Wednesday, September 27, 2017

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!
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

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?






Friday, September 1, 2017

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.

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...


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.