SavageBabble

Books

2011-03-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have always loved books. I can remember being so happy when I got a new Nancy Drew book, I remember sitting in my room looking throught encyclopedias (at the pictures) on a rainy afternoon when I was a kid. I love going to bookstores.
In my shop, I make bookmarks....here are a couple of samples

I have been wondering though, if people really use bookmarks anymore...I mean are books on the way out and kindles and listening to books online going to be replacing them? Especially in the years to come when my generation (the bookies ) is getting older, and the computer generation that loves their toys, takes over.

I read to my kids every night when they were little. My kids enjoyed the stories. My oldest daughter in particular loved books. She would come home from school with some of the oldest books they had. The real old ones with the stiff cracked cellophane book jackets. I thought maybe she just liked the old style illustrations (that was the artist in me that thought that). So I asked her "why do you bring home these old books?" Her reply made my heart sing, made me love her even more than I thought I could. It still makes me smile today. She said, "I get these books because I can hold it, and when I open it, I hear the crinkle of the old cover, and I know a story is about to begin." She loved the anticipation and the promise that something that she held in her hand would bring, and the sound of the cellophane was the start.

That's what I love most about books. It's a new world about to open up to you, you can hold it close, peek inside like a treasure chest and then open it an explore.
I hope people still buy books, I hope they still read to their children and show them that they can take an adventure with them wherever they go. I'm going to keep making bookmarks. Keep my hope and love for books alive.

I'm a Zombie Lover and I'm Okay.

2010-11-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

Why do I love zombies?
Actually I love horror in general. I love the movies, I love the books. Especially the atmosphere and build of of the story. We all know that many of these stories don't have a wonderful endings, but for me, it's getting into the main event that's the yummy part.
Am I a weirdo? Undoubtedly, but that's beside the point. I have always had what you might call a dark side. I pull my hoodie up, try to look casual and go straight to the horror section of the book or video store. I rarely even look anywhere else, (except the science fiction section, but I'm not ready to face my nerd demons on here yet).
I don't join bookclubs, don't discuss with my lady friends. It's a secret. I show no outward signs of this ...thing... inside me. I look like an ordinary, well balanced (usually) person.
BUT..a couple of days ago, I happened to find out that a lady at work, that I have know for a few years, has the same affliction as me! Thank the lord, I am not alone! Huzzah! Happy days! Yahooee! *slow clap*
Okay that is a bit much, but I have to say it is very nice to be able to talk to another regular middle aged person (as opposed to teenage goth/vampire/sewer dweller) about my finds. My work mate, like I, doesn't relish the graphic violence, but we can tolerate it or brush past it if it is too much, and we don't like things that we really think could happen to us. It's best when it's a bit out there, not totally believeable. People in the Antarctic, in a bunker after the apocolypse, in a haunted house for a night, in the woods alone, trapped under an invisible dome at a lakeshore house, some creature living in a hole in the bottom of my sofa, that sort of thing.
The need to read or watch horror almost feels like it is to ward off bad, scary things. Maybe it's to toughen me up in case there is something evil about to take over the world. So I could cope when it happens. Kind of like imagining the worst when you hear your child has been hurt,I think it's your brain trying to prepare you.
I don't know what it is, but if the zombie outbreak happens, you might want to hang around with me. I'm getting pretty knowledgable about this stuff.

Our Little Surprise

2010-07-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

We have been doing a lot of home renovations for a couple of weeks, as part of this, I have been using the carport in the front of the house as an area to paint moldings, and other things. Quite often when I went out the front door, I saw a tiny bird fly out of the hanging plant outside our front door. I thought maybe it was eating something inside the basket. When I looked inside today, I found a little surprise.

A perfect litle nest with three tiny eggs, the size of Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Cool beans

***************
July 25
.......an update

I stood on a chair took a peek in the planter and saw some wiggly black and pink things. I hope they're baby birds.
The mom and dad birds are acting like they are.They have both been in the nest and fly out and then come back with food, and they sure don't like anybody going near the nest. I haven't heard any baby noises yet though. When they were both gone I stuck my arm up to try and get a picture (the planter is a bit too high fr be to see inside it) and I just got the edge of the nest and can see a bit of a pinkish something in it.

This is either the mom or dad on the edge of the basket.

On a side note, my plants are wilting quickly in this lovely summer weather, even though it is in a shady spot, but I can't really water the plant, for fear of hurting the babies.

Too bad they're not ducks.

*********************************************************

July 26

Have a couple more quick (blurr) pictures I took while the mom is out looking for food.

There are some wicked looking little beaks now.

All Cat's Go To Kitty Heaven

2010-06-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

Even the prickly ones.
I woke up this morning on my own, rather than to my cat meowing when she thought I should get up.
That should have made me happy, but it didn't. Not today, anyways.
Yesterday we had to have our 16 year old cat put to sleep. I found her lying on the floor, unable to get up. Her legs could move and she stretched out a couple of times, but couldn't even manouver into a position to get up , and didn't seem able to lift her head. She peed on the floor while lying on her side, and I knew that it wasn't going to be a good day.
We picked up my daughter, from her apartment (it had always been her cat, and when she moved out, she couldn't take it with her) and went to the vet. The vet was nice, and sympathetic, but honest and said it was very serious, there was nothing we could do for her, it was either a clot in her head, or a tumor. So we did the only thing we could for her. My daughter was devastated. I was incredibly sad, but I have been through this before.
Skittles wasn't a cuddly sweet cat to everyone. She had her own personality like all animals, especially cats, do.She was loving and affectionate to my daughter, she really lived in her room most of the time when she lived here. When my daughter left, the cat transfered that to me. I got to pet her and got the lap sits. She did mellow a bit when she got older, but she never really bonded with others in the household, not much anyways. That kind of makes me sad too.

I will miss you Skittles.

Wedding Season- Cake Topper Time

2010-05-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have been noticing something in both of my shops lately. A trend towards people wanting customized wedding cake toppers. I have sold quite a few already.
It started out with the little owls. I am hoping to get pictures from more customers as their weddings happily happen, but so far I only have one.

It looks like a beautiful cake with big flowers down he side. As the bride noted, it's interesting that the cake decorators put the female on the opposite side as to how it was painted to be, an so instead of looking lovingly at her groom, she seems to be checking out someone or something else. The bride was actually okay with this , so all is well.

There are other sets, with different types of owls, and different colours that I have sent off to adorn other cakes and if I get more pictures I will post them here. I imagine they all have different ideas on how to display them. I know one was talkng of doing a nest on top.

Zombies seem to be a fairly popular request, with vampires coming in second.

I have also had customers show me their little figures on their honeymoon, which I think is pretty darn cool.

Doing Some Good

2010-01-30T07:58:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while, a huge tragedy will strike somewhere in the world. Most of the time there isn't much an average person can do to help, except donate to a cause that can help.
I have the pleasure of selling my artwork at a site that has a lot of people with big hearts, that wanted to help the people of Haiti. Together, some very kind, and dedicated women opened a shop for other crafters and artists to donate items that would be sold for the purpose of raising money for Doctors Without Borders, to help in Haiti.
I donated two of my owls.

Kiara

and Fruit Loop

They both sold very quickly and are winging their way to their new owners now.
Plus, I did a bit of shopping there myself. There is a huge variety of items for sale from artists all over the world. Why don't you have a look and see if you can find something that will make your heart feel happy.

Hearts for Haiti Shop

Hearts for Haiti Blog, to find out more.

Etsy article about the shop.

Cats and Dogs and Daylight Savings Time

2009-11-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

They don't get it.
They don't like it.
That much is apparent to me.
Pet supper time at my house is at 5:00, and it's usually on schedule.
It has been a month since we set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings, but that makes no nevermind to them.
The cat now goes and sits by her food dish at 4:00, and the dog takes her que from that and goes and sprawls in her place in the kitchen doorway, waiting for me to serve them.
The cat glares at me, and lets forth bone chilling meows, and the dog gives me pitiful "you better feed me or I'll fade away, really I will" eyes.
The cat of course is the ringleader. A dog you can distract with words and games, but a cat has a mission and there is no distracting them from that.
Funny how I noticed they have adjusted to the time change when they are allowed to sleep in for that extra time in the mornings, even though that is how they spend most of their days, but fool around with dinner time and someone has to pay.
I think they're just messing with me.

Bye Dad

2009-11-17T14:57:00.000-08:00

You have been my dad or almost 97 years.
You've taken good care of your family.
You've been there for all of us, through all our troubles.
Shared our joy over new spouses, new babies, and our babies babies.
I know mom loves you.
Your children love you.
Your grandchildren love you.
Your great granchildren love you.
You will continue to be loved and respected forever.
Thanks for being my dad.
You will be missed more than you can know.

I am going to add a bit of the eulogy that my brother wrote, because I think it's interesting, and just makes me feel good to read it. I have left out some bits that are a little more personal and some that you don't need to see.

"We should not have known him, Fredrick (dad), and most of us should not be here. Sailing to Canada from Avonmouth, his parents were all excited to board the greatest ship ever built... but they could not, and had to settle for the next ship, an old steamer named the Royal George, sailing just 2 days behind the mighty RMS Titanic. His mother was terribly ill, both with morning sickness and sea sickness, and welcomed to Canada by the bitter cold of the Eastern Canadian winters.Some months later at Batt’s farm at the top of a hill on Beckett Road on the outskirts of Sherbrooke, a tiny child was born. At only 3 or 4 pounds the country doctor said he was too small to survive, but the midwife decided otherwise. She rubbed him in goose grease and laid him in a shoebox. Day and night she sat by the old wood stove to keep him warm, feeding him with an eye dropper. And that is how Dad came into this world, ninety seven years ago today,
As a child, Dad’s job was to go down to the lumber mills around False Creek to fill his wagon with scraps for the old wood stove. If the lumberman spotted him he would be charged a penny or two per load.One day at about 14 years of age he came home from school to be told that he had a job as a printer’s helper. Having a good eye for matching colours and being a bit of a perfectionist, he became a very skilled lithographer and was usually given the toughest jobs and pickiest customers. He was in fact, skipped over for promotions several times because he was too good to lose as a pressman. But after 51 years working as a printer, he retired, and that was almost 32 years ago!
In 1945 Dad’s sister Winnie brought home a distraught young lady from work who had just left home and had nowhere to live. Being a kindly family, she was taken in... and so was Dad. In due time he proposed to her at Spanish Banks and they were married in June of the following year. Together they built a home and raised four wonderful children, watched their families grow through weddings and births, and lived to see their Great-Grandchildren.
Though not outwardly religious, Dad exemplified many of those old time virtues like faithfulness, hard work, honesty, integrity, and personal sacrifice.His word meaning something and promises were kept. He was outraged by injustice and a champion of fairness, and underdogs. He treated others with courtesy and respect and was a steadfast provider for the family. If he had shortcomings, it was that he had more than a little trouble with patience and didn’t easily express his feelings and affirmation.
Personally, dad could be quite charming with the ladies. A little while ago in the hospital we heard more than one nurse remark “Oh, he’s so cute”. Still, he was not much of a socialite and had little use for parties, dressing up or going out. He would much rather eat at home than at the finest restaurants. Nor was he a man of impulse, a thing as simple as a drive to the beach was something to be planned and scheduled days in advance.
Like a fine wine however some things did improve with age. With the coming of Grandchildren Dad seemed to loosen up.Grandad would read to them as much as they wanted and the same story as many times as they wanted. He gave them the gift of his time, his attention, and would talk to them about anything. Even in his 90’s with the Great-Grandchildren it was not unusual to find him on the floor playing with them."

Back to Work

2009-09-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back to work at school.

As much as I love summer vacation, winter vacation, spring break, every pro d day, extra days off work, I have to admit that there is something I like about having a more structured day. I think it's the rabid list maker and checker offer in me that it appeals to. Also without a real schedule, I tend to get unruly and get distracted from tasks by sparkly things and start projects on a whim and don't finish. Bad me.
I can even feel my cockles getting warm seeing some of my favourite kids again, just a little taller than the last time I saw them.
A bonus for me this year, is my new high tech, cushy chair...with wheels. It replaced my basic, plain wooden chair. I feel like a queen. Maybe even better. I don't think her throne can go 30 mph down the school hallway. No, I haven't tested this baby out in the corridor, but I can get a feel for it while rolling around my room, from desk to counter, to door, to desk, to counter, to cupboard, to desk....you get the idea.
This promises to be a bright shiny new year.
zzzzoooom

Golden Love

2009-08-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

I was going through my old pictures recently and came across some pictures of my previous dog, Monty. Monty was a purebred golden retriever, one of my favourite kinds of dogs. He was smart, loyal, excitable and a great family pet.
As with pretty much every dog, there are some issues. With him it was hot spots. This time of the year, about 11 years ago, we were pulling our hair out, dealing with this.
Hots spots are areas where it gets very itchy and the dog has a mad compulsion to lick and chew it until it is bald, raw and icky. I'm not sure why our dog had them. He was groomed properly, and we were careful not to dry his skin out. We tried changing his diet because too much grain, corn or soy (in so much dog food) can affect some dogs with allergies...it didn't really help. We were told that he was probably sensitive to flea bites....but he was on flea control pills and he didn't have fleas. We tried some creams, and some thing that tasted nasty, supposedly that would prevent any unsavoury behavior involving his mouth and his rear end.(the area where he usually chewed) but once a spot was started, it was almost impossible to stop.
We tried bandaging up the sore areas, but would always find them in a pile when we got home from work, as well as a grumpy and kind of gooey dog. Occasionally we would put the cone of dread on him, when we went out.
It was a little late in the game when he had his first cortisone shot. I think there may have also been a little sorcery involved. That pretty much put a halt to it. I don't know why we were not told about it by our vet at the beginning, but it worked. Having that break in the itching gave the wounds time to heal, and we made sure to keep his diet and flea control on track. Once summer was over, it seemed to go away until the battle began the next summer.

In conclusion, Goldens are almost perfect, except for hot spots....
and the lawn sausages (but all dogs leave those).

Dog Quirks

2009-08-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Beep...beep....beep.......

This is the sound of my dog backing out of the kitchen.
The lure of any kind of food will bring my dog into the kitchen like a lightening bolt. Once she has managed to puppy-dog-eye her way into getting a little piece of whatever I am making, she leaves the room. Backwards. She will not walk right through, but willl turn around and go butt first out the door. She will not walk out face first and starts to panic if you try to make her. I think it's because the floor is tile. Maybe she had a Bambi-on-ice moment when she was a pup.

Possibly related, is her longish toenails. You see, she is a rotti cross, and rotti's are know to have issues with people touching their feet. Sure when she was a pup, we used to purposely touch her feet and trim her nails, in an effort to get her used to it, but one day (no she wasn't hurt) she just decided not to allow it anymore. She pulls her paws away, snarls, cowers, and gives us the evil eye, and I think she also uses the ultimate weapon, passing gas to keep us away. We can try by holding her, or nicely coax her with lots of treats, but no go.

The last time she had them trimmed well, was when she was knocked out getting x rays, after getting her knee surgery last fall. Otherwise, it is just the ends of the longest nails that get trimmed, usually a couple at a time. Our middle daughter has the most success with her.
If you have a rotti, be aware that this is one of their little quirks, they often hate having their feet touched, but if you do it gently and often when they are young, you may have a chance at having less problems when they are older. Didn't work for us, but that's kind of the norm around here.

Happy Birthday Martha

2009-08-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Just saying happy birthday because Martha is an Etsy lover ...yay!!!!! Not going to say how old she is. She's older than me and that's all I care about.
I am going to reprise an earlier post about her, that I wrote.

How Martha Makes a Peanut Butter Sandwich:

1. Grind wheat, make bread dough and bake bread.
2. Get top quality, hard to find, no preservative, hand made by nuns or monks using peanuts too good even for squirrels, peanut buerre.
3. Get jar of last summer's home made strawberry preserves that you slaved over and gave to all your friends instead of gifts at last Christmas.
4. Cut cooled bread into nice thick slices.
5. Generously spread peanut buerre on one piece of bread. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
6. Spread jam on the other slice of bread. Top with fresh strawberries cut into rose florettes.
7. Arrange bread on an attractive plate, side by side. Top with melted Ghirardeli chocolate and add a sprig of mint on the side of the plate.
8. Enjoy with a friend.

...and a couple of new ones

If Martha Stewart was a zombie:

The Martha Stewart zombie would remove her victims brains (going after only the best quality brains) with her well oiled garden shears, and transport the aquired brains in a hande made brain carrying tote (from Etsy)to her well appointed, beautiful kitchen, and eat them out of custom earthenware brain bowls (from Etsy). They would be delicately seasoned with nutmeg and a touch of lemon for a little extra tang.

The Martha Stewart Computer Virus:

A self made virus, and entrepeneur of a virus. Very curious, and inquisitive. Seeks out files and finds ways to make them more efficient and appealing. Co-ordinates colors of the fonts and images on your screen so that it matches your decor. If found by your anti virus program and put into the vault, it only stays there a short time, and comes back stronger than ever.

I Don't Think Moths Have Any Brains

2009-07-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

First of all, when did they start making moths the size of weiner dogs with wings?

At night I'm sitting peacefully watching TV, and then this giant freak of nature comes flying in through the patio doors, and heads straight up to the swirling ceiling fan of death. It ignores the swiftly turning fan blades, somehow mesmerized by the irresistable bright lights attached to the fan. I hear a whhhhthump, turn my head to see what made that loud sound, and see a a torpedo like object come hurling toward my open, gaping mouth. I shut my mouth and get hit on the top of the head by this now un-moth.
I mean really, what are they thinking? If they like the light that much, why don't they come out in the daytime and sleep at night like everyone else? They could be in the sunlight and flit around, fly straight to the sun, and nobody would be the wiser.

Also I had another weird experience a short time later. Well, I didn't know what hit the fan, but I did hear a thump. I walked over to the area didn't see any moth parts. but did see what I thought was one of those candies...a hard striped one called a Humbug, on the floor. I just about picked it up, then thought, "it's probably sticky" so I got a ruler that was nearby and was going to scoop it up. It stuck to the carpet, so I thought, eww somebody had this in their mouth. I got under it a bit more and as I dislodged it, it hissed at me. sssssss ssssssss., and then moved a bit. Serionsly freaking me out. If you ever saw the movie The Mist, well those were the kind of thoughts that started going through my mind. I was hoping it wouldn't suddenly fly at my neck and grab on. It took about 5 flick/scoops to get that thing out of the house. Each time it hissed.

::shudder::

Lesser Known Computer Viruses

2009-07-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

These may not be well known, but beware of these!

Old Geezer Virus (in our home it's also known as the "Hey That Sounds Like Me Virus")
-creates faulty memory, and when the computer is asked to retrieve recently input data, the screen goes blank.

Adam Lambert Virus
-your computer creates and ouputs it's own audio files and is always reformatting. Has certain magnetic properties.

- Johnny Depp Virus
- a quirky virus that reacts differently in different applications. Could make your computer moody and dark, or it could attempt to pirate other computers and steal their bandwidth.

- Gordon Ramsey Virus
- a virus that scans files you have created, taking bytes from them and then disables them with harsh HTML.

Tom Cruise Virus
- was a powerhouse virus, but has been self destructive and downgraded to a simple worm, which tries to get other worms to follow it's path. Occasionally makes your screen jump up and down.

- The Sasquatch Virus
-a virus that hides deep in the recesses of your computer and take up lots of disc space, leaving a data trail. Some have said that it can be seen at night, through Windows, but most believe it is a virtual blip.

Message Board Virus
- sends subliminal messages through your computer screen, compelling you to pend unreasonable hours online.

Cat's ear hematoma and more lovely stuff

2009-07-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

In my quest to bring you both good and bad things about pet owning, I give you a small tale about our cat, and a couple of her issues.
Skittles, was give to us by our daughter's friend in the fall 11 years ago.

First adventure at the vets: We had her about a month, when we noticed that she wasn't eating, or peeing (sorry about mentioning the p word again in my blog, but it's just something everyone does and has to do...a lot). We took her to the vet, and he felt her stomach and said it appeared she had something in here and it felt "crunchy". She was new, and small, but we had no choice but to get her into surgery. It turned out that she had eaten a candy cane, wrapper and all. The candy had gone through, but the cellophane wrapper had balled up and stuck in there. Once it was removed she was stitched up and just fine. Shows you that your pets will try and eat anything. Little cat. Big bill.

Second adventure at the vets: This was about two years ago. One day she seemed fine and the next, her ear had ballooned up. Off to the vet. We were told that it was an ear hematoma. She must have been shaking her head and ruptured some vessels in her ear. No ear mites or fleas, so we are not sure why. Once again...into surgery. The ear is drained, and because it had filled with fluid, the layers of her ear had separated and it had filled up like a hot water bottle. They cut the skin, and fit it back together and stitch it up, kind of like a quilt so the ear can heal and glue back together. The stitches stay for about 10 days. Then they take the stitches out. This may work in some cases, but in ours......no. The ear started to get fat again and in the end our cat's ear just wouldn't heal nicely. We could have tried again, but had no more money and our cat was just not a good patient. It's wrinkled and thick and she looks like an old alley cat, I don't think she cares.

Sink Cats & Tub Dogs

2009-07-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone knows a cat that likes to sleep in the sink.
If you think not, look for telltale signs. Are there strange hairs on your bar of soap....I don't mean the curly ones that you may blame (curse) others for leaving behind, in your home. I mean long silky ones? Is your toothbrush hairier than usual. If you say yes, you may have a secret night-sink sleeper.
I have had 3 sink sleepers. This one is Claw'd (named because that's what you got when you went near him).
This particular cat used to sit on top of the fridge and bat the top of your head when you opened the fridge door, and also hide behind doors, attacking your ankles when you walked past. Sadly this little fuzzy monster is no longer with us.

Slightly less well known...but they are out there for sure, because I have had 2 of them, are the dog tub sleepers. This is Monty, our first tub sleeper (again, no longer with us).

Our current dog will do this as well. She did it a lot as a young dog (as well as dragging out the wet towels and rolling in them). She is getting older now, and it's harder for her to pick her legs up climb in, so we don't see her there as often. I suppose this is a big dog thing, that's what we have always had.
Anyways, cats in sinks, dogs in tubs, just part of the strange goings on in your home when you own pets. Nothing weirder than walking into your bathroom on a warm summer day , and having your sink and tub full of furry animals.
Gotta love 'em, they have their own personalities.

Oh where, oh where have my little links gone.....

2009-07-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

I seem to have lost a bunch of my links. Can't find them anywhere. If you remember being linked to my blog before, please let me know and I will re-add you. Thanks.

Dinosaur Eggs

2009-07-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

I put a new listing in my shop, of a set of dinosaur nesting eggs. While I was painting them, I was reminded of a gift I made for one of my children's teachers one year, eons ago, and thought it might be nice to share this idea for others...maybe you could use it as a father's day gift (make with your kids) or really for anyone, anytime.

Find a nice egg shaped, oval or round rock. The smoother the better. Can be whatever size you like (think paperweight, doorstopper, or ornaments as possible uses.) Make sure it is clean and dry.
Draw a hole, use lots of angles and draw some crack lines
Draw your dinosaur, just the head, neck and maybe an arm or tail sticking out of the hole. Keep in mind who you are giving this to...somebody with a big head? big nose? Try and make it fun. You don't need to do any special type, make up your own
I use acrylic craft paint, use whatever colours that you think your giftee might like. Make sure the "hole" that is showing is painted in a dark colour. Paint the cracks with a thin brush, in black. You don't need to paint the whole rock, just keep it natural.
Put a coat of varnish on. I use a wasterbase varnish from the craft store and it dries quickly. Paint one side, let it dry and then coat the other. You may need a couple of coats.

Now for some fun. You have to come up with a fact sheet for your dinosaur. Maybe you could print it out as a card. The things you might want to put on the fact sheet are: (my example)

Type of dinosaur : Remediosaurus (named after the teacher Mr Remedious)

Era: The old days (could be disco era or anything you like, based on the age or the time you give the gift)

Size: Started small and got bigger (really you can be as nice or cheeky as you want)

Physical Characteristics: Large feet, balding, long nose, tiny head (don't be tooooo rude)

Attributes: More intelligent than he seems, very kind, likes to giggle, burps at inappropriate times (here is your chance to really make the gift special by listing the funny things and things you love about your giftee.

You may have some ideas of your own, so just have some fun. This can be something special because it shows you took some time and put thought into your gift.

Just some updates

2009-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

My dog appears to have stopped leaking. Maybe she did have an infection after all.
Now if we could just get her to stop barking at family friends every time she sees them walking in our house, life would be peachy.

There is only one more month of school, thank god. The kids are starting to get all squirrely, and I think teachers are wearing down. I will just be happy to be home and able to work on the house, organize my art space and create, for 2 months.

My Dog Leaks

2009-05-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Behind this sweet face, is an aging, spayed dog, that is leaking.

This has been going on for a little while.
At first we thought she was licking/chewing herself, sometimes she licks the floor or the couch and makes it wet. When we are falling asleep in our cozy bed, we can be lulled to sleep....no wait...scrap that..............driven crazy, by the sound of the dog having a good slurp of her hind quarters. I know we all looove that sound.
This didn't turn out to be the cause of the mystery puddles. Not an infection either. What it is, is her age, being spayed, hormones, and all that there stuff. Apparently it's not uncommon. (Oh, my, I'm "spayed", and getting old, is this peeing when I laugh too hard just the beginning? Say it ain't so.)
She can be given meds (hormones I think) that will help her get better control, but for now we have opted to just make sure she is "empty" more often. With all her issues over the years, she hasn't made caring for her, a picnic, and it doesn't look like it's going to change now. But who can help but love a dog that does stuff like sleep behind our curtains, so she can give us a laugh with her Mother Teresa impression.

Nov 30...
just an update.
Our dog hasn't leaked in a few months now. What we thought it was...age, apparently wasn't the reason. We are back to thinking it must have been an infection after all.

White Rabbit

2009-05-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Across the street from us is a grass field. At the back of the field is a row of low bushes, and at the other side of the field is a forest.
Living in the cover of the bushes are rabbits. Living in the forest are coyotes.
Every summer we find the "leftovers" of a rabbit or two. I hate that. I know it's the circle of life, but...you know...ick.
This year there are a lot of brown rabbits that camouflage very well, and one nice bright white one that you can see easily from across the field. My husband has cleverly nicknamed it "Whitey".
I have been wondering of what the other rabbits think about Whitey. Is it like "Holy crap!! Whitey is out in the field again, we'll be spotted...we're doomed...get back in here Whitey you big dope!" or maybe they figure he is a good distraction, and they are quite willing to sacrifice him, so they can make their getaway while the coyotes make a beeline straight for him.
?
Either way, I know the coyotes are in the forest, sitting their with their evil little grins, eyes trained keenly on their pretty but unwitting quarry, and I know what they are thinking.

Can you spray paint bunnies?

There's No "Spur of the Moment" in Buisiness

2009-04-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

I learned this the hard way.
I have had a shop on Etsy for over a year, and it's doing very well....I'm happy.
However there's always that little thing inside you that wants you to do something different than you normally do. For me, it's these little drawings of girls with kind of big ears (inspired by myself and my daughters that all live proudly with this trait). I wasn't, and still am not sure what to do with them, but I've been fiddling around with the idea of opening a second, completely different shop to put them in....whatever form I end up trying to sell them as.
On Saturday I had a bunch of time to myself and on the "spur of the moment" I went ahead and opened a second store. I had come up with a name, checked Etsy and it was available. While I was registering it, I decided on "the spur of the moment", to change the last letter from an s to a z. Much cooler (probably not cool anymore actually) that way, and I figured it would be uncommon that way.
I went to photoshop, made a banner, and even listed my first 3 items...cards. I felt accomplished.
For about 5 minutes.
I don't know what made me do it, but I googled my cool new shop name with a z, and .....HOLY CRAP!!! There was a boatload of listings....books...and other things. I guess this was the name of a character I had never heard about before.
Nothing to do about it, but empty my new Etsy shop and ask to have it closed. Which I did.
Lesson learned..research first. Spent the rest of the day eating chips.

O MAI GOSH I LOVE MAKING SHOES!

2009-01-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

Really it is so fun. Look a these ducky shoes.

I think they would make great little kids boots for spring too, unfortunately that isn`t an option.
Anyways, after having an incredibly cold and snowy winter, (I still have a lot of snow in my yard and piles by my driveway), which is very unusual for this area, and having had an awful cold come and go 4 times over the past 2 months, I just wanted to create something pretty, and springy.

Dog Update

2008-11-08T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone has followed our dog's progress I am posting an update. I blogged about her surgery first in Aug '08.
We took her for x rays about a month ago, and we were told that the bone hadn't quite healed just yet (that's 2 months after the surgery) This wasn't the best news, but the doctor said to just keep doing what we were doing and limit her activity a bit for another month, and she should be healed just fine. A little slower than some dogs, but still normal.
The month is up now. We are pretty much letting her do what she wants, but try to keep her from running after squirrels and barrelling down the stairs. The last thing we want is for her to injure the other leg, which we have been told, is very common...

That's an adventure we don't want to go through again.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm a big kid. I love Halloween and dressing up.

This year.....gargoyle, a bit different from my normal zombie.

I have mentioned before that I work at an elementary school, and I get great joy out of giving the kids a wee bit of a shock. Nobody has ever been frightened after they realized it was me, although you catch them staring when you're not looking.

It was a bit of an education for some as quite a few didn't know what a gargoyle was.

I will post a pic later, when hubby gets home with the camera..for now, I'll post a couple of pics from years past.....woooOOOOooooo brace yourself.

2007 Rockstar Zombie

basic zombie

okay, here`s the gargoyle......ta da!!

Told you I was a big kid.

I'm going to add a couple of updates to this old post.
This was 2009

Witch

and 2010 Zombie Hippie

BOO

Cool stuff

2008-10-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

One of the good things about being the kind of artist that creates actual images (as opposed to sculpture etc) is that you can put your images on things.
This is a new thing that they have at Cafe Press, and I think they look awesomme...it's called a flip mino, and I made a couple of them.
Here's one:http://www.cafepress.com/savageartworks.321245994

and another cool thing is making shoes at Zazzle, like these:http://www.zazzle.com/ladies_hot_pink_bunny_shoes_kedsshoe-167932920245736073

Fun huh?

Meet Thumper

2008-10-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

This cat belongs to my niece, who is studying to be a veterinarian...and I know she will be great, she is a natural for it.
Thumper is a special cat, with deformed front legs... I have to get more details, but the bones are ...wrong, and there is no "wrist" on one of the front legs. He is also a polydactyl, with 6 toes on the front paws and 7 on the back.

BUT the cutest kitty ever!! I love this picture.

Dogs and house damage

2008-09-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

I started back at school this week, and my husband was working at home. He couldn't really keep an eye on the dog, so he decided he would put the big Elizabethan collar doohickey on her because she is so bored, she has been chewing any part of her body that she can reach, and we don't want her getting any sore spots. We don't need more problems with her.

Anyways, he put the collar on and of course she reacted like we knew she would. She rampaged around the house causing as much damage as Godzilla in New York.

Then she stopped.

and sat. Very still.

She wouldn't move her head. She looked supremely miserable and started to drool. That plastic collar started to fill up with a big pool of drool. It was only to be a matter of time before it started to gag her and then there would have been a big shake of the head and we would be cleaning dog spit off of everything within a 3 meter area. So my husband took it off.

She calmed down and was fine. I guess some things are better left alone.

New Stuff

2008-08-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

So my dog is doing well, still trying to keep her still, and that is not too bad. I guess the worst thing is me going stir crazy. I have only been out of the house for about 1 hour in the last week.

I have been watching every movie we have in the house, and I have done a fair bit of artwork.

What I have discovered is that it is true that people like owls. I have now painted and sold 15 sets of my owl nesting dolls. I started out figuring I would do a couple, but they continue to sell out very quickly.

They are not quick to paint or cheap to buy though. I have to order them online and wait a couple of weeks to get them...plus the shipping to Canada adds a fair bit to the price. I often do research online to make up different groupings of owls..like these ones that have sold:

Freaks, Geeks and Wierdos is a set of unusual and or rare owls- Spectacled owl, Oriental Bay owl, and Long Whiskered Owlett.

Going, Going, Gone was a set of two endangered owls Northern Spotted, and Burrowing Owls, and one exctinct owl, the little Laughing Owl.

The Owls in the Harry Potter books, is another set I have done. Errol the Great Grey Owl, The Malvoys Eagle Owl, Harry's Snowy Owl, Hedwig, Percy's Screech Owl and Ron's Scops Owl, Pigwidgeon.

Owls Down Under is a set of Autralian Owls, the Powerful Owl, Sooty Owl, Barking Owl and Boobook Owl.

I have also done a set of European Owls and a few sets of North American Owls. I have another idea or two to still do. It does take a bit of research and finding a good clear straight on picture can be hard, but I have learned a lot about an animal that I hadn't really thought about much before.

They take quite a while to do, several days at least, and I have been trying to keep my prices down so that they can get out there. I know I don't charge for half the time they take to paint, but it's really nice to see them go to new homes all over.

If there are any owl lovers out there that have any other ideas for a set theme, let me know, I'm all ears!

Huzzah

2008-08-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

It's stitches out day!

My life is just so damn exciting.

My ass is getting fat

2008-08-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

We have no crate, we have doggie in an enclosed space. We have two couches, and a couple of chairs and coffee tables blocking her in. The TV is there too, so we can sit and watch, and she is in the center, which makes her happy.

There is rarely anything on TV though, and I have gone through all the DVDs we have at home now.

I get to stay in the room with her most of the time, while everyone else goes about their business. I get to go grocery shopping once a week for about an hour, and someone else gets to watch her then, but when I'm at home, I know if I leave the room she will start getting antsy. She is putting more weight on her leg and when we take her out to go pee, or to our bedroom at night, she pulls hard and tries to go fast. It's hard to restrain her. We have been told that the more careful we are with her right now, the less problems we are likely to have, so we are being careful, we don't want to deal with this continuously for the next year like some people do when they get infections or re break the bone or pop some screws out.

Does this look like a sick dog?

I thought I would be a better couch potato than this, but even though I have the TV and the computer right here, it is getting boring, and I feel like I am turning into a blob.
I go back to work part time at the school in 2 weeks. It will be interesting to see what happens then. It will be my first real freedom from the house, in a month.

Update

2008-08-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I suck at doing a daily diary.

My dog is doing pretty well. She is much more alert, probably because she is finished with the heavy pain meds. She is putting a little weight on her leg. She hasn't been licking/chewing her stitches. She is starting to get bored being in a small space all day, but if we let her out she will roam around too much, jump up and run when someone comes in the door, etc. My god, this is going to get tricky for the next month.

She has been going pee, in her special place, and we hose it down afterwards, so that is working really well.

She gets her staples out on Monday. How they do that I don't know. She is such a nervous dog around people, they may have to knock her out agin.

Her leg yesterday...looks so much better. Her fur is starting to grow back pretty quickly too.

Problem for the day

2008-08-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

First night was not tooooo bad. The dog wanted to be where she usually is at night, in our room. So we sectioned off a part of it for her, and she was very happy. The only thing is that we didn't want to put the big collar on her because we figured she would hate, hate , hate it and would probably bang around a lot and keep us awake. Instead we chose to leave it off, and since I am a light sleeper and my hubby wakes up a few times in the night usually, we decided we would keep our ears open for any sounds of her licking her incision too much.

Of course neither of us got much sleep, because every time she licked her lips, our heads popped up to look at her. May try the collar tonight.

Today's task, is to figure out the peeing situation. To go outside, there is a fairly steep set of stairs (I think about 10 steps) She doesn't want to go down them and she's really not supposed to if we can help it. We got her down once, by helping with a belly strap to lift her a bit. She didn't like that and didn't want to come back in the house. My husband picked her up and carried her in. Quite a struggle and I wouldn't want him to try and carry her down. Kind of dangerous. There is no way I could get her up and down on my own.

Our solution, to turn our deck which is off the living/dining room area where she is being kept, , into a mini back yard.
We are tracking down a little bit of turf and will put it on our deck. It will be her own little space place for the next couple of months.

Okay, here we are. Very, very strange, I know, but it worked. We hose it down after she goes, so it doesn't get stinky. At least it's safer than risking our, and her life and limb getting her up and down the stairs. The things we do for our pets, eh?

My Dog's TPLO Surgery

2008-08-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

I just brought our dog home from the hospital. She hurt her leg a few weeks ago and snapped one of the ligaments in her knee. This operation is pretty darned expensive, but we were told that especialy for a big dog like her, this is by far the best option for her. She's a 120 lb rotti/lab cross.
I am going to be sitting in this room with my dog a lot in the next while, making sure she doesn't chew out her stitches or do any jumping or running, she is confined to a limited space for the next couple of weeks. Putting her in a wire cage would be a good way to keep her confined, but we rescued her from a pretty nasty situation when she was a pup, and there is no way she will stay in one without causing herself more harm. I decided to keep a kind of journal for her and our daily experience.
I'll add pictures...some may be kind of gross, but maybe someone else would like to know what to expect if this happens to their pooch.

They shaved her whole leg, and while our baby is a tad overweight, her leg is quite swollen. We are told day 3 and 4 could be worse, but then it should get better. We have to apply cold (gel pack) to it 3 or 4 times a day for 10 minutes.

She is on Percocet for the first 5 days, also she is taking some other medication because when they shaved her leg they noticed that she has a skin condition that may make her itchy. (we didn't know that before)

Hair change

2008-07-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Haven't done anything besides streak my hair blonde, for a long time.

I thought I would try something different so I bought some Nice 'n Easy, "Natural Lighest Golden Brown".

Which apparently means "Red"

I actually like it quite a bit inside the house. t's not too light and has a sort of auburny look. It goes quite well with ny skin tone and makes my eyes look even greener.

When I go outside it looks like my head caught fire.

Sort of.

I trimmed it a little shorter too (dirty self-trimmer).

It IS nice and silky feeling and I might just keep it this way, or something similar, I'll have to see the reactions from the family when they get home.

Anyways, this is it.

One odd thing I found out, while trying to take a picture of myself. (I'm at an age where I have to take about 50 photos, to get one that doesn't look like I need major botox or a visit from Richard Simmons) I am a head tilter. Most of them are tilted to the right....and the ones where I was trying to keep my head straight, have me with a serious face (not a good look for me).

Just an observation.

Ears

2008-06-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some old pictures a while ago, and while I knew our family had, in general, large ears, I didn't realize exactly how large. Like open car doors.
I have cropped a picture of me, at 5 years of age, just so you can see.
Have a look and see if you can see it peeking out from my hair.

Got it?

My dad use to call them Moe and Joe. Moe being a little more sticky-out than Joe.

My brothers had similar protuberances, except in those days the boys had no cover up with the shorter hair styles back then.

As a teen, I was always trying to cover them up. As I got older I really didn't care and often put them on display for kids at the school that I work at, when they think they have some physical shortcomings of their own.

My own kids have varying degrees of this ear thing. With one daughter, and one ear in particular always peeps out fron her long straight hair. I was very surprised one day, when she was about 16, and I was at the doctor with her for a sore throat, and he happened to say..."you know we can fix those ears if you want, I know a lot of girls are bothered by that". To my utter joy, my daughter looked at him and said "I would never change them, I love my ears. They are who I am."

God, I love my kids.

Living life to the fullest

2008-06-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me the other day, that this expression means different things to different people. For some it means climbing a mountain or parachuting.
For my husband it means watching Rambo on a rainy day and drinking beer while watching hockey.
For me it means going to Michaels and buying paint and any other art or craft items that I want.
Then coming home and eating a bag of Malt Balls while I look at my new stuff. Now that's living.

Logos

2008-05-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on ideas for a business logo. I was thinking that most of what I do is cute little animals, and that might make a good image for a logo, and it would also balance out the savagery of my last name.

I have made a couple of black an white ones, they could go on a lot of things that way (although maybe a dark brown would be a little softer. I can do colour ones as well, but for now, it's black and white.

So I have this one:

and this one:

Any thoughts? I'm open to suggestions.

Age

2008-05-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Getting older is fascinating.

Like, why do some old guys get hair growing out of their ears? What possible reason could mother nature have for that? Especially because they loose it from on top of their heads. Do men that wear hearing aids have to shave inside their ears to get them in?
Like, why do toenails get harder? I almost took out my son's eye with toenail shrapnel, when I was clipping them yesterday. That's just not right.

They way you look at people is different with age too. I know that what someone looks like on the outside doesn't tell you anything about who they really are.
I used to hang with some offbeat people in my day, and was pretty cool (hippie).
My neighbourhood has some pretty hardcore goths. Now, I have nothing against goths, I even find their clothing and hair styles kind of neat, and I have 2 daughters that went through a kind of gothy stage for a while, and I was okay with that.
I have always been slightly disappointed that goths don't actually run around going "wOOOooooOoo! because I know I would if I were one. Just for kicks.
...I lost track.... oh yeah, goths just never look happy, and I feel bad for them. Would you still be a goth if dressed the part but you were all smiley and happy? Or is that something else?

What's in a name?

2008-05-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

Almost as hard to come up with as names for your children. Although occasionally, it seems like people just don’t want to think about it too much. I can remember being a kid and having a cat named Lucky, and then the next cat we got was also named Lucky. Ironically neither cat was.
We had a lab cross named Penny, and a beagle named Tammy. Both names that were considered for me apparently, but were given to dogs instead.
I can remember sitting around the kitchen table writing names on paper that would be chosen out of a bowl. That was for our black shepherd. I wrote Thor, a brother wrote Brutus, and he ended up being called Ben. That was a good name for him.
I had guinea pigs named Bubbles and Pickles, I have no idea why. I was a kid.
Since I got married and started my own family we have had a cat named Dickens, not after the writer, but because he was a dickens. Also a cat named Claude, because that was what you got when you went near him “Claw’d”. Our kids names their cat Skittles (why?) and our first dog a golden retriever was a purebred and so appropriately we named him Montgomery (Monty). Two rabbits, Magic (black) and Twister (because he would run and then jump up in the air and twist around, also the movie was a big hit at the time) Our current dog is Tira, named by our kids after some anime character.
I always think of good names, like Achilles, so I could say “Achilles heal! When we don’t have a pet to name, but when we do have a new one, it just seems so daunting to come up with the right one.

Guess what day it is?

2008-05-02T11:29:00.001-07:00

Friday!

I know I really should think of more things to write about, I'm off work today, for a professional day, so I'm doing some much needed catching up around the house.

But for now.

from this :
to this:

Saturday is shopping day

2008-04-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

The wheels on the cart go round and stop, round and stop, round and stop.
The wheel on the cart go lock and slide, and turn hard to the left.

Seriously, I know they must keep the good buggies locked in the managers office for celebrities and the biggest spenders. because they are never outside in the buggy train when I go to get one. I always end up with one that has wonky wheels. AND you can't always tell right away. Sometimes it isn't until you get a bit of weight in your cart that the wheels start to squeek or lock or turn hard in one direction so you have a hard time not crashing into the displays.
This is not good.
Especially for someone like me that has been know to accidentally twist tie a bag of apples to the cords of my hoodie and then have it jump out of the cart and hang down in front of me when my husband started to push the cart away. Oh the humanity.
The other supermarket gripe I have is that they don't have those mechanical horsies for the kids to ride, out front anymore. I loved watching kids ride those things..the pure joy on their faces, and the slightly older kids trying to be cooler and not smile so much, even though you can tell they love it. Kids don't get those little things like we used to. (I know they usually get spoiled much, much more). I guess that's a rant for another day.

It's Friday!

2008-04-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

From this:

To this:

Talk Like Bob Ross Day

2008-04-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well I did anyways.

Not for any particular reason, I was just reminded of him, and....well he's just so infectious.

I can remember sitting with my mom, in front of the TV watching him work his magic.

Not so much for the artwork, but for the man himself. He's the one that taught me that there are no mistakes, only "happy accidents". Well, in art anyways, not so much in math homework I found out. My teacher didn't buy that. He'd "beat the devil" out of that big brush of his. Something that I discovered is completely unecessary and actually bad to do with pastels.

ooo this post needs a happy little tree!!!

............and I'll put it right............there--->

That makes this seem so much cozier don't you think?

I think actually I have to credit him with my animal painting in a way, because he was aways telling stories about them. I think he had a pet squirrel if I'm not mistaken, and he was always saying that the "little rascals" would be in the tree up high, or paint a happy bush and say "little raccoons and ol' possums 'n' stuff all live up in here". I just wanted to see them!

Anyways, thanks Mr Ross for being you.

Hold up...let's put that little rascal in a bush where he'll be happy.

Friday's Fotoshop

2008-04-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

I think I'm going to try to do this or someting similar on Fridays, just a break from my yammering.

From this:

To this:

Painting a Memory Box

2008-04-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

I recently had a friend of mine, request a box made for her friend that had recently lost a beloved dog. She wanted this dog and the man's two other dogs on one box.

I was given a photo with three dogs (not sitting right beside each other) and from that I drew a picture of them close together.

I then transferred the picture on to a simple wooden box.

Then I painted in the large areas and began to start the detail.

Then I filled in the requested background colour and finished up the details.

Finally, I worked on a fitting border, (huskies, sleigh) and put several coats of varnish and sanding it between coats.

These boxes can be used for anything, but I have heard people say they put in a few favourite pictures, a collar or dog tags, and then keep it somewhere they can always be reminded of their special friend.

I've been tagged!!

2008-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

I hope she had paint free hands.
Here's the questions and my answers.

1. Name your two favorite Scrapbook Topics: .... Travel and animals.
2. What are the two best places you've been to: ...Banff (Rockies) and Bora Bora
3. Name two things you do every day: ..draw and cook (burn really, at least my smoke detector says so)
4. Name two things that pretty much everyone knows about you: ...I'm a nut and I like kids.
5. Name two places that you wish to visit:....Alaska and Australia
6. Two things that you may not know about me: I still lipsync to songs in my bedroom, and I have no rhythm.
7. Name two nicknames that you had at some point in your life: Licorice (my dad's nicname for me) and Terror (my brother)
8. Name two interesting jobs that you've had (good or bad): ..made contact lenses, and was Santa's elf.
9. What are two fun things that you do after work: ..paint, and read
10. Name two things that you would like to learn: ..playing the guitar and how to be the lady at the front of the parade that rides the horse.
11. What were the last two things that you downloaded or CDs that you bought: ...Stuttering, Ben's Brother and Nottingham Lace, Buckethead.
12. What were the last two books that you read:.. Book of The Dead, Douglas Preston and The Infinate, Douglas Clegg. (I appear to be on a Douglas kick, let me know if you have any other good Douglas book suggestions)
13. What two TV shows or movies from your childhood do you still enjoy watching after all these years? ..Star Trek, and Wizard of Oz.

So I'm going to tag a blog friend of ine and maybe we can get a glimpse of her inner self....Diana http://amutedpalette.blogspot.com/ so go check her wonderful self out in a few days and see if she's answered.

If she hasn't I suggest we get torches and angry mob her.

Morning, Oh Joy.

2008-04-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote about this "animals and morning" thing last year, and am finding it is happening again this year.

The time of year when my cat starts to think she's a frickin' rooster.

At precicely 5:55 she starts walking up and down the hall outside my bedroom door, meowing.

I lobbed Tums and cough candies and anything else I could find in my nightstand drawer at her, but she just thought it was a demented form of dodgeball, and kept meowing. My eyes were still half closed and I didn't have my contacts in, so the missles didn't actually make contact. That may have been why she didn't run away.

During the week it isn't a problem, the alarm goes off about that time anyways. But last night (Friday) I put a bunch of marshmallows in my drawer and when she started up this morning, I was more prepared. Or so I thought. I forgot about the dog. I have a very lazy assed dog that usually sleeps in until 9:00 or so, but the smell of marshmallows flying through the air, aimed at the cat, woke her up and she started intercepting and eating my marshmallow ammunition before it reached the intended target. When she devoured it all, she started licking me.
My husband could sleep through all this. There will be no sleeping in for me.

Oddly enough, the rooster that lives across the field, doesn't start crowing until about 1:30 in the afternoon.

What I Learned Today

2008-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

At school.
Snails have antlers on their heads and sometimes they fight with other snails with their antlers.

Also from somewhere, (ironically, I can't for the life of me remember where I heard this )
"Being an artist means that I forget what you tell me five minutes later, but in a year, I can still remember the curl of a hair on your cheek."
Too true.

My chop of the day.
From this:

To this:

Ode to My Man

2008-03-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Many years ago Steve Martin wrote his ode to his woman, this is my ode to my man.

When a woman meets the man she loves, everything changes.
Her heart races, her head spins (more than usual) and suddenly you're not wearing granny panties all the time. Quite a few years ago, I found the man I love, and I've put my feelings into this ode.

Ode To My Man

Some women need a man, and I need you.
To lift my spirits when I am sad.
To comfort me when I am down.
To drive when I am too drunk, or it's raining, or I don't know how to get there.
To walk beside me when there are scary people and I'm afraind of geting mugged.
To walk a suitable distance in front of me when you are all dirty.
To take the blame when I tell someone I can't go somewhere because you are sick.
To take the blame when I quietly fart in a grocery line.
To make me think I want sex, even though I don't think I want sex, until after repeated attempts to jump start me and then I think, "hey I guess sex would be ok"
To tell me I look good for my age, in as convincing a tone as possible.
To try my food before I have, even though I accidentally dumped half a shaker of pepper in it, and don't tell you that.
To be there when I need you and out of town for some of the other of the time.
To get things off the top shelf when I can't reach and am too lazy to get a chair.

My darling, although it may seem sentimental, I want to take this moment to tell you I love you (partly because I broke your lawnmower), and even though you are at work, I always have this (points to tiny ring on finger) to remind me.

Also will you pick up something for supper on the way home?
Love you hon.

Waking up, dreams and pee

2008-03-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

I don't often get a chance to sleep in, but yesterday I wasn't feeling too well, and today was a day off, so...I did until about 9:00.
Getting a little older I find that is about the very latest I can go, before guilt about lazing around, or the need to pee, gets me up.
This morning I found myself in my dream world, in a very large and strange mall. There was a woman trying to walk with me and slow me down, but I was on a quest to find a bathroom.
There were bathrooms around but they were disgused as something else. I was getting desperate, and then... I woke up...having to pee really badly.
I have found quite often before that my dreams tell me when I have to get up to relieve myself.

When I work, my internal clock wakes me up at the same time every day, I never set an alarm.
My daughter tells me that she knows when to get up because in her dream she starts to tell people she can't go with them because she has to get ready for work.

I wish my internal clock had a snooze button, but I think mine was installed on my husband. He seems to have a couple of them. Including one that kicks in when he watches TV or a movie at night.

ACEO Oval?

2008-03-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have been doing ACEO's (2.5" x 3.5") quite a bit, both originals and mini size prints of my paintings, but am wondering one thing.....can they be oval shaped?

The reason I an asking is because I have started a series of paintings on small oval plaques, which I am calling "Things in Holes". The plaques are actually 3.5 x 5. but I would make prints from them to sell as ACEO's. Of course I can crop and print it out rectangular, but thought that oval might be unique.

This is my first plaque.

Oh and Happy Easter!

Lists

2008-03-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am a list addict. I actually made a list of things that I might blog about and "lists" was on my list.
I write a lot of lists. I make messy lists and then re-write them so they are tidy lists. Sometimes I add drawings of things and even colour them. I doodle around the edges.
Lists of things to do, to buy, chores, want lists, shows to watch, things I want to make lists of, you name it.
I have been doing a lot of art lists. What I need to do first and then what I want to do. It usually changes by the time I finish the first item because I change my mind or get a better idea. Then I have to write a new list.
On my chore lists I often list a couple of things that actually just did, so that I can cross them off my list right away and make me feel like I am making a dent in my list. Some things are just on the list every time and are things I never intend to do. Like sort out the stuff in the corner of the basement. Sometimes I hold off doing things because I would rather have a list that looks like I have done most of the stuff, than have to write a new list that has nothing crossed off yet. Sometimes I like the look of a new list or my old list gets lost, so I just re-do it. Sometimes I don't like to go out and just goof around and do nothing because then I won't be able to cross something off a list.
::Note to self:: Put goofing off and doing nothing on all lists in the future.
I have a hard time not putting post it notes everywhere too.

Where Has Your Art Been Used?

2008-03-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

I guess the most unusual request from me, was that I do a couple of painitngs on slate, for a man that was going to re do his front doorway with slate. He was in the Lions Club and wanted lions on one piece and some other "big cat" on another piece.

I had no idea what to use, but after a bit of checking I found that I could use acrylics if I sealed it properly with an outdoor varnish. He was told he may have to put on a new coat occasionally if it started looking worn. The pieces would be protected by a roof so they would get little exposure to the elements.

He was thrilled, and as far as I know he has had no problems, that was about 15 years ago.

Tired

2008-03-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick bit here about daylight savings time. Normally I don't mind it but for some reason this year it got to me. I am just starting to get back to normal after being pooped out for a couple of days. Or it could be that I think I spent the entire night looking at the clock or dreaming that I was looking at the clock.
My mind was racing about all sorts of artistic ideas I had so I couldn't get to sleep. I saw 11:34, 11:58, 12:36, 1:59, 2:45, I think 2: 92 ...... (then my favourite part of the night zzzz), then 5:02, I believe I saw G:OB which must have been 6:08 (oh, I don't have my contacts in at night) and woke up at 7:28.

Different Ways People Make Peanut Butter Sandwiches

2008-03-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Martha Stewart:

1. Grind wheat, make bread dough and bake bread.
2. Get top quality, hard to find, no preservative, hand made by nuns or monks using peanuts too good even for squirrels, peanut buerre.
3. Get jar of last summer's home made strawberry preserves that you slaved over and gave to all your friends instead of gifts at last Christmas.
4. Cut cooled bread into nice thick slices.
5. Generously spread peanut buerre on one piece of bread. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
6. Spread jam on the other slice of bread. Top with fresh strawberries cut into rose florettes.
7. Arrange bread on an attractive plate, side by side. Top with melted Ghirardeli chocolate and add a sprig of mint on the side of the plate.
8. Enjoy with a friend.

Oprah

1. Scour the stores for your favourite peanut butter and jam, buy caseloads of it.
2. Get 100 loaves of your favourite healthy bread.
3. Call Maya Angelou to come over and inspire you.
4. Get Gayle to come over for the big kitchen adventure, put on some music.
5. Layout the bread all over the place and start spreading the peanut butter and jam, have fun and then tell Gayle to stop singing.
6. Make lots of "yummy" noises".
7. Slam the sandwiches together, wrap then in cellophane, tied with a big huge bow.
8. Give them away to needy people.
9. Show clips of what you did on your TV show

M. Knight Shyamalan

1. Goes to the kitchen and gets all ingredients out.
2. Begins to spread the peanut butter, but looks out the window and sees a woman by the pool.
3. Goes outside to investigate...when he gets there he finds that she has disappeared.
4. Comes back into the kitchen to discover that the sandwich has been made, and a small delicate bite has been taken out of it. Yet he can see no one around.
5. Get a glass of water, take a sip while contemplating this, and put it on the counter with several other glasses of water, wanting no more because it is contaminated.
6. In a surprise twist, he decides that he wanted a tuna sandwich anyways.

Jerry Seinfeld:

1. Realizes that he has run out of cereal and only has peanut butter in the cupboard.
2. Wash hands.
3. Get out the white bread, jam and new jar of peanut butter.
4. Take lid off the peanut butter and see a whole peanut sitting on the top. Wonder "What's the deal with the whole peanut sitting on top of my peanut butter? Am I supposed to crush it? Am I supposed to throw it away? Am I supposed to eat it, and if so will the peanut butter live up to my expectations after eating the real thing?" Throw it away.
5. Get a clean knife and smoothly spread the peanut butter on the bread.
6. Wash the knife.
7. Open the jam...yada...yada...yada...
8. Yada...cut the finished sandwich.
9. Go to answer the ringing phone. Come back to see Kramer standing there just finishing off the sandwich. Shrug and put arms in the "whatever" position.

Criss Angel, Mindfreak:

1. Takes a bag of sandwich fixins and goes to find an audience on the street.
2. Rips small pieces of bread and stuffs them in his mouth.
3. Using his fingers, puts the peanut butter up one nostril and jam up the other.
4. Put a foot long piece of saran wrap in left breast pocket.
5. Cause some sort of diversion, like setting himself on fire.
6. Opens his mouth and takes out a small object, unfolds it to reveal a fully made and saran wrapped peanut butter and jam sandwich.
7. Smile mysteriously and knowingly.

How I would make a peanut butter sandwich.

1. Put on protective gear.
2. Get a stool, climb up, take peanut butter from cupboard.
3. Take jelly, teapot and reading glasses out of the fridge.
4. Wash finger. (foodsafe training kicked in)
5. Dip finger in peanut butter, and taste test.
6. Get out bread and spread peanut butter generously on bread. Wipe hand on butt leaving peanut butter finger prints on ass. (Note: smell of peanut butter on ass attracts the dog)
7. Spead jelly, lick the knife and spill jelly on protective gear on chest.
8. Put pieces of bread together, and cut....finger, then sandwich in half.
9. Bandage finger, take off protective gear, go sit down and eat sandwich. Squirt jelly out onto chest when taking first bite.
10. Fight off dog trying to lick jelly of my chest

What Are You Looking At?

2008-03-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

I had to take the bus today, and it remimded me of something I had blogged about before.

I have discovered that if you are out on the street (or maybe going down a long corridor) , and you recognize someone coming towards you, you should pretend that you don't see them, look to the left, right, floor, anything until you are about 8 feet away, then look up and exchange pleasantries.
Otherwise you are facing the ghastly prospect of recognizing them all the way, nods, smiles, goofy faces, shrugging, etc. You can only do so much of that.
On elevators, you can only glance at people once, twice, makes people wonder about you, and three times then you become an elevator stalker. Same thing applies to public transport. If you do look at someone too much and they catch you, you have to pretend that you are kind of looking off to the side of them with a vacant kind of stare.
My eyes can glaze over pretty damn quickly when the have to.
These are the rules of a good society.

Bras

2008-03-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

Is there a woman alive that has large boobs that does not look forward to taking off her bra at the end of the day?

Brassieres have to fit perfectly and be well made or you get the back riding up, straps digging in, boob hanging out of the bottom, overflow bumps at the top, and the sides curving like a dam ready to burst. Even if you do get a good one, they lose their oomph fairly soon. Then the tugging, adjusting and misery begins. .
There are some advantages to wearing a bra, such as hiding, keys, money, snacks etc. They can be used as a slingshot or earwarmers on cold days, in a pinch.
However on the con side, they also become a catch-all for cookie crumbs and occasionally grapes or other small projectiles that people try to toss in your cleavage. It's a bugger having to live with large crumbs in your bra until you can find somewhere to have a good shake out. I won't talk about the sweat underneath your bosom on hot days, because I don't sweat.

Of course they can be sexy and pretty and put your puppies on display very attractively, and bras do provide support. However when you get older, it's not so much about display as it is just being corrective underwear, getting them to stay in place in the appropriate part of your body……..and corrective underwear sucks. Age is not a friend of tatas. I have come to a conclusion that by the time I am 65 they will be pants-tuckable. I am going to retire my bras and just stick my boobs in a nice cozy pair of socks.

More playground tidbits

2008-02-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

-Sticks. I cannot stress enough the importance and status of having a good stick. It is a symbol of power. "He who hath the stick, hath the power." The bigger the stick the greater the power. Basic pirate style sword fighting with sticks has been replaced first, with Star Wars lightsaber fighting and more recently with Naruto (anime) style fighting.
Sticks are also essential for poking and turning over dead stuff, and poking and flinging dog poo at your enemies.

-Kids that eat gross stuff. Mainly worms. At our school it is an angelic looking six year old girl. Other kids are excited and yet repelled by this, but of course are always there to encourage it. Once a worm has been devoured, it is an unspoken rule that you must keep a distance of at least three feet in case of wormy upchuck or just being touched by wormy fingers.

-Biters. Most of the time they seem normal, until they freak out and become pitbulls. Cute pitbulls but just as tenatious. Every child knows who the biters are, what sets them off, and gives them a wide berth, keeping limbs away from the mouthal area. Except for the new kids, they usually find out the hard way.

-Firestarters are pretty much at the pinnacle of kids the grade school bad boy scale. They often lure easily duped kids behind the bushes to watch them burn something. It could be anything, and probably it belongs to someone else. Often they are discovered, sometimes because of a telltale waft of smoke, but more likely because other kids really love to snitch about something that is considered quite bad in the world of elementary school no nos.

Little Known Facts of The Playground

2008-02-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

I wrote this a while go. I supervise at a school at noon hour so I am an expert, yes I am.

1. In a playground, when there is gravel (or some similar ground cover), if there is a "deposit" left by a wayward dog, rather than tell someone that there is poop on the ground so you can remove it, kids will bury it in the gravel, rendering it invisible.

2. Some kids like to pee and watch it go down the slide. We call these kids Scott.

3. Throwing up after twisting the swing around and around and around and around, and then letting it go to spin around and around and around, is common. This vomit on the ground can also be rendered invisible with the "cat- litterbox" method of covering it up.
::Note to nervous moms:: Throwing up like this is no sweat for a kid. They do it all the time, wipe their mouth with the back of their hand, wipe their hand on your pants when you go to check on them, and they are good to go.

4. In the sandbox, water, milk, juice, and ...uh...tinkle, all make acceptable sand-bonding agents for building a castle.

5. Surprisingly, swing seats with dried bird poop on them, will not be used. They are icky. Kids do have their limits. You can however flip the swing seat over, or rub it off on a nearby unsuspecting student.

6. If you are a kid on a swing, even if you have been on long enough to lose the feeling in the lower half of your body, if another kid comes up and wants a turn, you "JUST GOT ON". Time apparently stands still the moment you climb on a swing.

I may add on to this sometime soon.

Cats vs Dogs

2008-02-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

The cats have stepped it up a notch.

Timing

2008-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

Anybody else having problems getting on to Etsy right now?

Grrrrrrrr...

Okay, that was a short lived crisis. It's back.

It really hits home when something like that happens. Panic sets in....did I get booted out?...did Etsy suddenly decide to not be there anymore? ...did my computer go nuts?.. is my firewall stupid?...how long will this last? ... what am I going to do now?...am I going to have to do housework to keep busy?..what is housework?

Without fail, when I am really wanting to do something online, either posting something or uploading something I think is important, it will happen then.

The other thing that happens is that when I am getting into a good discussion or getting some serious artwork done, the family starts coming around asking when dinner is going to be ready.

Pet Portraits.

2008-02-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

I sometimes do pet portraits.

This was my old dog Monty:

This is my current dog Tira:

One of my current projects is a painting of someones dog. As with ...well most of the pet portraits that I have done, this beloved pet has passed on.

I can't think of any other paintings that I do that give me both the fear and the excitement that pet portraits do. These are hugely emotional for those that ask for them.

I know some people think.."You paint dogs! Where's the creativity in that?" Well it's not so much creativity as it is sensitivity. You have to find the special quality in that pet that the owner will recognize.

It is scary. I can paint, say a wolf, and if I forget to paint his ear or give him a lump on his head, well who's to know that he wasn't just attacked by another wolf. I can do what I want, because it' s just a random wolf. If I were to give someones loved dog, a gimpy eye, or a weird shaped nose, they will notice. What you really need to nail is the expression. If you get that right, and luckily so far I pretty much always have, you will get a reaction unlike any other art buyer. Smiles, joy, tears. A lot of times tears. That's the big payoff in doing pet portraits.

(I don't mean that I like to make people cry)

(Also just so you know I don't usually give my wolves bumps on the head or missing ears)

Scattered

2008-02-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one that seems to get a pile of projects and ideas all at the same time, and doesn't know where to start?

Right now I have a couple already on the go.
I have a little duck ACEO in pencil crayons, that I started and carry to work with me hoping that I will get a few minuties to work on it.
I found an old picture of a tiger, in pastels, that I had pretty much finished except for some details, and I am going to finally finish that one.
I have an idea that I am excited about, that I can't wait to start, but haven't decided what medium to use.
I know I will be doing a series of marine mammals...for someone soon.
..and now I have a pet portrait comissioned, in acrylics, on wood. So my other stuff will go on the back burner for now. Sometimes the decision on where to start, is taken out of your hands, when you have an actual, real client to do work for.

That's all for now.

Except for one final question.
Why am I the only one in my family of five, with the apparent physical ability to change the toilet paper roll?

Classificus Animalia Humanus

2008-02-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Continuing from the note in my previous blog about "if otters were people". I remembered what I was thinking.
This is kind of my two worlds colliding, working with kids, and painting animals.

If otters were kids, they would absolutely be those adorable little charmers, that say "Don't you look nice today Mrs. S", and then as soon as your back is turned they wing a paperball at the back of your head, or stick something on your back.

Fawns, well that's a no brainer. They would be the sweet, shy girls that you can't help but liking.

Squirrels, most definitely are the loopy kids that can't stay still. They also rush through their lunch and stuff food in their cheeks so that they can continue to eat while they are playing soccer, or chasing the girls around while weilding a worm. There are a growing number of squirrels at school these days.

Most kids fall into the puppy category. Both good and bad sometimes. Do what they are asked to, hoping to please and do well. Bark worse than bite, occasionally get cooties, and look at you with sad little eyes when they want something. Then they do something that makes you laugh or go "awww".

There are of course always one or two that remind me of those big, hairy cats that get poop matted and dangling from their bottoms, but I won't go into that.

This is in no way meant to be derogatory by the way. I love them little squirts.

Middle of the night notes

2008-02-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

I suppose a lot of people do this...

I find that the time when I get ideas, are when I am just going to sleep or just waking up. I often used to repeat things over in my head so that I would remember them the next day, but that definitely didn't work. So what I do now is always have a pen and paper beside the bed so that I can write it down, in the dark, and let my mind rest at ease that the idea will be put into action in the near future.

Except sometimes I wake up to find notes like this one.

I can make out -cute girl cards...okay, - paint (some kind of ) dog...okay, if otters were people..huh?, and aliens (doing something ) to my head...double huh?

Finished

2008-02-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

....and here we go!!

Sort of softened it all up using my secret magical voodoo.

He kind of looks like he is praying for something.
Maybe a big crab.

I call this painting.

"Clamchops"
9" x 12"

Stage 6

2008-02-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

Just about done!!

Continued to add details light and dark.

I just love otters. My daughter loves belugas, but otters have the personality I think.They just look like little rascals. I found another picture that I think is freakin' adorable....

Stage 5

2008-02-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

Just added light colour detail to the arms and more detail on the stomach.

It occurred to me that I have never painted anything like this and don't really know what the heck I am doing!

The fur is dry and wet, it goes all over theplace in every direction......like my brain, and I'm sort of winging it.

Stage 4

2008-02-09T19:25:00.001-08:00

I added some dark colour to the armsies and stomach.

...uh....yeah...that's it.

Stage 3

2008-02-08T16:16:00.001-08:00

Not really a stage, just where I am.

I added some golds and browns to some parts of the painting first, and then started filling in fur in a light tan colour. More dark and then light details will be added later, this is sort of a base coat to fill it all in and get the fur going in the right directions.

Even though I have this project on the go, I absolutely have to start on my beagle picture, I can't wait any longer, then I can switch back and forth between the two so paint can dry...so I can sit somewhere else and work...so I can leave one and come back to it later with fresh eyes. It's amazing how often you can be kind of unsatisfied

with a painting and not know why, but if you leave it alone for a few days and come back to it...WHAM!, right away you can see what the problem was.

Stage 2

2008-02-08T08:09:00.001-08:00

I added a medium blue to the water, and then over some parts I put a green wash overtop.

I am not big on doing backgrounds, I just can't wait to get to the animal..

I have a whole list of pictures I want to do, and it's kind of overwhelming sometimes, trying to figure out which to do first. On my list right now, is a beagle puppy, a group of jack russell pups, a rotti-lab, (aaack I'm in a cutsey phase right now, and can't help myself!!!)

I also have some ideas for some cartoony note cards.

Painting

2008-02-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

I am doing an acrylic painting for a change. I am doing a sea otter from a photo that my daughter took (she works at the local aquarium)

After I drew it out, I went over it with dark paint so I wouldn't lose my lines.

So this is step one.

I am a little punchy because it was a really tough day supervising kids at lunchtime today.

With snow still on the ground and a lot of slush as well, it's a struggle to get across the big field and catch the little ....monkeys...that are throwing snowballs (against the rules).

I am glad that I am home now, can relax and lose myself in painting this day.

Under construction

2008-02-05T15:39:00.001-08:00

...and also under considerable stress.

I have learned how to post stuff (and edit it) and now I'm ready to go.

Except what to blog about.

My excitement about blogging is starting to wane now. Is that normal?