Sad News...

 

I recently got some sad news on my

Finnegan. He was having bouts which would last

less than a minute but it seemed

like he was coughing up a fur ball

but there never was one. So I took

him to the vet.  I had a feeling it

would be heart related and sadly

I was right.  He has advanced heart

disease at only 4 yrs. old.  It was

confirmed by an echogram of his heart.

 

 

The vet estimated he may

have 3-6 months.

We are giving him 4 different

meds to keep him comfortable.

At the moment he seems fine.

He occasionally has a breathing

episode, but he other wise

seems fine and doing everything

he normally does.

 

 

I always wanted a Maine Coon cat.

 

 

My friend Connie Galant

sent me an email showing an ad that was up

on the bulleting board at

the hospital she works at

for Maine Coon kittens for sale.

She even gave me the suggestion

of his name Finnegan which I thought

just fit him perfect.

 

 

We had Taz the cat in the back who was a rescue. 

Taz  was terrified of Jake - our large dog.

We took Jake who also was a rescue, when my mother in law died. 

I told my husband if we got a kitten that wasn't afraid of

Jake, Taz would see that  it was ok and stop

living under our bed 24/7.

Which Finn totally did and  now

everyone lives peacefully together.

 

 

 

 

Such a adorable, fearless

handful grew up into

a big beautiful boy...

 

 

such a big part of our family

 

 

those green mischievous eyes 

 

 

 

Helping his brother to see Jake is

just a big teddy bear!

 

 

and keeping Henley company....

 

 

I love him very dearly

 

 

 

I love this gorgeous boy laying with his

big belly all out there for the world to see!

 

 

I can't even imagine a time without his goof ball antics. 

 

 

so for now...

 

 

I will just spoil this big guy!

 

 

and Love and be thankful

that I have him here with me

for the time I do.

 

 

because I know without

any doubt that one day

 

 

My precious boy

will greet me on the other

side when my time on earth

is over.  Knowing this

Comforts me Greatly!

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Garage Fix up!

This summer my husband took

his small car out of the garage.

I thought this would be the perfect time to get

it cleaned up, organized and give

me some storage so my ceramic

pieces would have less chances of being 

broken.  I wish I had a before pic, 

because it was really bad, but my husband surprised

me, painting the walls while I

was away on a girls weekend.  He didn't take a

before pic. The walls were

unfinished drywall.   There was no shelving and stuff

was just stacked all over the place.  It didn't

help that I had made the

2 car garage smaller with a closet

addition a few years ago.

I am a Pinterest fan... so I found 

inspiration for these shelves on there.

I love organization....so the thought

of nice shelving is really great to me.

We built these together and it worked out great.

Then I had this old beat up table

someone gave me that I always meant to

get to, but hadn't for 15 yrs...

it was in pretty bad shape, so anything 

would be an improvement.

Now a pretty red table 

being used.  I put up old

salvaged closet shelves to hold

my pottery to be fired.

Why have it be ugly?  I painted old frames

all white and put in them

artistic inspirational quotes

that I also got on pinterest.

Made a pretty wreath for the door.

and such a big storage improvement!

I am thrilled

My husband got me this beautiful

cart to use with my 

pottery stuff.

I salvaged and painted an old drawer to hold my kiln

shelves in under the red table.

Glad to have is all done.

New works...

I love this one with so much detail.

I am happy to say it is sold.

If all goes well this will be a hanging bird bath.

cleaning up details on a sunflower with bee's plaque

this is another one in the works...

I was getting superstitious about showing 

work before it is finished. It is 

so fragile, I have had many things get

broken before they are completed.

I had another artist share

her perspective on when this

happens.  She said. those pieces

just weren't meant to 

live.  Move on to the next

one!  I think that's a good

idea.  I have the skill to make

it over and it will just get

better with the practice, Right?

My Amazing Butterfly Adventure

I feel blessed to have had a wonderful

Butterfly surprise this summer.

As I showed in an earlier post I was able to find 6

Monarch eggs on my milkweed I planted.

http://nataschasinspirations.blogspot.com/2017/08/if-you-plant-it-they-will-come.html

They all went to the top successfully and formed

Chrysalis.  I am thankful that nothing

went wrong and no diseases appeared.

I discovered from my Facebook groups posts

many things can go wrong.  

Having never done this, it was all a new

and exciting experience. 

This is when five of them were up transforming.

As they get closer to emerging the chrysalis
becomes transparent.  I have to add the
chrysalis are small, no longer than an inch.

So surprising how this butterfly
emerges from such a small space.

They hang upside down to dry their wings

and pump fluid into them.

It was such a wonderful thing for me... that I just

fell into accidentally.  I look forward to doing it

next year and helping in the migration.  I read that

if left in the wild there is only a 10% chance in

survival from predators.  Then in the migration there is

more risk in them successfully making it to Mexico

Apparently they are killed primarily by cars.

I am very hopeful mine will make it to Mexico...

https://youtu.be/F8BbIJtvbBg

Look at this beautiful male #1.  Notice the

two black dots in the orange

by the tail of his body which

indicate he is a male.

This one a female #2.

In all 2 males and 4 females emerged.

All healthy with no deformities.

If felt amazingly special to hold a

butterfly in my  hand!!!

Their legs feel like they have little

suction cups and they 

kind of grip on to you.

Male #2 was in a big hurry to go and flew up into

my tree quickly.  This being the only picture

I got of him.

Farewell beauties.  I hope you make it to Mexico.

I think they will make an appearance in my 

pottery in the future.