Snail Crazed

So I think one of the most fascinating things about my new apt has to be the snails that live just outside my door. Okay I know you all think I'm crazy, but seriously! I've never seen snails this big in real life and they absolutely fascinate me! (They're all a little bigger than a dime.) I look for them every time I go out side. I would name them except that they all look the same except for Cerino, his shell is a light grey instead of brown like all the others. There was a giant slug the first night I was here but I think Solomon moved on. (Maybe Solomon the Slug doesn't like humans.) Anyway, here are some pics of my snails. I'll work on the apt pics tonight. (Sorry it's taken me so long Min. I had a paper due today so blogging had to wait!)

I took this last night, he's crawling down a vertical wall!

This is Cerino! He's so pretty! I say hi to him every time I see him . . . or rather every time I can find him. He likes to hide sometimes.

Quick Recap!!!

So I realize that I haven't kept you all up to date very well and I promise to try to rectify the situation. So here's a quick summary of what's been going on.

July 13th: I signed for my new apt and promptly called Lindsey for help. We ripped cork board off one entire wall. Bethany came to help too. Later that night Bethany and I loaded up our cars with some of my stuff and brought it to the new apt.

July 14th: I moved in with the help of my parents, Lyle and Kay, Mike and Carolyn, Anthony, and Bobby and Lindsey. Thanks everyone! The place is lousy with boxes and everyone is asking me questions that I don't actually know the answers too and it's all craziness.

July 20th: Bobby, Lindsey, and I head out to Lindsey's parents house in Minnesota where we hook up with Lindsey's parents Pete and Avis and Lindsey's brother Stewart.

July 23rd: The six of us embark on our camping/canoeing adventures.

July 27th: We all come back from the wilderness known as the Boundary Waters and head back to Pete and Avis's house.

July 29th: Bobby, Lindsey and I finally return to our own homes.

August 1st-13th: I spent this time working on my new apt, there was lots of sanding, spackling, and a whole lot o' paintin'.

August 14th: Matt and Andy show up way to early (see last post: the tall one is Matt) to work on my apt. This kinda halts the painting process. So much for finishing before school starts.

August 17th: Matt and Andy finally bid there fond fair wells. They hope! (there were many problems!) And my sister Tammy shows up to help me finish my apt before school starts.

August 19th: Tammy finally leaves, the apt is a lot farther along but still not done.

August 20th: School starts.

August 25th: I go home for Taylor's 11th birthday party. She makes me feel old.

August 26th: I come home, my apt is still a mess. The clutter drives me crazy, I hate it here.

August 29th: My ancient AC breaks. Matt comes and replaces it.

August 30th: Matt comes back and replaces the faucet in my kitchen. No more leaks! He also gives me hot water in the shower. Matt's my hero!!!

I think that catches me up. But don't worry I'll elaborate and add pictures soon.

Story time!

Ok so there is a ton of stuff that I need to post on here. Like moving and canoeing and painting and all that, but that's gonna take forever and I thought you all might need a good laugh, so have one on me!

So I get up this morning and I stumble my way into the bathroom. Turn on the dribbling shower and proceed to go through my morning routine. I step out of the shower and get dried off and the towel wrapped around me and then there's a knock at the door.

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! I need some cloths! "JUST A MINUTE!" Cloths! Cloths! Cloths!

I grab the carpi's that I wore yesterday and some new underthings. Get all that on then realize that I should probably have a shirt on too so I run back to the closet grab the 'I like it Hot' t-shirt and then think Not a scary shirt. Not a scary shirt. Slide into a shirt that has the word 'America' printed across the front, dash into the bathroom, rip a brush through my sopping wet hair and then try to shake out some of the water while running to the door. Grab my keys because the dead bolt has a key hole on both sides instead of the flippy thing on the inside and let the maintenance men in.

The really tall one asks, "Did you know we were coming today?"

"No"

"Oh, we're here to work in the shower."

"Oh, great! It takes me a really long time to wash all this," as I'm holding out a piece of my still sopping hair.

They come in and say they're also going to work on my back splash. And I'm all confused cause I thought they were going to replace the entire counter top. They kinda look at me and say they have to make a phone call. So they do that and I go put in my contacts, put on deodorant, brush my teeth, take my pills, and try to wring out my hair a little. The hair, by the way, went up in a twisty bun with the multi colored clips.

They come find me in the bedroom trying to clip the last two clips in my hair and tell me that they will replace the counter top as long as I don't mind them being there for 2 to 2 1/2 days instead of just today.

Of course I don't care! That counter top is disgusting!!!

So, by the end of this week I should have hot water pressure in the shower, new counter top, new sink, and possibly a new faucet.

Cherry is happy! Slightly embarrassed by almost being caught with only a bright yellow towel on, but happy!

Airplanes

Okay, so this is going to be super quick. My friend Misti and her hubby Isaac just had their baby a week or so ago. His name is Blake and this is the quilt I made for him. Aren't airplanes the best for little boys!

Airplane close up!

Moving/School Projects

I moved this weekend. AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! I think that might portray my true feelings on that subject. All my pictures are still on my camera, but I'll post some later. Let me just give you a few teasers. Cork Board Wall. Boat Cabinet. Solomon the Slug. I'll elaborate next time. But for your viewing pleasure I have pictures of some of my projects.

Metals Spring 2006

Flower Pin: Caste Sterling Silver

Flower Necklace: Caste Sterling Silver Flower Box: Copper and Brass

(Center is a screw mechanism, take it off and each petal opens to a separate box.)

Metals Fall 2006
Leaf Necklace: Copper, Brass, and Sterling Silver with Red Wine Vinegar in sawdust patina
(each leaf is pillowed out, back is Sterling Silver)

Sculpture Spring 2007

Coin Project "Fire and Ice": Caste Bronze

(this side is Fire, some places a high polished and other places are sand blasted)

(this side is Ice, covered with a salt, Red Wine Vinegar in sawdust patina)Wood Project: The assignment was to carve a hunk of wood with a pocket knife and a chisel. (I hated this project!!! It is the reason I have a scar on the back on my left hand! Dang Pocket Knife!)

Plaster Project: We had to combine two objects that you don't normally see together. In case you can't tell I chose a book and a tree. (Tree of knowledge - knowledge today is in books . . . you get the idea.)


Welding Project "Flamin' Flamingo": Ha Ha this project rocked! I loved welding!

Metals Spring 2007

Measuring Spoons: Sterling Silver, Stones - Garnet (red), Peacock Topaz (blueish-purple), Citrine (yellow-orange), and Peridot (green). (They even measure out correctly)
Mirror: Forged Steel
Leaf Pendant: Damascus Steel, Gold, Sterling Silver, Pewter (The leaf design is inlaid into the steel background, then the steel piece is set into a Sterling Silver bezel setting with piercing design on back)
Shoe: Copper Sheet (We were given old baby shoes, told to make a pattern and re-fabricate the shoe out of metal. I'll never take lacing my shoes up for granted again.)

Hi My Name is Cherry and I'm a Stone Junky

Hee! Hee! Hee! After my teacher saw only a few of the stones that I bought he told me I was a stone junky, just like his wife. :) Anyway, here are the stones that I bought on my SNAG trip.

Faceted stones Red Garnet, Amethyst, Peridot, Amethyst again, and Citrine.

There are a Green Garnet and they sparkle like diamonds!

Hydro Gossular Garnet

Orthoceres (Fossilized Mollusk)

Etched Meteorite

This was my favorite and I went to the conference with the intent to get some of this. Its called Plum Blossom Jasper.

This is a close up of the Plum Blossom Jasper.

Peridot Beads on my hand. :)

Mooka Jasper

Quartz

I can't remember the real name for this. I know it's some kind of Garnet though.

Hee! Hee! This is my new hammer that I got. I'm so excited! I can't wait to use it!

SNAG

Firstly, let me apologize for how long this one is. But at least it has pictures. It's not all just reading. :)

So yeah, I know I should have posted this a couple of days ago, but I just felt like slackin' a little. On the 13th I got up around 5:15am and got ready to drive to Memphis for the SNAG conference. (If you can't remember what SNAG stands for look in the previous post.) I met everyone and we were on the road by 6. Needless to say, I packed the night before! Thant first day was pretty boring; mostly just driving and riding. We did stop in St. Louis at the zoo and saw this really huge piece. I don't remember what it was called or who made it, but here are some pictures!

This is only half of it. The rest are close ups.

I like this guy. I should have sat on him and had someone take my picture, but I didn't think about it until I got home. Oh well, next time.

This is the other half. I told you it was huge!

These are ants! They're a little bigger than my hand.

So after 12 1/2 hours of driving we finally made it to Memphis. The conference was held in the Peabody Hotel and on the first night they had a welcoming thing up on the roof. You could see the Mississippi River from up there and since I can't actually remember seeing the Mississippi River before I took a few pictures while I was up there. (At the time I didn't think I'd ever seen the Mississippi, but apparently I saw it when I was 4. Um . . . yeah. The only thing I remember about that trip is that Mom and Dad left me with Aunt Linda so they could go to Nashville and my cousin and I did NOT get along. And when they finally came back I was ready to go home and they made me stay for another whole day. Parents are mean! ;) Don't they know that when a 4-year-old is ready to hit the road they should take advantage of that.)

I thought the bridge was pretty.

I liked the city lights too! At least from up there; I felt relatively safe from all the scary city people. (I'm such a country girl!)

This is Tom! He's the guy that taught me how to do Damascene - "the direct application of nonferrous metals onto articles of iron using the chisel overlay process." (I got the definition out of my 2007 SNAG conference booklet.) I made a necklace pendent with my damascene piece. I wish I had a better picture of him but after the demo he was surrounded by people.

I saw this while I was riding around in Natalie's car. I don't even know for sure what street we were on but on the inside there are all these little faces. If you blow the picture up you can see one of the faces by the green light pole.

Iron Flower!

Another Iron Flower, but this one is part of a gate at the Metal Museum.

This Necklace was part of the student exhibit at the Metal Museum.

I love this Iron candle stick. I love the way it curves and twists, just like a vine.

Ha! Ha! My friend Travis got these (crawdads) when we went out to lunch one day. When he brought them to the table he was just kinda looking at them and Elloitt (our teacher) asked him if he knew how to eat them. Well, No! So Elloitt showed him how and then Travis offered to let us all try them. The other two girls said no thanks. But I wasn't about to play the wussy girl roll so I tried one. They were really good! They taste like shrimp, but they are a major pain to get into. And these had some kind of spice on them so they were super hot! Natalie eventually tried one, but she made Travis clean it all for her. She didn't like those itty bitty eyes or something. :)

Travis was gettin' just a little silly here!

Ok, the Ducks! Apparently the Peabody Hotel is famous for the Ducks that they have swimming around in their indoor fountain. The Ducks have a little "Pent House" on the roof where they stay at night, but at 11am the come down the elevator and march across the lobby to the fountain where they stay until 5pm and then they march back across the lobby to the elevator and back up to their little "Pent House" on the roof. I have the story of how the ducks came to live at the Peabody and just so you know I'm gonna copy it straight from the napkin that I . . . well, lets face it . . . I stole it. But honestly I don't think anyone is really gonna care.

THE LEGEND OF THE DUCKS

Back in the 1930's Frank Schutt, General Manager of the Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey and thought it would be funny to place some of their live decoy ducks (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain.

Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Thus began a Peabody tradition which was to become internationally famous.

THE END

What the napkin doesn't tell you is that when Schutt and Barwick came down the next day the Ducks were still in the fountain and there was a large crowd around the ducks.

This is the only picture of Beale street that I was able to get. We ate down on this street a couple of night and the food was amazing! If you ever get to go to Memphis you have to eat at The Kings Palace Cafe on Beale street. The food was a little pricey but it was definitely worth it. There is live music in every "eating establishment" (ok the whole street is basically a bunch of bars, but they will give you water or soda too.) At night they block off the street because it is so crowded and crazy. Just on the street I saw a guy playing the trumpet, a guy doing these crazy back flip and stuff, and a guy that had all these pots, pans, and buckets that he was playing like drums.

I wont bore you all with the details of the conference. I found it very interesting, especially the lecture on Women in Iron, but they made me really mad when they just cut her off. They were very rude about it, and she looked upset afterward.

The vendor room was my favorite. there was a bunch of different stone, tool, and book vendors. I'll take some pictures of the stones I bought and post them next time. This post is already super long and I've been working on it for almost 3 hours now. I blame that on the pictures they took a while to load. That and it took me a while to figure out what I was doing.

Anyway, the last picture is what Travis did pretty much to whole way home. I don't know why he was so tired. It's not like he stayed out every night or anything ;)

Ok so next time. Pretty stones from SNAG and maybe some projects.