Rocky Mountain Flowers and Adobe Illustrator CS5

Here we are, back down close to sea level.  I miss the mountains and their clear air and astonishing vistas.

 Summer River running through Breckenridge.

 And I miss the Rocky Mountain Flowers that were bursting with brilliance and juicy with moisture.  Since I didn't take my Nikon (spur-of-the-moment-trip, you know) I had to settle once more with taking photos with my Iphone.  Which didn't do too bad.  Take a look:

Just look at the Juice in those Pansies!  Yumm.

Here's a group of very buttoned-down Daisies, with their white gloves on, hats tilted just right, and looking like they just stepped out of a Band Box:

All is right in their Daisy World.

Everywhere you looked, there were flowers.  Everywhere.  I took dozens of photos - how could you not??  What a library to work from for future designs...the colors are already worked out, and the shapes are divine.

The Hanging Baskets were great, because the flowers were looking down at you as you passed underneath.

If you take these shapes and colors, and reduce them to lines...Paths in Illustrator...then the sky is the limit for what you can do with the resulting shapes.

These Lupines were glorious - so happy in the cool Rocky Mountain air that they looked luminous.

So, back to work and the work is truly cut out for me now.  Realizing that it would take me months and months to figure out the vector tools in Adobe Illustrator CS5, I went online and started searching for local classes that I could attend.  And, I discovered a tutoring service, called WyzAnt.  There are tutors for Everthing - and they will usually come to your home.  The best part is, they are under $50.00 per hour, and you can get discount packages.

This afternoon, my new Adobe Illustrator CS5 tutor is coming to the studio to help me get my head around vector graphics instead of the raster images I'm so used to working with in Photoshop.  We'll see how far we get today.

Pansies Images Underway!

Rocky Mountain Sunset

I'll give you a full tutoring report tomorrow - if I can learn Adobe Illustrator CS5 in the comfort of my own home without breaking the bank, well - then - is this a marvelous world or what?

Colorado Rocky Mountains in the Summer

How amazing is This?  My Husband drug me off to the Colorado Rocky Mountains...told me he had booked the flight, so find us a hotel.  And by golly, I did.  Can you believe this view?



This is the view from the Keystone Lodge upper balcony - and where we escaped to for a few days.  You simply cannot believe how gorgeous the Colorado Rocky Mountains are in the Summer!

 Although the sun is hot and brilliant (we are two miles closer to the sun than normal), in the shade it is chilly when the breeze stirs.  And last night, it was in the lower 40's!  How lovely is THAT?

We played on the mountain at Breckenridge Ski Resort today, and here are some shots of people doing what we did - we couldn't take pictures of ourselves, because the rides were too fast and furious.



This was a screaming fast ride that went on and on, down the slopes at Breckenridge.  From the top, where we boarded this sled, we could see all the Rocky Mountains around us.  It was sort of like the Olympic Luge, only not laying down.

 And here is a shot of the downhill Coaster, which made both of us scream and grab the brakes of our respective vehicles:



This was a blast, but was over 'way too fast, because the darn thing went about 80 miles an hour from the top of a slope and almost straight downhill.  Some loop the loops in the middle of the run, where I left my stomach and heart.

 Here's another shot - I never imagined last week that I would be piloting a roller coaster car down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains this week.  Just goes to show you - never get too comfortable in the quietness of the studio - an antsy-pantsy Husband can yank you right out of there!

Tonight, we're eating at the Snake River Saloon...this could get really interesting!

You seriously cannot do better than a get-away to the Colorado mountains in the Summer - do it!