My great-uncle passed away

If you are missing me, just wanted to reassure you that I'll be right back. My great-uncle passed away and we had his funeral today. He was my Grandad's brother. He was a wonderful man who had plenty of love for everyone and made whoever he was talking to feel special. After Grandad passed away last year, I especially enjoyed hugging him as to me it felt like I was still able to hug Grandad. It was a beautiful service and a wonderful time of being with family and reminiscing and catching up. Unfortunately, we've seen each other a lot lately because of the funerals, but if that is when we are all together.... My laptop with all my pictures to post is at home, so I'll start posting again in a few days. In the meantime, give lots of hugs to those you love and let them know how much you care.

Brownie playing in the river

When we are on our walk and we go close to the river, if the river is really coming up and lapping at the shore then Brownie wants to run along the edge and playfully "bite" at it. She will run back and forth, back and forth for as long as I'll let her (usually around 30 minutes). She loves it. Her eyes shine and she grins really big. I like watching her have fun. We don't do this much as if the water is calm, there is nothing for her to "bite" at. So we take advantage of it when we can. Nothing like a sweet wet dog with a huge smile on her face.

Did anyone lose their glasses?

This is the little parking lot we park in most mornings while we go for our walk along the river. And lo and behold as we go to start our walk, we see this pair of glasses perched on the post. It struck me as funny, not that someone could lose their glasses, but that you'd lose your glasses on a walking trail. There isn't anywhere around this little area to sit and contemplate things (besides a few large rocks bordering some flower beds) and if you wear glasses, wouldn't you need them to see while you are on your walk?

Peaceful Sunset

I must say that I definitely did not get up in time any of the mornings to catch a sunrise, but I like to try to catch the sunsets. This one wasn't one of the most spectacular ones I've seen, but it was peaceful and lovely and was a nice ending to our time spent at home.

Morning Walks at Nana and Papa's

Brownie looks forward to her walks at Nana and Papa's! This was our last full day to be home over Memorial weekend. The weather was really beautiful and we had such a good time.

And what would it be like on the farm if you didn't exchange licks with a curious calf? Just wouldn't be a complete experience, now would it?

Hi, I'm Cherinda

I've been blogging (off and on) for almost three years now (the off is when I've lost a grandparent and have been mourning and I've lost two in the last three years). I haven't had many people read my blog (but my family), so I'm not sure I've ever really introduced myself to those of you who don't know me (and have to) love me. In fact, I find myself with so much I could say, that I'll just have to pick and choose what to share now and I'll keep sharing tidbits with you as we go along. (I love reading stories and I like telling stories.)

My name is Cherinda and I grew up on a farm in the Panhandle of Oklahoma. I loved it. I went to several colleges, then finally ended up in one in the the largest city in Oklahoma. Even after graduating, I stayed here because what is a girl with an art degree to do? You'd think go after art, but I didn't know how to go about that so I worked for nine years as an administrative assistant. I like that type of work and am good at it, but found I'd lost my soul and my passion (and most of the light in my eyes) so I returned to my art. Yes, I am an artist (the title of which I fully embraced in my 30's). I need beauty and color and light and movement to really satisfy my soul. But the bills have to be paid (and they are, thanks to my husband of fourteen years, who I shall ever after refer to on here as Pooker).

I'm not the type to sit around and do nothing (although I can do nothing with the best of them), so I started off painting again and my sister has her photography and we decided to start doing some art shows three years ago. Due to not actually selling any art or photography (not for lack of trying or talent, but mainly to figuring out the art/photography people buy off the streets are more like prints and smaller paintings), we have expanded over the past few years to also making cards, magnets, bookmarks, tags, and other knick knacks and have started to sell those things at our art shows (as well as actually selling some paintings, too!). A year and a half ago, we heard about Etsy (a place for people to buy and sell handmade and vintage things), so we opened a store there (3creativesisters.etsy.com) which has slowly picked up both business and people who heart our store over the past year. We now have an outlet for our creativity online as well as booths in person several times a year.

So, that is who I am and what I do (in a nutshell). Other than that, my days start off with a walk down on the trail by the river (with my sweet little brown dog, Brownie, also known as Bippi, Buppa, or Bip) then I go on to cook, clean, or create (or run errands and other things that don't begin with a "c"). When I take pictures, they are from things I see in my everyday life (or from when we go home) and I try to capture the beauty of a moment or just something that I find interesting or unusual, whether it involves nature or animals or interaction with people or lost shopping carts or things left outside (although I don't have a super duper mega camera, I do have my handy dandy little digital camera which is adequate for me). That is why you will usually see more pictures on here than anything else, though I'm thinking I should tell you more stories. Who doesn't love a good story?

I'd better get on with my day. We've got our walk under our belt and I need to eat (yes, I like to eat lunch around 10:30 am and supper somewhere before 5:00 pm, or as I used to say dinner and supper, but that was before coming to the city where no one could figure out what meal I meant). It is very hot (mid to upper 90's) and humid here, so we'll stay inside and I'll clean and take care of things so we can go outside later when the sun has passed over the house and the patio is in the shade. Enjoy your day!

Poop Roller aka Dung Beetle at Work

It has been years since I've seen a poop roller (aka Dung Beetle). When I was out for a walk at home with Brownie, one comes crashing out of the weeds and rolling quickly across the road right in front of us! I grabbed for my camera and got down close to the fella. He scrambled quickly away from his poop ball, so I backed off a little bit.

He went right back to it and got in position behind it with his back legs as the ones to grab and push the ball and his front legs to do the walking forward (although he is actually moving backwards).

Here's a little closer look at him (he was really moving fast) and you can see how he is grabbing with his back legs as his beetle head is near the ground and he is using his front legs to move forward.

You've got to admire his industriousness and thoroughness in rolling that poop into a nice, tight ball (getting his head a little dirty in the process) and how quickly he's trying to get that ball home to his family.

So there you have it--a day in the life of a dung beetle. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but he does it quickly and well. I liked watching as I found it very interesting and quite fascinating (and one of those things that you just can't make yourself look away from).

Tiptoeing through the Tulips

And here are the flowers at home during the day so you can actually see some of the brilliant colors!! I love the rich purple of this one and how the middle of it seems to be glowing.

What more can I say about the Indian Paintbrush flower? It is so brilliant and to see a field blanketed in these is quite stunning.

Here's Brownie tiptoeing through the tulips (not literally), but I'm not sure she is all that interested in the beauty of the flowers, more like has a cat passed through here recently?

I liked how it looked like she was walking into the light here in this picture, surrounded by the gorgeous glowing purple wild flowers. (Mom has informed me that some of these wildflowers (like the purple ones) are actually weeds, but I still think the flowers are beautiful. As I'm neither a farmer nor a gardener and it's not my lawn, I can see the beauty in a weed with beautiful flowers on it.)

Brownie resting at Nana and Papa's

This cutie pie loves being at her Nana and Papa's!!! She gets to run around without a leash on and sniff whatever and wherever she wants. We'll go on walks throughout the day (as she hangs close to the house, often with her nose to the glass of the front door and her eyes begging someone to come out and play). When I'm busy inside helping fix lunch or visiting and she gets too hot, she'll come around here to the back patio and sit in the shade. The kitchen is right inside the sliding glass door on the patio and she feels like she is still close to us and she can relax while still keeping an eye on everything.

Happy Late Father's Day!

And a Happy Late Father's Day to all you wonderful Father's out there! As this was the first weekend Pooker and I have been together in a few weeks because of his travels and my travels, I didn't do much of anything this weekend but hang out with him. Of course I wished him a happy Father's Day as he is a wonderful Father to our beautiful dog-ter! We grilled last night and had hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, chicken, potato salad, and grillin beans chased down with root beer, Coke, and chocolate chip cookies!!!

My Mama's Flowers

My mama has beautiful flowers planted in pots all over outside her house. They are grouped together here and there to make little spots of beauty and rest all over her yard. It is really fun to see such a wild profusion of color and such a wide variety of flowers. She didn't use to have flowers (probably because she didn't have the time), but the last four years or so she has really taken to them. I love going home and seeing what she's got planted each year!

Indian Paintbrush Flowers

We went home over Memorial Day weekend (and I went again last week, but I'll get to that one later). The sides of the roads are covered with these beautiful little Indian Paintbrush flowers. I don't recall seeing such beautiful colors alongside the roads for many years, but due to them getting higher than usual rainfall, these flowers have came back in abundance.

Brownie's little cousin invited her over to play in the flowers so we could get pictures of them. They seemed to really enjoy each other as Brownie would just keep bringing him the ball to throw and he would smile and throw it for her (with her taking little rest breaks in between the throwing).

These flowers mixed with the other native wildflowers really are quite stunning together with all their reds, yellows, and purples mixed in with the green grasses. I'm not sure I've quite captured their beauty, but these were taken near sunset and were still quite beautiful in their wildness.

I loved how this picture makes you want to walk through these beautiful flowers and step into the light. It beckons and draws me and and makes me feel as if heaven were only one step away and I want to step on in and just be absorbed by all that love and light and life.

I saw two packets of Indian paintbrush seeds sitting on the hutch, so before I left I asked Mom if I could have one. She said Brynna (my 4 year old niece) wanted one and Mom let me have the other. I poked a few seeds into a pot the morning after I got home and I'm now seeing some little green leaves poke through the soil! I hope to have my own beautiful Indian Paintbrushes on my patio to remind me of home.

Mushroom Pancake

The mushrooms are really out full force this summer! It has been hot and humid and we've had lots of thunderstorms coming through. It probably makes the perfect weather for mushrooms. You'd think we'd just have one basic kind, but the sheer variety of our mushrooms is stunning (as I'll show you in the weeks to come).

This one looks like a large white pancake. Mushroom pancake, anyone?

Upside Down

We saw this on one of our walks a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was kind of funny. (Not that some child has lost their toy, but that the toy is hanging on this uprooted tree watching the world go by from upside down!)

Since then, they HAVE came through and taken out all the uprooted trees that are right by the path and have gotten it cleaned up some from the tornado. They haven't touched the trees that are farther off the path and closer to the river, but I figure at least getting these cleaned up closer to the path was a good thing. Considering how long they've taken to get other projects done, that was relatively quick.

Brownie and I went home for a few days at the end of last week (since our Pooker was in Chicago) and when we got back, I noticed that someone had done something to the grass that had been around 12 inches tall by the trails (remember I mentioned they have been out of money to mow the city since the beginning of May and won't have it until July 1st which is the start of the new fiscal year). It looked like someone had whacked at all of it with a weed eater. It wasn't the neatly uniform look as if it had been mowed with a mower, but it had that whacked out look as if someone had hacked at it with a weed eater. Still, haphazard hacking was better than tall grass (that could hide snakes and who knows what else). I just found it funny and wondered what good samaritan had come through with their weed wacker....

Mushroom Flower Bouquet

Although these mushroom flowers are more mushroomy in color, there is something beautiful about them. I like how they look like flowers (some more than others) and I like how they are huddled together and seem to be kind of tiered like a bouquet. Beautiful!

Brownie's photoshoot with the sunflowers

I think Brownie looks so gorgeous when she is posing with flowers, especially yellow flowers as the contrast between her coat and the flowers makes for a stunning picture. I couldn't really get a great shot of her (one that would be worthy of framing), but I thought these turned out cute.

Turtle, Turtle

This is the first turtle we have ran across this year. Usually it seems like I'm just showing you pictures of turtles inside their shells, but this plucky little fellow wasn't bothered by our presence either!! I like how his head and legs have a touch of red to them.

Flowers from early this spring

I took these pictures at the beginning March when we had some beautiful spring weather and the flowers started coming out. I really love the little purple flowers peeking up through the mulch.

Oyster Looking Mushrooms

These mushrooms kind of remind me of oyster shells. There is something so beautiful in their shape and texture. I especially like the ones in the bottom picture as they look like flowers!

Now available in our Etsy store - Birthday Girl Lanyards

We have new items available in our Etsy store this year. One of the new items is our birthday girl lanyards. They are perfect for wearing on your special day (or giving to a friend for her to wear on her special day). They do, in fact, make a girl feel special (just ask my sister how she felt wearing hers).

A quick update on our store: We are up to 139 sales! We didn't quite hit the 100 sales mark I wanted to hit by our one year anniversary, but have had over 50 sales so far this year alone. We have had a lot more people coming into our store in this, our second year, and I am thankful to be doing what I love. Stop by and check our store out if you'd like to at: http://3creativesisters.etsy.com/

The butterflies are out!

The butterflies are out! I love to watch them flitting around. They make me smile. I haven't shown you more of them as they are elusive and hard for me to catch with my camera. Remember when I told you I basically have to have animals pose for me in order to catch them? Well, this fellow did just that. Brownie and I walked right by the leaf he was on and he just ignored us. I figured if he didn't care if we were there or not, maybe I had time to whip out my camera and take some pictures of him. He didn't seem to mind at all. I like how the outside of his wings has orange spots as well as the white ones (and it seems to me like a touch of blue on the end of his wings). If I can get more butterflies to pose for me, then I'll be showing you more! (It all has to do with pushing the button on my camera to take the picture and having the two second delay before the picture is actually snapped. A lot can happen in two seconds, including the butterfly flying out of the picture!)