Do you love a good story?
I know I do. And I always feel like there’s more to the story than what I see and I’m sure that’s true – that’s why I think it!
A few times most weeks, I post things that I find interesting on social media. And to not make it too cumbersome for me or you, I keep them short and simple as best I can. But as you may guess, there’s more to what made me choose that particular picture or subject to post and I thought it would be fun to share that part of the story with you.
I know not everyone participates in social media so for you, this will be a little extra fun without having to do the social media thing. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to check out my Instagram & Facebook accounts, this might make you want to see more and for those of you who already follow me – now you’ll know the rest of the story. Um, did that just give my age away? 😂😂
Stupid Joke Mondays
It probably hasn’t taken you long to know that I LOVE stupid jokes and puns. This is not something new, I’ve been telling stupid jokes to my kids since they were old enough to hear. But that’s just when I started sharing them – I’ve loved them from the first one I heard. And laughing is good for us so I’m making a huge contribution to society.
So with that in mind, I’ve designated Mondays as Stupid Joke Mondays on my pages because I think it’s important to start your week with a smile and a laugh. I find a joke that makes me laugh and paint my interpretation to go with it for a little added art.
Important disclaimer – sometimes the stupid shines through quite brightly but the way I see it, that just makes the good ones even better.
Calendar reminders.
I’ve been making calendars for about 15 years now. I can never remember exactly how long because when I did the first one, I never in a million billion years thought there would be a second one, let alone at least 15! And some of you have every single one that I’ve ever made – thanks mom!
They are for sure one of the Zinnia Sky Studio yearly highlights. I love collecting and creating my favorites knowing they’ll be making you smile for an entire year. Because we all have a lot going on, I post a reminder on the first of the month to turn your page to see what’s going to make you smile for the new month.
A little extra bonus.
I hide my rendition of our first desert rescue dog Paco in every month. The story behind that story is finding gold bug in Richard Scarry books with my kids when they were small and most recently, with my grandkids… in the very same books!
Baby Quail Time!
I’m not so great at videos yet but of course I’m going to work on that. In the meantime, on one of our nightly walks in our neighborhood, I was able to capture this super cute video of a large family of tiny quail racing around their parents. Click the link below to see it.
How do I choose?
As you may already know, I love living in the desert and Tim and I live fairly rural, as you can see by my pictures. For as much of my life as I can remember, I’ve been a walker. My day doesn’t feel complete unless I’ve been able to be outside walking.
I walked as a kid myself, then as a teenager without my own wheels, as a pregnant mom, then to pushing strollers, pulling wagons, following trikes and bikes and to walking side by side with my kids. There is not a time in my life that I haven’t walked. I recruited Tim to walking from the very beginning of our life together so a nightly walk is just part of our day.
As you can imagine though, walking in the desert during the summer is hot. We try not to let that stop us, especially since that same heat has trapped us inside all day. Even on a super hot day, being outside is nice and there is almost always something to share and I love finding them for you.
Sunset from the Desert Museum.
Sunsets anywhere are a beautiful ending to the day. One of the first traditions we made when we moved to the desert was that no matter how the day had gone, how busy, good or bad, when the sun started its trek to the horizon, we stopped what we were doing to enjoy the sunset. It’s a great way to connect at the end of the day – with each other and our world.
Depending on the time of year, we’re usually on our patio or walking the neighborhood at sunset. But in the summer, the Desert Museum has Cool Summer Nights and the sunset from there overlooking the valley and mountains to the west are hard to beat.
Flowers, flowers and more flowers.
Flowers – I’m not sure there are enough words for me to say about flowers. I started gardening right out of high school when I was a newlywed. I worked at a bank downtown where we lived and I would go to a farmers market on my lunch hour once a week and get plants. The excitement I felt when I acquired a plant was addicting!
I started with houseplants but soon expanded to potted plants on the porch and eventually turned my entire front yard into a flower garden. In the Midwest, I had all the favorites, coneflowers, Black-eyed Susans, roses, peonies, lilacs, hydrangeas, hostas, tulips, zinnias – of course and so many more! Since flowers were my ultimate goal, I wasn’t much into food gardening. When we moved to the desert, I relearned gardening and now have succulents and cacti. Of course, we gardeners are never done learning so it’s still a process but one I love.
I love to share pictures of flowers from my gardens but also what we find as we’re out and about. Some of the plainest cacti have the most spectacular flowers!
Desert birds and critters.
I’m an animal person – of course – so I’m always watching the wildlife around me. You may be able to tell from my art, but birds are my favorite – after chihuahuas of course. I love most everything about birds. I’ve had birds as pets since I was 11 years old but birds in the wild will always be my favorite.
Being a bird person, we feed birds in our yard so we can spend our mornings and evenings on the patio enjoying their company. We see sparrows, finches, quail, thrashers, woodpeckers, cowbirds, Pyrrhuloxias, cardinals, hummingbirds, doves and other migrating birds throughout the year. I just happened to catch this cardinal dad feeding his fledgling one day and knew it was something to share.
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