almost heaven ~

Sunset over Loon Lake 7-2-10 ~ my 2nd post of the day! ~ And neither of them art lessons ~

This is the life.... YYLooking out the window - my kayak, my dock, my chair, my lake -

and wildflowers abound in the backyard!YY

Who knew that milkweed had such beautiful flowers?!

A wee bit of the inside of our Loon Lake 'camp' designed by my hubby the architect. The painting (done in an old window) over the kitchen door was purchased for $1 at an auction. It evidently was done by another art teacher, so I wish I paid a little more. It went perfectly with our checkered curtains and the woodsy look of the camp.

And no, aliens aren't landing outside; that strange orb is just the glow of the setting sun beaming through our wagon wheel window that faces the lake. Aaaaah

Below, images from my kayak 'expedition' yesterday into the marsh at the north end of my lake. It was a quiet one (no turtles, great blue herons, loons, or magnificent spider webs, not even dragonflies and damselflies this time) but the summer is young...

Waterlilies, strange bubbly things, and reflections-

Like I said, I'll doodle on anything...

My trusty Subaru!

A couple of years ago, I almost traded her. But I (thankfully) realized what a mistake that would be, and to apologize to her, I decorated. Each summer I add a little more; I think this summer's addition will be the hood. Maybe more dragonflies, or a big sunburst? What do you think?

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I just read a comment below (thank you!) and thought I'd add a little explanation about the process. The flowers are actually custom decals, like the kind used to detail trucks and cars, not paint. I designed them and worked with someone to vectorize it on the computer. It was done in sections - once a little was done, I wanted more more more! So to make things easy (and less expensive) each time I added a section we cut apart what we'd already done, rotated, reversed, changed colors etc.

The man who did it kept asking "are you SURE?" and "what's your husband going to say?" to which I responded: "first of all, it's MY car; second of all, if he doesn't know what to expect from me after 20 years, isn't it a little late to worry?"

I get smiles when stopped at traffic lights, and kids drag their parents over to see my car in parking lots. As a matter of fact, I get stopped all the time in parking lots, by people asking and commenting, and I've never had a negative reaction. When I got stopped for speeding though, I thought... boy, I'd better be more careful from now on... with a zillion silver Subarus around, mine could be picked out of a lineup pretty easily!

Meanwhile, when my son, 19 years old at the time, had it for a weekend at college, he got a lot of interesting reactions! But hey, it got him where he was going!