that it "will happen to us" and they will expect the storm to take a different track than the one predicted; 3)  they are idiots.

Media hype exacerbates all three reasons: 1)  after a storm, they dwell ad nauseam re the perceived discomfort of shelters; 2)  they continually hype the storms so that when they do not turn out as predicted, it creates a mindset; and 3) they pay idiots to go out and stand in the elements to show us how "bad" it is -- so that idiots who think they know more than the authorities can (and will) emulate them.

These days one needs to remember that "The Weather Channel" is owned by the same folks who own CNN and NBC. Hype sells ads and brings millions into their coffers.

So we walk a fine line. Watch TV for status reports -- but pay attention to government notices and take our lead from the people paid to protect us -- not "The Weather Channel," "Accuweather," or their ilk.  And when our emergency management people call for a voluntary evacuation along the coast, we will pack up and go.  Right then.  No waiting to "see if it will turn."  Our motto: "Better safe than sorry."  Nothing is more important than our lives and that of our pup.  Everything else is just "stuff."

Same paper -- Different Looks

The most time consuming thing about making a card is choosing the paper(s) and embellishments for my design.  And once I have done that it makes sense to make more than one card while I am at it.  But I really want to make "one of kind" creations so that they are special.

In choosing another set of embellishments and an additional complementary paper, I can get a different look, while still utilizing my soft floral background.  The additional paper lends itself to a pretty matching bookmark as well.

Tomorrow I will be working with a new painting technique involving the use of shaving cream and liquid watercolors to create a marbleized background for a card.

Good way to start my summer "vacation." 

Monday Macro

It's Monday again and half of 2013 is almost gone.  The photo is from my recent trip to Sunken Gardens but I have only to walk 6 feet out from our front porch to get pictures of a bougainvillea the same color.

It's a wonderful Monday because I am looking at a calendar that has only one thing on it for the whole week.  A WCTS Board meeting on Wednesday at 10.

Art nook, here I come!!!!

A Chick with Brains

When I saw a stamp with a little chick and a diploma, I just HAD to have it.  And THEN I saw a card idea a couple of weeks later.  So here is my own version of  "A Chick with Brains."

I used acrylic paint and a marker to enhance.  The inside has a personal note for my young friend, Jackie, who graduates this week from Tarpon Springs High School.

She will be attending USF-St. Pete in the Fall after being dual enrolled in St, Pete College and her AP classes at Tarpon High.

I am very proud of her!