this is chance marie...she is the original dog in the "artdoglife". everytime i am in my studio, she is there, usually laying in the position in the picture..she has a turquoise and lime green flower rug she likes to lay on or the huge double papason cushion...she is my sweet girl..we have had her for the majority of her 5years..someone(a "pwt" neighbor) dumped her in a backyard on a stormy valentine's day night about 4 1/2yrs ago and she was just crying and was a little ball of wet fur...of course, we knew we were going to keep her right away..she rules our roost and is quite the barker...kaj is constantly challenging her for her rank but she just charges full steam ahead and he always retreats. she is a chow/border collie mix and has the black flowered tongue, she loves to give up the kisses and loves to have her ears rubbed or anything else...she is a begger and will stare down anyone for a nibble or crumb...she doesnt get denied too much, the girl has to keep that figure goin. she likes to sleep in a big pile of laundry and loves to mess up the bathroom rugs to sleep on the cool tile at night..she will also beg for a washrag, she just loves those wet or dry..nelly and ruby like to wrestle with chance, kaj doesnt...he is afraid, i think..

well, this little guy has been showing up on the back patio the last couple of nights..he is very sweet and justs sits there..i have to keep the dogs away from him while they are out as i am afraid what they might do to him...i want to pick him up and hold him but am not too sure..i do not want him to jump off my hand and hurt himself, so i will just be content to stand and watch him or her..but i think he is a boy..he actually looks like an old boyfriend..ha ha ha or jabba the hut! i hope he sticks around for awhile as if he does i will buy him one of those toad houses, i am not really for sure what it does-the toad house or the purpose but they are quite cute...i like to go out on the back patio with the dogs at night, to the left of our patio we have our field that we do not mow and it is wild and it lights up at night with all the lightning bugs and we hear the music of the crickets mixed with the sound of the bulllfrogs to the right from the neighbors pond......the sky is full of stars and the moon is straight ahead of the patio...i think it is my favorite time right now....we leave the fountain on in our little pond and the water trickles over the stacked rocks, it is a nice sound to sleep by...i like night in our backyard in the summertime......................

sambucca*

well, today is special and sad at the same time...the picture that you see is of my beloved "sambucca' that i had to put down on February 7th of this year..he was a 10yr old white german shepherd and one of the loves of my life...we have had him in our lives since he was a baby...he was a beautiful creature and quite the head turner, he did not like thunderstorms especially the thunder and he loved to sleep in the walk-in closet...the things that he did love were the snow and flowers and anything that had a perfume to it..when i would blow dry my hair he would be in the bathroom with me smelling my hair or if i had just sprayed perfume on, he would roll around on the rug in the scent of the perfume...imagine the picture of this male, 135lb dog rolling around on the floor, it was quite humorous...anyway, the artist that did this incredible drawing is donna antonucci. i was introduced to her by a wonderful fairy godmother as she had a portrait of her beloved "nana" done by donna. looking at her portrait, i knew right away no other person could do samuel justice and capture his essence but donna and she so did, it is just an amazing piece of artwork it brings tears to my eyes..i do not have the actual portrait yet as it has to be framed. she is just such an amazing artist and i want everyone to visit her website, she is awesome and i cannot tell you how much she means to me and she has become a good friend...okay, i am going to end now because i keep tearing up at how beautiful he looks and peaceful and how much i miss his gruffiness............xoxox~*~*~*~*(http://www.fairymagicfantasyart.com/about.shtml)

since we have had some bad storms this week, my coumputer center at home is on the fritz, so i really havent been able to do any art, but of course i have stuff to talk about today..above is an old card that i did that i had in a file at work, so that is the photo op for today! anyway, i wanted to ramble on about some "random acts of kindness" that i have experienced this week...i like to think the people are generally good-hearted but you really do not see it that much anymore, but this week my faith in the human race has been renewed...let me tell a few things that have happened to me this week...i was standing downstairs by our building waiting under cover for my ride and a total stranger asked if i wanted to share her umbrella, i looked at her and smiled and said no thank-you and how nice of you to ask, but i was waiting on a ride! okay, how often has that happened to you? i swear it doesnt happen that often to me...i received in the mail from a sister faerie -this beautiful faerie pin..now i had been asked by this faerie to do one of my faerie cards for a closefriend of hers that was going thru some rough spots, now mind you i said yes of course, but hadnt done anything on it yet, low and behold i get this pin in the mail thanking me for just saying yes, i was taken aback and totally shocked that she would #1 buy this beautiful piece of jewerly w/o getting my card, of course i was so thrilled and inspired to get her card done and i did sent it out the next day and included a little something special for her...okay yesterday i get in the mail from another talented faerie-a faerie door, this thing work of art is just precious, it is a handmade clay door that looks like a faerie door, you knowsomething out of the "lord of the rings".you lean up against something so the faeries can come in..it is truly magical...i hope the dogs like our new visitors! ha ha..anyway, she just wanted to send me something from one fellow artist to another..i was just so taken back by all these acts of kindness, it is just truly amazing to me and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that there are still good people that walk the earth....so the old addage "that is much better to give than to receive" is absolutely true..i always feel amazing giving someone something that they do not expect, example this week i was at the post office sending a package off to my faerie friend in the UK and the postal lady complimented me on my necklace and said on i have been wanting to get one of those, so what did i do but take it off and just give it to her! i didnt really need to have it and it made me feel wonderful that she appreciated me doing that...it was nice...so today or sometime this weekend do the unexpected...you will feel good about it!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

well, today my offering is "the altered book"...this is my first attempt at it and it has gotten added to an exhibit of altered books that will be on display June 10 until when I do not know..but the story on this one is, i had started this book about a year and a half ago, did about a 1/4 of it then put it away for a rainy day...in the process my life went on and i moved so it got but in a box, well i found it cleaning out the boxes and put it somewhere, so when i wanted to get it out again to finish for the exhibit, guess what? i couldnt find it, no matter where i looked so i figured, damn i threw it out....so i gave up! then lo and behold, i was looking for this journal to start and of course i could find it , but there was the little book...plain as day laying in a box in a closet in the scrapbook..i do not know how it got missed, but i think that some elfs were playing tricks with me or maybe it was the dogs, who knows, but that it that..so i didnt show all the pages, but you will get the jist of it! someone asked me if i had a theme going into this and i said no, i just do what i like and in saying that i realize it really does come through someone's art, when they love what they are working on..it is weird but it does....so i hope you like it, i sure do, there are sparkles all through the book, i hope that they stay on for the ride and do not drop off...oh well.....sparkle on!!!~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Today,I am in a cranky mood, i am sure that it has nothing to do with the fact it has been raining off and on for a week and no sun in sight until Saturday which is good because the annual german village garage sale is that day and man do i find cool stuff there...okay, i am starting to ramble already!
this is a darling picture of lily mae & her brother miller bodine in the beddy which consists of a small clothes basket full of junk from somewhere with a piece of white fur on the top..this is their secondary residence in our garage..i have no idea what the attraction is but they are always in here, if the garage door is shut and and they cannot get in, they magically appear when it opens and go straight to their beddy..i tell you it is the cutest thing...next to their beddy is their mama's- her bed is an old beanbag chair we picked up at a flea market for whatever reason other than the logo was the ny yankees....anyway this is where they are it seems 24-7....what is funny is that their main residence is not shabby either, it is a great rubbermaid shed full of hay and a nice doghouse and it has its own front door and it is sealed tight so no elements can get in...i just do not get it ..but these cats are very lazy now since they have this secondary residence...meow!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
I will be spending time with my favorite mom..this lovely gal on your left, she is holding me at 10weeks old...i was born 2weeks late and quite the chubby one and still am..good to know some things never change...Let me tell you a few things about my mom....she is the best cook, can whip a great dinner up with nothing(just like her mom could do!)yummy!!!, she is very much a saint and always there when you need her, not just for our family but her friends also..did i mention that she is a fabulous cook! bakes up some serious cinnamon rolls and my personal favorite-her potato salad..it always gets requested from someone to make sure your mom makes the potato salad..she makes it without the relish just for ME! Growing up when we had to do reports on foreign countries, she be right there helping to add the "infamous" salt map to the projuect...any report from one of us kids had to have a salt map attached to it!! She has been there for me for every milestone in my life, probably the biggest being the birth of my daughter, in fact she was the one that drove me to the hospital..ok, I am shedding a few tears now and I hopoe I can keep it together today and not cry, but I am not that good at keeping my emotions under wrap..So, she is fixing up a mean batch of lasagna and for desert another fav of mine-red velvet cake but this one is a red velvet ice cream cake.So to all you moms out there, i am talking about the moms that have the 4-legged kids too..have a wonderful day and share some sparkle along the way!!!

here are today's samplings of the "believe faeries"..these i made for some special faeries that I have recently met, especially one litte girl named sabrina who is so beautiful and loved so much by her grandmother-my good friend"shamrock"..i think if everyone just took some time and "believed" the world would be a better place...it is rainy again today, so i am in the studio(sounds better than the basement) working on an altered book and of course the theme is "believe" with a few faeries sprinkled in for good measure...okay over & out for now!!! sparkle on~*~*~*~*~*~*

Well, today is rainy, rainy, rainy Friday..The picture to the right is of my friends and I(in hat)
taken at Gahanna Lanes..where we thought we would be in a bowling league, but since the six of us where the only 2teams that showed up, it aint goin' happen..But that was cool because the guy gave us free games, so we bowled anyway..And what is really cool about my friends is no matter where we are or what we do and that can be nothing, we have so much fun...We are all ages(me being the oldest) and backgrounds and jobs and yet we all have so much fun, no ones judges anyone, except Leonard gets on his high horse sometimes...But they are just so cool and I love them all! So today is all about friends and the big impact that they can have on one's life!!! I love mine!!

The above kitty is Lily Mae. She is one of our 4 cats. She is so so so sweet..Everyday when the car gets on the cement pad, we have to stop and pick Lily up for the car ride into the garage. Now mind you, it is about 10feet into the garage from the pad, but neverthless, Lily is there waiting w/her motor running.. She comes into the house on occassions to play with the above -Nelly the puppy, all our dogs get along famously with our cats. Nelly sometimes gets alittle rough with Lily but Lily justs lets out a meow and Nelly backs off a bit. But it is just the cutest thing to see them play...She is a lover too, just loves to have her head rubbed and loves to curl up with her brother Miller Bodine in a tiny clothes basket in the garage that is filled w/junk..They both do not care, so sometimes we leave the garage door open a titch so they can get in and sleep..or they also like to lay on the car hoods or if you leave the car door open, they all appear out of nowhere to sleep in the car..They are just the coolest sweetest things and to think anyone that knows me, knows I am not a real cat fan, strictly a dog fan..But I do love these kitties!!!!

These are a couple of my faerie cards that i have made for some very nice faeries that I met..Ilove doing ATCs and Ithink making faerie cards and really anything celestial are my favorite themes..okay wait a minute..anytime I can use a dog in the theme,also is my favorite..Hmmmm, i havent done a dog faerie, I will give that a try and let you know how that goes... Both these cards have a little beeswax on them for good luck..if a card doesnt look quite right, I also dip the card into a little beeswax and suddenly it looks great...I like how the beeswax looks on shamrock faerie's wing, very translucent.....They ahve alot of sparkle/gkitter on them also, but that is hard to capture on film, so you will just have to take my word on that....I also have a little crockpot of beeswax melting because younever know when you will need itdoing the ATCs...okay, that is it for now, over & out!! Sparkle on!

Today is Cinco de Mayo and it is the Kentucky Hat contest at work today...the picture you see is of me in my hat! I have a good chance of winning, this hat is a winner...On the hat is a little guardian angel pin that i told my dear friend-Sandy, i would wear in honor of her mom..She loved the Kentucky Derby and I just love Sandy..SO that is that!!! I really had fun making this hat, i bought these sparkle glue sticks from Michael's that are awesome...It sure beats the boring old glue sticks and of course if you know me, I love anything that sparkles, I should be a magpie! Ha ha funny....You know like Heckle & Jeckle, actually that cartoon got on my nerves..So not like them, just the aspect of them liking shiny objects....I am all about that!!!

Okay, well that is all today, try and eat some Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo>>>>>OLE!!!

This is a picture of Kaj. He will be 5yrs old in June, same day as my daughter. He is a rescue and has a great personality..He is very stoic and shuffles about our house. He has his own room and full size bed of course..But he also likes to spend time laying in the sun all stretched out like a cat...He also loves to watch things being fixed or worked..let me explain, we had the plumber over and Kaj followed him around the house like an apprentice.. And he would put his head down to the level of the plumber working like he was remembering everything he saw...it is very cool to watch him..He also loves to play fetch and have his ears rubbed. Kaj is the only male in th family right now. I had to put down our beloved"Sambucca" in February.. But more on him another time, the pain is still too fresh....The puppy in the middle is the newest addition to the pack and her name is Nelly Ann..She is a doberman/beagle mix...The picture is about 2months old as she does not look like this anymore..But I will have a more recent picture of her soon..