More new Ribbon Work

A sweet little corsage made of French wired ribbons…

To be worn by one of my friend’s bears as fancy “neckware.”

Life with Hugo

First off… let me just say that I have a brand new respect for photographers who professionally photograph animals!  I very naively thought, that with all my experience photographing teddy bears, getting a nice “glamour” shot of a puppy would be a piece of cake.  WoW, was I wrong.  I don’t seem to have a problem portraying emotion in an inanimate “object” like a bear… but that bear is STATIONARY.  Wee little Hugo most certainly is not.  Plus, I’ve had my hands literally full with this little sweetie all week.  Here are the two that I’ve managed to take of him.. not the top of his head, or his left ear… or like most of my photos, the empty spot where Hugo was 2 seconds ago! 

It’s been hectic, with a capital ‘H.’  I am so overwhelmingly happy that we have chosen to make this little man a part of our family.  Even at 3 am when he gets up, again, to empty his thimble sized bladder.  I can’t stop kissing him and cuddling him.  The kids are thrilled to bits as well.  How could they not be?

He’s coming HOME!

My new baby, Hugo, a Boston Terrier pup will be coming home on Tuesday!  I’m so excited!  Really, I feel like a kid.  I’m counting down the minutes. 

This is Hugo at five weeks.  I’m sure I’ll have a ton of photos to post once he’s here and settled in. Yipppee!!!!!

My newest wee one is named May…

My newest wee creation is named May… in honor of the month, and in honor of my lovely grandmother, Mae, who just recently passed away.  She was a great lady, and she LOVED the sun! 

My May will be available ’till May 24th.  Stop by for a peek if you have a chance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260412491488

Spelling

My daughter has a weekly spelling test.  One of the ways she practices her spelling words is by writing them in a sentence.  This week she started her work at school.  She was so proud that she had done them independently.  I glanced at the sentences…

A teacher is a nonprofit job. 

 The spelling word was nonprofit.  Now.. to be honest… even now when I typed this, I had to use spell check to see if it was two words, one word, or a hyphenated word.  Spelling is simply NOT one of my strengths…. so good for you little Miranda!  

Can you believe that though?  She turning this IN tomorrow, to THE TEACHER!  I know her teacher will get a total giggle out of this, just the way I did.  Really, when you think about it, it’s an absolute crime how little we pay someone who has one of the most important jobs in the world… but that’s a rant for another day.

The absolutely sweet things was her explanation when I asked her what she meant by that sentence.   She doesn’t completely understand the concept of ‘nonprofit’ at all.  She thought it meant that the person does that job just for the love of it… not simply because of the money.  Now that’s a wonderful thing to say, and so absolutely true for the overwhelming majority of teachers, I’m sure.

In the Month of Mae

My grandmother, Mae, was born in 1919 and grew up in Kentucky.  She loved to grow things.  She taught me how to shell peas, how to pick beans, and how to shuck corn. 

When she was little she used to try to hop the fence and sneak into the horse races.  She loved the Kentucky Derby.

She had brain surgery when I was just a baby.  She always used to tell me that I made her well after that.  She said that she would crawl over to her when she called my name, and she’d kiss me. 

She called me “Kimmy Sue,” or “Gramma’s Girl,” and sometimes “My Vegetable Girl.”  She cooked a lot of vegetables and I ate a lot of vegetables!  

She had a fence at the back of her property, and on it grew honeysuckle.  She taught me how to extract the sweet nectar just like this…

http://www.instructables.com/id/Honeysuckle%3a-Harvesting-the-Sweet-Nectar-of-Life/

If you ate something that she cooked, and you said you liked it, she never forgot.  She would make you that same dish every time you visited.  We often went to see her in the summer, around the time of my birthday, and she’d make me an Angel Food Cake from scratch… just because I said I liked it one time.  She never forgot.  If you liked peach preserves, or sweet pickles, she’d have jars of them when she came to visit.

She bought little “treasures” from the church bizarre.  Sometimes they were truly bizarre, and sometimes they were treasures. 

She had severe arthritis in the knuckles of her hands.  She said the warmth of the sun made it feel better… so she baked to a deep brown every summer.  She used to melt paraffin and soak her hands in it.  When it dried we would try to peel it off in big pieces.  She let me put my little hands in sometimes too.  When they came out, I thought my hands looked just like a doll’s hands.  Plastic and immovable.

She went to the flea market and bought cheese bread.   I liked it toasted with butter.  She was always surprised that someone so little could eat 4 or 5 slices in one sitting. 

She gave us homemade grape juice.  Sometimes it tasted a little weird… I think it was well on its way to becoming wine.

She had a funny way of saying some things.  She said “look at television.”  She said ‘flars’ instead of flowers, and ‘barkley’ instead of broccoli.  She said, “warsh your hands.” 

She always loved me and was proud of me. 

Just last month she put her arms around me and called me “Gramma’s Girl,” even though I’m a grown woman.

Too Much Information

I can’t tell you what a difficult time we had naming our daughter.   In my 12th week of pregnancy, we found out that there was “no external plumbing.”  My husband and I poured over name books from the moment we found out.   Mostly this exercise involved one of us reading out a potential name, the other solidly rejecting, then stating the reason why this name was not suitable. 

 ”I dated a girl with that name in high school.”  “There are way too many ______ already.”  “My cousin has already claimed that name.” 

Too long.  Too short.  Too trendy.  Too plain.  Too strong.  Too foreign.   Too cute.  Too…

Every couple goes through this, I know.  But, when you have a TWO lawyer couple,  at least one is  playing devil’s advocate.  Always…. trying to find the loophole, the argument that hasn’t been thought of, the surprise information that will sway the jury.  It’s a process to be sure.  One of us said “Miranda” and there was noticeable silence.  We BOTH liked it.  I think I may have liked it a tiny bit more than he did.  However, when I told him that Miranda was Prospero’s daughter in Shakespear’s The Tempest….  the beautiful, smart, totally sheltered daughter… that sealed the deal.  THAT would be his daughter too.   She lived with her father on an island, cloistered away from all other men.  It was just Dad, and a couple of non-human creatures.  I’m sure he’ll whisk her away to a man-free island by the time she’s 15.  Seriously. 

Because of our legal backgrounds, many people ask if she’s named after the ”Miranda Rights” case.  You know, the infamous criminal case…”You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say….”  Uhhh… nope.  Miranda was the defendant’s last name and he was a rapist.  So, NO.

And she’s not named after Miranda from Sex in the City… ’cause honestly, we’ve never watched that show!

So, it’s always been Miranda from The Tempest.  She even likes the story.

Yesterday, when I was folding clothes in the next room, Miranda, age 8,  got on the Internet.  She loves to research things.  Whenever she has a question I can’t answer, she’s right there reading away.  Fantastic source of information.  She doesn’t really get around on the web all that much.  She sticks to the Webkins site, PBSkids, a few databases that are maintained by her school library…. SAFE stuff.

She calls out, “Mom, did you know that I am a moon of yer anus?” 

WHAT!!!!!

Moon. Anus…. bad things.  All the horror stories I’ve heard about the web and children flash into my mind.  WHAT is she looking at!!!!!?????

I run in.  She’s on Wikipedia.  She has googled ‘Miranda’ and found this…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_(moon)

Miranda is the smallest and innermost moon of the planet Uranus. 

I was so relieved that I could do nothing else but laugh.

So, she’s still our sheltered, sweet little thing.  Purchasing some real estate on that island is kinda lookin’ like a mighty good thing though. Too much information. 

We did a bit more research about THE PLANET, just so she would be able to use the word in the proper context.  We learned that Uranus is HUGE compared to the Earth,  and that it also has rings… kind of like Saturn.  Uranus also takes 84 years to orbit around the sun.  Forgive me if my humor tends toward that of a ten year old boy, but after the initial shock, the whole thing seems absolutely funny. 

Hopefully, Ben, my kindergartner, won’t head off to school today and tell all his friends about the moons of Uranus.  Or let his teacher in on the fact that,  “Yer anus is HUGE compared to the size of the Earth!”   I wouldn’t want to field that call from the teacher.

It’s all about perspective…

I’ve always dreamed of having a garden of muted, soft colors… pale pinks, soft purples, blues, pale pinky-peach…

However, my husband leans toward the bigger, bolder, brighter side of things.  Honestly, I can say that our theme must be “circus” this year.  When the husband says, “Let’s buy some flowers,”  I jump at the chance.  I’m agreeable beyond belief… whatever you want!

So we wind up with this ….

And about a millions of these…

The look gorgeous from the street… BIG, BOLD, can’t miss them.  They’d look vivid and bright when viewed from the moon!

For some reason I tend to think in terms of what would delight me if I was 4 inches tall!  Wandering through a forest of sweet woodruff…

I’d be delighted to see the tiny blue bells of the grape hyacinth close up and personal…

I seek out wild violets.

So, my contribution consisted of violas…

And some pretty pink snapdragons….

My choices… you can barely see them from the driveway.  You have to really get up close and personal. 

It’s a matter of perspective, and I think I’m about ankle high!

Melina… a sweet little blossom! – SOLD. Thank you!

My newest little creation can be found right now on eBay!  To take a peek, click here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260398954938

She’s available for viewing and bidding until Sunday, April 26th.

I truly enjoyed making her little blossom inspired cap and ruff from a lovely, hand tinted, French wired ribbon… such fun!!!! 

The sun is beautiful today….

…so why is it that all I can see is how dirty the windows look as the light comes through?  Seriously… I mean that in the literal as well as the figurative sense.  I have a bit of the “blues.”  Maybe if I get out of the house I can just see the sun and NOT the windows!  Sounds like a plan.

Oh… this is just a borrowed stock photo…. pretty though, isn’t it? 

 Seriously… I have this amazing life, and I have every reason in the world to be absolutely happy.