Andy

Andy is now over 1 year old. He is a character and a great source of entertainment. Here he is watching the squirrels on the deck eating corn from the bird feeder. This is where I usually sit. A dangerous place when a 60 lb. dog wants to watch the squirrels.
Squirrel?
Squirrel!
What?

Today I had to give him a shower with the hose. He decided it would be a GOOD thing to roll in a dead blue jay. Ewwww and Phewww. Of course, he didn't do that until right about the time to come in the house. So, I'm out there with hose, dog and shampoo trying to clean him up with just the littlest bit of help from hubby. Needless to say, Mom and Dog, the grass and the flower beds all got a shower. We had fun and I'd rather have a semi-wet dog in the house than a very stinky one.

Friday Night Spotlight

Here we are again, another Friday. Wow...did that week go by fast. Here are two more great pieces from my friends at OnlineAuction.com and a couple from me. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the links.

First up is SuperGranny. She has a wonderful collection of tobacciana in the form of ashtrays. This El Rancho Hotel Casino, Black Amethyst Ashtray is a nice piece of history to own. Here is a little background on the El Rancho:

Hotel El Rancho Vegas opened in 1941. It was the first full-scale casino resort on Highway 91 south of Las Vegas, a roadway that within ten years of the El Rancho's opening would become known as the Las Vegas Strip. Though it did not have the glitz or notoriety of other early casinos, it was nonetheless a Strip pioneer.

The El Rancho, one of the oldest properties on the Las Vegas Strip, was imploded at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000.

After reliving the past on the Strip, a little trip to the beach would be nice. Our second link tonight is from YogiBear66, who offers the Seascape Necklace. A fun assortment of an aqua-colored disc, blue and green glass beads and small spacer beads with a little seashell charm. All the colors of the ocean wrapped up in one necklace. I can hear the ocean already.

And last by not least, here are a couple of my necklaces. The first is a three strand Peridot Necklace with round copper beads separating the chips. Peridot is the gem quality stone from volcanic olivine. Found in ancient deposits of lava, this semi-precious stone shines in rich varied greens.

The next one is the very first Chainmaille Necklace I ever made. Small glass turquoise colored disks and purple seed beads highlight this necklace of silver and gold plated jump rings in double ring technique. A very lightweight piece and very eye catching. It would be perfect for that "little black dress" or a black turtleneck sweater in the winter.

Zentangle Links

Here are some of my favorite Zentangle links to look at and learn from.

Zentangle website
Check out the archives for the newsletters, they have a ton of information on different tangles and how to draw them.

Zentangle blog
Much, much more information about Zentangles and lots of pretty pictures of tangles from people around the world. Rick and Maria just became grandparents this month. Congratulations!

Tangle Patterns
A comprehensive list of tangles from various artists and Certified Zentangle Teachers. A great place to go for inspiration.

I Am The Diva blog
The Diva has an ongoing weekly challenge. You can start at the beginning or pick and choose which theme you want to work on for your weekly Zentangle challenge. Fun!

BEEZ In The Belfry
Zentangle books, drawings, information and lots of fun here.

If you are really hooked now when visiting these sites, don't forget to check out their links. You'll find many talented artists and teachers who are very open and sharing about their Zentangles.

A few more Z'oodles

I've been working on some Z'oodles lately. These are the two I finished, I have a few others that are in process and will show those as soon as I get them done.




These Z'oodles were created on 8.5" x 5.5", 70# pen and ink paper with a Micron 03 pen. I prefer to use the 3mm pen for my drawings, it moves over the paper easier for me than a 1mm tip. Check out Zentangle for more information on drawing your own cool doodles.

More It's a Jungle Out There

I got the beads I ordered from Fire Mountain today. I ordered them on Sunday night, don't ya just love shopping online? I used them to make the necklaces below. The first one is made of tigereye. The second one is made from acrylic with a leopard print. It was fun designing and making each piece. The leopard print acrylics took the most time this afternoon because of all the wire work and jump ring manipulation I had to do. But, I like the end result and hopefully, someone else at the show will too.



So that takes care of my three pieces to submit to the show. I will spend a goodly part of tomorrow afternoon trying to get professional looking pictures of all of them. Sometimes this takes longer than making the necklace itself. ;)

It's a Jungle Out There

That's the name of the exhibit, presented by the City of Gresham Art Committee, I will be showing a few of my necklaces in. I finished up the Copper Leopard today so I could get some pictures submitted this week. My camera was giving me fits for awhile, but it seems to have settled down. Here is a rough draft picture of the Copper Leopard.



As soon as I finish the other two pieces I plan on entering, I'll have pics up.

Sunday Quotes

The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you'd just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot scones and jam and look out the streaked window with complacency.
~Susan Allen Toth, England For All Seasons

We are getting more rain tomorrow. I hope it is a cozy rain. :)

What A Beautiful Day

It started out clear and cool and a light breeze. Ended up in the mid-70's and a lovely evening for sitting out on the deck. The half moon won't be up until after 1:30 am, my time, but the stars are glowing nicely tonight.

I picked a small amount of red huckleberries this morning. They are ripening despite all the cool weather and rain. I will freeze them until I can get enough for a pie, then I'll mix them with frozen blueberries and mmmm,mmmm,mmmm mmmm mmmm. It is one of the best pies ever! Depending on how many huckleberries you have, combine them with 2/3 - 1/2 the blueberries in your favorite blueberry pie recipe, adjust your sugar accordingly. Makes for a very pretty pie.

With the weather being warmer for this weekend, I'll have to make sure I get out there and pick the berries early. Hopefully the deer or the birds won't get to them before I do. We're expecting some rain and cooler temps on Monday, so tomorrow is the day to get out there.

I just did a search for huckleberries, since I don't know that much about them, and found these guys International Wild Huckleberry Association. Just learned a little something new tonight. Cool! Think I better go get some whipping cream tomorrow.

Oh great. My mouth is now watering for pie.

Friday Night Spotlight

Happy Friday! It's that time again to check and see what's new at OLA.

Tonight:
KornKountryTreasures has the cutest little glass praying boy and girl figurines. Wonderful pieces for a collector of Vaseline glass.

DraggonTagger has a pair of water globes listed that would be great for anyone who will be on vacation this summer. These glass globes will water your plants for 2 weeks.

Yogibear66 offers a lovely gold colored bow-shaped brooch with a blue glass dangle. A very pretty piece of costume jewelry at a very good price.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out the above selections.

Changes

So...what do you think?

I decided to change things up a bit and go with a little color on the old blog. I like it and I guess that's what counts. :)

Just Playing

Been trying some experiments with vintage jewelry and beads. Won't have any pics to show until I'm happy with the results. Also playing with my collage stuff again and will be adding some collage/mixed media things to my jewelry.

I've been wanting to play with resin and bezels, but don't have time right now. It looks like fun and the charms and pendants created by other artists are very cool. Got my Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine today and they have a tutorial on making resin earrings and pendant. I think I can have a whole lot of fun with this stuff!

But first, I have to finish my Leopard necklace and work on my commission necklace. I'm trying to design a primitive necklace that a "woman of the woods" would have. Sometimes these are the hardest necklaces to make. There can be so many choices in materials to use. Picking the right ones is not so much difficult as it is overwhelming. I did find some beautiful ceramic beads that will be part of this necklace. Here they are:




Mixed with wood, stone and seeds it should be a fun necklace to wear.

Pet Peeve

I was reading a few of the comments from some of the newsletters I got in email today. For crying out loud, didn't anyone learn to spell when they were in school???? I see alot all over the net. Hey People!!!! ALOT IS NOT A WORD!!!!! I learned this in the 6th grade, way back in 1964. It only exists in your mind, not in the official book of the English Language, otherwise known as a dictionary!

It drives me nuts when I see this. To me, it shows that these people have no respect for the language they speak or write and poor schooling/learning on their part. OH! And there's another one...THEIR - THERE - THEY'RE or YOUR - YOU'RE. Has the educational system completely failed ALL of our kids? It's a sad state of affairs when you start to lose your language or even worse (and NOT worst) lose it to laziness.

I love our language. I'm not a teacher or writer, but an avid reader. I have gone places, seen things and even learned new and ancient words from all that I've read. Every bit of it written with proper spelling, punctuation and sentence structure. Don't just read a book, learn from it.

Remember: I before E except after C.

Thank you for listening, you may now return to your scheduled programming.

Rain Rain Rain

It was a mostly rainy day today. Again. It seems we (the Pacific Northwest) are the only cool place in the continental U.S. That's OK by me. I don't like the heat and get very cranky when it gets over 85 degrees. At least the rain and cool temps are keeping the fire season down to nil and the moss is greening up again. We'll see how the rest of the summer goes. The heat dome is supposed to be moving east this week and may bring the warmth back up to us. Perhaps we will have summer after all. :)

My lupine and a lot of the foxglove plants have fallen over because of the rain hitting them. They were really looking nice and I didn't get any pictures before they fell over. RATS! But...the Himalayan Balsalm is doing fine and growing quite well. They might bloom out if we can get a bit of sun this week. I don't have any current pics of the Balsalm but do from last year.






It is also called Policeman's Helmet because the shape of the flower looks like a London Bobbie's helmet. These plants, if watered weekly, can get up to 6 - 7 feet tall. They are a very easy plant to raise and also easily reseed themselves. Some people here in Oregon call them an invasive species. If you keep up with pulling out the ones you don't want in your garden, I think they will do all right. Also, the slugs don't like them! Bonus!!

Pen and Paper

Been having more fun while things are downloading. Here are just a couple of Z'oodles/Zentangles that I've completed in the last few weeks.




Doing these are contemplative, relaxing and sparks my creativity. What I love the most is, I can't draw, but I can Zentangle!

Sunday Night Quotes

Sunday Night Quotes is my way of helping to start out the week with an inspirational, humorous or thoughtful quote. If you have a favorite quote, please let us know and put it in the comments.

Solitude

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude. ~Voltaire

Typical Oregon Day

It was mostly overcast all day, in the low to mid 60's with a light breeze playing in the trees. We had about .25" of rain last night and early this morning. I love listening to the rain falling on the leaves as I'm dozing in bed in the morning. It makes my soul smile.

The rest of the day was much like the morning. Quiet, not much going on and comfortable. Received a few packages from my shopping at OLA and Amazon. Got a very interesting book called, The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti. Everything about the book is great except the print and font. The Amazon reviews were not too complimentary about this subject either. The material is well thought out, but it certainly is hard to read. Good lighting is a must for this book.

I think I may have to explain something about the length of my days and why my posts are not posted on the day they should be. I consider this my Saturday post, even though it is early Sunday morning. I like to work in Vampire Mode and usually don't hit the sheets until sometime after 2 or 3 a.m. I don't consider my day over until I go to bed, so my posts are late by "normal" standards.

Now...I did miss two days this week. Wednesday, I spent watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and didn't go to bed until 1:30 a.m. I had to go to bed early because I had a picnic with my art group on Thursday. I also missed Thursday, due to that picnic. I ended up, at the end of the day, driving over 150 miles to and from the picnic, so I was tired and forgot to post. Go here PAC to see pics of the beautiful place we invaded for our picnic. (Thank You, Jenny!!!) Wonderful company, great food and fun swap!!!

While I'm typing all this, I'm also listening to Coast to Coast radio, tonight with Ian Punnett. The guest tonight is Jeremy Wade of River Monsters on Animal Planet. Very interesting, even for a non-fisher person. Off I go to listen to the rest of the show.

Friday Night Spotlight at OLA

Tonight I would like to introduce you to yogibear66 and kornkountrytreasures. Both of these sellers are very active members of OnlineAuction.com. Each of them have some really cool items up for sell. If you see something you like, make a bid or buy it out right, before someone else gets it.

yogibear66 has choosen a very pretty piece of jewelry to highlight this Friday. Here is her Vintage Goldette Silver Cameo Three Strand Necklace .

kornkountrytreasures sent this link to a very unusual piece of enamelware. Check it out here Vintage Jones Irrigator. This would be a good collector item for anyone interested in enamelware or vintage medical equipment.

We thank you for looking and check back every Friday for new and interesting items from OLA!!

A Very Good Day

Not much going on today. Run some errands, pick up the truck after getting oil change and lube job. Getting rained on. Yep, it was another dark, wet day. I loved it. There were the occasional sun breaks between the showers. All thanks to La Nina.

Today was a lucky day, though. While out, my right palm started itching, very bad. When I got home and checked in on my auction store, I had bids on 7 weeks of my Challenge earrings! Yeah! I Love it when that happens! They will be heading out to Iowa on Friday.



This is one of the weeks that sold today. See what you missed?

Woke up way too early this morning. Anything before 9 a.m. is too early!!! But I was up and out feeding the birds by 8:30. However, I was awakened around 7:30 by a dream I can't remember now. It seemed to be interesting, just wish I could remember it.

Now, you say, that these times aren't early. Well, I usually don't hit the sheets earlier than 1 or 2 a.m. After 10 p.m., I'm working on my computer by answering email, organizing my shops at Cafepress and OLA or tweeking pictures for the shops. I listen to Coast to Coast with George Noory all the while I'm on the computer. I am woman, hear me roar...I can multi-task! :)

So this is why my posts always are later at night. My day ends late and starts later. And, like today, if I don't get all my sleep, it makes for a loooooong day. (Thank goodness for the backspace button or you wouldn't be able to read this post. I get sloppy when I'm tired, too.)

Here is a bit of woodsy coolness for those in the heat ravaged areas of the country. The Oxalis is taking back a bare and ugly area in our little bit of woods. Green is not only a color, it's also a smell. And this smells good!! :)

Sunday Quotes

“Every step we take towards making the State the caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our master.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

A Great Summer Day

It was a beautiful summer day here in northern Oregon. The skies were clear with a few light, wispy clouds floating by. Breezy and in the mid-60's, it was the perfect day to sit outside and read or play with the dog. I did both. :)

The moles are wrecking the yard with their mounds. It looks like a miniature mound building society lives here. *GRRRR* As much as it would make me happy to sit and wait to shoot the little buggers as they tunnel past, I'd rather find something quicker. I'm thinking mole traps. Anyone have any experience with those?

Still working on the garage. This will probably end up being a summer long project. At least, it will keep me busy a few hours each day. ;)

Friday Night Spotlight at OLA

As you know, I have a store at OnlineAuction.com. {Check out my earrings and other beady things.} When I'm done with my email and working on other computer stuff, I like to go and surf the stores and do online window shopping.

I've gotten some very nice vintage jewerly, ceramics and glass objects. Also, my rooster/chicken collection has grown since I started with OLA. ;)



Tonight I visited jenbana88's store to see what she had up for sale. Wow! There is a TON of stuff! Even if you don't need anything, go check it out just for fun.

Today started out cool (49 degrees at 8:15 a.m.) and overcast and ended with a clear, sunny ski in the high 50's. Still cool for July, but things are supposed to heat up a bit for the weekend.

Thursday, of course

Ran errands, early afternoon, through the misty rain and 15 degree cooler weather. Today is the official start of the Sandy Mountain Festival with the parade going down "main" street at about 5 or 6 p.m. It totally messes up the traffic coming and going up the mountain. Glad I got to stay closer to home. Went down to the neighbors for a very yummy dinner and conversation. It was too cold to sit outside on the patio, so inside we went and while eating got to see the birds flying around and settling in for the night out in the big fir trees. Lovely!

Added some new pictures and products to my Cafepress Shop tonight. Still have to tweek things, but got the bones of the sections up. I want to get some more of the wildflowers added and will probably do that tomorrow night or this weekend. Here is one of the photos:



These foxgloves were so pretty last year and I have quite a few more this year. Also, there are a lot more white ones this year. They are so pretty, deadly, but pretty.

Working on the Garage

Been cleaning out the garage a bit, for the last couple of days, so we can put in our "wood" for next winter. This month, Coastal Farm and Ranch is having a sale on wood pellets, $199/ton. So, we wanted to have about 5 tons in by the end of this month. After last winter, I want to make sure I have enough to get us through the worst of it before we need to get more.

The nice part of having a pellet stove is that the "wood" can be stacked up in the garage and there is not chopping, splitting, filling the wood shed and all the mess with regular wood is gone. Even when I'm sick, I can fill the stove and it will run for 8 hours on a fill up.

Of course, all love affairs have a dark side, too. The fan can be very noisy and the dust and fly ash are a pain to keep from covering everything. Cleaning out the stove is not too bad, but one can get rather tired of it.

Well....back to the garage. Since I started on it, I will have to finish up. There is a huge pile of stuff that I have to go through. Some from my friend, Sherrie and some from my mom. Then I can start thinning my art supplies and actually uncover my workshop. Yes! I might even get some artwork done this summer! 8] That would be nice.

Foxgloves

With the last few days warm and sunny, all the wildflowers are beginning to blossom out. Here are a few pics I took of this years crop.



Just puttered around today and read my new issue of Bead And Button magazine. Lots of cool stuff in this one. So...I went in and made another pair of earrings. I had left over bits and pieces from my challenge, so I put together this pair of turquoise colored brass and glass.

Happy Independence Day!

Today was a day of reflection and home time. I don't like big crowds any more, so stayed home and listened to all the neighbor's fireworks going off. (This year, the weather has been cooler and wetter so fear of blazing fires is nil.) The dog slept through everything and the cat doesn't seem fazed by any of it. That's good. I wonder how many flyers are going to be up tomorrow for missing animals.

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July festivities. Even with all our troubles, we are still the greatest nation on this planet.

Clean Clothes and Lupines

Yesterday, my darling hubby put up my new clothesline. It's an umbrella type, like my mom used to have when we lived in California. Not as practical here when the rainy season lasts about 9 months. However, I wanted to hang out my laundry, when we did have sun, and get that great outdoor smell in fresh dried shirts and sheets.

I had a single line clothesline about 20 years ago, but that didn't last too long. That was when we had horses, and every time they ran through the pasture, all the dust they stirred up blew towards the clean laundry. This does not make a happy mommy, so back to the dryer until yesterday! The horses have been gone for quite some time now and there is grass in the pasture instead of dirt, so I thought it was about time to change things up. Lucky for me, I still had all my clothespins, but they are the smaller size and I think I need to go shopping for the bigger, more hefty ones. I hope they still make them.

While waiting for the wash to get done, I took a walk with the cat this morning. The wild flowers are blooming and I have one lupine plant out behind the shop. (It showed up last year and I'm hoping it will spread in the coming years.) So, got out the camera and tripod. Here are a few pics of the plant from today.

45 Years Ago...

...was the first full day I spent in Oregon. My family had moved up to Eugene from Northern California to get a new start. It rained that first Independence Day and all of our clothes, except for a few suitcases, were still on the moving van which wasn't going to get to our house for a few more days. We almost froze to death and the rain put our sparklers out. I hated it. I hated being here for two more years until we took a trip back to our little town and it was ugly. The hills were brown, it was HOT and dry and I had a sore throat all through that visit. We got home and my whole attitude changed. After all this time, like a true Oregonian, I've grown webs between my toes and moss behind my ears. ;) I'm a mountain girl and love it here.

A view from the back door on a late fall morning

I'M DONE! ! ! ! !

A full year of earrings is in the jewelry box, so to speak, and I'm very pleased with myself that I was able to complete this challenge. Yeah! Here is the last pair of earrings I made for the Earrings 365 Challenge.



I hand hammered 18ga copper wire flat, put a hole in one end, wired Swarovski marguerites and copper spacers together and put it all together. I got the idea from the June/July issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry. On the last page, Terrie Allen has easy instructions for a pair of beautiful silver and crystal earrings. I decided to use copper instead because it looks better with the greens in the marguerites.

Now, off for another Challenge and this one is just starting with this blog post. Yes, I'm going to try to get a blog post a day for the next year. I won't be able to make every day, sometimes I'll be out of town or I might get sick again (I hope not), but I'll try my best and make up the lost ones.

I think one of the other challenges I have to make for myself is to finish the BJP pages from 2008. I only have 3 1/2 to go. It's just finding where I put them that's going to be the big problem. 8\