How I Would like to PAINT!

A couple of posts back I was whining about how I painted everything kinda "cute" and I wanted to be a bit more "edgier". I got some great comments and I agree that there's no reason that I can't do both!
When I say "EDGIER" I don't mean gross or shocking or morbid, just.....
Well, maybe this will give you an idea of what I'm thinking. This is a video of EMILIE SIMON.
(REMEMBER TO TURN DOWN THE MUSIC ON MY PLAYLIST SO THAT YOU CAN HEAR.)
She's a French singer and I love her music and ADORE her videos! Talk about inspiration! I'm just going to watch them over and over and let the MOOD sink into me and see what I create....


So let me know what YOU think of the video! She has SEVERAL greats ones.
Well, I'm off to my "day job" this morning and then I'll be back home to CREATE!!!!

Wednesdays Helpful Pet Tip 15(?)

Get your cat to do the vacuuming!

And Buried under Some Papers..............

I found another unfinished collage painting.............

So I finished it.

I'm kinda frustrated. I create ...."CUTE" not EDGY. I don't want SCARY, but maybe just a little DARK.
I want to create something "HAUNTING" or "MYSTICAL". Maybe a little "TWISTED" without being GOREY.  
Hmmmm, now Edward Gorey.........love HIS work.



I want "R" and I keep coming up with "GP-13".............
I want to paint something I'd actually want to hang in my ECLECTIC home.
Stay tuned.....It might get a little bit BIZARRE! (But that would be a GOOD thing! LOL!)

I Finished A Painting!

Just a quick post to show that I have actually finished something!

This was done on an old cupboard door. It's a mixture of papers, gel medium, acrylic paint, color pencils and a dab of ink. I'll post it later to my other blog http://bigwhitedogblue.blogspot.com/ and give my details, like the dimensions, the inspiration behind it and where it's available for purchase....(when I get around to listing it! LOL!)
But HEY! One WIP finally done!
Now I want to start on something Halloween themed! (I'm even going to try not to include a cat or dog.................but don't hold me to it!)

SERIOUSLY!!!!!

I need to accomplished SOMETHING this weekend. I have to STOP procrastinating!!!
But FIRST, if you haven't seen this before, Turn OFF my playlist FIRST and
PROCRASTINATE with me!

ANGER MANAGEMENT

OK, I know that everyone is suffering from the heat and it's hard to stay cool and calm but some people REALLY need some ANGER Management!
This is what happened to me today.
I get up and it's HOT. I bathe, blow dry my hair and put on some clean fresh work clothes. I gather up my dogs and head out the door. It has begun to rain. It's actually POURING outside. We run to the van, I get everyone inside and I jump in. I am soaking wet. I drive to work and I can feel my hair dripping down my neck. The weatherman on the radio is saying there's a 30% chance of rain.

I get to work and try to let the boarding dogs out but it's raining. No one wants to go outside.
Finally the rain stops. Now it's steaming HOT out. I take everyone out again and follow them around and "scoop".
At lunch time, I run an errand and by the time I'm finished, my eyes are burning from the sweat.
I get back to work. Some dogs go home and I clean. Some dogs come in and outside we go.
Even with the AIR on it's HOT. I pull out the little hair dryer that I sometimes use on the little dogs and try to blow my own hair. It's a big FRIZZ ball. I put my headband back on.
Finally it's time to go home. I have filled the back of my van with items from my lunch hour run, so I put Blue in the front passenger seat and buckle him in.
I'm driving home, there's construction everywhere. One of my regular routes going home has 2 lanes going one way and 2 the other, the outer lanes on either side are barricaded off for construction. I see a construction worker holding a stop sign toward me but there's no one coming the other way.

I slow up, maybe someone is going to step out in to the lane or maybe a truck will be pulling out. I stop. I'm smiling and I mouth through the window "Do you want me to STOP"?
The worker violently throws the sign down on the road and SCREAMS. I can read his lips. I don't want to offend anyone but he said  "Jesus F#@*ing Christ There's NOT anyone coming!" The worker next to him looked kinda shocked and then started to laugh. I am still smiling at this point, but I raise my eyebrows and crinkle my forehead. I wish I could say that I gave him the PEACE sign...but I didn't. I gave him the other one.

I don't know, maybe that's what the other worker was laughing about but....COME ON!
We are all HOT! I mean, it would have been wrong for me to just blow past the STOP sign! How totally rude. This guy needs some major anger management and I pity the people in his life.
I was home ten minutes later and as I was letting my dogs outside, I noticed a few rain drops. Five minutes later I was hurrying them inside because it was pouring rain and the winds had really picked up. It made me smile, hopefully it was cooling that guy off!

I FORGOT the PET TIP!

Sorry, I forgot the PET TIP! But here's a short video!
(Remember to turn down my Playlist all the way so that you can hear the music!)
 I love Golden Retrievers! and this clip kinda reminds me of Blue, who is NOT a Golden but it's because his head is level with my kitchen counters! -


So I guess the tip is: be careful of leaving food on the counter! LOL!

THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

I've just been awarded "The Versatile Blogger Award" by Autumnforest http://autumnforestghosthunter.blogspot.com/ please take a moment to check her blog out. She's crazy, I mean crazy smart! LOL!
She's a fantastic writer and an actual Ghost Hunter! There's never a dull moment over at her blog!
The rules attached to this award are:
• Thank the person who gave it to you.
• Share 7 things about yourself.
• Pass the award along to 15 who you have recently discovered and who you think fantastic for whatever reason.
• Contact the blogs you picked and let them know about the award.

Actually I've never been that great about rules, ya know that whole rules are made to be broken thing, but...
THANK YOU AUTUMNFOREST!
Hmmm..... 7 Things. I didn't want to be boring. My mind has been fried from being outside in that sizzling heat! Autumn had a few ideas for me, she said "I say you give us some tantalizing stuff...who was your first teacher crush? Do you sing in the shower? What celebrity would you most like to have a whole night with??? Inquiring minds wanna know, girl!"
Well.....OK!
1. I NEVER had a crush on any teacher. I hated school with a passion. Every single moment was pure torture. I felt like it was a HUGE punishment. If you ever saw the movie "The Breakfast Club" I was the Ally Sheedy character. (Except I always had clean washed hair). I was the one that sat in the back in the last seat. I would stare out the window daydreaming or doodle.

2. I don't sing in the shower because, I don't have a shower. Just a big clawfoot tub. If I HAD a shower, that would probably make me want to SING in happiness! I do sing "Scrub a Dub Tub Little Doggie in da Tub" when I bathe my little ones in the sink.
3. What celebrity would I like the night with? Usually I'd say George Clooney or Hugh Jackman.
But right now I'm kinda feeling more like SAM ELLIOTT.

4. Talking about men. I love beautiful EYES. Usually blue ones. I adore a starched white shirt or maybe a blue one. Add some jeans and cowboy boots...Oh MY, I would be in Heaven.
5. Let's see...I can't stand people who don't have any manners. Little rude things like sticking their chewed gum on their plate. If that isn't the grossest thing. OR blowing their nose at the table...I mean, we are trying to EAT here! Ugh! Have a little CLASS.
6. I hate confrontation. I'm so Passive Aggressive. I won't say anything to the neighbor about him parking his truck on the lawn and never cutting the grass!" but I'll go inside and call the CITY on him.
7. I have NO PROBLEM with confrontation if it involves an animal. Especially MINE. They can't speak for themselves and I sure as HELL won't stand for any mistreatment of them.

OH BOY! I AM TIRED and CRANKY and HOT!!!!!
So there are 7 things you could probably have happily lived the rest of your lives without knowing! Ha!
Now I'm breaking the rules, I don't have 15 people that I recently discovered. So I'm dropping the ball.
Cranky Cindi is going to have a cocktail and then go to bed!

CEMETERY PHOTOS for INSPIRATION

I am sick of this HOT weather! I'm tired of watering my flowers everyday so that they survive and pulling weeds and building that damn fence to block out my neighbor! I can't get all the weeds because his truck is parked next to the property line and then I "accidentally" watered his truck as I tried watering my flowers!
I am in the mood for FALL! I'm thinking about Halloween. Everything I paint usually is dog or cat related. And while I adore painting them, I feel I need to stretch a little and try to do something else too!
So I drove to one of the cemeteries in my town and took a bunch of photos for inspiration. I did this once before and edited them to black and white. These are as is...I might end up altering them but I think I got some good photos. Something to get me in the spirit of Halloween!
Here's a few shots of the caretakers house -

Here are some headstones with the deceased photo enclosed in glass

Here are some mausoleum's

This is a sad one, a dog used to stay by his owners grave and when the dog passed away, they made a statue in his memory.

a ball or maybe a globe

a pyramid -

These are cool but kinda spook me out -

and some more shots -

I went right after work, while the light was still good, and before it was twilight...then it's too spooky and they lock the gates when it gets dark.

This is what Jimmy Chew did for MY Birthday!

He chewed up my cell phone! Sometimes he really lives up to his name! AAAARRGGGHHH!!!!
I was moving some furniture around and went into the laundry room and there he was! Munching on my phone! I tell you, sometimes I feel like I can't have anything nice! Everything was a ding or scratch or is covered up! Grrrrr. Today at work when I tried to "unlock" it and it started to dial "*******'s". My friend pulled the grill thing off and now it's working but I'm still irritated. I could get it replace but that at least $50 and I don't want a shiny new phone that bad.
Anyway! My Birthday was very nice! My sister had asked if I wanted to come over and they would grill out and we could have cocktails but I told her I'd rather have HELP. So......she came over and stripped the wallpaper of the wall in my bathroom and we organized and moved things around and I was SO HAPPY to have help! After she left, I felt so relieved to have that bathroom wallpaper task done!
My middle niece Maggie baked a dessert from scratch for me!

Yum! It's chocolate chip cookie dough topped with strawberry cream cheese and cool whip, topped with sliced strawberries and almonds and drizzled with fudge topping! It was Heaven! (Calories don't count on your birthday!)

 I got some great gifts!

The pink bag says"PARIS" and inside it was the magnet of the 2 dogs that says "People are Weird" and a gift card from Target (love that store!) Maggie got me the Black Cat bank (which I adore!) and I got my Favorite print! (Hercule) from Pam! It was a GREAT birthday with my sister and 2 of my nieces (the oldest one had to go to Chicago but she called me and wished me a Happy B-Day). Next week I'm going out to dinner with two of my best friends...Steak and Cocktails!
A GREAT start to a GREAT Year!

Monday Already?!

Sigh....I wish I could sleep in!

I had a wonderful Birthday! I'll post about it later! But I want to send out a BIG
THANK YOU to All my Dear Friends who sent me such sweet Birthday greetings!
It really meant a lot to me! I'm so lucky to have such wonderful Blogger friends!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I used to hate birthdays. But starting THIS year, I'm not going to anymore!
So I'm celebrating! I'm

And here's a cute little video to myself!


If you have read my blog for a while, you probably know about the brain-freeze that I had this past year. All year long I've been thinking and saying, I'm going to be

I could never bring myself to say 52. And since I'm celebrating, I really don't want to go THERE right now, I mean why I didn't want to be 52. But HEY! I made it!

I'm over that huge graping crevice in the road! I am

I thought about maybe getting a Tattoo to commemorated the event. I already have a teeny tiny flower on the front of my ankle. One of my best friends and I went to get tattoo's YEARS ago. Me, a flower and she a Shamrock on her boob area. Well, I got the flower and she backed out......Yeah, surprisingly we are still friends! Hmmmm, best not to think about that too long. Anyway, yesterday I was over at Wyanne's blog.

http://wyartjewels.blogspot.com/

(she's an amazing artist and she always inspires me!) well, she just got a tattoo and it got me thinking about getting one on top of my foot. I gotta tell you, if you Google tattoo's, don't be drinking coffee or anything!  some of that stuff is NOT pretty!

I do kinda like this one-

maybe change it around a little and have it wind around my ankle and down onto my foot.

OR, I'll probably just pay my water bill instead. I have a hard time spending money on things that are NOT necessary. But who knows..................

It's the year of 53!

Anything can and will happen!

and while I was looking at tattoo designs, I stumbled on a design that I'm going to have to try to figure out who created it because I would LOVE to have it as my LOGO!

Here it is! -

as far as using it for a tattoo, well it's just too freaking big!

I mean - OUCH!

but that's OLDBLACKCATBOO if I ever saw it!!!!

So, must research that!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do today but I know that my niece Maggie is baking me a special cake with Chocolate, Almonds, Cream Cheese and Raspberries!!!

OMG! Calories don't count on your birthday!

So! This is MY YEAR!!!

Hey, I just recently realized that my email address has 053 in it!

I didn't pick it, I mean of course I choose the RUBY part but the # 1 was taken and so was #01 and #001 so they just randomly gave me 053!

I tell you this is going to be a great year, I'm not making a list or anything.

It's just going to happen!

WIP's and Ralphie

Well, just a quick post of some of the things I'm working on:

This is a mixed media painting that I'm  working on. I've used an old cupboard door and primed and painted it and then I collaged papers onto it and I've just been layering the paint and gel medium and wiping some off and now I've started on the dog. I would say that I am about half way finished.....

You probably know what these are! A new bunch of naughty kitties. These guys have left the house and gone outside and captured different "friends". I'm trying paperclay on one of them, we'll see how THAT turns out! and then there's Ralphie-

YES! That's the same dog as the one in the tree!

I shaved him down for summer.

I took him into work and they gave him a shot of a sedative that was supposed to make him very groggy, so that I could shave him. WELL, it had NO effect on him! So I had to wrestle him down on the surgery table while they "gassed" him down and knocked him completely out! Then my friend Amber and I quickly shaved him down! I truly think he likes it. It has to be cooler and it was getting matted because he wouldn't let anyone touch him to brush out his tangles.

I have taken a new approach to my situation with him. I think what really brought it to a head was when I read about Abi's (http://abimonroe.blogspot.com/) little dog Mouse passing away. His little face really reminded me of my Ralphie. When I read about his passing, I just burst into tears. If you haven't been to Abi's blog, you really need to check it out! She is a fabulous Doll Maker and probably one of the sweetest people you could meet. She just raised a HUGE amount of cash for her local dog rescue all because of her own generosity. I saw that photo of Mouse and realized that Abi probably had her share of battles with that little guy when he was young, seeings how all terriers are terrors in their youth. And here she was 16 years later.... OK, I'm tearing up again.

SO, My new approach is to stay as calm as I can when Ralph drives me to the brink. He probably feeds off of all that bad energy when I'm yelling at him like Mel Gibson. I need to stay calm and patient. I've started cradling him (he HATES that) and I make him be submissive. I rub his tummy and give him kisses. (I hold his mouth closed as I do this, I'm NOT stupid) and I gently rub my hand on his face and tell him what a good boy he is. I still plan on giving him lots of outside exercise time with Jimmy, to wear off all that hyper-energy. But we will get through this. Thank you my friends, for listening to my rants and frustration. Ralphie must be going through his teenage years. (My sister is dealing with the same problems with HER teenager!)

but I'm lucky because I can kennel mine over night and not get arrested! LOL!

REMEMBER...

JUST KEPT THINKING COOL THOUGHTS!!!!!!!!!

WEDNESDAYS HELPFUL PET TIP is a QUESTION!?

What do you think of doghouses? I've always thought of them in three ways.
#1 as a pretty feature in the garden. Like a hammock. Nice to look at but probably never used.

#2 Ridiculous indulgences of the RICH.

OR # 3

a Dog's worst nightmare.

I've NEVER thought of having an actual functioning dog house for any of my dogs. I remember at a meeting at work when a representative from a drug company was talking about Heartworm and Flea preventative and when a question was asked about the proper dosage for a dog over 150lbs. The rep made a comment about how a dog that size would probably be an outside dog. Before I could say anything the veterinarian said in a shocked voice. NOT BLUE! and everyone laughed because they knew it was true!  Of all my dogs, Blue has to be one of the most easiest and well mannered of my gang. (a couple of my little ones are near perfect. Like my Ruby. ) But I do have two terriers.

First I adopted Jimmy Chew. He's part Boston Terrier and part Cairn (?) terrier.

I got him thinking he could be a friend for Blue ( and he was So cute and needed a home.)

But Blue doesn't really LIKE other dogs. Oh sure, he tolerates them but he doesn't want to play with them.

He LOVES people!

He lets Twinkle, my Chihuahua sleep on him but that's the only one he REALLY likes.

Then Jimmy started acting up, challenging Blue. Barking and growling at him and trying to pick a fight.
One day Blue had enough and held Jimmy down on the floor by his throat with his mouth. Jimmy fought for a moment and then started to whimper. In the meantime I was running across the room to pull Blue off of him. You CAN'T yell at a deaf dog to STOP! Well,  Jimmy was fine, a little bit slobbered up but fine and from that day on he never bothered Blue. Sometimes he will walk by Blue and Blue will give him the "LOOK" and Jimmy will walk a wide circle around him with his head averted and making sure he didn't make eye contact. I guess going through a moment like that isn't something a smaller dog forgets.
So what to do?
Some people thought I should try to find Jimmy a home. I had one woman inquire about him but I didn't like her. Sure she SAID the right things but..........NO.
So, I went out and found a buddy for Jimmy. Enter Ralphie.

He loved Jimmy (and my niece Lily, instantly)

The problem is, now he is challenging Blue and HE won't back down. I have to run interference and I'm constantly sweeping him up and away from a battle. He also LOVES to terrorize my cats. Well, not my Harry. Harry won't have any of that and puts him in his place! But he chases Charlie all over the house and he was so MEAN to Horton that I took Horton to the clinic to live. (Horton's just too fat to run fast enough).

Then there's the issue of him raising his leg. He's gotten better and he's so crazy that I can't get a belly band on him. But I'm constantly washing the sheets that cover my furniture and mopping the floors.

I am finding that with the nicer weather, when I am home, I leave everyone outside in the backyard as I am gardening or whatever and it seems to help. He burns off more energy out there! He LOVES chasing the squirrel that lives in the tree (or maybe it lives under my roof soffits) and he's even jumped and ran so hard that he now can get partway up the weeping willow!

Notice how long his hair has gotten!  I have a tranquilizer from work that I plan on using on him so that I can try to shave him down again. The groomer at work prides herself in being able to groom difficult dogs. She loves the challenge. After trying to trim Ralphie's nails, she said that he was NUTS and refuses to groom him.

So here's my Question...Is a dog house inhumane? I can't really imagine it!

I've tried Googling it and I just keep finding tips on how to keep your dog warm/cool.....

I did find a very attractive doghouse that looks like something I might consider -

It was featured in Fido Friendly magazine by Cindy Hodo

It's very Eco, with flowers on the roof and I think that's rain water that runs down to the bowls....

I would HAVE to put Jimmy outside with him. Is that fair to Jimmy?  My friends think the dogs would like it. They wouldn't be chained. The fenced area of yard is probably at least 30 ft by 30 ft. and he'd have the willow tree...I am having a BIG problem with this...of course they would sleep inside at night...

PLEASE LEAVE ME COMMENTS!

Even if it's to tell me that I'm an awful person to even consider this.

In the meantime, I will continue transporting Jimmy and Ralphie everyday (along with Blue) to work with me. I have to admit though, somedays when it's been a long exhaustung day, I have left the two little "terrors" at the clinic overnight. I guess that I'm very lucky to run a boarding kennel and have a place for them to be kept when I'm tired and stressed. They do like running in the play area and barking at ALL the other dogs.