sign with the name of the village with the longest name in Wales

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH

I kid you not. Don't ask me to pronounce it but... that's it!  See the white sign above the store name.

The name means: St Mary's Church (Llanfair) in the hollow (pwll) of the white hazel (gwyngyll) near (goger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrndrobwll) and the church of St Tysilio (llantysilio) by the red cave ([a]g ogo goch).

* translation from wikipedia.org

City Scapes in France

Cannes, France

Nice, France

Sainte Agnes, France

Sainte Agnes, France

One of the most beautiful, peaceful places I've ever been

Daphne's BIG JUMP!

Project 3 - Wireframes - Effigy Mounds - Home, Contact & History Pages

My Kitty Cats :-)

Daphne

Henry

Me - in Aruba - feeding an Emu - Yikes!

So Tom & I went to Aruba and while there we took the most fantastic off road tour of the entire island in a Jeep.  One of the many stops on the day was an Emu Farm.  When we arrived there was a sign saying that the birds like shiny things like diamond jewelry, and to stay far enough away that they wont peck at your earrings.  The thought horrified me.

When our tour guide asked for volunteers to feed the emus, I was off taking photos of other animals.  Tom volunteered me, grabbed me and said 'Hey Gail, go feed the emus!'

He took my camera, steered me towards them and captured the following:  Go ahead, Enjoy!

A Crab in Aruba

I love this picture. He's so cute. I also loved Aruba and want to go back!!!

Wallaby & Kangaroo

A wallaby

This kangaroo sniffed me, then she couldn't do enough to get the scent off her.  Check out her massive claws on her back feet!

Birds from all over...

Nibbling Parrot, Tasmania, Australia

an Emu in Aruba

A duck in Lechlade, England

Project 3 - Web Site Comps - Content Document

Gail Randell, #500828

IMD 105 – Project 3: Web Site Comps – Content Document

Due Date: Thursday, May 19,2011

 
HOME PAGE: I will be starting with the 2nd of my Final Comps (Set 2) from Project 2 on Effigy Mounds. I plan to refine the logos on the home page, lighten the gradient colors while keeping them in the same color 'family'. Other changes noted during in-class critique.

NAVIGATION: Home / History / Activities / Wildlife / Visitor Info / Maps / Links / Gallery

FOOTERS: Accessibility / Disclaimer / Privacy Policy / FOIA / Notices / USA.GOV

SUBLEVEL CONTENT PAGE: Will be for the "History" Navigation Tab. To include interesting park/effigy mound history

CONTACT FORM

SUBLEVEL NAVIGATION: Will remain the same as the Home Page Navigation bar:

Home / History / Activities / Wildlife / Visitor Info / Maps / Links / Gallery

Project 3 - Final Project - Web Site Comps - Effigy Mounds - Creative Brief

Gail Randell, #500828

IMD 105 – Project 3: Web Site Comps – Creative Brief

Due Date: Thursday, May 19, 2011

Name of National Park:
I have chosen Effigy Mounds National Monument as my park.  It was established in 1949 and is in my home state of Iowa, which is my reason for choosing it.  While there are other mounds from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast, the unique thing is that these are the ONLY ONES that are in the form of animals, or effigies.  They are shaped as birds, bears and sometimes even reptiles.  The more than 200 mounds here represent 2000 years of mound building along the upper Mississippi River.  The mounds date back to 500BC and there are 12 different Indian tribes represented.  The park also contains the largest effigy still remaining, the Great Bear Mound.  This is a sacred burial ground and therefore there are no automobiles allowed. There are however 14 miles of scenic hiking trails, an extensive museum and a gift shop. 

The site will be geared towards visitors. Main focus will be learning about Native Americans and educational outings that are less expensive than many of today's family vacations.  I will be improving upon this ‘favorite’ of my 3 original comps:

The content page I plan to build will be History.  It will include interesting photos and probably the aerial map to increase interest.

            

The last page will be the ‘Contact’ page, which will include fields to sign up for emails/snail mail brochures.

A Big Fuzzy Sheep!!!

I met this guy in Fern Tree, Tasmania.  I loved him!!!  Look closely, he's smiling at me :-)

Dress for the Occasion

Preschool: This school is located in an affluent part of LA; students are children of famous musicians, actors & politicians.

Wine shop:  This wine shop is in the heart of Sonoma wine country and their target customers are rich housewives.

Shipping company: This is an overnight shipping company specializing in getting things there super fast - for a super lot of money.

Athletic shoe store:  This shoe store is located near gyms everywhere and the customers who shop there are serious athletes who buy several pairs of shoes a year.

Accounting firm - This accounting firm specializes in saving their wealthy clients as much money as possible - offshore accounts, tax shelters, etc.

Pet sitting business - This pet sitting service is nationwide and specializes in daily dog walking for professionals as well as vacation pet sitting for people who may go on vacation rarely or several times annually.

Doctor's office - This doctor's office specializes in providing doctor excuses for work, prescribing pain killers and other medications that authorities frown upon.

I am still working on modifying the fonts to be more logo-like and will post them with my artist's statement soon.

Old Books as Sculpture - a Video from CBS News

I saw this story on CBS News in the past few days. 
I was amazed by what this man does with books that would otherwise have been thrown away...

Old Books Video

Alpacas

Here are two alpacas I met when I went to Tasmania a few years ago to visit my friends.  The alpacas were gorgeous.  Obviously the one above has been allowed to grow while the one below has been shorned.

The Domesday Book

In my last post I mentioned the Domesday Book when talking about Corfe Castle.  I did a little reading to find out more about this 'book.'  Completed in 1086 for William I of England (William the Conquerer), it was considered a 'Day of Judgement' for landowners for most areas of England and parts of Wales.  They recorded how much land and livestock each landowner had, and how much it was worth as a means for knowing 'where the King should look when funds were needed'.  It is the oldest public record in England.  For more on the Domesday Book, go to:

http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/

Corfe Castle, England

Corfe Castle, above the village of Corfe in Dorset, England, dates back to the 11th Century AD.  It has been part of the National Trust since the 1980's.  The Domesday Book has attributed this, along with 3 other castles, to William the Conquerer.  It was destroyed during the English Civil War in 1646.

My Ladybugs are makin LadyBABIES!!!

So it looks like the 'conditions are right...'

Upside DOWN, EVEN.  Ladies, ladies!!!

BROWN CHICKEN BROWN COW!!!

Ladybugs!!!

So when I cut the roses that morning I noticed the leaves were falling off the bush when I would barely touch them.  That and the sheer number of aphids on the stems told me I was already losing the fight.  So on the night of Mother's Day I went online and ordered 1500 LADYBUGS!!!  The instructions said to keep them in the refrigerator until you were ready to use them.  The cold causes them to go into hibernation mode.  I took them out of the fridge while I went outside to water the plant/s that I wanted to attract the ladybugs.  I only put water on the rose bush as it seems to be the plant we both like best!  In the 15 minutes I spent doing this, the lady bugs woke up in their container and what at first didnt look like many bugs turned into a swarm all over our hands when I and my 'lady bug wranglers', Tom and Jessica, released them to their new home!  The instructions also said each of the lady bugs would eat between 50-100 aphids a DAY, that they would be thirsty from shipping, and that if the conditions were right they would settle in, gorge themselves on aphids and start doing what the birds and the bees do in Springtime...   

Mother's Day bouquet

Just before the aphids took over, I was able to cut these - the longest stemmed roses the bush has ever produced - for Tom's mom on Mother's Day.  I'm sorry i didnt get a photo of them on the table in the crystal vase.

...Until the *#^@% aphids arrived

These nasty little buggers are called aphids. I took a photo of them on a dandelion stem, but their FAVORITE meal is my ROSE BUSH.  GRRRRRRRR.  They suck all the nutrients out of the plant so the heads of the flowers droop and the leaves fall off. When they are done I am normally left with roses on the end of sticks.  In the past I have used bottle after bottle of aphid sprays, which DO NOT WORK. 

My Magic Rosebush

After the major pruning I did last fall on my rose bush, it came back with a vengeance this spring. 

Flowers at John & Mary's condo

The dogwood is one of my favorites!  Winters in Iowa are too harsh so I'd never seen one until I moved to Virginia.

a funny tumblr link i found

http://toasterreflections.tumblr.com/

this link made me laugh. except one of the photos i wasnt sure i wanted to look at. but if it was what i think it was reflected in the photo, i cant imagine that it wouldnt have been flagged by now... ?  other than that, enjoy :-)  many many designs to see...

Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds - Final Comps 2nd Draft

Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds Comp #1 Re-Do

As mentioned, I plan to work on the transparency of the logo and the bears, then add a background and repost this design along with my other 2 re-dos...

Project 2 - Layouts - Effigy Mounds - Artist's Statement

Above is the first of my "RE-DOs" for the Layout project.  This layout is for school aged children, my first target audience.

I really liked using the bears as the navigation selections, I thought it mimicked the layout of the mounds and would spark interest with the children.  I'm having transparency issues in my PhotoShop version so at this time I have no background as I'm still working on fixing that issue and removing the backgrounds from the bear art. When I've solved this (tomorrow I am hopeful) I will post it again along with my other two designs.