I do YuDu !

Today I got a yudu screen printing machine and made my first screen print!
This photograph I took of Max:
Became this printed on a tshirt ! (it looks a tad funky since the tshirt is just hanging on the hanger. I'll try for one with the shirt on tomorrow when there is actually sun!).
"muffin" is what I often call max because he's my little love muffin :)

Christmas and bdays...working on new art

Art Stuff

no idea why, but now that it's after christmas, i'm in the mood to make christmas crafts. i've been dying bottle brush trees fun and funky colors. it looks like some wierd christmas tree farm.

i've even managed to glitter some of them, but the glue is not working real well, so i will have to try and figure out another method to keep them from shedding too much.

I got my trees at Home Depot (who knew they had them?) and returned all the overpriced ones I'd gotten at Michaels. i like the "sugared" looking ones best, and for sure I am going to make some for Valentines day.

I'm doing my yearly clean out of my studio and have managed to take out a cupboard and move cabinets and I'm really hoping to have a much more functional studio in 2009!

Christmas stuff

every year, since the kids have been born, I've taken their pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Some day, I'll be organized enough to make a photo book out of them !

note to self: remember not to tell travis to make a dorky face !

I thought I'd try to do something fun/artsy with pictures of the dogs in Christmas outfits....

most of them came out like this....

Max refused to contribute and chose to play with his new ball instead.

but Henry was my little star ! ho ho ho

Birthday stuff

and then there were the birthdays...

i can't believe i'm old enough to have a 16yr old. he wanted chocolate pie for his bday "cake"...I made baby ones.

Henry's 1st bday was in December, but due to a huge snow storm, i wasn't going to brave it to get the ingredients I was missing for his cakes. He's ok with getting them later :)

Max's 2nd bday was in november. I made Pup Cakes. he moved so fast to eat his that the pictures didn't come out too good!

Emily's bday was in november too. I guess there was some sort of "pie for cake" thing this year!

updated blog links

I've found the most interesting blogs by following links on blogs I love... I've finally gotten around to updating my blog links.

What you'll find now is an eclectic mix of blogs that I try to visit at least every other day...some art, phenomenal writers, home decor, and pugs... it's really more of a reflection of me now! I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as I go, but this is a good start (since I've done no new art).

Max joins our family!

Max, a black pug, is the newest addition to our family as of Thursday.
He is the sweetest thing and I'm really thrilled to have him.
Yes, three dogs is enough and we'll be stopping now!

here's a few pictures of the newest beast:

ahhh, the dog days of summer

If no answer...I'm in the Garden

We've had gloriously not-too-hot weather and as usual, I'm trying to soak up as much sun and get yard time as possible.
Here's an update on how big the sunflowers are now.
oh, you can't tell that the sunflower is over a foot wide from that picture ? Here's Emily (all 5'3" of her) standing next to them for some perspective. I love her pose when I requested she stand there !
My asters have finally started blooming. I'm a little frustrated that it took so long when I winter sowed them and they were the first things to come up, but they look fantastic now.

There are many, many more yard pictures to be posted, but I must mow the lawn while the doggies are napping.

Lordy, Lordy look who's 40

today was my birthday... I cannot believe I am this old.
I took a few self portraits for posterity....
I like this black/white one the best-

here I am in color -
yeah, not a good hair day, but when it's almost 90 and really high humidity I'm lucky my bangs even stayed straight!

Black and White

One of my Yahoo groups is working on a black and white book to submit for publishing...
here's my page. You can't read it too well in the scan, but the text I found in my local paper says "there's more to us than black and white". I was so happy when I found that !

Photos from my garden

I spent a little time this afternoon taking photos of the flowers in my garden.
Here are a few of my favorites:

Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate (aka love lies bleeding). These are 4feet tall !

Sunflower in my front yard:

Sunflower in the side yard:

Sunflower on the other side yard:

Zinnia in the side yard (3ft tall!):

Oh no, where's my mommy?I think I see her !

Some of the pots that had plants in them:

Some pots my friend gave me (will have plants next year). I love the colors in this one.

The Yard - during

as promised (to who? I've no idea if anyone ever reads my sporatic postings anymore!), here are the "during" pictures of the front curb and side yard.

Here's the front curb now:


here it is before (June 5th):
and here's a closeup of now (I am going to have to move some of these already!)


the side yard now:

here it is before (May 29th):

here it is up close - the fence is 4ft high and the sunflowers are almost there already!

Here are some photos from my front yard.

The peeing boy statue was my birthday present last year - you can't see him peeing since it's blocked by the delphinium.

One of my planted chairs. I love chairs in the yard. The whole front yard is purple, yellow, and white after my alma mater Nazareth College.
this is the succulent chair. It was a tad more full last year, but I lost a few over the winter. Behind it, the tall daisies are about to bloom...below it are the coreopsis, petunias (both grown from seed this year) and my lavender.
More yard pictures to come as things start blooming !

The Yard - before's

I have spent every single day working in the yard or greenhouse since March - not a whole lot of that reflected here, is there?

I thought I'd share a few before pictures from the end of May/beginning of June.
Tomorrow I'll share how they look now (I just love a good before and after, but since it's past midnight, the pictures would be a tad dark now, eh?)

I've spent lots of time looking at other people's garden photos, but most of them live where it was warm much earlier than upstate NY. We have had really odd weather this year with it being 80s for a bit in April then 40s end of May going to 90s in the beginning of June. This can be a bit exasperating, but I tend to plant heavy (and too close together!), so I don't worry much if a few things don't make it. This is the first year I've grown nearly all of the annuals in my yard. Anyhow....

Here's the front curb. I have always hated mowing it since it's just a bit larger than one pass with the mower and a real challenge around that tree. Now I put plants in it every year... there are a couple perennials, but normally I fill it with annuals since they stack the salty snow right there in the winter time.
Here's one side of the back yard- tantilizing view of the neighbor's parking area, isn't it? I can't put in a real/solid fence because there is a drain that runs directly under the property line and the village has an easement to access it.
Stay tuned for updated pictures tomorrow !

Spotlight on Sam

I thought I'd share a few more pictures of Sam.
He is the funniest dog, like a big dog trapped in a little dog body. He spends his days in the backyard burying his bone and then stealing Henry's !

here's a rare pose from the curious little guy:

Here he is wondering why I am calling him - he has things to do and discover !
Here he is in action. I love how his mouth looks in this picture even though my camera takes terrible action shots.
and here are the two best buddies together (awwww aren't they cute? they're just waiting for a treat or they'd never be still this long!)