June 20, 2012

New Family Member: Ms Bones

We adopted a new girl today: an elderly mastiff.. not sure what kind at the moment, but she has a blurry brindle coat & the gal at the shelter said she was "bred to death"... will take her to the vet tomorrow (if we can get her to cooperate about going outside & going to the car) or Friday or Monday...

We now have 3 rescue pooches (and one that we adopted as a puppy):
Indy is 2-1/2, we found him on the side of the road in 2010... sick with heartworms & anemic...
Emma started following the boys around last fall & she became part of the family pretty soon after...
and now we have Ms Bones...

SO we have "Indy-Emma-Bones and the Temple of Food"

My son came up with Indy-Emma-Bones and a gal from the Great Plains Mastiff Rescue suggested I set up a blog by that name... for now I'll have it as a Category... (I still don't know how you guys can see what the categories are..some day I'll sit down and figure that out & fix the sidebar...)

Here are some photos:

Tuesday's photo from my phone:
MrsBones.jpg


Evan took this with his phone... I was sitting next to her just patting her & he said "either get in the picture or get out of the picture"... love this pic!

Photo-0117.jpg


Camera Pix:

Almost in the car:
MsBonesHalfInCar6-20-12.jpg

MsBonesCloseup.jpg


Almost in the house... Micah and Evan had to hoist her up.. hopefully she will be happier to go inside and outside more readily as time goes by and she learns to trust us.

MsBonesAlmostInside.jpg

Knitting

I am on the last repeat of the Blossoms shawl and got the first part of the Summer Solstice Shawl this morning.. I'm STILL not sure which of the 3 yarns I'm going to use: need to photo the swatch & make up my mind... when I photo it, I'll go through the pros & cons of each and go from there.

I'm concerned about the 2 100% wool ones because the yarn seems to snap somewhat easily... not breathe on it & it snaps, but with just a little pressure.. the sock yarn with the nylon in it is much harder to break...

Will also be starting a Faces workshop with Martha, who did the 29 Faces & Guy Faces challenge.. I need to post some stuff!

Posted by Jessica at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2012

art stuff & knitting

I'm somewhat blocked but I think I can get back on track after watching some videos.

I was watching one gal do a painting and it got me to thinking about how much trouble I have getting a NEAT edge.. and about needing to figure out ways to not worry about them but make the way I do edges a feature, part of the way *I* do art... also sometimes my lines aren't even, as in a circle or straight line.. but there is a lot of character in a straight line that is NOT straight edge straight.

(and I LOVE when they don't talk if the video isn't subtitled or captioned: just play some music & if they have anything to say, post captions... )

Gonna go work on my postcard for Italy, but I don't know if I'll post it: I ordered some stamps & they've not arrived yet... I could draw a stamp but hopefully there'll be stamps in the package I'm waiting for.

Knitting

I'm ready to start chart B of the Blossoms by the Brook shawl. I added an extra repeat because I'm using a skinnier yarn than the pattern calls for... not sure if I should add one more or not... I guess I'll go ahead & pop in a lifeline so that I can go back & add more if I think it's necessary but somehow I don't think I'll have to. I'll post an update photo sometime this week.

Posted by Jessica at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2012

"They are all so different and beautiful in their own special ways."

That quote was made by a friend of mine who will be going to visit other people's ponds today... that reminded me of how that statement can be applied to just about anything we all do, whether it be art, the way we dress, the way our hair looks, the way we speak, ANYTHING. I occasionally think "wow, I want to be like that" (or be able to do that the way s/he does), but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, we are all so different and beautiful in our own special ways, and do things differently in our own special ways!

Another thing: we look at others and think "wow, I love that hair color/curls/straight hair/eye color, etc." (or other thing that's not easily changeable): instead of thinking that we have to have that hair color, etc, why not just enjoy it on someone else? That said, I'm still at a tossup about whether or not I want to let my white-grey hair grow back in or continue putting henna on most of it, leaving several strands in my natural color... I think I'll continue with the henna!

Chew on that! :) Give your self esteem a big boost...

Posted by Jessica at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

Workshop I'd like to take and some rambling

I'd like to take this workshop:

I know how to do faces, but would like to learn from others... I'd love it if you would buy some yarn here so I can afford it... :)

Also, I have been inspired by Jonathan (Blade) Mannings' 100 Faces project.> He did them 5 minutes at a time each day...

I may eventually do a 100 something project, probably faces, because of my fascination with them... but for now, I want to finish up 29 Faces and the A-to-Z challenge, and work on June Guys & start the postcard project... still working out the details for that in my head... and wrote a little as well.

Knitting

Here is the Blossoms by the Brook project that I take out every so often:

BlossomsBrook5-2012a.JPG

This one is done with Panda bamboo cotton yarn... it's nice to work with!

I discovered that I'm not ready to work with the textured silk yarn in public: need to get used to it. Last week I missed a yarnover or two or something, the count was wrong, and tinking back was a bit of a nightmare. NOT something one might want to do at a concert. Need something with a little less need to focus!

HTML stuff

Earlier, Gary said that I know more about HTML than he does now... AND HE SET UP THIS BLOG and MY WEBSITE! I guess he just plum forgot... so now I want to know how to get the categories to show up in case anyone wants to ONLY see certain entries... wonder also if I should download the latest Movable Type.. I dunno!

Posted by Jessica at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2012

This and that, new challenges and catchup stuff...and sad news...

This month I'm doing the male faces challenge.. it's real easy (1 a week, approximately), so I'll also be able to finish 29 faces & the A-to-Z challenge...

Here's the button for the male faces challenge:



I also found a postcard challenge.. it runs all year, started in January & I'll find out if it's okay if I go ahead & jump in starting next week. I'd start now but I'd like to pick up something to use for making the postcards as I'm not sure if what I have will suffice (read: make me happy). I do have a 9x12 Aquabee pad but not sure I want to use it, will be looking around & decide by Monday what to get. Maybe some watercolor paper? Hot & cold press, not sure yet.. something thick-ish...



Knitting

Been working on a shawl in a pastel bamboo cotton yarn... slowly, a little here & there... may also work on a silk yarn project but that one needs concentration until I am more comfortable with the yarn.. I missed a couple of yarnovers or something with the silk yarn & it was hard to fix & we were at a concert. NOT a good place for that!!

Sad News

We lost Daisy last week: she got hit by a vehicle: I did not even know she was outside. I was in my room & came out to take care of some stuff in the kitchen & saw that she was not acting right... saw some red spots on her head & later found out that was probably road rash. I thought she wasn't badly hurt because she was walking around "just fine".. anyway, after a bit, we agreed we needed to take her to the vet... she was too badly hurt: several ribs broken, fluid in her lungs & the main concern was whether or not her heart had been hit. It was. :( Poor baby was only 9 months old & we had her for exactly 7 months. She was just getting out of the worst of the chewy puppy stage & was a pleasure to be around... she was great at playing fetch (and returning the ball)... I miss her lots...

We didn't get very many pictures of her & if it were not for the A-to-Z challenge, we may not have even had the photos of her nearly grown, just baby-puppy pictures... here is one of them:

D5.JPG


She will be missed... I'm not in a hurry to get another dog, we still have 3: Emma, Pixel & Indy... plus we need a fence put up... but if we end up with an emergency situation with a dog, we won't turn it away..

Posted by Jessica at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)