bumper sticker etiquette

On a recent trip to Colorado right after the election I was struck by the lack of bumper stickers. While driving through Colorado Springs, I expected to see McCain Palin big and bold every which where, but no, nothing. really nothing. Later in Boulder I was looking for the Obama stickers everywhere, no, just a few discrete and rather tiny ones at best. Come on people, where's your team spirit??? Here at least two per car, and yard signs in every yard!! We are all about hanging it all out. The sign in the above photo was up the day after the election and it remains to this day, which brings me to the question:

When does one remove the stickers, signs etc once winning the election? I know all too well what to do if you lose, but it's been a long time... I know one doesn't wear white shoes after labor day, same with the straw handbag. But what about the bumper stickers??

I'm thinking maybe after the inauguration? We are having our own inaugural ball here at least amongst my pals. So come on people now, lets show our team spirit! Get out the ball gowns and rhinestones and show your support!

snow day here at rancho de top mano

Since I'm the boss here, I've declared it a snow day. I did this after attempting to go to work this morning, sliding around school buses, sliding into curbs, narrowly missing death and destruction. So hanging around the house seemed like a better thing to do.
I know it doesn't look like a big deal, this bit of snow on the bench, so here's a sunny day comparison for ya.

For some reason this snowfall made the streets particularly slick. In typical fashion, all city and school officials completely ignored the prediction of this storm and so no snow removal/de-icing activities began until far past time to head out to work and the kids were bussed to school only to have to turn around a get home shortly after arriving when they decided to close the school anyway.(now there's a run on sentence for you)...There were wrecks everywhere. anyway, we're safe and sound.
Sparky hates this staying in business....

Here's the festive tree in the snow. Nice to see from inside the warm house.


since my old computer broke and I lost all my photos, (I know, I should have backed up...) and I'm trying to get used to the new puter and new versions of various software, I've been a blog dilettante. So to get back in the saddle, so to speak, I'm going to be careless with the edit. I'm going to post willy nilly. Bear with me. thank you.

3 dog weekend

I had my friend's dog "bob" for the weekend, which if you include "be" aka kramer I had 3 border collies... OMG what a circus. I decided to try and get a picture of the three of them sitting together on a bench. Cute idea... but more difficult than you might imagine to execute. First of all Sparky would NOT get on the bench if one or more of the others was up there first. OK fine.


Kramer being young would not sit still for anything, and was forever trying to get some action started with one or both of the others...


Finally I got one shot of the 3 of them, but of course the light wasn't the best and Kramer was on his way out but you can see a great weekend was had by all.

This is it!

I'm singing to the choir here, but if you didn't get to the early polls, get going, gidiup over there NOW!!
Tonight I'm going to an election party, we are all required to wear blue. I hope it's over early so I can finally get some rest!
Over and out, be careful out there, and again if you didn't already GO VOTE!!!

saving kittens

today characterizes my life lately. I have an agenda, things to do, places to go, people to see, phone calls to return ... I had a ride today on my great steed Keno with my friend Sandra. When we got back to the barn, un-saddled, grain given, we had intentions to get on with the day and the many tasks that take up friday afternoon.... oh no, starving abandoned baby kittens crying out in hunger stopped us in our tracks. The mother either abandoned them or else was killed by coyotes, but the up shot is 4 young unweaned kitties sure to die without intervention. Now I'm all about nature taking it course in theory, but in the real life moment with tiny kittens crying out , forget about it. The rest of the afternoon is long gone taken up by mixing up milk replacer and feeding the little cutsters with a tiny little bottle. OMG After their little bellies were full and they were on their way back to a sleep, the task of getting others involved and taking over is at hand. It was not long until easily undone by cuteness gals came along and we were able to pass on for the moment our responsibility.... until tomorrow morning....

It will be OK

It's a scary time and also a hopeful time. Some of you will recall a mailing from me in 2003 when the Iraq war started and we were all so outraged. The gist was that despite all the hatred and fear, there were millions of acts of love and hope and it was up to us to let our best sides come out no matter what. I think many of us are suffering from outrage fatigue. I am blessed by spending most of my days with people in their 90's. What they tell me over and over is that we've been through bad things before and somehow it all turns out ok. So I say let's choose hope and love and let our best and most creative sides come out now more than ever. Don't forget to vote.Vote for hope and possibility. Vote Obama. Early voting starts here this week!! (on paper ballots!) But of course this is the beginning. We have to stay on our elected officials like stink on poop. Let's get moving on alternative energy, health care for all, and a responsible end to this ridiculous war in Iraq. Meanwhile do what you can to know your neighbors, and participate in making your place in the world better.
OK, I promise I'll get back to less cosmic issues. I've just come back from canvassing the 'hood, so I'm energized and hopeful. I hope it's contagious.

I'm back

I'm wondering if anyone even checks this blog anymore it's been so long. Ok frankly I've been obsessed with politics. Over the edge obsessed. I watched dang near every minute of both conventions. After the klan like "drill baby drill" thing, I was distraught beyond belief. I have been unable to focus on much of anything. And then in the last several days with the end of the world coming and all.... forget about it. I thought it trite to post about how cute Kramer is, or the process of choosing my stucco color. (I settled on "palomino", a buff color, by the way.) Despite telling others to remain positive, I was worried, deeply worried.
But, somehow I'm getting a grip on myself. After all the queen of the secret law of attraction, Oprah, is no doubt working on it. And damnit Jim, I'm an Occupational Therapist with PSYCHIATRIC training. Occupational Therapist, occupy yourself!! So in the hours I've previously been wandering from room to room aimlessly, I'm now filling with repetitive tasks such as sewing books, and doing dishes. I'm putting that anxiety to work for myself. I have volunteered down at the Obama headquarters going door to door getting people registered to vote and for sure out to the polls. I have some ideas to make art about this too. So take heart, I'm now sure it's all going to be ok. I promise I'll go back to the cute Kramer and Sparky posts, and I'll fill you in on my current run in with the law....

Our newest employee

One day last week I came home to find I had a new employee... I didn't realize I had a position open but he assures me he's the guy for the job, whatever it is. As it turns out he lives next door and has a full time position as an assistant computer consultant. However he's pleased as punch to moonlight over here as Sparky's deputy. She's thrilled silly to have help tearing up stuff, digging holes, herding birds and barking at the other neighbors' cats. As it turns out the owner is happy to have something else for him to do, so we rigged up a system for opening and closing the hole in the fence so he has access when I can supervise the shenanigans.


His owner is young and wears prayer beads. Nice as pie, but again young and wears prayer beads. The puppy's name is "be". There you have it. But imagine if you will an episode of Seinfeld. The door opens abruptly, in slides Kramer, who immediately has his head in the fridge doing inventory. This is the puppy in a nutshell, (a Nancy Lang observation) so his name over here is "Kramer".



Sparky is no longer acting like an older dog... Life is quite a bit more exciting for us all, with an occasional rest period.

google snaggletooth

For the last few days I've had my good pal for decades, Nancy Lang here for a visit. OMG we had so much fun. When a person tells their friends they are going to Santa Fe for a visit they are expected to go and do certain things. So Lang felt as though she should be able to report that she went shopping on the plaza, visited museums and art openings, and hiked in the desert..and of course Spanish Market was this weekend. So we did all those things, in a dilettante fashion. We blasted through Site Santa Fe, went to one really cool booth at Spanish Market, shopped at the jewelry supply store and took Sparky for a walk in the river. Then the rest of the time we spent making stuff in the studio. Oh yeah and we went to a few lame garage sales.

We talked about how doing the metal work was so satisfying and the process to intriguing then proceeded to spew expletives as things didn't work out quite how they should and I proceeded to drill into my thumb with the cordless power drill. We discovered the limits and possibilities of the hand held butane torch, including making a silver bezel with it!

It's great how another person in the studio keeps a person going. We're both doing stuff so you keep the commitment to what you're working on, when alone you'd toss it aside and go watch tv.

I think Nancy has the most amazing ability to put things together in a pleasing way. She can take a pile of crap and the next thing you know it's an amazing combo of fun.

There's nothing like an old friend for being able to truly be yourself. We can launch into song or story at the drop of a hat, and despite not seeing each other but a couple times a year can say the same thing simultaneously as if we had a script. I just hate the thought of going back to the work a day world tomorrow....

Heliotown

I'm feeling rather dull and boring lately. Others tell me of their various ideas, projects and goings on, and I have nothing to add, NOTHING.... so while I'm rotting along with my work a day existence enjoy a bit from yet another excellent art show by Thomas Ashcraft

Not a good day for the animals

Long story short, or maybe medium.... I was all ready for a nice ride before the fire crackers started this morning, only to find my trusty steed with a quite swollen leg. I'm sure all parents understand this universal law, and any of you who have animals perhaps... if they are going to get sick or injured it will be well after 5PM or on a weekend and better yet on a national holiday! It's the 4th of July and sure enough this was bad enough to call the vet, probably shouldn't wait until monday. He was not in any particular distress, in fact was not even limping on his leg, but that's his nature. He's a stoic. However, a bandage, which I could manage on my own, and antibiotics, which I couldn't procure without the ver, were in order. He was good about being dr'd today which he isn't always, but now that he has the bandage Mr. curiosity is feeling pretty bad. He doesn't want his horse pals seeing him like this and besides that, he's convinced I'm trying to poison him with the bitter stuff I'm putting in his grain.. (antibiotics)
So poor Keno is hiding in his stall full of shame.
In other pet news, Bad Marie, afraid of the non stop fire cracker action, has been hiding under the bed all day..Sparky is glued to my side. Little Peep, the loyal and hard working house cat, is just fine.

Lucky number 7

ART REVIEW!!
Site Santa Fe is having it's seventh biennial exhibit. Now these things are experiential, experimental and sometimes so modern it's beyond my comprehension. So I went to the public opening with skepticism in my heart. I only skimmed through the various articles written about what it was supposed to be about and came away from the reading with the notion that it's about creating a community. OK, whatever.
I have to tell you, OMG it was so dang fun I can't believe it. I'll be going again and again to try and get more out of the thing. They have built a ramp that winds up and around inside the building so you see the various bits from several different angles, and part of the experience is watching others having the experience. There's this movie of people walking along projected onto this long wall. If you touch one of the people walking they turn and talk to you! (there are a couple that sing) Once you let go they turn back and continue walking. It's so surprising and wild!
OK now to the personality test part... You are winding about along the ramp, way up at the top of the building and you come to a place where a decision has to be made. You can either make a left and go back down a ramp to the floor area, or turn right and jump. Its probably an 8 foot jump onto a stunt pad. A significant drop for sure. In the last couple days I've had a couple women tell me they are going out with a guy and wonder if it's going to be a thing, or not.. so I suggested go straight down to Site Santa Fe do not pass go. Without talking too much about what's about to happen see how the man responds to the various pieces, but especially to the jump.
Does he without hesitation fly off the thing?, Does he offer to hold your belongings while you jump? Does he suggest jumping together? Does he make a quick left and avoid the jump all together? and MOST IMPORTANTLY, how do you feel about his response to the situation? As you can see, you could tell a lot about a person by their response to the jump.
After this experience I have to admit I'm a little bit ruined for the gallery scene, where one is supposed to talk quietly, and look, don't touch the art. I almost got kicked out of a gallery the other night for fooling with the reostat light control. It made the painting look so cool though!!! (the artist was there and into it too, but the owner was less than amused....) I'll get a grip on myself again I'm sure, but now I don't want to just look, I want to experience the thing.

the big one

So I'm now the big 50. It just seems impossible. However, I was at the bank the other day and thought to myself,"it seems odd all these kids are running the bank..." well, they aren't exactly kids, I'm just older. Think about it, a guy younger than myself might be the president soon (I hope). Holy buckets, that can freak a person out.
We had a huge party in celebration, and in the course of discussing being 50, my friend who is 45, last year diagnosed with brain cancer and a poor prognosis, said simply, "you're lucky". Well that's the truth now isn't it.
Here's what comes to mind in thinking about how lucky I truly am, no particular order and certainly not complete.
1. duh, I have ponies!! How many gals can say that!
2. I have great ponies. well behaved, and talented. and they love me.yay
3. I'm surrounded by fascinating, generous and kind people. These people seem to love me back despite my faults.
4. I get to live in a great town. It is a place where there's room for all sorts. I love that.
5. I have a great job. I love to complain about it, but the fact is, I pretty much dig what I do, and have minimal irritation, few meetings and a flexible schedule.
6. I have always had enough. plenty to eat, a nice place to live, wonderful friends, enough dough to do what I want, but not so much that I take it for granted or get bored. This has been true my whole life, so I feel as though I always will. That's a lucky thing right there.
7. I feel good physically most of the time.
8. OMG, can't forget Sparky, my dog, and the kitties. I just love the kitties. nothing more relaxing than seeing a cat draped over the windowsill. And Sparky is a dang fine dog, with a huge fan club of her own.
I could go on and on, as I lead a charmed life. I know that in seconds it can all change but right now, for this minute, I'm so so fortunate. I'm grateful.

steel, oh yeah

OMG I discovered I can make black steel earrings with bailing wire. I was so happy to figure this out. I told my pal winslow, the blacksmith about it, and he said the technique I used was rather toxic... (I got it red hot and doused it in liver of sulphur)He went on into a rather lengthy explanation, something about ferrous metal, migration of carbon inside of molecules and lost me in a quick hurry. Kind of a buzz kill. He did say he'd show me a safer way which i'll share with you when I get it. Remember however, this is one of the men who DIDN'T say "oh let me run and get my drill" when my car was in obvious need of manly attention. Anyway, I did blacken steel and lived to tell about it. And dang if it isn't just the look I was going for....

Here we go again....

I am persistent in my attempts at better photography. I am onto this idea of yucca blossoms lately. This one is not quite right, so I think I'll zoom in a bit. (wait for delay...get the frame just right, although it's hard to see in the screen on a sunny day....

Mr. curiosity wonders why this plant is getting so much attention....

I love this time of year, don't you?

It's morning and so me, Keno, and the chief of ranch security, Sparky are out for a survey of the kingdom, or queendom as it were. It's glorious out weather wise, but a little dry and dusty. On a side note, Keno, the horse, and Sparky, the dog, have a funny relationship. They both want to be in charge of each other... Sparky is forever running behind Keno and giving him a little nip on the heels. Keno feels he's way too good to be herded by a dang dog so refuses to budge! Later when Sparky is nosing around at god only knows what kind of putrefaction, Keno sneaks up on her and gives her a little nudge with his nose which she finds quite aggravating indeed. anyhoo, back to the dry and dusty , but glorious day...

in the midst of the dry and dusty is a splash of red, lets see what that is, shall we?

Oh man, it's the end of may isn't it!! Hello gorgeous!!

Later that same day, it's time to check out the art... It just so happens that we all want to go. Here is Bee goofing off with outdoor sculpture..

Bonnie and Bee trying to make off with the outdoor sculpture...

Margaret and I have decided to make a point of talking to the featured artist at these things this year. Margaret was quite disconcerted by a series of paintings and sculpture the artist, Greg Lomayesva did of shoes for this show. She thinks it's a trivial and "frivolous" subject for an artist with his obvious talent. Now I frankly disagreed with her and was shocked by this opinion, being a serious fan of shoes and all they represent!! Here she is preparing her question, and how to word it so that she doesn't instantly piss him off...

She got the question out brilliantly, something to the effect of what was the symbolism in the subject of shoes for him? anyway, he had a little line about "the missing", but then revealed that he had a significant other who was obsessed with a particular shoe designer. Greg didn't get it, so decided to paint and sculpt shoes designed by this guy and felt after he did this he understood this designer and his art form. It kind of sounded like he broke up with the significant other however....
All this in one day, what could be better???

Pony Pics

I am a disaster at photography as you may have noticed. It doesn't help when my subject is less than cooperative. I took this first picture then realized I needed to zoom out a tad.

So while I'm boogering around with the dang camera, Keno gets it in his head that the camera might actually be a piece of peppermint candy, his greatest weakness:

It goes from bad to worse:

She likes it!

I made this necklace for my pal Kim Nickens. As you can see it's a bit odd,and peculiar too, for that matter.You can't tell from the photo but the bezel is a shotgun shell, and behind the laborodite stone is text from an old book. I wasn't sure how she'd feel about it. But as it turns out she digs it! It was one of those pieces that makes itself and it wanted to look just like it does. You just shouldn't get in the way of the process when it goes like that.
Tonight is art show night and promises to be good at least in the snack department. So stay tuned for the next review.

another art show review

This week the gallery show night had to be brief as my art show partner had another engagement at 6PM, so we had to have laser like precision in our choices. First we zipped back to the Gold leaf to actually see the art. It was so crowded at the opening no one actually viewed the pieces.It was fun, including a little chat it up with one of the artists about her pieces. Of course her name got lost in the bowels of my sieve like mind. I was rather whiny that night.... I really wanted to see big expressive paintings, lots of color and emotion. This (photo above) was in the paper, and it looked like it might fit the bill. So off to the Vantana Fine Art gallery. This painting and several like it by John Axton were there, but to my surprise and disappointment these were about 5" X 7"!! sheesh. Nice enough, but they would have been way more fun on a huge canvas. Margaret theorizes that it's because people aren't parting with big canvas cash these days. The art in general was again nice enough, but nothing that really grabbed me. Tucked around a corner they were serving refreshments. Holy Buckets! Pay Dirt!!! Shrimp and coctail sauce, crustini with artichoke spread, procutto wrapped cheese, skewers of fresh veggies, plus wine and fizzy water. Now the art is looking much better to me...
Smartly I decided to deal with the refreshments in 2 stages. Food first, then go back for a drink. That way I have one hand free! Oh so clever... however, stupidly, I brought in my large but incredibly attractive purse. While standing and popping a large shrimp into my mouth, my purse goes swinging off my shoulder. Somehow just in the nick of time I saved myself from being the lifetime achievement winner of the BAD MARIE award for destruction in a retail establishment. My purse was headed straight for an expensive sculpture!!
I've now decided that the more attractive the purse, the more difficult it is to control. No more purse on friday night....

finally

I finally got something in the etsy shop! (see the button on the right side of the blog and it will take you there). It was a huge deal for me to figure out, sheesh. My reputation as the world's worst photographer is not in jeopardy by any stretch of the imagination. Too bad too, since these earrings are really cool. In real life they twist and turn in the light and are so summery and fun.
anyhoo...
In my day job work a day life, I had the annual employee performance review meeting with the assistant manager of rehab services at the hospital. I have to admit my mind wasn't there. I was drifting in and out of consciousness throughout the thing. We got to the usual question which is "what are your goals this year?" I was instantly thinking about the various art and jewelry projects I wanted to get done, the look of my blog and etsy shop,and on and on along those lines. I must have looked confused because he then said "you know, your career objectives, continuing professional enhancement course work..." Oh yeah, my job....frankly I'm so over it.... the big reward in my job is given by management to the people who fill forms out correctly and completely, not the one who helps patients get better. (ok I've said it and I'm glad...)I did come up with some sort of an answer....
anyway, I hope you visit the shop, and I hope I can keep making stuff.


I made the copper "bead" out of a penny

why does art have to be so heavy?

A little warning here.... This is what my mind has been like since returning from Seattle. Sheesh, I don't know what's going on, although I'm blaming allergies and/or menopause. The scrub pines here are putting out clouds of caustic yellow pollen that is permeating the atmosphere. Since the wind is blowing a constant gale it can't help but clog the synapses. Anyhoo...

This is some of the stuff I packed home from my trip...No wonder that suitcase was so heavy, not to mention smelly.
I went to a GREAT art opening Friday night. Here's the deal on it. In this town whenever money needs to be raised, fund raisers go to the art community and ask for donations, and hold an auction. This has been a very successful way to gather funds for worthy causes. The artist gets no dough, but of course a little free publicity and glam. With the economy like it is right now the artists are not exactly raking it in. When people cut back, paintings and sculpture go to a lower place on the priority list. The artists here have become the needy cause!So, the Goldleaf gallery is having a show of about 40 artists and ALL the proceeds go directly to the artist.(the gallery is not taking a cut.) It's like a benefit for the artists! There are some real art stars represented here, so to have them all together in one place makes for a stupendous show. (Sam Scott, Paul Shapiro, Carol Mothner, Geraldine Fiskus, and the list goes on) The party was packed with people parked blocks away and standing room only as it were. Any locals reading this, the show hangs for a month, so get over there and see the work. It's worth the effort and the parking will be a snap now. Sorry you missed the scene, it was really fun!

actual art from artfest

I made this necklace in my Nina Bagley class. It has some issues in the structural stability dept, but as I look at it I think I know how to fix it. I'll show you how that turns out. Nina gives a dang good demo I have to say. The idea of the class was to make a necklace out of spare bits and things we found during the time at artfest. Some people brought a lot of stuff from home, but I chose to take the class description seriously and used stuff I found on the beach and some odd bits of chain. I think it turned out kind of cool, don't you?

More tales of Artfest week

On our way up to Artfest, we stopped into a little antique store in Pulsbo. While looking at all the delicate (and breakable) chochskis Vanessa lost control of her quite uncharacteristically attractive purse (She has been known for carrying the ugliest abomination of a pocketbook in the past) and a glass trophy of some sort came crashing to the ground....The shopkeeper came over and carefully gathered up all the shards in a little dust pan, and began to wrap them up as you know... you break it you buy it. Luckily it was only about $5. It was not 5 minutes later that somehow, and we're not even sure what exactly happened here, but Judy knocked over the rat ugliest pair of bookends you've ever in your life seen. Again here comes the shopkeeper with her little dust pan... She wrapped both of these broken items up like they were treasures to carefully pack in our carry on luggage. As those two were coughing up their cash she asked casually "Do you ladies shop together often?"Thankfully no" we replied. Anyhoo, the above photo is an assemblage of the two broken treasures henceforth known as "the Bad Marie Award". It has a slight resemblance to my cat, Bad Marie. It is given to the most blunderheaded of the bunch, which as it turns out is a tough decision.

I showed the actual Bad Marie the photo of the award. She was not amused.

back from artfest

As usual Artfest was so fun. I laughed non-stop. One of my friends here at home noted that the people I know from artfest only know the part of me that makes art, not the work a day home health care worker... I'd never thought of it like that, and it makes me think, maybe that's why I'm so comfortable there. anyhoo, I'm short on logic and coherent thought right now. I think it may be due to breakfast withdrawl....
Every day there was a perky young guy handing me a plate with suasage, eggs, potatoes, and bacon. A person gets rather used to this.... Hopefully my mind will come back tomorrow and I'll tell more...