Floyd the Doyd and his new pair of shoes.

What do you do when your dog will not leave the porch because he does not like the way the grass or dirt feels on his feet?Put pink booties on him, of course.Ok, so if that does not work, take him to the vet to get his thyroid tested. Apparently this strange behavior is indicative of other issues. Maybe. Either that or Floyd is just neurotic.

Last night we went to my mom's house for her birthday. She has this little swing set clubhouse that she just bought for my niece Elena. Elena loves it and insisted on wearing her bicycle gloves while riding her glider. I will most likely be pretty absent over the next week or so. I have a show coming up and quite a few custom orders to fill. Unless the procrastination gene kicks in, which it probably will, I will be in my basement for a while. We are also rehabbing our kitchen. We just got all new windows in our house, and we start demolition on the kitchen on Tuesday! I am so excited. We are knocking down a wall, putting up a wall, getting all new cabinets and flooring and we are getting all new appliances. We are also turning the pantry into a bathroom. Weird huh? But we don't have a bathroom on the first floor of our house. I will post before and afters when it is all said and done. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Just Breathe

I went to the chiropractor on Tuesday, and she popped, popped, popped me. It scared me. I think I am going to go to a doctor first and then I will go to a chiropractor if the doc says I should. Apparently my back bones are growing sideways. Not like scoliosis, but like when you adjust your vent to blow a different direction. All of my bones are blowing in a different direction. Probably due to pitching softball when I was younger. I used to pitch double headers straight through. Probably not such a good idea looking back. Back problems scare me and so does the adjustment process for fixing back pain. This sort of makes me stuck, because I hurt, but I don't want anyone to pop me. I do not know if you can hear the stress in my words, but I have been freaking out about this all week. So I made this necklace and stamped breathe on the back of it. Really I need to just settle down and breathe. But, making the necklace made my back hurt. Rahr!
Favorite house across the street. Old man Fletcher lives there, and he works outside all of the time with a ciggy hanging out his mouth. I like him. One time he kicked Steve's door in (before I moved in), because someone in the band was parked wrong in the street.

I like today because it is an over casty kind of sky and a little rainy. It reminds me of fall. I could live year round in this kind of weather.
my flowers.

my neighbors mushroom

The post dispatch (the St. Louis newspaper) called the other day asking me to pose for a photo shoot of up and coming art people in the St. Louis area. I was honored and thrilled. And then they told me that I will have to go to Neiman Marcus to pick up my ball gown and show up at 9am to meet with the stylist. Hee hee! Stylist? Ball gown? I mean am I going to be on America's next top model? I love that show! I am such a nerd. I know, all respect gone, right? It's artsy though. They dress up in all kinds of cool costumes and wear all kinds of cool heroine chic makeup. I love it. Anyway, look for me in the post. I'll let ya'll know when it comes out. The shoot is next Thursday.

The Irony

I love these crocheted buttons. I can't remember if I told you about them in another post, so I will tell you again. I went to this estate sale about a year ago. It was advertised that it had LOTS of buttons. When I walked in the house, it was like a maze through all of the other stuff. There were about 20 signs on the wall with arrows that said "buttons". I followed the arrows to a closet FULL of jars of crocheted buttons. At the time I was thinking, that they would look pretty in one of the collages that I sometimes make as gifts for people.
I have so much stuff like that. Just sitting around, taking up space. I can't throw anything away, because it might be usable for art. Artists. Can you be an artist and not be a clutter bug? Tell me how if you know. Anyway, back to the buttons. So I stared in amazement at this closet, from floor to ceiling, from front to back filled with jars and jars of crocheted buttons. They were so pretty. And overwhelming. So I picked out two jars, looked very closely at them, put one back, and walked away, satisfied, a little overwhelmed, and a little sad that I wasn't buying them all. But, I couldn't say at the time what I would do with these buttons, so I was not allowed to buy more than one jar. Right? Anyway, this is one of the last good ones in the jar, and they make the most fabulous necklace pieces. I am so mad at myself because I should have bought all of the buttons. Had I known that I would make jewelry out of them I would have. I cannot find any more crocheted buttons anywhere.
I find this necklace kind of ironic, because I think these buttons are so pretty and delicate and sweet, and handmade by someone. They make me feel like I am in a Victorian home with all kinds of white linens. I don't know why. They just do. And all of the jewelry I have made with them make me feel that way too. Except for this one. Although I stamped just lovely on the back of it (this happens before the necklace is finished), I think it is rather chaotic. Don't get me wrong, it wears very nicely, but I just don't know if it is "just lovely". It is kind of sarcastic I suppose. The necklace is almost just lovely.

It's sort of like my life now. The chaos. It is insane here. Clarence, the D.O.G. Gangster is home from his thousand dollar board training. It really helped, as much as one can help a four year old feral gangster dog. And then Red, the chained E. St. Louis junk yard dog is here too. Oooh! they do not like each other. It is a constant battle to keep them from eating one another. But, then again, if they really want to eat one another, they would have already. So I kind of think they are just messing with me. And to top it all off, Red is going through heart worm treatment, which means that he is not supposed to move much. It stresses me out, because I struggle with having to kennel him, and then letting him out of his kennel if he would just lay nicely. But then the growling and paws up in the air starts and he has to be put in his cage again. We have another 4.5 weeks of this.

AND to top it all off, I being the old lady that I am have a hurt hip. I have had a hurt hip for some time now. It's for no reason, which is even more old lady like. Just suddenly 3 years ago, my hip started hurting. A chiropractor popped it back in place a while back, and voila!, all better for 3 years. And yesterday, out of nowhere it was like my bones were rubbing together. After seeing the chiropractor and getting x-rays, I shall have the results today. I know what their going to say. They are going to say, "your old". Get used to it. Off to the chiropractor to be told I'm old.

I want a Pony.

I really do want a pony. I want lots of ponies. The beginnings of the rescue are consuming me...in a good way. I feel like I am back in school, learning so much about nonprofits and how to fund a project like this. The best part about it is that I will be offering metalsmithing classes once we get our facility up and running. I cannot wait to start rescuing animals and to start teaching. I cannot imagine any three things I would love to be more involved with on a daily basis; kids, animals and art. What more can you ask for. I have really found my calling. Now we just need to get it up and running. We are accepting donations finally at the Creative Rescue blog. Ain't too proud to plead, baby. We will get this up and running within the next year. Stay posted!

I leave you with the cuteness.

Etsy Front Page! Yay!

Thank you leavesofglass

Michaela's Debut

Well, besides that beautiful piece of art she made me a while back. I suppose that was her real debut. Michaela won a contest I put on a couple months back. I just got around to making the piece. I think Michaela will be happy to know that 100% of the proceeds from her necklace will go to Creative Animal Rescue & Art Education Center. Thanks Michaela!

Where it all begins:

These drawings are for a custom order from a great customer. It took me some long, thoughtful nights of thinking about what I was going to do for him. He wanted earrings, a ring, and a necklace; all that would kind of go together. He was very specific about his request. We met and talked a number of times about his wife and what he wanted for her. It is their anniversary, and he wanted to do something very special. I could tell by the way he spoke about her how much he adores and appreciates her. I thought it would be fun to show how I start a project like this, and then to show and explain the end results.
The ring was the first design I came up with in my head. It fit perfectly with what Colin wanted for his wife. The oxidation and patina will change over time revealing new areas of metal. I thought this would represent the changes that Colin's wife Kim has been through over the years with her changing career and her drive to achieve what she loves. The ring has five rivets that represent their five children. The swirls represent the craziness that life can sometimes be, but beauty can still be found within that craziness. The lone sapphire represents Kim and how much she does to support her family.

Colin picked out the tin in the center of the necklace, that says EVENTUALLY. He picked this to represent Kim's journey. Colin knows that through her hard work and dedication, she will "eventually" reach her goals. The swirls around the tin represent the trials and tribulations of getting to that point, and the singular blue sapphire represents the beginning and the end to her journey.

The oxidized silver swirls represent Kim's & Colin's strong bond. The three circles that are on the necklace and the earrings represent their family unit. The single hanging pearl on each earring represent the fact that Colin and Kim are still themselves and have been able to hold onto that throughout their relationship and still love one another.

Happy anniversary you two!
The funniest part about this whole thing is that about a month after I initially spoke with Colin about creating these pieces for Kim, Kim called me to commission this piece for Colin's birthday. I had to bite my tongue every time I spoke with her. I had to not reveal all of the things that I already knew about her. I only called Colin "your husband" to assure that I was not presuming that she had told me his name. Uhg! It was hard, because I am the biggest blabber mouth in the world. I am so glad that I did not spill the beans.

Pretty Front Page!

Thanks Jennreese7!

Where did spring go?

It is a smothering 90 degrees here in St. Louis, but it feels like 100. I melt when I go outside. I found this photo in my camera from the spring. How I miss spring, and look forward to fall. So much for living in the moment. It is hard to do in St. Louis. I always wonder why anyone lives here. It is a great town, but the weather is horrendous. Cold, cold winters, and brutally hot summers. We usually get about 6 weeks of nice weather (if we are lucky) all year round. I wish I could transplant all of the people I love, and the people they love to Seattle, or Portland, Oregon.

All of the ideas for jewelry that I have as of late, are animal related. Animal on the brain. I call this necklace Heart Guard. All of the proceeds go to Creative Animal Rescue. You can purchase it on my etsy account. This handsome, silly boy is Red. Red was chained his whole life. Before he was rescued he was wrapping himself up so bad around a fence that he was choking himself. His owner did not care. He said that if the dog was dumb enough to wrap himself up, he deserved it. They finally talked him into letting us take Red. He has been in board training for 3 weeks and just came to us on Wednesday. He is the most trained dog we have in the house. Clarence is now in board training. He is going to be a completely different dog. I miss him a lot. He is going to find the best home when he is all done with training. I do love that dog. When I say "most trained", that is not really saying much. These pictures were really hard to get. That stare above is at a treat. He would sit there for maybe 3 seconds and then go after the treat. He is very food motivated. He has heartworm, so he is way under weight. I am not sure how much he was fed by his previous person either. We're going to get him all back in shape and ready for his new home. He is going to be a fabulous dog, and now has another chance at life. Yay Red!