Three Things

Four, if you count this photo. Doesn't it look like dragon skin?



1. The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, rocks. I just discovered we get the National Geographic Channel and he's on Friday nights. Amazing! Facinating! Fun to watch! I have been trying some things with my girls... so far, some luck.

2. Bare Minerals Makeup - LOVE! It's like not wearing makeup only better. Happy skin, happy cell phone (no powder/makeup on my phone), happy me looking in the mirror. Why did I not know about it before now?

3. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Pre-menopause by John R. Lee MD. - I'm reading this now and I have to say it's Very Interesting, not at all boring. Empowering. A kind of take-charge-of-your-own-health that every woman should read. It explains about all the hormones, how they are getting messed up prematurely due to life-style, stress and environmental influences, and what to do to get things back on track. To get our energy, vitality and yes, even stop aging as quickly as we may be. Have not finished, but so far... I highly recommend.

Happy Mother's Day!

It was a good one this year, even with the rain. There was also some sun, though no rainbows. The boys tried very hard to let me have my way about everything. They made me waffles for breakfast:



And while they cleaned up that big mess, I fit in a long walk with Zoe the dog - we saw an eagle being harrased by a crow - over and over again - though the eagle seemed quite able to ignore it. I kept thinking the crow would soon be lunch, but it didn't happen before we walked on. Also found a half a robin's egg, someone had found it before me and placed it on a rhody bud - a beautiful gift. And then we took a new road and found a new shortcut path between neighborhoods - I always like finding those.

Then we all took a long ride out to farm country to look for rusty things. I wanted an old wagon wheel, but found this lovely thing instead. It's a tiller blade. I think I'll hang it on my studio. I also got a horseshoe and an old key.



Hope your Mother's Day was a good one too.

Life... just an update

It's been awhile, huh? You most likely missed my birthday. No biggie. I've reached the age I plan on staying at for the next oh... 10 years or so. That sounds fair enough, right? If only... I'd give up parties and gifts for the next 10 years to make it so. Ah well, I'll get into this aging thing someday. Only when I'm good and ready, which, I'm sure, will be awhile.

What's new? Not a whole lot.

Baseball takes up so much of our time. Most of it is spent in our lovely Pac NW spring weather of rain, cold, sleet, hail, rain and more bitter cold. Two hours outside with an umbrella watching the boys play ball... and then a day to thaw out again. One day I was lucky enough to get to spend a freezing couple of hours watching a game and then three more freezing hours manning the snack shack. It took me two days to thaw that time.

Zoe the dog got to go to Luke's school for show and tell. She was overjoyed. Loved everyone and every minute of it. She sat, laid down, and spoke on command, and then picked her own tricks - French-kissing as many kids as she could get to and sitting on the teacher's lap. She's hilarious.

Luke is getting ready for end-of-school-year. We have a talent show coming up (he plans on doing yo-yo tricks while blowing bubbles and one other thing with his free hand, though he hasn't figured out what that might be yet), and his class play (he's Montana, the state, and something else he can't remember what), and his last report of the year, on an insect of his choice - the praying mantis - the female of which, did you know, eats it's mate. Ick. They are hatching mantises in his class and he wants to take some home to raise over the summer. What do you think? Maybe just one... wouldn't want to watch the mating ritual in real life. Though he's got a video of it on his blog if you are interested. Yeah, Ick.

Seriously, that's about it. Not much progress with art. Or beads. Or even the house, I'm still painting the master bedroom and it looks awful... the yard is too cold to work in, though I've just about finished with the bark "patio" area. I've got an arbor to put up for my honeysuckle vine, if it would just get warm enough and dry enough to go out and do it.

Mother's day is coming up, are you ready? Did you get your cards in the mail? Flowers and gifts ordered and sent? I did. Just hope they get there in time. Of course not everyone lives thousands of miles away from their mothers... maybe some of you get to take yours out to brunch or dinner instead? Frank and Luke say they are cooking breakfast and dinner for me that day. I hope they are cleaning up too. Hah. Really, I just hope the sun is out and it's warm enough to plant some flowers or something, that's all I really want. A warm spring day. With no baseball game to go to. I don't think that's too much to ask. Though coffee and waffles will be fine too... and lobster, assuming that is what they make, will be a nice treat.

For Mother's Day, I give you this link. A hilarious compilation of notes from moms around the world. http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com. Enjoy!

A Classic with a Twist

African Green Jasper, Jade, Pearls, etc.

A Hippy Girl Necklace

I made this today, I think it might be for me, though I have enough to make one more I think.

More Bridal Jewelry

Spring has Sprung

Not really, it's still cold as winter out there... but things are starting to bloom.

The Latest Art Project

This is something I'm making for my good friend Becky who is expecting her first baby early this summer. It was supposed to be a painting of a cow jumping over the moon... but... the cow may or may not happen as it's becoming something other than what I originally intended. I really like the direction it's going in though, but am a little afraid it won't be very "baby". But then, I think that might just be ok, after all.

Purple

My old lilac tree toppled over in the snow we had last week. We propped her back up today, I'm hoping for the best, but not sure what chance she has. There are lots of baby shoots around her though, perhaps it's just time for the next generation.

Sunshine

Pure happy sunshine today. Could spring finally be on the way? Here's hoping.

A Bride's Necklace

365 days of colour - on hold

Happy Easter everyone - hope you had a nice one. Ours started way to early, Luke apparently forgot all rules of not waking the parents up before 7:00 AM and came bouncing into our bed in the wee dark hours. I'm amazed how magical the Easter Bunny and Santa and the Tooth Fairy and all that still are to him. It was raining cats and dogs and there he was running around in the rain with an umbrella looking for eggs. Happy as could be.

Bad news about the 365 days thing... there is something wrong with my camera, all my pictures are coming out with a big black splotch in the middle of them. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with my lenses since changing them didn't help... so I'm taking my camera into a store to see if they can help me figure it out. Till then... my daily pictures are on hold, because the spot is driving me nutso. Oh well. Need to get it fixed asap, because I can't take pictures of beads either. And all my spring flowers are coming... Eek.

Luke's Blog

For family and friends - a new blog to be filled with videos of Luke, Luke's own videos, Luke pictures and stories. All about Luke. Here is one from there, skiing today at Crystal Mountain. You can find the blog here: Luke-a-do.

365 days of colour: day 76

Not the loveliest of shots... but it's all I have for today. This is one of the things I've been been working on - in the midst of all the other home things I've been working on - and now I'm sick and have lost my voice to top it all off. Fun. And so was spreading all this bark... in the hopes of a level enough spot to have the table this year. Lanscaping for real won't start until next year at the earliest. This will have to make-do. (It's not really done yet... but I'm kinda tired of it so it will have to take a break.)

365 days of colour: day 75

This is a wall hanging my grandmother made for me and my brother when we were very small. That is me (shirtless) and my brother playing in the pond with our dog Sondy. The blue bird near the top is Twinkle, my mother's old bird. Her dog is the grey one near the front as well... I can't remember his name. Some of the images are drawings of hers from when she was a little girl, others my grandmother just made up. Magical and treasured.

House Blog Update

Have been changing things around... lots of photos here: http://cottage-by-the-sea.blogspot.com/