Author name: emily

Dicovering Butterflies(& Spiders) at the Butterfly Pavilion

Categories: Colorado, Denver, family, The Artful Life

We recently visited one of our favorite attractions in the Denver area, The Butterfly Pavilion.  Specializing in invertebrates, the Butterfly Pavilion was actually the nation’s first stand-alone non-profit invertebrate zoo! Join me on a brief tour of our adventure (I promise it will be worth it!)

We were inspired to go after spotting one of these in our driveway…

AGH! I knew they had lots of spiders at the Butterfly Pavilion, and I had to figure out what this was! It’s a Wolf Spider (and I’m pretty sure it’s the Hogna genus of Wolf Spider, which is the giant variety!).  It is harmless to humans, unless constantly provoked, but I had never seen such a large spider in the “wild” that wasn’t a tarantula…

Like this “little” guy here…

 
This is a Salmon Pink Bird Eater Tarantula. It is huge!

Which, naturally, prompted the boys to do this…

 

That’s “Rosie,” the Butterfly Pavilion’s Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula.  I was happy to stand by and document the bravery displayed (by both the boys and the tarantula), but you probably won’t catch me signing up for this part of the exhibit!

Instead, this is more my style…

(Warning…  may experience eye-candy overload!)

 

We were completely enthralled for hours.  There’s not many places you can go and be surrounded by hundreds of beautiful, fluttering butterflies! 

These are exquisite creatures, and I am so thrilled that The Butterfly Pavilion has become an active  leader in providing habitats, research, education and conservation for butterflies and moths.

I hope you made it past the “scary” spiders to the beautiful butterflies! I had a wonderful time taking these photos, and am now going to be sharing some of my photos for free under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Do you use Flickr? I have set up a set of my own original photography that is free to use for your blog or creative endeavors. All I ask is that you credit Elysian Studios!   

Click here to visit Elysian Studios’ Creative Commons Photo Set and enjoy!

Spread The Love, Share Our Article

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The Annual Cherry Creek Arts Festival is held every Fourth of July weekend in the Cherry Creek North district of Denver.  The festival is a celebration of visual, culinary and performing arts which attracts an attendance of about 350,000 visitors each year.  Cherry Creek North is located 5 minutes from downtown Denver and is nationally renowned as a premier retail, dining and business district. It is the perfect venue for a Fine Art Show!

Over 2,100 artists applied, but only 230 were chosen to participate in this juried show. That makes this one of the most competitive art shows in the nation.

The jury is comprised of local and national Art Professionals, and work is judged on artistic excellence for originality and craftsmanship. The Arts Festival features artists in 13 different media categories including: ceramics, digital art, drawing, fiber, glass, graphics and printmaking, jewelry, metalworks, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture and wood.

There is a thrilling variety of contemporary art available to view at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.  You can see both the CCAF selected artists as well as step into local permanent galleries.  The Cherry Creek North galleries and artisan shops  offer a splendid array of  Fine Art and Craft year-round, and often have special exhibitions around the time of the Arts Festival.

If you’re hungry, stop by the “Culinary Avenue” where some of Denver’s finest restaurants serve unique cuisine.  These vendors also have to go through a juried process, so it’s not just your average festival food!  You can also choose to step into one of the many great Cherry Creek North Restaurants, like my personal favorite, The Cherry Cricket, where you will get the best burger in the world!

There were many new artists this year, and there were some that I saw last year. It is fun to remember the work of artists seen in past years, but I would expect the jury to require the artists to have a new body of work. I was disappointed to see a few artists selling the exact same thing they brought to the show last year.

So did I find anything besides inspiration at the Festival this year?  Well, I have to say I looked very, very hard!  The prices can be quite high at this show, and though I understand the focus of artists to sell larger works, I wish more of the exhibitors would have made more accessible pieces for the moderate shopper.

I did see customers buying a few big pieces, but I also saw a lot of people looking, browsing and leaving booths.  I think a lot of vendors missed an opportunity to sell a higher number of lower-priced items. I was lucky to spot these fun handmade pendants by clay artist Amanda Barr. You can find her work at No Tengo Miedo Clay.  I can’t wait to create a few new jewelry pieces with these!

Have you ever been to The Cherry Creek Arts Festival?  I love attending Arts Festivals, and would love to hear about your favorites!

Spread The Love, Share Our Article

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

While gardening this weekend, I happened across a little snail nestled inside one of our new plants.  Honestly, I thought he was dead, so I threw him out with the plant container! However, we later got that container back out of the trash to use as a rock scoop, and guess who was creepy, crawling around? Yep, Mr. Snail (a.k.a. “Speedy”).

The boys watched him for awhile, utterly transfixed.  What was the very next inevitable question?

“Can we keep him? PLEASE?”

O.K.- So for any other parent caught in a similar predicament, here’s how you can easily say “Yes”:

You will need:

1. A plastic produce carton- the kind that berries come in.  These have ample holes for air circulation, yet your snail won’t escape!

2. A disposable plastic drinking cup (any size). You will need to trim down the cup with scissors to create a shallow saucer (3).

4. Fresh leaves from a nearby tree/plant.

5. Stones of various sizes. Be sure to have one will fit into your water saucer- not too big/not too small.

6. Mulch, bark or twigs.

7. A small plastic plant container. Be sure it’s the right size that you can close the lid of your berry container!

8. Scissors (for step 2), water, and a tray to place the habitat on (so that it catches any dirt/water that may spill out!)

1. Start with your clean, empty berry container.  Place the water saucer, and begin to add in large pieces of bark/mulch.

2. Place a large stone in the water saucer.  This will allow your snail to crawl in and out of the water.  Sometimes he just hangs on the side of the rock to take a sip from the water. Without the stone, you may end up with a drowned snail!

3. Place the plant container on its side. Put some stones or mulch in the bottom to weigh it down.  Snails love cool, shady places, so this will be a nice little shelter for him (or her!)  Fill the container with a nice amount of stones, bark, and leaves.

4. Fill the saucer with water, and sprinkle water over everything in the habitat.  You will need to freshen the water every couple of days and add some fresh leaves. Make sure your lid will close, and you are ready to put your snail in his new home!  Place the habitat on the tray and find a nice cool, shady spot to keep it.

Have fun watching the snail crawl all around! They are really quite fascinating!

 

A few interesting snail facts:

Snails eat bark, fresh leaves, bits of fruit, decaying matter, and the chalk from limestone rock (this is good for their shells!)

Snails like a moist, shady environment.  They do not like hot and dry conditions, and they don’t care for the sun.

Snails sleep during the day and are most active at night.

Snails belong to the mollusk animal family.  They are related to oysters, clams and other shellfish.

Snails are “gastropods,” which is Latin for stomach (“gastro”) and foot (“pod”).

Here’s some great snail links:

Questions and Answers about Snails

BBC Nature Wildlife Snail Facts

Diagram of a Snail

Snail Videos