Furry Face of the Week: Meet Roscoe!

Roscoe, terrier mix

Meet Roscoe, my furry face of the week! Roscoe is a sweet terrier mix was who adopted shortly after I photographed him, but I wanted to share this picture. Doesn't it look like he's trying to convey something VERY important to you?

I'm loving my Friday mornings at the shelter, and now that Fall term has started and my summer Fridays off are over, I'm having to get creative with my photography schedule.  So far I've earned enough flex time during the week to keep up on Friday mornings, but we'll see!  I may soon have to come on the weekends.  We just got a grant at the shelter that allowed us to set up a new indoor photo studio. We have all sorts of fun backdrops and props!  I haven't shot in there yet as I'm still thinking about how I'll get a 70 lb pitt bull mix to sit on a couch and wear a boa.  Any suggestions welcome!

Aunt Livy's 91!

We took off for Chattanooga to visit Aunt Livy shortly after my last post, so it's been a while since I've checked in! (Then we came home to a lightning strike and lost all our electronics, but that's a whole other story...) We had a wonderful visit, and no matter what we do, it's always special to visit Aunt Livy. Here are a few peeks at our trip...
Sarah Livvie Maxine Rock City 1
 
My sister's daughter Maxine finally had her wheels this year! This was her first trip to Rock City. What a little cutie...and she even has a little strawberry blonde action going there!
  Kelly w buzzard
 
So there's this bird show at Rock City...and they needed a willing volunteer...who had to wear an entertaining apron that had a dead possum sewed to the front...all so a vulture could land on her arm...several times as he flew back and forth above the audience. His name was Casey. We became great friends. He had a 5' foot wing span. Did I tell you he sat on my arm? Several times? A vulture with a 5' foot wing span? Yeah.
 
Screech owl 72
Here's Casey's friend...a little screech owl rescued off the side of the road. He was hit by a car, losing one eye.

Sarah rock climber 72

Sarah climbed a rock wall!
 
Maxine waterfall 72

Downtown Chattanooga is just lovely. If you've never been there, I highly recommend a visit. The Double A Chattanooga Lookouts baseball stadium was just behind our hotel, and guess who they happened to be playing that weekend?  The Jacksonville Suns! So while Kim, Maxine, Sarah and Livvie hung out in the hotel room (I can't believe they didn't want to go!), I snuck over to the game to add another stadium to my list (I have a life long dream to visit ever major league baseball park before I die...). Down near the river around the Tennessee Aquarium is a great little series of waterplay areas for the kids (big or little!) Here's little Maxine enjoying the water.

Girls running down water stairs 72

Sarah and Livvie thoroughly enjoyed the water stairs. They were awesome! Picture the Rocky stairs with water running down them; that'll give you the scale.
 
Most importantly, we visited Aunt Livy. We had a long lunch with her on Friday before we went to Rock City, and then had an early dinner with her and my cousins on Saturday. I didn't take any pictures with Aunt Livy this year since she had just fallen earlier in the week and was pretty bruised up all over the side of her face and neck; even at 91, she still has her vanity!  She's so very fragile it breaks my heart to see her that way. But I'm so grateful to still have her in my life all these years. She turned 91 today! Click back to these posts for more Aunt Livy visits and pictures of Aunt Livy... 2011 Christmas Surprise, 2011, 2010, and 2009.  Put Aunt Livy in the search bar on the top left, and you'll find all sorts of posts that include her.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Spread 21

Fun Journal 21

Oh, my long lost Fun Journal! I finally found it! And then promptly decided that since it still had empty pages in it, I needed to fill them. So even though I haven't worked in this journal in over a year and long ago declared it completed, I've reopened it!  Putting the Spiral Journal to the side until I finish out this book.  

I'm home with the girlies this week, so I finished this page yesterday and got started on a couple more pages last night. This spread includes pieces of amazing old ledgers that Cindy Woods of An Artful Journey recently sent me. They are beautiful! I started out adhering some of the ledger paper, and then did a squirt or two with a couple colors of green spray ink. I followed that with a random number stencil with the Denim ink..and then had to quietly walk away from the very large mess I had just created!  Came back later and cleaned up my mess, added in the Julius Ceaser leaves in gold on the sides and bottom and then popped the angel wings on top, first with more Demin and then outlined them with a silver Sharpie paint pen.

I glued pages together for the rest of this book, so I have about five or six spreads left to do!

August Free Bling Friday!

November 2011 Free Bling
Time for my monthly Free Bling Friday giveaway! Random.org picked comment number 12 as the winner of my July Free Bling, so congratulations to Danielle from Rochester, New York!
How about some pretty greens for August peridot girls?  To be eligible to win, simply visit either of my Etsy shops (here for jewelry and here for photography) and leave a comment in the comment box below with the link to your favorite piece along with a way to reach you and where you’re from by midnight September 13, 2012. Want more entries? Tweet, blog or Facebook this giveaway and leave another comment with the link. The next winner will be drawn via random.org Friday, September 14.

Don't want to miss a single Free Bling Friday? Click here to sign up for free weekly email updates or subscribe in the reader of your choice over there in the right column. And be sure to like my Facebook page for specials. Thanks for stopping in! Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents only.

Let It Be...

Let It Be

Sometimes you just have to let it be...like this sweet little rose growing in my next door neighbor's garden peeking through the fence to say hello to me. Someone very special to me is going through a particularly tough time in her life, and her personal struggles have reminded me to keep things in perspective. As my husband will often say to someone who's whining about something that really doesn't matter, "How's your Mama doin'?" Since neither he nor I have our Mamas here with us anymore, that's his way of reminding that person that what he's dealing with is pretty minor in the big scheme of things.

But my sweet girl is working through one of those really big things. I'm holding her close to my heart and cherishing the fact that she has enough faith in me to unburden her deepest struggles on me. I love her dearly and hope that she, too, can find a way to just...let it be...and find the value in her wonderful, sweet, amazing self once again.

Furry Face of the Week: Tilt!

Tilt

Meet Tilt! He was one of my portrait subjects this past Friday at Animal Care and Protective Services. When I posted my Friday shoot photos on my Facebook page, Jean asked me how I manage to take all these photos without wanting to take each and every one of them home. Well, it's not easy, but I'm getting better! This week, if I could have brought one home, it would have been Tilt.

See that tilt of the head? That's not just some cute expression (though it sure is a cute expression, isn't it?  Sandy wants to name him I-Lean, tee hee.). Doc's still trying to come to a final determination, but Tilt has either a neurological issue or a muscular issue. His head just always tilts just like that. It sure doesn't seem to slow him down a bit though! And he still happily chases and returns tennis balls. He's a great sport.

I also got a great little surprise while I was shooting on Friday. Two Fridays prior, I had lost one of my earrings...from one of my FAVORITE pairs that I've had for at least 15 years.  I've lost one of this pair several times over the years, and the missing one always seems to show up.  Well, wouldn't you know it, while Sandy and I were shooting, he saw a sparkle in the gravel and picked it up, and sure enough, it was my earring I lost two weeks ago. Yippee!   

Spiral Art Journal: Why Must it Go So Fast?

Spiral Journal Spread 4

Every night when I tuck the girls into bed, we have a ritual. First I ask each of them to tell me the best thing that happened that day, and then I sing each of them a little song, the same song every night. About a week or so ago, we had finished our nightly ritual, and as I was walking out the door, Sarah said, "Mama, why must it go so fast?" I replied, "Why must what go so fast, honey?" and she responded, "Everything, Mama....Sing the nite nite song again...but sing it slower this time..."

Um, wow. Such words of wisdom from a child. I posted the conversation on my Facebook page the next morning, and the other night I got around to making a journal page to remember it. I love this background, and I love these words...just wish I liked my handwriting! Fellow art journalers, what pen or marker do you most love to write with?