Creepy Crawlies

It must be almost June, because these little beetles we saw everywhere today near Putah Creek are called June Bugs or June Beetles.

 and then this striking black & red caterpillar, this guy was really on the move, maybe it wasn't too comfortable sporting those bright colors hanging out in the open with all the little swallows, robins and bluebirds flying around. I googled it and think this guy is a Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar.

Here is a nice link to learn more about the Pipevine Swallowtail (it's a beautiful butterfly). The site explains how a caterpillar of this size is likely poisonous to predators. But still it would be a really bad day to get pinched in half, by a bird, then dropped from the sky when you taste bad.

More Bling

In between dealing with Misha and other family crisis, I found some time to get lost in making pretty baubles.

"Bex"

"Kalinda"

"Madame Rose"

"Neria"

I figured out how to add text to my pictures and as you can see I've settled on a name for my little glassy stuff, Amorphous Designs.  I had to get on this as a hair salon owner I met in Ione recently offered to let me show my stuff in her store. I'm sort of besides myself hoping this is good enough for other people to actually lay down cold hard cash.  I plan to start out with a sign indicating that "all the profits from the sale of these items will be donated to the local animal shelter Spay & Neuter program".  Having actually seen too many 50 gallon drums filled to overflowing with euthanized dogs and cats makes this cause close to my heart and I cannot wait to cut my first donation check!  Now I only have to figure out how to make a display case and price these babies.

Days of our Dogs

I swear it seems like the dogs are taking turns having soap operas.  As I was pulling in the parking space at home on Thursday I saw Craig standing at the door looking freaked out and covered in scrapes and blood.  He had just gotten home from taking Misha to the vet. 
Earlier in the day he was getting ready to go to the store and Misha was running around the front lawn while he opened the truck.  Across the park our neighbors were walking their dog, that dog saw Misha, broke his lead and came hell bent for leather to attack Misha.  Craig threw himself into the fight, eventually getting little Misha freed from the larger dog's jaws.  Thanks heavens Craig didn't get bit.  He was able to scoop her up and get her to the local vet who patched her up. 

She came home with us the same night, so we were able to make her as comfortable as possible.  She is doing really well now, walking around a little and putting some weight on her back leg.  It looks like she was lucky and nothing vital was injured.  If Craig hadn't rescued her, I think the other dog might have killed her. Craig is our hero!!

Post Modern Fossils

Inspired by the awesome concrete designs seen on the Modesto Garden Tour, I am attempting to make an ammonite (fossil mollusk), cuz' I think they are so cool!
 This is not a great attempt, but I'm happy with the proof of concept and believe it will get better with practice. I've still got 2 of the twisties left to practice with.



lessons learned:
1. it may matter which direction the twistie is melted while spiraling onto another surface, it seemed that my twists were getting "untwisted", but this is totally unverified, I need to test this idea next time.

2. it's really tough to make the spiral directly on the bead, make the spiral with the twistie alone first, garage in kiln, then apply to target bead

3. don't freak out if the spiral gets wonky with melting etc, just use a stringer to redo the spiral twist in the center at the end of melt-in.

BLING!!

you might think with all the mad scientist experiments, dental origami and garden touring that I'm not getting much glass and jewelry done.  Well, your probably right, but I did get some stuff finished up recently.

flower-like decoration on enamel "ombre" beads. I'm really loving the enamels right now, I got a sample pack with 42 colors, so yeah, I think I will be playing with these for quite a while.

frit beads with silver spirals

more enamels and some flower looking murrini, this will eventually be a pendant and earring set

completed necklace and earring set, every bit of this was handmade by ME! It's my personal favorite so far.

sweet hearts for a sweetheart of a daughter

and now some fun with aquarium themed murrini & blue GLOW powder, woo hoo

 

  

I just love the goldfish, even if his brother got fat in the smaller earring bead

on a more serious and elegant (I think so anyway) note, I present these little pretties made with bronze wire

The next glassy adventure is making some drawer pulls for Mary's new built-in desk.  After several fails I've got one success sitting on my desk at work and another (success I hope) in the kiln tonight!  Pictures to come when the whole set of 9 is complete.

Manny goes on a Garden Tour in Modesto

Another "Adventures with Manny"

My very good friend invited me to go on a garden tour of Modesto and Manny decided to tag along as he just couldn't believe humble Modesto would host a garden tour, I mean really ... Modesto!

So off we went, hoping we could slip in some "Manny posing with the flowers" photo ops while the lovely Di was looking the other way.  She seemed to be embarrassed to been seen by the refined Garden Ladies of Modesto with a doll wielding, crazy photo taking person. (but I didn't care, cue the crazy person laughter, bwa ha ha).

Manny contemplated taking a dip in the pool, I had to remind him that Di would not look kindly upon our frolicking in the fancy Garden Lady's pool.

the next place was quite a showcase of modern architecture, minimalist gardening and spectacular concrete designs, like this fireplace mantel, all made by the homeowner's company, Flying Turtle Cast Concrete:

But Manny wondered if perhaps this neighborhood had some gang issues, as in "Vampire Gangs", when we passed by the garlic bulb wreath on the front door.

they did have a very sweet little dachshund doggie, so I hope they get rid of the Vampires soon.

The next place on the tour was a little more my speed, a modest size home with a small, but wonderful, colorful yard filled with plant and decoration eye candy.  They had a lot of simple concrete planter beds painted purple and lime green, filled with very interesting succulent plants of every size, shape and texture.

 

and then Manny snuck up into this cool, succulent wall planter so he could see the clever watering feature built into the top of this thing. Luckily, this was in the side yard, so no-one caught on.

 

 
we went to several other places and saw other fabulous gardens.

 

Manny didn't just stop to smell the roses, he climbed right on up into them.

good thing this hard working girl was busy elsewhere at the time

 

Lastly, a word of caution, should you choose to go on the tour next year. The path DOES NOT go all the way around the lake, it only goes 95% of the way around the lake to leave you looking with longing at the last 50 uncrossable yards with your sad, sunburned foreheads and blistered feet, thinking damn it, why didn't we stop at the picnic table an hour ago?? now we have to walk ALL THE WAY BACK!! with no water, no sunscreen and no other shoes.

Dental Origami

We have a great dentist, he's skilled, pragmatic, and funny (which is important since he has to do 95% of the talking while he's got his fingers my mouth).  My only gripe with the dentist is how he sends the bills for payment. He mails a standard letter size (8.5 x 11 inches ) bill statement with a return envelope only 3.5 x 6.5 inches.

 I simply cannot make myself just cut a check and put it into the return envelope with no indication of an account number or something to connect the check to my bill.  So, I try to take the tri-folded statement and simply shorten it to fit into the 6.5" wide envelope.  No dice, because, of course, it's too tall now, so yet another fold to make it fit into the 3.5 inch high envelope. By this time the bill has been folded multiple times and it's getting kind of bulky.
As I am doing all this folding and stuffing I'm thinking  "sheesh, I've got to do freakin origami just to pay the dental bill". Which then lead me to create this message for my dentist.

 I am highly tempted to do this with the next bill I get with the too small return envelope.

iPad photo upload test

Testing photo upload from iPad

Another test with blogpress iPad app

Max is Back

Our oldest dog, Max, is 15 now.  He's blind, deaf and pretty much always confused, but recently he was really, really out of it.  We found him "stuck" in the bushes late at night twice last week and he actually had to be rescued as he just couldn't figure out how to back out!  He slept for about 3 days straight, didn't want to eat more than a bite or two and just generally looked like he was getting ready to check out.  We made him as comfortable as possible, fed him special wet food treats and were preparing ourselves for the inevitable and then MIRACLE!

Yes, that's right our little Max pulled himself together and is back to his morning tap dance routines, snarfing down cookies like they're going outta style and the spring in his step is back, WOO HOO. 

I cannot put into words how fricken happy I am to see him bouncing along with his ears floppin in time to his fancy boy gait. He's really looking good today as we just got his hair cut in preparation for the long hot summer.

happy flowers