there's some training going on but I'm not sure who's on the receiving end

It's been a long time since I had a puppy. This little thing is funny, energetic, fearful, uppity, timid, brave, exuberant, sweet, happy, so smart, and runs like the wind (it's a good thing she wants to be here because there is no way I can catch her even now when she is running full on). She's learning that you don't bark at the cat or even get too close. The cat on the other hand seems to be adjusting. Her panties aren't completely untwisted but I think she's getting there.

She has been here just over a week now. Still working on the no biting thing, well, no biting people thing, she has plenty of toys and chew sticks to bite, and the house training. She's good during the day as I take her outside often but she is still unreliable at night. She sits with us during the day and evening but she's good about sleeping in her bed all night though she has definitely had an effect on what time of the morning we rise and that doesn't mean we're getting more sleep.

She got her first visit to the vet, who says she may be full blooded rat terrier or possibly some chihuahua in the mix and his best guess as to her age is 10 – 12 weeks, this week which started out fine and dandy as the techs were just all over her with hugs and kisses and then they put us in an exam room to wait for the doc which was all fine too while she explored the room until a dog in the back started crying and yelping and screaming bloody murder (they had to do a blood draw I found out later), then the little Minnie dog wanted to sit on my head let's go let's go let's go!!! NOW!

She climbed up and rode on my shoulders between the back of my neck and the seat back on the ride home. Then she had to be strongly coaxed out of the garage the rest of the day because...the car. So yesterday I took her for a car ride with no destination.

Today I'm packing for a week away with the girlfriends. Canada this year. Tomorrow evening the puppy goes to spend the night with my sister and her two little dogs and we must get up at the butt crack of dawn to get me to the airport an hour and a half away in time for my 8:55AM flight as we don't want to leave her in the house alone yet. More trauma. Then it's Marc and the puppy and the cat on their own for a week.

“Just call me Ringleader,” he says.

there's a new thing at the house and the cat is pissed

Tuesday afternoon when I was out in the yard a little puppy ran up and started dancing at my feet.

“Yes, you're cute,” I say, “but go home.” And I went inside.

When I got back from yoga Tuesday evening, Marc was out in the yard.

“Look what's out here,” he says as the little puppy is dancing at his feet.

Yes, I saw her earlier and told her to go home. Later he came in and said, “Don't touch her or she'll pee all over you”. That night when I went to close up the garage, she was laying on the mat behind the door in the garage.

“Scoot, little dog. Scoot!” I could not shoo her out of the garage long enough to get the garage door down. Stomps into the office, “I can't get the dog out of the garage to get the door closed”.

“Well, leave it open”, he says, “not like it hasn't been left open before”.

Next morning, skinny little dog is still there following me around while I water the flower beds. She ran into the hose and started lapping the droplets. OK, get water for the little dog for which she is oh so grateful let me lick your face waggy tail.

No no no no no. We don't want a dog and if we did want a dog it wouldn't be a little nervous energetic rat dog. It wouldn't be a puppy even, probably. Besides, we have a cat and she doesn't play well with others, she's an only cat thank you very much and she wants to keep it that way.

A phone call to my sister about seeing if our boss wanted to take on another dog or get the local S.P.O.T involved and a bag of food later, the little dog is doing her best to worm her way into our hearts. She already made it into the house.

You can see where this is going right?  

bed and toys compliments of her auntie

Her name is Mini-Merlin, or Mini-Mer, or just plain Minnie. Because she looks like a miniature version of my sister's little dog Merlin. She's about 2 months old.

bird business

I might have mentioned that a kildeer made a nest in the gravel of the driveway to the shop.

I had seen her hanging around and on May 30, I noticed she had laid two eggs.

The next day there were three,

and the next day, four. 

I consulted the All Knowing Oracle and found out that the eggs would take 22 – 24 days to hatch. The little kildeer mom endured long days of hot sun and torrential rain and high winds from tropical storm Bill which blew in June 16^th.

It took a few days longer than 24 but they did all hatch. Thursday evening the 25^th, no babies. Friday morning, three babies.

By Friday evening, all four eggs had hatched. Mom jumped up and ran in one direction and the babies ran in the other. Then she got nervous that I was between her and the babies and moved over to call to them.

Unlike babies born into nests in trees, the kildeer are born fully feathered with long strong legs and they are up and running within hours. They are so cute, like little mini-mes running and bobbing and peeping. I had to use my zoom to get these pictures. The fourth egg laid was the last baby hatched and while it did eventually get up and move off as I was taking pictures, it only ventured about 6' from the nest on weak legs.

Saturday morning they were nowhere to be found.

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The mississippi kites summer over here and the other day I saw one fly into the top of the tallow tree in the Little Back Yard where she has a nest.

Today I was checking on it and there is a fuzzy white chick sitting up keeping a watchful eye out for mom and dad.

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Earlier today, Emma the cat wanted out into the Little Back Yard and soon a pair of cardinals were chirping and agitated. I looked up to see a fledging in the shrub behind the teacup.

OK, Miss Emma. Back in you go. She made a big show of sharpening her claws on a tree root that emerges from the ground before she consented to be picked up and carried in.

summer week 3

Another busy week gone by. A week ago Sunday I drove into the city to pick up grandgirl Autumn, also 17 this year, also in the Honor society and takes AP classes in school, works as a counselor at the gymnastics gym, is in the leadership of the youth group, and went to California this year to a competition with the Business Club. No grand plan from this one to paint and rearrange a room though, just our normal whirlwind of activity.

Not long after we arrived here, my daughter and son-in-law and Jade and Robin came in. Sarah and Mike dropped the girls off and went to their 5 acres on the other side of town to clear a swath for the fence they want to put up along the street of their property. I took the three girls over to my sister's to see their two (first) cousins (once removed) visiting from New Mexico.

My sister and her two grandgirls were going to the beach on Monday so Autumn and I tagged along.

The rest of the week was full of activities. It finally stopped raining long enough to make it worth it to set up the pool. We put together the glass flowers from the small plates, bowls, votives, etc. that I have been collecting for about a year and a half from all the estate sales and resale shops.

We went to yoga (and that's me doing the full on headstand),

Autumn tie-dyed craft aprons for herself and her sisters,

painted a rocket ship bird house for the yard and a small bird house ornament,

we did the shops,

we went to the movies and saw Spy which was very funny (Autumn was the only teenager in the almost full of old people theater). There wasn't a great selection of movies to choose from and she didn't want to see Jurrasic World or the new Terminator movie because she hasn't seen any of the Jurassic Park movies (and her grandfather and I had already seen Jurassic World) or any of the Terminator movies which I didn't think was even possible.

Her parents and her twin came out for fireworks (the other two siblings were elsewhere).

And the big accomplishment was that she wanted to learn how to drive. She went from practicing in a big parking lot to driving on an empty country road to small neighborhoods with little traffic to actual main roads with real traffic.

I had intended to cut the stencil today for the job we should have done last week but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

the Supremes and the flag of distraction

The Supreme Court handed down several good decisions for a change including marriage equality and the Right Wing has gone nuts. They seem to think that because they don't agree, they don't have to abide by the law. They still seem to think that they invented marriage and that their religious restrictions should apply to everybody whether those other people agree with it or not. And so of course they are claiming the eternal war on Christians, claiming that now homosexuality will be taught to kindergarteners, claiming a secret memo from the Justice Department that shows the intent to legalize 12 other heinous behaviors among some of the more absurd accusations. Oh, and that their god will rain down terrible punishment on this country because of this even though their god has not rained down terrible punishment on other countries that recognize same sex marriage. I have to wonder why people worship a god that allows genocide, slavery, child porn and predation, hunger, oppression but gets pissed off when two consenting adults of the same sex mingle their genitals.

The Supreme Court also ruled the Affordable Care Act constitutional (again) but I sincerely doubt that the Republican controlled congress will now stop trying to repeal it and leave millions of people without recourse for healthcare again. They also upheld the independent redistricting commission that put the kibosh on gerrymandering by politicians in Arizona and hopefully it will spread to all the states so it hasn't been a great week for Republicans.

Many Republican politicians did come out against the Confederate Battle Flag after the newest terrorist attack and murder of 9 black people while they were praying in their church by a white supremacist instead of having the conversation we need to have about the uncontrolled access to guns in this country and the racists are up in arms about it. It's not racist, they say, it's our heritage, they say. Meanwhile black churches are being torched all across the South and the KKK is holding rallies. As an American whose forebears have been here since the mid-1600s and who lived in Virginia, then Kentucky, then Texas and some of whom owned slaves and who fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, if the Civil War was about states' rights then it was about states' rights to OWN slaves. The 'heritage' that that flag represents is of white supremacy and subjugation of blacks either through actual slavery or through segregation and oppression. On second thought, we need to have this conversation about the rampant racism in this country as well.

I could have written a whole post on each of these topics but happily for me, and probably lucky for you, I have been busy with grandkid visit 3.

finished work and some recognition maybe

I spent the day yesterday photographing the finished pieces. Yes, I have finally finished all the Botanicas, well, except the one that has the small crack, still haven't re-fired it yet.

 4”w x 4”h x 2"d  rose

 4”w x 4”h x 2"d  anemone

 4”w x 4”h x 2"d  poppy seed head

 4”w x 4”h x2"d  iris

 4”w x 4”h x2"d  tulip

6”w x 6”h x 2"d  cyclamen

And ta da...the peach box is assembled and finished.

You might remember the sketch I did two years ago. That's how long this piece was in the making. I might have more financial success with these if I didn't take so fucking long to complete them. There was a period of about 10 years where I was determined to get noticed and become a successful gallery artist and I cranked stuff out working all the time and submitting to exhibitions and going to shows and not having time for anything thing else and I was not having fun. Then the bottom dropped out of the economy and people forgot all about me and it was all for naught. So now, I struggle with the desire to still be a part of that and my desire to enjoy my life. I may never have success in the galleries or with collectors who can make your career but fortunately I'm not dependent on that. The upside of not being in demand is that I can work when I want and make stuff I want instead of making the same thing over and over and over with minor variations cause that's what the collectors want. I look at the work of some of the successful artists in the glass medium and years later they are still making the same pieces that they became successful with.

So, I know I've been saying for weeks now that I am going to get my model making stuff out and start on a new body of work but I have yet to actually do it. I've been a little busy around here and now I have a small etched glass job, a simple design on a full door lite, and there was the painting of the back bedroom last week and other stuff. Yeah, other stuff. Surely there was other stuff that was keeping me busy and not working on new models besides just skipping tra la through my life. And Sunday I go fetch the other 17 year old grandgirl for her week.

One other piece of exciting news. Last August, I received notice from the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft that our work was being considered for possible acquisition by the City of Houston Portable Works Collection that will become part of the permanent collection of the Houston Airport System and will be displayed at the Houston Intercontinental Airport. Two days ago I received notice that our small sculptural work had made it to the final selection pool with the actual selections to be made the end of July this year. Selections will be made from the actual pieces (and yes, they ARE buying them!) so I will need to gather up the available pieces and cart them down to the Center for consideration. 

I am grateful to the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft for their support and inclusion in the selection process.

summer visits 1 & 2

Summer is the time for the week long visits from the grandkids. Now that the grandboy, who turned 18 this year, has a full time job and is a key holding manager to open or close the store, his week has split into two long weekends when he can get them off. Mikey's first long weekend, the last weekend of May, he spent working on his truck which sits, along with all his father's old trucks, in the yard of the shop. He has one foot in adulthood, or maybe hovering above the ground, and one foot still implanted in his childhood. He has a job, is fairly independent, has a plan for the future, he's a good worker but he still lives with his family and is a credit short of having a diploma which he is trying to remedy this summer. He's not grown yet but he's trending that way.

Jade, now 17, was just here for her summer week. Last year she wanted to paint the back bedroom, which is their room when they come to visit, but I wasn't thrilled with the idea. Not that I didn't want it painted, which I did as it was a cold very pale blue white, in fact this whole house was painted that same color when we bought it, but I just wasn't up for the effort as that room is full of furniture and games and craft stuff. This year though she was determined so that is what we did.

The original plan for that room was to be a work room, part of the studio/shop. We pulled up the carpet and got some cheap vinyl for the floor, removed the doors from the closet and moved a big table in there and set it up for wax working and model making. It took a very short time for me to realize that I didn't like working back there. There is only one small window in that room and it is in a corner and the bottom panes are in a clear textured glass that let in light but make it impossible to see out of and I felt very isolated. So the wax working went out to the garage and the model making resumed in the big room that I use as my office and workroom, and so the back room became the guest/craft room.

It took several color samples before I decided on a pale yellow with a warm white for the ceiling and trim with a lavender accent on the end wall of shelves. So the work began...moving furniture to one side or the other, putting down paper and a drop cloth, taping around the baseboards and trim. I painted the ceiling while she worked on the walls. We both worked on the wall of shelves and the trim and while we worked Jade programmed the music. She likes to go through all our old albums when she is here.

She's making a face because she is saying that all my pictures of her are going to be in that dirty paint shirt.

Painting finished, we rearranged the furniture and I put down one of the rugs from the old house that has been stored over at the shop. We didn't finish til almost 6 PM Sunday. It looks great now that it's done and I'm glad that Jade insisted we do it. Next is to hang the closet doors back up. Eventually, I'll move the vinyl over to the shop and put down a wood floor. The only downside to painting the room is that the murals the girls painted in '09 are now gone. I didn't actually regret that until it was too late.

While painting the back bedroom was our only activity (all the stuff from the shelves is piled on the table), we did take time out to go to yoga (and drive home during Bill), do the shops on the square and in Glen Flora where we found these Chinese New Year dragon masks,

put up a ten pound box of peaches from the local orchard, make banana pudding, fruit salad, key lime pie, 

and a pasta salad to complement the meatless meals that Marc made all week. Jade has gone vegetarian.

And right before we left to return her home, she made her dad a Father's Day card.

Jade is turning into an amazing young woman. Well, she's always been amazing. She was inducted into the National Honor Society this year, takes AP classes in school, on the board of her youth group, has a job at a gymnastics gym during the week as a counselor for the summer camp program as well as working birthday parties on the weekends all during the year plus the occasional babysitting job. This is her second summer there. She is a highly motivated organized self starter and if I wasn't doing something fast enough to suit her, she'd take it away from me and do it herself.