What's new

Not too much new. I have worked off and on on a bracelet. Almost done. I am catching up today on downloading pictures from the camera to the computer and then the web site with Juno pictures, so I thought I would post a few here.
Disco has the eyes!

Play time for all.
Juno sure loves to pose!



And gee, what a surprise for me, pink and purple flowers.

Have a great holiday everyone.

February, dogs

I neglected to mention one important thing about my page (see below) and that was I also included a dog charm to represent all the dogs I have loved and have shared my life. Nancy

November page and how it happened

I have been wanting to do a page with some knitting on it for awhile. I finally settled on the colors and yarn and started searching for a pattern to make a swatch from. I wanted something that was open. Turns out I was journaling again. The page reminds me of a trellis with a door knocker or portal (window) to another place.

I found the pattern in a book called The Prayer Shawl Ministry put out by Leisure Arts featuring Lion Brand Homespun Yarn. Although that is not what I used. I picked out the yarn (Curious Creek Oban in Plum Thunder and Glacier Lakes) as I had wanted to use both colors for awhile and the two colors are usually the ones I go to first (purple for sure, and normally turquoise but blue works too!) The yarns are wonderful to knit with and feel really good.

The book talks about the meaning of the colors which happened to be my birth month color (purple) and also my boyfriend's ( blue.) The colors mean: purple - wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity and mystery; blue - stability, trust, loyalty, faith, truth and tranquility. All good words. Prayer shawls are made as a gift for healing (people pray while making them) or for protection or for celebration. I picked this because I liked the pattern and a new friend I met in Phoenix on my recent trip there got my interested in the book too. But it turns out there was a deeper meaning for me behind it. And I will take all three reasons for why prayer shawls are made.

As far as the beads go, I wanted to do another rivoli with the lace (netting effect) to it and while looking for the rivoli came across the square and decided it needed to be on my page too. I seem to go from a more complex page to a more simple one, but I like that.

I am posting a picture of the material on my page, a picture of the swatch before I covered it and a picture of the completed page. I also put together all six of my pages and took a picture and am posting that too.

I can not sew straight for the life of me, if you look too closely at the page with the material only you will see what I mean! Good thing my stitching to get my material on my backing is mostly coverd up. The colors on the completed page is a better reflection of the color of the yarn.

We traveled across the country last week to TX and saw the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I am posting a couple of pictures from there too.

Finally we have another foster dog, Cookie, so I have a couple of pictures of her. She came to us yesterday. She is a real sweetheart. If the organization did not pull her from the shelter she would have been put down, however the organization I belong to has a great realtionship with the local shelters so they will always know about German Shepherd's that get into the shelter system and that should never happen. Still breaks my heart though and while it is so hard to foster a dog and then loose her, that reminds we why we do it. And they always go to good homes.

Happy beading, and knitting everyone. And Happy Belated Thanksgiving.

Grand Canyon

Sedona

Quote I like regarding dogs

I just finished reading a book called Dog Years by Mark Doty. There were a couple of quotes in there about dogs that I wanted to quote here. They are both from the same poem: The Housedog's Grave by Robinson Jeffers

I've changed my ways a little, I cannot now
Run with you in the evenings along the shore,
Except in a kind of dream, and you, if you dream a moment,
You see me there...

I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.

The last line of the poem says it all about loosing a companion be it animal or human.

Here is a link with the whole poem: http://www.sarbin.com/otis-n-jake/stories/housedog.html

Blogging

I am getting enthralled in blogging land today, so much excellent work out there, one page leads to another, than another, and so on. I am not sure I can put this into words, but when I see people without a dog when they are walking I always think they need one. I have been thinking this along the same lies for awhile about art/crafting/beading/creativity, but looking at blogs and websites today got me thinking it again, everyone has creative instincts and in their own way I wish those people that think they are not creative, knew that they are. I guess my thought is, people should be creating! Well, not everyone, I know that it is not for everyone and there has to be buyers for those of us that sell our work and those that make their living that way but the urge to create I think is in all of use, just comes out differently in some people. I can remember when I was younger making doll clothes for my Twiggy doll or my art classes I took in high school. My family all are creative, my mother has been making our Christmas gifts for years. I have an aunt that is an artist, she did not do that for a living. But I do have a cousin that does machine embroidery for a living (sports jackets and things like that,) that's a big deal in some parts of the country. I have a brother that could basically build a house if he wanted to. And on. And lucky for me since I like beading so much, I have always been a big jewelry person. In grammar school, I remember wearing rings on each finger!

Now I better get back to my housework and a potential shopping trip, or at the very least, beading. And as always, do I wish this program had spell check! I am too lazy to cut and paste into Word and do it that way.

Have a great day!