Announcing the Winner!

Well our second, month long contest is now closed and we need a winner! This past month I told you that the pictures were all from one photo, bits and pieces from the whole. I gave you all a chance to guess each week to be entered into the main drawing and this past week to look at all the pictures and see if you could guess what the photo was. As you all know I love to visit my local zoo and one day about a month or so ago I got a great shot right over top of this............Wait! not so fast............hehe.

Well alright I'll tell you because you probably already skipped down to the full photo. ;) It is a Beautiful Mute Swan. It is different from a Trumpeter or Tundra Swan which is also white and distinguished by their different calls and black beaks. The Mute Swan is not native to the USA but comes from Europe/Asia. It has a different shaped bill which is very colorful as you can see from my photos, and it also has that distinguishing 'nob' at the top of the bill which the other swans don't have. The mute swans (which really isn't mute but much less vocal than the other swans) head is shaped different and has that colorful beak. They weight in at about 20-26 lbs and have a (79 to 94 in) wingspan.


I'm not sure if this is a lady or gent in the photo but they were sunning themselves in the corner of the pond area where the goldfish are. (Along with my Koi, Cosmo, remember me telling you about him, he is content up there being the only white Koi in the pond with lots of goldfish friends and this swan and it's mate and a pair of black swans.)

So now here are the photos in order of posting"

1. This first is a picture of the eye, turned on it's side (you didn't think I was going to give you an easy one with four more to come did you? :)
2. Next is part of that black 'nob' that the mute swan is noted for
3. A peek at the end of the beak
4. Feathers atop the head section
5. The beautiful blending (like a Skinner Blend) in sunset colors of the beak going from an orangecicle to a bubblegum pink!

And there you have it! This beautiful Swan in all its glory! What might have thrown some of you was the angle, I was standing right over her next to the 3' high fence and took it straight down, an 'aerial view' if you will.



I'd like to thank all of you that came over to my blog and had a look, took a guess, and the guesses ranged from, cows, to dogs to birds. I know this is a busy time of year and we'd rather be outside much more so I appreciate each and every one of you that has participated!

Now the winner from the five weeks of photos with the guess of Fur Chaps! Love it! Is..................................................................Drum Roll please!


Marie Segal! Congratulations Marie. You know I am going to be intimidated now to make YOU something, but I will grit my teeth and do my best! :) I'll be contacting you soon for your address to send your prize, meanwhile you can look at some of my work at my shops or at Flickr and let me know what appeals to you most about my work and I will design something just for you!

Marie has just opened a new shop on etsy, stop by and give her a visit. Just take a look at these very colorful and detailed earrings. Click on photo to take you to more views at her new Etsy shop. You can also check out all her fine work at her blog Art from my Heart.




Now for our second winner, who nailed all these 'parts'..........................................EmandaJ of Artemisia's Studio! Congratulations Emanda! I just returned from a local bead show and have some beads to share, along with a special on in Polymer I will make just for you!

Also if you stopped by to see the winner today, I also want to let you know about a giveaway over at Andrew Thornton's Blog. Pretty beads from Green Girl Studios, I just found out today through another blogger so am sharing the love and passing it on.......................Go here to enter you have until midnight EST.

I apologize this took sooooooooooooo long to get posted, Blogger doesn't like me for some reason today. First it wouldn't let me even sign into my blog. And once I fixed that problem, I was two minutes from finishing this long post when my pc froze on me! But alas I have succeeded and gotten it posted for you! :)

New mystery for June will be posted tomorrow, along with (I hope) some pics of what I snagged at the Bead show!

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