Happy Thursday!

New photo with a Kim Klassen layer.

Hello!

Day 6 of Kim Klassen’s Skinny-Mini Class. 

Original Photo

Muted

Made vivid

New Jewelry photos:

First day of Kim Klassen's Skinny Mini Class

Photo shoot today

Lily heads back to school tomorrow and will not be back home until winter break.  We took our Christmas card photo today; it was a beautiful and sunny day.  It takes a lot of work to wrangle two wild pugs to sit still for a minute or two.  In the end, we had a lot of really good pictures to pick from for our card this year.

Below are some pictures of the wildness before the photo shoot began.



Wild guys




Abby is all smiles




Running off some energy




Captured Pug




Wild dog!



The set-up





Silly Dolan



Thanksgiving Day 2010



Rosie (angry because she didn't get enough Turkey!)




Monty and Frank



First Snow

The first snow of the season is the prettiest!

Winter Lily

Winter Garden

Look up

and down

Sir Curtain Burton

I was thinking about CB today. 

Sir Curtain Burton’s celebrated birthday (adoption day) would have been last week; he would be 19 today. I still remember the day Lily and I adopted him.  She was three years old and we decided that it was time that we had a pet.  While walking through the Human Society Lily went straight to the kittens and I walked the perimeter of the room looking at all of the dogs, so many of them where black lab mixes.  In one of the large dog cages was a huge tom cat.  He spotted me, ran up to the door and started mewing.  I opened the door and he went straight into my arms – so starved for attention.  He was so sweet, easily 25 pounds, and had beautiful blue eyes.  Poor guy also had terribly matted fur and a cough. 

I had to tell Lily that we wouldn’t be getting a kitten, because Curtain had just picked me.  She was okay with the change in plans after learning that she and he were the same age.  We were told that the woman who owned him previously had found him as a kitten roaming the streets in Oregon or maybe Washington.   A few years later she moved to Minnesota with a boyfriend and it was the boyfriend’s dog that couldn’t handle Curtain and that is why Curtain ended up in a grey concrete cell waiting for Lily and me to show up.   

It took days to brush his out fur and in many spots all I could do was shave it off.  We also added Burton to his name – we wanted to change it completely, but didn’t want to confuse him.  The vet told us that CB was 27 pounds - too heavy for a cat, but not flabby at all, he was solid and strong.  And that he was a Siamese and Main Coon mix with lynx points – a beautiful cat.

He was a friendly cat, greeting all visitors at the front door (and then trying to coax them over to his food dish in hopes that they would fill it up).  He was a sentinel, lying on the back of the sofa keeping an eye on the neighborhood.  He was a playmate for Lily, and Abby, and Dolan.  

Sir Curtain Burton was beloved.  1991-2008.

Washington

During the week of October 3^rd mom and I traveled to Whidbey Island for a week long bead retreat.  Seattle and Whidbey Island are so beautiful and we had great weather that week.  We met some amazing, artistic, and beautiful women at our retreat.  Each day was filled with laughter and camaraderie; education and encouragement; wine, chocolate, and marvelous meals.  We will have great memories from our week.



Deception Pass




Coupeville



Mt. Rainier

September 26, 2010

Picture of my beautiful daughter.

September 14th

Happy Birthday to my sister!

And now, some pugs and plants:

Circus Project

Updated picture of my circus project:

Circus Project

Updated photo of my Circus Project.


I like the purple at the bottom that slowly moves to orange and then yellow – I plan to start adding red as I get closer to the top.

New Project

I’m beginning a new project. I found three old scatter pins, an elephant, a giraffe, and a zebra and I immediately thought about the Big Top and a traveling circus. I started gathering my yellow, orange and red beads; adding a little gold for glitz and some green and purple for contrast. And I’m on my way!

Minnesota State Fair

August 28, 2010

Pictures from MN State Fair 2010

Food, it's all about the food:

Carmel Apples, Deep Fried Twinkies, Pretzel, Taffy, Corn Dog, Ice Cream, Snow Cone, Spiced nuts, and Mini Donuts

Things to see:

Wood sculptures, high flying travel, Spam, very large animals, real ones, tractors, art dolls, lily lamps

Chickens, large cows, parade floats, mini horses, more cows, sunflowers

Fiddlers, grain art, goats on roofs, kids in balls, judging flowers and lots of people

Mom, Lily, Dave and me

August 25, 2010

Today was a beautiful day, sunny and 80 degrees, perfect summer day.

August 24, 2010

I had a blast working on this project for Becca T.

Truffle and Apple Red.

All of the necklaces are Princess length, 16 inches. And each has a 1-1/2 inch chain so that the necklace can be adjusted up to 17-1/2 inches.

Necklace and Earrings #1

Necklace and Earrings #2

Necklace and Earrings #3

Necklace and Earrings #4

Necklace and Earrings #5

Necklace and Earrings #6