Author: Sarah Collins

Old Cowtown

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Old Cowtown is located in Wichita, Kansas.  They have relocated some of the old buildings that were built around Wichita to this museum.  It is located next to the Arkansas River on Museum Boulevard.  Across the street is the Botanical Gardens, which is worth a visit.

Settlers used to live in houses that were small, but it  suited their needs.

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They packed their wagons and move to Kansas.  I think they were trying to get out of the over grown city in the East and the mosquitoes in the South.

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Every town had a church. But, in the South every town seemed to have a Baptist Church, a Catholic Church, and a Methodist Church.  Which were usually across the street from each other.

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I made a friend while visiting Old Cowtown.

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At noon, there was a fight on the street of the town.  A couple was robbed.  The wife took the husband gun and shot the robber.  The wife went home, the robber was okay, and the husband went to the saloon.

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Outside to town, there was a farm.  They even had a lazy cow.  She was eating laying down.

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More Polymer Clay Roses

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Below are batches 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of my polymer clay roses with leaves and stems.

Batch 2:

I took some white clay and blended one edge with some pink clay.  The leaves and stems contains three shades of green and gold clay.

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Batch 3:

The center of the roses were made from the clay left over from Batch 2.   However, there wasn’t enough for three flowers, so I mix a little red with the pink and white for the outer petals.

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Batch 4:

I wanted some flowers that glowed in the dark. I mixed bright pink, yellow, and orange clay with some florescent clay.

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Batch 5:

These red roses were also mixed with some florescent clay, but they do not shine as well as the pink roses in Batch 4.

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Batch 6:

I had just finished the yellow sunflower vase and wanted some yellow roses to put in the vase.  But, yellow roses would just be too plain.  The rose color from stem to the petal tips are hot pink, orange, yellow, and lemon yellow.

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Batch 7:

Some more vase inspired flowers.  I used the leftover clay from the vase.  I gently it mixed together to make the roses.

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Polymer Clay Roses

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Here is my first attempt at adding a stem and leaves to my polymer clay roses.  I made my first rose when I was a teenager from my brother’s Play-doh.

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The flowers were made from polymer clay that was leftover from previous projects.  The stems are made from floral wire and coated with polymer clay.   Jewelry wire was other option, but it is a lot more expensive than floral wire.

What I learned from the first set was:  How to make the leaves better  and how to better place them in the oven to reduce damaging the stems.

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Vases with Polymer Clay

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I wanted to see if I could put some polymer clay on a vase, bake it in the oven, and have the clay stick to the vase.  Below is my first vase experiment.  I had a bottle, shape like a light bulb, that was just sitting in a cabinet.

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I figured the best way to get it to stick to the vase, was to put a thin layer of polymer clay around the vase and then put the design on it.  Since it was an experiment, I didn’t want to waste a lot of time with the design.  However, it does glow in the dark.

Since it was a success, I did four other vases.

The Sunflower Vase:  I wanted the top and bottom of the vase to look like the petals were coming from the center of a sunflower.

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The Gold Flowery Vase:  From the beginning I wanted a gold lattice work around the vase.  The flower idea come later.   After it was baked, I applied paint to give it an antique look.

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The Shades of Red Vase:  The original intent was to cover the vase in black, then give it a stain glass appearance.  That idea change when I saw how nice the reds and pinks looked against the black.

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The Flower Vase:  I extrudes some blue/purple clay that was left over from other projects.  The intent for this vase was to have a delicate flowery pattern.

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After the vases were baked in the oven and cooled, I applied polyurentane to seal the clay.   Since the clay is not permanently stuck to the vase, I could probably take a sharp Exacto Knife to any vase that turns out poorly to remove the clay.

Polymer Clay Crosses

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I spent some time creating crosses from polymer clay, which was left over from all of the other polymer clay projects.

First the pretty crosses:

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The difficult cross:

Folding clay and braiding clay is a little bit challenging.

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Interesting Crosses:

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The weird ones:

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Do You See the Butterflies?

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Klingon Warrior Kur’Den

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Denzil Miracle, who dressed up as Kur’Den, went to heaven on July 16, 2019, after succumbing to brain cancer.

He was the inspiration behind my Klingon Adventure post. He was passionate about dressing up as a Klingon and about his family.

He knew that I traveled 1100 miles in May to see him and to have one last conversation, while he still had most of himself. At that time he called me his sister.

His family brought his Klingon outfit to the Celebration of Life service, parked his Klingon vessel, the Dark Lady (his Corvette), in front of the funeral, and painted dolls green, so the Orion’s Slave Girls would be in attendance.

One guest brought the warrior’s drink, prune juice, instead of flowers.

I do not believe my life will be as colorful.

Do You See?

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After many days of heavy rain, the sun finally came out. I parked my car in front of a fence and noticed animals peering from the soaked fence.

Bear

Deer

Do you think the home owner would let me cut them from the wood?

Last one, eye.

Audiobook Recommendation – May 2019

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It has been seven months since I’ve updated my audiobook recommendation list.  Most of the books I have listened to during that time were written by Dakota Krout.  If you like RPG books, you will enjoy these books. So, a shout goes out to Dakota Krout for a job well done, okay six jobs well done.  My only dilemma is where to put them in the list, and which series was better.  I love the Bobiverse series and the Magic 2.0 series.

Below is my updated list of book recommendations.

  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel – Neil Gaiman
  • We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Bobiverse, Book 1 – Dennis Taylor
  • For We Are Many, Bobiverse, Book 2 – Dennis Taylor
  • All These Worlds, Bobiverse, Book 3 – Dennis Taylor
  • Mogworld – Yahtzee Croshaw
  • 14 – Peter Clines
  • The Fold – Peter Clines
  • Paradox Bound – Peter Clines
  • Differently Morphous – Yahtzee Croshaw
  • The Authorities – Scott Meyer
  • Run Program – Scott Meyer
  • Ritualist: Completionist Chronicles, Book 1 – Dakota Krout
  • Regicide: The Completionist Chronicles Series, Book 2 – Dakota Krout
  • Off To Be a Wizard: Magic 2.0 – Scott Meyer
  • Hacker, The Outlaw Chronicles – Ted Dekker
  • Spell or High Water: Magic 2.0, Book 2 – Scott Meyer
  • An Unwelcome Quest: Magic 2.0, Book 3 – Scott Meyer
  • Fight and Flight: Magic 2.0, Book 4 – Scott Meyer
  • Out of Spite, Out of Mind: Magic 2.0, Book 5   – Scott Meyer
  • Dungeon Born: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 1 – Dakota Krout
  • Dungeon Madness: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 2 – Dakota Krout
  • Dungeon Calamity: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 3 – Dakota Krout
  • Dungeon Desolation: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 4 – Dakota Krout
  • The Passage, Book 1 – Justin Cronin
  • The Twelve (The Passage Trilogy),  Book 2 – Justin Cronin
  • The City of Mirrors (The Passage Trilogy),  Book 3 – Justin Cronin
  • Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
  • Master of Formalities – Scott Meyer
  • The Graveyard – Neil Gaiman
  • Will Save the Galaxy for Food – Yahtzee Croshaw
  • Jam – Yahtzee Croshaw
  • The Time Keeper – Mitch Albom
  • Forbidden, The Book of Mortal, Book 1 – Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
  • Mortal, The Book of Mortal, Book 2 – Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
  • Sovereign, The Book of Mortal, Book 3 – Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
  • Run Program – Scott Meyer
  • Black: Book One, The Birth of Evil – Ted Dekker
  • Red: Book Two, The Heroic Rescue – Ted Dekker
  • White: Book Three, The Great Pursuit – Ted Dekker
  • The Junkie Quatrain – Peter Clines
  • Dead Men Can’t Complain and Other Stories – Peter Clines
  • I Can Only Imagine: A Memior – Bart Millard

Sorry, Neil Gaiman but Good Omens will not be making on this list.  The book failed to hold my attention.  I kept getting distracted by other things like traffic lights.  However, I will watch the TV series when it comes out.

Sand Hill Crane

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March and April it is prime time to view Sand Hill Cranes in Nebraska. The best viewing time is early morning or evening. In Nebraska, at that time of year it is cold and it can be very cold, and windy – really windy. I cannot envision me taking that particular adventure because I like warm weather and sunshine.

However, when walking through a Mall I will walk through there free display recognizing the Sand Hill Cranes.