Kitchen Crazy

Due to the insanity in my dining room, I am unable to find the battery charger for the camera, therefore unable to take any pretty pictures for you. I was however, able to catch a glimpse, for you, of how we are living before the camera died. I am pretty ready to have our new pretty kitchen, and to not live like this anymore. Our only source of water is upstairs. We have been doing our dishes in the bathtub now for 2 1/2 weeks. I am so not complaining because I know when it is all said and done it will be totally worth it. I can't wait!

I will be busy in the basement preparing for the Shaw show coming up at the beginning of October. I have some brand spanking new ideas for a new line. That is what I am going to work on this week. I have a few more custom orders to fill before I can start the creativity though.

It feels like fall is in full force here in St. Louis. It came a lot earlier than normal this year, and I could not be happier. I am thrilled about having our new kitchen, using our new fireplace and cozying up with some hot drinks. Maybe some hot chocolate or an Irish Tea. I can't wait! Steve is out of town for the next week working. It is just me and the dogs in our little bitty space we have left to live.

Have you ever heard of this company? I have recently become obsessed with them. The lighting in their photography, and the style of the sets they photograph on, not to mention the super fabulous clothes and home goods they sell. I am a woman obsessed. This is what I do. I find something I love, and I want to change everything in my house and wardrobe to look like that. Yes, this would be quite expensive if I actually followed through. But it is fun to dream about having those worn wooden floors, and woven cozy throws for my non existent beautifully upholstered early 1900's couch. So dreamy.

Oh! and Red is doing his home visit on Friday to his potential new and fabulous home. The young lady who is interested in Red is soooo sweet and will make a fabulous home for him. Red is still such a puppy and really needed someone young and ready to put the energy into that he will need. She adopting him depends on whether he is a good buddy to her brother's dog. Let's all hope, because I can just feel that this is the perfect home for Red. I was thinking about taking a break after Red, but I think I am going to foster all the way in to December and then take a break. My very patient husband says that is ok. We do need a little down time though. It is such a hard thing to stop, once you start fostering. I hope everyone had a great week, and if you are in St. Louis or any of the other towns that received terrible weather recently, you are recovering and getting things back together. There was a lot of flooding here in St. Louis, in places that do not normally flood. There were people floating in boats in the middle of Manchester (which is a major road in St. Louis). I cannot imagine losing everything. My thoughts are with those who have experienced this devastation.

Pretty Weather

There were these three cardinals outside the front window this morning making such a ruckus and having so much fun that I had to go out and see what was going on. I was out just long enough to grab a photo of one of them before the dogs figured out how to open the front door and scared them off their perch.

I just wanted to drop in and tell you about the show this weekend. It was the BEST show I have ever done in many ways. People were buying and they were so friendly and wonderful and interesting. One of the women who bought this piece just returned from the Serengeti. She was there working with rescued elephants! What a dream. Really! It was great to talk with her.
There were so many great people at the show. Saturday was a 12 hour day plus setup and breakdown. I was delirious by the end of the day. A little on edge. But was able to come home and rest and be ready for the four hour day on Sunday. We could not have had better weather. It feels like fall here. Fall puts me in the best mood. It makes me feel like exciting things are about to happen. I don't know why. I think it stems from my youth. My birthday is in October, and my favorite holiday when I was young was Halloween. Not to mention the raking of the leaves. Like so many other children, I loved to jump in the leaves. Thinking about that now makes me itch. Ha ha, I think that means I am old. I used to put my cat Dixie in the leaves too. She would get all sassy and playful. I actually think she liked it.

I have a ton of custom orders to fill today. I am a little behind on orders. If you are one of those people I am getting back on track today and tomorrow. I have to admit that it is hard to get to work the day after a show is over. I am going to discipline myself and get down in that dungeon very soon.

My next show is the Shaw Art Fair at the end of this month. I have never done Shaw before, but I have shopped it plenty of times. I think it is the prettiest setting for an Art Fair that I have been to. I am really looking forward to being a part of it. The Shaw art fair is where I purchased my favorite bird bath ever by a woman named Jennifer Pass of Rock Candy Mosaics. I just love her birdhouse that she sells on etsy.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I could not help but think about all of the fun things I would be doing if I were not working. I decided my hypothetical weekend would consist of taking the dogs hiking somewhere around an animal friendly winery, stopping for a glass of wine and then heading home. Did you do anything fun in this fabulous weather?

Raindrops keep...

It's raining buckets here. I love, love love the rain, but the dogs do not. I cannot get them to go outside on their own when it is even just sprinkling. So, I have to take the little princes and princess out one by one with an umbrella that sort of protects them. If they were smarter they would stay right next to me until they decide on their potty spot. Red will not stay still for the camera. He is the hardest dog I have ever tried to photograph. I will get a good one of him one of these days.

Oh! Oh! Clarence is in his new home. He has to be the luckiest dog ever! He went to PJ's sister and her husband. PJ is the woman who feeds the dogs in East St. Louis every single day since 2001. I drove Clarence to her sister's house on Monday (labor day). As we pulled into the private driveway, I gave Clarence a little talking to. It went something like this..."Now, Clarence, this is your chance to have the best home ever. This is your true life rags to riches story, and if you don't get it together within the next 5 seconds, you are going to blow it. Take a few deep breaths and get it together. You hear me! Clarence, stop looking at me like that. You are no longer a gangster, you are a prince that is going to have tons of land to run on, and horses to play with and a wonderful woman who will love you and make briscuit and slow roasted chicken for only five people and YOU, my friend will get the left overs." I did not really know about the briscuit before we pulled up, but Clarence got a little piece before any of the humans even ate. He was not on his best behavior as we had discussed, but apparently she is a patient woman. She was not bothered by his growling at her pups, nor his marking on her Ralph Lauren chair. It sounds like they are really going to keep him. I would love to say that I am happy to see him go, but I would be lying. I am happy for him, don't get me wrong, but I dreamt about him last night. I have never had a dream about a foster dog. Floyd's in trouble too. We figured out at the vet that his going to the bathroom in the house was not in fact thyroid issues, but because he missed Clarence while Clarence was in board training. Floyd and I are going to be a couple of blubbering sad dummies looking for Clarence in our dreams.


I am working on a design for a baby blanket that I am going to make. It is going to be of the softest organic cotton ever. The girl's blanket will have pink stitching squares and this design will be in the center. Steve and I created this little girl on paper. We are a really good team. I have an idea, tell Steve and draw it. He redraws it, and then I take that drawing and tweak what I think should be tweaked. Sometimes he will come back in and tweak some more. And this goes on until we think it is perfect. Next I drew her in Illustrator on my laptop, without a mouse. It hurt. So, I ordered a Wacom tablet in order to complete the other half of the drawing which will be a cold giraffe in need of that little girl's blanket. I am going to call it the Birthday Blanket. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would give you a sneak peak! There will be a boy version too. But, back to that Wacom tablet. I am so excited about it, and so is Steve. It is like digital painting. Can't wait to see what we can create with it. We got the 9 x 12 tablet. I will let you know how it works for us. I am thinking it is going to be one of the best purchases ever. Alrighty, I should be making jewelry. The procrastination gene has kicked in. Schlafly Art Outside is tomorrow. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend. I am really looking forward to this show. I hope to see you there!

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

Here I am!

Steve watched the animals while I was gone. In order of the drawing: Frankie, Xena, Herman, Clarence and Floyd. Steve is a saint.
I think toward the end, he was running out of patience. This card was waiting for me when I got home. Notice Clarence jumping the fence in the background, and the puddle on the floor from the puppy. I laughed for about an hour looking at this card. Funniest husband ever.
The weekend in Orland Park was not quite so funny. We arrived on Friday night and set up our tents. Apparently there was a storm the next morning that I slept straight through. When we got there on Saturday morning my tent was all discombobulated . I walked inside to find nothing but my plastic tables and glass on the ground. The joints on my Showoff tent had been duct taped together where they had snapped from it falling. I held back my tears to find a volunteer, thinking that I was just going to pack up and go hang out with my friend Amy who lives in Chicago. This could not have happened at a better show! The volunteers saved everything except one cabinet and my tent. They loaned me a tent. All and all it was a fun show to do and the folks of Orland Park are a great people. Plus, I still got to hang out with my wonderful friend Amy. I also got to meet her lovely son Jonah. He is so cute!

Oh, but the weekend is not over. After the show on Sunday we packed up to drive home, got on the road around 6 p.m. and headed for home. About an hour into the trip the van quit working in a town called Gardner, IL. Never heard of it? Me neither. That's because there is a gas station there. That's it. No motel, no cab service, no tow company. It took us 2.5 hours to finally track down a tow truck that could come get us and bring us to the nearest civilization about 15 miles away. Turned out that the transmission broke in the van. Pretty much not worth repairing. I won't go into the gory details of that situation, but let's just say that poor Heather and Ben left their van to live in Dwight, IL. Ben drove the 4 hours to come retrieve us from Dwight. We sat in the same and only restaurant in Dwight for 5 hours. Ate breakfast and lunch there. Stared at each other. Laughed at the situation. There may have been a few tears too. It was quite the fiasco. It was so nice to be home on Monday, only to leave for Sheboygan on Friday.

These are pictures of all of our stuff that barely fit in the truck that Ben drove up. I don't think we could have fit another dime in there.

Heather hating on her van. no longer her van at this point.

Me stuffed in the extended cab, ready for my four hour trip home!
I don't want to talk about Sheboygan. Let's just say that I am considering not traveling out of state for shows anymore. The good news is that we figured out a way for my tent and all of my supplies to fit in my car. Steve does not have to sell blue thunder, and I get to keep my 40 mpg Yaris. Yippee!

Herman found a home! He was adopted by the sweetest couple near St. Louis. I hope he does silly things like this for them. He is going to be so happy there. He just jumped right in their car, ready for his new perma-home.
The new blog for our rescue has begun. It will document our journey in starting our own rescue and art education center. Click the link below to read more about us.

Art & Air this weekend!

I hope to see you at Art & Air this weekend. I am so excited to have my first show of the season. It has been a little delayed because of the wedding/honeymoon. This show always has a great array of artist. There is some real talent that comes from all over the country. It is my favorite show that I have done.

The art shows are not the only projects that were delayed because of the wedding. If you remember, last year we had to put straw down in the backyard, because The Bobs tore up the grass with all of their huge playfulness. Steve tilled up the entire back yard and we laid seed. I made my food garden. It is huge! I will take proud pictures when all of the seeds begin to sprout. Right now, it just looks like a bunch of labeled piles of mud. As far as you know, I could have just put those cute little signs out there and planted nothing. The following weekend I bought all kinds of native plants, and made my little native garden. A native garden can be a good choice for less maintenance. They are a little easier on the environment since they don't require as much water as those plants that do not naturally grow here in Missouri. Those blooms are Poppy Mallow. I think they are so pretty. It is the first flower that bloomed for me in the combined Simmons' household.

So, I really shouldn't be sitting on the couch, procrastinating, talking to you. I should be getting ready for the big show. Talking to you is so much more fun than getting ready. I hope you have a great weekend, and if you can, I would love to chat it up at Art & Air.

Amie who?

Oh my. It has been so long. I have missed you pretty bad. Please let me explain. First, I got married, and then we went on our honeymoon. And then, that guy I married jumped into the ocean with the digital camera in his pocket. And then, I lost the little attachment screw on thingy that holds my camera on my tripod. And now, I have my first show of the season this weekend, and not that it is a very good excuse to take such a long hiatus from you, but there they are; weak, but true. 

I have all kinds of jewelry to show you that I still have not photographed, so I will get on that soon. That is, unless I sell it first and am too busy or lazy to photograph. But, I have all of my gear back in place. Check, check. The dining room table is ready for my little photograph tent and such. It gets quite neglected as a food table because of all of my art stuffs that takes over. I am a piles person. It drives me crazy. My piles are insane. Piles here, piles there. I get so mad because I think that I am a neater person than Steve. I look at the piles, and say to myself, "Ahrg, I wish he would clean up his piles." And then, upon further inspection, lo and behold, it is all of my crap. Touch it once, isn't that the rule? 

The wedding was wonderful. Everything was yellow and gorgeous. If you would like to see a quick slide show, click here. Will Jackson was our photographer, and I don't think we could have found a photographer who suited our idea of how the pictures should look better than him. Oh, how I love those pictures. There are a total of 450. If you really want to see them all, just email me. I have only looked at them in their entirety, about five or six times. Oh, maybe more. 

Our honey moon was supers fabulous. The place was ridiculous. I felt silly being waited on like that, but now would like to have it back. 

And then the dogs. I caught the tail end of that repeat Oprah show on my first day back. You know the one about the puppy mills. I cried my eyes out, and then immediately got on the petfinder site of the most heart breaking animal control shelter that I know of in MO. Found a couple of dogs I thought I could find homes for and went to work. My wonderful friend Sarah Kalish took one of the Jack Russells that was going to get put down. She already adopted it out to her neighbors. They sound fabulous. I would really like to go back for this Beagle too. Any takers? 

In the mean time, someone dumped Winnie, this adorable Terrier in my vet's backyard. He thought his dogs had a rabbit when he looked out the window, but it was this little girl. He asked me if I would foster her, and I couldn't refuse. She is so cute, and Dr. Diesel has done so much for our rescue. I think he is the best vet around. Anyway, Winnie is all healed, and I think I have found a home for her. She is a sweet little lap dog with very little baggage for what she has been through. 

I promise I will be back soon with jewelry. Jewelry blog, right?

Juicy

I just read my cousin and fellow artist, Heather Haymart's, latest blog entry. She has a fabulous idea about an awards ceremony for artists. Kind of like the Emmy's or the Grammy's, or the Tony Awards and such. Wouldn't that be great, to at the very least, be able to watch on tv, attend or win an award! I think it is such a great idea. Maybe we can get something started by just blogging about it. Pass on the blog until someone picks up the idea with some connections. The arts could definitely use more recognition and funding in schools than what they get, and maybe this would be a way to get that initiated. 

It's Friday! I hope everyone has a super weekend. I am starting it off right by going to Chaumette winery with my friend Sarah to get massages and drink wine and eat delicious food. Chaumette is where Steve and I are getting hitched. I think I am more nervous about this massage than getting married. I have never had a professional massage before, and it kind of creeps me out to think about. But, Sarah insists that it is the best thing ever, and I trust her, so here we go. 

Uh, Yello?

That's how my dad used to answer the phone. I think I may do that sometimes too.

I am in the process of updating the look of my booth in my head. This is what it currently looks like. Most of the jewelry is kept in the cases, requiring the customer to ask to see a piece, and me to be available to give it to them. Not that I am that knock down, drag out busy at the shows, but I have been told at times that my booth was too busy to get to. That's a good thing right? Well I have been thinking that maybe it is not necessarily that I am too busy, but that my setup is inconvenient. My new idea is to eliminate the cases and display everything in open air for people to feel free to touch, try on and fall in love with. Basically, what this comes down to is that I have an idea in my head for some fabric that I want to make a T-shaped table cloth out of. That is all it is, an idea. I do not even know if I have ever seen this fabric before besides in my own head. As I picture it, it is yellow knit, or woven cotton, rather thick and textury, with a raised design of victorian type swirls and flowers and prettiness. Got it? Any one understand what I am talking about? Can anyone tell me where I can get something like this? It is one of those things, that I have in my head, and if I have to settle for something less, my booth will not be what I have pictured in all of its glory. I don't know, I think I might be obsessed with yellow as of late. What do you think?


Those are not the real mantel decorations.

Yellow is the accent color in our wedding. Yellow and brown. I told Steve those were the colors I dreamt up, and he promptly replied, "oh good, poop and pee." I think I pooped and peed my pants laughing. He is funny like that at least once a day. All of those yellow vases are for our center pieces. And that little hippo, I actually own, but he may be lucky enough to attend the wedding. And what do you ask are those cute little paintings above the vases?


Those are paintings Steve and I collaborated on. If we ever get it together, we are going to do a series with those two as our characters, involving our experiences with rescuing dogs and life in general. Alrighty, off to bed. Sweet dreams!

Please accept these flowers

Actually, Steve made this card for me for Valentine's Day, but that is how long it has been since I have posted. We decided to keep it a low key V-day. I made fondue, and he made a card. It is always my favorite when I get something handmade from Steve.

It has been a crazy month. First and foremost I would like to thank Mary Beth Shaw from The Common Denominator for naming me as one of her favorite blogs to read. It made my day, and now I must pay it forward. I have way too many blogs that are my favorite to read and look at. I will name a few though. Oddly enough, I have been reading Mary Beth's blog for longer than I have really known her. The first time I saw her work was at the Schlafly show three years ago. I loved it so much that I bought two pieces.
I bet she doesn't even know I own these. Since then, I have found out that she is good friends with my cousin Heather Haymart, who by chance is another one of my favorite blogs to read. She always has such great insight into life and art. And she has become rather prolific with her blogging. I also own two of Heather's pieces. Here is one that is hanging in my living room.
Another favorite that I love to read is Anna Maria Horner. She is a fabric designer. I have no idea how I found her, but she is this adorable mom of five, who holds it together like a pro and looks like she's 20. Her stuff is fabulous, her photos are bright and cheery and I love her little stories about her kiddos. I actually bought myself one of her fat stacks for Christmas. I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but it inspires me when I look at it everyday. It is just pretty sitting in its own little stacked colorful self.

And one more favorites is Bernie Berlin's, A Place to Bark. Bernie is the real deal. She is a one woman show who makes beautiful collages and saves dogs. She rescues hundreds of dogs a year and hand delivers them to their homes across the country. I love her stories and her insights.

There are so many more that I enjoy reading. Most of them have links to the right. I like easy access to my favorites. I am now running late for an adoption event, so I have to go, but I have so many things to tell you. To be continued later on today. I hope...

The show circuit

This was my fancy annoying dinner for last week. I burned my hand, broke a bunch of stuff, I think I hit my head on something, and I burned the pecans for the Butternut Squash Polenta Cake topping. There were three different Polenta cakes: Mango salsa and shrimp, Bruschetta, and as mentioned above Butternut squash. They were recipes I made up that are probably too in depth to try and write for you. But, if you really want to make one or all of them, feel free to email me. They were fun to eat and really delicious if I might say so. Totally worth the trouble...maybe. They would actually be pretty easy if you only made one. I love the extravagance though.

I have been so busy applying to shows, mailing packages, and trying to make jewelry that I am not sure which way is up. When I do not have any of those things to do, I don't know what to do with myself. I stare blankley at my computer waiting for it to tell me to do something. The most difficult part of being an artist is getting into the shows. They are all juried, cost to apply to and hardly accept anyone. Typically there is about a 9 to 13 percent chance of getting into the good ones. For the not as popular ones the odds go up to 30%. I can hang (sometimes) with the 30%, but have yet to be lucky enough to get into any of the more competitive ones. Hopefully this will be my year. It is disheartening when the rejection letters start rolling in. The couple of acceptances, somehow are enough to keep me motivated and financially ok throughout the year. This is my first full year of doing the art/jewelry thing, so we will see how it goes. Wish me luck. If any of you reading have any experience with making art for a living, I would love to hear your stories, if you do not mind sharing.

The Chi-Town Show

Yesterday was the first day of the One of a kind Show in Chicago. It is a huge show-over 400 artists. I thought the quality of artists would slip with so many, but as far as I have been able to tell, it looks very high quality. Yesterday was slower than I think Saturday and Sunday will be, but I still did really well! It's crazy being locked up in my basement for all of those months, creating, and then the people come to look at, and to buy my stuff, and make comments (good and bad). I feel like a creative monster that has finally come out of her dungeon. A little stiff with my social skills. I think I will have the hang of it by today. I just wanted to stop in and say hi, right quick before I have to leave again this morning. I will check in periodically to let ya'll know how it's going. And if you are in the chicago area, come by and see me!

I bought two things from other artists that I think are worthy of mentioning. This beautiful top that the photo does not do justice, and the pretty purse by Blue Thimble designs. I love her stuff, but cannot find her website right now. Will post later if she has one. They both rock!

Columbia Festival of the Arts

Not so much my crowd, I suppose. The first day, Saturday was horrible. People weren't even taking my cards. And they were turning their noses up at $35 for a necklace. I mean, I'm not Walmart. The crowd just wasn't there to buy art. Half the people didn't even look into the booth. And there were so many pregnant women. More than I've ever seen in my life. I started counting at 2:47 and stopped at 4:15 and counted 14 pregnant women. And that was less dense than most of the day. Jam packed with pregos. Don't get me wrong, I love procreation, but those ladies with the babies in their bellies aren't going to drop money on a unique body adornment, when they have a unique body adornment growing inside of themselves. Luckily Sunday was a little better and I made a bit of a profit. People were much more receptive and bought a few things. No more shows until December. It's going to be a fun couple of months in the basement. I do have to say about this show though, that the volunteers and staff were some of the most helpful I have ever encountered. They helped unload and setup. It was wonderful. It's too bad they don't draw a better crowd.

Raw Food

I tried to go raw last week. Key word tried. I don't know man, all the rave about the diet...and it all makes sense. I think I did it right mixing nuts and fruits and hemp protein and lots of greens. We went to Stone Hill winery on Friday because Steve's band Strawfoot played for the Missouri bike race. Thank goodness wine is on the list of raw foods. However, I think I may have over done it. By Sunday morning, after 6 days on the raw food diet, six days of headaches, severe lethargy, and one day of way too much wine, I broke and had myself my favorite breakfast of hashbrowns topped with over easy eggs and salsa and sour cream. Far from raw, but oh so delicious. My goal was to make it two weeks, but I think 6 days of 100% raw was plenty. For those of you who don't know what a raw diet is, it is when you don't eat anything with preservatives, pasteurized, processed, no chemicals or hormones. It's a vegan diet, so no dairy, or meat. And you don't cook anything. But, there are recipes that are pretty good that can keep it pretty interesting for a while. I'm glad I did it, because I will incorporate some of these recipes into my daily eating repitoire, but definitely not 100%.

I am fostering a full bred Greyhound cutie. Her name is Turner and she is totally neurotic. I'm thinking she was kenneled most of her 3 years of existence and she is super uncoordinated so she probably wasn't raced. I think she was pushed around a lot because anytime I take her collar she freezes. I have spent a good portion of the last week pulling and carrying this 55 lb. beauty. That said, she has a great temperment. We are working on potty training since I don't think she had ever been in a house before. She also had to learn how to maneuver steps. She was pretty afraid at first, but now can go up and down short steps. But, if you have never seen a greyhound run and play it is an amazing sight. She looks like a deer. When she runs she bucks her back legs after she raises her front. Steve wants to keep her because although she is playful outside, when she is indoors she is like a cat. Just lounges around or chews on a bone. I think I've already found a home for her. I knew she would go fast because she is sooo cool.

This is a photo of Steve and I on the way home from Art Outside Schlafly show after a 14 hour day of working and then breaking down the tent and loading furniture and jewelry stuffs in the rain. This is a really good picture to show how we felt.

Art Outside

The Schlafly show is tomorrw. Since I haven't been working at County Glass, I feel much more prepared. Either that or I've become much more lackadaisical before shows. That is no good since I've only done 3 shows so far. I feel like I should be stressed out, but I'm not. Maybe I am since I'm worrying about whether I'm stressed or not. I've had a lot of fun over the past 2 weeks in my basement creating and I hope it shows in my work. Each piece takes quite a bit of time to make...I wish I could go faster, but I don't want to lose the quality of the pieces. It's so hard for me to make the same thing twice. I get so incredibly bored with repetition.

My adorable fiance is sitting next me with his obsesticca looking at gun websites. His gun obsession is as to my ebay/myspace obsession. Yes, if he looks over, I'm either on ebay or myspace (obsessed with myspace) the whole making friends thing...I can't get enough artist friends. It's making me want to be a painter. Anyway, he's always making me look at guns on the internets and I think it's funny and cute. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of guns AT ALL, but Steve and guns is an oxymoron. He is a very wonderfully sweet and all around great guy. And then he has this gun obsession that doesn't fit...but it's cute. He's not into hunting, just guns and their mechanics and how they look.

In other news, I started my Yoga class this week. It was surreal. I've never taken a real yoga class. I love the idea of stretching and being one with myself, and my body and all of that, but we said a prayer, or something at the beginning of class in a different language, and we had to repeat it, and they swore up and down that it was not to a god, but i don't believe them. anyway, i think I'm going to make them tell me what we're saying next class. I'm positive it's a prayer to a god. which is fine, i just don't want to be tricked into saying a prayer.

I'm getting an Italian greyhound to foster at the beginning of next week! I'm so excited. I need my puppy fix.

Hope to see ya'll at the Schlafly fair. Here is a little preview of what will be there.