I loved the little kitchen.  We didn’t get a chance to use it except to heat up our leftovers.  Next time I look forward to cooking a little meal.

The bathroom was trippy.  Check out the steps!  I had to really watch myself at night.  You know how you try to stay mostly asleep when you use the potty at night?  Well, that could be a bit dangerous here.

There was also a weird little window that looked out to the bedroom from the bathroom.

This is the Verde River.  It took us three times to get this shot.  Chucklebutt finally put the timer on 20 seconds.  He almost slipped and fell into the river the first two times.  That would have been a good shot!

This was the bridge that led to –

– absolutely nowhere.  It is a pretty big bridge that leads to a pretty big dirt wall.  Weird eh?

This is Cottonwood’s old jail.  Alas it was Sunday, and we couldn’t get inside.  There was supposed to be a geocache nearby, but we couldn’t find it.  Poop.

After traipsing around Cottonwood, we headed to the Dead Horse Ranch State Park.  I have no idea why they call it that — perhaps a horse died in the vicinity at some point in time.  At the park, they had lagoons stocked with fish.  Chuck got some real nice shots of the cat tails.  I, apparently, have never encountered a cat tail and was quite surprised when it exploded onto me.

See?

Look who’s coming out of the bullrushes.  Again, he was lucky not to fall in.

On our way home, we finally encountered SNOW!  Yipee!! We both were pretty stoked about seeing the white stuff.

The sun had gone down and we trying to take advantage of the last remaining rays of light.

It was a great weekend and I wish we could have stayed longer.

Incidentally, I finally completed all my Valentine’s Swaps.  I haven’t had a chance to take pics of my partners doll, but this is what I made Cindy over at Thimbleprims.  Special thanks to Jenny Hernandez for the inspiration.

Does she look familiar?

How about now?

Ah the joys of working as an activity director — nobody is surprised when you show up to work looking like a Valentine Fairy. 

I hope that everyone has a great week!  Chucklebutt is in Daytona — he made it in two days — and I take the red eye on Wednesday to join him.  I’m so excited about Bike Week, however my car is literally running on borrowed time and I just pray she can get me to the airport.  Wish me luck!

They did such a good job and I am so proud of them!  It’s really rewarding seeing young people develop their art and I’d like to think I had a small part in all of it.  Congratulations Kendra, Tiana, Zach and Alexis!  You guys rock!  The show runs one more weekend, and if you live in the Valley and have young kids, they would really enjoy it.  You can purchase tickets through the Mesa Arts Center.

Then Saturday night, I treated my girl friend Lori to Mary Poppins at Gammage Auditorium.

Wednesday was her birthday and she has been talking about seeing this show forever.  She treated me to a delicious meal at Jungle Pita, complete with chai lattes and  gigantic pieces of baklava.  The baklava was so big we couldn’t finish it all and snuck them into the theatre.  They tasted delicious at intermission!  We were in the nose bleed seats, but still could see absolutely everything.  Despite the fact that I make part of my living in the theatre industry, I rarely get to see shows.  Part of that has to do with time, economics and of course my own laziness.  After seeing it, I realized how much I missed seeing really good theatre.  There’s nothing super deep about Mary Poppins, but the production quality was top notch and the actors were phenomenal.  Chucklebutt and I need to take better advantage of the shows that come to our area.  We also have some great regional theatre, but again, it comes down to time and economics.   Avenue Q is coming in March and that is an incredible show.  Mom and I saw it in Vegas quite a few years ago and Chuck has hinted he would like to see it.  Hmmmm…perhaps as a birthday present?

While I’m a little late in posting pics of our Valentine’s Day Weekend, I want to assure everyone that we had a great time in Jerome.  I love that little town and it is really a great getaway from all the hustle and bustle of Phoenix.  Oh yeah, and we had snow!  Finally I got to frolic in the pretty white stuff.  Our lodging was amazing — even better than the last place we stayed.  As usual, we were late in making reservations — that’s par for the course in the Gibson-Rice Household.  The last place I called was the Surgeon’s House.  It’s a highfalutin B&B and the gal on the phone was a bit snotty with me.  “We’ve been booked a year in advanced,” she said.  I was cordial but was thinking, “Lady, we’re lucky to know what we’re doing from one day to the next let alone a YEAR in advance!”  Anyway, she was kind enough to give us the number of a new rental place.  I called and talked to a precious gal and we were good to go.  Sight unseen and we scored big time!

Apparently Life on the Curve is an interior design store that has started vacation rentals.  These were the pictures on their website:

This is the building that houses the apartments.  We got in pretty late on Friday night (12am) and were pretty pooped.  We were greeted with a very stylish — and dare I say hip — dwelling.

This is the living room.  The two big pieces of artwork are amazing!  Vickie — the rental agent — told us they are made from dirt, berries and other organic “stuff.”

This couch was sooooo comfortable.  In fact the following day both of us took a nap on it. 

Chuck had asked for them to do something special for Valentine’s Day.  We had a great basket filled with goodies and they sprinkled rose petals on the bed.   Awwwwww!

There were even cards waiting for us.  Our handwriting look suspiciously similar.  ;D

There was enough chocolate in that basket to throw us both into a diabetic coma.  In fact, there was so much sweets and treats that we still haven’t finished it off.

On Saturday, we headed right across the street to the Haunted Hamburger.  Yum-EEE hamburgers.  I dare say, one of the best I’ve ever had — even though I ordered a hot dog this time.  This is Chuck standing across the street from our apartment.

This was the view from our window.  The San Francisco Peaks are gorgeous.  Great shot Chucklebutt!

The giraffe is looking at our front door.  Incidentally, I LOVED the topiaries.  They were so fun and I’m thinking about getting one for our back yard.  And what’s most important, is the moss is all dead so you don’t have to water it.  How cool is that?

The gargoyle is a little creepy looking.

After lunch, we proceeded to take a two hour nap.  It wasn’t our fault!  That couch was just way too comfy.  Later, we just sorta goofed around town.  The jungle gym was beckoning to us.

Yes, I went tummy first down the slide.  That slide is awesome!  And I think they may have greased it since last we were in Jerome.

While I asked Chucklebutt to get on the horsey, clearly this looks like a disaster waiting to happen.  You should have seen the little kids giving him the once over.

While I did a little shopping, Chucklebutt took some great shots around town.  I love how the branch is growing out of this abandoned building.

I think I may like this one even better.  I love the sky!

Mingus Mountain behind Jerome.

Something about this bench is super cool!  Perfectly distressed.

It’s a Jiggle Puff on a distressed bench! 

I really like this shot as well.

I hope that everyone had a great V-Day!  I’ll post more pics tomorrow.

So with all that said, I owe a huge apology to my dear swap partner Hayley.  We were supposed to post our pics on Sunday, but it was a bit like Armageddon at our house.  So, without much further ado, I present all the glorious, fun stuff that Hayley bequeathed to me. 

The first thing that I noticed about the box was it was heavy as all get out.  I couldn’t imagine what weighed so much.

Whose tail is that peeking out from my card?

EEEEP!  Is that a mermaid or doth my eyes deceive me?

It IS a mermaid!  I adore mermaids and I have no idea how Hayley knew this.

I love what she did with the box.  Hayley is a high school English teacher and I thought it was very fitting that she used words and pages from books to decorate my box.  Truly unique and it looks pretty time consuming!  I love the quotation and the netting behind it.

Ooooooh!  Check out those goodies!

Hayley filled the box full of great treasures. Vintage lace (my favorite), ephemera, boxes, buttons and various other whatnots.

This box rocks!  Clearly, Hayley and I are part of that special sisterhood that gets giddy about an old twine box.  ;D

She used various playing cards to accessorize the packaging — they were all from the suit of hearts.  Brilliant!

Isn’t this a great bridge tally card?  I love her bonnet.

This neat little wooden box was full of red beads.  I wonder who Stella was and what she needed from Riggs Optical Company.  Incidentally, one of the characters I’ve been working with all day is named Stella.  I just realized that now.  Weird eh?

This pitcher is perfect.  I am such a junky for a pretty creamer.  Thank you Hayley!  I can’t wait to put some cream or fresh cut flowers in it!

Hayley was also kind enough to fix my sweet tooth for the next two months.  Chuck has loved eating the sweet tarts and I have loved …

Happiness is black licorice!!  Luckily Chuck doesn’t like this so I don’t have to share.  I have to remember, however, that it turns my poop green.  TMI?  Perhaps.  But many times I thought I was dying from so crazy gastrointestinal disease.  Funny in retrospect, scary at the moment.

These guys are so precious I’m thinking about shellacking them.  Who could eat such a cute face?  Speaking of kitties, Hayley was generous enough to think of our girls — Scout and Daisy.  She packed some kitty treats and a monster has been created.  We’ve never given the girls kitty treats, but they have learned very quickly the sound of morsels rolling around in the can.  Scout is down right pushy when it comes to her “Pounce.”   I’ll have to take some video and post it later.

This little treasure I do believe is my favorite.  About a year ago, I discovered a whole slew of these bunny figurines in a Goodwill.  I have them in my china cabinet and they make me smile.  How in the world did Hayley know I like these?  I wonder if she has spies? 

Finally, I love these two little love birds.  They are simple but too sweet.  Thank you so much Hayley for all the fun stuff.  You were an awesome swap partner and I hope to  catch up with you on the web.  To see what I gave Hayley, check out her blog: Nesting Notions.

Even as a child, Valentine’s Day has always been my favorite holiday.  I can remember vividly making a large decorated envelop in my 3rd grade art class in order to hold all my treats.  In 10th grade, I had a super crush on an older boy named Will.  I desperately wanted to send him a Valentine but didn’t want to necessarily single him out.  For weeks I devised a devious plan to send everyone a Valentine so he wouldn’t think he was too special.  Low and behold, a week before the big day he got kicked out of school for smoking (or maybe it was drinking- I don’t rightly remember.)  My fifteen year old spirit was utterly crushed!  I ended up sending it to his house, and believe it or not, I still have his reply in my keepsake tin.

When I first met Chucklebutt, he completely spoiled me that first Valentine’s Day.  He did a whole 14 days of February theme.  Every day I received a sweet sentiment from him.  The gifts were as simple as a love note on my car to a barber shop quartet sent to my place of work.  The two gifts that were most impressive were a car wash and flowers.  While I was working at a local sound studio, Chuck loaded up a sponge plus a few gallons of water on his bike and proceeded to surprise me by giving Ms. Hecate a bath.  That’s a pretty tall order when you only have so much room on a bike.  A few days later, he completely decorated my car in roses, carnations and daisies.  When I left work, I was completely floored by the beautiful sight.  Every nook and cranny had a flower sticking out of it.  It was amazing and you should have seen me cruising down Interstate 40!

So needless to say, I seriously dig Valentine’s Day.  I may have mellowed a bit since being married, but my heart still goes a flutter with all the red, white and pink.

My momma knows that I love this holiday.  Check out what she made for me.

Isn’t it precious?!

Thank you Mamasita!  I love it!

In other Valentine news, I am part of two swaps.  The first one is:

Vintage Valentine Swap

This is being sponsored by Susan over at Rabbit Hollow Prims.  I am almost finished with my doll but have some last minute details to add.  Cindy is my partner over at Thimbleprims Studio and she does amazing work.  I can’t wait to see what she’s done.  I’ll admit, I am bit intimidated because her work is so amazing.

The next swap I did was over at Cathy Scalise’s:

We have to wait until the big day to actually post pics, but I’ll leave everyone with a teaser of what I made for my partner Haley.

I opened her package yesterday and the stuff she gave me is so fun.  Chucklebutt hasn’t taken pics yet, but I look forward to sharing with everyone on Sunday.

Incidentally, we’re headed up to Jerome for the weekend and I am so excited.  It seems like everyone in the whole world has been getting snow except for us.  I have my fingers crossed that there will still be snow on the mountain come Saturday.  I’m looking forward to a weekend spent outdoors.  It’s always an adventure with Jiggle Puff and Chucklebutt!    Mind you we both a crap load of work to get done before Friday.  If we don’t kill each other or pass out from a lack of sleep it will be all good!  (What do the Aussies say?  Oh yeah, “No worries!”)

Hope everyone is well in blogland!

(A quick side note: Yes, the majority of people I work with are girls and women.  Yes, the majority of blogs I read are by women.  No, drama and angst are not soley characteristics of the female species.  You haven’t seen nothing until you’ve witnessed some 80 year old men get their shorts in a bunch over a poker game.  It can get real tense.)

So someone has been leaving hurtful anonymous comments and judging bloggers based on a snippet of their lives.  We’re all judgmental and envy is a nasty quality.  I’m of the opinion, however, if you can’t own up to your own comments, perhaps you should keep them to yourself.

A bit more complicated an issue is that of intellectual property.  I decided to look up its definition, and here is what the wiley world of Wikipedia says:

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law.^[1] Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Now, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the art blog world, there is an issue going around of artists taking other artists’ ideas/style.  It is a much more complicated issue than you  would think and Chucklebutt and I have been having a pretty good conversation about the whole thing.  Simply put, one artist is accusing another artist of stealing her designs.  You would think it would be pretty black and white –not so.  In the world of etsy (the website where folks can buy and sell handmade items) there is a fine line between being inspired and out right copying another individual’s work for profit.  The problem comes when you start to talk about the legality of it all.  Most of the folks on etsy do not have their work copyrighted or licensed.   This is primarily cottage industry at its finest.  If, however, I wanted to make a whole slew of artwork with Disney characters, I would definitely be in violation of copyright infringement.  Disney is sort of the mother of all companies to be feared.  (Interestingly enough there are approximately 7000 works of art on sale at etsy using Disney characters and/or designs.  Hmmm…I hope they have a good lawyer.)

So, back to the artists in question.  (Bear with me, my analytical thought process is creaky and out of shape.)  No laws have been broken.  No copyrights infringed.  Legally, there is no issue.  Now what about the ethical issue?  Chuck thinks there isn’t one since the materials used to create said artwork are unique (fabric, trims, notions, etc) and the images used are in the public domain.  Coming from a photographer’s perspective, he uses Ansel Adams as an example.  Everyone knows an Ansel Adams photograph and yet all landscape photographers aspire to take a similar shot of El Capitan (and if they’re lucky, make some money off of it.)  I agree to an extent, however, were it me, I could see getting upset over someone profiting from my designs.  Mind you I haven’t had an original thought in all my 36 years, so I’m not too worried about people taking my ideas.  I guess the whole issue gives me reason to pause and think about crafts and ethics.  I certainly don’t have any answers, but I’m definitely doing a lot of thinking.

Whew!  Can you hear the wheels squeaking?  So much for Wordless Wednesday.    I’ll leave everyone with a pic I found quite refreshing.

So anyway, rain here is a super big deal. It’s the desert and there really isn’t any place for it to go. We have all of our fingers crossed that the roof won’t leak and the office doesn’t flood.

Besides the weather, life has been pretty mellow. I finally cleaned up all our Christmas and New Year mess and had Chucklebutt take some photos of my dishes. I love vintage mix-matched pieces and I think I may be addicted. I have such a hard time passing pieces by.

I count my blessings daily!  We are so lucky here in the Gibson-Rice household and I sure do cherish the everyday moments.

A couple weeks ago, Chuck and I headed to Scottsdale for a Sunday afternoon of exploring.  Scottsdale usually isn’t my thing — there are too many Hummers and Escalades for my comfort — but the afternoon was such a great moment in time.  Chuck had been earlier in the week to photograph a performance art troupe.  They were bringing awareness to water issues and the canal system.  Apparently SRP (The Salt River Project) was draining one particular section of the canal and scooping up the fish and putting them further down stream.

I think this is an amazing shot!  Chuck entered into a DP Challenge Contest and came in 29th out of 191.  He was a bit disappointed, but I think he did great!  Check out all the entries.

Note from Chucklebutt:  The actor pictured is Aaron Wester. Full performance information: Vessel performing Transfix in The Art of Maintenance at the Scottsdale Canal. Directed by Rachel Bowditch.

This is the canal section that they drained.

I love duck butts.  Chuck thought this should be my new blog header.  We found these cuties further down stream.

As well as this fellow.

After walking around for a bit, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a groovey cafe.  We ate outside where this duo was playing jazz.  They were great and I especially enjoyed “My Funny Valentine.”

The food was delicious!  Nothing like eating caviar and fresh salmon on a Sunday afternoon.

My egg white omelet was yummy!  Spinache, gruyere cheese, mushrooms — oh yeah!

Sweet Man.

Crazy Man!  Thank you Chucklebutt for a perfect moment in time.

She has a funny trait of always dipping her paws into available cups and then licking them.  You have to be super careful around your water glass, because that’s her specialty — I think she likes tinking the ice cubes together.

OMG Kitty Tongue!! 

She even does this little ritual with her own water bowl.  I wonder how she gets enough off of her paws?  She’s cute but weird.

More tongue!

She’s perched sorta precariously up there.

Thank you for humoring our kitty obsession.  God help our kids — I can only imagine Chucklebutt embarrassing them with a bevy of photo shoots.  “But Dad, you’ve been taking our picture for the last 20 minutes!”  “But Son, your senior prom only comes once in a lifetime.”  Hehehehehe.

I want to leave everyone with an awesome video we discovered last night. For those of you with feline friends, I’m sure you will appreciate.

These were the cute little fellas that Mom and I made a week ago thanks to the tremendous generosity, knowledge and inspiration of Jenny at Polka Dot Pixie.  We were a little impatient, however, and didn’t wait for the paper clay to completely dry.  As a result, when we started to paint our figures, they cracked.  I think it gives it a nice vintage look.  This guy is mine and Mom’s is below.

They are so darn cute I just want to scream!

It’s party time!  The scrumptious looking cake box was a Christmas gift from Mom.  She purchased it from Pink Rose Pastries.  They really do look good enough to eat — and no calories!

She also surprised me with some cookies and petite fours.  Thank you so much Mom!  These are awesome!

I gotta go find something sweet to eat!