Ms Tessie

I just want to say how much I love my Tessie.  She is close to 17 years old at least and still never misses the opportunity to go with me on a walk or just be with me outside.  She has always been there and now that she has lost her hearing, she smells or senses my presence and keeps a watchful eye out for me.  She is all bones and not much muscle now which makes it a little painful to get up and down and walk too far, so we just go slow and takes breaks so she can rest.  I love her and am so grateful to have had such a loyal friend for so long.  I pray every night that Heavenly Father will bless her to be healthy until she decides it time to go and that he will let me keep her for as long as possible.

Just chillin' with my buddy

Funky Flowers

The first big assignment for our class was to use the techniques we are learning to build a collage of flowers.  I'm so anal about everything that it takes me forever!  I feel exhilarated that I did this, but insecure about a lot of it, so I guess I am saying that I have a lot to learn and I am excited to do it.  I don't really know what all the art supplies are that we are using. let alone how to use them, but I'm experimenting and figuring it out.  By the way, the Sweet Pea at the bottom right is my ode to our horse Sweet Pea, it has been a few years since she left us but I think about her often and miss her spirit.

Funky Flowers in a vase

Brave Girls Art Class

I am having so much fun in this class.  It is on-line so you do it at your pace.  We get new assignments each week along with videos and ideas/techniques to help us learn.  We also have a group page on Facebook where people post pictures of their projects.  Today we got a service assignment to send one of our flower pictures or doodle pages to some one or many someones to share our talent.  I so love learning this and love the happiness the flowers bring.  I will be posting as I go and will be setting up a new blog with just my craft projects.  I was asked today if BraveGirlsclub.com could use one of my pictures, so I will have one up there if you want to check it out.  I also had a couple of inquiries about buying my gas pump picture and yet another for pieces of my jewelry so I'm going to be brave and put it out there.

The challenge to create flowers from ordinary objects...

I'm working on my Funky Flower collage, I'll be posting it next, just waiting for it to dry so I can make sure I'm finished or determine if I need to add anything else.  This is such a fun challenge for me, I've never felt "creative" or artsy even though I love doing crafts.  It really forces me to let go of the perfectionism and helps me not over think everything.  It takes me longer than a lot of the other gals, but I'm trying not to let that affect me, just like I'm trying not to compare what I do with everyone else, but that's the hard part cause some of these people are artists!

Peach Days

 Courtney Matilda Sweet Pea

The Blue Moon rising

I had so much fun in Hurricane last week.  First I got to spend most of it with Courtney and I wish I had a bunch of pictures, I took a few out on the desert the night of the Blue Moon.

The Blue Moon coming up over the Mesa

This is how we roll

Then the big Peach Days celebration and all the entries!  I had never entered anything since the early days of 4-H (like a hundred years ago), so this time I entered 2 pictures...

and did pretty good

I also entered cupcakes in the bake off, peach cupcakes with brown sugar frosting.  They were really good, but not good enough to win.  And I forgot to take pictures.  I was a little frazzled because I forgot to put the peaches in the first batch...duh!  So I ended up making 2 batches, so I had cupcakes coming out my ears.  I'm already scanning recipes for next year.

And this is my super cool and talented sister with her basket of canned goodies and peppers that pretty much all took blue ribbons, she's pretty unbelievable with her kitchen skills.

It was just so fun to actually have stuff in the mix and all the anticipation at waiting to see what I would win.  I loved it!  

Art School

Just started my new art class with the Brave Girl's Club and I am loving it.  This is my doodling, something that is taught and encouraged.  I find myself doing it when I need to change focus or relax or really to procrastinate anything I don't really want to do.  Most of you know I am a worrier, this is a great way for me to channel that energy.  I will post pictures of my art projects as I go.  I never thought I was an "artist" and I still wouldn't put myself in that realm, but I do love the creation and the fact that I can do it!

Summer

Summer goes by much to quickly for me, although this Summer has been really hot and dry.  I am almost starting to wish it away in favor of Fall and the hopes for rain and then snow.  With the quick passage of time, I am a little behind, so will make this a good post telling the stories in pictures mostly.  In June we celebrated Josh and Kristen's commitment to each other in Bachelor Gulch (the Vail area) Co.  So happy for them as they begin the journey of the rest of their lives.  The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, and check out the flowers, I got to play florist/designer for the event.

Bruce was the Best Man and a very proud dad!

 The guy in the shades is who you think he is, Emilio Esteves aka Billy the Kid

The big kiss

A little out of order but this is one of my favorite pictures, Josh getting ready

The married couple making their triumphant exit

On the way home from the wedding we stopped in to visit one of our puppies!  This was the orange male, his picture as a puppy is up in the right hand corner of the blog, he was the one that picked me and it was so hard to let him go.  He loves his new parents though and they love him!  He is a really handsome, well mannered boy and it was a real treat for me to get to play with him.  As when they picked him up, they had tears in their eyes as they expressed to us how much they loved their Bacchus.  Such a great thing to know he is loved and well taken care of.  

Bacchus and me

In July I got to fly me and Bruce to Fargo, ND for his "all school" reunion.  Since he came from a farming community, the school was very small, so they hold the reunion for all classes, there were about 350 people there with the oldest class graduating in 1936.  During our visit we drove out to the old farmstead where Bruce grew up.  His father passed away when he was about 13.  The farm house has been vacant since then because his mom was forced to move them into the city so she could work as a nurse to take care of them.  The church is no longer used, but his mom and dad are both buried there along with his grandparents and a couple other relatives.  We still own the farm and lease it to his cousin who farms the 225 acres.  The river that runs through the property is the Wild Rice River.  Very pretty there, but the mosquitoes are unbelievable!

The Old Farmstead

 The road to the church

 Bruce strolling through the cemetery

 The old church

The town Bruce went to school in, now that day the populations was at least 93

I love roaming the back roads, the treasures are certainly worth it!

Just a couple good ol' boys

  

Awesome wood carving

 Patriotism at it's best

The flight museum in Fargo

 No caption necessary

One of the many churches in Fargo

I don't know if this was an eagle's nest but it was sure big enough, probably at least 8 foot wide

Roadside stop

A slice of Americana

A healthy fixation with old things

We had a fun trip, and an adventure flying home.  Thankfully I am flying and not worried about taking pictures, but suffice it to say that 5 hours grounded in Pierre SD and and overnight in Sydney, NE was not planned.  We were happy to get back to Denver safely!

What I'm up to these days

Well, my days are pretty full, they start out early usually around 5:30 or 6:00 with  the dogs, I have to go on 2 separate walks because everyone cannot go together.  Tessie and Dira have to be separated as do Dira and Sadie, so Dira goes last with me and Lucy.  Lucy gets to go with both groups as she gets along with everyone and has more energy than all of us combined.  I'll post dog pictures in a separate entry.  After the walks, breakfast and a shower, I usually head down to my gem table to study although I don't want to give the impression that I am disciplined enough to actually get going right away, there are many distractions that can derail me as you will see in a minute.  This is my gem table where I am learning through online courses at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) how to identify colored stones.

One of the places I get sidetracked to is my craft table.  This is how the journaling side of it usually looks.  I do clean and organize it but when I'm working, it gets pretty bad as I'm always pulling stuff out to use or just so I can see it and not forget it.  Journaling is new to me and not something I really know how to just jump in and do, so it has been good to learn a new creative  part of me and since it takes so long for me to do a page, I have a lot of time to think and think and think.

For the last couple of months I have been working on a project through Brave Girls Club called Soul Restoration.  If you are not signed on to bravegirlsclub.com and getting the daily email messages, you really should be.  They are so uplifting to your soul and usually they come right when I need them most.  Anyway, I signed up for this class, not realizing the work involved, but I am so glad that I did.  I work on my journal almost everyday and enjoy every minute of it.  I am not finished and I do believe this will be an ongoing project as it is all about making good decisions and setting goals.  Very introspective.  I am already signed up to do an Art Technique class later this Fall.  Anyway, here is one of my pages.

One of the assignments centered around excuses or reasons we don't do the things that we really want to or that we know will take us towards living the life we want to live.   The concept is that there are self imposed landmines we have waiting for us at every step.  So this is my landmine map.  Mine got to be pretty big as I get distracted easily.  It's hard to really look at yourself and put into words and pictures the things that are really holding you back and then to come up with a plan so you don't step on the mines.  One thing that has been helpful for me is the 5 minute distraction when I am feeling lazy or I'm headed toward a landmine, I commit to do something for just 5 minutes, like cleaning a drawer, pulling some weeds, hanging up the stuff on my closet floor.  Usually it turns into more than 5 minutes, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment instead of beating myself up for just being a bump on a log or something.  My landmine map:

One of the other parts of this course is personal goals and decision making.  That is the part I have been working on the longest.  Sometimes you have to let go of a goal you have had for a long time simply because it has expired and is no longer valid.  This made me dig a little deeper for those things that are most important to me.  I realized that some of the stuff I've had on my goal list forever is there and shouldn't be anymore simply because I am never going to do it, I just don't want to or it should have never been there in the first place.  I just haven't thought to take it off the list until now, so it has been a source of stress as a goal that is never realized.

Let me just say that before taking this class, I didn't know what decoupage was nor had I been introduced properly to the multiple uses for Modge Podge, I'm either going to have to buy it by the gallon or learn to make it....

My other distraction is Polymer clay.  I took a class through the Rocky Mountain Bead Society, which I joined to meet people who make jewelry like me.  I had no idea what I was doing or how the stuff even worked.  Well, after the 2 day class I am hooked, I love working with the clay.  You actually condition it and put together things called canes.  The clay doesn't harden until it is cooked so these canes can last for like 25 years.  So I have been building my wardrobe of canes, I can use these to decorate items or make beads with them, or whatever I decide to do.  Right now I am having fun working with the colors and shapes and trying to figure out how to do some of the cool stuff I see in the books.  Like I needed another hobby, but it kind of fits in with everything else.  Soon I will need a whole separate building to house all of my crafting addictions!  But if you ever come out to visit me, you can certainly get lost in my craft area and make stuff until your heart is content.  Next up...I gotta start selling some of this stuff!

Canes

More canes

My clay table

So TICKED off!

First my disclaimer:  This will be political so I apologize to all my liberal leaning friends....but I am so pissed off that Obama is coming to Colorado today.  I don't even know where to begin so I am just going to spit it all out.  First the West has been burning for a long time now and he has rarely even commented on it yet when the big storm hit Florida he was all over that, of course Florida is a key battle ground state for his worthless re-election campaign, so it would figure that he would go there.  That is not even the point though, he should not be spending money to fly around for a thinly veiled political stump.  Case in point, when he flies here today, it will shut down roads, the Colorado Springs airport, several smaller rural airports, pull attention and resources from the fire fighting in that the Governor and other authorities need to stop to take care of the presidential security issues and basically just insert himself where the only way he would be welcome is if he puts on a firefighting uniform and picks up a shovel.

Second, there are many other fires that are or have been burning that are also epic, the High Park fire west of Ft Collins has burned 90,000 acres and hundreds of homes.  There are fires in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico and the list goes on.  If he wants to show some compassion and support, address the West by satellite, send more resources, stop downsizing the air fleet and for hell's sake, quit making it about getting re-elected.

Obama, just send resources, that's all.

Pictures of the fires are here, just heartbreaking www.thedenverchannel.com

Dragon Fly

I was on my errand quest today thinking about all the things I needed to get done.  I had stopped at Home Depot to get a couple of things for and art class, a 6 inch C clamp and a tile square.  As always though as I was walking into the store the beautiful colors and flowers in the garden center hijacked me and I found myself browsing the plants.  I was just about to reach over this container when this struck my attention

I've never seen a dragon fly that looked like this.  He was gorgeous!  I grabbed a lady to come look at him I was just so excited, then I ran across the parking lot to get my phone so I could take a picture.  He just hung out.  He's about 4 inches long and even though you can't see his wings very well, they were very beautiful as well.  What a gift on this first day of Summer!

And Lucy's Brother, Bacchus

We got to see one of the siblings last weekend while we were up in the mountains.  This is the Orange Male, he's featured over to the right as a puppy.  He is a beautiful, smart boy weighing in at about 75 lbs.  His owners said that their vet guesses he'll be about 100-110 lbs when he's fully grown.  It took him a minute to recognize me, but then he was playing and wrestling just like he used to.  Just before we left he got a wild hair and took off around the corner of the block.  It gave us our "out" to leave for home.  I found out later that his owners found him inside their neighbors home.  Apparently the door was open and he let himself in, he has a friend there, a Corgi that he loves to play with.  Gotta love the little rascals!  So happy to see such a beautiful and content dog, it made my heart feel good.  Still loving you Bacchus Orange Boy!

Lucy Goose at 7 Months

Our little girl is growing up!  Lucy is 7 months tomorrow.  She's smart, unstoppable, loving and attached to me at the hip.  I love it but need to help her learn that she is big now so jumping in my lap or catapulting herself off my back or stomach are not good things!  She also is a climber, she jumps and can get up on anything which makes it treacherous for the cats.  She has always been the Alpha so she is not intimidated by anything or anyone.  We've started puppy kindergarten and although she is a little rattled by the other dogs, she can nail all the behaviors with ease.  And she love agility!  I took her up the jungle Jim and down the slide at the park, the first time she was hesitant and I had to coax her down the slide, the second time she jumped on my lap and the third time she pulled me down the slide.  Pretty funny to watch her on the fourth, I just let her go and she tumbled all the way to the bottom, guess I need to hang on to her to keep her upright!

Lucia Bella von Anderson

Always say "I Love You"

This has been an incredibly hard, but touching week.  I don't want to write about the event that led up to this post because it is so sacred and difficult for so many people including me, but I  want to share something that struck me hard yesterday during the very moving tribute.  Both parents, talked about love and the importance of telling those in your lives that should know, that you love them, every time you leave them, hang up from talking to them, are separated from them.  They should never (nor should you ever) question what the relationship is.  In a quiet powerful statement-"if you have fences that need mending, mend them".  I can't tell you how deep that moved me, in fact watching the Holt family in what has to be the absolute worst hour of their lives be so gracious, loving and grateful was a real testament to me.  I always have had a lot of admiration for them but yesterday...it went way over the top.  I know my heart will hurt for them for a long time.  But my heart is also bigger because of them and because of their example.  I do not say "I love you" easily or often, but I am going to work hard to change that.  I never want those close to me to wonder how I feel or if I feel.

The Poem in My Craft Room

I saw this poem in a shop in Amelia Island, FL a few years back.  It means a little more to me because I fly, but the sentiment is great regardless. I try to at least recite the first few lines each day to remind myself that I am a daughter of God and meant to be happy.  It is part of my gratitude prayer as I struggle to always be grateful for the blessings I have including when I have eaten too much and feel bad, I remember to be grateful that I have a full tummy, that I have good food to eat and that I am healthy and not starving and that I should use this blessing to help others.  Anyway, some have asked so here is The Last Flight Out:

I guess it would also be appropriate to change the last line to...Get your life figured out!

A Lesson in Patience and Persistence and Resilency

This orchid has a long history, it's boring but illustrates the point of the title.  About 15 or so years ago, maybe even a little longer, there was a vendor at the National Western Stock Show selling orchid bulbs.  Being the flower child that I am, I bought a couple.  I took them home, planted according to the directions and though every year that it was dead and that I should just throw it out.  Something inside me just wouldn't let me do it, you see there were always one or two shoots of leaves protruding from the bulb.

This Spring, the patience or procrastination has finally paid off, I have 4 - count them - 4, beautiful blooms and it has been in bloom now for almost a month. 

The single blooms

And not to be out done, here is a shot of the Poinsettia that is still going strong on my fireplace.  Next post, the lemon and orange trees.

I wonder if it has to do with blooming where you're planted, the music by Adele, Kelly Clarkson and GaGa, the Mexican music the cleaners play, or just what, but plants just love living at my house.  And I LOVE having them, nothing beats a flower in bloom as the miracle of the day.