The Horizon

Oh I just love these!
I was looking for sunsets and rises for my other blog "Horizontal View" and these were my favorite besides the one I picked for the blog!

It's nice to see these pictures; here in Germany its so hilly and full of trees that it's hard to find a good sunset. (And I can never wake up early enough to see a sunrise :) Sometimes though, when the day is clear (which is very rare) the sunset turns the buildings around my house a glorious orange. This summer, I'll try to remember to take a picture of it!

This one is the coolest! A view of the morning sun from above the clouds!

Peek Into My Room: Art Supplies

Until I got it out to take a picture, I never realized how much art supplies I have, and I didn't even include all my scrapbooking junk that's in my scrapbooking drawer! I have things for painting, drawing, sketching and even sculpting. You'll probably be seeing more variety now that I've inspired myself by putting everything out in the open!This is what got me started. I got it for one Christmas or birthday, I can't remember, but it has everything. Water color pencils (but I'm not sure what they do) and color pencils, chalk, pastels, paint boards, drawing tablet, water color tablet, a canvas and, the best part, acrylic and water color paint.
These are some of the best color pencils on the market. I love them, so bold and soft. The Art Stix are cool, they have no wood around them so they're perfect for filling in big spaces! Also, those pencils at the bottom of the picture that are still in the package are blenders, they make it so there is not a bold line that separates each color. you know so it all blends in, pretty cool huh? (Oh, and that odd shaped thing in the middle, that's a special soft color pencil sharpener)These are for sketching, which I'm best at. I have all sorts of pencils in different sizes and softness(es?) hmmm, well anyway, I think the little black sketch book is so cute! Its really good for carrying around wherever I go!

Land of the Phoenix Part 4

The Lion-man

The only thing that Anne had gotten from the incident with the bears was the realization of the brutality of the Sorceress. Remembering the bears drunken argument she wondered what the Sorceress really said. Had she wanted thee bears to kill her on the spot? Did she want to put her in prison?

With those gruesome thoughts in mind, Anne wandered miserably under custody until the man led her around the woods to the edge of a cliff. She then realized that they were on a gigantic plateau. Besides the forest, which was on the edge of the plateau, the only thing Anne could see was the wide evening sky. Purple lined the green cliff then came a layer of white and orange clouds and then the deep blue heavens smiled down at her.

As her eyes took it all in, she felt a sense of joy and tranquility. But, that dream was soon broken by the man as he roughly ushered her over to a boulder at the edge of the cliff.

“You stay here.” He ordered, “And don’t you dare turn around!” Anne instantly obeyed.

Her amazing cooperation throughout the journey puzzled the man. It was not in a witch’s nature to act like that. This made him suspicious and he thought he better keep a good watch on her.

So, as he went through the business of setting up camp, he kept glancing over to where Anne sat. But, the girl had no intention of turning around, even though it did feel weird to be in the presence of someone who would not let her see his face or know his name. As she sat, she suspected that the man was watching her and shivers glided coldly down her spine. She wondered what he was doing but had no other choice but to stare at the sky and the fields below.

Finally the man, feeling just as uncomfortable as Anne, came up to her. His “ahem” made her jump her seat and she started to turn around.

“Don’t turn around!” he reminded her impatiently. She quickly turned her head and stood for a moment, wondering what she was supposed to do.

“Uh…okay…Just come here slowly…” The man was making it up as he went along. Looking at the ground, she nervously obeyed. He stayed behind her back as she turned and took her seat near the fire where a large bird was roasting. The man then made a wide circle around her as if she had a horrible disease. He slid a plate to the girl, took one for his own then sat on the other side of the fire with his back towards her. Dinner went on in silence making the night dreary for the both of them.

Anne watched the moon slowly rise as the man watched her. Finally she drifted off to sleep and the man kept thinking of the Sorceress, who, had she been in Anne’s place, would have tried to do some vicious magic on him by now.

“Why isn’t she fighting back?” He thought puzzled, “It’s only natural…” At least it is where he comes from.

***

As the sun rose the next morning, the dew descended and soaked Anne’s clothes, waking her up much too early. She shivered and yawned, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Instinctively, she crawled out of the shade of the trees into the sun where she could warm up and dry.

Just then she remembered her unfortunate predicament; how the mysterious man surprised her and accused her of sorcery. She looked over to where he lay asleep and hoped she could get a look at his face. But, all she could see was his back.

He was wearing cloth pants and a leather vest that showed his muscular but exceedingly hairy arms. His head was covered in waves of strawberry blonde hair. She was astonished when her eyes rested on his feet that were bare; they were huge golden paws. She quickly looked for more specification on what she was seeing and noticed fluffy rounded ears amid his scattered hairy and the bristly end of a lion’s tail peeking out from under his legs.

Suddenly, she found herself picturing a hungry savage lion ready to make an early morning snack out of her. Soon she got a hold of herself remembering that if he wanted to eat her he would have done it already.

Her panic subsided and she leaned against a boulder and waited. Any other person would have used this opportunity to run away, but Anne was too timid and couldn’t bring herself to do it. Besides, she thought, if she had gone she wouldn’t know where to go, and the lion-man would probably wake up and sniff her out or something.

So she just waited, the longer he slept, the longer she would free from the Sorceress. Soon, he would wake up and take her to the queen and she would become an enemy to the country and a murderer to an endangered species.

Missing: The United States of America

What happened to the America that is for the people and by the people?

What happened to the America that allows us to have our human rights and does not invade them?

What happened to the America whose government is not manipulated by corporations?

What happened to the America that doesn't spy on it's own citizens?

What happened to the America, the independent nation, who doesn't have to borrow money from China?

What happened to the America that takes care of it's own people and doesn't assault other countries for no good reason?

Where did our Constitution go?

Where is the United States of America?

by Klytie

More Necklaces

Okay here are my three latest necklaces...well, actually I made the one on the far right at Granny's house in November...I just decided to put it in the picture with the other two. The one on the left is Lauren's, I made it for her on Three King's Day (Jan 6) Mostly because I wanted to make a treasure hunt for her lol...yeah I put clues around, hard ones too, and had her find it.

Anyway, the middle one is like one that I've been wanting to buy for a long time, but making it was a lot more fun and cheaper! The one on the right is a longer than it shows, I just wanted to get the end in the picture. I love it! It goes with almost everything in my closet!

Land of the Phoenix Part 3

The Tavern

Before she realized what had happened, the bears separated Anne from captor. Panicking, she ran further into the woods, but four bears chased her down and surrounded her.

Meanwhile, the man fought fiercely against his attackers but was no match for the heavy animals. They pummeled him to the ground and did not stop attacking until the man stopped moving. He was not who they came for so they left him lying unconscious and rushed into the forest after the girl.

Poor Anne had been picked up by one bear and the group, walking on their hind legs as easily as any human, made their way to a nearby town.

The strange little town they took her to was filled with all sorts of forest animals, all of them standing on their hind legs. None of the animals, however were interacting with the others, unless they were in a brawl on the ground they all minded their own business. Anne watched in astonishment as the creatures walked and acted like humans but acted like savage animals.

Presently, the bears took her into an old tavern. However, instead of sitting at the tables, the animals destroyed them while trying to destroy each other. There was no apparent tavern-keeper; the animals just helped themselves to whatever was behind the counter. This chaos stopped, however, when the seven bears walked in through the swinging doors. Foxes, badgers, wolves, raccoons, snakes, coyotes and all the other small predators there (herbivores, the ones who get eaten, wouldn’t dream of coming to this town) stopped in their tracks and stared, with apparent fear, at the bears. The bears caught their attention but the girl caught their eyes, which made Anne feel very uncomfortable.

All the creatures stared as they walked up to the counter.

“You!” roared one of the bears at an unfortunate weasel cowering behind the counter, “Get us some drinks!”

The weasel squealed and rushed to fill their orders.

As the bears zealously chugged down their drinks, Anne came up with a clever but risky plan. Almost as one, her seven kidnappers set down their mugs and then talked with each other on what they were to do next with their hostage. Anne tapped the weasel on his furry little head and said, “The bears want another set of drinks.”

“What? But I just got them…”

“Are you arguing with me?” Anne asked fiercely.

“No, no! I-I’ll get to it right away!” and the poor weasel scampered off. The bears didn’t even question the delivery of the drinks but instead drained their glasses even quicker than the first time. Her plan was working! Anne ordered two more rounds; for the last one she asked the weasel to get larger glasses this time. So, the exhausted creature brought seven glasses almost as big as himself and the bears again drained them in a few gulps.

Now the seven huge creatures were very drunk and began arguing among themselves.
“No, the queen wants us to *hic* kill her now!”

“We gotta *hic* take the girl to her *hic* right away.”

“Ya dim wits are all crazy! She must put in the *hic* big house!”

Soon the argument turned into an affray and Anne easily slipped out of the window.

Anne’s previous kidnapper awoke almost an hour later, his body aching all over. As he stood up he tried to focus his mind and remember what had happened. Finally he remembered the bears. “Anne” was the first thing that came to his mind. But, then he thought, “Well, she’s off my hands now, the bears will deliver her to the Sorceress. I can just go home now.”

However, no matter what he told himself, he couldn’t get the girl off his mind. At last he made an excuse to go rescue her, “I captured her first so I should get the credit, not those flunkies!” And so he marched off to the forest where he found the path that the seven heavy animals made.

When he got to the town, he snuck his way to the center, knowing that the bears would not be too hard to find. He was just making sure the coast was clear by peaking around an old tavern when he was surprised to run into Anne climbing out of the window next to him! She had not yet seen him when he grabbed her arm and pushed her before him.

“You’re not getting away from the Sorceress that easy!"

Before she could rejoice at being away from the bears, Anne realized that she was back where she started, a prisoner marching before her captor to her doom.

Little Glass Bottles

Here are two things that you can do with little glass bottles :)

This one is Luna's favorite. (She's a fan of the Police and you know their song "Message in a Bottle") I love the blue diamond-shaped shells that my grandpa sent to me from Hawaii! I also used the same technique from the red and black necklace to connect the two necklaces. On the paper rolled up inside the bottle (which inspired the ocean look where I used shells, aqua blue beads and bleached wood beads) I am going to write a Bible verse but I can't find the best one to use..I got the idea for this one from a pamphlet at Hobby Lobby. I didn't do exactly what it said though because I had different beads and the little bottle that I wanted to use. My friend Bethany gave me the idea of putting sead beads inside of it. Thanx Bethany, it looks beautiful!!Here are the accessories I made for those necklaces. The earrings were really because the pins I used were too hard to bend and the beads kept slipping off. Also I kept redoing the bracelet because either it was too big or too small so finally I just said to heck with it and took off two of the wood beads that went between each blue bead. It looks a little weird just laying there, but on my wrist Luna (my sister) and I established that it looks alright :)

Attic Stairs