February

Well I'm glad to see the end of this month. All in all it turned out far better than I ever dared hope for a while. I've been putting up some pretty short posts so here are some follow ups

The Puppy

What a trooper, she is doing very well considering her age and what she has gone through this last month and a half. Today she posed for me sporting the worst poodle cut ever.

We had a bit of a scare this week when she finally figured out we were giving her pills and that she doesn't much care for pills. I came home from yoga to find Lar at his wits end because she wouldn't eat or take her pills and she gagged a little bit. The solution was boiled chicken for her vodka for Lar.

So now she is my new hobby. She takes 18 pills a day, eats 3 meals a day (half canned half dry), she can't have cookies, people food or frosty paws so we are making dogsicles from bullion, plus giving her boiled chicken and fat free cottage cheese as snacks. She comes to work with us and spends the day in our office (mostly its good but by the end of the day she gets pretty antsy)

Last but not least we got this book so we can begin to work on her joints.

Some might find this extreme (or insane) for a dog, but hell we just made a pretty big investment in her so we figure we had better pay LOTS of attention to her.

Baked Onions and Cooking

Hey these turned out pretty good! I really loved the stuffing, it actually might work really well in stuffed apples...

The recipe is in this book

I recommend it, plenty of good stuff to try in it!

(today its carrot cilantro soup) mmm

Persephone's Path

OK these pictures are a bit better, a little washed out by the bright sun but definitely much more accurate colors. I'm still finding moments to do pin tucks each day and the project is creeping forward, in fact its time for me to do a little work on it now. Back tomorrow.

Friday Night

Tonight the big creative endeavor was planning which recipes to try next week...

I chose carrot cilantro soup, red onion and feta frittata and broccoli ricotta stuffed cannelloni

mmmm... one good thing about having no money to toss around is that I am getting far more interested in cooking these days. It saves on lunches since there are always leftovers.

The book above is a terrific vegi cookbook I don't run into too many ingredients that make me go"WTF is that ??? is it a cheese? a fruit? some sort of sauce??" far too many vegi cookbooks assume some sort of knowledge about cooking and weird ingredients. I have none.

I'm starting to dream of spring (warm today) and growing some fresh herbs

OK gotta go stitch for a couple of minutes...

Not Brown

So when I went to get the dye together today I veered to a deep green instead of brown. Here are some really terrible photos of the results

I'm gonna try to get a few pictures in actual day light this weekend because the color on these is irreparably awful,

actually it looks pretty good the two colors make each other look richer rather than anemic. More tomorrow... the dog had a bit of a tummy ache tonight which precipitated a complete nervous breakdown in her daddy (she seems fine now and there is a chance she just wanted boiled chicken instead of super lowfat dog food...which she got and enjoyed) I want to keep my eye on him tonight :)

Redoing the Rec Room

OK its decided, the pea soup green needs some toning down. Since most of the fabric will be obscured by the orange fabric I concentrated the resist along one side. I'm gonna use the beads as a resist method again since I really want the patterns on the two fabrics to relate strongly to each other. I'm still not quite sure what color I'm gonna use but I'm really leaning toward a brown...

In other news the dog just got a new set of antibiotics today that cost over 80.00, the potential side effects of the foolish things is all the same stuff she got sick with in the first place (grumble)

We will be watching her very closely while she is on them.

Pupdate

The vet took a look at her tonight and she is really doing much better. They will have to confirm it but at first glance her bloodwork looked "low normal". That means we should be able to reduce the amount of prednisone in the next week or so, which in turn would be wonderful... I think prednisone is a double edged sword, it is capable of as much harm as good.
Just as good, today she rolled around on her back a bit! She hasn't done that in at least two weeks. Hooray!
OK... time to go look for some tax info that is missing (bleh)

I have been very slowly stitching on the Kore/Persephone piece these last few weeks

And I do mean slowly some nights its only 5 or 6 stitches, all those little stitches are starting to add up to something now but I haven't actually laid the piece out to evaluate what they are adding up to.

Today I took a look and I kind of like it, the little pintucked diamond shapes have a nice texture that sits OK with the very faint discharged shapes. I really like stitching on this fabric its soft and beat up but it also has some memory and you can sort of sculpt it with your fingers as you go.

I am less sanguine (ooo points for using that word!) about the background fabric's color.

The discharge left that fabric a soft rusty orange and I'm finding it a bit of a challenge to find colors that work with it that don't immediately bring to mind 70's rec room decor. Not really what I'm going for...

Soon I will be pulling out the basting so I can overdye it with something else, I know I want some green in there because the Kore is related to maidenhood and springtime... I wonder what would happen if I discharged it?

Dipping My Toes In

Its hard to get back into the creative swing. I've been idle for quite a while now doing nothing more than stitch a couple of stitches each night. There are lots of reasons for this I suppose, recently of course the puppy drama, but really its been going on for a lot longer...

I will sort it out as I go, or not.

Sometimes Artist Block just comes back to snarl you up and there isn't much to be done about it except pick away at the knot until it unravels.

I've been treating it with a kaizen mindset as I work on the snarl, thus a stitch or two a night, or cooking something new.

I believe it is a good way to keep the pump primed so when it clears up its a bit easier to ease back in.

Today I sewed some coasters,

and yes, I did sketch the dog.

Well Earned Rest

Today Lar and the pup spent resting. He had a gig last night and didn't get home until 2:00 AM she has simply earned a day of relaxing at home by the fire. I on the other hand did some errands and am currently cooking Roasted Red Onions Stuffed with Feta Cheese. Normaly I'm not much of a cook but I wanted to try something new and interesting for dinner... we will see how it comes out.

The photo is an older one but it captures the theme of the day, and she doesn't have all those shaved bits, at the moment she looks like Raggedy Ann, all patches.

Yes I did sketch the dog last night and now I'm off to do it again, still not being very creative but in my world cooking counts!

She's Home!

We made it! her progress over the last 24 hours has been phenomenal and today we brought her home, there are still lots of meds to take and we will be watching her very carefully but she seems like an entirely different dog than was admitted to the hospital, if you will excuse me I'm off to kiss her some more!

Cautiously Optimistic

Today she ate a few meals, even one during our visit. She is out of the oxygen box and very slowly gaining some steps back. We spent an hour or so cuddling with her and she licked my hand just a little. Still very doped up, pancreatitis is very painful.

Lar is doing a little better too... I belive that the two of them have some sort of psychic connection. They seem to get the same symptoms at the same time, sympathy pains.

test

The Oxygen Box

Today she ate something! That is a good sign. When we went over to visit she was somewhat alert (considering the pain killers) enough so that she managed to give us a little guilting with her big brown eyes (an art form she has mastered). She has been getting up to go outdoors to pee and got restless enough to have to be put into the oxygen box, a crate that has oxygen pumped into it. Her breathing has eased somewhat and she doesn't seem as swollen around the abdomen (from the pancreatitis). We are a bit more hopeful. The folks at Ocean State Veterinary Specialists are really at the top of their game. I'm very grateful that they are so good and we have the money to do this. There will be no vacation this year, or much of anything else... but I will still be able to visit mom in the summer. Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers too, I truly believe it is making a difference.
Please excuse the incredibly poor quality of the picture, it was taken on a cell phone with lousy light conditions but it does show that she is holding her head up!

Sketches

About 2 years ago I started sketching the dog in the evenings, these are some of the better ones. One could wonder if the creature ever moves from looking at these. She makes a good model because she likes to snooze, at least until she hears a potato chip bag rustle... at which point she becomes very alert, and the modeling session is over. I really haven't done many of these sketches lately and I regret that now. If she comes home again I will do more. She has pnemonia now... in addition to the other, however she seemed more alert when we came by tonight for our visit, so I really don't know what to think.

Better but not out of the woods yet

The girl is stable now but its gonna be a long road to full recovery and full recovery isn't a sure thing. It seems to be Pancreatitis. She is still in ICU we got to visit her this afternoon. She is doped up and it is good to see her not in pain, she was really hurting there for awhile. She went for a walk today with one of the techs which made me a feel a little happier.

Sometime I will get back to artwork (making and posting) but not today.

Intensive care

Keepin this short... my puppy is in intensive care tonight... don't know exactly whats wrong or how long she will be there. I do know I miss her sweet face

I'm on Facebook!

a Treasury!

Its always a bit of a thrill to be in a treasury!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=39644

Thanks ZenDotStudio!

Stepping Stones

The puckering created by the first pintucks has led me to reverse pintucks in the same pattern,

still mimicing the pattern created by the shibori...

Small and Large

I don't buy myself art very often. But knowing that it was my last chance to get a piece of Lisa Call's work before she changed the prices made me take the leap. I admire Lisa greatly for both her beautifully made art and her incredible work ethic. I would like to be like her but I don't think we are wired the same way.

This is ACEO #25

It measures 2.5" by 3"

It has so much impact for its size. The detail is wonderful. It is technically perfect. The composition is powerful. I love the colors. I'm so impressed with the piece and so happy I did this for myself.

Persephone's Path 2

In a true act of Kaizen I have re-begun stitching on the second of the Persephone panels.

The piece I was working on last summer was one of the central parts of the story. This one represents the Kore, the very beginning of the story...

Persephone has multiple identities (as befits a goddess) the Kore is one of the names for her as a maiden.

but more about that another time.

I'm using one of the most blasted out pieces of discharge shiboi for this panel. I've basted it to a golden green ground (springtime/rebirth). A combo of running stitches and pintucks are being used to make a scattered diamond motif that gives it a little dimension and plays off of the very faint pattern the shibori left behind...

I'm trying to let the fabric/concept lead me down the path.