Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was such a lazy day.

We just had no motivation.

I still had my commissioned pumpkins to do but I just couldn't get started.

We just sort of wasted the day away.

I felt guilty....

But not enough to get started I guess!

I had been given these plastic pumpkins back in February and told that she didn't need them until September.

So being the Queen of Procrastination, I've of course put if off until the last minute.

This morning I sat down at the table.

Blue came over and laid under it and my chair.

Moral support?

I spent the entire day working on them.

If I had been able to paint "whatever", I could have just whipped them out

but of course I agonized over them.

I have one more promise of a commission, one that I made a very long time ago.

So I need to get that finished and then 

Wahoo! I'm free to do what I want.

So here's the photos I had to work from and here's the pumpkins.

I'm glad to done with them.

They have been nagging at me forever.

I really don't know why I'm like that.

I MUST stop putting things off.

Anyway, I hope she likes them.

INSTAGRAM - MAGGIE

I got to thinking about how I post to Instagram all the time and then many times I don't post any of those photos here.
I take the photos with my phone and then after I post to Instagram,
I'm able to share to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr with a click of a button and I do
but then I forget about it and never share here!
So, I'm going to start posting them here too!
(Not every single photo but most.)
That will mean more frequent posts.
Yep, some days it will be just random photos with a brief description or thought
and other days I'll be writing and rambling like usual.
Most of my photos are OF COURSE of the dogs I care for at the kennel
but every once in a while it will be something else.

Here's Maggie. One of my "Boarding Buddies".

She's a Sheltie. 
Very shy and timid and really likes to run.
Whenever I take her out to the play area I know that she will spend some time running around and around.
When it's time to go in she won't come to me right away.
She'll get closer but then she'll run.
That's kinda typical of a Sheltie.
To get this photo I had to sit down on the ground and wait for her to come to me and investigate.
Most times I just start walking back inside and she will either follow or if not, she eventually come in
if I will leave the door open to the building and her kennel door to her run open.
Then she will appear in the doorway and walk slowly across the laundry room floor and into her run.
I always pretend to be busy washing dog dishes or folding dog towels
because if I turn towards her, most times she'll run back outside.
That's just how most Shetland Sheepdogs are.
It's just better to let them do their own thing and NEVER try to chase them.
She's a beautiful girl and actually very easy to care for.

NATIONAL DOG DAY.... Part TWO

This might be a first for me, to do TWO posts in ONE day!
But I posted this over on my Facebook account and thought I should share it here too.
Vera Wag... a little poodle who I adopted years and years ago and I never seem to talk about her here.

"National Dog Day....
Sometimes when you live in a family of several dogs and you are a perfect dog who never does anything wrong and you never get into anything and you are just quiet and very sweet... Well, you don't get talked about as much. Because of this fact, today Vera Wag is getting her photo put up for National Dog Day... AND she was adopted from the shelter folks! Proof positive that there are WONDERFUL dogs waiting for homes. It's not their fault that they had stupid original owners. I'm so lucky to have her in my family."

It's NATIONAL DOG DAY!

An Awesome Surprise

I remember always having something in the mailbox.

Nowadays most of my correspondence is done online.

I get my bills online.

I pay online.

I got most off my birthday greetings online.

Unless I've ordered something I usually expect to find the mailbox empty.

Last week I ordered some dog belly bands for Squeak and Louie.

Squeak had been leaving little spots of urine around and most likely it's all related to his bladder stone issue. It's not like he's taking a full potty, just a sprinkle but now I think little Louie is coming behind him and sprinkling over it. I find myself running around with a damp mop non-stop and before Jimmy decides to mark the sprinkles, I've ordered belly bands.

So I went to the mailbox to see if they had arrived and found a soft package.

Then I noticed that it wasn't from the belly band place.

No! It was a surprise gift from my blogger friend Jan!

Something that she created, which made it all that more Awesome!

Different dogs stitched all over it!

The back looks like this -

There's a place to slide a rod in and hang it.

I plan on using a tension rod and hanging it in one of the windows of my front porch.

Probably the side one so that the sun doesn't fade it.

Yep, TOTALLY made my day!

Thank you so much Jan!

xoxo

THIS MORNING

I had hoped to sleep in.
I actually had the day off.
But sadly the dogs had other ideas.
Very early they started barking.
I think Ping saw something out the bedroom window.
It faces the street and since we are upstairs, they have a good view of it.
Most likely someone was walking down the block and they must have had a dog with them
because suddenly the room was loud with barking.
I yelled at them to "SHUT UUUUUUP!!!
and covered my head with the comforter.
But they wouldn't stop, in fact they were whipping themselves into a frenzy.
I sat up and noticed that Squeak had gone over to Blue and sat close to him.
(I sleep with my phone close by so I snapped their photo)
Seems like Squeak does that a lot,
that he goes to Blue when things get out of hand.

It's nice to have a friend to lean on when things get crazy.

Grace Ng Dung

Is one of my most favorite of artists.

This is a recent self-portrait.

She also happens to be my eldest niece.

I just had to share her creation. 

I'm amazed at how she was able to capture herself.

Here's a photo of her. 

Didn't she do a great job!
She is super talented.
She's written and illustrated a childrens book but still trying to find a publisher.
It's all about trees.
She's very much about Nature, the Earth, the Universe, Energy and Good Health.
She's very laid back and has an old soul.
I'm very fortunate to have three amazing nieces.
Each very unique and different and I love them all dearly.
So just had to share!

And now for an update.

I finished the signs.

It's sort of embarrassing to show them here after Graces creation
and added to the fact that I once again did not take proper photos but here they are:

The "Dogs at Play" one was done years ago

and I just basically repainted over the faint faded words and dogs.

This one is the commissioned one with the Basset Hound on it.

I definitely do not think this is my best work

but it's in keeping with the "Dogs at Play" sign so I thought she would like it.

The lady was very happy with them. 

In fact she was "Over the Moon Happy" about them,
especially the "Welcome" one and if she's happy, then that's all the matters then.

Update on the Booth.
I've added more and I'm still working on it.
I'll save the details for another post.

Another update.

Squeak is doing well.

He's lost weight because of my measuring out his special food
and also because he suddenly has become very active.

Yep, he's on the go all the time now.

At first he'd lay on the floor and just watch the little dogs play.

Then one evening he just got up and ran to them and started playing!

This makes me so happy, to see him happy.
Once again, sorry about these blurred photos,
I just snapped them with my phone as it was happening
but you get the idea.
:)

Life is Good here.
and... I've been reading your comments from my last post again.
Over and over.
Lately I've been thinking about ALL the comments.
Especially about taking action and making it happen
but deciding first just exactly what it is that I REALLY want to happen.
Like me pining away about living somewhere else.
Would I really want to move away from loved ones?
Home is where my family and best friends are.
(Although my best friend lives in Iowa and now LILY too,
is moving across the river to Iowa.
Hmmm, LOL!
So...I'm spending time walking around the play area with dogs at work
and pondering so many things.
One thing though, that I do know for SURE is that
I can't express again how much the friendship I have HERE in blogland means to me.
I'm blessed to have REAL friends out there taking time to comment and support me.
Yep, truly. I'm blessed.
I need to remember to count my blessings.

DEJA VU - PART ONE, TWO AND THREE (or longest post ever).

I've had my name on a waiting list for a year for a booth space in a very popular antiques/collectibles mall.

It's a pretty eclectic place and some spaces are very cool.

Some are very primitive with lots of wood and metal. I love those.

Some are a great hodge-podge of knick-knacks.

Some are just books.

And some are craft items.

I thought this would be my opportunity to get rid of all the stuff I've have "collected"

AND I could also sell some Folk Art things. 

Bigger pieces, paintings and things.

So I've been working on getting some of these things ready.

I was feeling anxious because as always, there just never seemed to be enough time to do all that I wanted to do.

August 1st, yesterday, was the move in date.

The guy who had the booth before me asked me to make an offer on the pegboard and shelves he had installed.

To be honest it looked like he had done a shabby job of it so I said $20.00.

He came back with a request for $50.00 and I declined.

I went in and walked around and noticed that all the booth spaces backed up to mine had walls

and that formed a framed in space for my booth.

I figured I could staple gun some chicken wire up until I figured out something grander.

So the guy called again and asked for another bid and I said $20.00 again,

to which I never got another reply except to find that he had taken everything down.

Fine by me.

I forgot to take appropriate before and after photos but here's an example 

of an old white cabinet -

and how it looks out at the mall.

I barely skimmed the surface here at home of all my stuff but

because I have to number my tags, I know that I have 52 items in my booth.

My sister and Lily helped me carry in my stuff and do the tags.

Here's a photo of what I have out there so far.

You can see the big gap up on the back wall.

I need to get several large paintings out there.

I repainted several pieces but I also have several that I'm going to leave "as is",

rust and all.

One thing I did was wrap a chair in fabric and mod podged with Hard Coat.

If feels a bit rough but it's durable and can be wiped down with a damp rag because of the protective coating.

My plan is to empty my house of EVERYTHING that I don't absolutely 

need or love.

What can't go to the booth, gets donated or trashed.

From now on it's just the bare minimum. 

So that's what I've been doing.

That and still working a lot.

I also had someone bring a sign I made about 10 years ago into the clinic and ask if I could

"touch it up".

It's completely faded from the sun so basically I'm just repainting the damn thing.

Then the other day she called me to ask if I'd paint a sign for her daughters new house

with the words of "welcome to my little home" and have her basset hound painted on it.

So, I need to work on that and I have some other projects for people that I still haven't finished.

Sigh.

So that was the good news.

The bad news is that I've been in the worst funk.

I shouldn't be, but I am.

I need to get my books on positive thinking out and start reading again.

I'm just questioning everything.

I found some old photos as I was going through boxes.

One was from at least 13 years ago when I had a booth at a craft show selling painted furniture and folk art cats and dogs stuffed animals and jewelry.

Hmm, Deja vu

I stared at it for the longest time.

I had worked so hard to get ready for that show and then another big one

and many people stopped and gave me great compliments on it all

and I didn't even break even.

I was financially in the hole, to say nothing of my time.

Now that I think of it, that's where this woman bought my sign!

ok, anyway.

Then two weeks ago a woman had expressed interest in my paintings at the clinic and asked if I could bring in more.

So I worked like a crazy person, (while working on my booth stuff)

and brought in 12 TWELVE paintings for her to view.

She looked at each one and commented on them and ran her finger over a few.

She liked the layers.

She asked if I painted as a hobby, for something to do?

To be honest, I felt so awkward, with her staring and judging my Art.

and I felt kinda offended about her question although I'm sure she meant nothing by it.

So I politely smiled and said "No, I paint them to make some money so I can buy dog food".

To which she laughed.

But honestly, that's the truth.

Ultimately she bought a painting that she had originally seen at the clinic

and didn't buy any of the 12 that I had brought in.

I felt very frustrated....

This Saturday was finally August 1st, my move in date for my booth!

My sister and Lily were coming over at 10:00 to help me moved things.

I had gotten up early and in the quietness of the morning I went out to my van

and unloaded some things out of it and tidied it up.

There was no traffic yet and I turned and something caught my eye across the street.

I walked down to the end of the drive and looked again.

I walked back to my porch and sat on the steps and pressed my fingertips into my cheekbones.

I told myself not to cry.

Finally I got myself together and walked down the sidewalk past my neighbors house

to a spot where I could clearly see and there he was.

The little fawn, laying along side the road.

Obviously hit by a car,

his eyes open and his tongue out.

I turned and hurried back to my house and rushed into the safety of my home 

and sat in my chair and cried.

Even now, as I type this, tears are flowing.

Maybe it's stupid, things like this happen but....

My sister arrived and I pointed out to the little deer.

Cars passed and then one stopped. 

It looked to be a family and the man got out and walked to the fawn

and gently picked him up and laid him in the grass.

Both me and my sister watched with solemn faces and she said

"That was so nice".

Shortly afterwards a police car came

and later he was gone.

Ok, enough.

Lily arrived and then we went out and unloaded my things and setup my space.

Here are a few more photos.

I still have a lot of work to do to it but you get the idea.

Afterwards we met with Lily's boyfriend and we had a late lunch

and then we all went to our different homes.

My sisters husband was out of town for business and she was working on her garden.

Her old cat that she had found at an estate sale 6 years ago has been showing signs that the end might be coming.

She was 13 when my sister found her at the sale and my sister asked the man what was he going to do with the cat.

"My cat?" he said. "Hmm, I'm not really sure yet".

He was moving to California and selling everything and he wasn't sure what to do with his old cat.

Now my sister is NOT like me.

But I had been at the same estate sale that day and she just kept looking at that cat laying on the sofa up in the attic room.

We had both bought things and I left before her and called her later to see what she had finally bought in total.

So she rambled off the list of things and ended it with "and a cat".

Her husband was shocked and started to grumble about all the pets they already had and she just ignored him.

So, this cat would walk around the house, inside and out and if you pulled your car into their driveway, she would run up and climb up your car.

Sometimes she would drop through my sister's car sunroof and my sister would find her sleeping in the back.

The old cat had even inadvertently gone on a few car rides to the grocery store with her!

My sister lives in a wooded quiet neighborhood and has a very large yard.

Her Huskies lay about the yard and the family's big black cat lounges with them and this skinny old thing wobbled around following my sister everywhere and even would wobble into her bedroom every night and lay above her and her husband's heads between the pillows.

They had little routines, my sister and her estate sale cat.

So last night my sister text me that her cat was "going".

She text that she was in a comatose state but breathing.

I asked her if she needed me to come over and she said "No".

So I drove over there and found my sister in the laundry room sitting on the floor and her cat on top of a basket of clothes.

We talked for a bit and I told her what a great life she had given this little cat and she said that she knew that and she was fine.

She kept talking about her, how she could tell she was already gone. 

That her eyes were vacant and she wasn't in there anymore but her body wasn't letting go.

She could feel a faint heartbeat.

We sat there, keeping a vigil until finally her paw that was against the side of the basket dropped ever so slight down.

My sister felt her chest and said "She's gone."

I asked her what she planned to do and she said she was going to bury her under the tree in the fairy garden where she would always lay as she watched my sister hang the laundry.

I asked her if she wanted me to stay and she said "No."

Later she text me and told me it was done.

She said she had finally started to cry as she did the burial and she couldn't stop crying for an hour.

I felt so bad for her. I know exactly how she is feeling.

I tried to think of good things after that and I started to make a list of things to do this Sunday.

I focused on the fact that this was my first weekend off in a long time and I could sleep in a little and then get up fresh and start working on projects.

Then I got a text from the newest girl who was scheduled for Sunday morning that she was sick.

She thought it might be better to let me know that evening rather than 6 AM Sunday morning.

Which I did appreciate.

So I worked this morning.

Got up early and worked for 5 hours and took care of a full house at the clinic.

I had wanted to go to the Farmers Market that everyone talks about, so afterwards I stopped

and walked past a few booths but it was so hot out and I felt dizzy and needed some lunch

so I left and came home.

And now I'm in a funk. 

I'm trying to get my head straight.

I'm trying to focus.

And all I can think about is how -

Life happens when you are busy making plans.

and how I don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

but...well.

I don't know.

Truly sorry for such a dismal post.

and I have my pets to worry about too.

So nothing drastic can be done.

I can't quit and move to someplace lovely.

Some place clean and pretty and fun.

And where is that place anyway?

Oh and I could save this for another post but I'm not really sure when I will be posting again so ...

This happened too- 

I will condense it as much as possible.

New girl, the one that is like a mini me, has told me about several dogs that she knows of that need homes.

She's known of a French Poodle (a favorite of mine)

a Maltese (love those too) but after looking at their photos I know they will find homes.

Cute, small and youngish.

She works as a groomer full-time and has volunteered at the no-kill shelter.

So, a few weeks back she gets a call from a friend at the no-kill.

They just had to turn away a Yorkie. 

Some girl had the dog in her car with 2 cats and they had to be gone by Sunday.

(This happened on a Thursday.) 

Oddly enough the cats weren't an issue I guess but the dog was...13 going on 14.

Too old for a no-kill apparently because no one would want to adopt an elderly dog

and they would be stuck with caring for an old dog who knows how long.

The other shelter would take him but they would put him down right away because of his age.

So the friend is calling the new girl in a panic and she calls me.

I text every single person I could think of and got the same response from them all.

NO.

So the new girls sends me photos. 

He's a matted mess and she said she could groom him up real nice if I could find someone.

She says he's very sweet and she would take him but she's already over her city limit for pets.

(she lives in another city, not in my town where there is no limit as long as they are vaccinated and etc.)

So her and I keep sharing his photo to everyone. 

No takers.

I finally tell her to go ahead and groom him and we have an empty kennel in boarding and we can keep searching for a home.

She brings him in the next day, clipped short and he's a butterball.

I called everyone, including last resort people.

I Google how long Yorkie's usually live and it's 12 - 15 years.

Finally I lose the last of my marbles and say -

"I guess I can take him for his final years and/or until we find him a home."

I leave him at the clinic though because I don't want to rush him home.

I have things to do and hopefully I won't bond with him and a home will pop up.

The new girl gets a vaccination record from the old owner.

Apparently his owner had him his whole life but is..moving or something vague and has to get rid of him, NOW.

I have him in boarding and when I change out his bedding I use white sheets this time.

Overnight he has peed on it and there's pink urine.

I flip him over and bright red blood is coming out of his penis.

I go get the vet tech that I consider a friend and show her.

She exclaims! and asks "Whose dog is this?!"

thinking he's a boarding pet.

At which point I look at her and tell her "Mine I guess. I've had him since, yesterday."

She runs him up to Doc and he asks who is the owner?

and tells her that he can give him an injection and for her to call the owners and...

She stops him and tells him that he's mine.

He tells her to do a radio-graph.

It shows that he has a huge bladder stone and because of his age it's too risky to try to do surgery.

He tells her which antibiotics to fill and the old Yorkie needs to be on it for a month.

And special (expensive) food that MIGHT help dissolve it.

So I keep him at work for another week and take care of him.

Finally I take him home.

My sister stops by on my birthday and the dogs are outside except for him

(and Poppy and Rosie who are sleeping)

and he's sitting next to my chair.

She looks at him for a moment and I wait for the snarky comment

and she says nothing.

I get up from the chair to go to the kitchen and my sister calls over to me -

"He's up! he's looking for you!" 

So I walk back in and look at him and he looks at me and lays back down and puts his face on his front feet.

My sister looks at me and I wait for it...

"Yeah, you need him"

I look at her to see if she's being sarcastic but she's not.

"He's old and he needs to be with you'"

And that is the last of my news.

Now I think I will go lay down and stare at the ceiling.

Not sure when I will get back up and blog again.