Unusual day for a white grub

Today I was greeted by white grub making his way across my driveway.

How unusual it is to see a grub in the middle of the day making his way across a driveway. Grubs live underground and feed on the roots of grass, weeds, ornamentals and a few other kinds of plants. 

The White Grub is the larvae of the “June Beetle”. There are over a hundred different kinds if  ”June Beetles”. 

When there is a heavy infestation of grubs you will find it certainly will attract raccoons, skunks, armadillos, opossums, crows, ibis, and other birds, which make holes in the lawn and garden to feed on the grubs.

This is the largest grub I have ever seen. This guy measured almost 5 inches in length. I am surprised he wasn’t lunch for one of the many birds that hang out around our house.

 Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim

Having fun with video

I have recently had the chance to play around with editing suites making some video’s. 

I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed putting them together.

To see more stop by and visit us. Enjoy your day!

Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim

MY BIRTHDAY WISH

Hi I am Jaxs of Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim  My birthday is Saturday September 17th and I have a wish I would like to share with you.

It is my wish that people help provide Solar Air Heaters for Native American Families.

Did you know Native American families of the Great Plains reservations spend up to 70% of their total income to heat their homes? And, heating options are few: expensive electricity, polluting propane, or firewood from the few trees that remain. As winter approaches on the tribal reservations of the Great Plains, we are working to provide better heating options to families in need. The weather is cold and the wind is harsh in this part of the country, leaving some of the poorest communities in the Nation struggling to stay warm. The harsh cold can be deadly for tribal elders living in homes that aren’t adequately heated. The high cost of heating often puts other necessities, such as health care and medicine, out of reach. The result is more suffering for a people that has already suffered too much. With a solar air heater, families living on Native American reservations can heat their homes and reduce their utility bills all at the same time. Our solar air heating systems, which are built and installed by Lakota Solar Enterprises, a 100% Native American-owned renewable energy company, can reduce heating bills by 20-30% for more than 20 years! These systems use the sun’s energy to heat air inside a home, providing supplemental heat whenever the sun is shining. Help us work to change the tribal energy approach AND keep Lakota families warm in their homes this winter. Please consider a donation to this very important cause!

 For more information go to

Jaxs Powell’s Birthday Wish  

Learning is fun with “The Mystery Rangers” by author Kim G. Jones

Hey kids, parents, grandparents and teachers; Jaxs and Kim have a new friend and her name is Kim G. Jones. 

Kim G. Jones loves adventure, nature and teaching. She lived the adventure of a National Park Ranger at the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area in Washington. Ranger Kim takes us to The secret view an astounding 360 degree look at what the Mystery Rangers could have seen at the top.  Scroll on the picture to look around! CAREFUL! Don’t get dizzy and fall in!  It’s a LONG way down!

Kim G. Jones has started this really cool hands-on and fun-filled activities in her first book “Mystery Rangers: The Case of the Missing Mountain!”

Kim has a passion for teaching children about God’s creation through hands on activities and games. Her love for God and enthusiasm are contagious. Some of the best teachers are the ones that put the fun into learning and Kim certainly does that. 

Kim also has written scripts for a radio show of “The Mystery Rangers”

“I wrote these episodes to help show kids how exciting and fun it is to learn about God’s Creation,” said script author Kim Jones. “We are new at this and still have lots to learn, but I think kids will have a ‘blast’ listening to the shows!”

Now Ranger Kim makes it possible for you to have fun exploring the mysteries of nature and creation with your children. This is a great way to spend quality time with your children and become an official “Mystery Ranger”. Maybe Ranger Kim will start a “Mystery Ranger” fan club. That would be so cool!

Click here for more cool stuff and updates of the “The Mystery Rangers”

How to build a photography web site

In the beginning Jaxs and Kim had this great idea of putting together a photography web site to sell their photos as pretty wallpapers and desktops.

Together they tried what Jaxs calls “Generic Business Templates”. Seems everywhere they went everyone said what they wanted to do couldn’t be done. 

Jaxs had a vision of what the site should look like. He wanted to disable the right click save and control print screen. Over and over again through many failed attempts and promises of companies that offer web templates and hosting ended in failure. 

Do you feel that way? Everyone has a song and dance sales pitch and you end up losing money. You end you broke, busted and disgusted.

Jaxs knew there had to be an answer and he found it one day reading a blog from someone who had written about Smugmug.

Kim has two diploma’s in web design through online courses. Kim has memory problems so without her notes she has a very hard time remembering how to do a web a site. When Kim moved to Florida she was unable to bring her web design notes with her. At the time when she had moved, Kim didn’t know how important her notes were going to be.

Overcoming html, css, xml. javascript, color codes, Iframe, and every other geeky thing out there has certainly had it’s challenges. 

Jaxs was determined to build this site and Smugmug was a dream come true. Jaxs and Kim took Smugmug for a test drive and immediately fell in love. These guys are awesome with all the goodies that they offer. The greatest part is you don’t have to know all that geeky stuff to have a great looking web site. They make it very easy for the person who knows absolutely nothing about building a web site. If you are into that geeky code guru stuff they have advanced customization for you. This is not a sales pitch but a statement of fact that Jaxs and Kim have dealt with. From idea to reality took two years to accomplish. Once they hooked up with Smugmug they began building their site. Their dream of digital downloads went into new areas because of the great services Smugmug offers. They also offer prints and merchandise!!!

The first step in building a great photography site is finding the templates that will get the job done with what you have pictured in your mind. This can be a head banging experience. 

The second step is to have content and lots of it.When it comes to content please don’t be so boring you lose your audience. 

Questions to ask yourself. Is my web page easy to navigate? You have been to those kind of web sites. Go looking for something and couldn’t find what you were looking for. Pages were hard to navigate so you said screw this and went somewhere else. You don’t want to have that kind of page. People have no patience for that.

Is my web site pleasing to the eye? Look at your web page. What is the first thing your eyes focus on? Is that what you want others to focus on when they visit your site? If not change it.

Jaxs will tell you over and over again that color is a big deal. Ever seen some sites that the color scheme was so horrible you quickly clicked off of that site. Match your colors up. Make sure that the colors you use blend well together and are pleasing to the eye.

Once you have all of the basics ready then you can submit your web site url to google, yahoo, msn and others. It doesn’t cost anything to submit.

Jaxs and Kim have been building and improving their web site since Sept. 1, 2010. Stop by and see what they have been able to accomplish using the Smugmug tools. 

Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim

Sunset at the Ft. Peirce South Jetty

Cattails are Incredible

The cattail has to be the most useful plant known to North America. For the outdoors person it is a gold mine. This plant has utility uses, medicinal and is a food source.

Cattails can be identified by their long cylindrical brown seed heads. It looks like grass. Their is a variety that looks just like the cattail but it is poisonous. As with all edible plants positive identification will keep you out of harms way.

As a food cattails offer an outstanding variety. They can be used in salads, eaten raw, used in stews, both the male and female spikes can be boiled and taste very similar to corn. Flour can be made from these plants.The Native Americans would boil the roots to make a syrup which was used to sweeten up their recipes. 

The medicinal uses of the cattail include antiseptic for wounds, cuts, burns, bruises and toothaches.

 As an utility hats, chairs, insulation for jackets, shelter building materials, and a host of other uses have been done and used for centuries.

Cattails provide food and nesting area’s for birds and wildlife. Birds use the white fluff from the brown cylinder seed to soften their nests with. 

For more on the cattail Jaxs and Kim recommend you read The Incredible Cattail “The Super Wal-Mart of the Swamp” by Kevin F. Duffy

Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim

Cattails grow along the edges of lakes, ponds and rivers in Florida.

“Love Stinks” Pepe Le Pew & Penelope

Pepe Le Pew is a fictional character created by Chuck Jones. Chuck Jones first introduced the character (originally named Stinky) in the 1945 short Odor-Able Kitty.

Pepe is a French skunk that strolls around Paris looking for love. Pepe is always in pursuit of what appears to be female skunk. She is a black cat with a strip of white paint accidentally painted down her back and is now being aggressively pursued by an amorous Pepe Le Pew. Her name is Penelope Pussycat.

Pepe Le Pew is quite the “Ladies” man not shy at all with the girls. He does have an odor problem and is never aware of it. 

Jaxs and Kim have a lot in common with Pepe Le Pew and Penelope.

Kim will tell you that Jaxs has a lot in common with Pepe. He loves the ladies and is never aware of his odor especially after working around the yard.

Jaxs says that Kim is like Penelope. One Squeakey Cat with bad odors…LOL

To embrace their relationship and the fun they have Jaxs did a farmville design of Pepe Le Pew & Penelope. 

Thank you Chuck Jones (1912-2002).Your memory and creation live on.

Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim 

 

Rose for you Sweetie

Farmville Art by Jaxs

Jaxs loves to to share his love for art with the designs he does on the Zynga game Farmville.

He has the kind of creativity to turn a farming game into a digital art experience. A gift for drawing since childhood to painting wall murals as an adult, Jaxs takes his imagination to the world of games. 

When asked by his farmville friends “How do you do that?” Jaxs simply replies “One piece at a time”. Jaxs compares it to putting together a 5000 piece puzzle.

There are all kinds of things that can be used to eventually result in an image. Things like hay bales, pigs, sheep, horses, trees, umbrellas, hedges, and much more. All it takes is a big imagination and a lot of patience. 

Jaxs has done Chilly Willy, Tom & Jerry, Sponge Bob, Princess, Curious George and Moses the Jack Russell Terrier. Moses is Jaxs and Kim’s big dog in a little body. 

Jaxs loves playing the game because he can do his art work to put smiles on people’s faces. 

Will there be more designs to come? 

Jaxs says yes. In the near future there will be Pepe Le Pew and Penelope and Tigger.

Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim/Jaxs Farmville Art

Kodak helping other’s to achieve their dreams

Looking behind the scene’s of Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim and the pictures that you see. Jaxs and Kim use Kodak camera’s and paper. Kodak has long been a favorite. The quality of prints and the ease of using a camera is the reality of a dream that George Eastman had back in the late 1880″s. A dream that has enabled so many other’s to fulfill their dreams. From the family photo album to business presentations and film Kodak has been there.

Jaxs and Kim use Kodak camera’s to bring you professional quality picture’s printed on Kodak paper. Jax’s remembers his mother telling him in the early !970′s that it’s not the price of a camera that makes the picture. It’s the person that is taking the picture that makes a great photo. 

Jaxs set out with his instamatic camera with 110 film and practiced taking pictures. Having a creative eye Jaxs soon found a new way to express his artistic talents. 

To take a great picture Jaxs had to learn a few things. Having a love for science Jaxs learned lighting in a high school physics class. What he learned took his artistic talents to a new level. What your eye’s see and what the eye of the camera see’s are very different. Once you have an understanding of that you are one step closer to taking great picture’s. Each color has a wavelength. Our eyes do not pick up as many wavelengths as the eye of the camera does. To demonstrate this take a picture of a friend wearing a white tee shirt (standing under a shade tree} in the early morning and then again at high noon. Compare the difference’s. 

Kim started using Kodak camera’s in the !990′s. Her first camera was a Kodak Brownie Starflash that used 127 mm film. The camera belonged to her mother that had died from uterine cancer when Kim was only six years old.

Finding film for the camera was not a problem. Getting someone to develop the film was a problem. The camera was stolen so Kim then purchased a Kodak 110 and later on started using the Kodak Easy Share Camera. Kim loves taking pictures especially of clouds. It wasn’t until 2009 that Kim began to learn more about technique in taking pictures from Jaxs. 

The introduction of digital technology has taken camera’s to a whole new level. Kodak has kept it’s founder George Eastman’s dream alive with it’s continuing research and development of camera’s. Digital camera’s have a bandwidth of up to 750nm. In other word’s the digital camera sensors have the ability to pick up some infared and ultraviolet rays. When used properly great pictures are the end result. 

Jaxs and Kim thank the Eastman Kodak Company for keeping the dream alive!

Creative Images By Jaxs and Kim

One of many scenic ponds in Florida. Good for fishing and bird watching. Alligators, snakes and other wildlife can be found in swampy areas like this

Students learn flowers from around the world on twitter

We see flowers all the time but we never give much thought to the name of those flowers. They are woven into our lives and surroundings. Jaxs and Kim owners of Creative Images by Jaxs and Kim started a photo gallery Flowers of Nature  In doing so that opened a door to learn more about the pictures they take of flowers. 

When giving a description of a photo it just didn’t have a nice sounding ring to describe a flower as being pretty with the color of the flower attached to it. Everyone that has ever had a web site knows that somewhere there is a need to provide a description in one form or another. Jaxs and Kim take the challenge to learn more and give better descriptions of the flowers. Their enthusiasm got the attention of David Miller from Glasgow Scotland.

David is an award wining teacher, published composer, FRSA, National Teaching Fellow and Specialist in Emerging Technologies. 

David has a talent of teaching his students integrating knowledge with technology. To creatively combine the two for a more exciting way to reach and encourage students to learn more and think outside of the box.

David once again has an idea to expand his classroom and encourage his students to learn more about the flowers around the world. David wants to use twitter as a teaching platform and encourage people to learn about flowers and in doing so we learn not only flowers but the culture and customs of others. Opening doors to embrace our differences and live in harmony just as the many species of flowers do.

David has launched In Flower on twitter. A world wide photography project of currently flowering plants.

David has invited Jaxs and Kim to participate in his newest project. 

Jaxs and Kim love the idea and has accepted David’s offer. It is their profound hope that others will follow and join the World Flower Project.

You can read more about David Miller at Independent Thinking. 

Creative Images by Jaxs and kim 

 

Plumeria is a very fragrant flower in the late afternoon early evening. The fragrance attracts butterflies. Mainly the Skipper butterfly to pollinate it. Plumeria have no pollen and it's fragrance tricks the butterfly. In the butterflies effort to find the nectar, the butterfly leaves pollen behind from other flowers that are found on the legs of the butterfly. The common name for plumeria is Frangipani. Plumeria is a tropical flower. Pictured is a yellow plumeria.