The apple trees were blooming along the walk, and smelled so good! This was the last picture we took before it started raining on us, then we walked back. Luckily, J. had brought raincoats for us. Cocoa didn't mind getting wet, and by the time she was dry back home, she was all soft from the fresh rain.

Cocoa partakes in the roadside attractions of doggie pools, for cooling off and for drinking.

Aw, cute with the barrel on the St. Bernard.

Dogs in strollers and wagons.

There were a few cats on the walk. Most of them looked about this happy (as in "Get me the hell out of here!")

We got a late start so we ate lunch before the beginning of the walk. We had veggie hot dogs and chips, and Cocoa got Frosty Paws doggie ice cream, all provided by the walk sponsors for free.

Here are J. and Cocoa on the shuttle bus from the off-site parking to the beginning of the walk. This is one of the best and most entertaining parts of the walk, riding on a bus full of dogs!!

Cocoa having a swell time.

I don't remember this guy's name, but he was sweet and I pet him. He's one of the oldsters who went walking that day.

Tatanka

Look, it's a baby buffalo! Just kidding. But his name really is Tatanka, which means "buffalo," if you'll remember your Dances With Wolves trivia. He was very sweet and calm. And big!

Aviator goggles for dogs? Cute.

More Animal Walk pics

These ladies had a snake and a lizard-y thing. It was their first time on the walk and they surprised it was mostly doggies walking.

Walk for the Animals 2007

Cocoa all gussied up ready for the walk. We're waiting for the shuttle bus to come take us to the starting point.

I think you can figure out most of these details, except maybe the photo of the young woman. Hint: small houses, prairies, writer. And the body on NM at the bottom is duh, an alien! From Roswell, of course. For Colorado, I chose two factories you can tour: the Celestial Seasonings Tea company, and Hammond's Candies. I've been on the CS tour, that was really fun. But then I love factory tours.

More 50 states ATC's!

Just sent these off yesterday for a swap. The funny photo on the Kansas card is from the annual Pancake Throwing Race, started in the 1500's in a city in England, and taken up in Kansas in the 1950s. Kinda weird but funny, it originated from a story about a woman who was cooking on her griddle when the call came to go to church and confess her sins. She ran out of the house, griddle in hand, to get to church on time. So now people do this silly race and they have to carry a frying pan with them! I don't think they have to have pancakes as well, but this photo is great. In the Oklahoma card, there's a pecan pie (my favorite) signifying the largest pecan pie ever made (created in OK), and the funny beaver statue is holding a giant cowchip to signify the world cowchip throwing contest in Beaver, OK.

Ah...Spring, finally

Our plum tree this morning in the backyard. Smells really good, too.

new carved stamp ATCs

The bird is a carved rubber stamp I made recently. The image is from a drawing I did after seeing a Walter Andersen exhibit at Bell Museum. J. says the bird looks sorta Aztec-y. Maybe I shouldn't have put those blue beads under his butt on the middle card, they look like he's pooping.

ATC's: Wisconsin and California

For Wisconsin, I went with a background of cheese (orange cardstock with punch holes) and a poster for the Ringling Bros. circus, since they started in WI. Then I have the Mustard Museum marquee, and bottle of mustard. For California, I went with a surfer/60's kind of background, an old poster for the Swiss Family Treehouse in Disneyland, an old photo of the Winchester house, and a dragon head made of flowers and plants from the Rose Parade this year.

ATC's: New Hampshire, Hawaii, Michigan

I made these for a swap with a theme based on each state in the U.S. We all have to do the same states at the same time, so this round was New Hampshire, Hawaii, Michigan, California and Wisconsin. All of my cards have one element in common: The postage stamp for that state that came out in 2006. For NH, I have a background of fall colors and leaf outlines, a jug of maple syrup, a postage stamp for the longest land bridge, and a photo and caption for Robert Frost. For Hawaii, I did a blue background for the gorgeous water around the islands, then a photo of an erupting volcano, a shot of the largest maze in the world (with a pineapple in the center), and a portrait of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last ruler of Hawaii. For Michigan, I have an old Kellogg's cereal box, a kid eating some Kellogg's corn flakes, a bowl of Michigan cherries, and a petoskey stone, a weird fossill found only in Michigan. Oh, and the background is supposed to be a blooming apple tree but now I realize I used a picture of plum blossoms instead. So sue me.

Postcard Quilt: D is for Diner

I made this postcard quilt for a swap in which the theme was "D is for..." and I had to come up with something beginning with the letter D. I already had this fun green fabric and it reminds me of a diner, so I went with that. It's a very simple construction, but I like how it turned out looking kind of a like a placemat.

Aw! Cocoa with Teddy

Okay, it's posed. But still, it's cute! And Cocoa does often take our teddy bears off the bed when we aren't home, and bring them downstairs to her pillow to keep her company. So we know they are secret friends.

Treats!

There were many lovely treats in this pkg. Thanks Auntie Wendy!

Cocoa opens the mail

We got this fun package from my sis Wendy, full of doggie goodies, and Cocoa wanted to help get the stuff out, the faster to eat it. If you live in the Seattle area, you gotta go to Wendy's store, it's the bomb! Muddy Paws is the name of the store, and you need to visit it, now! She's an expert on pet food (wouldn't go near any of that stuff that has been poisoning pets across the country) and she has the funnest toys! The catnip banana is a particular fave with some cats I know.

My First Knit for Baby

This was sort of my Easter thing this year. I didn't go to Mass because I was tired from growing Baby and working Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I stayed home and enjoyed the quiet and knit this hat for our Baby Girl. Isn't it cute? It's a little cotton beanie with a picot edge and lazy daisy embroidered flowers. I want to knit a bunch of stuff but I was kind of waiting, I guess. I knit booties and a hat last time and then we had the miscarraige, so I'm kind of wary of going gangbusters. But I know this Baby is doing great. I can feel her moving now, it's a funny fluttering inside that always takes me by surprise. So now I have started a blanket square as well. I wish I knew how to crochet, too, they have all these fun flower things you can put on blankies and I don't know how to make them. Maybe my Mom can make those, she knows how to crochet (hint hint Mom). :)

Bird Pendant

I made this and I can't believe how nice it turned out. If someone had said "make a piece of jewelry out of this wooden game piece," I would have freaked. I don't know how to make jewelry! But I just started playing with it, not sure what it would become, and here is the result, a little pendant. I didn't even drill any holes, just wrapped wire around it to hold up the loop at the top. It's about the size of a large domino and very lightweight. Here's how I made it: painted a layer of gesso over the bare wood. Used alcohol ink to dye it that nice goldy-yellow. Stamped a scrolly design on top and embossed it. Dyed some lace with more alcohol ink and glued it down the middle. Picked out an interesting postage stamp from my collection, glued this onto a square of patterned paper, then glued this on to the lace in the middle. Found a few beads I thought went with my color scheme and started playing with the copper wire, twisting and turning it to hold the beads and make random shapes around the central element of the bird stamp. My loop at the top is not pretty but who cares? Finally, I added diamond glaze on top of the stamp to make it dimensional. The wire sort of frames the bird stamp and so that held the glaze in the right spot. The glaze also helps to secure the wire to the piece. Viola! I made a piece of jewelry!

This week's dog laundry pic

Again, Cocoa helps with the laundry, lying her sweet fuzzy head atop a pile of folded shirts and spreading out in the place I was folding. But so cute!

Bird/Nest/Egg Chunky pages

I'm making some pages for a chunky book swap and the theme is Bird/Nest/Egg. I like the nesting idea, especially right now as I'm carrying a baby. And I like blue eggs, like a Robin's eggs. I've also used some old lace edging I got at the thrift store, and dyed it with alcohol inks, which worked great.

Laundry Help

Cocoa helps with the laundry by laying on a pile of t-shirts I just folded.

17 weeks pregnant

This morning I sat down to eat my nicely prepared breakfast, a waffle with sliced strawberries and banana on top, and as I sat down, with my belly I flipped one waffle square off the plate and onto the floor. Doh! I guess I am getting bigger. My dog Cocoa waited patiently with big saucer eyes, but I picked up the waffle (5-second rule plus I vacuumed recently) and put it back on my plate. The bananas, though, they were well stuck to the floor with the strawberries, so I let her have at it. She was very good and cleaned the floor to a shiny finish. My loss, her little fruit fest.

I used a simple velcro closure , which you can see here.

New Mag Bag: Archie Comix

I really like making these. This one is smaller cuz I used smaller pages, and I made a top flap instead of making tote bag handles. I haven't quite figured out how to make it square, with sides, but I'm getting there.

Penguin shrine, the outside

Here's the outside of the penguine shrine. The bottom part with the penguins is actually the top of the tin, so you see that first. I liked the play on words of "snowbird" as both the bird and the ski resort. The white stuff is molding paste made to look like snow. Then I signed and dated the bottom of the tin.

Altered Altoid tin: Penguins

Here is the inside of a little shrine on penguins that I made for a trade. It's an altered Altoid tin. At a local thrift store, I found this cute little pin of penguins skiing, so decided to send them on vacation to Snowbird, Utah, a fun ski resort I used to go to when I lived in Utah. I printed out a trail map and used that as the background, then added diamond glaze over the top to make it shiny.

My very first fabric postcard, sent to Mum and Dad for Valentine's.

More fabric postcards I made for Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a picture of the fabric postcard I made for my husband. I actually mailed it to him and it came yesterday, in very good shape. That's the first time I've mailed any of these things. He liked it.

Bed Hog

Cocoa shamelessly hogging my side of the bed. Oink!

the other side of the Anime Mag Bag.

Anime Mag Bag

Just finished another mag bag, this one with pages from magazines on Anime. Very colorful, lots of faces, I really like how it turned out. I will save this to sell at the Anodyne show in October.

Another Mag Bag: the meat tote? the BBQ Bag?

Here's my 2nd Mag Bag. I used book pages this time, from a BBQ cookbook, just because I thought it would be funny to have meat images for a tote. It turned out to be very difficult, the pages are too stiff. I had to use pliers to get the last couple strips woven in. And the contact paper doesn't adhere as well as to the magazine pages because they are so stiff, so it kind of floats in some spots, instead of sticking to the square panels. On the other hand, it's incredibly sturdy. I think it's pretty cool. I'm going to save it to sell in our art show in October.

More inchies!

These are for a swap I'm in , and I finally made it to 100 inchies! I liked coming up with the text, being sometimes cheeky. For instance, there's a bathing beauty that says "Shave Your Pits" and a woman in an apron that says "Cleaning is Fun." Heh.

Inchies!

These are for a swap I'm doing: they are 1x1 inch, and have to have a background, image, and text. And I have to make 100! It's fun, I just wish I had digital editing skills, because all these are put together by hand, with tiny scissors, and sometimes I'd like to play on the computer and make something but I can't figure out my stupid non-Photoshop software. Wah.

Preggers!

A Twinkie. I really wanted a Twinkie last night. I think what I really want is some cake. Nice moist, spongy cake. With cream filling.

I'm 2 1/2 months pregnant this week, hoorah! No headaches since the pregnancy started, which totally rocks. Good baby. I am nauseated all day and want to sleep 12 hours a day, but I can deal with that.

I lay and think about crafts I want to make, and then I take a nap. I want to make another mag bag, for instance, but I need a nap now.

It's finally normal January weather here, 9 degrees and 6 inches of snow. It's bright white outside and the sun is out and it's just beautiful.

Oh yeah, time for a nap. Scuze me....

Mag Bag close-up

Here you can see some of the woven page panels close up.

Mag Bag other side

New Craft: Tote Bag!

I just made this in the last couple days, with directions from a new fun book I got for Christmas. It's called a "mag bag" cuz it's a tote bag made from magazine pages. The outside and the handles are covered in clear contact paper, which not only makes it more durable but has that nice plasticy look of the 1960s. I used some old magazines I had from the sixties and I love how it turned out.