New Lap Top

Well I bought myself a laptop. Lucky for me it was on sale. I got it for half price! I also bought a router and now I can roam the house and yard freely while on the internet! Yay! I always used a desktop. This is all new to me...you should see me and this....pad.... no mouse thing. LOL.
I have to figure out how to use the cd/dvd, pictures etc...Whew! It's like starting over!!!

The Flower Festival started today. The carnival, music and food booths. I live a block from the park, from certain rooms I can hear the music from the entertainers on the stage.
In my previous blog I forgot to mention that they take the flowers and make floats for the Parade. Some awesome looking floats. The Flower Fest. Queen and her Court ride the biggest float and it is completely decorated and designed by the prisoners from Lompoc Federal Prison. They do a beautiful job. All the Floats that enter the parade are voted on, 1st prize, 2nd etc. Also the bands and other entrants are voted on. I will be out taking pictures on Sat. Hopefully have some posted here for all to see.
In the meantime I am going to play with this new toy and try and figure out my way around. LOL

Have a great day!

Flower Festival

I live in what they call "The Flower Capital of the World". Flower Fields all over the area. Beautiful, like a carpet, full of colors and oh the fragrence.

Then they started building houses, shopping centers and of course they took away some of the beautiful flower fields. We still have a few fields left, thank goodness. In fact if you ever saw the email of the American Flag created by Flowers in a large flower field, that is about 4 blocks from my house.

The flowers are in bloom now and just beautiful.
Here are pictures of a field not too far from where I live.

The last week of June we have our annual Flower Festival. It starts on Wednesday with Carnival rides, booths etc. Then on Sat. we have the parade going down H strret to Ocean/hiwy 246 turns right and all the way to O street. It ends at the park where the rides are and the craft booths. Crafters from all over, booking one year in advance. This is a BIG deal. We have people coming from all over to attend the festivities.

For more information and photos click on these links.

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/lompoc-flower-fields-photos.html

http://www.flowerfestival.org/ffevent.php

Browsing instead of Creating!

I should be finishing some projects that I started yesterday. I got on the computer and started browsing shops on Artfire and on Etsy. Some amazing stuff by so many creative people.

I could sit and look all day......

This bracelet is so pretty! The artist has a lot of beaded items, necklaces, earrings brooches. So many beautiful items in her shop. The artists is also an author of some nature Books.! You can see her work at RockyCreekGems

Then I found this tile pendent at NinjaJenn. She does some awesome work (and a great blogger too!). NinjaJenn will even make a pendent or ring using your avatar! How cool is that?

Her tile pendents and rings are so nice I cant decide which one I like best!

I like the colors and peacefullness of this one.

Then I found this shop Kraftouchtreasures

There are so many different things in her shop. From pretty to cute. I love these and yes there are more in different colors too!

So many more but I do have to get busy and finish up my projects. Oh! remember a few blogs ago I had an idea with small gourds and polymer clay. and I said I would put up pictures when done!!??

I finished one (still working on the other! LOL) Here it is. My Gourd Man Business Card Holder. You can see more pictures of him at http://www.craftnique.artfire.com/

One Lovely Blog Award! Thank You!!!

Thank You!

What an honor!!


I am doing the happy dance right now!!


I recieved this "One Lovely Blog" award from Creations With Heart


What a nice surprise and coming from a very nice , talented and helpful person that I "met" on the internet makes it even better!!

There are a few rules to follow that I need to share with you.

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Unfortunately, I can't give it back to the person that gave it to me, but I do get to give it to 15 great bloggers

1. The Skin You're In

2.Sea Glass Jewelry - Out Of The Blue Seaglass Jewelry

3.Nostalgic Nature Art

4. Pinkfink's Creations

5. New places to buy Alisun's ...

6.catmacdesigns

7. Christinas ramblings and cr...

8.Meekiyu's Dream

9. My Paradise Moon by LuLu

10.Crazy K Bath and Body

11. GemKitty

12. Karena Bella Jewelry

13. marcie adary

14.Designs By Patricia

15.DawnWillBreak's Blog

Please accept this award and pass it on to other lovely bloggers.

Artfire

Ha! ha! I am still sorting Moonstones, jade, sea glass and other stones. I washed them first, laid them out on a tray than as I walk by I sort. I feel like I am doing a jig saw puzzle...you know..it sits there and you work on it for awhile than on to something else. There are some pretty stones in there!! I am putting alike stones in jars and sea glass in a separate jar. Actually it is relaxing in a way....

Artfire has given us options to set up our shop pages. It is nice. It is like creating your own web page or blog page.. I worked on it a little yesterday. I plan on changing my banner but it will do for now. I choose green for my background color but will probably change that too. LOL It even allows you to put widgets from your etsy or whatever other shops you may have. You can see what I am talking about on my homepage www.craftnique.artfire.com

Todays featured shop from Artfire is ChantillyLace. She has a lot of pretty items in her shop. Hair accesories, jewelry. She works with pearls, lace and fabrics. A lot of vintage items used in her work. you can click on the link to see her shop/items. If you cant click on the link try this one. I know you will enjoy looking around her shop. www.ChantillyLace.artfire.com

Have a great evening ! Until next time
Hermy

Moonstone Beach, Cambria, Calif.

Cambria : distinctive shops, art galleries and walking trails along Moonstone Beach.

We live just south of this small coastal town. It is a nice relaxing place to go for the day or weekend. On Sunday my daughter, granddaughters and 2 friends of ours decided to take a drive to Cambria and go to Moonstone Beach to collect Moonstones, Jade and Beach Glass.. which covers the entire beach area. No sand just these small stones everywhere! Moonstone Beach has a nice park with playground and swimming pool and then just beyond that is the beach. Not too far of a walk.

We brought along our buckets and shovels and started searching. Next time we will bring sifters, even though all the rocks were pretty we only wanted the jade, moonstones and beach glass.

The moonstones were clear and shimmered in the light. So pretty. The story I heard is that at night when the moon shines on these stones they shimmer and sparkle along the shoreline. Hmm.. that gives me an idea.. good excuse to rent a room at the Moonstone Inn which sits right on the beach!

The jade came in a variety of sizes and different shades of green. So pretty. All you could hear was "OOHH"AHHH" or "Gramma look at this one".So much fun!!!

The white rocks you see in the pictures are actually the clear moonstones. We only found the white to off white and clear stones. I have heard that some are blue but maybe not in this region.

We had such a wonderful relaxing day.

My daughter and her two little ones decided to walk further towards the cliff and found tons of beach glass. They also discovered the high tide and big waves. LOL they came back with a few piecesof glass and soaking wet! GOOD THING WE BROUGHT A CHANGE OF CLOTHES FOR EVERYONE!
The beach glass was smooth and frosty looking almost like a stone. It wasnt the warmest of days so they were wet and cold and in our excitement..we forgot to take a picture of the beach glass!!

Will have to remember to do that later.

We ended the day just sitting in the sun and deciding what we can make with our stones and glass..

What a great day we all had!

Cant wait to go back!!

Baked artichokes...

My family and I love artichokes.
We live near a few artichoke fields so when we buy from the local Farmers Market or Roadside Stand we get really big artichokes for a great price. I usually boil them ,then we dip the leaves in butter or mayonaisse then eat till nothing left except the fuzzy stuff and scraped leaves!
That is our favorite( and only) way to eat them. Very easy and delicious.
Before boiling... I wash them, cut off the top portion and then with scissors cut the points off the leaves all around then I cut off the stem and rinse them really well.
A few years ago a friend said she always stuffs them with macaroni and cheese, we tried it but went back to the boiled method.
I love cookbooks, collecting and sharing recipes. The other day I found a recipe to bake artichokes ..hmmm sounds good.... Nope... Awful. Not the same. Plus it was a lot of work!
My husband and I decided that we will stick to the boiled method!

Artfire Crazy Train is featuring http://debvandetdesigns.artfire.com. She has a nice variety of items in her shop from girly to gothic. Whatever suits your taste. I like the switch plate cover with roses, very girly and very pretty. Click on the link to see her items.

The sun is out so I am going to go outside and get some vitamin D!!!
until next time..............