Rose Parade floats

Every year since my Hubby & I moved to L.A., I've gone to see the Rose Parade floats, either at the parade or at the after-parade viewing.  This year was no exception.  I love being able to see them up close and see what materials were used and the detail in the arrangement of the various seeds, barks, fruits, etc.

My husband and I have been lucky enough to have helped decorate floats a number of times (I think I've done it five times now.  It's FUN -- a gigantic craft project that millions of people will see!   It's also a lot of hard work, involving getting dirty and sticky from glue for long hours in a cold warehouse or tent.  On taller floats, I've had to climb rafters and get into precarious positions to glue seeds or what-have-you in tight places.  It's wonderful helping on the last day when all the fresh flowers are attached.  All the floats really come to life with the vibrant petals and sweet scents.  Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to volunteer in the last five years or so, but it would be fun to do it again someday. 

Here's a few photos of this year's floats:

There are a few more float photos in my Flickr photostream.

Glass blowing in St. Petersburg

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted anything.  In that time, along with my usual doings, I took a vacation to Florida, had a week-long bout of pink eye (not fun!), and learned some new choreography and performed it (with pink eye, ugh!  Luckily we were in pirate bellydancer garb, so I just wore an eyepatch to cover one eye.  Aargh!).

One of our stops in Florida was St. Petersburg, where Carl and I each signed up for a half hour "Glass Experience" at the Morean Arts Center Hot Shop.  With the assistance of one of the resident glass artists, we got to make our own glass items.

Since it was not too long after Halloween, one of the choices of things to make was a pumpkin--we both chose that.  I chose traditional shades if orange for mine.  Carl went for purple with yellow.  Not bad for a first try.  I'll stick to polymer and gourds for now, but it was definitely a fun experience.  And now we have our very own hand-made blown-glass pumpkins to remind us of our trip.

If you're ever in St. Petersburg, FL, check this place out.  They have a nice gallery and run a separate small Chihuly museum.  There is also an excellent Salvador Dali museum nearby, which I highly recommend.

Starting on a new adventure!

I've decided to make the switch from formal website to blog.  This will make it much easier for me to keep everyone posted on what's going on in my little world of crafting and other interests.  Now that I'm working full-time, I don't have time to make a lot of inventory.  A lot of my craft projects are for myself or for gifts, so never make it onto my Etsy site (though if you see something you like, I'm willing to make another one or something similar for sale!).  This blog will allow me to share some of my experiments and custom work.  I'm hoping it will also encourage me to take more time to create and dance and do more fun things so that I can post and tell you all about it.  So, here goes........