Scootchie

'Sup, Moo?

When I talk to Maizie, our darling puppy, I usually call her Maizie-MOO. It started when she was a wee little black and white thing, with markings like a calf-- or a heifer. Lately, it's just "Moo."

"Whatcha got there, Moo?"
"C'mere, Moo. Let me get that boogie off your eye." (I know, eww.)
"Hey, Moo! Dinner time!"

Scott hates it when I give the pets, um, pet names. Like when I call Newton the conure, "Bubby." But that's how it is. I could no more stop giving sweetie names to the pets than I could stop calling the little girls next door, "Ladybug" or "Bunny." And what on earth would I do if I couldn't use the ever popular "Kiddo" for my child acquaintances? It's just how I work. So.

What's Maizie-Moo been up to, you ask? Well, we had some hot days recently-- hot enough that we ran the AC for a little while in the afternoon. Maizie very quickly found the best spot to lie down and enjoy the cool air.

Maizie has also been executing a major reorganization of our household. All plush toys, socks and washcloths go outside to the back yard. Twigs, leaves, flower petals and rocks come inside, preferrably onto our bed.

Here's today's treasure trove.

Thanks, Moo.

Crafty!

Here's some of the stuff I've been making lately.

First, my card for the StampGrrlz "dragonfly" exchange this month.

StampGrrl Jan has a May birthday, so I made her this purple pillow and an Asian style birthday card.

Brenda came over to bead with me last weekend and I tried this beaded bead (actually, beaded beadS--there are two inside) from Takako Samejima's book, Bead Fantasies. I have done many projects from this book and her second, Bead Fantasies II. Although the instructions for this one were less than wonderful, I was able to figure it out and made a bracelet and matching choker necklace.

Finally, I am going to be teaching some classes--making memory glass pendants-- at Violets are Blue, my favorite, favorite shop! Come and play with me! The project I am teaching is very easy and gets beautiful results, every time. I promise!

Pepper Parties ON!

I haven't had a single minute to post lately, but I know that many of you have been waiting for an update on Little Miss Pepper (Soxie) in her new home in Minnesota. I took her to my brother's house at the end of April. We went by airplane and Pepper traveled with me in the cabin, riding in her Sherpa bag. All through the check in, the security line and the flight, Pepper was golden! She was so quiet, so calm and soooooo cute, with her little head poking out of the top of the bag. All the TSA employees were ga-ga over her (and it's a good thing, too, because I discovered on my trip home that I was travelling with an expired driver's license!)

It took Pepper about 8 hours to completely take over my brother and sister-in-law's house. She just moved right in, and by the middle of her second day was going in and out of all the doors, following my brother around, sleeping in her kennel and making friends with all of the neighbor kids.

Here's Pepper with my brother, Aaron. He is making his "gaaaar!" face and noise, which he began to do as soon as he laid hands on the puppy. I think that noise means that he's in love.

Aaron and Stacey both work during the day, so Aaron built a little wire kennel in the garage with a doggie door out to a big run on the shady side of their house. As you can see, Pepper moved right in and claimed her space, staying in there contentedly even with the door open for her to join Stacey outside. It took her about two tries to completely master the doggie door-- much faster than any of us predicted.

Indoors, Pepper quickly found all the cozy places to sleep. Her favorite was under the papasan chair in the living room.

Pepper also gather her entourage rather quickly. She has two little boys and a German Short-haired Pointer buddy across the street and gets along well with Stacey's mom's Springer, Madison. While I was there, all the kids in the neighborhood stopped by. Pepper was ready for whatever games they wanted to play!

Aaron says that she continues to do very well, and house-training has not been a problem at all. She listens and follows directions well, except for when she is tired... and she has had plenty of opportunities to get tired. Recently he took her to a friend's farm, where she ran around with other dogs all day long. He said she slept for two days straight! Stacey reports that Pepper can't wait to go into her garage kennel and run in the morning. Sometimes she doesn't even want to say good-by to them! All-in-all, things couldn't be better!

I'm baaaaaaack!

Wooo-hooo! Did I have a great weekend at the Great Yosemite Stamp Escape! The StampGrrlz and I traveled together on Friday, after filling my Camry and Bessie's SUV with all of Katy's stuff! (Running joke: Katy really does take the kitchen sink--or at least it's weight in stamps and supplies!) Here's a picture of the grrlz at The Cat's Meow stamping and scrapbooking store. From left to right: Lorraine, Katy, Sharon and Bessie:
Someone gave us "bunny ears" through the window!

At the store, we all had a little nosh and joined the feeding frenzy in an Artist Trading Cards (ATC) exchange. You can see that all the ladies have little boxes or bags or baskets on the table in front of them. They are full of cards to exchange.

Here's Sharon scanning the crowd for someone who hasn't already exchanged with her.

Spreading out over half the table, Katy counts her loot.

Fortunately, my trading cards got a warm reception. I admit, since I didn't do any new techniques or really elaborate assembly, I was apprehensive. However, thanks to the great images I got from Brandy at loosetooth.com people were coming to find me, saying, "I just had to have one of your cute cards!" and Mike Strong, one of the teachers, said, "That's just the kind of thing I really like!"

We got a really pretty sunset that night.

Afterwards, we went back to our chalet at The Pines Resort on Bass Lake.

Staying in the chalet is one of the treats of the weekend. We really enjoy everything about them-- the big windows overlooking the lake, the little kitchenette, the living space where we pull out all our new stuff and play and the loft. This year, I got to sleep in the loft. It was like my own little treehouse!

Bass Lake is really pretty and we have a great view of it from the classrooms. This year it was rainy and overcast, but still beautiful.

Classes. Ohhhh, the classes! We had such wonderful classes and teachers this year. The grrlz and I took Zana Clark's "Luna Moth Quilt" class first. I have been an admirer of Zana's Stamp Zia images for a long time and I have looked at her class examples and books with longing for years. But this was my first opportunity to take a class from her. First, what a great teacher she is and how gracious and positive! Second, what a wonderful class for learning new techniques and tricks. My favorite was the "Metallic Flows." Finally, what a great project! All of us went home with a work of art. Here's mine, and I am going to hang it in my living room.

From the big colorwash class, we went to Mike Strong's "White on White" class. (You can believe we washed our hands first!) Mike has taught several classes nearby, but I have never made it a point to take one. But every time one of the grrlz comes back from his class and shows off her projects, I have to get a towel to wipe off the drool! Shame on me. Mike is a great teacher and his ideas are fantastic. Here's a class sample using his cloisonne butterfly image and a bunch of flower punches.

Glitter makes everything better. Here's Sharon applying glitter to one of her cards.

Mike and his Wife, Carla, came out to dinner with us after class. We went to my favorite restaurant near Bass Lake, called, Mountain House. They have an extensive menu, wonderful food, excellent service... I cannot recommend it enough!
Rumor has it that Mike and Carla went back the next night as well!

Loretta Axt and Ming Kwong taught our next class. It was a "Blitz" class, meaning that we were to make ten cards in three hours. That's a lot! Ming and Loretta were both representatives for DeNami stamps for many years, but now they are independents and used a line from Canada called Gel-a-tins. Cute images and, as always, beautiful cards. I didn't learn any new techniques in this class, but I got a million little design and layout ideas that I will use today. Here's two favorite cards from the class.


Here's Stampgrrl Jan and her sister Cathy, who came all the way from Kentucky for the Stamp Escape. Don't they look like they're having fun? (Cathy sticks her tongue out when she is working, just like me.)

Last but never least, we took a metal art class from the lovely and charming Michele Charles. Michele introduced me to a new favorite word. You know, when you see or do smething really wonderful/beautiful/creative/crazy/cool and you say, "oh oh oh oh oh?" Well, that's an ARTGASM. Ahhh.

Anyhoo, Michele's class was all about the artgasm and full of technique and a little daunting at first because the metal work can have a million little steps and refinements and a hundred specialized tools and metal is a bit unforgiving, but... I got a really good result and lots of compliments on my little journal. Michele even asked me to send a photo so she could post it on her website. Wasn't that nice?

When it was all over, we were utterly exhausted, but still found a reason to stop in at The Cat's Meow before we left. At the very least, we needed to visit the store's two resident cats. (I just love shops with resident animals-- ever since I worked at Recollections Antiques with the darling Emily the dog.) Here's Peachy and Mittens. Guess who is who!
Look at Mitten's mittens. She has a thumb!

Also, a highlight of the trip home was a visit to the Sun Maid raisin world headquarters. Apparently, raisins have a big fan base, as in this excerpt:

I'm SO hot for the Sun-Maid Raisin Girl. She's a cross between Melissa Gilbert as Half-Pint Ingalls and Jane Seymour as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Wait, no... I mean, they're a healthy snack. Especially covered in chocolate! Not on this products page, we bought Dark Chocolate covered Muscat raisins. Ohhhhh, mommy! Those are good! Here's me, dressed like a chocolate-covered raisin.

Aaaaaand, the World's Largest Box of Raisins. You saw it here!


Ummmmmmm, I'm not sure if I want to know if those 16,000 pounds of raisins are still inside the box or not. Bleah.

Aaaaaaah, I'm tired and happy and I have nearly one hundred new ATCs and four new classes to inspire me. And lots of happy raisin snacks to eat. And some new underwear from the Tulare Outlet Mall, but I won't post pictures of that. Ever.

Tomorrow, or later today, pictures of puppies.

Stampin' Campin'

Tomorrow, I am going up to Bass Lake, near Yosemite, for the Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. An annual trip for the StampGrrlz and me, we call it "Stampin' Campin'," even though camping plays no part of it. We stay in a chalet at a resort and take four fabulous paper arts classes with four or more fabulous teachers. And, we exchange Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) with all the other attendees. Trading handmade cards is a blast! Everybody does such wonderful things, they are like little treasures. I have learned a lot of new techniques and gotten incredibly inspired by the things I have seen on others' ATCs.

This year, for my ATCs, I decided to use some stamps I bought from Brandy Agerbeck at loosetooth.com They're really bold, graphic images that speak for themselves, so I didn't do much to dress them up. I just stamped the images in black VersaFine on two colors and punched out one little picture on each. These are my cards to trade:
Here's a closeup of the green card:

Wouldnt' ya know, I also found ways to use all of the punched out pictures:

One of last year's Stamp Escape goodies were blank white tins with hinged tops and handles. Katy told me to decorate mine to hold all my ATCs and if Katy told me to jump off a bridge, I'd do it. So, here's my tin, and it only took me a whole year to get around to it:

When I come home, I'll post pictures of all the great projects we are going to do! Well, first I'll play with the puppies, then I'll do something about posting pictures of all the great projects.

Scheherazade #3

I made another one, and it is soooooo pretty! My dear Pastor John and Tom commissioned this necklace for Tom's sister's 70th birthday. This is the first I have made using the green iris beads and I think that, when I finally make a Scheherazade necklace for myself, I'll make it in green iris. The jasper pendant and box clasp with an inset garnet add to the beautiful effect. I also added a little Celtic knot charm to the pendant, and not exactly in the center, just for a little more interest. I hope she likes it!


Tom's sister does not wear dangle earrings, so I needed to come up with an alternative to my usual teardrops. I borrowed an idea from Matsuko Sawanobori in her book,Antique Style Bead Accessories
I have really enjoyed this book for Matsuko's beautiful designs, even though I rarely make any of the projects the way she instructs. For one thing, she uses fine guage wire for a lot of the projects in the book, and frankly, my wire skills are not so great. Still, when I needed inspiration, I turned to her book, and there on page 50 are "Cluster Earrings," made by sewing loops of beads onto a perforated backing which can be attached to a post style earring. Taah-daah! They turned out rather splendidly, if I do say so!
Here's a side view of the cluster attached to the post earring.

Then and Now

Remember this picture of Maizie (Surprise) and Pepper (Soxie)? They were one week old.
Yeah, you say, I remember that picture like it was yesterday. Well, this picture actually is from yesterday!

Wouldya look at all of Miss Pepper's spickety-spots? And check out Maizie Long Shanks. How they do grow.

Scrapbookin'

Our friend, Kiera, age 7, made us this wonderful puppy scrapbook using pictures from this blog. I love it! It's one of the nicest presents I have ever received.

Page One reads, "Good mother," and is all pictures of Mollie:

Page Two is all pictures of Wiley (Sly), Kiera's favorite pup. For a while, she was hoping we would name him, "Dante, Jr." after her Auntie Brenda's brown and white Aussie, Dante.

Page Three, I am told, is all the "group shots."

Page Four, if Scott remembered to tell me correctly is "pictures taken outside."

Page Five is "the cute pictures" of Wiley (Sly) and Maizie (Surprise):

Page Six reads, "funny" and is mostly pictures of the dogs, including a baby Mollie, sleeping in funny poses.

Page Seven is more funny pictures:

Page Eight is pictures of us with the puppies.

When Kiera and her little sister, Drew, delivered the album, Scott met them at the door and got the inside scoop. When he reached the last page, Drew said, "Wait! You haven't seen the end!" and, sure enough, on the back cover is the end, Wiley's little nether end, to be precise.

Thank you, Kiera! You have given us a treasure!

Relaxxxxxx

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...Oh, yeah.

Reunion!

Today we had a little puppy party. The Barretts and the Brysons agreed to come for a visit so that we could take some pictures with the whole bunch before Little Miss Pepper needs to go to her new home in Minnesota. What a blast! We had such fun talking puppy talk, ate a little nosh, and sat around ooh-ing and aah-ing while they tore into each other... OK, wait that didn't sound nice! We all sat around cooing while they barked and fought. No, wait... we refereed the playfights--er, we kept an eye on things. Um, I give up.

Actually, it was not nearly so violent as I am making it sound. It was just exciting. See? In this video, no tears! Just fun and games (except for Pepper who chose to be cuddling with Ethan B.)

I think the pups had a great time and even Mollie sometimes relaxed and enjoyed herself.

Running, running running, tuck your toes in, they're running!

Aaaaaaand, this is what it was all about, people. I was still in my church clothes, so I felt like I was presentable enough to photograph, so we put all the pups on leash and I held them all. I love this picture. I feel like Rachael Doudrick, Champion Breeder! Look out Westminster! Not really, I have no ambitions to breed show dogs and none of these darlings will go in that direction, but I am so proud. So very proud.

Lest you think it was easy to get this semi-still photo, this is what most of the attempts look like: