Starstruck in Arizona

Well, most of you by now know the exciting news about Chuck. He is officially a photographer/reporter for “Metal Monthly.” It’s an online magazine and his first assignment was covering the farewell tour of Ministry. Now for all you that are not familiar with Ministry, the best way to describe them is the quintessential “anger rock” group. They actually influenced Nine Inch Nails if that gives you a reference point. Now I like all music, but after listening to Ministry, I felt like I needed to take a shower to wash the dirt and sacriledge off my soul. Hard core is an understatement. And my sweet, unassuming Chucklebutt had the priviledge of interviewing them. Picture if you will, band members covered in tatoos and piercings, chatting about wild rock and roll times . . . and then there’s Chuck in a Hawaiian shirt. Too cute!

As far as my celebrity spotting, last Saturday I got to take a class with the incredible Tim Holtz. He is the mack-daddy of distressable stuff and is an amazing artist. He came to Mystic Paper and I was a tool and completely ingnored the oppotunity until it was almost too late. Kim at Mystic was a doll and managed to work me in. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Once Chuck takes some super duper photos, I’ll post my final project. I must say that it rocks! Meanwhile, check out Tim and I:

Besides my chubby arm and the piece of gum in the back of my throat, I LOVE this picture. He was soooo fun and I worked in a style I never would have otherwise. I bought both of his books and he signed them!

In other exciting news, one of my favorite artists of all time commented on my blog!! The most amazing Sandra Evertson wrote that she liked my Fairy House. OMG!! That’s the equivalent of Meryl Streep saying she liked my movie… or Joni Mitchell saying she liked my song…or J.K. Rowling saying she liked my book — it’s a big hoodah to me. (Mind you Sandra is much younger than all the aforementioned celebrities.) Her comment came right on the heels of my purchasing her newest book:

She has some really neat projects inside. I haven’t had time to make anything, but I am totally stoked to make paper flowers. These are the other two books that I have of hers.

I used this one to make my friend Jan’s wedding card.

I used the artwork in this book for Christine’s birthday gift. Sandra has such creative images and I find her work so inspiring. Yipee! Sandra wrote on my blog!

And finally, Chuck and I have been on a couple hikes that we’ve enjoyed. One was in the Superstition Mountains and the other was up north in Strawberry. For the most part, both trips were uneventful, except that I did read the GPS wrong in Strawberry. We were looking for a geocahce and I made us cross a pretty deep creek. Once we had made it to the other side, Chuck realized that the cache was actually on the other side of the creek. DOH!

Aren’t those clouds gorgeous?

The yellow flowers have finally died back, but they were crazy out-of-control a few weeks back. It was simply gorgeous.

At the end of the trail, we came across ancient petroglyphs and beautiful pools.

In the background, you can see Gold Canyon. This was a great hike minus the “tools” that brought a boom box up into the mountains. Sorta defeats the whole purpose of trying to connect with nature.