Octopus's Garden Collection

I have been pretty busy lately, these days I am always busy and when not so tired, that I don't feel like doing anything, except watching Netflix. The new season of "What not to wear" is available on streaming and I am just addicted to it. I am not ashamed to admit it.

Also, I had catching on movies, the Hobbit and Catching Fired, are so good, you should go and see them.

You see, very busy ;)

Here is the Octopus's Collection, there are some more to come, I promise will posted tomorrow night. I posted this on my FB page and turn out to be quite popular, what do you think?

Starry Night Collection

This is the Starry Night Collection, again the big dinner plate is missing, still drying.... to many factors, unusual humidity and cold weather in Florida, to many holidays in a row (the studio is close for the holidays), me not feeling too well, again because of the weather. Anyhow, you can have an idea with this photo.

It makes me so happy to have sets, don't know why didn't think about it before; I started making it because a friend of mine wants a set of 8 for her house, plus Judy always said: make sets, make sets. So, I finally did what they were long saying and this is the result. What do you think?

Blue Birds of Happiness collection

This is the "Blue Birds of Happiness" Collection, in the photo the big dinner plate is missing, takes so much time to dry and the usually shiny Florida has been cold  humid lately therefore, the dinner plate is not yet ready, however since I had the Shopapalooza Show last week, I decided to go ahead and make a photo of it.

I also have two versions of the clouds you see in the bowls, one is blue as you can see it and the other one is white, it seems that the blue was more popular. I am posting these in my Etsy store, I think that any piece of this set can be a wonderful Christmas gift, of course a whole dinning set will be spectacular, but I think that not many people will be able to afford it. My wish is that people use my pottery in a daily basis, but I can not make it any cheaper that it already is. Every piece is unique and takes time to make it and decorate it. I know it will be easier and faster to just use stickers or stencils; even the so famous and expensive Vietri Italian pottery use stencil! However, even when they are so pretty, all of them are the same, you don't have a unique object, the one you purchased is almost exactly the same as the other millions that they make.

I wonder if this is the right path to walk, perhaps I should stop being naive and romantic, perhaps I should stop making unique pieces and start thinking more as a business woman, thinking only on how to sell more, what will people will want and make it, find the way to make millions of identical pieces for a Walmart kind of price (Walmart and Target mugs are $5 dollars, mine are $25)

It is a real struggle to sell, at least for me. I am happy when I make them, when selling not so much, it is so hard for me. I don't think that $25 is to much, is 2 tickets to the movies on 3D or IMAX, is one entree in a nice restaurant, is one t-shirt at a nice store, so it is not that expensive, don't you think?

Anyway, I have to go back to cleaning my little room of requirements, it is so chaotic. I also have to work on my Etsy store, I usually don't do much there, and I should.

There are 5 more collection, I will try to post them daily.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day here in the USA. Is a day when families and friends get together to celebrate to be able to be together and to be thankful of all the things one has.

I am very thankful this year, I got married with my best friend Brian, my sister is in town, my mom lives very close to me, my cousin Ceci is living in Tampa this year, and her smart and beautiful daughter Isabella, just light my day every time I see her. I have family close to me, tia Isabel is here too, and some weeks ago my uncle tono y tia mariana were here visiting. I have very good friends here in the Tampa Bay area and incredible friends overseas that even when we are so geographically apart, it seems like we are just a "microbus" away.

I am very thankful to be able to do what I like, paint, pottery, gardening and bakery. I also have to do some cleaning and cooking, but it is a small price to pay. My days are usually the same everyday not very exciting adventures every week, but I like it, what I am saying I love it. I enjoy my routine, may be boring for some but I am do enjoy it.

I am very thankful for my health, that even when right now is not at its best, it is better than it has been in years. And from now on, I am sure it will get better and better.

I am also thankful for being able to sell some of my stuff last Saturday at the Shopapalooza. I carried many of my "seconds" and people purchased them, that made my day. And, of course, I sold some of my nice pottery and receive tons of compliments which made me very happy. I was part of the Etsy Village, which put together a group of Tampa Bay Area Etsy sellers among the regulars Shopapalooza vendors. Thank you Stephanie MacGrath for making this happen! And thank you all the TBEC members, I was very lucky to have found such an amazing group.

Here are a couple of photos from the show, Briancito is in one of them, he is always with me helping me, and I am very thankful, blessed and happy to have him.

Pedestal Bowls

I have been trying new things on the wheel thiese pedestal bowls started as "not the right size" kind of bowl, and they looked like they were part of something. I have been thinking on pedestals for a while now, so I thought: why not!
This are the first two examples, of many to come... I like pedestals, I will do more.
The first photo is with the "Ephemeral Wisp of Flower" and the second with "Blue Birds of Happiness: collection.

Massimo's Jewelry Box

It is ready, as we said int the pottery studio: "the Kiln's Gods" have been nice. The piece turn out just the way I wanted.

Here it is. I mailed today and it is expected to arrived in Arlington Texas on Monday. I hope it helps to reach money and help spread the word about this terrible disease and the cured for Eosinophilic Esophagitis will be soon discovered.

If you live in Arlington Texas, try to stop by at the Arlington Classic Academy  next Saturday, November 16th the Craft Fair goes from 9 to 5. There will be many things for kids and adults, plus you can buy a ticket and enter to raffle to win the Massimo's Jewelry Box. Or is it a silent action. Not sure, but you can find out. Plus you will be helping a nice cause.

Massimo's Jewelry Box

The little Scarlet Tanager Bird (Piranga olivacea) lives in the Northeast forest of  the US during the summer. When winter comes it flees to south American countries like Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. It makes a short stop before crossing the Gulf of Mexico, which give us, Floridians, the opportunity to see it.

It is a medium size bird that sings wonderful  tunes. I have chosen to decorate one of my boxes with this bird because, this little bird can be seen in Lima, Tampa and Dallas among other cities. These cities became special when I found out about Massimo.

Massimo is a two year old boy who has Eosinophilic Esophagitis, he lives in Dallas, Texas. His mother and I were high school classmates back in Lima, some years ago. I got back in touch with her during the days of the American Made contest. (Remember the contest? who could ever forget, right? Voting everyday for weeks. Well, during those days I got in touch with many of my former classmates. They were wonderful voting for me everyday, and you know how FB is, you get in touch with friends and friends of friends. When the contest ended, my friend Marissa invited me to "Like" her page Support for Massimo. On this page she talks about Massimo and his disease:

"Massimo is 2 years old and has been recently diagnosed with Eosinophic Esophagitis, he also has dysphagia, food aversion, asthma, chronic ear infections, GERD, developmental delays, celiac disease and failure to thrive. He also has a feeding tube. It has been hard to even reach the correct diagnosis, he has suffered since birth and we had to push, fight and plead to get where we are. If you want to know more about these diseases and our journey, you are welcome to follow this page"

The recent news about Massimo is that he no longer needs to have or to use the feeding tube and that his disease is in remission. Hurray for Massimo!! However, he still needs to be super careful about what he eats which I can only imagine must be really hard for his mother. Children usually don't ask permission to eat, if they see something they like, they just grab it and eat it. 

On November 16th will be an Craft Fair in Arlington, a city close to  Dallas, TX.  Massimo's  10 year old sister will be there selling  hand-made bracelets and the money she raises will be donate to CURED. Her mother wanted to buy one of my pieces so she can do a silent auction or something: she is very determined to make this disease well-known and to find a cure for her little boy. 

With all these things on my mind, I thought how I might contribute. What can I do that will be small and not too expensive to mail to TX; what can I do that would  make people want to contribute? Perhaps I could make something someone might buy as a present, perhaps something for their personal use . . . Who are the ones usually buying my pieces, that I know? My pieces are often purchased by women. What do women like, jewelry, so what about a jewelry box? It is small and can make a great gift, something that you use and is also decorative. I decided to carve the piece with birds, and I chose the Scarlet Tanager bird because this little bird flies around where we live. Perhaps the same little bird can be resting in Massimo's garden and then he can show up in my garden, before going to visit Massimo's family in Peru. Then, he flies back, and so we all can send our love to Massimo with this little bird.


The jewelry box will be my small contribution in the search of finding a cure for the  Eosinophilic Esophagitis. I don't have money but I do have clay ; ) Hopefully someone will like my piece and buy or bid for it. 

Here are the photos of the process, tomorrow it will fired again and hopefully it will look good, Then it will be mailed to TX and arrive just in time for the event.

Painting again!

Hi,
It has been a while since my last post, I have been very busy, trying to finish the dinner-table sets and working in the garden. Well, I have not finish either, garden takes so much time and the results are going to be visible in 10 years from now... OMG!! how can I get involved in something that requires so much time? I guess because I have this dream of a garden full of flowers and butterflies and just keep thinking on the goal. It does look better than last year, but not yet the way I wanted.
Anyway, in the field of pottery, I am still working, I had some troubles with my plates, one cracked, and others had problems on their foot so I have to make more, and more, and there are still more to be made. But I had to stop of making plates and did some bowls and boxes for a change.
I am working in the "Blue Birds of Happiness" Collection and the "Starry Night" Collection, a little sgraffito and a little of just free hand painting.

This are the photos of the greenware with the Blue Birds theme, I forgot to take a photo with the Starry Night, it has been a while since the last time I photograph the process, I will start to do that again. 

In the photos you can see the 2 bowls and the little box I did, all with the same theme. Behind, covered with blue plastic are the bowls that later I decorated with the sgraffito technique. I still have to make plates, yes more plates and mugs with that theme, so photos will come.  

Thank you!!

Well, competition is finally over, thank you so much for all your love and support. We conquered the 14th place out of close to 1,000 nominees. The official number numbers are not yet on the American Made website, but the last time I looked I had 12,140 votes. That number still amazed me, thank you so much for helping me. I am a very blessed girl with many true and loyal friends, I am a winner after all!!!

Monica

10,295 votes and 4 more days to go!!!

With 10,265 votes we are ready for the 4 days left of the competition. We are number 14 from 1,000 competitors in the craft category from all the USA. The competition was open to everybody from the beginning, which means that small artist like me will be competing with big business. One, for example had 35K Likes in her FB page, before the competition started. Its kind of crazy even dreaming to compete with that, and however here we are #14. She is currently #3. Another good example is #7, she is a jeweler and her work had been selected to be display on one of the characters of Vampire Diaries Show, also her jewelry has been part of the gifts for celebrities in the Golden Globes Awards, Emmy Awards, etc. Number 9 is a well renowned basketry artist, she teaches as numerous workshops all over the US. Of of her baskets is right now property of the Smithsonian Museum. Numbers 10 to 15 are small artist like me. You can find here, soap makers, bags makers, painters,illustrators and a potter and glass artist: Me. I know it has been hard and tedious voting everyday,and the the website has been itself sometimes impossible to work with. But we have come so far, I really think that among all the top 20 I am the smallest, the one nobody will have bet on it...and here we are #14, so please, please vote again for 4 more days, share it with your friends, we can finish it in 10 place, Martha Steward and her team will have proof of what can truly and loyal friendship can achieve, making the impossible possible. I am just a girl from Lima with no connections no budget to give presents in exchange of votes (except for my mom's alfajores), no studio, no wheel... I may be just a huge dreamer who look for opportunities and hope for the best every time. Thank you for being there with me, supporting me. I don't have many things, but I do have friends, exceptionally good and amazing friends!!! Let's keep voting. To be in the top 10 is possible. Si se puede, si se puede!!! Gracias!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

7,503 votes and Only 9 more days left!!!

I don't know how many more votes I will be able to reach, and everything ends on September 22nd. Right now I am in the number 16 out of 1000 people. Amazing, isn't it?? I really, really want to get into the finals, finalist will be interview in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and that will give so much exposure, it will really help me to start the foundation of a real business. But the competition is soooo hard!!! Right now the number 3 has 28,745 votes, how can she got all those votes??? oh, yes perhaps because she has 35K fans in her FB page! My God, this is an insane competition, why would someone like me would dare to compete with such big nominees, oh yes, I remember, because I am a dreamer! I always do that, I must be a very, very crazy girl. I don't know how many will pass to the finals, I don't quite understand if it is 6 per category, or 6 total, one per each category!

Oh, but there is hope, just the hope that someone from Martha's team would look at my artwork and decided to fallow my projects, and then maybe one day, they will need some pots for an article in the magazine and they will think: I know someone whose pieces will work perfect here....ahhh, dreams!!! What do we do for our dreams? Everything !!!

So in case you don't know much about this, just go to the link below, register and vote for me, you can vote up to 6 continuous times every 24 hours. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

5,063 votes!!!

Yes, we have made 5,063 votes yahooo!!! I am so happy and so excited! When the competition started I though that 5,000 will be all that I will need to get into the finals, I read an article about another nominee who had that and pass into the finals, but lately I also discover that last year there were a total of 1,000 nominees, this year there are 1,000 only in my category!! This is a very stressful competition, and it is only online, I can not imagine how it would be to be a politician, fighting and begging for votes. I guess that is why they have a big campaign team, a marketing team and so on. I am doing it by myself, at home in my computer.

However, I have a huge support system, I have family and I have amazing friends, I don't have a big fan base in my FB page, because I don't have a big business, I haven't being doing for many years, I don't even have a studio. All I do has been made in the city community studio and in the little room of my house, I call it the "room of requirements" I only wish it work the same way that in the Harry Potter's books.

I am in this competition because I want a studio, I want a wheel and some tools, I am so small that I can not think of getting my business bigger I am in the getting a business stage. However, even when I am that small I am leading (at this moment, things change so fast with online voting) the Florida nominees, yupi!!! I am still processing that,that will put me in the number 20, I am 20 among 1000!!!!

Few days after the competition started, I took the time to look to all the nominees in the craft category, there were close to 1000, perhaps 998 or something like that, and I was the number 54, a week later I look again to all those 55 again and I was the number 24. I didn't look to all of them, because there was a big gap between them and the rest, so my thinking is that they will keep running behind, I can be wrong, of course. But it is so tedious to look to all the pages, that I am just concentrating on those 55.

I have noticed that even when there are some who keep increasing the votes (the leaders) most of the people with big number are now decreasing, and I think is because even when you have a big group of fans at the beginning what you need is a loyal and constant group who vote everyday, and that is what i have, very, very loyal and caring friends, there are not hundreds, but they made their voice heard, and it is show on the constant number of votes I have every day. They are truly amazing friends!!!

I have to say that if I want to win the competition I need more people, and that its very difficult, I need people who can sit in front of the computer every day and vote, and that's a lot. I think that in order to do that I have to increase my number of fans, so my page can be show in more Facebook's news feed. But how to do that??? I really need some marketing lessons.

Anyway, if you, whoever you are, wherever you be wants to contribute with the edification of my studio please go to the link below, register and vote. You can vote up to 6 times every 24 hours until September 22nd. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

You can also go to my FB page and click on LIKE, that way it will help me to get to more people

https://www.facebook.com/BarroyArena

Thank you for all the help!!

Monica

Almost 4,000 votes !!

Yes!  We are almost in 4,000 votes in the American Made contests sponsored by Martha Stewart. As I told you before, there are 5 categories and I am in the one named "craft" there are almost 1,000 participants and some of them are running again for the second time. It is a hard competition, a couple of them already have 16,000 votes, but there are many who will pass to the finals. For what I have read, last year were 1,000 nominees and 1000 pass to the finals, I guess that if only in the craft category are 1,000 more than a hundred will pass to the finals, so I still have a chance.

Maybe you have been wondering why I am putting myself into this stressful competition, and the answer is easy, to have more exposure, to increase my fans and to have money, of course, the prize is 10,000 dollars!! With that money I will be able to build my dream studio in the garden.

I have been collecting photos in my Pinterest account, and there is one that I really want. One surrounding by flowers, with big windows, and since it is in the garden it will allow me to go back and forth to my house in no time :). In the studio i will have shelves and a potter's wheel, that will be great since I only can use it while in the studio. If you are a potter or have you tried one you will know that there are good days, when everything runs smoothly, those day I would have been able to make more than 4 mugs or bowls, but there is no time for more. And there are the other kind of days, when nothing works, everything I tried on the wheel collapsed, too much water, to fast building the walls, bubbles... argghhh! everything that you can imagined happen, those are horrible days. Wouldn't it be nice to avoid those days and just work more hours on the good ones? With a wheel in my house I will be able to do just that :)

Here is the studio I want, you can look at more images in my pinterest board, or here

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-urban-chicken-coop-turned-c-134711

Don't you think it is beautiful, don't you fight for it if you have the chance, well I am doing it, and I am sure I will have it some day, if not winning the prize I will build it anyway, it will just take some years, but brick by brick I will build it.

If you like my work please vote for me, wherever you are, it is an online competition, so you just have to register with a FB account or with an email and any password, and you can vote for me up to 6 times per day everyday until the 13th. Thank you!!

Here is the link: http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

Almost 1500 votes

As it right now 11:13 pm I have 1392 votes!!! I feel excited for the enormous support from my family and friends. I feel like a politician promising things to my followers, I have promised alfajores for my classmates if I win. Way back when I was in high-school I had a clandestine businesses. I used to sell sweet treat during school hours. My mother used to have a catering business and I sold some of her treats. My classmates looove alfajores, they were their favorite. So if I win I think I can deliver some alfajores to them :)

 Anyway, it seems that if only 18 people vote right now, I will have 1500 votes!!! If you, wherever you are, like my pottery and/ or my glass, please vote for me, you will be contributing in the construction of my studio, a place where I finally will be able to work anytime I want, I will be able to produce more and be more relaxed without the constant worry of staying longer than I should, which is my "normal" at the Hyde Park Studio in Tampa.

Please vote for me, you can vote 6 times everyday until September 13th.

Here is the link:

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

476 votes and counting

Hello,

Well, the competition started on Monday and let me tell you it has been very exciting, counting votes and asking people to help, I am not at the bottom  but I am not at the top either. There is one excellent craftswoman in Massachusetts who already has more than 2,000 votes, there is another in Palm Harbor, Florida who has 800. So I guess for being my first time I am not so bad. I hope more friends find out and start voting. If you like my work, wherever you are, you can help me to. You can 5 times a day until September 13th. With your help I will be able to buy a wheel and start building my studio. I know it is very hard to get more than 5,000 votes but I am willing to fight for it, would you help me?

American Made

Hello,

As some of you may have notice I am applying to Martha Stewart American Made 2013. This is a online contest and the "only" thing I will need is 5,000 votes. Yeah, right! Where on Earth am I going to find 5,000 people who will vote for me!

Anyway, the contest is free and I will give it a shot, I can not imagine any bad scenarios coming from this, so why not, right and maybe, just maybe I can gin the money and I now exactly how to use that money :) A potter's wheel, a wedging table, some glazes. The beginning of my studio, maybe only the floor and some screen in the garden, but its a start, don't you think?

So, please vote for me, there is no money involve, just a click, perhaps there will be the option to vote everyday during the 19 days of the competition, I don't know, the clicking features on the "American Made" website will be open on Monday. Competition starts Monday, August 26th  through Thursday September 19th.

Here is the link, ah, by the way if you click on the like button as well, that will be awesome too :)

Thanks a lot,

Monica

Here is the link, you can also just click on the badge of American Made in the column on your right.

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

Mugs!

A selection of 4 mugs, the photo with the 8 will come soon!

Bowls for food

I am trying to keep my first big order. Its from a dear friend, it will also work as an experiment and learning process of shipping. She wants a set of 8 pieces, but all of them different. Currently I have 7 designs and I am still thinking and working on my 8th. I tried leaves in yellow, but I am still not happy with it, although I like that new  technique very much.

I work very slow, I don't have a wheel at home and I have to throw, trim and glaze at the studio, it takes time. Also I am making a set for myself as well, so I will have a model for photos, shows, etc. I have to make 16 bowls, 16 mugs, 16 big plates, and 16 medium plates. This will mean nothing for a professional potter that make wholesales orders, but for me is a lot. I feel bad specially when I am at home after a day or relaxing, there is nothing I can do to accelerate the process, I have to wait until Monday to start again. Perhaps I can work on recycling my clay in order to feel more productive.

Here is a collage I made with my designs. The yellow is there just to complete the 8.

Coo coooo, coo coooo!

Burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) tea pot. 

I am trying new forms, and something I wanted to do for a long time is a tea pot. Tea pots are a bit complicated, there is a lid and a handle and a spout and many things that can go wrong at many different stages. But still, I want to do that, and later a tea set, tea pot and cups that will matched. 

This is my first one, the lid came out a bit weird looking so after a lot of thinking I found that my lid and the head of a burrowing owl are very similar hahaha! You have to imagine that the head is coming out from a hole in the tree, at least that was my thinking. 

Why a burrowin owl because it is a Florida owl and I live in Florida and after seen a wonderful documentary in PBS about the Forida Wildlife Corridor I am more into nature than never before, the documentary open my eyes... it seems that wildlife were closer than I thought.  If you have the opportunity to watch it, don't think it twice and watched you will be amazed!!

Here it is, what do you think?

Pottery and Photos

I am trying new photos, since I had found an important fact. Photos of my pottery have more traffic on FB when the pottery is set as it will be used in a everyday house. Pottery portrayed in a white background appeal more to people who frequently buy pottery and/or art pieces or at least wanted to buy it.

I was also looking on big companies websites and FB pages, Pottery Barn for example, show their furniture and table ware in a very nice environment, nice houses, retreats with great food and sometimes good looking people, it is all super well produced. I wish my friends who work in advertisement were here to help me, but they are in Lima. However, since I myself had also studies advertisement and had work briefly for them I should have some clues. It is not really a fun thing to do, at least for me. I have to find a great location, get some props and take the photos.... to do that take some time, time that I rather use in making more pots, drawing or writing.

Anyway here is my first attempt. My mom made this delicious lemon tarts and I thought I better used them before I eat them. I don't have to much light in my dinning room, perhaps I should get some extra lamps or something. Any extra ideas?

The pieces were hand thrown as always and decorated with the slip trailing tool and later glazed with Magic Glow, fired c. 6

Blue Jay Nest

I have been lazy lately, I haven't take photos and posted in a while. I was working on making plates and mugs, I was hoping to have a set to post but the studio kiln was in a terrible mood and kind of exploited with my pieces inside, so I have to start all over again.

Here is one of my carved pieces. This particular one I don't feel so attached. It gave me so many problems, I tried to use a different technique in order to make the process faster and ended up working even more. I applied latex to cover the design in hopes that later will be easier to remove but no, it was horrible, I had also manipulated the piece so much that the blues in the piece faded. I am not happy with the colors but I do like the carving, I think I had to do a new version of it. I like how the nest is coming and leaving it without glaze it  adds more character to the piece.  I have to try it again SOON!!

Henna Pots

I have been very busy lately, I haven't write in a while. Here is an update. I have been playing with the slip trailing a lot, I have made some tumblers, some vases and bowls.

This green glaze is called Ayumi and everything was fired at c.10. I also tried a red color, but it looked more pinkish. The design was inspired in Henna motives I found on the internet, I like the flowers and butterflies, that can be created with the slip. 

I took all this photos in my back garden and since we live in Florida there are all kinds of wild life everywhere . Here are some animals that were dying to have their Kodak moment, hahaha. In the first photo you can see Sssssinforosa, the snake. She is everywhere, luckily she is shy, when she is aware of my presence she hides very quickly, which is good because I don't like reptiles. My garden has many insects, I am not very fond of them, but I know they are good for my plants so I let them be, as long as they are not so close to me. However I love butterflies, everyday I see a new kind, we are having more and more everyday, I guess my flower selection is working. Now I hope someday to have hummingbirds to keep me company at the garden, just like the Blue jays and cardinals. I will post photos will all my garden visitors soon.

Black Racer Snake

Gulf Fritillar Butterfly

Octopus's Garden Bowl

This is a B I G bowl for me,  as you may know I always have a hard time centering the clay. Anything beyond 3 pounds is such a challenge, sometimes I can, sometimes I can not, nowadays I am practicing with close to 4 pounds. This bowl will have had required at least 6 pounds, so I did something different, I made it with a slab of clay that later I slumped it on a mold. The process is slow, very different from the fast spinning wheel.

I did it because I have an idea on my mind, I wanted to make a big bowl with the "Under the Sea"  or "Octopus's Garden" theme, something big than can make people look at my table in future shows. Before I started the decoration process I realized than I have never had so much space for drawing, empty spaces scare me. I start thinking on my regular characters, jelly fish, octopus, fish, somehow it didn't seem enough for so much space,  I started to think on marine images and one image came to my mind, a turtle!!

Why a turtle, well, I should have started by telling that I have a friend, her name is Rhonda, she is a marine biologist and most of her work consist on  rescue turtles, of course there are more, something about the marine currents, the waves, the weather, the tide, the wind... it is quite embarrassing but sometimes I can not fallow her, I blame it to my lack of English words concerning marine biology, but perhaps I would not even understand it in Spanish either. Marine Biologist, get so passionate about their jobs, that I feel bad to interrupt them to ask silly questions, I get the big idea and I am happy with that. When I talk to her I feel a renew optimism, not everyone is evil, maybe not everyone has sold their souls to devil in exchange of money, prestige or fame. I am a pessimistic, I have no faith in humans.

However, I do remember a time when I was younger and really wanted to make this world a better place, I worked and volunteer in a couple of organizations back in Lima, but then, I found out the corruption, the personal interest and get into the conclusion that we are doom. But when I see Rhonda, and read her daily post on FB I feel better knowing that there are still some people working for us, protecting living creatures and their environment, Rhonda is one of them, isn't she the best!!

She works very early fallowing turtles paths, saving their nest, and much more, if a turtle needs help she will never  say: "Too bad, its 5 pm, I am out of here". Bad thing is that this wonderful people are badly paid, even worse than teachers, they don't receive paid vacations, or sick days, or retirement money, nothing, just good bye was nice to have you here, isn't it horrible!!

Thank you Rhonda for being there for the turtles, and for be my friend!

Mata and friends

I think I lack of discipline, I get distracted so easily and with the most absurd things, I mean what kind of person would prefer cleaning to take photos??? I have so many things unfinished, my paper, a canister, my closet, etc, etc. Today is cold, very cold for Florida, so I think I will stay inside and perhaps try to finish something, wait, no, I can't... today is Thursday, I will go to St. Pete in couple of hours to spend the day with my mother, oh well, tomorrow I will finish all the projects :) Sometimes I feel like Scarlet, from Gone with the Wind, that was her answer for almost everything: tomorrow!

Anyway, I did took some photos the other day, before it started to rain. However it does not have a name yet, Betsy said "Mata" but even though that will fit the name of the ardilla (squirrel) it doesn't holf the name of the whole bowl...Brian has been very lazy lately, he is not fulfilling his job as a cerrajero (locksmith) hahahaha! In Lima a cerrajero is a person that put locks and also nicknames - chapa can mean either lock or nickname.

Awakening Cacophonie

Yes, morning are very noisy in the mysterious guy who lives in the tree can not sleep because baby birds are crying, and the rest of the neighborhood is busy on their diverse affairs.