I have lived in Arizona my whole life. A good portion of the time, I long for a bit more lush and green in my surroundings. I go through life, stay busy and sometimes forget to stop and take a look around. When I remember, I realize how beautiful the desert really is.
Last weekend Rob and I got to go to the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for teacher appreciation night. This was my reminder of the beauty that is Tucson, AZ. Rob got some beautiful photos of the animals and some of the surrounding area. Since we went in late summer, we got to enjoy the rare green of the desert from the rains. It was beautiful.
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| Here is a sleeping coyote that we came across on one of the trails. |
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| The Desert Museum has an awesome habitat of Prairie Dogs. It is a big area with a ton of holes and tunnels and they all just hang out. One big happy community. This guys looked like he was meditating! He was in this pose for a really long time. |
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| Mountain Lion Exhibit! They are so beautiful. |
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| Cacti! This is a beautifully vibrant flowering barrel cactus. See, the desert occasionally has some vibrancy to it! |
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In order to get out to the Desert Museum, you drive through
Saguaro National Park. It is an amazing stretch of desert densely packed with Saguaros. This protected land is always a stunning site to see. If we weren't trying to get to the museum before a rain storm hit us, I would have suggested stopping for some pictures in the park. Since we didn't, here are some of the desert shots that we took at the Museum from the trails.
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| The colors of the beginnings of this sunset were so soft and pretty. The middle ground hill in the right portion of this photo was a deep purple from the colors of the sunset. Of course, photos never quite capture what we see with our eyes but still a great shot! |
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This shot isn't from the Desert Museum but from the Tortolita Mountains out by where my Dad lives. |
After driving through the Saguaro National Park, I wanted to create a
piece of jewelry that is a little more representative of my roots. The shape of a saguaro has always been synonymous with
Arizona and the desert so that is what I wanted to represent. I added a tube setting with a CZ to represent an emerging star in the dusk.
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| The background of this pendent is a matte-finish circle of copper. The saguaro and the tube setting are sterling silver. |
Stay tuned for my next post where I will show you the process I went though in creating this pendent!
