Pin It Weekly #119

I've been pinning Sunbonnet Sue.  No reason, really.  I just like the cuteness.

Last weekend a nuance alligator paid us a visit.  We no longer have any laying hens and the cute bantam pair are also gone.  Poor chicks.  I hope they weren't too scared while that gator was terrorizing the neighborhood.  He (or she) sneaked back into the swampy area behind our place.  Richard saw him when he stopped for a fish snack in the pond.  We aren't allowed to kill gators but this guy made such a fast getaway, that we didn't even get to call the game wardens.  Now all we can do is keep an eye open so that, if he returns, we can call a game warden to have him removed.

      

Une tête à tête

I was very disappointed last week that my design submission was disqualified and didn't make it into Connecting Threads' contest, but I've had a sit-down with myself.

In Cajun French we call that a tête à tête (literally, head to head) meaning a low, private conversation between two people, but it can also mean a face-to-face discussion in which one person comes to understand something important.  Generally that person deserves the tête à tête.

So I'm facing reality now.  I really needn't have been so disappointed.  After all, I didn't give myself enough time for research or planning.  I surely did not consider that what is a great design to me may not be from another point of view.  And I didn't get much input from others.  

Basically I made an interesting discovery about the contest, had a whirl-wind romance with my ideas and in a week submitted my design.  Disappointed?....well, I hadn't considered that I might be!  

I should know better, but every now and again the wild artist persona splits and runs, and the rest of my persons can only sit and watch.  I know, I know, take the meds already, right? 

So, now that I've over it and am moving on, I thought I'd share the artwork I created before the disappointment started: alligators and lotus flowers.  My intent was to sprinkle the alligators across bright yellow and green solids and the lotus flowers on orange and muddy browns.   Ah, maybe next time.

What a disappointment!

Voting begins today for the Connecting Threads Fabric Design Contest.    My design did not make it into the competition.  I don't really know why except that it may have been "disqualified due to poor image quality or inability for the design to be reproduced with screen printing methods in 15 colors or less. Photographs of artwork, snapshots, pixelated artwork, and designs with numerous colors in small spaces all fall into this category."  

I was so excited.  Oh well, on to other things...
You can still vote on the Connecting Threads' website.

Fabric Design Contest--vote, please!

Connecting Threads, the fabric and thread company, is having a contest for a new fabric design.  Since I'd just gone Swampin' with a couple of my sisters and because I love my Cajun culture, I decided to submit a swamp scene.  

It's not exactly what I have in my mind, but it's close.  My watercolor has deeper colors, more green and brown, but I can't seem to be able to fix the saturation once it's scanned.  Still, I'm not unhappy.  Plus, my ideas for coordinating fabrics will easily work with this--think alligators basking in the sun, water lilies and lotus flowers,  mosquito hawks and ducks, Spanish moss and lichens....all part of a beautiful swamp scene.  Add some deep grays, greens and muddy brown stripes or solids.  

I'd love some of this fabric! Wouldn't you?  Let's hope we have the opportunity!  I'll share more info in a few days.  The voting begins on the 14th and I'm asking EVERYONE to go vote for my design.  Of course, I'd really, really appreciate it if you also convince family and friends to vote for my design, too.  

In the meantime tell me what you think...like it?  hate it?  plan to vote?  have suggestions?  will you share?  Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.  I need feedback.

Swampin'

Laura and her new camera....
photography is one of her hobbies.

My sister, Laura, and her two daughters were here last week for a visit.  She phoned ahead and told me she had a plan for at least one day of her vacation in Louisiana: she wanted to go on a swamp tour.  


I've been on a trip something like this before, when the boys were young, and I wasn't so impressed, but I could be convinced provided she brought along mosquito spray.  She agreed.  Turns out we didn't need it but I didn't know that at the time.

Haley and Riley (sorry the photo is so bad girls)

She invited our other sisters and made arrangements with Cajun Country Swamp Tours which is located in Breaux Bridge, and headed by a zoologist/botanist tour guide who unabashedly loves the water, the swamp, and the Acadians.

Sisters Angie and Sid

Lake Martin

I must admit, it was way more interesting than I could have hoped for.  In fact, I really want to take the grandchildren on a tour in a few weeks.  


The weather was perfect, bright and sunny, warm but not sweltering and breezy.  Of course, I would not have wanted to be going out at 11:00 when we returned to shore!  We were tired but it was getting a bit too warm.  The tours last two hours, so that means the 11:00 tour ends at 1:00, a very hot part of the day. 


We saw all sorts of birds from roseate spoonbills, several egrets, a great blue heron, anhingas, an owl, Carolina chickadees, and maybe a few more I've forgotten.


My favorite were the beautiful water lilies, which I photographed, but my camera is acting up again and those pics did not come out.
Since we were in a swamp, there were only two types of trees, but don't let that make you think that there's no variety.  It's amazing how beautiful the trees are.  

Cypress tree 

Check out these beauties.  Isn't it interesting how this tree on the right is alive but has no center?  I love it that the guide points out these sights and explains them.


That he explains them in a humorous, entertaining way made the tour even more fun.  These guys are serious about their Cajun hospitality!  

An alligator

A bit of land

Of course, he was good about pointing out those things we expected to see.  Spanish moss, cypress knees, alligators, they were all there!  And we got to see them all from a crawfish skiff deep enough to feel safe but open so that we could easily see and snap photos.  Definitely worth the trip!    And as an extra special bonus......no mosquitoes!

Spanish moss

Cypress knees