Road Trip: Quartz Mountain

This weekend my sister and friend and I took a gander down to Quartz Mountain to watch/view the performances and art/photography gallery from the summer arts institute camp. For some reason, they said I was in charge, made me do all the driving, and blamed me if anything went wrong :P All the students at the camp work for two weeks in their discipline and then perform or have a gallery, and I was blown away by how incredible they all were. I had a friend attending for art, and another for creative writing, and of course they were both wonderful!

We camped Friday night in a tent, and that was (of course) quite an adventure with broken tent zippers and grumpy camp security. We spent at least an hour and a half experimenting with a fancy camera doing light writing and other fun things, which turned out far cooler than I anticipated! Props to my sister for all her great photography skills!

We also had all sorts of up close wildlife encounters totaling at 5 skunks, 2 porcupines, and 1 deer (that was was literally only 3 feet away), in addition to all the bees, scorpions, bugs, etc. that you usually see.

Hiking and swimming in the lake did not happen, because we woke up tired from not sleeping well and feeling rather gross and dirty to be going to fine arts performances. But we drove around and saw the lake and mountains, and ate lunch at a tiny little restaurant, which was fun. We generally had a grand time, with no major mishaps to make into an interesting blog post, lol

In other news, I'm off to orientation and enrollment tomorrow, which means I'm going to have to decide what I'm going to minor in, and what language I'm going to learn. I hate decisions :/

Hitchhiking Bum?

Note to self: do not forget to keep an eye on the stove when you start boiling something. Thank goodness for Mom who is way smarter and more on the ball than me!

One more day of camp to go, and then the real camping begins! Well, more real anyway. I keep thinking to myself, 'Just make it to the end of this week, and everything will relax!' and then I remember, 'Oh yeah, I have enrollment and a house to paint and my room to pack up and a yearbook to put together, never mind.' Sometimes, I most definitely feel like I should just skip the whole college and work and responsibilities thing and be a hitchhiking bum. And then I remember that I prolly wouldn't make it for more than a week doing that, and decide to be responsible again.

But hey, if I ever decide to be a hitchhiking bum, I can prolly discover some new, innovative art form or recycling method and make it big, and not have to be a hitchhiking bum anymore! I'll let you know if that ever works out, lol

SAM Camp: Day 3

It's been a long week, and I'm only half done! But so far, I've learned calligraphy and Zentangle, and all sorts of new songs and hand motions.

I also realized that I have a strong desire to know what on earth goes through those kids heads all the time. With some kids, you can tell, but there's always that one that you just can't figure out. One moment, they're poking their neighbor's eye out, and the next they've decide you're their new best friend and won't detach! And then there's those who won't do anything. They just wander from station to station with this blank, glassy stare when you ask them to do something. But they're all cute, which is why they make it through the week alive :P

I think the musical is going to be adorable, which is frustrating cause I'll be missing it :/ Mind, I am going camping with my sister and best friend and we will be going to hear and see some incredible art performances and galleries at Quartz Mountain, but still, I hate to miss the kids.

Tonight we had another incredibly beautiful sky, and it was all I could do to watch the road while driving my car and riding my bike! I suppose that's one good thing about the big, flat plains without forests, you get to see the sky whenever you want.

Whelp, I suppose that's all for now.

Here's a picture of the Zentagle I drew yesterday :)

SAM Camp: Day 1

This week, my mother is putting together her usual children's musical and day camp at our church, and I have the privilege/misfortune of helping all week. I do enjoy helping, I just don't always have as much patience as it requires.

For my jobs this year, I am helping with the musical rehearsals, the drawing and calligraphy classes, hand chimes, and I have a group of kids to keep up with at lunch. The musical went well, I think it'll be a lot of fun! And although I enjoyed helping with the drawing and chimes, calligraphy turned out to be my favorite class, because I got to sit there and learn and practice with the kids! You'd be surprised how difficult it is to make nice, even strokes in the correct order, direction, and size! But it was neat to practice, and maybe by the end of the week I'll have something to show for it.

I ended up feeling rather awful by the end of the day, and slept through the last hour of rehearsal on the most fluffy, pillow-y youth sofa imaginable! I may just spend the night there this week, seeing as I have to be there so early anyways..

Tonight, I think we are under some sort of thunderstorm warning, which always gets me excited. I don't enjoy the damage they bring, but I am left in awe after watching clouds and rain and storms, they are magnificent! It's not really reached us yet, but it started raining with the sun shining through the clouds, like something out of a painting. Amazingly, my camera actually captured the sky decently! Now I may have to sketch or paint it, or some variation of it.

This is pretty much what I actually saw, while the next one is my extreme just-for-fun editing, and not remotely what it looked like :)

Adventures in Chain-Making

Since November 2009, I have had the opportunity to work for a locally well known and respected jeweler, Rafael. I work only Saturdays and mostly just file paperwork, open the always locked door for customers, file new jobs, answer the phone, etc. But every so often, Rafael will teach me little bits about jewelry making; nothing too much or too complicated, but still, I will take any experience he offers to me.

This week, after telling me how much he wishes I was a jeweler and could help him, he offered to let me come in after hours and teach me about anything I asked (within reason). My first project is to make a large-ish chain. I started by pulling some silver into wire, which might have worked well if I hadn't lost my grip on the wire, slipped, and fallen on my behind :P After I accidentally pulled the wire much thinner than originally intended, Rafael annealed it, and I wound it onto a mandrel to make round links for a chain. I started to solder a few closed, but had to go home before I got very far.

Yesterday, I stayed late after work to finish soldering all the links together into a chain that was prolly about 14in; I think I will make a big clasp for it next time and make it into a necklace. I got progressively faster at the soldering, and figured out how to make it work [almost] every time. I even got lots of practice lighting and tuning the torch, since I accidentally put it out every other time I used it! Maybe sometime I'll post all the little tips Rafael has given me and I have figured out.

A side effect of soldering is all the discoloration on the silver, which makes for an interesting look, so I took a picture of all the rings I soldered closed before putting them on a chain.

Back to Blogging

Well, it's been an extremely long time since I've been on here, and lots has changed since I was a regular blogger. But I'd like to give this a try again, and see how it all goes. I prolly won't be very regular, with starting college (eep!) and working and getting my jewelry off the ground (hopefully), but we'll see.

In the meantime, since it's summer and I'm thinking about how much fun it would be to travel, but won't get to travel, I thought I'd recount my favorite family trip that we took several years ago. This was written for a scholarship contest, that I did not win, but it was lots of fun anyways :)

In the fall of 2008, my family and I took a trip like no other. My dad wanted to take us to see several major national parks and do some camping along the way. So in September, our family took off from Oklahoma to visit the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands. However, since the details of the trip could easily fill the pages of a small book, I will stick to writing about Rocky Mountain National Park, my favorite part of the trip.

The first real challenge of the trip started before we left: getting all of us in the van, along with two weeks worth of clothing and equipment. This would have been easier, however, if there were not seven of us, with two in car seats, filling the seven passenger van. Perhaps we ought to have left the littlest one with the gypsies. However, with a car top carrier and some expert packing, we squeezed everything (and everyone) in. After staying the night in La Junta, Colorado, challenge number two appeared in the form of a dead car battery. But with some help from the local Walmart and a new battery, we were back on the road.

Now, between all the excitement and stress of starting such a large trip, we had to figure out an efficient method of getting in and out of each campsite. At first, this might seem easy, but unloading seven sleeping bags, pillows, suitcases, and random paraphernalia is not exactly simple. The campsites did make this easier, though. We decided to stay in Kampgrounds of America (KOA) kamping kabins, and they worked out great for us, as they had a picnic table and grill, and access to community showers. The cabins did sleep all seven of us, but for the most comfort, again, I would suggest leaving the littlest child with the gypsies and bringing six or fewer people.

After two days of travel, we finally made it to Estes Park, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. September was a fantastic time to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was not overcrowded, the weather was great, and there was no snow except in patches above the tree line. However, it was a bit chilly, and we were all glad to have long sleeves. For our first venture in the park, we drove up Trail Ridge Road, which takes you through the mountains and up 12,183 feet in elevation. The view from the summit was simply incredible.

We spent the rest of the time in the Rocky Mountains hiking and viewing the wildlife. My favorite hike was the trail up to Emerald Lake. The trailhead is at Bear Lake, and the trail is 1.8 miles one way, taking you up just over 600ft in elevation. On the trails, and just about everywhere, there were numerous animals to see, including deer, elk, and chipmunks that scurried all over the place, even on our toes once or twice. The last thing we saw in the Rocky Mountains were two large elk, sparring just beside the road.

Whether I was standing on top of a mountain, or down in a valley watching incredible animals face off, the whole park left me breathless. This vacation turned out to be one of the most fun and exciting experiences we have had together as a family, and I cherish all the time we spent together.

Thank goodness we did not leave the littlest one with the gypsies!