Getting Back at it, Whatever IT is

I have a lot to talk about today. Some of it good, some of it not so good and some of it I wish I hadn't had to go through. 

We will start with the stuff I wish I hadn't had to go through.

Fred dog is gone. He's resting peacefully in a large hole in the backyard. He got a cool soaking rain shower this morning so that spot will soon cover with nice green grass. He snacked on grass just before it happened. The vet came out and did his deed on the 10th of July. The day before my youngest son turned 31. Fred had fallen down the front steps twice the day before. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon I called to have the vet come out the next day. It was time to bid the poor ol' fella adieu. 

My youngest boy, Rich is the one who brought Fred dog to live with us 14 and half years ago. Fred was five weeks old. How can one not fall in love with a black lab puppy? It isn't possible. 

Before Fred, I was a cat person. I liked dogs but didn't really want to live with one. Fred changed all that. He took over the sofa. He had to be fed everyday. I had to pay attention to him all the time lest he get himself into a pickle. I acquired another child the day Fred came into my life. The boy child grew up, moved away, came back home, moved away, repeated that cycle a few times, and still Fred stayed with me. He wasn't my dog when he was five weeks old when the boy brought him home! 

I wouldn't change a minute of the time spent with Fred dog in my life. He was quite the character! He kept me entertained on a regular. He accompanied me on long road trips and short ones. He patrolled the property and kept all stray cats away. He was a thief, a beggar and a damn fine friend!

He really was a thief! Onions off the counter, literally right behind my back. My purse taken to the driveway. My dentures. Spaghetti noodles. Numerous loaves of bread. The neighbor's trash. The neighbor's shoes. I can't remember it all.  Every time I turned around, he was taking something that wasn't his.  The first eight years of his life, he heard, "That's not yours!" more times than he heard his name! 

He loved his kitties and chased any cat he wasn't familiar with right out of his yard.

I worried when he romped with the coyotes. I worried when there was a dead deer anywhere near the house. That fool dog dragged home a dozen dead deer in his life. And every single one of them made that dog stink to high heaven! He did love baths as long as we took him to the lake to give him one.

It's been very quiet around here for the last five days. 

I'd like to have another dog someday, I think. 

 Poor old thing looks tired. This is three days before saying farewell. 

Here he is the morning we put him to rest. He slept in front of the fan for hours and hours the last three days of his life. He tried to play red dot (with the laser pen) earlier in the day but his eyes had gotten so bad with cataracts that he couldn't keep track of it. And his back legs refused to work in tandem that day. He wasn't up to doing much physical activity. He did try though. 

I will miss this silly hound till the end of my days.

I really don't know what to make of Fred's mama meeting the very same fate as he, on the very same day, for the very same ailment...Daisy May's legs gave out on her just like Fred's gave out on him. I was quite surprised to see Daniel post about Daisy May when I was just fresh from paying the vet. Very strange. At least Fred will be able to run with his mama. 

RIP Fred and Daisy May!

I do have a lot of arty things to show you all. I have been gone for ten days from the blog and if you have read for any length of time you will know my hands are seldom idle.

I made all these stamp magnets before the last post and forgot to show them all to you guys.

 I took cancelled postage stamps from around the world, new and old stamps and mounted them on a piece of black cardstock and then to flat sheet magnets and cut to size. The magnets were freebies from the county fair last year and others that came in the mail with advertising on them.

 I simply covered the advertising side up with pretty images on stamps.

 I covered them all with a nice shiny varnish too.

 I don't really know how many there are. I'm thinking around 70 or so.

I counted them right after I made them but this old brain of mine runs into fog some days and I don't remember much from some days like that. It was a fun little mindless distraction from the struggles with Fred. He was usually close by.

 This is the backside of the altered envelope I sent to my partner in June.

Acrylics on plain white envie.

This is the front. I think I got that backwards. This is the back and the frog is the front. I'm telling ya! My mind is going! lol

 I have another embroidered ball in the works.

 I made a few journal pages.... this one is circles cut out of magazine paper.

 manilla file folder with purple tissue paper, green acrylic ink and yellow acrylics

 painted newspaper on ups envelope

 more magazine circles

all of these are adhered to a backing made either of a cereal box, a UPS envelope or a manilla file folder.

 magazine paper and acrylic paint

 remnants of painted newspaper

 magazine paper circles.

 painted newspaper

 magazine paper and acrylic inks

I've been working on sewing these into the cover of the book for the last few days. I had way more pages than I needed for one book. 

This is what the cover looks like. I cut the stems and leaves out of painted chipboard from a cereal box. The flowers are painted circles of different sizes covered with scraps of fabric and glued together and then glued to the cover. The cover is a cereal box. This book will be over three inches thick when its finally all sewn together. Then the fun begins when I start filling it up with journaling!

 I've done some crocheting. This market bag was made in a few hours one afternoon while watching hulu. Might of been YouTube. It's made from poly rope and acrylic yarn.

The hank of poly rope I was working from on the market bag was almost gone when I finished the market bag so beings there wasn't a lot of red yarn left as well, I crocheted a small red basket. It's about 4 inches across, 6 inches tall or so.

 This is the beginnings of a book cover. Remnants of painted newspaper. Tiny pieces of remnants.

 I started another batch of skulls. Not sure if these will be magnets, ornaments or just what.

 Still working on all the components. The tin is filled with inch and quarter circles of aluminum cans for skull eye holes. The little green box has tiny squares of dead CDs cut with the tin snips. Not sure I have enough tiny CD pieces for all 29 skulls that are ready to be embellished. I didn't shoot for 29 skulls when I was cutting them out of chipboard food packaging boxes. I ran out of chipboard and ended up with 58 skulls. Need two for each finished skull so it worked out OK. I figure these should be done within a few weeks.

 These are the fishes I decided to send in for the swap. Paper mache, googly eye and sequins. They're between 3.5 and 4 inches long.

 I have about a ton of toilet paper and paper towel tubes saved up and I was looking around for something to make from them one night last week. I found the tutorial on how to make a dress form for a miniature dress.  Here's the tutorial so you can make your own. There's also a tutorial on this video to make a ballet slipper out of a tp tube. I have not made the slipper.

I need to make a stand for the dress form and then I will make a little dress to fit it!

If you came only for the art, we are pretty much done with that update. I do have another market bag in the works. I forgot to take a picture of it despite the fact it's sitting on the desk, not more than a foot from me! It's coming along nicely. I will show it off in a future post.

From here on out in this post we'll be taking the scenic route around my neck of the woods.

 The milo is looking mighty nice. I'm still not 100% sure it is milo. It got a nice shower this morning. Rained to beat the band. The wind blew a little too hard for my comfort, but all is well. The sun came up and everything looks so clean!

It's suppose to get hotter than the hubs of hell today. Might be more thunderstorms again tonight. I'm only hoping there are no tornados!

This would not be good!

My oldest son took some wonderful pictures of a tornado 1/4 mile from his house two days ago. I can't figure out how to share those pictures with you all from facebook or my phone. Technically challenged individual here....

Ma and I took a trip to Hays last Friday. I took some pictures on the way home.

 People who do not live in Kansas have the notion that Kansas is flat. Those look like some pretty big hills to me. Taken between Hays and Plainville, Kansas on Highway 183 heading north, looking east.

 This hill was blasted away to put the highway through. It's a very large hill. Again between Hays and Plainville.

 And look! There's some more hills in the distance! I wish we would have taken the back roads home. A drive through open range wouldn't have hurt my feelings any but time was wasting and we had to get home.

 Crossing the river bridge into Stockton. I forget the name of that river....I really should know the name of that river. It runs less than a quarter mile away from my house. I believe it might be the Solomon Valley River.

 A picture of my mailbox across the highway where I traipse to get cool mail. I am probably one of the very few in Stockton who get colorful mail art on a regular basis.

 I leave you with the sunset setting a couple evenings ago. Top picture was taken out my back door without any zoom.

And here it is with the zoom as far as it would take me. 

Thanks for hanging around to the end!

Remember....

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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