That's The Sound of Sunshine Coming Down

My husband and I just got back from Key West, Florida. 

 If I could be in love with a city it would be that place. 

 I overheard a woman say,
 "Once they passes that Seven Mile Bridge they don't never come back!"  

She's right.  

They don't never come back
 the same that is.  

This is going to be a post full of pictures. 

 I hope you enjoy them.  

If you play this song while you read this post, it'll be even better. 

 I promise! 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vovuxt7pUc
(right click on link and select open link in new tab -
 then you can listen to music and read)

1, 2, 3... uh huh...

Here we go.

Flying into Key West on a propeller plane.

Yup.  A propeller plane.

 Old wreck on display for the tourists.
We've been about 8 or 9 times.
 We are still tourists!

 The marina.  I love walking up and down the boardwalk 

with the sights,  sounds and smells (yes, SMELLS) of the marina!

 This is B,O.s Fish Wagon.  It's a restaurant.
On the other side of this truck. 

 Best grouper sandwiches in the world.
 You gotta love the name!

Breakfast on the veranda of our hotel.  Best view on the island.

More boats along the boardwalk.

Here's what's at the end of the boardwalk.
Turtle Kraals.
Years ago it's where the brought the turtles to...
well, they made them into soup.
Now, Turtle Kraals makes
TOURISTS into soup.
It's a bar.
Best view from a bar on the island!

From the top.

Why we're there.
We're also there for food.
They have great barbeque.
And oysters.

Yeah.
Oysters!!

Key West is a whole lot bawdy
and

breath taking,
and

charmingly, romantic.

Lot's of odd characters running around.

Some are human.
I think...

Some fish.

Some work on their boats.

Some entertain you at the nightly
Sunset Celebration.
Our hotel overlooked this area.
We could watch it every night from our balcony.

 Walk around town and you'll see
interesting homes.

 Some on the water.

 Some surrounded by gardens.

Homes you can tour!

Homes with the porch ceiling painted blue.
I heard it's supposed to
repel evil spirits.

Beautiful southern living.

 AND Sunsets.

 Beautiful

Lovely

Dancing in the dark
Sunsets.

COLOR!

On BIKES!

On Signs!

Color is everywhere.

Even at night.

The morning of our last day it rained.
Then
there
was
 the
most
spectacular
rainbow!
"That's the sound of sunshine coming down."

The Butterfly Effect

This title grabbed me immediately.  It's the title of a Ray Bradbury story and has always been one of my favorites.  It's about time travel and how one tiny incidental thing caused by going into the past and stepping on a butterfly has huge, voluminous consequences when the time traveling group returns to the present.  You never know how one tiny act may effect something else down the line.

Trudi over at Two Dresses Studio is collecting 2 dimensional butterflies for the Holocaust Museum exhibit in Houston Texas.  This exhibit will take place in the spring of 2013.  They are collecting 1.5 million butterflies.

Why? 

Because 1.5 million children died 

during the Holocaust.  

1.5 million children died 

because they were Jewish.

1.5 million children died.

One Point Five Million Children.

You can be part of this.

Make a butterfly.

You can learn more by going here.

Imagine seeing 1.5 million of these.

Imagine.

Stop Hate.  Starting Here.

Peace.

Vanna, I'll take a K

So... I'm still soldering.  Trying to get it just right. 

 I figure everyone is tired of seeing the charms.  

Here's something else I'm working on. 

 Karla over at Karla's Cottage is hosting a Wizard of Oz tag swap.  

Usually, I make 6 completely different tags.  

For some reason this tag just made me laugh.  

So I made six all the same.

This is the back side.  I have quite a few old Monopoly houses.  I thought they looked cute with the tornado.  Funny, I don't actually  think seeing one's house flying through a tornado is cute.

The flying monkeys scared the heck out of me as a kid. When I started,  I wanted this to be colorful and full of Munchkins, Glinda and rainbows.  It just wouldn't happen.  Instead I ended up making a cartoon Dorothy with Toto biting Mr. Flying Monkey's buns. 

 And speaking of Glinda, does anyone besides me think that it was really, REALLY, rotten of Glinda not to share with Dorothy one, eensy, weensy, important fact? 

 Such as:

THOSE DAMN SHOES 

WILL TAKE YOU HOME!!!

Borrowing from Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer, 

wouldn't this qualify as something that would have been good to know yesterday??

 She fought the flying monkeys, the witch, and that crazy coot of a Wizard, 

only to find out that

"you've always had the power to return home"

EXCUUUUUUUUUSE  MEEEE!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I adore the Wizard of Oz, but as I get older

 I think Glinda was holding out on  the goods 

and waiting to throw poor Dorothy under the proverbial bus.

On with goodness, sunshine and crafts, oh my...

Oh, look.  

More soldering pictures.

But wait...

These are made with postage stamps.

Real postage stamps.

I've saved these for a long time.  You can tell by the .39 price.

Do we even still use stamps?

Don't we just paste a dollar bill to the front of the envelope now?

Oh, Micky you're so fine,

You're so fine,

You blow my mind

Hey Mickey!

I love this one. And it's really a stamp.  No copies here. 

No sirree.

Cinderella.

"A dream is a wish you're heart makes"

I love this one, too.

It also is a real stamp and not a copy.

Don't you want to know

why I'm so vigilant about letting you know

that these are real stamps?

I considered copying them.

That way I'd have several to work with.

That is until I read this!

 (Cue loud music chord)

According to Title 18 of the United States Code

Section 501

it says, and I quote:

Whoever makes or prints, or authorizes to be made or printed, any postage stamp, postage meter stamp, stamped envelope, or postal card, of the kind authorized and provided by the Postal Service, without the special authority and direction of the Postal Service...
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

I could be incarcerated for crafts?

I don't wish to share a cell

with a short, squat bald man named Mumbles.

so I started making these:

The Scrabble people don't care what you do with their stuff.

Living Life On The Edge - It's Shocking!

I have been fooling around in Photoshop with some of the pictures from our little town carnival.  Doesn't this look like something from a SciFi movie?  It's just the Octopus ride, sillies...still there's a dark, creepiness about it...

The scrambler up close and personal.

The Zipper.  No way would I ever ride this. 

 I was never much for being unceremoniously

dumped on my head.

More soldering of charms.

I'm going for rustic.

If you can't make smooth and lovely,

go for the rustic look.

Works every time!

A pressed violet from last spring.

This is the other side.

Les Mis meets

Springsteen's Thunder Road!

Heading into fall.

Scary owl.

You know what's really scary?

The SSSZZZZTTTTT sound

 the soldering gun makes

just as it shorts out

and shocks you - 

right before

it blows the circuit!

Yeah.  

Life on the edge.  

That's me.